did they mean that he thought lightly unimportant, so trivial, that he could not of a girl who would go to him as she had be jealous; he could not mind. Adrian's done? Over and over again she asked jealousy! There was something delightthe useless questions, Did they mean ful, even in that terrible possibility. But that? Did they not? What did they he would not be jealous, everything was mean? And leaving his meaning out of warm, and glad, and full of sunshine when the matter, what would other people say? Adrian was there. Suppose she went and told them - ah ! but how and what would she tell them? She might say, "I found I hadn't posted Mr. Harding's letters, so I took them to him at once: wasn't that the best thing to do?" How right and reasonable it sounded! But if she said, "I went secretly to a man's lodgings at night at the mere thought a blush passed over her like a scorching wave of fire. What would her mother say? She resented Mr. Pryor's professional allusions to the uncertainty of life. There are moments so perfect that they ought not to be degraded by thoughts of disease and death, ought not to be measured or weighed in any way whatever. Barbara felt this, and she thrust aside the clergy"man's lecture as soon as he left the room. Let him talk of such things to Uncle Hayes. As for her, she lingered at the window, thinking of her newly found happiness, while she gazed at the hoary fields, with their black boundaries of railing or leafless hedge, till a faint pink flush crept over the pale sky, as if it were softly suffused with her overflowing joy. Mitchelhurst Place, of which Harding had dreamed so tenderly a few months earlier, as a home for himself and his love, was to the eager girl at that moment only a charnel house, full of death and clinging memories, from which she panted to escape. It was true that she had first met Adrian Scarlett there, but she had the whole world in which to meet him again. 'And he will always know where to find me," she said to herself with a touch of practical common sense in the midst of her rapture. "He can look out papa's name in the Clergy List any day." Even in her misery she was childish | enough to wince at the thought of her sisters at home. She had been proud to be mistress of a house while they were still in the schoolroom, and the idea that she had been wanting in,dignity, perhaps even in modesty, and that she might be ostentatiously controlled and watched, by way of punishment, was intolerable to her. To be humiliated before Louisa and Hetty how could she endure it? They were not ill-natured, but they had a little resented her advancement, and Barbara, as she lay in her great overshadowing bed, could fancy all the outspoken comments and questionings in the roomy attic where the three used to sleep. She did not want to go back to the Devonshire vicarage, and yet Mitchelhurst was fast becoming hateful to her. The pictures on the walls gazed at her with Reynold's eyes, his presence haunted the house from which he had been banished. What was the wrong that she had done him? She did not know, and the uncertainty seemed to mock her as he had mocked her that night. The poor child said to herself quite seriously that he had taken away all her youth and happiness. She fancied that she felt old and weary as the days went by, fretting her simple heart with unacknowledged fear. And now suddenly came the message of Adrian's love, and lifted her above all her dreary little troubles. What did it matter that it was uttered by those dry, bloodless lips, which stumbled over the blissful words? What did anything matter since Adrian cared for her, and life was all to come? Why had she tormented herself about Reynold Harding! Reynold Harding! He was utterly insignificant, he was nobody! She could tell Adrian about that expedition of hers, it was so From The Nineteenth Century. THE DAWN OF THE NEW ITALY. DURING the period which succeeded the Napoleonic wars, while Europe may be said to have taken a species of siesta, which lasted up to the time of the second and more extensive revolution, and modified her internal and external conditions in the latter half of this century, Italy was excluded from the political agitations of Europe. The Italians, who were regarded as having no political existence or indeed, as one of the modern poets declared, as absolutely dead - became the subject of stories and romances. They were described in accordance with the different sentiments with which they were regarded by different nations; on the other side of the Channel the novelist represented them as wearing their hair in what is called in Italy the Calabrian fash. ion, because it is adopted by the peasants of that country, as well as by the inhabitants of the mountainous district which separates the ancient kingdom of Naples from what was formerly the Papal States. They were also described as bearded men of a fierce countenance, armed with a dagger. In this attitude the Italian frequently appears in fiction and in contemporary comedies, and generally takes the villainous parts which are necessary for the dramatic effect. On this side of the Channel, kindly, if too flattering, sentiments have exchanged the dagger for a guitar, on which the Italian twangs his accompaniment to all the songs of peasants and gondoliers which may be heard in the misty north, as a distant echo from the Gulf of Naples or from the lagoons of Venice. Columbus, Amerigo Vespucci, Galileo, Torricelli, Volta, Galvani, Spallanzani, and Alfieri, Monti, and Canova, with many others, who have done honor to their time, although some of them are only recently dead, could do nothing to refute the prevailing conception of the country not even thousands of Italian soldiers sacrificed on all the battle-fields of Europe during the Napoleonic wars. But they are forgotten in the great apotheosis which honors all the victories of that gigantic struggle, and they fail to efface the image of the Calabrian brigand or wandering musician. Even the men of immortal genius, who have filled the world with the grandest productions of musical art, Bellini, Rossini, Donizetti, Mercadante, and other composers of sacred music, have not effaced this latter type, which remains one of the two predominant in contemporary fiction. There is, however, a shade of truth in the unjust and severe estimate of the Italian character, which was prevalent in Europe during the interval of repose of which we have spoken. During this period the Italian nation was reduced by a strange concourse of circumstances to a condition of political and civil impotence, and was divided into two great classes - the discontented and the apathetic. The former were at war with society, while the latter found their only scope for active life in their devotion to the arts. On the one side were grouped the fierce and vehement passions of revolutionists, from the political conspirator to the bravo; on the other, artists in all their forms and degrees, from Rossini and Canova to the model and the street singer. But a few men, whose memory is still cherished by Italy, remembered that behind these classes there was still a people. In poverty and obscurity, traces of great and noble virtues might still be found, practised for the most part in the shade of private and civic life: unnoticed by the world, and often unrecognized in their native place, since they were not conspicuous for fame, nor even for prosperity. These marked inequalities and differences between individuals of the same nation, as well as the still more emphatic distinctions in the political and social conditions of different parts of the country and even between one city and another, were due to the constitution and history of the nation. As far back as memory reached, Italy had been a congeries of several distinct nationalities. All the immigrations into Italy from almost prehistoric time have left some trace behind them. In that somewhat lengthened period when science and civilization had not taught men how to fight with the asperities of nature, and in those still worse times when the laws and customs were barbarous, the tide set with irresistible force towards Italy in order to escape from the difficulties and barbarism of Oriental life, or from the inclemency and poverty of northern countries; and this influx continued up to the epoch which marked the greatness of Rome. All the people who claimed to be aboriginal, or settlers of more or less ancient date, however distinct from each other, then received political equality by the jure Italico under the Roman Empire, Magna Græcia as well as Cisalpine Gaul. But when this centralizing power was destroyed, not only did the distinctions reappear, but the irresistible impulse was again excited, and the immigration of people towards the sun, and towards the relatively mild customs and civilization which had survived the Roman greatness, was renewed. On the one side, northern and central Italy was invaded by all the tribes which bore the generic names of Vandals, Goths, Huns, and Longobardi ; on the other, the Greeks and Saracens continued to flock into the southern part of the peninsula. If all these immigrations left such indelible traces in various districts of Italy that we not only find names to remind us of them, but even types and customs of some of the more important tribes, none of them were able to dominate over the others with such strongly marked and enduring characteristics as to merge the La Marca. There is the same marked distinction between the Tuscan and the Piedmontese, between the Venetians, Tuscans, and Lombards. A mountain or stream suffices to formulate these distinctions of habit and character. several types into one, not only in its eth-gether differs in character from those of nographical characteristics, but also in its political and social civilization. This might have been the case if the political conditions of Italy had been otherwise, although the process must necessarily have taken time. And here we must consider the political history of Italy at this period. We have said that these differences between villages, and even between individuals, are most apparent in the mountainous districts of the southern provinces; but even in large cities types may be observed so opposed to each other that it is impossible to confound them. In appearance, traditions, and character, a descendant of the Normans still differs from the original and more ancient races, and again both differ from the Numidian and Saracen, the remains of which races survive in the lowest classes of society. The sober and robust inhabitants of the Abruzzi are found in remote villages, and in the pleasant hamlets of the Campagna Felice, side by side with its incorrigi-. ble mendicants. If we turn northwards through central Italy, we shall find scarce The conflict between the Papacy and the Empire, that led to the institution of numerous political societies, which took the form of communes or independent States, arrested this natural process of fusion among peoples who inhabited the same country and looked upon the same heavens, and for this reason those who were of different origin remained distinct. It would be a curious study to compare the characteristics of the early Italian States, which now hardly retain their nominal division into districts, with the history | of different immigrations; and certainly the analogy might be traced in more than one instance. But these distinctions not only survived in provinces, but in different estates of the same province, partly ly a district in which the same extremes owing to the conformation of the Italian soil, but still more owing to the slight power of assimilation, to the indifference and jealousy of the owners of the soil, to the difficulty of communication, and to obstacles of every kind which resulted from it, and which kept the inhabitants of adjacent districts separate for centuries. Such isolation was most common in the mountainous parts of the southern provinces, where both the natural and political differences were the greatest. The country people, the Greeks and Saracens in these districts, could be distinguished at a glance from the Longobardi. These The constant immigration of different distinctions between the inhabitants of races into Italy did not cease with its indifferent districts, and even between dif-vasions; it assumed other and less imporferent individuals, to an extent not observed elsewhere, may be noted in their habits, dress, and modes of feeling. are not found. Side by side with honest, hard-working men of noble character, the valuable elements of an orderly public life, we find lawless agitators and members of secret societies, idle vagabonds, wandering musicians and beggars, who furnish a large contingent to the prisons of the State. Doubtless these social gradations and distinctions exist in almost every state, but in other countries they stand out in less strong relief, and perhaps the two extremes are in Italy in closer contact with each other than in any other nation. intellectual and moral atmosphere different elements out of harmony with the national standard of thought and feeling. tant forms, and certainly could not have exercised a sensible influence on the national type. Yet the Christian pilgrimIn northern and even in central Italy ages, the travellers who came for artistic this diversity of characteristics is less evi- or hygienic causes, the eclectic wanderings dent; yet even there the differences be- of the wealthy classes in successive petween one district and another can be ex-riods, have continued to introduce into its plained in no other way. There is often a profound difference of character, mode of thought, and judgment between the inhabitants of opposite banks of a narrow stream, between the restlessly energetic peasants of Romagna and the pastoral and gentle peasants of La Marca, and again between the inhabitants on either side of that range of the Apennines which divides Romagna from Tuscany. The Tuscan peasant is mild and gentle, but he alto This fact, constant and unique of its kind, is due to the geographical conditions of Italy, placed as she is between two great civilizations, and acting as the medium of communication between them. This may explain the characteristic difference between the Italian and the other European nations; the latter have each sarily communicated to the west. And above, or rather below these primary dif ferences, there gradually extends a widespreading net of common sentiments and interests, which are fostered by the recol|lection of past misfortunes, and by the consciousness of benefits derived from the State which unites them in a common ple themselves are perhaps unconscious, but it is displayed in some critical moment, and undeceives a careful observer, who may have been misled by the petty rivalries of different districts and parishes which ruffle the surface of a lake that is in reality deep and calm. their uniform character, with hardly a trace of the ancient immigrations which conduced to their formation, while the former is distinguished by a diversity of types, and by the predominance of the individual over the community, which breaks the uniformity we have observed in neigh boring nations. That historical political influences are the great cause of this phe-bond of strong affection. Of this the peonomena is shown by the example of the United States of America. Although this people is made up of mixed races and is of recent origin, yet it is welded together by conditions which imply a community of customs and needs; and by the fact that its constitution was formed in one casting, the solidarity of the national character has been produced. Nations have long been distinguished as English, German, French, and American, but it is only recently that an Italian can be spoken of in the same way, and even now in the general estimation there is a distinction between one Italian and another, and his origin and personal characteristics are more considered than in the case of other nationalities in which the community of type is of earlier date. This feeling unconsciously testifies to the marked diversity of type which exists in the nation itself. If, however, these differences in their component elements do not menace the existence of the State, they are not, and cannot for some time to come, be without results. They are now, as they have ever been in Italy, causes at once of weakness and of strength, of her highest glory and of her greatest disasters. They are the favorite theme both of her friends and enemies; they are the source of her origi nality, of the inexhaustible curiosity which is aroused by all her actions, and of that indefinable attraction she possessed for our fathers, whose admiration was given to the unrivalled monuments of the genius And yet it would be an error to suppose and intellect of her children, surrounded that the Italian nationality is in its pres- though they were by a chronic state of ent condition less firmly and solidly con- brigandage, and by a troop of beggars, stituted than any other nationality. We and who, notwithstanding, did not remain do not propose to examine the psychologi- inactive, but invested this country with an cal reasons of phenomena which might atmosphere of poetry which added to its lead to the conclusion that the homoge-glory. This generation can scarcely unneity of nature is not the strongest and most tenacious of political bonds. But it is a fact which Europe will have to accept as time goes on, that as in analogous circumstances it often occurs that widely differing characters agree better than those which resemble each other, so in Italy, now that their interests are no longer opposed, this diversity between different provinces and between one man and another not only presents no serious obstacle to political unity, but may in some respects be a guarantee for it. In fact, the uniform and simultaneous political agitation which is, owing to the modern constitution of society, only too easy in other nations, becomes almost impossible in Italy, in which local prejudices correct the tendency to take an exaggerated view of political events. The prevalence of a republican or socialist agitation in southern Italy does not imply a similar agitation in the north; nor will the reactionary spirit in the eastern part of the peninsula be neces derstand the generous and heroic sacri fices of those, many of them obscure men, who met death, exile, or imprisonment, and, forgetful of self, ended in poverty an existence which had been full of suffering and danger because they were actuated by the sole aim of saving their country. In doing so they had to deal with the miseries which were the inheritance of the past times, and which the breath of revolution kindled into life, and to prevent them from being an embarrassment to the difficult task of the resurrection. of Italy. Nor was it the least noble or politic act of our revolution, that in reconstituting the country all its elements were included under one flag. What I have said up to this point belongs for the most part to past history, with which it is necessary to be acquaint ed in order to understand any sketch of the present. For the origin and causes of our political, moral, and social conditions, and of the place which Italy takes among European nations, are intimately connected with the past. A view of Italian life, like everything else, must be complex, since the present is always the consequence of the past, just as the future must be the issue of the past and present. The scattered members of the Italian nation have been finally united by means of a great, though. tardy revolution; for ages they had been artificially kept asunder by the most complicated and subtle combinations of an astute and tenacious policy, and when the political union was accomplished, the several States bad but few points in common. The first and chief common interest was that of possessing a united country; the next was the fundamental character or temperament, the habits, requirements, and deep aspirations which depend on the natural conditions of climate and soil, and on a certain community of traditions and his tory. There was also the bond of a common religion, and finally of a common philosophy. On this basis the work of fusion was begun which was to weld together the moral, social, and economic conditions of the Italian people. On the first point it is needless to insist, but something must be said of the second. The Italian character or temperament, although it seems to vary when we compare the inhabitants of one district with another, assumes a common type when it is considered as a whole, and with reference to other nations. It has certain qualities which are due to the causes indicated above, and chief among them is the tendency to be actuated by sentiments and passion, rather than by motives of self-interest. This tendency is marked in proportion to the elevation of character and education possessed by classes and individuals; they achieve distinction in proportion as they yield to an inclination to which they are led, both by their own feelings and by the inexorable pressure of public opinion. As soon as they appear in some public function, they are constrained not only to be disinterested, but even to display an heroic spirit of self-sacrifice. All personal interests, even those which are legitimate, are set aside with a sort of contempt. From the saints of old, who were always poor and humble, down to Garibaldi, a popular hero in Italy has ever been condemned to indigence, and to a simplicity of dress which verges on slovenliness. Holy men who did not lead a hard life were never popular in Italy, and the only time that Gari This baldi's great popularity was seriously menaced was when the government sought to mark its gratitude to the man who had done more for his country than any other of her children by relieving him from the straits of actual poverty. proof of gratitude, which would have been natural in any other people, armed his enemies against him, and for a while ob scured his popularity. No political leader in Italy can obtain the confidence and sympathy of the nation unless he is a poor man, or at all events has inherited wealth from his ancestors instead of obtaining it by his own efforts. And even in such a case, the least ostentation in his mode of life would be fatal to his popularity. He who seriously proposes to devote himself to public life with any chance of success must, in the words of the Gospel, sell all that he has, or at any rate withdraw his wealth from the observation of that jeal ous and tyrannical mistress, local public opinion. I remember when one of our most able and distinguished ministers thought it necessary to sell out the few shares which formed part of his very modest fortune before he felt entitled to propose a measure which might indirectly affect the company in question. And, on the other hand, I have seen men who had well served their country abandoned by their capricious mistress as soon as it ap peared that they were in the enjoyment of moderate wealth. For this reason most of our political men end their lives in embarrassed circumstances, if not in actual poverty, not only because their legitimate gains are so small, but because even these are forbidden to men who desire to pursue a political career without hindrance. They become the eminent victims so jealously watched by severe national censors. An opprobrious term has been invented in modern Italy which fastens suspicion on all those who have to do with commercial affairs. He is called an affarista, and although the word can only be properly applied in a bad sense to discreditable business, yet it is practically impossible to establish the distinction. It would probably be applied to all Englishmen who have to do with commerce, and to all Americans if they were transplanted to Italy. This singular and invincible sentiment, of which the origin may perhaps be traced to past history, is particularly strong in the two extremes of society. On the one side it has created those ministers of state of whom we have spoken, who, after having served their country throughout |