could be only by stout defence and hard fighting on the Sesia, the Ticino, the Adda, the Mincio, and the Po.

is expended on them, the mania far figura, as the Italians say, a passion for cutting a handsome figure in this world, leads them to be equally extravagant, in Under such circumstances, it would proportion to their means, in the construc- seem to be the part of discretion for Italy tion of their navy. The famous ironclad, to study to remain on excellent terms the "Duilio," cost 720,480l., indepen- with one and all of her neighbors, and dently of her armament; and she is only certainly never to provoke or irritate one of three floating sea-monsters, which them; and in the speech addressed by carry guns twenty-five per cent. heavier the Italian prime minister on the 8th of than any even this country can boast. this month to his constituents at StraThen there are a host of smaller, but still della, which carries all the more weight. costly vessels, like the "Principe Ama- for being delivered on the eve of a gendeo," the "Roma" and the "Venezia." eral election, perhaps the most prominent Apparently, the Italians aspire to trans- features were protests on behalf of peace, form two of their loveliest spots, Castel- and promises of military economy. Sinlamare and Spezia, into naval arsenals; gle-handed, Italy would still be no match whilst at Genoa ship-building for com- on land for either Austria or France; and mercial purposes is at a standstill, and at she possesses a most inconveniently large Venice it has practically died out. At extent of seaboard, that only makes her the same time the minister of war has more vulnerable to an enterprising enelong been asking for 20,000,000l. to ex- my. Englishmen have lost nothing of pend on land fortifications, without which their sympathy with Italy, despite the it is declared that Turin and Rome are recent hostility displayed by the Italians alike open to the invader. No doubt the towards this country. They wish for it a Italian frontier is an unsatisfactory one. distinguished and prosperous future; but The southern slopes of the Alps in the it is precisely because such is their 'feelTicino and the Grison district, down to ing, that they see with regret the Italians the Lakes Maggiore and Lugano, form a wasting their resources in vainly striving part of the Swiss confederation; and to be as powerful as Germany on land, Austria thrusts her territory of South and as commanding as England on sea. Tyrol like a wedge between Lombardy Most of all, they lament the spiteful and and Venetia, right away to the north of petulant spirit the Italians have recently the Lago di Garda, and to the opening of exhibited against powers with whom they the valley of the Adige. Any one who feel unable to compete. The Italians has studied this question attentively, is would do well to remember the advice of aware that the direction of the forts, a woman of the world to some young felwhich were once the defences of Austria lows who were starting in life with abunagainst Italy, would have to be altered, dance of capacity and fire, but with some and in a great measure reversed, before want of consideration for others, "Soythey could be used against an invading ez aimables." The Italians would do enemy from the north. This is equally well to show a little more amiability, if true of the famous Quadrilateral, more only for the sake of getting it returned. especially of the fortresses of Peschiera They may yet need it. and Verona. With Switzerland and Austria, however, Italy may hope to remain at peace; at least, if she were to quarrel with them, it would be through her own fault. But if there be a war that would be popular in France, it would be a war against Italy, which has committed the unpardonable offence, in the eyes of Frenchmen, of forgetting gratitude to her elder brother to the extent of claiming to be his equal; and Italy could be invaded by the French through several passes of the Maritime, Cottian, Graian, and Pennine Alps. The loss of Savoy and Nice has opened Piedmont to the French invader. It would be hardly possible to stop him in the mountains; and if central and southern Italy was to be saved, it

The astonishment with which we must needs contemplate the levity Italian statesmen display in imposing such a heavy and gratuitous load upon their countrymen, and the admiration it is impossible not to feel for the patience with which this burden is borne, are greatly increased when we consider the limited national wealth that has to contribute the national budget. Nor can any due estimate be made of the sacrifices demanded from the Italians as the price of their national unity and national greatness, unless account be taken likewise of their communal burdens. These in Italy are enormous. In the year 1879, the local taxes of England amounted to 29,000,000l. In Italy they approximated to the same

figure. If we assume the imperial and | per cent. Moreover, it touches the smallthe municipal taxation of Italy in that est incomes. Let us suppose an Italian year to have amounted together to 73,000,- is entitled to 1ool., and only rool. per anoool, which it unquestionably did, the num, from the public funds; 13. 45. is Italian people are taxed at the rate of 21. deducted for income-tax. If his 100l. proIIS. per head. In this country taxation ceeds from the profits of trade, he has to per head is at the rate of 27. 18s. But pay 97. 155. If it comes in the form of then we have to take into account the dif- salary, he is mulcted of 87. 5s. A profesferent dimensions of the national incomes sional man in London making 300l. a year, from which the two sums respectively are had, till Mr. Gladstone clapped on threeobtained. Professor Leone Levi puts the pence more to pay for his Egyptian war, annual income of the United Kingdom at to pay only 17. 16s. 8d. A professional a thousand millions; and computing im- man in Rome earning the same income, perial and local taxation in round numbers has to hand over 24%. 155. at 100,000,000l., which is pretty near the We are therefore fully prepared to bemark, the State and the local authorities lieve, both on the faith of trustworthy between them get on an average ten per statistics and from experience of our own cent. of our whole incomes. Any one can upon the spot, that the taxes of Italy. judge for himself if taxation is anything amount to thirty-five per cent. of its inlike as heavy as that in this country; and come. The teachings of political econwe entertain no doubt that Professor omy would be worthless, and the laws of Leone Levi, painstaking and able as he human nature have no fixity, if fiscal buris, has considerably under-estimated the dens of so heavy an incidence did not total income of these realms. But we discourage alike the rapid accumulation suspect he is not far wrong in saying that and the vigorous employment of capital. the income of the Italian people cannot In this country, as in France, the wealth exceed, even if it reaches, 200,000,000l.; of the community is being hourly added and in that case their taxation is a certain to by extensive and prosperous manufacthirty-five per cent. against our doubtful ten per cent. Should it appear incredible that a community should be paying thirtyfive per cent. in taxation, we can only say that Italian landowners themselves have memorialized the government in the following words:

The average taxation on land throughout Italy amounts to 30 per cent. on the returns actually got from the property. In some provinces, in Lombardy for instance, it rises to 40 or even 45 per cent., and in parts of Cremona to as much as 60 per cent., without counting mortgages or costs of registration, which have to be paid when the property changes hands.

These figures are quoted by Mr. Beauclerc, in one of his admirable reports to the Foreign Office on the condition of Italy; and though he adds in a note that this high scale of taxation is based upon a very old valuation of land, and that the price of land has increased considerably in many places, yet even if we were to suppose it has increased in value by onefourth, which would be an exaggerated estimate, it would still leave a state of fiscal oppression unparalleled in any civilized community. Another way of testing the accuracy of the computation, that the people pay thirty-five per cent. of their income to the State or the communes, is to remember that in Italy the income-tax alone is between thirteen and fourteen

tures; and there are so many fixed incomes and so many well-to-do people to tax, that the hand of the chancellor of the exchequer is but little felt by individuals in the community. But in Italy the main wealth of the country is agricultural; and man has never succeeded in devising, and probably never will devise, a method of extracting from nature more than a modest and steady competency for his capital and his enterprise. Agricultural wealth never proceeds by "leaps and bounds;" and in Italy agriculture is the milch cow, alike for the community and the taxpayer. In Italy, which has now a population of twenty-eight million souls, only three hundred and eighty-two thousand persons are employed in the greater industries, and of these not a third are male adults. Moreover, many of these industries are carried on in a small and therefore a costly manner, with insufficient capital, insufficient machinery, and insufficient knowledge. Yet progress has been made, as the returns of the export and import trade of the new kingdom show. In 1862 the total imports and exports were, in round numbers, 62,000,000l. They have now risen to over 100,000,000/. It must, however, be borne in mind that, in the interval, Venetia and the Papal States have been added to the account; and 1862 represents, moreover, a period when industry was naturally slack by rea

son of the prevailing political excitement. | State to which they belong is sadly out Our own trade with Italy gives anything at elbows. but a satisfactory record. It was rather Still, with all the drawbacks that necesless in 1880 than it was in 1870. In the sarily attend a community oppressed with former year, it was represented by 10,- taxation, and in too great a hurry to oc137,000l. In the latter it had sunk to cupy a position for which its natural 9,718,000l., though about halfway through resources scarcely adapt it, all that is the decade, or in 1875, it had reached wanted to enable Italy to secure for her12,803,000l., the highest figure yet at- self that material progress without which, tained. Perhaps the most satisfactory in these days, no State can be lastingly feature that can be quoted of Italian prog- strong and exercise continuous authority, ress is the great increase of the sums is a combination of energy and enterdeposited in savings banks. They now prise. As Lord Beaconsfield said in the reach 34,000,000l., a considerable advance House of Lords, when speaking of a during the period we are considering. Of strategic frontier for Turkey against Rusthe equilibrium at last attained between sia on the Balkans, that the only sure deexpenditure and revenue, of the approach- fence of nations is "the vital spirit of ing abolition of the paper currency, and man," so the vital spirit of man is the of the steady and remarkable rise in the only resource by the help of which Italy public funds, despite the heavy taxation can overcome her commercial sluggishto which, as we have said, they are ex- ness. If the example of Turin were fol posed, the Italians have much reason to lowed by the whole country, the question be proud. In 1872, the highest point would soon be solved. In 1865, when these reached was 69. During the pres- Turin was deprived of its dignity and ent year they have touched 90. No more position as the capital city, great depresconclusive proof could be adduced that, sion fell upon the brave sub-Alpine race, though the increase of wealth in Italy and its population sank from two hunmay not be so great as its best friends dred and twenty to two hundred thouwould desire to see, eppur si muove, and sand. Its population in 1880 had risen the world entertains sufficient confidence to 236,658 souls, and, as Mr. Colnaghi in the resolve of the Italian people, no tells us in his excellent consular report matter what their poverty or what their for that year, the old headquarters of the imposts, to meet their obligations and court, the government, and the army, by maintain a reputation for financial integ- all of which it has been abandoned, has rity. It is, moreover, an encouraging since been converted into a flourishing symptom, that the export of coal and cot- industrial centre. During the last ten ton yarn and twist from this country to years nearly fifteen hundred new houses Italy is steadily on the increase; a fact have been built in Turin; half a million incompatible with either retrogression or of money having been spent in building stagnation in Italian manufacturing indus- in the two years 1877 and 1878 alone. try. Railways are being steadily made," The streets," says Mr. Colnaghi, "are and Italy now possesses between five and six thousand miles of what the Italians call iron roads. But no one can travel in Italy without observing that many of the railways are badly constructed and imperfectly kept in repair. Cavour was in a hurry to "make Italy; so he asked no questions about money when a plébiscite was to be held or a province to be annexed. In the same way, Italy was in a hurry to have railroads; and provided she got them, she troubled herself little about engineers' estimates and contractors' work. She is now paying the penalty of her patriotic precipitation. There are some splendid stations in Italy, as at Turin and Milan. But most of the intermediate halting-places show, in their buildings, a lamentable want even of paint and whitewash, and give the notion that the company in many instances the

furrowed with lines of steam and horse tramways, which meet in the centre of the city, and which are spreading their connecting links to the neighboring towns and villages. Their employment is also extending to the country districts of Piedmont." No fewer than thirteen tramway lines have been constructed for the service of Turin and the environs; and the average number of passengers carried per annum is six millions. The rolling stock originally came from Belgium, but new cars are built by Messrs. Locati, in their works at Turin. The engines, however, came from Cassel; and, as we learn elsewhere, Germany continues to supply Italy with rails, telegraph wire, and machinery. Milan competes with Turin in extending its population, its borders, and its industry. During the last decade its population has increased by forty thou

sand, and it now contains three hundred in the execution of a difficult task. The thousand souls. Milan is the headquarters Via Nazionale, now the finest street in of the Alta Italia Railway, and the pierc- Rome, which runs from the Baths of ing of the St. Gothard Tunnel cannot fail Diocletian to the Corso, has been interto add considerably to the importance and rupted in one place in order to preserve a opulence of the old Lombard capital. portion of the Servian Wall, which is emBut, as we move farther south, the record bedded in shrubs and flowers, and has grows less pleasing. Florence has not been diverted in another in order that it yet recovered from the transfer of the might skirt the piazza that contains the capital to Rome; and Rome has not prof- Column of Trajan. The excavations in ited in a material sense by the transfer the Forum are being prosecuted with as much as might have been expected. steadfastness and learning, without injurThe Florentines incurred enormous debts ing, indeed to the benefit of, the traffic that when the honor, of which they were by passes along the Sacred Way. On the no means solicitous, devolved upon them. Janiculum, a drive, lined with parterres They improved the occasion still further and shrubberies, through which wind to embellish their beautiful city, and the grassy paths, has been constructed, from State has since had to recoup them a por- which a view of Rome, the Campagna, tion of this expenditure. The Tuscans the Alban and Sabine Hills, is to be had, are an easy-going rather than an ambi- that is matchless for natural beauty and tious people; and many of them regret classicals associations. In Rome, at least, the light taxation and cheap living of the the motto of the Italians seems to have good old days of Leopold, when every- been, "Chi va piano va sano." Between body could lead a pleasant life if only he Santa Maria Maggiore and the gate of left politics and theology alone. In Rome San Lorenzo, a new quarter has sprung the bulk of the population appear to live up, whose streets bear the name of the pretty much as they did ten or even twenty most illustrious contributors to Italian years ago. Their houses remain the same unity, whether with the pen or with the in their spacious squalor; their food and sword. If only Naples could boast a drink are the same, for if wages are higher more satisfactory progress, and Venice so are victuals and wine; and they are, could be roused from a sluggishness that without exception, the worst-dressed peo- seems borrowed of its waters, the story of ple of any capital city in the world. Away the principal Italian cities during the last from the main thoroughfares one feels it ten years would be a cheerful one. hard to believe oneself in a capital city. the two Sicilies, which together contribute Nevertheless, during the ten years that a third of the population of Italy, lag beRome has housed the sovereign, the Par-hind the other provinces in almost every liament, and the great departments of particular. It was hardly to be expected State, much has been done to accommodate it to its new dignity, without depriving it of the more permanently interesting features that have made it alike for the student, for the artist, for the man of letters, and even for people of pleasure, the most delightful and attractive of all cities. We may lament, with Mr. Hare, the excessive passion for neatness which, stripping from the Coliseum all the garb of natural beauty with which the merciful centuries had draped it, has made it for the present look rather like a new build ing not quite finished than an ancient building in decay; and we may be angry with the tidy Goths who have transformed the Baths of Caracalla, where Shelley wrote his "Prometheus," into a sort of open-air museum, ticketed, labelled, and partitioned. But if we consider dispassionately all the Italians have done to preserve ancient and embellish modern Rome, we shall be obliged to confess that no little discrimination has been exhibited

But

that their evil traditions of sloth, apathy,
and superstition, would be got rid of in
twenty years. Yet even here something
has been done during the last decade.
But the motto of Italian statesmen, more
particularly as regards the southern por-
tion of the kingdom, should ever be,
Nil actum credens dum quid superesset agen-

dum.

The principal problem, however, weighing upon the minds of thoughtful and patriotic Italians, is the condition of agri. culture, which, as we have said, is the chief staple of Italian industry; and with the condition of agriculture is necessarily associated the condition of the agricultural laborer. We have spoken of the heavy weight of taxation that prevails in Italy, and unquestionably the burden is imposed with most relentlessness on the land. Here is what Mr. Beauclerc, in one of his reports, says of Lombardy, notoriously one of the richest portions of the penin

sula, and of Virgil's still "miserae Cremo- | will be required. Surely this is a case in