aristocracy or of the people, can work | said the same of Papal Rome. This, miracles; but when it acts alone, it then, was the actual state of things will produce nothing else but a gov- with which the founders of the new ernment without force and without Italian kingdom had to deal; but they grandeur. In France after 1830 they never had the courage to meet it face dominated everything; they were not to face, and it is to this cause almost only masters, but they, so to speak, more than to any other that the presfarmed the whole of society, occupying ent financial difficulty is due. In order every post and office, which they multi- to smooth over the period of transition plied to an extravagant extent, till they many offices were maintained which ended by living chiefly at the public should at once have been abolished. expense. In a word, the government The result is that at the present hour took at that time the form and the the country swarms with a number of character of an industrial company. useless, but poorly paid officials who, The rule of the English middle classes, to eke out their scanty pay, take bribes which lasted, roughly speaking, from and rob the treasury of its due. The 1832 to 1867, was, thanks to their char-extent of the evil may be imagined acter, preserved from such a fate as when it is remembered that under the this; but it was a dull rule notwith-reforms in the government offices instanding, and its one redeeming fea- augurated by Signor Sonnino, the minture, the abolition of the Corn Laws, was in a large measure a self-interested movement of the middle trading classes. That Italy has been no exception to the rule will be seen when we come to look into the facts. ister of finance, which are to come into force early in the present year, a sum of no less than eight hundred thousand lire (£32,000) annually will be saved; and it is impossible to suppose that even this remedy is more than superThe essential elements of the pres- ficial. No ministry could have proent situation can be traced therefore to posed a really radical reform and hoped a threefold source: the vices of the to have survived. Signor Crispi tried old systems of government which the it once, and the angry factions of the administration of a united Italy had to Chambers compelled even him to bend replace, the premature emancipation before them. It is the same in every which was due to foreign arms, and the department. There are courts without rule of the middle classes. When it suitors, schools without scholars, and became necessary to merge all the ad- universities with plenty of professors ministrations into one, it was found and hardly any students. In the old that there was a host of officials whose Papal States with a population of about services would no longer be needed. three millions there were seven uniEven under the old régime their num-versities, all of which continue to this bers were far in excess of what was day. In 1893 Signor Martini, then really required; for when there was little or no encouragement to engage in trade, in the professions, or in a military career, the best prospects were to be found in the civil service of the State. Being eagerly sought for, and often indirectly bought and sold, many offices were invented to satisfy these aspiring servants of the public. In the Papal States the trade of selling places was organized on a regular and well recognized system. Jugurtha said of ancient Rome, that if a purchaser could have been found, the State itself would have been sold; and he might have minister of education, had the courage to propose to the Chamber to reduce the payments to the universities from twenty-two million lire (£880,000) to twelve million lire (£480,000); and he pointed out as an example of the exist ing evil that at the University of Messina there was a staff of forty-four professors for only two hundred and sixteen students, and that in the faculty of letters there were actually seven professors for only seven attendants at the lectures. In other places, he observed, the schools and colleges of the higher grade were almost deserted. If there ever was a case when it might to the besetting sin of parliamentary have been supposed that the Chamber institutions, that of falling into groups would have been only too ready to based upon no dividing lines of pringrant the powers applied for it was ciple, but of a purely factious and surely this. But the deputies who interested kind. The Italians themwere interested in supporting the con- selves are perfectly aware of the fact, tinuance of the old abuses combined to and call it by the word parliamentadefeat the proposals, and the evil con- rismo. There should be only two tinues to this hour. It was the same parties in the Italian Chamber: those with the banks and the various institu- who rally round the house of Savoy tions of credit. Some of these should and those who openly proclaim themcertainly have been amalgamated or selves Republicans. Instead of that absorbed; but too many interests were there are the Right, the Left, the Cenat work to render this possible, and tre, the Right Centre, the Left Centre, much speculative and illegitimate busi- the Irredentists, the Socialists, and ness followed as a natural result, since probably more besides. There is there was not enough of a really gen- plenty of work in which the Italian uine character to keep all of them deputies might and ought to act in conproperly employed. At last, towards cert; but their whole energies appear the end of 1893, the government at- to be consumed in intrigues for place tempted to grapple with the evil, and and power. Meanwhile reforms reit was finally decided that the National main neglected, wrong is unredressed, Bank should absorb the Banca Ro- and the national finances hurry on mana, the Banca Toscana di Credito, towards the rapids. It is indeed a case and the National Bank of Tuscany. of Nero fiddling while Rome burned. It was during the process of the amal- The worst thing about the situation is gamation that the discoveries were that self-interest alone withholds many made which led to what are now deputies from bold and honest effort at known as the Italian Bank scandals, reform. Many offices afford many opand of which, it is much to be feared, portunities of patronage, and that again we are very far from having heard the influences votes. Then again the old end. provincial jealousies crop up, and a This, then, is one fruitful source of deputy will sometimes prefer the local mischief; and when we consider in interests of his constituency to the addition that hitherto the rule of a interests of the nation; while it is united Italy has been in the main a commonly whispered that bribery has middle class rule, with all those pe- carried more than one bill for making culiar failings which were so marked in railways and other public works for the France, and which have already been sole benefit of particular localities. briefly pointed out, it will be easy to Nor can it truthfully be said that the see to what a height that mischief | Italian middle classes have done their must have grown. It was a bitter plain duty towards the masses of the gibe of Heine that if Europe was the people. The day of Italian freedom head of the world, Italy must, phreno- found the bulk of the population sunk logically speaking, be its bump of in ignorance, sloth, and superstition; dishonesty. It was a cruel libel, be- they were hardly more than slaves who cause the Italians are not a bit worse were suddenly clothed with the libthan many other people; but then they erty of free men. It was obvious that are no better. Indeed candor con- much had to be done to render them strains us to admit that they have ex-good citizens and worthy of the nation. hibited many of the failings which, as And though not a little has been acwe have seen, De Tocqueville pointed complished, it has not been without out as being so commonly inherent discredit to those who should have in the bourgeois. The deputies, too, known better. One case of a very in the Chamber have fallen victims scandalous kind occurred at Naples. In Sicily in particular, as all the world knows, there has been a portentous growth of discontent and misery, The condition of that city had long times in providing something which been a disgrace to the State, and a sum could be of very little use to the poorer of one hundred million lire (£4,000,000) | classes of society. Both at Palermo was voted to improve its sanitation and and Messina, for instance, there was a to remove the horrid dens in which the crying need of water; but this imporlazzaroni used to herd. The dens were tant object was neglected, and large indeed removed, but the last state of theatres were built instead at the cost the poor was worse than the first; for of many million lire. To such a height instead of building them new dwell- in some places has corruption reached ings, a lot of mansions were erected in that in order to ensure the continuance the stucco and pseudo-grandiose style. of this reign of corruption and abuse, It was indeed provided that, for a year the electoral lists have been tampered at least, those who had been driven with, and those candidates who, if from their shelters should be allowed returned, would have made an end of to occupy the mansions at nominal this disgraceful state of things, natrents; but it will hardly be believed urally came out at the bottom of the that the richer classes took advantage poll. Tammany Hall is found in other of the occasion to enter in themselves, latitudes than New York. and that not more than twenty-five per cent. of the really poor were benefited at all. It is probably in the local adminis- culminating in riots which had to be trative bodies that these evils have reached their most aggravated form. It is much to be feared that here only too often there has been in operation a most scandalous system of dishonesty and oppression, and that the various local authorities, the syndics and other officials, have abused their powers in a way to challenge the strongest condemnation. In Italy some of what are here put among the imperial taxes fall within the jurisdiction of the local authorities. In addition to this there is a peculiarly irritating duty, the octroi, or dazio di consumo, levied upon all agricultural produce brought from the country to the towns. The various jacks-in-office, puffed up as they are with a little brief authority, often convert this tax into a terrible engine of oppression. And so it is with the other communal taxes, such as those on beasts of burden and the meal-tax, which are often levied with gross inequality. It would be bad enough if the evil ended here, but it does not. It seems impossible to doubt that the taxes when collected are often either wasted or turned into channels of a most improper kind. Sometimes the money is expended on the construction of a road which could only benefit the estate of a single individual; some suppressed by force of arms; and Signor Crispi, himself a Sicilian, was compelled to proclaim a state of siege throughout the island. During the year 1893 ninety-five lives were lost in conflicts between the rioters and the soldiery. It is true that the rupture of the commercial treaty with France, and agricultural depression, have added to the evil; but apart from these considerations the condition of the Sicilian lower classes was already sufficiently wretched. Both in matters of education and morality they compare very badly with the better parts of Italy. Here are the statistics given for the year 1891. The number of illiterates in Sicily was as high as seventy-one per cent., while in Piedmont it was only twelve; in Sicily again the number of convictions for homicide was twenty-eight, for crimes of violence three hundred and fifty-nine, and for theft three hundred and ninety-two; while in Piedmont the numbers were four, one hundred and three, and two hundred and twenty-three respectively. The crime of cattle and horse stealing, known locally as abigeato, is common too in Sicily, and there are occasional outbreaks of regular acts of brigandage. Much of this is due to the miserable condition of the people. Those who are in the position of peasant proprie- | while portraits of the king and queen tors, or who hold as tenants of the bet- were carried in procession and their ter class of landlords, are comparatively names greeted everywhere with cries well off; but under a mischievous sys- of exultation. tem a number of estates are repeatedly It is unnecessary to enter into details sublet, and the condition of those who of the acts of outrage and the measures actually cultivate the soil is then de- of repression which will mark the past plorable indeed. Nor are the workers year in Sicily as one of evil memory. in the sulphur mines in a much better But enough has been said to show how case. Some of them receive under sad a state of things exists, and how three lire a day, aud even that is paid much of it is due to the abuses and them with the deductions involved in extortions of the local authorities, and the truck system, or quickly falls into in a less degree to the neglect and disthe hands of the money-lender. It is regard of the upper and middle classes little wonder that the Sicilian popula- of society. Yet there should be no tion have been largely infected with reason to despair. Some indeed have Socialist doctrines. In 1891 they re- maintained that the Italians are actuturned as a deputy the Socialist propa-ally suffering more now than they did gandist De Felice, and early in the in the old days of disunion and opprespresent year, at a by-election at Pa- sion. That is obviously an exaggeralermo, the Socialist Bosco was returned tion; but even if some degree of truth by a large majority, though he had be allowed it, there must be few Italbeen condemned by a court-martial for ians who would not prefer to see their the part he had taken in the riots, and country free rather than revelling in was actually at the time undergoing case and material enjoyment. The his imprisonment. Almost the whole remedy is within their own hands, if island indeed was honeycombed by So- they will but grasp it, and they are percialist societies, which were known as fectly aware of the fact. They must fasci dei lavatori. These at the lowest put aside their intrigues and factious computation have been put down at parliamentary combinations, and unite one hundred and twenty in number, for the salvation of the country. The and the total of the members enrolled Italians are one of those nations which was probably not much short of three require the stress of circumstances to hundred thousand. Originally work-bring out the heroic qualities which men's combinations of an ordinary they undoubtedly possess. Sir James kind, these societies, under the press-Hudson, who for many years was Briture of poverty and misled by Socialist ish minister at Turin, and whom Caorators and teachers, seem to have vour loved to call Italianissimo, used to adopted a creed of a dangerous and say that he never knew a people who revolutionary kind, with what conse- so readily collapsed as the Italians. quences everybody knows. Acts of This seems to be so far true that, after violence were committed, attacks were a period of heroic effort, they have made upon the municipal buildings sunk into a state in which mean and and authorities, prisons were opened, petty objects have thrust out of sight and the usual reprisals and massacres the higher interests of life. But the by the military followed. But the evil is not insuperable, and patriotic exactions of the municipal and the hearts still beat beneath Italian breasts. communal authorities were clearly rec- It may be confidently hoped that all ognized as one of the chief causes of the evil; it was upon them that the rage of the rioters was directed, and the cries raised were "Down with the taxes!" and "Down with the syndic !" parties will soon unite, as Signor Crispi said, to proclaim "a truce of God," and inaugurate a new and glorious era for their country. C. B. ROYLANCE-KENT. From The National Review. TWELVE HUNDRED MILES IN A WAGON. BY MISS BALFOUR. I. Willow Park, Zeerust, Transvaal, June 3rd, 1894. WE have actually begun our wagon trek at last, but though we started last Wednesday we have only had two nights in the wagons, so you see we are being broken in gradually. We left Kimberley on Tuesday last. That night at about ten we reached Vryburg, and there slept in the train, going on next morning in a little "special" along the as yet unopened line as far as the rails are laid, about ninety miles. Grey met At Marizani Mr. G. us with the horses and "spider," a kind of buggy, drawn by four mules, whence we drove for about six miles to where our wagons were IN the spring of last year our party of four started for the Cape intending to travel through Matabililand and Mashunaland by wagon. We were in happy uncertainty as to how this was to be accomplished, but as regarded both the route to be pursued and the mode of conveyance to be employed, two things only were certain, that no two people gave the same advice, and that each person was convinced that his plan was the only one that was practically possible. Finally, our arrangements were made in accordance outspanned. There are three of them. with the advice of Mr. G. Grey, who One is a second-hand buck-wagon1 for had lived for some time in the Char- the stores and heavy luggage, the other tered Company's territory, and who two are occupied, one by the three made the fifth member of our party gentlemen and one by the two ladies. during the whole of our "trekking Ours is supposed to be a model of all that is luxurious. It is about fourteen expedition. I may add that we never had any reason to regret having put feet long, and about six feet wide above wheels. It is covered with a ourselves in his hands. canvas tent over its whole length, but the roof is not quite high enough for me to stand upright inside. It is along. At the front end are our beds, divided by a curtain about half-way which lie parallel with the length of the wagon, and when down meet in the middle. They can be fastened up by day to the sides of the wagon if required. Under them are lockers, and our boxes fill up the floor in the middle. The wagon is lined with dark green cloth. The back end has small lockers along its sides with cushions on As two of our wagons had to be built specially for our needs, it was some weeks before we were able to start. These were spent in visiting the Orange Free State, Basutoland, Johannesburg, and Kimberley; and we finally joined our wagons on the 30th of May near Mafeking. The following extracts compiled from my letters and journal have been limited to what was written during our wagon journey. They were written with no thought of publication, and do not pretend even to give a full account of our travels, much less an account of the country. Nearly everything personal has, of course, been omitted, and that being so, I take this opportunity of saying, once for all, that we were everywhere received with a kindness it is impossible to exaggerate. Every one we met seemed to think no trouble too great and no inconvenience worth considering which could minister to our comfort; and we shall always retain the most grateful remembrance of the wonderful hospitality of South Africa. them to sit on. One gets out at the end by a high step, or when the oxen are outspanned (unharnessed), by a ladder, as the floor of the wagon is over four feet from the ground. The gentlemen's wagon is of the same size as ours, but it has no central partition, and the beds lie across instead of along it. Both wagons are closed at the ends by curtains which can be fastened firmly all round. The buck-wagon is 1 A transport wagon with a particular kind of rail at the sides. |
