THE 



MONTHLY MAGAZINE 



VOL. XXIII. FEBRUARY, 1837. No. 134. 



ITALY, ITS ANCIENT GRANDEUR, THE CAUSE OF 

 ITS PRESENT MORAL AND POLITICAL INSIGNIFI- 

 CANCE, AND ITS APPROACHING REGENERATION. 



ITALY, which the Mediterranean and Adriatic bathe with their 

 waves, and the lofty barrier of the Alps divides from the rest of 

 Europe, is a naturally beautiful, rich, and powerful peninsula. Its 

 geographical position with numerous ports and bays renders it a re- 

 markably maritime and commercial country ; its vast plains and 

 luxuriant valleys watered by many rivers and stream?, either flow- 

 ing- from its lakes or descending from the Alps and Appennines, are 

 extremely fertile and healthy ; and its inhabitants, endowed generally 

 with natural talents and a lively disposition, are robust, active, and 

 well adapted both for the culture of science, literature, and arts, and 

 for the avocations of husbandry, commerce, and war. 



During the unrivalled grandeur, both of the Roman Common- 

 wealth and Empire, Italy produced the people that conquered the 

 world, and its inhabitants were justly considered the most civilised 

 of the whole globe, the most formidable enemies, and the most gene- 

 rous allies. The despotism, however, and the profligacy of the suc- 

 cessors of Augustus, led the way to the degeneracy and demoraliza- 

 tion of their subjects, and little by little that great empire became 

 immoral, luxurious, and factious. 



Constantine having afterwards transferred his court from the west 

 to the east of Europe, the Italian peninsula was of course reduced to 

 be a province of the empire, and under the tyrannic misrule of the 

 rapacious favourites of the eastern emperors, the Italians were truly 

 in a miserable situation. Civil liberty was almost annihilated, the 

 national laws were disregarded, the nobles harrassed and impover- 

 ished by the exactions of the imperial tax-gatherers, and the people, 

 exposed to all sorts of oppression and vexations, became indifferent 

 into the hands of what masters they fell. This moral and civil cor- 

 ruption, growing daily more and more prevalent, enervated at last 

 the physical strength of the Italians, and deprived their mind of its 

 vigour and energy, and at length they sunk into a lethargy and a 

 stupid oblivion or their ancient greatness. 



