484 
rapid fortune that could compensate 
for their continual decrease of means 
from the abolition of the feudal system. 
The education of the middling class 
was indispensably cultivated with 
great care. Their active employments 
obliged them naturally to retain, and 
apply in the exercise of their occupa- 
tions, the precepts of their education ; 
and, from the continual necessity of 
reasoning, the intellectual faculties 
make inevitable progress. The educa- 
tion of the nobility, with very few ex- 
ceptions, was more neglected than un- 
der the old order of things ; but which, 
as far at least as related to the roy- 
alist nobility, was, perhaps, more than 
sufficient for a person whose scene of 
action was limited to the most trivial 
occupations. As they never had occa- 
sion to reason, they had no occasion for 
intellectualimprovement. Hadanyone 
of them reasoned, he would have been 
an insulated being in his class, and as 
badly off as a Bramin who had eaten 
animal food. These people, therefore, 
could have little influence under the 
governmentof Bonaparte. ‘The moral 
influence they once had over their 
countrymen, was every day degene- 
rating ; partly from the inactivity into 
which they were thrown by the demo- 
cratic system, by their neglected edu- 
cation, and by the advances made by 
the middle classes in wealth, and in all 
those qualifications thatrender one man 
superior to another. They virtually 
had changed situations with those who 
were beneath them, their titles alone 
remained ; and, such is the infatuation 
that merely nominal distinctions have 
over trifling minds, that they persuade 
themselves a man, born with a title of 
nobility, although with every intellec- 
tual inferiority, is superior to a 
Parvenu, who has risen into consider- 
ation by dint of his own merit. They 
forget that the first of their family was 
a Parvenu. The royalist nobility had 
therefore no share in the, imperial 
drama. Their opponents, on the con- 
trary, composed of the small remains 
of the feudal nobility, and of men en- 
dued with liberal principles, were a 
party every day inereasing as the old 
blocks died off, and actively engaged 
themselves under the imperial ban- 
ners, well aware that the system de- 
pended on, and was held together by 
the frail life of one man; that, at his 
departure, the empire must naturally 
fall to pieces, and then that Italy, if 
she possessed men of practical know- 
On the late Revolutions in Piedmont. 
[July 1, 
ledge in war and politics, would be 
enabled to regain her independance. 
The sudden fall of Napoleon, and 
the crush of his empire, seemed to pa- 
ralyze the Italian, naturally slow and 
cautious in all his movements ; and be- 
fore any general plan could be com- 
bined for availing themselves of their 
liberation fromthe French, they found 
themselves, owing to their own indeci- 
sion, fast in the clutches of Austria. 
The House of Savoy regained, in 
consequence of the downfal of Bona- 
parte, possession of the dominions ‘of 
its forefathers, with the addition of the 
Duchy of Genevois. Upon its re-ap- 
pearance on the continent, the nation 
began to inquire how their sovereign 
had passed his time in Sardinia, from 
1799 to 1814. “You left us, (they said, } 
and went to Sardinia; you have go- 
verned there personally during a pe- 
riod eminently propitious for national 
improvement. You had therealarge 
fertile island, without any system of 
education; commerce and agriculture 
equally neglected: not even a land- 
mark to shew the boundaries of the 
different estates. No body of laws. 
Order unknown. The mountains and 
the woods infested by banditti; the 
plains, amongst the richest in the 
world, covered with morasses. Italy 
was then in possession of the French ; 
its ports were blockaded, and its 
maritime commerce annihilated: un- 
der this state of things, and free as 
you were to act, unfettered by any 
humiliating agreement, what has been 
your conduct? Did you invite any 
learned men from Italy to establish 
schools and universities? No. Did 
you assemble the men of ability of the 
island, and propose any thing like a 
social compact to improve the legisla- 
ture and ameliorate the condition of 
your subjects? No, You knew, or 
you might easily have known, that the 
ships, the merchants, and the capital of 
Italy, was daily leaving the continent, 
and taking refuge in England, in 
Malta, in Tunis, in Alexandria, even 
amongst the Ottomans: that the 
Greeks, oppressed by the Turks, pos- 
sessing 1000 merchant ships, with 
20,000 seamen, were ready to expa- 
triate themselves wherever they could 
find a protector. Did you offer any 
asylum in Cagliari to that enterprising 
but unfortunate body of nien? No. 
Did you make any attempt to improve 
the agriculture of the island? No. 
Did you facilitate communication vy 
“the 
