1826,] 2V/C Audrians in Italy. 173 



what are called, in broad terms, the arts of life. It is in many points a 

 French town ; and, as such, excels tenfold the dirty and beggarly cities, 

 of which the boastful Italians have so unworthily exalted the fame. In 

 the Papal states, in particular, every thing is stagnant, and stagnant 

 at a point of almost incredible barbarism and darkness. Whatever 

 might be the justice of the act of depriving the Pope of his temporal 

 power, the benefit which it was to Italy, is undoubted and extreme. 

 The priestly government has wisdom enough to know, that anj' en- 

 lightenment or advancement on the part of the people, must infallibly 

 and very speedily end in its subversion, ^\^^en a stranger wonders at 

 the absence of the most common and universal improvements, and ex- 

 claims against the unaccountable blindness of the government in not 

 introducing it, he is wrong. It is true policy and sound reasoning, 

 which induce an arbitrary and oppressive government to admit of no 

 innovation whatever. It is astonishing how nearly connected one step 

 of mental advancement is with another. Degrees of improvement are 

 rapidly successive, ^\^lat appears at first to be, and what truly is, only a 

 statistical and domestic measure, becomes, in fact, a point gained against 

 the principles of despotism and anti-civilization. Facility of communica- 

 tion, mechanical ingenuity, increase of trade, and consequently of inter- 

 course, — all these things tend to expand and sharpen the mind, and 

 speedily to improve the political capabilities of a people. Thence is it 

 that, in the Roman states, intercourse is impeded rather than promoted : 

 the mechanics have no atom of ingenuity, and commerce does not exist. 

 Tlie people are taxed, and re-taxed, and taxed again. The priestly 

 Charybdis is a wide-spreading vortex, which draws in all the rich things 

 of the earth, and all the substance of the people. Poverty and alms- 

 asking are the characteristics of those who are governed by these Chris- 

 tian ministers. They are hungry, and ye feed them not — naked, and 

 ye clothe them not — sick, and ye do not visit them. In literal truth, 

 ye are clothed in purple and fine linen, and fare sumptuously every 

 day, while the beggar with open sores is dying of hunger at your gate ! 

 And this is the model which the Austrian governments in Italy ap- 

 pear to have before their eyes ! — on this, their acts would seem to shew 

 they mould their conduct. In taxes they are literal churchmen : at 

 every gate of their walled towns a tythe of every thing is taken from 

 the countr)^-people, as they bring their produce to the market ; and 

 this in addition to the imposts paid in money, which are to the last 

 degree heavy and severe. The reason for this grinding taxation is 

 made quite clear by the chests of scudi which are continually being 

 sent oft" to Germany, not only from the Milanese, which is directly 

 subject to Austria, but by the Grand Duke of Tuscany, the Duchess 

 of Parma (Maria Louisa), and the Duke of Modena, who also is an 

 Austrian nobleman. These funds, it is said, are immediately vested 

 in land ; for their owners know too well the ticklish tenure of their 

 power, and have seen too often, of late years, the sudden fall of much 

 more stable dynasties, not (to use a vulgar phrase) " to lay by some- 

 thing for a rainy day." And thus it is that these strangers in feeling 

 and interests, as well as in blood, to the people over whom they 

 govern, drain this abundant country of its wealth to store up property 

 in their own more congenial home. Thus it is that the dwellers in these 

 fertile plains are starving in the midst of proverbial plenty. — Sic vos 

 non vobis. 



