18-2G.] The Austrinns in Italy. 175 



families in Milan. The press I will not say is held in bondage, for there 

 ^is no press at all, except that under the immediate control of the govern- 

 ment ; and no foreign newspaper is allowed, except the Journal des Dehats. 

 In Tuscany, the Grand Duke seems to think that some safety-valve of 

 speech may be tolerated; at least he is comparatively careless of every 

 thing except the money which he sends to Austria. When his minister 

 reports that such and such things have been said by the people, his 

 answer is, " Do they pay ?" and when he is told that they do, he replies, 

 " Very well ; then, let them talk." 



If I were, like the man in the foiry-tale, to be Sultan of Italy for a 

 day, I would use my power in establishing half-a-dozen English stage- 

 coaches. This may appear merely jesting ; but I do not tliink a more 

 serious benefit could be conferred upon the country. The want of com- 

 munication is the great preventive to the trade of this land of corn and 

 wine and oil : the want of communication keeps every thing stagnant, if 

 not decaying — motionless, if not retrogi-ade ; the want of connnunication 

 keeps a people, united by natural position, by religion, and (above all) 

 by language, subdivided into petty portions, each powerless of itself; 

 and incapable of serious exertion or resistance. Like the bulls in the 

 fable, they are separated, and are consequently easy prey. 



I was once expressing mj^ surprise to a very intelligent Italian, that u 

 country so abounding in natural gifts was so contemptible in respect to 

 external commerce. I instanced, as an example, the article of wine. 

 " You have," I said, " much finer grapes than any that exist in France ; 

 you have much greater facilities for transport by sea, and j'Ct j'ou allow 

 the French to supply nearly all Europe with wine. With proper skill 

 and energ3% you ought to prevent their selling a barrel out of their own 

 country." My Italian answered me but too satisfactorilj-. " In the first 

 place," he said, " there can be no general enterprize where there is no 

 general country ; we are all isolated and divided, and consequently all 

 rivals instead of allies ; but, above all, how can commerce exist in a 

 country where there is a frontier every ten leagues ? Every state has its 

 own custom-house and commercial regulations ; how can trade be carried 

 on, where there is a fresh search, and fresh duties half-a-dozen times in 

 the course of a journey of a couple of hundred miles?* In the time of 

 the Empire, a single passport and a single permit would carrj- you from 

 Rome to Amsterdam ; but now they Mill not take you the distance of a 

 morning's drive. How would you have commercial enterprize, commer- 

 cial success, exist here ?" What could I answer to this ? I could only 

 sigh and be silent. 



The splitting of Italy, especially the north of Italy, into petty king- 

 doms, duchies and principalities, is equally curious and lamentable. The 

 causes, however, appear to me to be simple. At the general restora- 

 tions., incident upon the fall of Napoleon and of all his new dynasties and 

 institutions, if a weak legitimate wanted back dominions which a strong 

 legitimate had acquired and wished to keep, the expedient was an in- 

 demnity, and the indemnity was always found — in Italj'. It was as if 

 every square of Dido's bull's-skin was emblematic of a separate state, 



* To arrive at Florence, which is little more than that distance from the Alps, you 

 must pass the states of the Piedmontese, the Lombardo- Venetian kingdom, the 

 Parmesan, the Modeiiese, the Papal dominions, and lastly, Tuscany ! From Leghorn 

 to Genoa, about 150 miles, you change states five times ! 



