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When, at the beginning of the 17th century, the amiable and gifted author of Cato perambulated Italy, his refined and elegant mind had ample scope for con- templation. When from the sunny slopes of the Appenines, he surveyed the vine-clad hills, the lux- uriant plains, and the orang", olive, and myrtle-groves of the classic land of the ancient mistress of the world; when he looked at the bright and briliiant sky that canopies the region where Caesar fought, and Maro sung and when he pondered the vicissitudes through which a country so rich in landscape, and historical recollections, and so pre-eminently blessed by soil and climate, had passed his musings were naturally directed to the moral and social condition of tile pco- ple who inhabited it, especially to the condition of that large portion of them, but for whose toil the soil, not- withstanding its native fertility, had been but a beau- tiful wilderness. He looked at these people, looked at their dress, their food, their house.foi-gE,ttirig not to contrast the last with the gorgeous abodes of the lords of the soil and the dignified ecclesiastics—and he medi- tated on the laws and institutions under which the whole body politic was placed-all this he looked at and reflected on, and one line of the beautiful poem to which his tour gave rise gives full expression to the conclusion at which he had arrived :— Man is the only plant that dwindles here." But how much of meaning does that line contain what a volume of philosophy does it present! How would the generous spirit of Addison exult over the movement which, from the Tyrol to the ancient Lillybseum, is, at the present moment, attracting the eyes and minds of the whole civilized world to the Ausonian Peninsula! Only a fortnight ago we devoted the whole of a rather long article to a review of the course which the present Pontiff, Pope Pius IX., has pur- sued, ever since his name, as the successor uf Pope Gre- gory XVI., was drawn from the electoral urn. Can any good thing come out of Galilee ?" once asked a member of the Jewish Sanhedrim, in reference to the greatest Reformer that ever appeared in our world Can any good thing ever come out of the Vatican ?" every sound Protestant, till within the last three years, was ready to put as a question that admi'ted but one answer; and that answer, if our readers will pardon something tery like an Irish bull, would have been a positive negative: but strange things do occasionally occur. Some good thing may come out of the Vatican and the middle of the nineteenth century has witnessed the great and wondrous fact of a reforming Pope a-nd the reforms which he has instituted are of no mean and trifling order, but embrace a thorough revision and reconstruction of the whole political, moral, and social system of his States. His discerning eye perceived that the rust of ages was tipon that system—lay thick upon it-aiid his benevo- lent heart prompted him to set about rubbing it off. Remarkable, indeed, has been his career hitherto, and memorable, in all likelihood, will its results be. Pius IX. is at this moment the cynosure of Italy, and in the length and breadth of that lovely land he has evoked a spirit before which tyranny quails-a spirit which has already taught a useful lesson to kings and rulers. Italy has awoke from the torpor in which she hath lien for ages. It now appears that the fire of old Rome" only smouldered in the breasts of the Italian population, it was not extinguished The spark which was destined to Tekindle that fire, and to make it blaze forth before the astonished gaze of the world, has indeed come from a quarter whence it was least to be expected but come it has. In the whole of the eight States or inde- pendent Sovereignties into which the country may be said to be divided the people, with one accord, have demanded of their sceptred rulers their indefeasible political and civil rights as free citizens; and these rulers, who have evidently read the history of Europe, and have profited by the lessons which it inculcates, with one exception, have seen meet to comply with the wishes of their subjects. Thus Charles Albert, King of Sardinia, who is said to be the most nearly allied by blood of all now living to our royal House of Stuart, and has for his Prime Minister one of the most en- lightened and liberal Statesmen of the age, has not only granted the demands of his people, but has also assured the Papal Sovereign that he is prepared to make com- mon cause with him against the aggressive interference of Austria. In like manner the Dukes of Tuscany, Modena, and Lucca have acceded to the wislws of their people, and have thereby not only averted a state of anarchy and civil war, but secured for themselves a high degree of popularity. In the case of the last named personage, the world had exhibited to it one of the strange vicissitudes to which either a wise or a bad policy may give rise. He had indignantly refused to listen to the voice of his people, when they first me- morialised him on the reforms to which they deemed themselves entitled, and then withdrew to the seclusion of his country residence. Several thousands of his subjects, however, followed him thither, and plainly let his Highness know their conviction that what they had demanded was their undoubted right, and that if lunger refused them, they would adopt the only means that remained to them for obtaining it. The prince saw that both his personal safety and the peace of his little ter- ritory were involved in the part which it behoved him promptly to enact. Prudence and good sense carried the day. He conceded all that his people demanded. He returned in the midst of them to his capital, and those who had, a few hours before, threatened to become his assailants, accompanied him, and sur- i rounded his chariot, as his body-guards. In Naples, or rather the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies, we regret to say that, at present, things wear a troubled aspect. In Calabria, or the southern province of the peninsula, many of the people are in open revolt against the government; and there, and in the vicinity of Mes- sina, the second city of the Island of Sicily, several battles have been fought, with various success. That a people so grievously oppressed and so sunk in ignorance as the Southern Italians are, should adopt physical, in- stead of moral force, in order to obtain a redress of their wrongs, is little to be wondered at by those who study cause and effect in the affairs of men. Debased as they are, they cannot divest themselves of the com- mon feelings of humanity. When trodden down and outraged by imbecile but ruthless tyrant rulers and landlords, is it not natural that, with old Shylock, they should exclaim" Have not Neapolitan peasants eyes; have we not hands, organs, dimensions, senses, affec- tions, feelings, passions ? Are we not fed with the same food, hurt with the same weapons, subject to the same diseases, healed by the same means, warmed and cooled by the same winter and summer, as other men are ? If you tickle us, do we not laugh ? If you poison us, do we not die? and if you wrong us, shall we not avenge ourselves P" Whether the King of Naples, who is reputed to be a man of fair understanding, will risk a protracted and disastrous civil war with his people; whether, as he has oftener than once done before, he will call in the Austrians to his assistance, or whether, following the example of the princes of Xorthern Italy, he will see meet to win over his people by commencing a searching reform of all that is glaringly vicious in the laws and institutions of the country which he governs, remains to be seen. According to two or three ably conducted foreign journals, his Majesty is surrounded by bad advisers, several of whom are in the pay of Austria, and were he to be guided by the promptings of his own heart he would at once hearken to the voice of his people, enter into an offensive and defensive league with the Papal sovereign, and put himself at the head of a gi-pit Italian confederacy against the colossal power of Austria. An,] II bat might not such a confederacy soon effect: Exclusive uf Lombardy, or that part of Italy which is under the sway of Austria, and has for its southern boundary the river Po, and also exclusive of the Duchy of Parma, which is governed by the widow of Napoleon, who is the sister of the Austrian Emperor, the king- doms and states to which we have alluded, namely, Sardinia, Tuscany, the Papal States, Modena, anù Lucca, possess a superficies of 70,000,000 square miles, and a population of 19,000,000. True, the Austrian population amounts to nearly 35,000,000, but it is made up of an odd medley of different races, speaking different languages, practising different usages, and imbued with a vast diversity of feelings, dispositions, and pro pensi ties. The Hungarians alone amount to upwards of 10,000,000, and, having for centuries, together with Transylvania and Morav ia, formed an independent and powerful state, they have never ceased to cherish the hope of one day regaining the place which they think themselves entitled to hold among the nations of Europe. Almost bordering on Hungary, also, lies Galicia, or that portion of Poland which was clutched by Austria when, in 1798, the kingdom over which the illustrious John Sobieski once bore rule, and at the head of whose imincible legions, in 1683, he rescued Austria and Germany from the risk of falling under the Mussulman yoke, and, under the walls of Vienna, gained a great and decisive victory over 2,50,000 Alosleiiis was partitioned by and divided among the three despots who filled the thrones of Russia, Prussia, and Germany. The population of Galicia is estimated at 3,000,000, all of whom would rejoice to make common cause with the Hungarians in asserting their nationality and independence. They detest their Austrian masters, and are only kept in check by the presence of 80,000 soldiers. In the Ve- netian States, or what is generally called Lombardy, the superficies of which is upwards of 18,000 square miles, with a population of rather more than 5,000,000, symptoms of revolt have already shown themselves. In Milan, an inland citys, and the second in importance in the province, several fatal collisions between the people and the Austrian garrison (which numbers 18,000 men) have taken place. In fact the population of Lombardy cannot forget that they are Italians. Their minds brood over the history which records the glorious achievements of their forefathers, in the days when the flags of the Republics of North Italy, in the language of the historian Sismundi, waved triumphant in the waters of the Adriatic, the Mediterranean and the Levant when the Ionian Isles, Rhodes, Candia, and Dalmatia, owned the sway of Venice and Genoa, and when to these great entrepots was brought, via Suez and Alexandria, the whole of the produce of India that found its way to Europe. That they should sym- pathise with and take a deep interest in the remarkable movement that is now taking place in nearly the whole of the rest of Italy is not only natural, but we arc almost led to feel surprise that they have not ere now risen en masse for the purpose of making one mighty and combined effort to rid themselves of their tyrant oppressors. From all these facts it might be reasonably supposed that Prince Metternich would pause, and think twice, ere he determine on marching his armed legions across the Po, for the purpose of assisting the Cardinal Lam- bruschini and the retrograde party to put down the spirit of liberalism and freedom which now animates nearly the whole of the Italian population. In the mean time every right-minded Briton will rejoice to learn that the Earl of Minto, who is Lord John Russell's father-in-law, and a member of the Cabinet, who has lately set out for Italy for the purpose of joining his lady and family there, intends to visit Rome. His lord- ship is an enlightened and most amiable man, and a thorough Liberal. The presence of such a man at the Papal court at such a crisis cannot fail to cause a powerful sensation in the Aulic Conncil and at the Tuileries. It will assure the Holy Father and his people that the present march of events in the Ausonian Peninsula is not unheeded in the land which, for three centuries, has championed liberty and freedom in every part of the world, and has afforded a shelter and a home to thousands of gallant spirits who preferred exile to the iron yoke of tyranny. It is impossible to foretel what effect the present state of things in Italy may have upon the peace of Europe. That Louis Philippe and Prince Metternich are hard at work, and doing their utmost, to thwart the Pope in his generous efforts to effect a moral, social, and political regeneration of his prople, we are not left to conjecture. Their organs of the press speak out freely on the subject. The Journal des Debats, in an especial manner, denounces the conduct of the liberal party, and heaps abuse on the weak-mindedness (qu. strong-mindedness) of those princes who have yielded to the wishes of their subjects. But hard words break no bones. The Pope, the King of Sardinia, and the Dukes of Tuscany, Modena, and Lucca have evidently profited by a perusal of the history of Louis XVI. and of Charles X. of France. Timely concessions and re- forms of abuses would have preserved to both these monarchs their thrones; and the lesson which their story inculcates has not, in 1847, been lost upon the I Italian Sovereigns. But to Austria and Franee, or rather to Louis Philippe and Prince Metternich, in reference to what is now going on in Italy, we would say, Beware Res- pics jinem, respiee In at this moment, there is an unmistakeable movement in behalf of an extension of the electoral franchise, and of a searching reform of sundry rank nouses, to which the king of the barricades" would do well to take heed; otherwise, as in his early days, he may yet become a wanderer on the face of the earth, and less pitied than was even Charles X. As to the reasons which Austria has for caution and forbearance we have already spoken. Meantime it is truly gratifying to every generous hearted and enlightened patriot to reflect on the present aspect of things in the laud of the Ccesars. There the leader, nay, the originalor of the great moral revolution that is being accomplished, is a Sovereign prince, and the acknowledged head of the largest Christian com- in the wcrl.,d  T munion in the world. May his success be as great as his heart could desire Well may the Italians feel proud of such a man. Had such political quacks, such peripatetic spouters, such hunters after mob- popularity, as Messrs. Feargus O'Connor, Bronterre O'Brien, Thompson, Vincent, Epps, presented them- selves to the men of Italy, as the precursors of a great political movement, they would soon have been hissed off the stage, while the fervid execration of the great Mantuan bard rung in the charlatans' ears :— Non tali auxilio, nee defensovibus istis Tempus eget." And there was a time when Britannia's leading reformers were men for whom she had no reason to blush. But that was when she really needed them. For fifty years did the illustrious father of our present Colonial Secretary stand by the watch-fire of Reform, and feed its hallowed flame; and when that warm- hearted and accomplished nobleman appeared on the I platform to advocate popular rights, the very prestige of his name and character kept all charlatans at a respectable distance. But at that period Reform was really needed, and there were giants to plead for it, and to prepare the way for its advent. We deny not that we still have abuses and grievances which ousht to be removed; and v.hen such men as Lords Normanby and Morpeth come forward to denounce them, we hail it as a sign that their days are numbered.

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