The Press. — London, England, 1856-07-12 00:00:00

itcraturt. The Subalpine Kingdom ; or, Experiences and Studies in Savoy, Piedmont, and Genoa. By Bayle St. John. Two Vols. London : Chapman and Hall. SCARCELY any name is so often presented to the literary critic in our times as that of " St. John," with a variety of imposing pre fixes not easily recollected. The works with which it is associated are, generally, of the same character. They have always au attractive subject, discussed in a showy style, in which the solid and superficial are united with a skill that attests proficiency in the noble craft of bookmaking. The literary accomplishment shown in their pages proves that, if their writers chose, or if they had leisure, writings of more permanent value might be expected from their pens. But literary photographs cannot be accepted as elaborated pictures, nor can graceful records of first impressions be taken in lieu of thoughtful books of travels. It may happen with literature as with archi facture. Our streets are in danger of becoming prolonged deceptions, under the constant em ployment of " compo," and the artistic eye is beginning to find that the reality of red brick had at least the beauty of truth. Something of the same sort is occurring with books. Travels, and works professing to deal with facts, have now fallen into the hands of resthetical describers, reeling under " the over-soul "; and in perusing descriptions of foreign and complex states of society, we often are made to wish for the accuracy of Arthur Young, the sober truthfulness of Edward Daniel Clarke, or the scientific observation of Humboldt. On a certain class of subjects, religious and Oriental, the styles of Chateau briand and Lamartine may have appropriate beauty ; but, as a general rule, imaginative minds are not the best for works that must grapple with opinion. Mr. Bayle St. John's new performance is vaned in its character, dealing in pictorial sketches and political discussions, interspering some fancies with many facts, mixing personal gossip with speculative dissertation, being sometimes half lachrymose about Italian liberty, and often not a little lackadaisical on things in general. It is an agreeable book, at this season, for the circulating-library, and we may safely recommend it to the book clubs. But we cannot accord to it higher political authority than may be given to the fluent compositions which we read from the "Foreign Correspondents" of the morning papers We may say that , with many readers, the effect of a perusal of these volumes will be, in common phrase, the " throwing of a wet blanket " upon any high hopes from Piedmont. He says : It seems very evident to me that, diplomatically speaking, that Government has placed itself in a false position; but whether it was urged to do so by overweening self confi dence or by perfidious suggestions, I do not pretend to decids. As king of a small State, taking its title from a distant island, according to an arrangement made towards the beginning of last century, Victor Emmanuel, despite the services his army might have rendered in the Crimea, has little claim to speak authoritatively at the present crisis, even on Italian affairs. His true policy would have been to get himself tacitly acknowledged as King of Liberal Italy—if it would not have been considered derogatory to succeed M. Mazzini as King of Subterranean Italy. In these volumes I have unfortunately been obliged to show, that for many years the Piedmontese Government, em bracing with joy rather than accepting with resignation the bumble and solitary career assigned to it by the treaty of Novara, laboured with success to separate its fortunes from those of the Progress party in Italy. All its recent attempts at assuming an independent position are based on the supposition that democracy is worn out and dia. couraged. Then on the next page Mr. St. John ob serves : Catholicism is declared the State religion by the first article in the Constitution. This is one of the chief reasons why it is difficult for Royalty and Liberalism in Italy to act together. The real Liberal party know very well that they can never achieve much good without the overthrow of the Papacy as a temporal power, and, in fact, its expul sion from the peninsula. This is why they will no doubt receive with astonishment the very ill-judged letter from Daniel Mani'', calling on the Romans to remain quiet, because of the presence of the French. A revolution is not advisable at the present moment; but when it does take place it must commence at Rome, unless some other liii. THE PRESS. point be chosen for strategical reasons. Italy will not be entitled to much sympathy if it be merely moved by an anti• German feeling. The Austrians are a nuisance in Italy, it is true; but it is mere foolish prejudice to say that they are a greater nuisance than would be any other foreigners whose Government was based on similar prin ciples. Evidently, it is much less humiliating for Italy to receive orders from Vienna than from Paris. And further : The history of Italy in modern times is the history of the wrongs it has suffered from all the great powers of Europe who could get at it, but especially from France. It is evident, however, from the vigorous manner in which it developed itself in the Middle Ages, that Italy would have been even now the leading country of Europe, had not the man who, as the Emperor Napoleon 111. informs us, is the " Vicar of Christ "—otherwise called the Vice-God—taken up his abode there. He was and is the canker in the bud. When Italian Liberals talk of independence, therefore, they mean that they want to be delivered from all foreign armies and foreign influence, and left as free to deal with the Papacy as the Americans, fur example, are to deal with the question of slavery. It is not very likely, we think, that the King of Sardinia, or his advisers, will commit them selves to such " real Liberalism." For the last century the great Catholic Powers on the Continent have had a tacit agreement that the Pope should be kept at Rome. The first Napoleon also argued that the Papacy should be kept weak, and showed that the Pope could never be permitted to reside at Vienna, or Paris, or " even Madrid," as Napoleon added. Where is the Pope to be sent to, if driven out of Italy ? The Sardinian statesmen avoid the dangers of being embroiled with such troublesome questions. Their course is guarded and mo derate, and regulated by common sense, even though obnoxious to the charge of selfishness. We may admit that there is much ignorant enthusiasm about the King of Sardinia in England, but we do not like seeing him treated in the sneering tone exhibited by Mr. Bayle St. John. We should prefer an honest attack to such elaborate and oblique detraction as we find in these volumes. Let us cite some ex amples : I heard a flatterer call him a Washington king ; but I think Washington did something more than abstain from overturning the Constitution he swore to protect, and sulkily hold aloof " a hunting of the deer," playing tho part of King Cophetua, and leaving agents at the head of affairs, who, under pretence of being responsible, and of acting only on their convictions, employed his influence to make that Constitution a dead letter. The countenance of Victor Emmanuel is also well known to the frequenters of our streets; and those who did not see the living person can, no doubt, obtain in. formation from portraits. Ido not know what likeness is most iu vogue in London. In Turin they are fond of a ludicrous engraving, in whioh his Majesty, who has no pretensions to beauty or elegance, but is a fine soldierly personage, is made to round his eyes, puff out his cheek, throw back his hair, and place his fist on his belt like a termagant cook firing up at some criticism on his sauce. From the size and importance of this print, I am afraid it must be the one patronised by the Court—a fact that may enable us to find out their apprecktion of their master's character. When tho King opened his Parliament, Mr. St. John writes : The King took his seat, and read his speech in a hurried, slovenly manner, putting the emphasis in the wrong place—just as a wicked poet might read a copy of verses by a rival, in order to make them appear very flat indeed. The ceremony occupied ten minutes, perhaps ; and was long enough. It is curious if true, as the gossips of Turin pretended it was, that merely to annoy bis good people for making him go through so solemn a business, the King appointed the early hour of ten in the morning. Even the most loyal ladies abused him heartily for making them begin their toilette before daylight. And here is more of the same cynical style : I believe, however, that the King is personally liked by most of his subjects. The extreme care he takes to pre- serve the remnant of his royal authority, exhibiting itself principally in inexorable exaction of compliance with the rules of an absurd etiquette, becomes disagreeable of course to but few people. Among the elegant classes there seems to be some discontent that the traditions of Valen tino are not followed out ; and I was told as a horrid cir cumstance, that instead of choosing his ladyfavorites in high circles, Victor Emmanuel can discern beauty when unadorned by rank and wealth. The preference over countesses and marchionesses given to a charming drummer's daughter mght lead to a revolution, if female rivalry ever expressed itself in blows. The writer then goes into subjects of Court tattle, where we need not follow him. He knows the art of spicing with scandal. His opinion of Count Cavour is not very favorable. He thus describes him : For my part, in the parliamentary manners of this Piedmontere Minister I thought I recognised reminis cences of Sir Robert Feel; and it is quite certain that SATURDAY, Count Cavour was an assiduous attendant in our gallery during a portion of the career of that statesman. At any rate, it soon became evident that the count was playing a part ; and this, although the " make-up " was very good, naturally destroyed the first impression. We instinctively start and hold off on finding calculating cunning pulli ng the strings of apparent honesty. I began to understand why the Piechnontese, almost to a man, even the Ministerial deputies, even the other Minis ters themselves, are inclined to dislike Count Cavour. He is reported to be overbearing, and jealous of the talent of other people ; and his colleagues have the satisfaction of hearing it said, that be will never act with persons who rise in the slightest degree above mediocrity. It is undis puted that he has considerable talent, and that he shines especially in knowledge of the history of political economy ; but there is no doubt that he owes his present exalted position principally to the fact of his enormous wealth and aristocratic connections. Englishmen have had many opportunities of knowing that it is not necessary for a prime minister to be a man of genius. Count Cavour does not, certainly, merit that appellation ; but he is a clever courtier, quite capable of a caprice of independence now and then, a well-read man, may be a dexterous diplo matist, and is a successful manager of the inferior arts cf debating. And lie mentions facts by which it would seem that Count Cavour has taken a leaf out of the book of an ex-private secretary of Mr. Glad stone : Count Cavour, as I have hinted, is a man of immense wealth. They say he is the largest landed proprietor in Piedmont ; and be is always busy in adding to his stores. It is his doctrine that he who enriches himself enriches his country. There may be some truth in this; but the Piedmontese, of all classes, complain that he is more occu pied in adding meringue to meringue than in improving the condition of the people he undertakes to govern. They cannot understand a commercial and trading Prime Minister; and, indeed, it is difficult to account for this perpetual thirst for money, except on the supposition that the count was born to be a banker rather than a states. man. His constant speculations expose him to suspicions and calumnies which the anti-constitutional party are careful to keep alive and circulate. I scarcely met a single person in Turin, except the deputies, who (lid not accuse him of taking advantage of his position to fill his coffers. When bread is dear, the populace lay the fact at his door ; and there are now thirty people in prison in Turin for having formed part of a mob which attacked his palace, or threatened to attack it, in order to wreak vengeance upon him. lam quite sure—whatever may be thought of the events that are taking place whilst these sheets are passing through the press—there is not, per sonally, a more unpopular man in the Sardinian States than Count Cavour ; and yet I constantly hear him spoken of, since he crossed the Alps, as if he were a well-beloved Minister enjoying the confidence of the Crown and the love of the nation. But we must recollect :that this same sort of scandal has often been unjustly circulated about many continental statesmen. The political conclusions of Mr. St. John upon Piedmont are nearly all summed up in the following passage, which is open to con troversy : I think it very essential that the English public should be put in mind of the difficulties that lie in the way of the settlement of the Italian question. It seems so easy, when we look at a map, or rely on a few trite statements about the progress of Piedmont and the misery of the other provinces, to come to a satisfactory arrangement. Why should not Austria be driven out and Victor Emmanuel intrusted with the task of governing the peninsula, by influence or otherwise, under the patronage for the present of his two great allies? To drive out the Austrians would be the easiest matter in the world. They would have been driven out in 1848, had Charles Albert been a great, or an unselfish, or an honest prince ; and had not the Italian sovereigns, from the Grand Duke of Tus cany to the King of Naples, been inferior in morality to the wretches in yellow jackets who sweep the streets of Leghorn. Then he again tilts at the Pope : Bat Austria is not the main obstacle to improvement. It is one of the grievances of Italy, made necessary by other grievances. There is the great disagreeable fact of the existence of the Pope, without the destruction of whose temporal authority very little real good can be effected. There is also another fact, still more disagreeable, which is this, that they who profess to be interested in the for tunes of Italy, insist on knowing what the people want better than the people know it themselves. Every one, now•a•days, seems inclined to do good to the Italians, but every one has a particular and favorite remedy. I have often heard people who have observed the great diversity of opinion in the peninsula, exclaim in despair :—" These unfortunates do not know what they want." It is quite certain that they do not want what we want: or, at any rate, that we are inclined to thrust our medicine upon them without studying their disease. At the bottom of all this is the fear entertained by established Governments of calling together the only tribunal competent to decide a question of this kind—a Constituent Assembly. The practical meaning of which would end in a "No Popery " cry through Christendom ! Whether that is feasible or desirable, we shall not here discuss. But we have been amused with the author's remark (vol. ii. p. 67.), " It is " not my desire to introduce despair into the "naiads of the friends of Italy."