The Press.
London, England, 1858-05-29 00:00:00

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513

matters as the trial of Dr. Sacheverell or the
projected bridge at Blackfriars he probably did
not much care. But that " the grand vizier
was strangled ;" that he dreamt about him; that
" the grand vizier was not only strangled, but
beheaded ;" and " Mr. Nisby's account of the
Grand Turk," are entries of real importance, and
worthy of being placed on the same footing with
his consumption of " Brooks and Haler," and
the deficiency of " sprouts " to his veal and
bacon. The loungers of Turin are remarkable
for a similar discursiveness of sympathy, and
Signor Gallenga makes the following com-
plaint of their indifference to the matters which
most nearly concern them:—
As soon as I am seated the discussion of the great
topics of the 11.1 y, which had been dropped as fully ex-
hausted before I made my appearance, begins afresh. It
is, ma)hap, the eternal question about the Danubian
Principalities, or very knowing conjPctures respecting the
secret intentions of the Czar of All the RU4llitie, or of the
Great Khan of Tanury, or of Prest-r John of Abyssinia,
l'he remotest and most abstrike subject, I grieve to say,
is ever the uppermost in the thoughts sod speeches of
people living iu out-of-the way corners. It used to be
matter of necessity under the absolute regime, when home
topics were excluded from the budget de omnibus rebus
supplied by the one Gazette circulating throughout the
State; and it continues to be the case now, under a free
Government and a multitudinous press, from mere habit,
from aeliknesa of intellect, from that inertners and supine-
ness which finds it extremely Illtllettlt to o iiiceive how it
has now become a duty as well as a right fur freemen to
mind their own business.

This kind of conversation is diversified by cards,
which form the amusement of all classes, who
waste whole evenings in playing for some incon-
siderable stake. There was no pnvate society to be
had in Castellamonte during the winter of Signor
Gallenga's residence there; nor in Turin was
the case much better. The proportion of ladies
to gentlemen at a soiree was about one to twenty;
and it was understood that the conversation of
these solitary specimens of their sex was to be
divided as impartially as possible among the
cavaliers who surrounded them. The author
explains this alarming scarcity by explaining that
very few 'Turinese ladies are presentable—that is
to say, their characters are well enough, but they
are not sufficiently educated to talk or be talked
to. At the theatre or opera, where they can
take refuge in silence or in pretended admiration
for something passing on the stage, they appear in
much greater numbers. As, underi these circum-
stances, evening parties are not particularly at-
tractive, the ruder sex are bribed to attend them by
being allowed to smoke—a practice in which the few
ladies present occasionally join. Cicisbeiarn is uni-
versal, and every lady who "receives" has her
train of faithful attendants, whose devotion is
satisfied by reciprocitl of sentiments of a purely
Platonic character. Celibacy naturally flourishes,
and thus many families continue in the same
dwelling all their lives.
Literature is at a low ebb, and is confined to
French novels, commentaries on standard authors,
and a certain amount of archeological research.
No books are to be seen scattered about in a
house, and the want of them is not felt. Signor
Gallenga was at considerable trouble to get a
friend to translate RuffinTs novels (" Doctor
Antonio" and "Lorenzo Benoni"), but they
had not even success enough to remunerate their
publisher. Even the language is allowed to de-
cline, and in the capital it is common to hear
patois spoken in the best society.*
As regards the physique of the Piedmontese, it
is, we are told, a mistake to consider that they,
or any Italians, are sober and abstemious. They
do not eat often, but, having weakened their
digestion by long fasting, fill themselves to reple-
tion at dinner with a mass of innutritious food.
Hence they all have a tendency to grow fat and
melancholy, have a great indisposition to take
exercise, and become old at forty years of age.
With all this, they believe themselves to be " too
sanguine" in temperament, and—as was the case
at Naples after the late earthquake—get them-
selves bled on the slightest provocation. The
children are enervated by high living, and be-
come precociously developed into effeminate
young men, who shrink from everything like manly
exertion, refuse to quit the shelter of the porticos
which line the streets of Turin, and "do the
high" day after day with monotonous pertinacity.
They are not fond of riding, and have a proverb
that a man's grave opens when he mounts a

• Other am horilies state that rie,irnontese is not a" patois."
but a diatinat langusga. holding an interiseillst. place betweca
the Yrovainal sad tlig
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514

horse. Their sport is what with us would not
be dignified with the name :
Their game is quails, migratory birds which are wafted
over to us from Africa, at the beginning of summer, and
are so utterly exhausted by their flight over the Mediter-
ranean, that on their first arrival they can easily be knocked
down with sticks or atones They then lay eggs, and their
young spread over the plains, and lie by thousands on our
cornfields, where, ut harvest-time, in July and August,
they may be shot by dainty citizens walking over the
dry stubble in their dancing•pumps. To render this sport
even easier and lazier, rich landowners keep a " muta," a
flock—literally a " pack "—of cogent quails ( which, by the
way, must, with a cruelty no true sportman should be
guilty of, be blinded for the purpose) : these are put out at
night to decoy, by their singing, their free brethren, so as
to gather them all together in one spot within convenient
gunshot distance. Later, in the autumn and winter, the
birds of passage are snipes and other water fowl; the
lovers of this game must wade through deep water and
mud in the rice-grounds in quest of them ; some of our
most ardent youths will dabble in time marshy grounds
till they catch more fevers than birds, and others expose
themselves to the damp till they fall into a consumption.

The net and the snare carry on a far more awful havoc
than the gun. Even as a sportsman the Italian is true to
his sedentary habits. And yet, though inert and sluggish,
he is not even patient : [ hardly ever heard of an angler
amongst my Piedmontese acquaintance. The boors of
this neighbourhood, and I believe all over the Alps and
Apennines, have a barbarous way of catching the fine
trout with which their torrents abound: they throw lime
into the water at the fountain-head, by which the choked
and asphyzied fish are brought senseless and helpless to
the surface, and caught in shoals as they come down the
stream.

One of the great obstacles to the improvement
of the country is the want of good roads. Those
which exist arc laid out on too magnificent a
scale, and being ill kept up, become a mass of
mud in wet; of dust in dry weather. There are
few travellers, and those of a class whose com-
plaints are not much attended to. Hence the
accommodation on the road is of the most
wretched description, and such a thing as a
"spirited proprietor" is unknown out of Turin.
At these " ruin'd inns" there is not even a
"bitter barmaid ;" the beds are made by men ;
the rooms are innocent of bells ; and the whole es-
tablishment seems to be taken by surprise at the
advent of a traveller. Many English families,
on reaching the top of an Alpine pass, and cast-
ing longing looks on the rich Italian valley
below, turn back rather than encounter the dis-
comfort which they know awaits them if they
proceed. Far from joining in the common
censure on travellers who are fastidious in out-
of-the-way places, Signor Gallenga considers
that they do well to be exacting, and that their
refusal to "rough it" is the best war of teaching
the natives a refinement which they lave already
begun in some slight degree to practise.
Against the unfavourable picture which he
draws of Piedmont, the author has more to set
off in the way of promise than of actual perform-
ance. The country has vast capabilities, which
freedom is beginning to develop. The cultivation
of silk, by which at present the French manu-
facturers make the chiefprofit, may at no distant
time be expected to reflect some portion of their
prosperity upon the original seat of its produc-
tion. 'l% ater-power is of course abundant ; there
are flourishing mills at the entrances of many of
the Alpine valleys, which railways, in progress,
radiating from Turin and connected at their ex-
tremities, will place in speedy communication
with the capital and with each other.* A move-
ment is making to improve the harbour of
Genoa, and do away with the monopoly at pre-
sent exercised by the boatmen who transport
merchandize on shore ; and if English enterprize
can be induced to convey a sufficient quantity of
coal, both the productive energies and the do-
mestic hearths of the Subalpine Kingdom will
respond with vital warmth to the supply.
Of the moral qualities of the Pteamontese,
Signor Gallenga gives a more favourable account
than would be expected from what we have mid.
All are hospitable, kind, and amiable, and the
lower classes are industrious, under proper ma-
nagement. The middle classes are perhaps less
to be depended upon, but, as they thrive when
away front home, they will perhaps do equally
well there under good government. liow tar the
author is a prejudiced witness, we have not the
means of ascertaining. He has seen a great deal
of the world, and, having lived much in England
especially, seems prone to judge his countrymen
by a severe standard. l e appears to have
thought that he might be the means of effecting

• A portion of a railway intended to join Aosta with Turin
hasps% been opened.—Tiraei correspondent of Thursday.