The Press.
London, England, 1858-11-20 00:00:00

THE PRESS, NOVEMBER 20, 1858.

1136

river, forest, and castled height, with distant glaciers and
snow peaks, wkila it literally teems with the richest produce.
We passed numbers of peasants carrying piled baskets of
golden and green pumpkins, fruit of every kind, and the
bright yellow cubs of maize—while others were sitting by
the roadside under the shady walnuts, selling huge heaps
of ripe peaches grown in the open orchards, with deliciols
figs, as much as one could eat in an afternoon, for a few
sous. No fruit is so wholesome, nor to my own taste so
excellent, and the quantity that may be eaten with impunity
is only limited by one's appetite. The Spanish chesnuts
were so covered with fruit that they looked at a distance
like overloaded apple•trees. The gardens were more
brilliant and better cultivated than any we had seen in
Italy, with a profusion of flowers of every hue.
The only drawback to the wonderful fertility was the
lamentable way in which the vines were affected by the
■t al iiidium, in so many districts almost annihilating the
erop. No steps seemed to be taken to check it, except in
one or two vineyards, where the branches were daubed
over with whitewash. If f,r a time they had had the
courage to sacrifice the worthless crop of grapes, and aimed
at keeping a limited growth of vigorous wood, shortening
it back each year, and coating it in autumn with lime and
sulphur, the vines might have been kept in comparative
health, until the virulence of the disease had passed away,
and then the crop would, in all probability, have been
doubled after the period of rest. The vineyards of Carema
on our right, between Settimo and Pont St. ➢tartin, produce
a peculiar pale red wine, somewhat of a Burgundy flavour,
which is one of the beat in the Val d'Aosta.
George Borrow, W. H. Russell (Times corre-
spondent), Eothen, would give more brilliant
word-painting than is seen there, but this style
of description is nevertheless of a high order.
The physical character of the scenery is well
indicated, and there is talent shown for taking
in the details. Of the population of the district,
and of the state of agriculture, Mr. King
observes :

There can be no doubt, however, that the fertility of the
soil, great as i tis, is not nearly developed as it might be ;
under skilful s:ientifio management its productiveness
would be increased enormously. The fields are colt vated
in the most slovent) and lazy mode; beyond imperfect irri-
gation, hardly any anificial means are used to assist the
crops, which owe their luxuriance almost entirely to the
richness and depth of the alluvial soil on which they grow
year after year with hardly any change. The surface is
barely scratched "ter with a most primitive plough, and
more generally with a hoe or pointed spade, as different a
tool from its stout British namesake as possible.
Frequently the more intelligent natives spoke to us
earnestly of what might be accomplished in their beautiful
valley by an English Company," of whose skill and
capital they seemed to have the most exalted opinion.
One great hindrance to all improvement is the non-resi-
deuce of the landed proprietors, who all crowd to Turin;
and the lite of i heir gay capital has such irresistible charms
for the society-loving and gregarious Italians, that nothing
but necessity will bring them away. Almost without excep-
tion, the upper and middle classes have not the slightest
taste for the charms of country life, or country pursuits.
In England such a magnificent valley, the foot of which is
not forty miles from the capital, would have long ago had
every obtainable and picturesque site in it greedily bought
up and occupied by villas, country seats, and rich farms,
almost to the very head, a length of some sixty miles.
Whereas, the fact is, that, with the exception of those
engaged in the iron—works, or other mercantile pursuits,
there is hardly a voluntarily.resident proprietor in it.

Of glacier scenes there are numerous accounts in
this volume, but we cannot say that Mr. King
describes them effectively. A certain weirdness
of fancy, with subtle airy grace of language, are
requisite for describing " the sublime of ice."
We confess to an opinion that Mr. Kin(s forte
as a travel-writer would be in describmg the
habits of a population, and estimating their pro-
gress in religion and morality. The measured
tone and cautious conclusion in the following
passage deserve praise :

However mach the influence of the Roman Catholic
Church in Piedmont may be on the decline—and it has
of late years undoubtedly lost much of its hold on the
affections of a large portion of the community—still Pro.
testantism has as yet made no corresponding advance.
Efforts have been made, and are making, by the Waldenses
and others, to preach the Gospel, and many churches, such
as the one at Turin, have been raised in the large towns ;
bat the expected success has not been met with. Indeed,
it has been calculated that, beyond the limits of the Vaudois
valleys, there are not a thousand Protestants in the rest of
Piedmont. Proselytism from the State Church is nomi-
nally, indeed, a legal offence, but theta is no disposition
on the part of the Government to throw any obstacle in the
way of religious liberty.

The feeling against the Church is rather against it as a
polity than as a religion : • struggle in fact for religions
and civil liberty, in opposition to the entbraltnents of the
Papacy, and a priesthood, who by their tyranny over body
as well as soul had drawn on them the intense hatred of
all classes, which had its results in the revolution of 1848.
The reforms which followed on that crisis, the abolition of
the Ecclesiastics' Courts, in which the priests had the
power of indicting summary punishment, even to death
itself, on those who came under their censure—a power as
grievously felt as it was unscrupulously exercised—the
expulsion of the Jesuits,—the more recent laws for the
suppression of all convents not having educational or
charitable functions, and the regulation of the vast revenues
of the Church,.—togethor with tlie promoticn of national

education--though they have as yet far from satisfied the
Liberal party, still cannot but be regarded as sure and
certain steps towards a better and more enlightened state
of things.
The Waldenses are allowed to circulate the Scriptures
and religious publications in the native language, provided
they confine them to those of their own sect ; but this also
is a merely nominal restriction, of the infraction of which
the Government takes no notice ; and we were rejoiced to
see the Bible—a few years ago a prohibited book, as it still
is in the rest of Italy—exposed for sale in every little
town. But though it is extensively circulated and eagerly
read, I am obliged to admit that, as far as my own Omen
vations go among the classes with whom I had opportunities of
conversing,it is used more as a text-book against the priests,
to convict them of misrepresentation from their own avowed
source of truth, than from any earnest regard for the great
doctrines of the Gospel. I met with many instances where
the Scriptures were very cleverly and logically quoted, in
triumphant refutation of the dogmas of the priests, without
the slightest belief in them beyond their mere use for the
occasion. A remarkable instance of this was the conductor
of the diligence to Turin, who would have gone much
further in his arguments than mere sceptism, bad I given
him any encouragement. It is sad to feel the conviction
that truth has so long been mixed with error, that, when
implicit faith is once fairly shaken, both must share the
same fate of discredit for a time. When or how the light
of truth shall be clearly enough seen, through the mists of
superstition on the one hand, and materialism, utter want
of faith, and distrust of all doctrine on the other—so as to
oe the guiding star of a newly enlightened nation, as
Sardinia is proving herself to be—is a question of deep
interest.

False religion cannot at once be succeeded by
the true. Our ancestors oscillated between
Popery
and Protestantism in the reigns of Henry
~ Mary, Elizabeth ; and we had Puritanism
followed by the licentiousness of Charles H.'s time.
The fall of the Gallican Church in the last century
in France was succeeded by ferocious infidelity
and Jacobinism, and Protestantism did not take
that root in France which might have been ex-
pected. Why is it that Papists cannot pass into
Protestantism, without plunging into infidelity
in many cases ? Dr. Johnson tried to explain it
by saying, " If a Roman Catholic reasons straight-
" forward, he must end in being a Deist." But
be might as well have said Atheist in place of
Deist. For there are momentous consequences
dependent on the admission of Deism. A Deity,
who never made a revelation of his will, who
never uttered mandates to his creatures, sho
declines to hear their prayers, and who has given
them no index to his thoughts, is nothing better
than the careless God of the Epicurean. Admit
a Deity, and Revelation must become a logical
necessity, and it is then a mere question of
evidence as to the authenticity of the Scriptures.
The converted Papist takes up the Bible ; it
denounces the profligate, the liar, the thief, and
tells of the certainty of retribution. It announces
in trumpet tones that if he expects salvation by
the blood of the Lord, he must take up His
cross. It alarms and rebukes his conscience—
that conscience which under the rule of Popery

was lulled by the cabalistic charms of sacramental
confession, priestly absolution, and transubstan-
tiation. But the heart of man is corrupt, and the
recent Papist, and now Protestant, finds that " the
still small voice " will not be appeased unless he
leads a moral life, and unless there be a change of
the man. Here is the true explanation of the
fact that the Papist, wedded to old habits in
which carnal vices were atoned for by cabalistic
charms, plunges into Scepticism as a relief from
his conscience. Too often, in changes from
Popery to Protestantism, there has only been a
change of the objective creed, of the external
faith, without the vital change of heart, which is
the very essence of apostolical and true religion.
And on this important point let us remark,
that credulity is shown more by the unbelief in
the Bible than by faith in it. What credulity can
be more ridiculous than to suppose that the Bible
is false, after the greatest intellects of ages accept-
ing its truths ? A Papist has been accustomed to
credulity, and when he breaks away from his
priest, he qualifies his credulity more by thinking
the Scriptures to be false, and he has not yet
come to the use of his right reason. There is
much to be said on this important topic, but
space is wanting to us.
Although our extracts are long, we are tempted
to add to them the concluding wsage, from
which our readers can infer the tone of this most
able performance :
Oar light meal finished, and the baggage packed on the
saddle for the descent, we traversed the black sudden
moraines for a short time, until we reached the ice at an
accessible point. We set foot on the snow•cuvered glacier,
just as dense volumes of gloomy clouds whirled rapidly
down on the fierce blast of the rising storm, throwing a
strange lurid shade over the icy solitude. Here and there .

bleached skeletons of animals, protrudng from the snow,
and the still fresh and frozen body of at mule, showed the
perils of the peas in unfavourable weather, and heightened
the mournful wildness of the scene. A crevasse lay across
the centre of the glacier, crossed by a temporary bridge
made of a few larch poles and tops, covered with beaten
snow,—and this was the boundary between Piedmott and
S witzerland.
To the northward the fast closing clouds gave ns a
broken glimpse, framed in fantastic mist wreaths, of the
snowy Swiss Alps of the Oberland, the Finster Aarhoro,
the Schreckhom, Sidelhorn, and other icy peaks; with the
pass of the Grimsel, which we were to cross the following
day. Between us and them lay, far down and out of sight,
the rush-grown alluvial Bats of the Rhone valley, on which
are grouped the dreary weather-stained chilets of Ober-
gestlen,—our destination for the night, which we reached
by a few hours' descent, down the steep and desolate pass
of the Egineu Thal.. .

Before we crossed the boundary we turned to take one
more last, lingering look, on the purpled mountains of the
Italian valleys ; but the storm had swept down upon us,
and blinding clouds of snow soon enveloped every object'
except the poles marking the track, in utter obscuritv'.
We drew our plaids closely round us as we breasted the
north wind, which searched to the skin, with a keenness
that seemed intense, after the blazing sunshine of Italy.
We now felt we had fairly bidden adieu to southern skies
and southern scenes, and had left behind us the last of
those exquisite Vale, through which we had been wandering
for three months with unflagging interest and delight.
Each in tarn, as we had penetrated into and explored its
innermost nooks, bad not merely afforded gratification to
the outward senses and an invigorating stimulus to one's
physical frame ; but also had, day by day, impressed us
with ever increasing convictions of the infinite power,
wisdom, and goodness of the Almighty ; which had invested
even these remote and little-known rece-ses with such
wonderful variety, beauty, and grandeur, and had named
and fitted them so marvellously for the abode or the enjo::-
ment of man : and though we now numbered those days of
delightful sojourn among them with things of the past, yet
our memories were stored with remembrances for future
and lasting enjoyment.
The sublime snow Alps, with their mighty glaciers and
thundering avalanches,—the rugged mountains and vast
primeval forests,—the ceaseless torrents, leaping and
foaming down to the sunny vales,—where the broad-leaved
fig, the spreading cheanut, mantling vines, and the fruits
of the earth in richest profusion fill up the picture of ro-
mantic beauty, and where man, the last work of creation,
flourishes in a type of vigour and comeliness, united with
simplicity and industry, rarely equalled—all were inefface-
ably impressed on the tablets of our minds. We had learned
ti realize more deeply the force of those words of the
Divine Psalmist, which so aptly recur to the thoughtful
traveller,—either when face to face he holds communion
with such scenes of sublimity and beauty ; or when, in after
days, the memory-pictures of them stand vividly before
him, stirring up earnest longings to be again boldly among
them ; —woids of vast meaning for time and for eternity—
the loftiest theme alike of men and angels :

The works of the Lord are great :
Sought out of all them that have pleasure therein.
His work is worthy to be praised. and had in honour :
And his righteousness endureth for ever.
- -

The maps and illustrations of this handsome
volume are excellent. The views of the Convent
of St. Bernard, of Gressoney St. Jean, and of other
scenes, reflect great credit on Mr. King's pencil.
The typography of the book is excellent, and a
handsomer volume has not been laid before the
public for a long time. The work is certain to
obtain a considerable success, and we recommend
it to book-clubs as a volume calculated to please
large and various classes of readers.