The Express.
London, England, 1865-10-18 00:00:00

FLORMOB, Ocr. 14.
I spoke in my last letter of what Signor de
Boni, in his address to his constituents, calls the
pettato origthale, the fundamental error, which,
in the opinion of the "party of action," lies
at the base of all that has in their opinion gone
wrong in Italy for the last five years. This petwto
origthale was nothing less than the acceptance of
French aid for the deliverance of Italian soil
from the stranger; and Cavour, according
to these politicians, was the great sinner.
The scheme of expelling the stranger by the aid of
the stranger is precisely, they urge, that old and
ever fatal policy which has been the bane, the
stumbling-block, and ruin in all ages. And Cavour
was but copying the policy of Ludoviooil Mara
whose fatal invitation to Charles VIII. of
France led to his own rain, and the unut-
terable misery and degradation of his country.
Again and again Italy tried to play the same game,
and invariably with the same deplorable result.
All this is true ; and the historical parallel is
close enough to be very striking. Still it is yet
truer that history never repeats itself. And the
change of circumstances and conditions from
one generation to another will ever be sufficient to
prevent the experience of one generation from serving
absolutely and without modification for the guidance
of another. Nor can it be supposed that Italy,
without the assistance which the Emperor of France
for his own purposes thought fit to lend, or rather
to sell her, could have yet reached the position
which she now occupies. The advanced or liberal
party, opposed to the present government, are how-
ever firmly of opinion that Italy would have suc-
ceeded eventually, if not by this time, in achieving
her own liberation, and in doing so far more com-
pletely than her powerful and dangerous ally has
chosen to permit her to do hitherto. They
think that the most desirable whistle, even that of
national independence, may be bought too dear ;
and that the price which Italy has had to
pay to France not only in the material
shape of transferred provinces, but in the more
mischievous form of a necessity of submitting to
the bondage of foreign political influence, has been
excessive. They think that this bondage not only
injures the nation in its material interests, but de-
grades the moral tone of their public men, and
places them in a false and humiliating position
before their own country and before Europe. And
in these complaints, also, there is unquestionably a
certain amount of truth. But that is yet a worse
result of the position Italy has assumed with re-
gard to France, which we bear less loudly lasseuted
by the frondeur politicians here of all classes, than
those which have been specified, but which most
Ilstudents of political history would probably feel to
be the more deeply and permanently dangerous.
I allude to that influence of French poli-
tical and administrative ideas, which shows
itself in the forms of institutions and the maxims
of government. All these in France have been
carefully and intelligently adapted to ends and pur-
poses other than those of freedom, and altogether
inconsistent with the favourable development and
smooth working of representative institutions.
Italy is entering on a false path in copying such ;
and it is to be feared that the mischief hence arisint
may be more durable and lees easily corrected than
the more loudly denounced diplomatic tyranny from
which the party of action maintain Italy to be suf-
fering. And if the men of the constitutional oppo-
sition who cry so loudly against that 'mato
originele which has placed Italy in a position of
dependence on France will patiently and perseve-
ringly struggle against this tendency, they will be
deserving well of the country.
The preachers and practisees of "abstention,"
who refuse to have anything to do with the elec-
tions whatsoever, are not confined to the extremest
section of the advanced party. The men who are
to be found at the opposite extremity of the poli-
tical scale have adopted thesaine tactics and preach
the same doctrines. It most be understood that i
not all the "black party" are desirous of destroy-
lug all that has been done for the liberation of
Italy, retracing the path that has been trodden
since 1859, and restoring all the vacated thrones
of the peninsula to their former possessors. Some
only of those who lament the late changes still
dream of the possibility of reversing them. The
others of the black party, admitting what
has been done to be irrevocable, and
professing themselves willing to accept though
unable to approve it, make it the aim
and hope of their present political action to save
what remains of the Papal authority and the frag-
ment of temporal power which the Holy Father
still clutches. The first of these two classes are
"abstainers ; " the second are willing to take the
necessary oaths, and to go to the poll as champions
of the altar, though the thrones they would fain also
fight for have fallen for ever.
What is, however, far more important to the
country and its future prospects than the deter-
initiation of these sections of the two extreme par-
ties to take part in the political life of the country,
is the fact that the abstainers frOill the poll from
mere indiSurestisat, indolence, and earelswiness,
will, it' s abundantly evident, be very much fewer
on this occasion than was the case at the last
general election. The country is evidently waking
up to a real political life, interesting itself in the
struggle of parties, and beginning to understated the
mode of availing heat of the institutions it bar
enquired far the attainment of its desires.
We all know how largely the seal of all those
among ouredvaii who may be considered as out-
siders to ttO'isolitimiworld needs to be stimulated