The Express.
London, England, 1866-10-13 00:00:00

the same question.

There is, therefore, nothing remarkable in the
subject-matter of Signor Villari's pamphlet. It is
the answer which he gives to this question, which
is so new as to have attracted a far more than
usual degree of attention to his publication. The
first cursory glance at the pages of it show that it
absolutely does not contain the name of any
single individual. This, in the political literature
of Italy, is a most striking novelty. It is
especially astonishing in a work destined to
supply an answer to the question propounded by
Signor Villari. Everybody is ready with replies
to this question ; but nobody has hitherto dreamed
of giving the answer which Signor Villari gives.
Some anent us that the leaders of the red party,
the violence of the party of action, has been the
cause of all the mischief. A much greater num-
ber throw the onus of all the miserable miscar-
riages which have humiliated the country on the
Piedmontese " consorteria," the knot of old Pied-
montese rulers, generals, and government men,
who have been placed in power by the position
which Piedmont inevitably held in the new order
of things, and who have used that position
to attempt the assimilation of all Italy to
Piedmont, rather than to strive after the
co-ordinkte fusion of the disparate parts of
old Italy into one nation. Some are ready with
the name of the Ro Galantuomo, in answer to the
questioners as to the doer of all the evil which
has been done. Some accuse Cialdini very many
more accuse La Marmora ; some blame Ricasoli ;
some are very angry with the Chambers. No one,
I think, has ventured to blame Garibaldi. But,
with that one exception, every public man and
every pnblic body in turn has been by some section
of the public accused of being the main fees et
origo of the evil past doings and present condition
of the country.
Signor Villari's answer to the question—Why
has all gone wrong, why has Italy shown
herself incapable, weak, and consequently un-
succesaful, is that the fault lies with the
Italians themselves, with the public, with every man
in his own sphere—with the universal ignorance
and idleness. He shows how almost inevitably
under the circumstances of the formation of tho
new nation all the offices—civil, military, muni-
cipal—were filled with men whose recommendation
was their political opinions and their political
faith, and not their aptitude for the tasks which
were assigned to them. The great necessity of the
moment was to find capable men. But " Italy,
instead of turning all her attention to that need,
persuaded herself that in order to have a nation
ranking high in the esteem of Europe powerful
and civilised, it was sufficient to have a free
constitution, a better penal and civil
code, schools, railroads, forte, canals, and
a post delivery three or four times a
day, Ac. But these things are the con-
duits through which the national life
and activity should run. If this life is wanting,
and nobody thinks of re-awakening it, if the roads
are without travellers, the ports without ships, the
schools without scholars, all these great under-
takings serve only to hasten our ruin and bank-
ruptcy." He goes on to show at length, and in
detail, how all the various national shortcomings
spring from individual want of work and want of
effort, and endeavours to indicate the way in which
each man who is anxious for the salvation of his
country should at once strive by his own effort to
contribute to it.
This little work of 32 pages is absolutely the first
voice among their own people that has been raised
to tell the Italians these essentially necessary home
truths.