The Express.
London, England, 1857-05-27 00:00:00

THE WORKING CLASSES OF OENOA.

(F/011 A!

GENOA, MIA 21.
Among the many hopeful signs visible in this
-.ty replete with life and hopefulness, perhaps the
most encouraging is the upward and onward pro-
gress everywhere manifest among the working
classes. I have now spent some days in visiting the
Associations and Schools, in talking with working
men at their work, or after working hours, and I am
sure all English travellers who (not confining their
visits to the British consul, banker, and clergymen)
will take the same pains, must share my surprise at
the intelligence, the independence, the generous
sentiments that pervade the whole class.
Perhaps one of the beat organised Associations of
the working classes in Genoa is that in the Strada
Maddelcna, called the Mutual Aid Association.
About 6,000 members are now inscribed on the lists;
these constitute the General Assembly, which holds
weekly sittings to deliberate on the wants of the
working classes, the condition and amelioration
of the different trades, and the advancement of
education. Besides these o ' sittings, any ten
members can convoke a ' sitting for any
special object. Each year Council, composed of
a President, a Vice-President, and five Councillors, is
elected by universal suffrage from the General
Assembly, and is charged with'the execution of its

Women are admitted as members on equal terms
with the men, and are eligible to fill any of the
offices. Members on entering pledge themselves to
obey the rules, and to lead the life of industrious
and good citizens, to abstain from intemperance and
disorderly conduct, also from gambling, especially in
the royal lottery. The minimum contribution is one
penny per week, which sum may be doubled by the
Assembly. From this contribution arc exempted all
volunteers who may join a war of in sa
behalf of any oppressed nation, also members WI
aside by illness that does not proceed bean tirookao
ness or other vices. These latter aloe remain sulfa
than half a franc for each day that they wee disabled
from working; and this sum may be inhumed to two
francs, according to the necessities of the individual
and the funds of the Association.
In case of any dangerous illness the council ap
points one or more of the members to assist by tuna
in the care of the invalid. Members too old for la-
bour, orphans under 14 years of age, and widows
who are themselves or whose husbands have bees
members for not less than a year, tiro also entitled to
such aid is they need and the funds allow of. The
spirit of the Association may be judged of from the
following extracts from the Regalement° :
Art. 1. This Association originated in the want universally
felt by the working classes of intercourse among themselves
and of fraternal relations with their fellow-eitivms. The
solidarity and conunonion of the people bind. ed in the pre-
cept" Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself" forms the
fundamental principle of the aseelation.
Art. 2. The special object of the Association is to promote
the education, the moral progress, and the material well-
being of the working clams by mains of mutual aid, in
order that they may contribute efaciently towards the liberty
and emancipation el their own country, and through their
own country to other nations, ace.
And as far as I can yet judge the members arc
true to their programme. Social and material pro-
gress is regarded by them rather as a means to an
end than in itself the Rost. In the house belonging
to the society are evening Schools for the children of
the operatives; they are taught reading, writing,
arithmetic, history, geography, and music. It was the
writing hour when visited them, and I was much
amused to see tiny urchins just clear of pothooks
and hangers scrawling in text hand, " Italy is our
country, " Until Italy is free we are slaves, be. I
ppuatt the question to several of them, " But how can
Italy beam° free?" "We, her children, must fight for
her, was the substance of all the answers given as
readily as a form of British school children would
have replied to questions in the multiplication-table.
As yet these schools are in their infancy; the two
rooms appropriated to the boys and the one to the
girls, are sadly bare of maps and ichool materials ; the
instructors are chiefly men and women who work
hard all day for their livelihood ; and the fact that
such Schools exist at all apart from any governmental
or aristocratic patronage is highly creditable to the
founders and supporters. In another room were the
young musicians, and their performances did credit
to the one year's instruction of the master of the
band. The room set apart for wrestling, fencing,
be., is tolerably well furnished. I should like to see
the shelves of the library better filled, but such books
as they can boast of are excellent. The walla here
and there are ornamented with portraits of Italian
patriot'', and flags of the pure tricolour abound,
bearing the national inscriptions, " L'ltalia Una ed
Independente," " Dio e &c. The
Associates take great pride in conducting a
stranger through the different apartments; and
the interest now evinced in England anti Scot-
land by the late meetings on the Italian question is
a topic of universal satisfaction among them. The
real source of their pleasure arises from the hope
they entertain that the British people are beginning
to esteem them anxious to win anti worthy to hold a
country of their own. They neither hope fur, nor
desire,govene
r foes. ~
mental interference
us
r‘frece e
enbubt ttsivle chance,"etntem
sale and t
they say, "to cope single-handed with our oppressors,
and if we cannot free ourselves we deserve to remain
slaves." They watch one illusion after another pass
away—point to promises unfulfilled, of which the
more credulous expected the fulfilment—and stand
resolved and selfreliant, believing only in the ulti-
mate regeneration of Italy when a sufficiently
strong majority shall say in action, "Away with
the stranger at the price of our individual and col-
lective lives and blood." As to what man or what
party shall lead them to the battle-field they trouble
themselves little; the predominant feeling seems
that they will follow whichever man, or whichever
body of men, shall first unfurl in the name of Italy
, the Italian flag on the Italian battle-field.
soci- I

In the sitting of the municipal council of Orleans
two days ago, the mayor stated that the city possessed a pre-
cious relic which hail excited the attention of Mgr. Gill*
Roman catholic Bishop of Edinburgh, namely the heart of
Henry 11. King of England, who died at Chinon in 1188,
and was buried at Fontevrault. This heart, which bad been
enclosed in lead, was taken out of its case during the rero-
lotion, and passed into the hands of a collector of curiosities,
and afterwards became the property of the city. The mayor,
thinking that Mgr. Gillis would be happy to restore to his
country this relic of one of its kings, proposed "That the
Municipal Council of Orleans should authorise the mayor to
deliver to the Bishop of Edinburgh, to be offered by him to
the English government, the Lead of Henry 11., king of
England." The proposition was agreed to unanimously.
The Grand Council of Neufchatel has rejected
Colonel Dewier, who published a protest against the ar-
rangement with l'ruseis, as the candidate for the federal
assembly. and elected M. Humbert, who accompanied Dr.
Keen to Paris.
There is a Sardinian priest at Turin nt present
who ill the 104 t year of his age, being bora in 7a3. He
bas been present
to the King, wbo added 100 fr. to
his yearly pension. He does not look more than sixty, and
his hair is still black.
A Dunkirk journal adds another to the many
well-aathentirated instances which exist of the danger of
hasty interment.. About a fortnight ago, a girl of Cassel,
near that town, having after a few days' ill 11118% apparently
expired, it was to have her buried after -the lapse
of the usual time, but her parents, observing that her colour
remained unchanged, obtained permiseion to keep her WPM
time longer ,• they subsequently obtained a fresh permission,
and at length, on the ninth day, the girl, who was only in •
lethargy, gave signs of life and recovered. She soon after
ap=et health.
Cian Andersen is about to visit Eng-
land, sad to accept the hospitalities of Mr. Charles Dickens,
=dm ulnas impious he wdl doubtless see Leaden sad WI
lahabitsatsta their beet