The Express.
London, England, 1861-05-18 00:00:00

551.

ITALY.

(nom OUR owN

TURIN, NAT 14.

The proposed loan of five hundred million lire,
which is twenty million sterling, baa been assented
to, I believe, by a majority of the nine standing com-
mittees of the Chamber, though it will be neces-
sary, we are afraid, to create stock amounting to six or
seven hundred millions in order to obtain the five.
A statement obtained some credence to-day that
M. Talabot, who is here looking out for some con-
tracts to make Italian railways, hall offered, in
conjunction with Rothschild*, to undertake the
loan, on condition that the Roman lines which
were held by Mires should be conceded to him and
his partners • but I know not what is the position
of that affair. The Finance Minister, Bastogi, is
likely, they say, to have recourse to some new
taxes, including, what seems but fair, the extension
of registration and stamp duties from Piedmont to
the entire kingdom, which may yield him a million
sterling. The burthens of the state must be
equalised, and these brave provinces of Northern
Italy, which have borne so long the main brunt of
the national quarrel, spending profusely both
money and men for the redemption of their op-
pressed fellows in the Central and Southern regions
of Italy, must henceforth be charged with no more
than a fair share of the cost of this new government
or any future war.
I believe that, teeming with vast resources of
agricultural and mineral wealth, the Neapolitan and
Sicilian territories, when quiet, law, and order shall
have fostered their industrial development, will
enable thin groat country to pay with ease and se-
curity the interest of any debt that may now be
incurred for the expenses of securing its political
independence, and of establishing the fresh rule,
the single reign, the national sovereignty, to which
all moral and material improvements in Italy must
be referred. lam sure that Italy will never expose
herself to that reproach of having made an unfruit-
ful revolution at the cost of foreign bondholders
which was imputed to Greece and to Spain. Italy
can work, and she will work, for her living, as she
works for her liberties, providing an honest self-
subsistence in the sight of all men : she retains her
old instincts of enterprise, and the same wonderful
ingenuity, with that aptitude for commerce and the
arts which made her for three centuries the most
productive nation in the world.
On the other hand, the papal finances, with no
territory except his barren Campagua now left to
the misguided Pontiff, are curiously supplied in
these latter days, we can but fancy how. For it is
hard to believe hat from the voluntary donations
of faithful and fanatical foreigners, piously anxious
to prolong the mortification of Italian souls, • very
copious and continuous stream of income can really
proceed. And as for the pretty gifts of silly women,
their bracelets and pearl necklaces, or the silver
buckles, occasionally, of a doting curate in some
rural parish, or the sin-offerings of debauchery, ter-
rified by sickness, in the case of some loose-living
baron or grandee of Germany or of Spain—theme
contributions, paraded in the Armenia from day to
day, will scarcely suffice to maintain the host of
sbirri within the Eternal City, or the horde of bri-
?anti sent forth to vex and to harry the people, both
in town and country, who want to get rid of papal
dominion and of the Pope's royal Bourbon guests.
Though it is credible that many valuable works of
art are being sold away from Rome to English,
French, Belgian, and Russian bidders, that despe-
rate and dishonest7mode of procuring the means of
a mischievous persistence will soon come to an end.
Yet I find that most persons here are disposed to
rate higher than perhaps you would do the pecu-
niary or pence-collecting powers of the papal court.
They also believe that the ex-King Bombalino gets
two or three abiploads of silver, that he has got a
cellar full of silver, which he keeps on coining, to pay
the ruffians commissioned for border warfare against
those defenceless villages on the Neapolitauaide, or
in the Marches on this side of the frontier. He shows
himself nightly in the Apollo Theatre, where, to
Roman spectators, he appears with the sullen look
of young Caligula on • face but 26 years old. The
Bavarian Amazon, his Queen, with her boisterous
hearty mirth, and her bold beauty, is rather liked
at Rome, though all Italy would be only too
happy to bid her goodbye. This pair of Bourbon
Majesties, who have taken the Villa Feely at
Albano, for the summer months, are said to have
received a warning from General Goyon to discon-
tinue their pastime of arranging those incursions
against a neighbouring territory, which are jointly
planned by Francis and Monsignor Merode
at Rome. It is even asserted that the
French general lately seized • quantity of
arms belonging to the Bourbon young Pretender,
and designed by him for the next attack upon his
late subjects ; but how can this be reconciled with
the fact that, by hundreds at a time, the myrmidons
of " reaction" have been allowed to assemble at
Fiumicino, and embark there, in vessels bearing
the French flag, for different points on the Neapo-
litan or Sicilian coasts, without any hindrance from
the French military masters of Rome t I would
invite your attention to this flagrant abuse of that
so-called protection, degrading and detrimental as
it is to either party, which the Emperor Napoleon
bestows on the Pope's remaining portion of a state.
Under the very eyes of his Holiness, who cannot
stir for sheer feebleness of mind, and of his Excel-
lency Goyon, who does not choose to interfere,
scores of the agents of confusion, the instigators
of pillage and murder, whom a frantic reckless
party now coudesoerd to employ, aro despatched
from Rome, sometimes into the Abruzzi or Terra di
Levoro, sometimes in the direction of Ascoli, 'seek-
ing by money and promises to enlist the ignorant
mountaineers for an internecine warfare against
the liberals in every neighbouring town. Letters
from a scoundrel named Santacchd, addressed to an
accomplice of his at Ascoli, were lately stopped, in
which he stated that he had five hundred men-at-
arm; in the city of Rome, who could be sent across
the Sabine bills and the Apennines to join the
brigands lurking there, for a descent on the plain
beyond, towards the Adriatic shore.
The reported marriage of Garibaldi's daughter
with Signor Canzio is not correct. The hero is
now at Caprers again. The officers and non-com-
missioned of the Medici division stationed at Biella,
in Piedmont, celebrated by gifts of local charity
the glorious sth of May, anniversary of his em-
barkation last year for the Sicilian crusade. The
Italian government has purchased from the French
government 150,000 rifled muskets, and 20 rifled
cannon, already arrived. The Chamber, ou Satur-
day, voted 4,0001. sterling to promote the forma-
tion of rifle clubs all over this country ; so do we
teach the young idea how to shoot, and with a
noble, patriotic aim.

THE LATE EARTHQUAKE fx ITALT.-•••A letter from
Mut della Pieve, of the 11th, gives the following : " I send
you some details of the earthquake which has nearly de-
stroyed our town. The shocks continue, and are throwing
down some buildings which were previously shaken. No
habitation has been completely spared. The houses of the
pour people are absolutely and literally uninhabitable;
those of the rich are more or leas damaged, and none of
them will be habitable in future without ezteusive repairs.
The church of Haut' Antonio, where there is a fine fresco by
Perogino, has been destroyed, fortunately without:l2l6V
the fresco. The other churches have been much
Many houses have been entirely levelled with the ground,
and the magnificent Villa Musignano is in great part de.
strayed. The population are unable to return, partly
bemuse there arc no places to lodge them, and partly
leaune they are afraid of the repeated shocks. It w im-
possible to calculate as yet the amount of the damage. It
is certaio, at any robs, that the population is in great
distress. They would have had no change of clothes, nor
any food, if the neighbours had not some to their amimance.
CAMMERCIAL Cowounies AT Harnmanno. —A letter
from Heidelberg, of the 13th, esys :—" This morning took
place in the Hall of the University, which was richly
decorated, the formal opening of the Commercial Oongreee
by the Minister of Commerce, Weitzel. The propositioos to
be submitted to the Congress will, it is believed, have refs-
mute to-1. The unity of money, weights, and measures ;
2. Customs reforms ; 3. The institution of • permanent
commercial committee ; 4. The abolition of tolls and transit
duties ; IS. The adoption of a commercial code."
The Russiart NAVY.—According to official docu-
ments published by the Russian Minister of Marine, Russia
now possess.. 242 steamers., of an agg power of 36,936
horses, and 2,374 guns. Also 71 sail age veenels, with 1,477
guns.