The Sun.
London, England, 1862-10-25 00:00:00

7HE ITALIAN CAPITAL.

A letter from Turin, dated Oct. 21, says :—I gave
you in my last letter a few of the arguments urged
by some well-meaning Italian patriots in favour of
a speedy removal of the seat of Government to
Naples. I ought now to give you the opposite view
of the subject, and point out the obstacles which,
in the opinion of other equally earnest lovers of
Italy, appear to rise insurmountable against such a
measure.

1 In the first place we must think of the distance.
Turin and Naples are very nearly at the two oppo-
site extremities of the Peninsula; it is precisely as
far to go from the former to the latter as from the
latter to the former. The two places, however, are
not by any means in perfectly equal conditions, and
Turin is, under present circumstances, a far more
central spot than the rival city. With Milan,
Venice, Bologna, Ancona, and Genoa the subalpine
capital has already established very satisfactory
railway communication. A Turin decree can be
published in any of those provincial centres within
12 to 18 hours—at Milan and Genoa within three
or four. Naples is as yet, so far as railway traffic
with the north or centre of Italy is concerned, as
perfectly isolated as Palermo or Cagliari. The
Neapolitan mail only arrives in Turin after 48
hours, weather permitting. Were it to come by
land, the journey would take at least twice as much
time as does now the sea voyage. Under unfavour-
able circumstances the steamer is liable to be de-
layed for 12 or even 24 hours. On the other hand,
Naples never had, and will not very readily have,
very speedy means of intercourse even with the
provinces ae hich once constituted her king-
dom. From Reggio, in Calabria, to the old city of
the Bourbon the land mail never employs less than
three days and three nights. As the country is now
situated, Turin is an excellent centre for about
12,000,000 Italians; Naples is a very indifferent
meeting point for about 9,000,000. Add to this that
Piedmont, Lombardy, the /Emilia, and the Marches
contain all that now is most healthy, active, and high-
spirited in the Italian population. Were it even pos-
sible for King Victor Emmanuel to be crowned in the
Capitol to-morrow, Rome would still be in less im-
mediate contact with the real head and heart of
the nation than Turin is at the present day. The
Apennine rises still an insuperable barrier between
the North and South; it will be at least two years
before a tunnel is completed to join the valley of
the Po with those of the Arno and Tiber ; two years
before the locomotive engine may make its way
from Susa to Rome and Naples, or even from
Bologna to Florence. The lack of communication,
however, it is generally acknowledged, is a far more
crying evil in the South than it would be 'in the
North. The Subalpine, Insubrian, and /Emilian
districts are to a great extent self-extant and self-
sufficing. The action of the Government is less
sorely needed. Indeed, it is questionable whether
they will not fare all the better the less they are
interfered with. At Naples, on the contrary, a
supine, degraded population, has to be dealt with.
A.t is necessary to bring all the energies of the
country to bear upon them. The administration
needs a thorough, speedy reform; the whole per-
somnelof the magistracy, of the public offices, must
be changed. The Neapolitans complain of the Pied-
montese invasion ; yet the whole of the Bourbon king-
dom must be Piedmontised ; the Northern element,
that is, must entirely supersede the corrupt native
element; to reconcile the Southern people to this
necessary change, it must seem as if the Govern-
ment itself were acclimated, naturalised, as it were,
among them. The prestige of a Court, of a Cabinet,
of a Parliament, must remove from their agents
the stigma of alienhooci. From Naples an Italian
Government will always know how to manage Milan
or Turin. From Turin a Piedmontese ruler will
never know anything of the wants and tendencies of
his Southern subjects. The ex-kingdom of Naples
will always be a dependency—the seat of a separate
and more or less irresponsible lieutenancy. Place
the capital of Italy wherever you chose, the North
must needs for a long period preponderate over the
South ; but so long as you stay in Turin the Nea-
politans will look upon themselves as a conquered
people. Let Naples be the capital, and they will
at least please themselves with the vain conceit that
they are the ruling State. The only way to Italianise
Naples is to bring Italy to Naples.
' However far Naples may be from Northern Italy,
moreover, there is no doubt that it has the inesti-
mable advantage of close vicinity to Rome. The
railway between the two cities is at last completed,
and all the subterfuges, and stolid, open denials of
the Papal Government will not put off the opening
beyond the term of the present year; they will not
prevent a traveller from going from one end of the
line to another by an express train in six and a half
hours. If Naples cannot be secured to Italy with-
out Rome, and if the only way to Rome lies through
Naples, there is no doubt but a railway will be the
best means to break the Papal barrier, the best bat-
tering ram to bear down theße
iiniVaticanni gtoates. From
Bolognahave seen,
steoeß
Rimini,
wasini' and ft
invariably railway communica-
tion
we as
that achieved political conquest. It was the
printing press in the 16th century that struck half
h
community; it will be for the steam engine
either
paey, to
, or alienate
t
the remaining subjects of the
p
the nations
Catholic
h o li
eof Europe from the roll of the Roman
it to compound with modern
progress. Let the
mind and heart of Italy be
aoforce
concentrated in and about Naples; let all its
bold, innovating
spirits assemble within four or
five hours of the Papal
frontier, and it shall then
be seen whether even French Imperial omnipo-
tence will avail to render that frontier in-
violable ; whether it will have power to screen the
"old chimera of a Pope" from spiritual no less than
from temporal attacks.
• Rome and Naples
,
Even 18 centuries ago, in
the times of Cicero's Republic
were almost only one city.
Concentrate Italy at
Bay city will soon
Naples, and the outskirts of the .
encompass the ancient caput nzu , nth till the
Bay
• s
once more, as it was in ancient time , the mere
itself and the whole coast as far as Gaeta become
vllleggiatura of the lords of the Peninsula.
There are some, it is true, who think seriously of
Venetia, and of the danger of removing the centre
of Government from the north, while the Lombard
and Zmilian frontiers are still open, and Austria
sits sulking and threatening on the Mincio and the
Po. Turin and Piedmont, they contend, are the
citadel of Italy ; it will never be wise to remove the
strength 'of the land from the old Savoy residence,
so long as the security of the whole Peninsula rests
on Alessandria, Genoa, and Casale. The objection
is plausible, and would be stringent, indeed, if the
departure of the Court and of the Home and Foreign
Offices were to imply the removal of the military
and naval administration; but, as it is, the transla-
tion of the metropolis need not occasion the trans-
fer to the South of arsenals of warlike and marine
stores. Turin
and Piedmont, the fortresses on the
Po, the Tanaro, and the Riviera
main the military capital '
would always re-
Apen-
nines would still supply • the The Alps and the Apen-
recruits, and if by the installation of the Govern-
ment at Naples it
were
possible, as
bravest and
iatn dis hardiest
inde e
d,
most likely, to crush all the heads '
of the hydra of
Southern brigandage, if by that measure public
security were H efficiently established ill the South