The Sun.
London, England, 1840-08-15 00:00:00

LITERATURE.

f ITALY AND THE ITALIANS, 2 Vozs.
Colburn, London, 1840.
: When Professor Von Raumer—a great name,
F but a little authority—came over to this country a
few years ago, and immediately afterwards pub-
lished his " Letters on England," be was thrown
much into Whig company, and, in consequence,
adapted a Whig tone in politics, and saw every-
thing through Whig spectacles. He has since
rambled over Italy, and having, just previously to
his setting out, had the good luck to be introduced
to Prince Metternich, and be honoured by that
astute Minister with a familiar conversation " of
an hour snd a half,"—the delighted Professor spe-
cifies the time with the utmost exactitude,—dur-
ing which the Prince " discoursed away with the
openness, clearness, practical good sense, and total
absence of empty abstractions, which characterize
the superior statesman ;"_having been thus highly
honoured, and, further, having been furnished by
this " superior statesman " with letters of recom-
mendation to various people of note in Lombardy
and Venice, M. Von Raumer puts his Whig prin-
ciples in abeyance, and looks at Italy and the Ita-
lians with the Tory eyes of a Metternich. We
hear nothing now about popular rights, and free-
dom of thought and speech, but a great deal about
the Austrian system of government in Italy, which
is represented as being tolerant, enlightened, and
conferring inestimable benefits upon the country ;
whereas, if the assertions of nine out of ten travel-
lers are to be believed, it is about the most grind-
ing tyranny that a nation was ever cursed with.
But our weathercock Professor cannot—or rather
will not—see this. The " hour and a half's con-
versation " has washed clean away all his Whig
partialities, and he is completely Metternich-ridden.
Allusions to the Prince and .his subordinates, oc-
cur in almost every chapter. Here are a few of
them Wherever I come, Count S—, upon
the strength of Prince Metternich's recommenda-
tion, has prepared the way for me, so that I every-
where meet with the most obliging reception."—
" Without Prince Metternich and his trusty spi-
rits, my zeal and good will would have carried me
no great way ; whereas now treasures come pouring
in on me from all sides, and from the purest
sources." We can imagine the purity of the infor-
mation respecting Italy, that springs from an Aus-
trian source I was just thinking about dinner,
when I received an invitation from the Government
Secretary, who knows Lombardy perhaps better
than any other man, and is more communicative
than the generality."—" I paid a visit to that able
and learned man M—, who is a great partizan of
Austria." From the spirit that pervades the above
quotations, the reader will now be duly prepared for
the following :
" Prince Metternich acts upon principles diametri-
cally opposite to those of the French school. He sees
in the maintenance of local peculiarities the strength
and spirit of the Austrian empire, at the same time
that he careluly removes all that is really morbid and
obsolete."
" In the year 1815 many Venetians entertained a
natural and laudable wish for the regeneration of their
country ; but the form of a close hereditary aristocracy
was obsolete, odious, and unrestorable ; and who can
say whether an infusion of the democratic principle
would have given new lite to the institutions, or would
have destrQ ed them altogether ? Was there a fairer
prospect of prosperity and progress in a renewed isola-
tion of Venice, or in a union ra;tii the powerful Austrian
monarchy ? Was it matter of surprise that. Austria
should seek to retain what she had acquired by the ex-
ertion of her own force
Matter of surprise ! Certainly not, with the Tory
opinions that Von Raumer seems now to entertain ;
but it must have been a matter of exceeding surprise
to him, when a Whig, that Austria should justify
her retention of Italy, merely because she had ac-
quired possession of it by " force." Mark, too,
the Professor's discreet doubt as to whether " an
infusion of the democratic principle would have
given new life to the Venetian institutions." Is not
this doubt conceived in the true spirit of Toryism ?
Is it not precisely the same doubt that the Opposi-
tion expressed, when it was proposed to infuse
more of a democratic spirit into the House of
Commons by the Reform Bill ? Yet Von Raumer
was an ardent admirer of that though now—
when speaking of its application to Venice, the
chief cause of whose decadence was its aristocratic
Council of Ten—he doubts the feasibility of the
very principle on which it was founded I , See
what it is for a German Whig philosopher to have
"an hour and a halt's conversation" with a Ger-
man Tory statesman I Again, our distrustful Pro-
fessor—distrustful, by the by, only when free in- ,
stitutions .are concerned—asks whether it would
not be better for Venice to be dependent on Aus-
tria, than to remain an independent State ; wholly
overlooking the fact • that it was to her indepen-
dence, and the bold spirit of enterprise it fostered,
that that great republic was indebted for a flourish-
ing existence of nearly fifteen hundred years, and
at last fell only in consequence of the corruption
and despotism of her oligarchy, which paved the
way for the success of the French arms. Now, a
really liberal and enlightened politician would have
inferred from this the propriety—not of substituting
one form of tyranny for another, a foreign for a
domestic one, but—of restoring to Venice the
originally free institutions under which she grew
and prospered, modified according to the spirit of
the times, and the peculiarities of her present po-
sition. But this, perhaps, would have been too
much to expect from a man who could allow the
convictions of years to be changed in less than
half a day, by a few honied phrases from an Ans.!
trian Premier. We resume our quotations
" Under the present intelligent and paternal Govern-
ment of Austria things are improving again, though but
slowly ; and Venice is recovering its ancient habits of
discretion and activity :
I can sympathise with the dreams, hopes, and
wishes which many, in their well-meant enthusiasm, en-
courage in favour of a total independence of Italy from
foreign influences ; I can respect them also, provided
no recourse be had to criminal means, for the attainment
of ends supposed to be laudable; but, in sober truth,
the unprejudiced observer can scarcely resist the convic-
tion that, all things considered, Lombardy has never
been so well governed as now under the paternal sceptre
of Austria ; that she has never been so wealthy, popu-
lous, and truly Christian. The Austrian Viceroy is
easy of personal access to all, and shows on such occa-
sions the intelligent affability and sympathizing condes-
cension by which so many members of the House of
Hapsburg have known how to win the hearts of those
who approached them."
So, then, it seems that none but dreamers and
enthusiasts wish for Italy's independence I Un-
prejudiced observers—such as Von Raumer, for
instance—think it better for her interest that she
should continue to languish in chains ; that the
Argus eyes of Austria should keep watch on her
every movement ; that she should have neither
freedom of thought, speech, nor action ; that the
sole chance of forming a manly national character
should be denied her, by the suppression of the
strongest and noblest impulses of the human 'mind ;
—in a word, that that " paternal" system ofGovern-
ment should still be kept up throughout Italy,
which consigns such high-minded, patriotic spirits
as Silvio Pellico for years to the filth, solitude, and
darkness of an Austrian dungeon, for no worse
crime than having spoken the truth of a tyrant
power, and expressed a wish for their country s
emancipation ! Our author, we repeat, is of opi-
nion that these things should still continue to be,
though—generous and considerate creature I—he
can sympathize with those who think otherwise,
provided that they will content themselves with
merely thinking upon the subject, and make no
practical effort to shake off the Austrian shackles,
which—we quote the Professor's own words—would
be having recourse to " criminal means for the at-
tainment of ends supposed to be laudable !" And
these are the sentiments of a man who once called
himself a Whig, and still hopes to be considered
one ! This mean truckling to, and arrant flattery
of, arbitrary power, merely because it is powerful,
and has, in his, case, been complimentary, is exhi-
bited by the very same individual who, in his
" Letters on England," advocated and shouted for
reform with the lungs of a Chartist ! Alas, that
air " hour and a halt's" conversation with an Aus-
trian Prince should have wrought such a change in
the mind of a German Professor of Liberalism !
We proceed to quote some more of the results of
this ninety minutes' conversation
" The Austrian Government has, indeed, reserved to
itself the contro of communal affairs, and the right of
confirming elections; but I have been assured that this
confirmation is scarcely ever refused."
Assured ! Of course the Professor has been as-
sured that Austria scarcely ever refuses the con-
firmation of an election. The class of people
among whom Prince Metternich's letters of intro-
duction threw him, and whom he seems to have
pinned his faith on, as though they were so many