The Sun.
London, England, 1846-03-02 00:00:00

THE MAGAZINES.
BL CKWOOD.

Of all the wild, extravagant, and unfounded arguments
in favour of the corn-laws we find the most remarkable
iu the article entitled " The Roman Campagna." It is
to be regretted that so fine a subject for description, and
..one too so well treated, with this exception, by the writer,
has been disfigured by political bias, and attempts to
prop up a baseless theory by facts which have as little
to do with the importation of foreign grain as the cap-
ture of Rome by the Gauls. Speaking of this wilder-
ness mound the walls of the Eternal City, the writer
justly says, "Its appearance produces an extraordinary
impression on the mind of the beholder. All is silent,—
the earth seems struck with sterility—desolation reigns in
every direction. A space extending from Otricoli to
Terracina, above sixty miles in length arid on an aver-
age twenty in breadth, between the Appenines and the sea,
containing nearly four thousand square miles in the
finest parts of Italy, does not maintain a single peasant."
And a little further on—" The few living beings to be
met at the post houses have the squalid melancholy look
which attests permanent wretchedness, and the ravages
of an unhealthy atmosphere." This is all correct, except
as regards the universal desolation to the extent men-
tioned. Between the Pontine Marshes and Rome there
are several towns, among others Velletri, Frascati, and
Albano, with not a little agricultural cultivation; but it is
the conclusion drawn from the present deplorable condi-
tion of a small portion of Italy to which we object.
Rome had no corn-laws, Rome imported grain from
Lybia and Egypt, the plain of Rome was converted into
pasture land, the peasantry were driven away, the army
could not be recruited with freemen, and the barbarians
conquered the mistress of the world. The Cobdens of
that period ruined the empire by throwing the " bold
peasantry, a country's pride," out of employment. This
Campagna, di Roma is a mere speck as compared with
the rest of Italy—a small strip running along the sea-
shore, and its depopulation could have no perceptible effect
in diminishing recruits for the army. The depopulation
was not produced by the importation of foreign grain,
and the decay of agriculture, but by the malaria, which
commenced before the establishment of the empire, and
"has been increasing ever since. During the most
flourishing times, mention is made of it : during cer-
tain seasons it was considered dangerous to reside in
certain districts around the city, and in the time of
Augustus, the Pontine marshes appeared to have pos-
sessed nearly the same character as at present. .The
journey of Horace to Brundusium leaves no doubt of
the fact. When he passed the night at Forum Appii,
evidently much against his will, he declared war against
his belly (ventri indico bellum), because the water, as now,
was most unwholsome (teterrima), and his slumbers
were constantly interrupted by the croaking of the fen
frogs, which still infest the locality. The writer, there-
fore, must find out some other cause for this desolation
than the absence of corn-laws ; but so bent is he on his

theory, that he forgets other people can reason as well
as himself, and asserts that the policy of the, different
Roman Pontiffs may still be regarded as the cause why
no improvement has taken place. "It is so," he says,
" because the weakness of the Papal Government, yield-
ing, like the imperial, in ancient days, to the cry for
cheap bread among the Roman populace, has fed the
people from time immemorial with foreign grain,
instead of that of its own territory." Cheap bread,
therefore, has done all the mischief ; but if cheap bread
really is the cause, will the writer explain how it hap-
pens that in the plains of Lombardy, and in the Legations,
more especially in the district of Bologna, bread is very
cheap, and the country is in the very highest state of
agricultural cultivation ? We fine nothing in the other
articles that require much notice. " It's all for the best"
is concluded, and the " Student of Salamanca" has
reached the fifth part. We hope the sixth' will be the
last. A contributor with the signature "N. N. T." has
furnished a translation of the 24th book of the Iliad, in
English hexameters, and says he would not be reluctant
to attempt the completion of an Iliad in the same verse.
We sincerely hope he will not give himself the trouble,
for it would never sell. Homer has been translated in
various ways, but none, except the version by Pope, is
readable. The rest have all sunk into oblivion, and we
are sure this would be the fate, of a translation in English
hexameter. As many readers may be desirous of know-
ing the opinions of North on Peel's plans, we give the
following extract from " Ministerial Measures," simply
remarking that the little word if, appears to be a great
favorite :

" Of the probable fate of this measure we shall venture no
opinion. The enormous amount of private business which of
late years has been brought before the Houses of Parliament
—the importance and the number of the internal improve
ments which depend upon their sanction, and in which almost
every man of moderate means has a stake, are • strong proba-
bilities against any immediate dissolution of. Parliament, or
an appeal to the judgment of the country. But there is no
policy equal to truth, no line of conduct at all comparable to
consistency. We have not hesitated to express our extreme
regret that this measure should have been so conceived and
ushered in; both because we think these changes of opinion
on the part of publio-men, when unaccompanied by sufficient
outward motives, and in the teeth of their own recorded
words and actions, are unseemly in themselves, and calculated
to unsettle the faith of the country in the political morality
of our statesmen—and because we fear that a grievous, if not
an irreparable division has been thereby caused amongst the
ranks of the Conservative party. Neither have we hesitated
—after giving all due weight to the arguments adduced in its
favour—to condemn that measure, as, in our humble judg-
ment, uncalled for and attended with the greatest risk of dis•
astrous consequences to the nation. if this departure from
the protective principle should produce the effect of lessening
the tillage of our land, converting corn-fields into pasture,
depriving the labourer of his employment, and permanently
throwing us upon the mercy of foreign nations for our daily
supply of corn, it is impossible to over-estimate the evil. If,
on the contrary, nothing of this should take place—if it
should be demonstrated by experience that the one party has
been grasping at a chimera, and the other battling for the
retention of an imaginary,bulwark, then—though we may
rejoice that the delusion has been dispelled—we may well be
pardoned some regret that the experiment was not left to
other hands. Our proposition is simply this, that if we can-
riot gain cheap bread without resorting to other countries for
it, we ought to continue as we are. Further, we say, that
were we to be supplied with cheap bread on that condition,
not only our agricultural but our manufacturing interest
would be deeply and permanently injured ; and that no com-
mercial benefit whatever could recompense us for the sacri-
fice of our own independence and the loss of our native re-
sources."