The Sun.
London, England, 1858-05-27 00:00:00

LITERATURE.

Country Life in Piedmont, By Antonio Gallenga,
Author of " History of Piedmont," dee. Chap-
man and Hall.
•
The author of this work is by birth a Ramon"
tese, but his long residence in other countries has
qualified him for being a fair judge of the present
position and future prospects of his people. To an
ardent affection for his native land and race, he
unites a clear prreception of their errors and defi-
ciencies, and what is more, a sense of what is
nee-led, of the course of action and system of educa-
tion that would give a tone to the moral and phy-
sical nature, that would rouse the frame to health-
ful exertion, and wake the mind to a stronger sense
of right and wrong. The book is written in
flowing and agreeable manlier, and from the interest
of the subject and the fascination of the style, the
reader will find much to suggest reflection and
afford pleasure. The opening chapter " Midnight
on the Alps," gives a vivid picture of the effect
produced on the mind of the solitary traveller, by
the mysterious sights and sounds of the Alpine
heights at the witching hour, " with the wind rush-
ing through the fir-trees with the clash of ten
thousand steel blades," and the "blaze of stars such
as can only light up an Alpine atmosphere." His
journey's end was Piedmont, where he had an idea
of settling, but he abandoned his intention after
sometime spent there, and after seeing how his
advice and remonstrances only obtained for
him the name of " The Grumbler, " and
his efforts to encourage manly sports and
healthful exorcises were met with jests and ridi-
cule. Every allusion to political topics has been
carefully avoided, he desires his work to be simply
descriptive of manners and customs ; wishing to
encourage the lively interest which the English
now feel in Piedmont, he thinks the only way
to render it lasting or beneficial is by representing
the Italian people as they really are ; by telling
their faults with their virtues, by showing the
causes that hold them back in the path of social
advancement and by giving a true picture of the
country and its inhabitants. After describing
" The Country and the People," " Exteriors and
Interiors," "Roads and Conveyance," " Inns and
Inn Customers," dec., in separate chapters, we come
to the "Laud and Land labourers," and to
" Water and Waterworks." In speaking of the
roads he remarks on the folly of making all Italian
roads of an extreme width. There is scarcely a road
across Piedmont, he tells us, which will not give
passage to six carriages abreast. Besides the waste
of land in this fertile country, the expense and.
labour of keeping such roads in repair is seri-
ous. The difficulties of locomotion appear to be
alarming and are amusingly described. The con-
dition of the field labourers in Piedmont seems
to be a sad one, from evils which can hardly be
called necessary, as we are told that the labourer
often dunks water the whole winter while grapes
are rotting on the branches, and when in ordinary
years the vintage would supply the wants of six
times the population. The great scarcity of
fuel is the cause of much distress, and one of the
reasons of the spoliation of the forests, which the
author laments bitterly. He says,
"one of the
greatest injuries inflicted upon Italian agricultural
economy, resulted from the all-sweeping destruc-
tion of the fine timber that once mantled the Alps
and Apennines." Every one, he tells us, cuts down
trees, and nobody plants them. There is no rea-
soning with the destroyer. "Say what you will in
behalf of useful or ornamental trees, he will only
point to the immediate private gain to be derived
from an irreparable public loss." Another reason
is the difficulty of preserving your own plantations-
Men and cattle walk into it and take what pleases
them. The writer bought and transplanted into
his garden several hundred ash trees ; but he was
assured that in the next spring hardly one stick
would be left. He pointed to the hedge he had
put round them, but was told that would go first,
and the young plants after. It is difficult, he sari,
to reason with men starving with cold or hung;err
and the law has little. power in such matters. He
considers the very indistinct notions of the rights of
property as one of the serious evils of the nation.
The priests have encouraged mendicancy, and not
checked the notion that a little picking and steal-
ing is no theft. "This year, when grapes again
mide their appearance after six blank vintages,
they hail to be gathered in almost green, and the
wine to be made nearly worthless from sourness,
owing to the impossibility of guarding them, as they
were stolen from the vines before they could come
of maturity." He thinks, notwithstanding that
honesty is more common than in any other country:
he knows. It is the easiness and carelessness of
the landowners, and the foolish notions of monkish
liberty," that have fostered these dangerous no-
tions. A few years scarcity has done much good
by teaching each to look sharply after his own-
Some of the author's hints might serve as stimu-
lants to British enterprise. He suggests that Eng-
lish colliers should supply the Piedmontese with:
fuel, that a commercial league should be formed of
minor States, which should invite Great Britain to
,t
be the leader and protector. The latter portion a
the work is occupied with social topics, showing the
evils of the " laisser aller" system, the love 01
cards, the want of exercise, of rationalemployment,
the precocity of the children, the ignorance of the
women, and many other unfortunate sources of
degradation and indolence. It is absurd, he sa7s)
to blame the climate, for the same temperature
steeled the Gauls and Romans, the Lombards, and
Tuscans of the middle ages. Ho builds his hopes,
as all true Italians do, on Piedmont. Though the
improvement is slow, though there is much be
longs to alter, still the advance is in the right way;
and with freedom of thought and speech, and
liberty of action, what may not be hoped from a
race that is degraded, but not naturally
a low one, that has been trampled by the
foot of despotism, but belongs to another atmo-
sphere, a higher state of existence. While render
ing full justice to the virtues and merits of In!
countrymen, Signor Gallengal does not ;Fibrin!
from exposing their faults, and thus shows himself
a true patriot. No doubt his volume will meet
the success it deserves by directing the attention
of English readers to the prospects and neces-
sities of the constitutional kingdom, " the hope of
Italy," and by awakening the interest and arous-
ing the sympathies of all who may peruse his
pleasant pages.

Urling. A Novel. —3-vols. Harri,on.

This is a very interesting story, the characters
are numerous, and some of the chief ones are ad-
mirably sketched. It is evident that the book is
the production of an unpractised hand, as scope
parts are greatly exaggerated, for instance, the
conduct of Sir Grice and Lady Claverton at their
dinner table is improbable in the extreme, and the
manners of Mrs. WilterAy are overdrawn ill
fussiness and fancies. These drawbacks are not OL,
any material importance to the story however)
which is possessed of many merits, and exhibits in
some passages a freedom and freshness of style
which proclaim it the composition of no inferior
order of mind. It would be impossible to give ail
outline of so complicated a narrative, and n°
meeigre detail could give a correct idea of inge
nuity with which the plot is designed, or the skil
with which the execution is effected. Sir Reginald
Urling, the chief of the race, is a fine character, bi
the fatal effects of pride and prejudice marred 109
noble nature, and gave opportunities to his enenaie,s
.
which they were not slow to take advantage of
his is the hero, and his position
was a painful one. He was surrounded by ditt
cultiec and dangers ; he had not knowledge enong'
of the world to avoid the former, or skill bo extricate
himself from the latter. The squire Willersly is
specimen of the old English gentleman. pr.
Latimer, a noble type of a Christian pastor. Thes°
gentlemen were the only true friends of Sir Itgi;
nald. Schoolfellows in boyhood, compani°,,ve
in youth, they were friends in all
chances and changes of their earthly pilgriatsge;
It would have been well for the peaceec
of many had the baronet followed the advice of toof
sensible squire, and allowed the mild preeepto a
the doctor to rule his actions. The wily 1-'6r.
Norcaster is described in a very striking maufl,,r
i;
and the various plots and counter plots in whia,_l,
and his myrmidons were engaged, are disclosed 111.
style that imparts excitement to the story, old a,
vests it wiW the attributes of the mysterious ailof
romantic. There is no doubt that the author
"lining" might do better in a second attert3l9o;
but in the present work the reader will find pallor
to admire, apart from the interest of the story,,,
the merit of the descriptions. 'there is somel111o0:
superior in the style, something true in the feelln°
expressed, and unusual talent adorns its pages'

CAPTURE Or AN ESCAPED CONVICT. The conviel
William Roberts, who effected his e cape from Chatit
dockyard on Saturday last, has been t'
captured 10 "
woods between Rochester and Gravesend. The Es3une
in which he succeeded in baffling his pursuers is B°slor.
what singular. On escaping from the dockyard he sw di.
out to her Majesty's ship Cleopatra, 26, lying in ~thee
nary in the Medway, and although it was in the dayl.
he succeeded in getting on board that vessel unperceive
ral;
Ile then stowed himself away until the following mo
ing, when he dre=.sed himself in sailor's clothes, Whic
he stole on board, and without having been once seen?
took one of the ship's boats and rowed himself sober,.
After wandering -about in a state of great destitution be
was captured on Tuesday in the neighlnurhood of
viVage nailed Chalk, and conveyed back to the con
vicl
prison at Chathan. Tile convict, who has been pre-i
viouely transported, was sentenced to six years Ps°l'
servitude at the Liverpool session held in Februarys
1857.

io Gallenga,
Chap-

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