The Sun.
London, England, 1861-05-10 00:00:00

THE ITALIAN PARLIAMENT.

(From a Correspondent of The Tin2es.)
TURIN, MAY 7.
The die is cast, and Naples must supply 36.000
men to the Italian army. A little more than 12
months ago Italian patriots of 'a sarguine cast flat-
tered themselves that the annexation of the Two
Sicilies to the North and centre of the
Peninsula was sure at once to double the national
forces. The illusion was soon generally dispelled.
The Bourbon army, though it proved but a feeble
stay to the falling dynasty, turned out also some-
thing worse than useless to the new rulers. Not
10,000 of those men and officers are now in the
King's army. It was one vast brigand mass, and
broke up into small marauding parties. Even as
robbers and murderers those wretched instruments
of priests and tyrants are only formidable to petty
communities off their guard ; they are wolves merely
to open and unwatched folds ; a few Piedmontese
battalions and carabineers will soon give a good
account of them.

Up to the present moment therefore the two
Southern kingdoms, it may be said, were hardly able
to supply one regular soldier to the national war.
Luckily, the national war is indefinitely put off,
and by the time it breaks out Naples and Sicily
must and will be ready with their contingent. Italy
may look upon the actual military establishments
of those two kingdoms as a blank, but it must not
continue so one day longer.
You remember that the Minister for War, Gen.
Fanti, had presented a bill for the levy of 18,000
men in the Neapolitan provinces. That bill, accord-
ing to rule, has been discussed in the bureaux, and
a commission appointed by them, and the result is
that Parliament found out a mistake in the Minis-
ter's calculations, by which it became clear that the
debt Naples owed to the common country was not
of 18,000 men, but twice that number. To under-
stand this difference, which must of course be irre-
levant to English readers, we must bear in mind
that the Minister proposed to call out those recruits
who, having been enlisted by the Bourbon Govern-
ment in the conscriptions of the years 1836 to 1841,
had been allowed to stay at home, but were still
held liable to be summoned to the service. The
Neapolitan recruits were thus kept at the call of
the State for seven years, from the 18th to the 25th
of their life, and such number of them were
draughted out yearly as Government wanted. By
an application of the old Neapolitan law of the
categories, as they are called, of the abovenamed
years, the present Administration is entitled to call,
not 18,000 men, as Fauti misreckoned, but 36,000
under the standards.

Most of the Neapolitan deputies deserve great
praise for the patriotism with which they not only
pointed out the mistake of the minister, but also
evinced the utmost zeal for the furtherance of the
Government views on this subject. Not only did
they think that Naples ought cheerfully to pay her
sacred debt to those Italian sister provinces which
suffered and bled for her, and bear a hand in those
further efforts which are to achieve the great na-
tional work, but they expressed their conviction
that in a country like theirs military conscription
is the most powerful and immediate means of popu-
lar education and civilisation, and that no greater
benefit can be conferred upon those lazy, degraded,
and brutalized populations than tLat of removing
the young and able-bodied from among them, and
subjecting them to a training and discipline which
will not only improve them mentally and morally,
but eventually send them back as models of rege-
nerated beings among their countrymen. And,
truly, the Sardinian—now the Italian—army is in
every sense a school, almost the best school in the
country.

There were two or three Neapolitan members of
the Chambers, however,—democratic members they
called themselves, too,—who opposed the bill on
the ground that, in tll3 present state of agitation
and disorder, a conscription would create uncon-
trollable discontent in the Neapolitan provinces, and
give rise to dangerous outbreaks. They advised
the postponement of the bill till order was tho-
roughly restored, and the great national question
as to the unity or dualism of Italy was completely
settled—that is, they thought Neapolitans should
not be called upon to do soldier's duty till every
apprehension of war was removed.

These objections were easily overruled both by
the generous words of General Bixio, who, aptly
contrasting the conduct of the French revolutionary
Government of 1789 with that of the decrepit
Venetian oligarchy of the same period, contended
that a State which in great emergencies shows any
remissness or hesitation in the national armament
is only hastening its ignominious downfall ; and by
Count Cavour, who laughed to scorn the idea of
any serious resistance to the Government's will on
the part of the Neapolitan population, and contended
that the Government had hitherto been too gene
rally charged with lack of energy and determina-
tion, but was now bent on establishing its authority
on the firmest footing, and felt perfectly confident
of unlimited success on that score.

The discussion was somewhat long but lively,
and not destitute of interest ; it ended in a complete
triumph of the Government, who are now em-
powered, so far as the vote of the Lower House is
concerned, to levy 36,000 Neapolitans two instal-
ments, draughting all the men they w4.lt, and are
entitled to, at once, but calling them out at two
different intervals, and at such distance of time (a
fortnight to a half year) as they may deem expe-
dient. General Fanti, at the opening of the same
sitting of yesterday, presented a bill for a levy in
Sicily of 4,500 young men born in the year 1840.
Sicily, it will be remembered, never under any cir-
circumstances was .subjected to the levy of con-
scription, and a forcible call of its youth to arms
is supposed likely to meet with greater resistance
in that island than in the mainland kingdom. Such
members of the Opposition as Crispi, Ugdulena, and
other self-styled democrats, will urge that they,
when entrusted with the Government of their
Country, improvised a volunteer army which left
nothing to desire, and that it is unnatural that the
Government of Count Cavour, which suffered those
glorious patriot bands to run waste, should now lay
upon the high minded Sicilians a yoke which no
tyranny of the darkest die ever ventured to impose.
The answer, however, is ready. The island of
Sardinia and the Romagna, the Marches, and
Umbria were also at all times free from compulsory
military service. y, ..uursui Linton was lately
introduced into those provinces, and the results
have been favourable beyond all expectation.
General Fanti and the officers of the administra-
tion bear unanimous witness to the excellence of
the soldiers draughted from all those districts,
especially from the Sardinian regions, " where
men ara caught wild, almost in a state of nature
and have actually to be submitted to hot par-boil-
ing baths in order to remove the crust of dirt which
long habit has made an integral part of their
skin," and who, " not only distinguish themselves
as the bravest and best disciplined soldiers, but de-
velope cleanly and orderly habits, superior even to
the common run of their more civilised comrades."
The same phenomena exhibit themselves in the
many instances of Neapolitans and Sicilians already
admitted into the service. It is thus that in Italy
the army makes the nation. The Neapolitan
soldiers were little better than brutes under the
Bourbon; they become the best of men under
Piedmontese discipline.
The statement as to the public debt lately made
by the Minister of the Finances makes us ac-
quainted with the following figures:—

209,000
~
Francs.
Debt of the old Provinces of Sardinia 1,159,970,595
Lombardy .............
The ......... 42,000 000
, 00 Tuscany •• •• .. .•..... 0
Naples sad away 650,000,000

f.
3, o This, OB°au' :°E ad° Southern (i2°
Tomt national debt. ....... 2,106,383,583
will soon be raised by the new loan to
(:
liabilitiesProvinces°°°° °w) with Apparently the
Eastern• do not gain by
the fusion of their
those of the old
But they must bear in mind that
isto wni
sakes that Piedmont encountered
Sardinian
for an States.
their
her debts, and that she will have to bear her s..,eire
of their public
Works, which are so wofully in
arrear.
At the opening of yotorditea pitting the li

of Deputies discussed and voted a bill for very eau.
siderable improvements-to -the port of Ancona, a.
commercial and naval establishment long neglected
by the Pontifical Government, and which Count
Cavour intends to raise to a harbour of the very
first magnitude. The Minister of Public Works,
Peruzzi, next proceeded to give a plan of the great
railway enterprises which are now in contemplation
for the whole kingdom of Italy and entered into
some important statements which cannot, I should
think, be destitute of interest for English readers.
That portion of Italy which already acknowledges
the sway of King Victor Emmanuel 11., the Minis-
ter stated, will, in the event of the bills now in
preparation meeting the approval of the Chamber,
have 1,779 kilometres of railway lines in operation
(the kilometre to be computed two-thirds of an.
English mile), 1,704 kilometres in progress of con-
struction, and 2,6.50 to be given out for private
speculation. By adding to this the lines either in
operation or in progress of construction in the
Venetian and Roman, or present Pontifical, pro-
vinces, the whole of the Italian railway lines• will
rise to 6,800 kilometres.
ilOomf tehtreesse
itnheoopledraSttiaotne. oafnSda3rdB2iniina hparnsgarlersesadnyf
eBosno.
n,and
struction ; Lombardy, •
145 in operatic. 247
56 561 in
opineeornatsitornu,ctainod,2o9 in
progress; the }Emilia the Marches, and Umbria,
plans for 313 kilottietres open for competition ;
Tuscany has lines in work
to the amount of 375
kilometres, and is at work for 436 more,besides 39
kilometres in contemplation. At Naples
the
elines
in work are only 142 kilometres, those in progress
96, and the projected lines 1,900 kilometres. The
lines
exists, pro
amount to cted for
400 kil Sicily,ometres. where as yet no railway
If we recollect that the first 4 miles of railway
in the old State of Piedmont were only opened in
August, 1848, when Lombardy and Tuscany
already boasted considerable achievements, and
when even Naples had its Royal line from the
capital to Castellamare, we shall have good reason
to congratulate the Subalpine people on the good
uses to which they have already put the twelve
years' freedom they had the good fortune to enjoy,
and to anticipate no less splendid results for the
future in behalf of their brethren of the east
and south, whom recent events have, it is to
be hoped, for ever associated to their destinies.
Thanks to the good effects of free institutions that
Piedmont, which came latest in the race; has so
wonderfully been enabled to outstrip all its neigh-
bours. The works under immediate contemplation,
the Ministers continued, will give as a result the
opening of 550 kilometres new railway lines within
the present year, and 1,500 more within another
year, altogether 2,000 kilometres within the space
of two years, leaving 4,300 kilometres for the com-
pletion of all the contemplated lines. The shortest
line between Turin and Rome, along shore by
Genoa, Leghorn, and Civita Vecchia, would be 666
kilometres; a journey of 18 or 20 hours. Between
Turin and Naples the shortest route is through
Bologna and Ancona, across the Abruzzi, a distance
of about 800 kilometres, to be achieved in about 24
hours' journey. From Turin to Brindisi the line
would extend to 900 kilometres ; to Taranto, 863;
to Otranto, 972; to Reggio, the extreme point of
the peninsula, about 1,300 kilometres ; to which
may be added the 50 kilometres between Susa and
Turin, already long since in operation.
The shortest lines, however, will not in every in-
stance be the first brought to a termination, owing
to natural difficulties, which must needs retard their
construction. The line from Turin to Naples, through
Bologna, Ancona, Foggio, and Bari, will be about
950 kilometres in length, exceeding by 50 kilometres
the other line, which is to go through the Abruzzi ;
but with the exception of the hills surrounding An-
cona and the pass of the Apennines, it runs along
shore, and mostly on level ground, so that the
Minister thinks it will be greatly advanced within
the present year, and brought to a full termination
within 1863.

In the same manner the road to Rome through
Genoa and Leghorn will meet serious obstacles on
the Riviera of Genoa, while the other, somewhat
longer (715 kilometres), through Bologna, Pistoia,
Florence, Chiusi, and Orte (the junction with the
line between Rome and Ancona), will be finished
first. The Apennine pass of La Porretta, between
Bologna and Florence, will, agreeably to the
Minister's statement, be ready within two years,
and so will the whole line, which is rapidly pro-
gressing throughout, with the exception of the
trunk between Orte and Rome (150 kilometres), for
which Italy must await the Pope's or the French
Emperor's good pleasure.
Most of these lines, as I said at the outset, are of
the greatest importance, not only for the Italians
and strangers travelling in Italy, but also as a
means of rapid communication between distant
countries. From London to Alexandria in Egypt,
the Minister stated, the distance now, either through
Marseilles or Genoa, is 188 hours' journey. It will
be reduced to 155 hours, with an economy of 30
hours' time as soon as the line to Ancona is opened,
as it will be before the end of the present year. This
advantage will be greatly increased wheh the lines
shall be extended as far as Brindisi and Otranto, as
it can easily be done within two years.
Such are the first fruits Europe will reap from
the resolution it has now almost unanimously ar-
rived at to admit Italy into the sisterhood of free,
independent, united, and civilised nations, and to
allow and sanction the downfall of those narrow-
minded Governments which were as dead an ob-
struction to the material well-being and progress
of the country as to the intellectual and moral im-
provement of the people.
In to-day's sitting the Lower House discussed the
bill for appointing the first Sunday in June for the
celebration throughout the kingdom of a national
fete, to supersede the festa dello statuto, the cele-
bration of which, as you know, occurred in the old
State of Sardinia on the second Sunday in May.
This bill met with rather a formidable opposi-
tion from the Deputy Chiaves, who argued that it
was inexpedient to celebrate the rise of Italian.
nationality, a fact as yet incomplete, since the
emancipation of Venice and Rome was indefinitely
put off; that it was absurd to appoint a day
to which no national association was attached—
a moveable feast in the early days in June,
which brought round no important anniversary.
He observed that at the period of the year
chosen for the solemnity some parts of Italy were
already exceedingly hot, and Rome, the chosen
capital, unhealthy; that the objection raised to
early May as a rainy season, which had often in-
terfered with the pastimes of the old Piedmontese
Constitution-day, might equally militate against
any time of the year, as no day in the year in the
Italian climate could be-pronounced as altogether
safe from rain, any more than all the precautions
taken to secure a fine sunshine for the famous
Eglinton Tournament were of any avail against
the fickleness of a North British atmosphere.
Finally, he objected that, with the devout tenden-
cies of the Italian people, a solemnity in which the
clergy were free to take part or not as they listed
(agreeably to the tenour of the law, which neither
solicits nor demands the co-operation of the clergy),
would never be regarded as a real fete by the
ignorant classes.

- The discussion gave rise to several witty passes
at arms between Chiaves and other orators respect-
ing the perverseness of the weather always con-
spiring with the priests to mar popular festivities,
but the bill passed in the end by a majority of 915
against 20; the Minister, Minghetti, upon the me-
t;,... „r.tluputy, engaged that the fete should be
limited to one day only, so far as the Government
and the municipal authorities had any part in it,
lest the law might seem to encourage the lazy and
frivolous propensities encouraged among the Its-
Hans by so many years of political and religious
misrule.