The southern press., 1851-07-28
SOUTHERN PRESS.
WASHINGTON CITY.
MONDAY. JULY rs, 1861.
Initiation.

ofindignation arising within US at the atrociti
perpetratsd there in the name of order. The,
barbarities are enacted daily at the instigatic
of the Austrian, or under the influence of a
other class Of men. whose minds, formed by Il
demoralixiug studies Of dark period in IL
worlds history, have necessarily little or no syn
pathy with the progress Of the present.
We hear by every mail that the prisons al
full; we are told Of executions for the mo,
trivial offences; we read Of women even bein
arrested, tortured, and logged, to extract col
fsssions from them; aud we have proofs tha
many Of these unhappy creatures are not evel
guilty of the trivial and ridiculous, offences o
which they are accused, but are kept in prison
or exiled, because they are supposed to be un
favorable to these governments Of Satan, or al
any rate would become SO after their false im-
prisonment and III treatment!
To what state is this noble Italy reduced As
with Ireland, the hatred of the oppressor in
creases in proportion to the increase Of her
misery and degradation. And yet SO blind, so
infatuated are the tyrants, they will not see that
their own blows are the cause of the evils exist
ing. Like the uniformed rufiian on the battle
field, they insult and dance upon the already
mangled eorpses Of an enemy without being
able to satiate their wild rage.
All who can escape to Sardinia, or to foreign
countries, have left or are leaving. The pro
perty of the rich is confscated to increase the
il-gotten wealth of the foreign robber, or native
traitor. Here is one cause Of these atrocities
Italy is in the hands of the spoiler. The ex-
cuse is good, the moment opportune, and the
true aristocrat is at work repairing his broken
fortunes by the political swindle of whole
country. We see him here in his element His
uniformed instruments are ut hand sharing in
the plunder. Wesee him here gathering wealth,
a. we have seen him in every war, and in every
political oppression-as we have seen him in his
bandit haunts, and from his castellated den,
levying contributions on all around, and enrich
ing himself by the ruin, destruction, or death of
his victims.
1t matters little, the results, to the depressing
classes. They never believe that they are the
cause Of misery and depopulation. They hate
labor-consequently, they hate the laborer.
They have some underlined notion that they
have right to live by plundering the working
classes---ani that man who lives by the labor
of the mind or body,is an inferior being, created
for their maintenance, yet towards whom they
have no obligations Hence the squalid misery
degradation, want, and starvation which char
acterizes European countries for the most part
and hence, as natural consequence, in thos,
countries where these are worse, the increased
hatred and contempt of the upper classes for tn
unfortunate victims Of the scramble.
We read, for instance, that in Sicily, ther
was, in the time of the Romans, a population O
some ten millions, (some say forty millions
hut this is an exaegeration) We find now on,
million nine hundred thousand only, and grea
postion of these in a state of misery and igno-
rance that is deplorable. In the Peninsula ol
Italy itself, we have much the same results. The
population in the time of the Romans was pro-
badly double what it is now And in the time OF
the modern republics, Italy, then the only
civilized and commercial nation, had popula-
ton scarcely inferior to that Of the Roman
epoch.
Since the reformation, the fall of the repub-
lies, and the subjection Of Italy to the present
system, have changed the face of the whole
country, and she has been as celebrated for her
bandits, as for her wretchedness
Spain, whose decay commenced at the same
time, owing to precisely similar treatment is
equally famous for misery and bandits And
you may now travel from one end of it to the
other, and scarcely find tree, so generally neg
lected and depopulated has the country become
by the blind infatuation of oppression.
Now, continuation of this sort of system
would produce in Southern Europe precisely
the same results as in Asia. The finest lands
loosing their timber, would quickly lose the
soil and vegetation. In the low grounds
marshes would form, and the population be car
ried off by disease. On the higher lands, th
soil left unprotected by trees would be washe,
away by the rains, and rocks would appea
where rocks had never been seen before Th
population, not having sufficient to maintain
itself, would diminish in proportion to the sus
tenance, and live miserably upon that.
Palestine has long been in that state. Th'
fertile plains, watered by the Euphrates nd th'
Tigres, and once teeming with popu lation, are
now in that condition. Indeed, all the countries
under Turkish or Persian rule, are evidences
of the passage Of the oppressor.
What does the Austrian want with Ital y
Does he possess il? No. Does he enrich hi
people by il? No. "a few military, and bureau
cratic robbers excepted) Does he benefit Italy
No. What then does he want with it?
II he improved Italy, by bringing liberty an
moral independence into it, all the world woul
applaud, and Italy among the first. He has no
even that excuse, which the Frenchman had il
some measure, when he suppanted feudalism j
sona M vto of Gormanv hv the infrodu etion n