The weekly pioneer and Democrat. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn. Territory) 1855-1865, 1860-12-14


"was in constant demand. For the poor it
suficed to take their hands to market. There
we're always employers ready to set them to
work, and to pay them according to their
merit"
The most illustrious families Of Florence,
Venice, Lucca, Genoa and Bologna, iur-
nished chiefs to the commercial houses, as
well as to other lucrative, and to the learned
professions. And none are held in higher
esteem than the merchant princes. They
delighted to houOr labor, and to set them
selves examples Of enterprise and industry.
Among such people none could remain
| idle.
The Italians in their rapid growth to this
high condition of prosperous Industry and
enterprise, in which they had no formidable
competitors, accumulated vast amount of
real capital. Their cash was in specie, and
the country was literally overfowing With
cash capital, in gold and silver. 1t is est
mated that they had more money than all
the rest of Earope united.
The immense wealth thus acquired by in-
dustrial and commercial enterprise did not
diminish their euergy Or taste for active
pursuits. Occupation and business had be-
come the habit OF the nation, and habit is
second, or rather educated nature.
There seemed to be no limit to the in
crease of their surplus wealth. They ex-
pended vast amounts in the most expensive
luxuries, in architecture, artistic furniture,
paintings. statuary and libraries, and yet
there was always plenty of money to be had
tor any new enterprise, which promised sue
cess
Population increased prodigiously. The
young married without fear of want. Great
financial revulsiOns were unknown, for they
had no paper money. The merchants did
not brood with gloomy anxiety over their
adventures, for they know that in the event
of loss. there was no lack of opportunity to
retrive their fortunes.
They were as vain of their prosperity,
and as proud of their advantages over other
nations, as are we Americans.
10 show how all this prosperity and great
ness passed away, and was followed by de.
population, degeneracy and degraded pow
erty, we quote again from Sismondi's great
work. making the following translation Of
one OF its most brilliant and graphic pas
sages:
The monuments which covered Italy in the
Fifteenth Century, indicate not only that del
icate sentiment of the beautiful, directed the
chisel, the oencil and the square of the illus.
triOus sculptors, painters and architects, but
the tout ensemble makes US acquainted with
nation full of confidence in its power, of hope
iu bis future, and of satisfaction for it's success
| in the past. Its temples surpass infinitely in
magrifcence and in solidity, all the most cele-
brated of Greece. The palaces of its citizens
surpass in magnitude and in the colossal thick
ness of their walls those of the Roman Empe
rors. The most simple of their houses have an
aspect of strength. convenience and commo
dlousnesS. While in our times we pass through
the cities of Italy, quite or half deserted, shorn
of their ancient opulence; while We enter in
| its temples which the crowd can no longer fill,
| even Oh the grandest occasions; while we visit
the palaces of which the proprietors occupy
hardly tenth part; while we observe the brok.
en- panes of the windows, constructed with so
much elegance, and the grass which grows along
the base of these walls, the solitude of these
vast dwelling places, the poverty of the inhab.
| itants which we see about them, the languid
gait, the unoccupied air of those who move in
the streets, and the beggars who seem alone to
compose half the popuiatiOn-we feel that
such cities must have been built by some more
| active people than those whom we see there in
our days that these cities are the product of
life, and that death has inherited them, that
they belonged to opulence and that misery
has succeeded to their possession that they
were the work of great people and that this
great people is now seen no more.
What a lesson is this for the American
people, who now feel so assured of their
prosperity, their wealth and greatness, and
free inStitutions-who now feel brave and
strong, and would regard any one as mad
who might venture to intimate that some
future historian may draw striking paral-
lei between their fallen greatness and that
of the Italians. But yet it is undoubtedly
true, that like causes produce like effects.
The original populations of both countries
were much the samoan admixture of
Gothic and Celtic stock. And in variety
of climate and natural productions, also,
Italy bears closer resemblance to the Uni
ted States than any other country of Eu-
rope. The parallel, to certain extent,
rans even through their respective histories.
They each, at an early period, formed
municipal governments, and became schooled
in advance of their respective ages, in the
conduct of public affairs. They each had
distinct organizations, educated to become
states of great confederacy.
But the Italian Republics, distracted
by party jealousies, originating in a
moral idea of political right, dividing
them into Guelphs and Ghibelines, the ad.
herents of the Pope and Emperor, and sub.
sequently estrangcd from each other by per-
soBal ambitions, sectional animosities, and
commercial rivalries, their union, when most
needed to resist foreign aggression, which
mote. Historic des Republiques Italiennes
du Moyen Age. 8vols. Royal octave. Brux.
elles, 1888. By N. Simonde de Sismondi. This
great work ought to be translated into English
and published in cheap form for the benefit
of American readers. The small volume in
English, with the same title, is only meagre
sketch from the original