Cincinnati daily press. [volume] (Cincinnati [Ohio]) 1860-1862, 1860-11-08
Italy-Its FITNESS for selr.sovcrnment.

1tnly-Its Fitness for Self government.
The New York World, in an article en-
titled Peculiarities of the Italian Charac-
ter-Its Unftness for Liberty" ventures the
declaration that "the Italian Of to-day, and
especially the inhabitant of the southern por-
tion of the Peninsula, is totally unfit for self
government" If by selfgOvernment is
meant the ability on the part of the people
in question to organize and carry on the in
stitutions of confederated republic, the
World is beyond question correct; and its
conductors are entitled to some credit for
their boldness in enunciating, as well as their
acuteness in reaching so un-American an
opinion. II, on the other hand, it is the in
tention of the Horld to convey the impress
ion that if entirely free from all exterior in
reference and influence, the people of Italy
would not take on form of government as
free and as good as they are capable to enjoy
and preserve-better adapted to the pecdli-
arities of their civil character than any that
can be given to them from abroad-all his
tory and experience testi6es that it is mis-
taken.
That form of polity into which any people
spontaneously fall is to them, elEgovern-
ment, no matter what shape it takes, or upon
what principles ii is conducted. Such form
is also, in all cases, the best for them There
is no people in the world that can motor
will not, if let alone-supply themselves
with laws and institutions adapted to their
condition, better than they can be supplied
from exterior sources. The worst that the
people of Italy would be likely to create for
themselves, would be better than the best
that could be elaborated for them by the
combined wisdom of all the statesmen of
Europe and America. Travellers find large
inhabited districts of the world whose people
have nothing that correspond to our idea of
government. The reason they do not have
it is because they do not need it. What
would the people of Dahomey or Patagonia
do with the machinery of republican State?
In so extreme an. example we can readily
see how idle it would be to prescribe our
form of polity for universal imitation; and
yet in most Of the speculatons of American
journalists upon Italian affairs, the funda-
mental idea appears 10 be that Italy ought
TO be a second United States, with its ma
tional and local constitutions, its Legsla-
tures, annual and quadrennial elections
and all the paraphernalia that we are ac-
customed to look upon as so essential to
state of civil liberty; and it is the duty of
all mankind to use their exertions to put
them in that condition as soon as possible.
The World gives as a reason why the
Italian ofto-day is unfit for self government,
that centuries of misrule have developed
in him those vices which are ever the at
tributes of the weak and oppressed-cow-
ardice and deceit This is, to say the least,
rather dubious philosophy for so orthodox
journal. How are we to get over the fact
that God, on several occasions with view
to prepare his own chosen people for de-
sired and predicted nationality, sent them
several times into worse than Austrian
bondage, and kept them there hundreds of
years, if nothing but vices inimical to ma
tionality are by bondage developed We
are told annually, on the FGurth of July,
that by oppression our forefathers were
ripened for freedom: how comes it that
under similar circumstances, the Italian is
rendered fit only for slavery
1t is evident that this hypothesis does not
solve the problem. Itis in fact, as incorrect
philosophy as it is historically untrue. The
Italian has as much civil capacity now as he
has had any time these 1900 years. He has
probably been improving during all that
4 a., -. H. r.
reading Macaulay on Machiavelli-whch is
little more than tissue of shallow conjec-
tures-would take the trouble to read
Mschayelli himself he might perhaps dis
cover that all the vices of which he COM
plains were quite as prevalent in Italy be-
fore the Peninsula became subject to foreign
rule as they are at this moment. They are
the indigenous vices of the people who stand
in the relation of ancestors to those of
modern Italy-the Greeks of Asia Minor:
parents at once of the peculiar culture and
the peculiar barbarism tor which Italy hos
been so long distinguished.
At the commencement of the Christian
era, Rome had three, and all Italy five in
babitants of foreign to one of the ancient
EIuscan origin-the greater share of which
were Asatics. From one part alone Delus,
in Asia Minor--l0O00 slaves per diem were
not inffequently sold and shipped TOR Italy.
The Roman armies made cOnquests all over
the known world, and sent home multi
tudes of captives TO intensity the social
anarchy of the Peninsula. England fur
nished her share, and so did Ethiopia; but
the subtle, flexible, INSCRIPTIONS AsiaJic
was the faVorite, who more readily adapted
himself 70 and profited by his conditions;
and therefore out-lived the others. In
the mean time the representatives of the
ancient Etruscan race were growing fewer
those of the lower orders, constituting
the Roman armies, losing their lives in
foreign lands, and those of the higher,
failing 10 keep their numbers good,
as isthe case with all aristocracies. Italy
iDsensibly became an Asiatic colony, and the
social and political vices of Asia were nat
uralized upon our soil and took their places
as the controlling elements of her destiny.
To such as remember these facts, the writ
ings Of Mpehiavelli present no enigma. That
distinguished man was true representative
of the Italian civil character of his time. His
policy was the one 10 his opinion best adapted
to the genius Of the people of Italy; and for
this opinion he had the sanction of the prac-
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