The Charleston daily news. [volume] (Charleston, S.C.) 1865-1873, 1868-12-05
FOREIGN TOPICS.
The Critical Condition of Italy.
From the Round Table.

ceased TO Do IN COuUuVu w SoN 80
Eternal City By force. This pltiai neip-
rious at home that no faction capable
of looking twenty-four hours ahead can
fail to see the danger OF adding to lts per-
plexities bya foreign complication. All enorts
to restore order in Sicily have been abandoned
IN despair. In Naples the partisans OF the
axiled Bourbons are active, and plot with more
boldn.ss than at any previous period. In Cen
tral ard Northern italy the iDsolence Of the
secret political societies has attained height
unknown since the youth Of Massimo d'Azegio
and the early part Of Carlo Aberto's reign.
La Marmora's silly attempt to arouse the ma
-tionai vanity, and to make the Prussian version
Of the Italian campaign subject OF diplomatic
remonstrance, has only shown anew that every-
thing which Cayour's successors in Office u1-
dertake is almost certain to lead to dissppoint-
ment and humiliation. Were we not accus.
toned to see syetems which have long outliyed
their usefulness, and whose doom might al
most be logically demonstrated, survive year
after year,cWe should infer thatithe monarchy
was near it's end. A foreign policy, wanting alike
in dignity and Independence; succession OF
financial crises, each more serious than the
last; universal dissatisfaction, apathy, lawless-
ness, strife and political crime-such is the
discouraging picture. which State whose
birth was hailed with enthusiastic sympathy
by Europe. and Mhosa ezarnn!e awakened
syen Germany from her decennial torpor, now
presents to the world.
Ten years ago Italy boasted OF ieeloI OF
patriots, but they have shared the fate OF the
iegions ofXerxes in Byron's Don Juan
.He counted them at brea,. ~ ~ ciay."
ana "nen 'ne SUD u. -ss waere were thcy9"
TIE oay difference between these two cases
IS that the patriots Of Italy were destroyed
not BY the Greeks of Themistocles, but b,y
their own countrymen. When the peninsula
was still divided into seyen or rather INTO nine,
States, its people we're overhowing with mu-
tual praise and admiration. But the "mlnut
-presentia famenn wss destined to receive there
o striking illustration. With the consolidation
Of the nation the nimbus which had surround
ed the different provincial celebrities paled.
Change of scene may have had its share IN
making men and things appear IN an altered
light; but the 'perdere Ia bussola," as the
Talians auaintly express it, is the result of
that absorbing political rivalry and jealousy
which delights in destroying regulations.
With very few exceptions. the patriots OF Italy
have therefore incurred the fate Of their pub
Hc funds and currency-they have fallen be-
1owp par.
Another serious misfortune is that eonsplra-
.cies, the hereditary curse OF the peninsula,
should flourish again 80 luxuriantly under the
new regime. In the Romagua, in the Neapoll-
tan territory, in Sicily, they cover entire dis
triots as with network. Though differing,
often directly antagonistic in their objects,
they are get invariably hostile to the existing
government, which they oppose and battle at
in print, and not unfrequently with the assas-
asin's dagger. Some OF these secret assocla-
tions are the pioneers OF the new sociallstlc
revolution; others are the sappers and miners
of the counter revolution, designed to restore
the deposed dynasties and the old order OF
A. D-.k ul.kAv II,>.r o., -
be, both cooperate none the less cor
daily in undermining the ground beneath
the monarchy in every direction. Like
an army OF modern Guy Fawkeses, they
store up combustible material, which is to be
fred at the first favorable moment, and which
is to give the signal for general contagratlon.
It is exceedingly doubtful whether the Italian
authorities possess sufficient energy to subdue
the flames OF such a conhsgratiou. Even were
it certain that majority OF the nation are still
as much attached to the monarchy as they
were eight years ago, it cannot be disguised
that neither the present rulers, nor any o1
: the public confidence. On the contrary, the
opinion that they are utterly incompetent anc
untrustworthy is almost universal. Such are
the fruits OF not quite decades maladminis'
tration. When the new kingdom was pro-
claimed, no people could have displayed more
generous, tractable, law-ablding spirit-coulo
these same Italians. Honest and competen
hands might have made almost what they ikee
ont Of such material. But professional politl
clans and selfish demagogues proved th'
bane Of the State. Two sets Of men, each a:
ambitious and incapable as the other, wht
preferred the good Of party To- the good o
country, have continually rotated in office. II
any other State these placemen would have
been set aside and superseded by honaane
noot :; but in Italy they were suffered to mo
nopolze power until the country became wha
she now is: constitutional government hal
thus gradually fallen into such disrepute will
the public that it would not be surprising ii
in case OF rising OF the two e1tremes-th
Republican and the Legitimist-the masse
would desert it in a body. Under truly liberia
institutions, like those which Italy now pos
sesses, the maxim that the people are tn
the same force as in o republic, and this show
how greatly the nation must have degenerate
since its union. A sad proof Of the popula
demoraligation is the circumstance tina
the Rompiooll find their numbers dali
increase. Encouraged by these aoceE
sions to their ranks, they have grown 80 cor
fident Of their strength that they make n
longer any secret Of their subversive design
Thus, for instance, secret society in MLal
which STYLES itself the "Repubhcan AlliaD 20
invites the population Of the peninsular to pr
pare for the impending catastrophe IN r IAN
festo which closes aS 1olloWs InoRe WHO o'
sire to know who it is that address the On tt
dav NAV come to the first barricade erected
the streets Of Milan, and they will fiud us ther
musket in hand, at The post honor" .Withor
attaching undae importance to the appeals
these agitators, it must be borne in mind tht
the state Of affairs is nowhere 80 critical ss
Lombardy, and that its capital is the famou
city Of ''Gae FIVE days." Barricades and stree
fighting there would be followed by barrlcade
and street fighting in Naples, Genoa, Turir
and all the larger cities. Whether those wh
depend on the fidelity Of the army in such a
event are justified IN their confidence, re
mains still to be asoertained. Oaueana cor
suIes.
The public press is faithful reflex {
the spirit Of anarchy and faction whic
-reigns in the land. While the organs Of th
,Consorteria and those Of the Permanente