New-York tribune., 1869-04-02

their utmost to prevent its acclimation or use
in their domains, fearing lest it might serve as
o connecting link among the people whereby
unity and national feeling might be promoted.
In the province which gave the best
evidences of national vigor and intellec-
tual progress, or in Piedmont. the prime
minister and the sovereign were wont
to carry on all their State and private
intercourse in the wretched vernacular of the
streets. Cayour and Victor Emmanuel dis
eoursed in the same "Piedmontese" used by
the porters, the facchini, the cartmen, in
words not whit more elegant because
the patois in which they spoke was as fixed
as the laws of the Medes. Nodded by ig-
noranee, it was simply incapable of i'm
proyement, development, or transformation.
The Parliament at Palazzo CarignanO was
opened with an Italian speech from
the throne, ambassadors were addressed
in still more courtly French; but these
exactions of official etiquette aud dig
nifty fulfilled, the royal tongue could no further
be stretched. Even now the fondness OF ltaly's
sovereign for his native dialect" Ell piemon-
"teiso-is cherished by him amid the imposing
trappings of the Pitt palace which he ex-
changed for his former modest chateau at
| Turin; his salutation of Piedmontese courtlers,
| Ministers, and friends who most do congregate
around him, remains to-day the quick, brusque
ciaon so often heard by the stranger,
| in years gone, between the passers under
the "portici di P0" and della Flera."
| The substitution of such wretched dialects,
differing materially in all the provinces OF the
| peninsula, in place of the dignifed, rich, and
sonorous Italian, has been the chief impedi-
ment to all progress in letters on the part OF
the Italian people. Literature in their borders is
| in a stagnant condition no novels, no his
tories, no poems, no art criticisms or philo-
sophical essays are launched from the press.
| The sterility has been quntessenced since the
| day Manzone and Silvo Pellico wrote IL Pro-
messi Sposir and IL Miei Prigioni" True,
D'Azeglio leisurey dealt in literary and artistic
| efforts but they were not OF nature to Sc
! cure his fame Giovanni Pratt passes for a
poet, but is without poem. His poesy consists
| Of divers sonnets, and of the verses he coined
for "Garibaldi's Hymn In short the Italy
of to-day cannot lay claim to single author
of eminenee, nor even in the press is there
! TO be found writer above the common level.
| 1t is as silly to pretend that difficulties OF
language render impossible the union of Italy
as it would be to taunt her with mental pas
siyeness. She has solid explanations to Offer
before sentence of condemnation is passed
| against her from any point of view-perhaps
from literary point more than any other
Homers, Dantes, Shakespeares do not grow
now -a-days. Pictures and poetry have largely
given place to locomotives and telegraphs.
Hence, in accordance with the spirit of the
times, as also owing to the exigeneies of her
situation, New Italy is busily occupied incar1ng
for her material welfare. 1t is not subject OF
wonder that even there the fine arts, divine
music beautiful customs and picturesque
costumes are being rudely touched by the
uniform hammering of modern civilization ;
that the gaudy sights and follies of King
| Carnival have vanished, because even Italians
have become too stiff serious, and black
vested to don the coat of Harlequin, or gambol
with the step of Pantaloon and Gianduja.
| 1t is rather substantial fact for con-
graduation that the Italians are just, now
engaged in lettering their fortunes materially,
and in endeayoring to solve the troubles
enjoned by barbarism, to the neglect of some
of their most favorite avocations in times past
-avocations that were anything else than
| wholesome food to heart and mind.
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