, 1874-05-02

national bankruptcy is Inevitable.
THE TOTAL PUBLIC DEBT
tSe @ Excessive a ' amount. foE sountry so poor 10
fiscal resources, Of $1,a5o, 8s7, 900. Tho totnl
chargoa on account OF tho public debt oomprla-
Ing interest, management and sinking tund,
were .yero estimated ln Tue budget ct 1879 o. elo9i-
nary reserves Of tho Kingdom. Tho lntorest-
boariug debt Of Italy oxoootls the intorest. bear
Ing debt Of tho United statos OF America by
e8l 900, 900. BY tho 1at Of March statomont, I
lng tho Pacific Rallroad bonds. The trx-paying
ability Of tho Unitcd statos is far moro than
twice aa great az TINT Of Italy. Indood, 1t would
10 ssfo 70 cali It threo or four times aa great:
15 lt;y tya dollar two days
casaos, whlle In tho United gtntos. dollar is
earned In half day or theroabout; and thon
tile population Of tlo United States outnuTbora
I!aly by ono.thrd. Tho lattcr Inns nov, In l874,
NJ Notrithstanding tho ml1dnoss md tho ap1en-
dor Of tho climate aud tho exceeding fertility Of
tho soil OF Italy. It Is. comparatively spoa8'ng'
AVERY POOH COUNTRY.
Troddon under foot for many centurios;, with
nearly all montal light oxtinguiehod; with tho
mechanical arts but teobly devoloped;, without
invention. OF enterprise; without coal Of iron
graph wire; and zach little State loaded with
dcbt, tho pooplo Of Italy began their export
mel,t Of national cxiatenoe In 1851 about as
destitute Of resources and cmpty-handed az It Is
posa'blo we'll to conceive They we're almost IN
oerned Italy was rich In hiatory and dramatic
intoroat; eho had beautiful legends and stupen-
dogs rnina she % was f9ll t.,..aa of churches l,,a
Lad Lad onee boon Mistress Of tho World; TIC
great vision OF Rome filed the ninds Of stu
dents, and fired tho Imagination Of poets;
scholars Of other lands bad studied hor wonder
fal history and traced The g'ddy heights .ts to
10 which she foil. 6ho had au opulent pant,
but pauper's present. sho seemed utterly
bankrupt, II not actualIy dead. Humanity, with
weary with its long journey and faint with Its
protracted struggles Of ceaturios, had sunk into
state Of apathotio daBpair. Tic diamembered
parts Of Italy were In this apparently. .hopeless
! condition In 1850, when tho trump8 Of Victor
Emanuel and Garibaldi called on thom to awaken
and grd on thoir armor-if they had any. Tho
! thoro was an empty treasury with which to
| commence husinoss the work to be done
WAS 1MhfENaE.
| aud delay was impossible. Tho several pre-
these worc largo. An army lad to be
| organized and equipped, and navy built:
| for 1t waa not known how Boon war might be re-
| moved with Austria to bo wagod ainglo.handed.
and iron roads Indispensable to tho progress.
Development, aud defouse OF tho young nation.
There was no syatom Of publlo-achools for popu-
| lar instruction. mud. outside Of tho presthood
aud mobiles, not one adult In ton could road a
word or wrlto his own name. National illiteraoy
! Is Synonymous with national woakuess. and i'm
becility THO lands Of Italy wore Ill in the hands
Of the nobility mud tho Church. Primogeniturc
and eutal kept tho estates In the groat familioB,
| aud absorbed the sma1lor holdings continually !;
and lived tho livos OF useless drones, upon the
| rents of lands obtained By pious frauds.
| The construction Of
nA11wAY-BYsTEM
cost the State several hundred m1lioua OF dol
lars. Who're companies undertook the work. tho
| Government had to guarantee tho interest on tho
bonds; and this continues to be q considerable.
| but decroaaing, itom Of expense. Where CON-
panios would not build. the Government laid out
roads and constructed them for military pur-
poses. Many Of tho railways OF Italy were OK
oeodingly difficult to construct, on account Of
the mountainous character OF the country. As
an example, there aro 120 tunuols on the Shore
Railway around tho Gulf OF Genoa. from Nice to
Pisa. q dlstance Of lG0 miles. l counted, in ons
part Of the road, thirty tunnels In 20 miles dis
tauce, oil cut through granite or Limestone rock.
Some OF the tunnels arc !. Q, and eycn 8 mites
| tho Apennines, Think what it cost to boro that
Mt. Gents 10-1ni1o tunnel under the granite Alps!
The railWaY-Bystem Of Italy ia now almost
completed. Tho length Of lines owned by COM
ment /, ,250, ,-maling together 4,65o milcs. This
may not Seem groat, but 1t must be borne In
mind that Italy contains only $4,000 square
iles,-harely as largo an araa as that OF Illinois
and Iowa; but, unlike their lovel surface. II Ia
long narrow peninsula, stretching from tho
Alps to tho southeast, q distance Of 800 miles,
in the vell-Enown form Of
A noor,
with tho 1alaud OF Sicily near its toe, In tho
shape Of shoe. Running down through this
heot t.uflo in n
range Of mountains, like huge back
thus converting tho who1s peninsula into
= system. Of mountains and Valleys
| aevera Of tho lattsr spreading out into large
plains; tho vallova OF the Po, the Arno, the H.
ber, and the Votarno, being tho largest. It will
be seen how difficult 1t must be to construct
| railroads in such country. But there arc rail-
roads now running to almost every town aud dis
In 1857, When tho financial pressure attained a
severity not known boforo, the Parliament or
dered tho salo Of tho most romunerative Of tho
State railways, from which was realized 0,090.-
000,-lcss than half what thoy coat. They also
| ordered the
| SEIZURE or EcoLEs1ABr1oA1 PROPERTY
not actually needed for religious purposes
such as vast estates belonging to oonveuts, OBJ
tho owners On their deathbads, who, under tho
influence Of ghostly foars. e1changod their
real estate for prayers for tho Eepoaa
| OF their BoulH Tho Italian PAr}in-
ment concluded that tho ronta and
profits received BY the monks during tho centu-
riea they had possession Of these anda bad sutii-
thoy had ever roally said for tho souls Of tho
| donors.
The lands thus confisoated have been sold on
ten yeara' time, 10 limited PARCELS, aud the money
received thorefrom ia mainly devoted to the on
dowrnent Of model schools and tue support Of
public schoolB, for winch, besides, an annual
appropriation Of 93 600 ia voted by the Parlia-
ment. Thero had boon realized up to 1872,
from the sale OF ecclesiastical landB, tho Sum Of
$l76, 100000 ; and 1t was believed the remaining
portions would bring as much more. Two great
purposes will thua DO accomplished: thousands
Of landleas persoua will become freoholders, and
national fund will be obtained for tho educa-
cation Of tho children Of the poor. Those
churoh-lands In tho hands Of private owners ara
being mado vastly more productive than they
were before.
Tho number of monka and nuna who were
dlspoaaessed Of lands was e. .99l, besdes 8.22t
other persons belonging to mendicant orders.
Tha par]iatuaut onactnd In 1866 tho total