Evening journal., 1891-04-06
rAg WEAKNESS OF l1ALY.
The Puny Descendants OF Caesar and
Trojan Cannot Defy the Nation of
Washington, Grant and Lee

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The Louisville Courier Journal says:
4 found eighteen million people in
Italy. and but two men, was the bitter
taunt Of Bonaparte, when the italian
troops crumbled before his ragged little
French army like a sandbank tapped By
the tide, and every king, grand duke aud
petty prince ia Italy came fawning at the
feet of The young Corsican who few
years before was patching the rusty uni :
form of lieutenant in provincial town
OF France. The condition Of Italy has
not changed since then, except that ths
ls, 900, 600 have become 30, coo. 900, some
may say. However, we will not indnrse
that, for the Sandman contingent fought
very bravely III the Crimean war. aud
the Italian patriots did some heroic SER
vice under Garibaldi, though Reunited
Italy would still be 8 fantasy had not
French yalor on the fields Of Solferino
and Magenta made 1t real. But all such
questions aside. Italy should be the last
nation in Europe to dream of war with
any civilized power least of ali with the
United States, when she could win nothing
in the struggle and might lose every
thing
Take one lock at Italy. How can she
make WARP Burdened with an enormous
debt that is every year growing larger,
hovering on the verge Of a great fnsn-
cial crash. yoked in the TRIBE Alliance
between Germany and Austris struggling
and gasping to keep footing with her
powerful mates or be dragged down by
them, overwhelmed by the weight OF her
own military and naval preparations, she
Is in no condition to appeal to the arbi-
trament Of battle on any question or W ia
any body. What Italy mosG needs Is peace
a long peace that will enable the nation
to build itself up, to relieve its finances
and to elevate the spirit of its masses.
Italians should not be rash. They have
many things to do that other nations
have already done. Italy has been the
most glorious and the most infamous Of
all countries, the most fortunate and the
most miserable. No scholar, none with
the pretensions Of scholar, can fail to
reverence Italy for her mighty Roman
past, but from the fall of the Western
Empire of Rome In the Fifth century.
until the reunion of the Italians ia the
closing half Of the Nineteenth, Italy was
The battle field, the foraging ground. the
Peru and Mexico of all Europe. North
srn barbarians, Germans, French, Span.
sb. Normans and Saracens, for a period
II fourteen hundred years, fought over the
,orpss Of Italy and whatever the rival
lations may have suffered it was not
comparable to the torture of the
Italians, who. when foreign
enemies did no. rend them. would
urn and rend each other Even
when the art, the literature, and the
Icieuce OF Florence, Venice and the other
Italian republics were in
itructing the world, the cloaksd assassin
VAS the necessary instrument of govern
nent, and poison and the dagger were
he favoIite tools OF state 1t must have
1een that the Romans used up all the
bravery Of Italy, and left none for theit |
descendants, for a few thousand warlike |
1arbarians from the German woods would
,leave their way into Roma itself, and
pitch their skin tents on the hills that |
had witnessed the triumphs of Scipio. OF |
Jmsar, and of Trajan. Even in modern |
lines the Barbary pirates landed on the |
'1asts OF Italy, under the shadow OF
Rome and Naples. and carried off the
wre' ched peasants by thousands into
slavery from which there was no rescue
We make this depression into history
o show of what the heritage Of the Italy
II the present consists. Italy of to day
8 the heir Of the Middle Ages. rot OF the
italy Of Scipio and Virgil, of Cesar and
ractus The indumitable SPIRIT and the
discipline that, like the pillar
of hre, led the Roman legion on, have
gone beyond the Apprentices to find
lome ia other countries, in France. 81
Germany, in England, ia America Once
allen from leadership, country seldom
'egaiDs it. Musiug among the fallen
columns of the isles of Greece. Byron
lsked where the Pyrrhic phalanx had
gone though the Pyrrhic dance remained
some other poet might repeat the lament !
n Italy. Perhaps the Italians are
rushed beneath their gigantic past. and,
'e that the cause or not, they have not
he spirit, the energy, and the physical |
ourage OF other nations of Europe |
Their history for centuries shows it, and
While they retain a remarkable intellectual |
Ictisity, exhibiting itself in a wonderful |
manner in music, painting, architecture
md other forms Of beauty, the sterner
riumphs Of war, the last test OF superb
ritY. are not theirs.
The Italians are very proud Of their
navy IL was the boast OF England and
i just one, that her sovereignty Of the
,eas lay not In the oaksn fabrics that
iailed the waters, but in the oakeu
hearts that manned them. Oaken hulls
IRE no longer the thing They must be Of
ron now, but hearts Of oak are as much
q demand as ever Has Italy enough for
ler metal sea mousters2 Can she furnish
'ood for cannon in a great naval war?
However the Italians may fight on the
and, the ocean is not their element. In
he wars Of Independence the Austrians
beat them through and through in
laval battles, aud the Austrians them
Ielves are very poor sailors and sea
lighters 1t is one thing to have q good |
navy, ana 1t is another to know how to
put It to q good use.
Nor is II at all certain that the gigantic |
ronclads, such as the first class vessels |
II the Italian navy, will be useful in |
war Ships OF that character have never
pet had an actual and complete test in |
zeal battle. In the sham fights OF the
English nsvy-and the English are in
initely better sailors than the Italians
hey have invariably proved unmanage-
'sle, rolling In the water like logs and
irashing into each other, despite the |
forts Of the captains and engineers. A
mailer vessel could dance around one
Il these monsters and pepper it with |
,slis, receiving little injury itself, as the |
English fishing boats riddled and de-
'troyed the huge and awkward galleons |
Il the Armada. II is not proven that
ronclads of 10000 and II, 600 tons bur-
len, as at present built, are seaworthy.
indeed, experience is against it. Italys |
,reat vessels would scarcely be available |
n war with nation on the opposite |
ide OF the ocean No ironclad of the |
irst class has ever yet crossed the Allan |
ic The frst heavy storm that one such |