Richmond dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1884-1903, 1891-05-29
THE ITALIAN IM5RoGLlo.
An EngIlshwoman's Sensible View OF 1t
Probable Outcome.
rNlnetnnnth Century.l

[Ninetcentn tenlutg'I
without misgiying we may assert that
italy will never allow her century-old
friendship with the United States 70 ne
broken or even cooled by an inGideht =
resulting from the combined DARK deeuS Oh
criminals and towards. :,
The tall talk stalking up and down "
anent sealed orders to Italian admlrals
of ironclads and gunbOats weighing anchor
for the Gulf of Mexico: OF passports made
ready for the much-beloved American Min
lister in Rome (whose departure thence
would be as much regretted as IL Baron
Fava's from Washington, are but
SO many cdndrds invented by ltaly
false friends and envious Jrd'e1. NOT
word of this bombastlc trash DO
we read in the Italian newspapers. NOT
is it possible that a Cabinet which contains
two such members rs Giovanni Nlcotora
and Pasouale Villari, than whom no two
living men have done more 20 stamp out
misery and crime in their native land,
would for a rlme-orlginated catastrophe
consent to any step which would lneylta-
blv precipitate their country into an abyss
from which Garibaldi rCdiCious could not
extract her.
No! Italy. at an oyerburdenlng sacrl-
fee 10 herself, ut cost which every ltal-
ian suffers from but pays punctuaily, II
not cheerfuly. has organized an every
cltizen-a-sOldiern army: has created z
MAGNIFICENT fleet simply and solely for her
own defence. And for the same object
she has entered into an alliance which, II
not exactly "a union of hearts," Is one OF
vital interests. Even as she mast have
the integrity of her own territory guaran-
teed, so mas she undertaken TO guarantee
the territory Of her allies against all
redeemers and revendicators OF pro-
vnces, coded by treaty or lost through
the fortunes or mlsfOrtuncs o. var. vi
such fortunes Italy Is, alas, only too COM
petent a Judge. But, bitterly as she ever
mourns the loss Of Nice, and much as she
desires TO see Savoy coded TO neutral
Switzerland, she does not deem 1t her
right 20 keep Europe in state of turmoil
and apprehension. or TO stir UP the inhabl-
tants of those provinces to lmpotent re
belllon.
Consequently she is less inclined than
other nations 10 3vmpathlZe with those
who DO thus bewail "spilt milk"
Her feet she maintains in spick and span
order for the protection OF her coasts, Tor
the prevention Of playful descents on
her arsenals, or the possible renewals
of guards of honor 10 the prisoner at the
Vatican. insufficient for a hlibustcring
expedition, it Is fair fleet for defence
consisting Of seventeen iron-clad war
ships, with four other nearly completed,
270 gun-boats, ocean tOrpodOe3, and torpedo
vessels carrying 2 1000 guns, of which three
fourths are of recent type, with "A crew OF
20, 900 on active service, besides 500 officers
and Al, 900 men on unlimited leave or
in reserve. Never a dIngy will she spare
need,essly from the Mediterranean, which
neither she nor, we imagine, Great Britain
intends to allow ever TO become French
lake" though Tunis, Toulou, Corsica, Nice,
and Marscilles form O pretty we'll dlstri-
buted environment. What Italy asks for
is to be let alone, to have TO think
less of her foreign affairs, and be
able to attend to her home policy.
The written alliance with Germany
and Austria on land. and the unwritten
but firm friendship and pledge of mutual
defence of Italy with Great Britain on the
seas, il, in the opinion Of very large ma
jory of thoughtful. undemolstratiye, in
dustrious, law-abidlng, and order-loying
Italians, the only present security tor her
own progress, and for the unbroken peace
of Europe.
The idea of that peace being broken by
a war between Italy and the United States
is so ludicrous on the one hand and so re-
voting on the other, that none but i'm
beetles or malignants could have even sug-
gested such possibility.
JESSIE WHITE (YEDoyO MARIO.