nics is most remarkable. The schools are admirably con ducted, the rooms large, clean, and well-aired. "A reading-room, open every evening, and a lending library in connexion with it, for the benefit of working-men and poor prisoners, was established about eight months ago in the quarter of San Giovanni Laterano. Members pay the small entrance-fee of one halfpenny (five centesimi). The books are lent for fifteen days, and are well selected, including translations from the works of J. S. Mill, Smiles, Ellis, Chambers, Macaulay, &c. Above 1500 volumes had been lent at the end of the year, and among the applicants for them were members of all the different trades, and many common soldiers. "Two co-operative stores, upon the English system, have been opened for working-men. Shares, representing something more than £300, have been taken up by 450 associates, and the experiment is answering so well that other shops are to be opened in different parts of the city. People's banks, upon the German system, and savings banks, have also been founded. "A technical school, in which instruction is given in the various branches of science, including political economy, has been established in the old convent of San Giovanni Laterano, and is furnished with laboratories and scientific collections. It is frequented by a large number of pupils, some of whom assist the professor in teaching reading, writing, and arithmetic to evening classes of adults. A technical school of commerce, on a large scale, including instruction in the commercial laws of all countries, and in the languages of Europe and the East, is about to be opened in the Palazzo Foscari. "The societies for mutual help (benefit societies) which existed during the Austrian rule, but which were then only allowed to squander their money in masses, funerals, and festivities, are being reorganised and turned to good and useful purposes. Already several of the corporations—such as the gilders, carpenters, smiths, &c.-have formed themselves into such societies, and have placed themselves under statutes framed upon the English model. They include, at present, about 2700 working-men. "There are gratuitous evening lectures for the people, in which the principal professors of Venice lecture upon political economy and other branches of science, and read the best Italian classics, illustrating and explaining them by commentaries on history, constitutional law, and public economy. "The foundation of all these institutions is due to the professors and representatives of the middle class in Venice, and the names of Dr Errera and Professors Luzzatti, Namias, and Gera deserve special mention in connexion with them. They have received of late the support of the municipality. It would be well for them and for their country if the inheritors of the great historic names of the Venetian Republic, who form the upper or aristocratic class of Venice, were to think less of frivolous amusements, and to associate themselves heartily with the promotion of these good works. "I may mention that a company has been formed for building docks upon a large scale in Venice, and that negotiations are in progress for the establishment of a line. of steamers between the city and Alexandria, and other parts of the East. Other projects for the development of the resources and for the improvement of Venice are being carried out, under the direction of the active and publicspirited prefect, Signor Torelli. "The progress which I have described as taking place in Venice extends to other cities and towns in Italy, especially in the north. All this has been done in the first year of liberty. Scarcely twelve months ago, any attempt to introduce real knowledge among the people, and to improve their condition, would have been treated by the Austrian rulers of Venice as a political crime. Dr Errera was con demned to ten years' imprisonment-two and a half of which he had passed in solitary confinement, when he was liberated on the transfer of the Italian provinces-mainly for attempting to introduce those institutions which he has now helped to establish. "That there is discontent in Italy-discontent with the manner in which the affairs of the country are administered -there can be no doubt. With a perfectly free press and absolute liberty of speech, that discontent finds ample expression; but those who imagine that there is any desire on the part of the Italians to return to their old divisions, and to give up that national unity which alone can make them a great people, altogether mistake the popular feeling. It may suit the French, who are naturally irritated at seeing a young nation enjoying those liberties of which they have been deprived, to misrepresent the present state of feeling in Italy; but there is no Italian, except the veriest boor of the Neapolitan provinces, who would not spurn with indignation the suggestion of returning to that miserable priestly and political tyranny which has reduced Italy to the condition of ignorance and degradation from which she is now surely, though slowly, emerging. The choice is not now between a united Italy and a divided Italy, but between monarchy and republicanism. The decision of the Italian people will depend upon the patriotism and wisdom of Italian statesmen, and not a little upon the policy of France. --Your obedient servant, "A. H. L." ITALY, VENICE, AND AUSTRIA.* Reprinted from the "Westminster Review" for 1st July 1866. 1. Recueil des Traités, Conventions, et Actes Diplomatiques concernant l'Autriche et l'Italie. 1703-1859. AMYOT, Editeur, Rue de la Paix, Paris. 2. Documents et Pièces Authentiques laissés par DANIEL MANIN, Président de la République de Venise. 3. Mémoires de Daniel Manin. Par M. HENRI MARTIN. Furne et Cie, Editeurs. Paris. 4. La Vénétie en 1864. Librairie de L. Hatchette et 5. La Prima Legislatura del Regno d'Italia; Studii e Ricordi di Leopoldo Galeotti, Deputato al Parlamento. Firenze. 1865. THE HE condition of Italy during the first half of the present century seemed to forbid the idea of its ever becoming one united kingdom. Yet not only * This article was completed just before the actual commencement of hostilities between Prussia and Austria in June 1866. has such a kingdom been formed, but it has received official recognition from all the governments of the world, with but one exception. The work is not, however, completed, inasmuch as portions of the Italian soil are still in the possession of foreign powers. Its completion is the one engrossing object to which all the efforts of the statesmen and people of Italy are alike directed. They aim avowedly at excluding all foreign rule and influence from the Peninsula, substituting in their place a purely national government, presided over by a sovereign of the nation's choice. The more closely this important work is examined, the clearer does it become that it alone offers a reasonable hope of bestowing upon Italy the blessings of order and of freedom, increasing thereby most materially the general security and peace of Europe. This may be shown both by the failure of French supremacy in Italy, under the first Napoleon, to attain these objects, and also by the yet more signal failure of Austrian supremacy, which succeeded to that of Imperial France. It is yet further proved by the results which have sprung since 1859 from the formation of the Italian Constitutional Monarchy. Results obtained, despite the innumerable difficulties arising from the continuation of the Austrian rule in Venetia, and from the intricate problems involved in the solution of the Roman question. From the commencement of the present century up to the year 1814 the supremacy of France was established throughout Italy in one form or another by the Emperor Napoleon. The introduction of his |