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NEW MONTHLY MAGAZINE.

WHAT SHALL WE SAY TO ITALY?

BY AN OUTSIDER.

[Though widely differing in opinion from the writer of the following article on the Italian question, we know that he possesses excellent information on the subject, and conceive him, therefore, to be well entitled to a hearing. Our own views on the great European Difficulty will be found set forth in the February Number of this Magazine, and also in another part of the present Number.— ED. N. M. M.]

All

FRACTIOUS Italy is once more disturbing the tranquillity of Europe. Again and again she has been well beaten for the same fault, and told to be quiet. But she will not be quiet; the treatment adopted towards her has not answered, and now the other members of the family cannot pursue their avocations in peace because of her restlessness. Danger of universal disruption and conflagration of war is threatened from this cause. men are running to and fro anxiously asking if Europe is to have war or peace. And statesmen are meditating, what can be done about Italy? so as to stave off the calamity of the former alternative. But supposing some poisonous Daffy's elixir to be once again administered in sufficient dose to still the fractious patient for a while, the question, what is to be done about Italy? would still press on the attention of Europe for an

answer.

England and Europe are to a certain degree aware of this. We hear it admitted on all hands that the condition of Italy is a standing menace to the tranquillity of Europe. But there is great reason to think that in England, at all events, men are very far from being aware to how great an extent this is the case. When noble lords, whose position entitles them to be the leaders of various sections of public opinion, "trust that the Pope may be led to see the necessity of introducing ameliorations in the administration of his states," or remark that "if Rome were well governed the presence of foreign troops might be dispensed with, without the fear of revolution;" when "best public instructors," far better versed in the past history of Italy and the public law of Europe as set forth in treaties than in the daily and hourly miseries, basenesses, iniquities, and degradations which the operation of those treaties are working beneath a million roof-trees, opine that, after all, Austria is not more a foreigner in Italy than most of the other rulers to whom she has been time out of mind subject; that she is justified in so ruling as to make herself safe in the possession of what is duly hers, and that the Italian population have no great reason to complain of the burden of a government, the heaviness of whose hand is caused by their own unruliness,-when these are March-VOL. CXV. NO. CCCCLIX.

the indications of the public opinion of England, the Italians may be excused for feeling, and very loudly saying, that England is talking of what she does not comprehend.

It would be easy to set forth what may be termed, in no disparaging sense, the sentimental view of Italy's quarrel with her master and owner, in such a manner as would better serve the purpose of a writer addressing himself to the sympathies of a free and prosperous people, but the following statements, which seek only to convince the reason, will be confined in the driest manner to facts and figures.

Firstly, then, let us see how the case stands with regard to the great subject of taxation.

When Austria entered into possession of the provinces assigned her by the Congress of Vienna, the assessed tax on real property was levied, in different parts of the empire, according to various old, imperfect, and dissimilar systems of survey and valuation. The German provinces were rated according to the survey made by order of Joseph II., the Venetian territories according to that of the old republic, and those of Milan and Mantua alone possessed a good and scientifically made survey, which had been executed under Charles VI. and Maria Theresa. But an imperial decree of the 23rd of December, 1817, ordered the formation of a new and universal survey and estimate of all the provinces of the empire, except the Milanese, to be made on the principle and plan of that already possessed by this latter province. The text of the decree having provided in the most minute manner for an entirely equitable method of arriving at the fair yearly value of all property, declares that "when the necessary rectifications shall have been made in the results of the measures and estimates, the annual amount of the tax on real property, which the emperor may have fixed on according to the necessities of the state, shall be so divided that each province, each circle, each district, each commune, and each proprietor, may have to pay to the public treasury "an equal proportionate part of so much per cent. on his income, proportioned to the whole of the impost exacted by the state."*

The operation of framing these new surveys and estimates for the entire empire was necessarily a long one, and certain regulations more or less equitable were laid down for the guidance of the finance department in the mean time, with which it is not necessary to trouble English readers.

In 1853 the new survey was completed in all the provinces, and 16 per cent. on the revenue of real property was the equalised result, which was and is accordingly applied to the German provinces of the empire.

Under these circumstances, it seems incredible to an Englishman that in the face of the law of 1817 the tax levied in the Italian provinces should be other than 16 per cent. But let us see what is the fact.†

"Una egual quota parte di un tanto per cento del suo reddito proporzionato al totale dell' imposta esatto dallo stato." This decree is printed at length by Tegoborski, "Des Finances et du Crédit Public de l'Autriche. Paris: 1843.

† As it is the object of these pages merely to bring to the knowledge of the general English reader the broad facts of the case in as simple a form as possible, the incontestable results only of the Austrian finance operations are here given. The statistician, who is interested in the subterfuges and thimble-rigging of the figure grouping art, by which these results are reached, may find them set forth with admirable clearness in a pamphlet entitled " Sulla Necessità razionale e legislativa da accordara al Regno Lombardo Veneti la Perequazione della sua Imposta," &c. By Valentino Pasini. Venice: 1858.

It results from the statistic tables published at Vienna for the year 1845-and those for the succeeding years confirm the exactitude of the figures that the gross revenue from the real property of the LombardoVenetian kingdom was 171 million of francs; and that from the other provinces of the empire 641 millions. It would appear, therefore, that the respective proportions of the tax to be raised should be for the Lombardo-Venetian kingdom somewhat less than three-tenths, and for the rest of the empire somewhat more than seven-tenths of the whole; or, in other words, the two portions should stand to each other as 18 to 70.

The tax levied, instead of standing in this proportion, stands in that of, as near as may be, 36 to 70!

To make the tax hold the same proportion to the gross revenue in Italy that it does in the German provinces, it should be reduced from 36 millions to 18 millions; or, on the rated income, somewhat less than 16 millions.

But the plain fact is, that while the German provinces pay on real property a tax of 16 per cent., the Italian provinces pay the ordinary tax (for it must not be supposed that this is all they are loaded with; very far from it, as will presently be seen)—more than 283 per cent.

The amount of the wrong done to the Lombardo-Venetian kingdom by Austria, and accordingly of the implacable hatred of the sufferers for their oppressor, will be strikingly exhibited by the following facts and figures.

The amount of real.property tax paid by the Italian provinces to the Austrian government, from 1814 to 1848 inclusive, was 33 millions of francs yearly; and thus in the whole period of thirty-five years amounted to 1155 millions!

In 1849 and 1850 the amount paid for the same tax was 100 millions in the two years!

From 1851 to 1858 inclusive, the rate paid for this tax was 44 millions yearly; and thus in the ten years, from 1849 to 1858, Austria drew from her Italian provinces 450 millions of francs!

Besides this, the tax-payers are charged with a multitude of other assessed taxes under various names, which partly are applicable to such purposes as are with us paid by local taxation, but in large part also to strictly imperial purposes.

Besides this, the burdens were enormously increased during the last of the above-mentioned periods by special war taxes, and notably by the memorable national and voluntary loan, which being forcibly imposed on the communes exposed them to heavy costs.

These different additions bring up the total to the appalling sum of 60 millions a year for the last ten years. And this sum was wrung from a people impoverished by the recent war, and by the failure of their great source of wealth, the silk crop.

Let us now look at the condition of the Lombardo-Venetian taxpayer as compared with that of the inhabitants of other parts of Italy. And let us compare the facts with the recent statements in the House of Lords by one of the first authorities in the House, to the effect that, "while

* In round numbers. The fractions are in no wise necessary to the argument.

admitting that the government of Austria weighed heavily on the minds of the people (in the Lombardo-Venetian kingdom), that the taxation was heavy, and that as to liberty the people had none, he must observe that those evils were common to the majority of the inhabitants of the Continent, and that ON THE WHOLE THE PEOPLE OF THOSE PROVINCES

WERE BETTER CARED FOR AND BETTER OFF THAN THE PEOPLE OF ANY

OTHER PORTION OF ITALY."!!!-See Earl Granville's speech on the Address, February 3rd. When such a man as Earl Granville makes such an assertion, in the perfect conviction, we may be very sure, that he is speaking pure truth, is it not fair to conclude that Englishmen in general are wholly ignorant of the real facts of the case?

On account of the same tax

Piedmont (continent) pays

12,000,000 francs

Tuscany, little more than. 6,000,000
Naples (continental).

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25,000,000

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and, divided among the population, show that each individual pays in

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while in the Lombardo-Venetian kingdom the same extent of soil, one square kilometre, pays 1000 francs! and each individual 8 francs! The territorial extension of the Lombardo-Venetian kingdom is about one-fifteenth of that of the entire empire, and its population a little more than one-eighth of the entire population. And yet IT PAYS A LITTLE

LESS THAN ONE QUARTER OF THE WHOLE PROPERTY TAX OF THE EMPIRE!

The amount of property tax which the Italian provinces would pay if rated in conformity with the law of 1817, equably with the rest of the empire, WOULD BE 24 MILLIONS OF FRANCS. THE AMOUNT ACTUALLY

PAID IS 44 MILLIONS.

Lastly, the total amount of direct taxation of all kinds paid by the Lombardo-Venetian kingdom may be reckoned well within the mark at 140 millions a year!

The above facts have been stated simply as such, without any attempt at proving the correctness of them, because they are notorious and undeniable. The present writer makes no pretension to having discovered them. He limits his scope to bringing them from places where they are not likely to meet the eye of the English public, and soliciting a glance at them. Any one sufficiently interested in the matter to wish to verify the above figures, and to obtain a much fuller idea of the methods by which all this illegality and rapine has been practised, may find all he desires in Tegoborski, "Des Finances et du Crédit Public de l'Autriche," Paris, 1843; "Staats-Voranschlag für die am constituivendem Reichstage vertretenen Länder der Österreichischen Monarchie für das Ver

waltungsjahr 1849," Wien, 1848; "Tafeln zur Statistik der Österreichischen Monarchie für die Jahre 1845 und 1846, Wien, 1851-für die Jahre 1847 und 1848, Wien, 1853-für das Jahr 1851, Wien, 1856;" "L'Annuario Statistico Italiano, Anno 1, 1857-8," Torino, and specially the above-cited memoir of Signor Pasini; "Sull' Amministrazione Finanziana dell' Austria nel Regno Lombardo-Veneto primo del Marzo 1848," by the same author, Lausanne, 1850; "Finanze Italiane': Annuario Economico-politico per l'anno 1852," by the same author.

In the preface to the first-cited work by Signor Valentino Pasini, he writes thus:

"In the month of February, 1858, when reading a memoir before the Royal Imperial Institute (of Venice), I deemed it my duty to note the urgent necessity of-1st. Diminishing the taxes on real property, which burden agricultural industry; 2ndly. To equalise not only the provinces of the old Venetian republic with those of Mantua and Milan, but also all the provinces of the Lombardo-Venetian kingdom with those of the other parts of the empire; in which, notwithstanding a new census has been established in them on the same bases as those which rule our provinces, yet the ordinary property tax is levied at the very much milder rate of 16 per cent."

Now this memoir, as part of the "Acts of the Institute," was printed at the expense of the imperial government. "I wrote thus," says Signor Pasini," in the expectation of finding an opportune occasion of giving the proofs of my assertions. This occasion was not long in presenting itself. In fact, in the following month of April a demonstration of what I had advanced was asked of me."

This demand, the writer is at liberty to state, was made by the Archduke Maximilian. And Signor Pasini had the honour of reading to him the paper, from the preface to which we have quoted, and which was written with the view of justifying and explaining the statements made before the Institute.

The impression made on his royal and imperial highness by the statements laid before him, and his reception of them, left, it may be added, a strong conviction on the mind of Signor Pasini of his earnest desire to ameliorate the condition of the provinces entrusted to his government, unaccompanied, however, by the smallest hope that he would have any power to carry out his wishes. At all events, it was something that his royal and imperial highness did not dream of saying, in the exactitude of his knowledge of the subject, that which Lord Derby (debate on Address in the House of Lords, February 3rd), in what can only be considered his utter ignorance of the subject, ventured to assert, that "HE BE

LIEVED THE LOMBARD PROVINCES HAVE LITTLE TO COMPLAIN OF IN THE ADMINISTRATION OF THE GOVERNMENT."!!

If Lord Derby would for a moment contemplate the real condition of the Lombardo-Venetian population, even as it is most imperfectly set forth in the statements above printed, and would endeavour for an instant to realise to himself the effect which such words from him must produce on men so situated, he would surely stand convicted in his own eyes of stimulating those unhappy people to revolution more dangerously than any vulgar agitator or demagogue. Does Lord Derby know how the denial of justice operates on the human heart? Can he estimate the bitterness that is generated by finding a cry of prolonged

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