THIS brochure has a special interest, not only as an able and candid exposition of the actual state of Italy, but on account of the character and career of its author, who has labored, suffered, and triumphed with and for the cause of her country, in a manner, and to a degree, scarcely paralleled in our age. We propose to make her views, and the facts she cites, the basis of this article, and to add others equally significant from sources not less authentic. Let us first, however, recall the claims which this patriotic and gifted lady has upon our attention and sympathy when she writes of Italy. The lamented Countess D'Ossoli, in a letter dated Rome, May 27, 1849, during the memorable siege of that devoted city, says of her most efficient coadjutor, the Princess Belgiojoso: "She showed her usual energy and princely heart, sustaining at her own expense a company of soldiers and a journal up to the last sad betrayal of Milan. Since leaving there, she has received no income, her possessions being in the grasp of Radetsky; but as she worked so largely with money, so can she without. She published an invitation to the Roman women to make lint and bandages, and offer their services to the wounded; she put the hospitals in order, and, in the central one -Trinitá de Pellegrini-she has remained day and night; some money she procured, at first, by going through Rome, accompanied by two other Tadies veiled, to beg it; afterwards, the voluntary contributions were generous." Thus, in every exigency, this remarkabe woman was the centre and inspiration of patriotic devotion, and her life gives a noble emphasis to her pen.

A native of Milan, Cristina, daughter

of the eminent family of Trivulzio,—a name identified with patriotic aspirations and free principles for generations, -was born June 28, 1808. Her earliest teaching was superintended by Manzoni. In 1824 she became the wife of Prince Emiglio de Belgiojoso, who was a lineal descendant of the house of Este. He was a renowned musical amateur, and died at Milan in 1858. They resided alternately at Florence, Rome, and Naples. Her domestic relations, however, were uncongenial, and, like so many of the gifted and baffled of her sex, she found solace for unsatisfied affections in the larger interests of letters and politics. Her inspiration in regard to the latter was wholly patriotic; by birth, traditions, culture, and instinct, she was devoted to her country; and when the French Revolution of 1830 excited a liberal movement in Romagna and Lombardy, she hastened to Paris to enlist the sympathies of Louis Philippe. There she, at once, assumed a high position in salon and court; Lafayette was her intimate counsellor, and she soon became a favorite with the savants of the French capital. When Austria had nipped in the bud the fond hopes of her countrymen, the ambassador of that power in France warned her either to return to her estates, or suffer their confiscation. She instantly decided to sacrifice her material interests to personal freedom and the cause she had at heart; her palace was relinquished, her habitual luxuries cheerfully resigned; but the noble friends of her prosperity gathered around her with renewed respect and affection in her humble lodgings. She had recourse to her pen and pencil for subsistence, and found ample consola

tion for the loss of fortune in the genial activity of her disciplined and accomplished mind; she assiduously investigated the scientific and political questions of the day, was a constant attendant upon the lectures at the Sorbonne and College of France, and the companion of the foremost thinkers of the time. French, German, and Italian scholars frequented her small apartment, and discussed with her the subjects of their research. Meantime, her mother was unremitting in her efforts to induce the Austrian Government to grant the Princess an allowance from her confiscated estates; and, in 1834, succeeded in obtaining the boon; at the same time, Mignet, the historian, Sebastiani, and other influential friends, were active in her behalf, and, at length, Metternich yielded to the personal solicitations of Louis Philippe, and her entire property was restored. The Saint Simonians desired to elect her their representative, but she refused; the office they proposed, however, indicates, not only the peculiar doctrines then advocated by Chevalier and Duvergier, but their high appreciation of the Countess, whom they desired to make "the representative of the living law in the name of woman made socially equal with man in the new religion." Though endowed with that mental superiority and breadth of intellectual sympathy which would ably vindicate the rights of her sex, she seems to have had no perverse ambition to exercise her gifts and opportunities, except in the benign and practical usefulness so accordant with true womanly instincts; for, as soon as her fortune was restored, she devoted herself to the economical and educational advancement of her poor compatriots; elementary schools were founded, juvenile asylums established, peasant girls provided with bridal outfits, and the indigent furnished with food distributed at regular intervals. Nor were more personal and delicate claims upon her benevolence neglected. When Thierry, the historian, was bereaved of his conjugal ally, and unable to prosecute his work, now doubly important VOL. IV.-77

as a solace to his grief,-for want of the aid his infirmities made indispensable, this noble lady undertook and fulfilled with infinite tact and patience, the office of his amanuensis and reader. She began also to publish, on her own account, writings wherein a liberal and eclectic philosophy is warmed by genuine Italian sympathies. After sojourning at Geneva and Florence, she again fixed her residence at Milan, at the auspicious and exciting epoch when the reforms of Pius IX. raised the patriotic hopes of her country, and nerved the people in a new crusade against the invader. Her entire fortune was freely offered to her country; hundreds of volunteers were equipped at her expense; but her earnest advice was rejected, and, when the fatal battle of Custozza, which recent developments now leave little doubt was the result of treasonable intrigue,-renewed the alien's grasp on prostrate Italy, the Countess hastened to Rome, where she became the beneficent angel of the wounded patriots, and gave herself unreservedly to the duties of a nurse, counsellor and benefactress in camp and hospital. When Rome fell, she embarked, with the other exiles, for Malta, and with them was refused by the Irish commander permission to land; thence the fugitives went to Athens and Constantinople, cheered and sustained by the example and benefactions of the brave and disinterested sharer of their privations. While in the Turkish capital, she earned a livelihood by writing for the journals-an American one included-her fortune having been again confiscated. The Sultan gave her a grant of land near Nicomedia; she travelled extensively in Syria, and, while returning to Constantinople, was nearly murdered by one of her servants. This Eastern episode of her life recalls two famous English sojourners in the Orient, Lady Montagu and Lady Stanhope; but adventurous as were their ex-periences, that of the Princess Belgiojoso is associated with nobler sacrifices, and a more illustrious career. On her return to Europe, she took up her abode

in Paris; and, for the second time, the Austrian Government restored her estates, twice cheerfully surrendered, with the exchange of comfort and prosperity for indigence and exile, rather than compromise her patriotic faith and duty. Arago taught her mathematics, Manzoni fostered and elevated her literary taste; she mastered the Chinese language, and became an accomplished musician. Her travels in the East were recently published in Paris. Thus gifted in mind, with a patriotic record brighter than any woman of the age, the centre of the most cultivated European society, and a life-long Sister of Charity, her manners are as unpretending as they are attractive, and her character as noble as her life is disinterested.

The unpretending treatise whose title is at the head of this paper-" Observations on the Actual State of Italy, and her Future "-is divided into six chapters, or rather separate essays; the first treats of the political and material situation of Italy, and the second of the influence of the Past; then follow her remarks on the Italian character, its varieties and its results; on the spirit of party; civic and social duties, and the aims towards which all should earnestly tend. The scope of the work thus embraces all the essential interests, prospects, and claims of the subject. It is written with singular candor and conscientiousness, inspired by the most intelligent patriotism. It gives a complete and authentic idea of the process whereby the present civil status has been reached; the difficulties in the way of its prosperous issues, and the means and method through which the country and people can be developed and advanced. Good sense and just principles, accurate observation and noble sympathy, clearness of statement and earnestness of conviction are evident on every page; the history, the defects, and the capabilities of her country are thoroughly understood by the Countess; her heart is in her theme; but patriotism clarifies, and never confuses, her perceptions.

She first discusses the influence of the past. Long-continued despotism in Italy has weakened self-reliance, and induced habits of ease and gossip; natural industry has been suppressed; the people kept ignorant; cities absorbed prosperity; taxes discouraged enterprise; the rural districts had not even a conventional share in politics; an inferior position thus placed the country at great comparative disadvantage; labor came to be regarded as vulgar; the Pope set the fatal example of calling strangers to the rescue; Northern Italy oscillated between the sway of Austria and France, while Southern was linked to the bigoted absolutism of Spain. Such, for a prolonged series of years, was the condition of the land so bountifully favored by Nature, so rich with the spoils of time. The inevitable result has been to foster a race of civic children, unversed in the science of government, unaccustomed to the responsibilities of citizenship, and, therefore, when more free institutions succeeded, the facile prey of interested factions, the credulous fanatics of theory, or the victims of delusions. Then came the French Revolution, rousing vague dreams of enfranchisement; kindling aspirations in the pure and patriotic, and luring the uninformed and undisciplined to license and skepticism, but yielding no permanent fruits of liberty or law, because of the want of faith and training incident to such a passive destiny. The career of Napoleon, however arbitrary, opened vistas of promise, inspired a more vital development, ameliorated many of the material obstacles to national progress, and superinduced upon the effete civilization of Italy somewhat of the science and scope of the age; but withal outraged personal and state rights, restrained independent thought and action, while it substituted better methods of despotic rule. His campaigns in Italy ushered in a new era, planted the seeds of civic reform, and revived the political and social life which had languished unto death, under a less intelligent and energetic sway. The change, however

benign in some aspects, was too brief to mature great results; it gave an impulse in the right direction; it achieved many internal improvements, and initiated administrative reform; it brought together, for awhile, long dissevered districts, and while it robbed the land of many artistic trophies, it enriched it with new elements of industry and of progress. But the reaction was full of despair. The sudden reestablishment of the old feudal tyranny, the restitution of duchies and courts, the more odious by comparison with the transient respite from their cruel and dark authority, the relapse of a partial liberty and a wiser law into the former stagnation and persecution, was like an eclipse of the faint dawn of freedom; it made the patriot sullen, and roused the indignant protest of the lovers of justice. Thence followed the conspiracies of secret societies, the propagandism of Mazzini-the base and merciless system of espionage, the scaffold, exile and Spielberg, whose tragic record fills the interval between the battle of Waterloo and the inauguration of the new kingdom. The most sad and chivalric episode in this chapter of modern Italian history is the noble intervention of a constitutional king-the league of the House of Savoy with the liberals—the enthusiasm, the fight, and the failure. After another era of hopeless abeyance in the grasp of a few selfish rulers, to whom the different states had been arbitrarily allotted by the so-called Holy Alliance, the advanced polity of Sardinia found an expositor and representative, who supplied the great need not only of that State, but of the whole Italian people, and at last could boast of a statesman with national instincts, with wisdom, knowledge, efficiency, clearness of purpose, consistency, perseverance, tact, and practical force of faith. How he won and kept the confidence of his countrymen, gained the respect of Europe, developed the resources, concentrated the sympathies, and enlightened the minds of the people, is a part of cotemporary history. Of Teutonic blood, he was

self-possessed and persistent; a student of the English Constitution, he recognized the true elements of civil liberty; comprehensive and loyal, he seized on the national germ, and cherished it into efflorescence. Well docs the Countess Belgiojoso call Cavour the ring that linked Victor Emanuel to Napoleon III. By initiating the Paris Congress and the Sardinian Expedition to the Crimea, he gained the sympathy of liberal Europe; by fusing current opinion and diverse political sentiment into a crusade against the invaders of Italy-he built up a genuine national feeling, and, for the time, made Italians one in thought and purpose. The sudden and treacherous peace of Villa Franca dashed his bright hopes, and checked him in midcareer; but the Austrians were expelled from Lombardy; Tuscany and Romagna were annexed, then Sicily and Naples. His death was an irreparable misfortune; but he had effectually begun the work of civic regeneration and unity. In a few years Venice was free, and united to the kingdom of Italy; the capital was removed from frontier Piedmont to central Tuscany; and all this was accomplished with only the loss of Nice and part of Savoy ceded to the imperial ally-leaving Rome intact, to present the anomaly of an ecclesiastical and mediæval despotism in the heart of a constitutional kingdom. All these new political facts, be it remembered, while they totally modified the political condition, left unchanged, to any great extent, the social influences engendered by the previous years of degradation and decay; and to these, after seven years of national life, the fair patriot whose work we are considering, attributes no small part of the existing obstacles to prosperous civic development; they have left deep traces upon the Italian character, and it is from character, in the last analysis, that political as well as social progress is derived. How far the inauspicious close and the incomplete result of the long struggle is justly to be ascribed to the deficiencies of the national character, and how far to the effect of inevitable circumstances,

is a problem difficult of solution; but even in view of the last melancholy catastrophe at Monte Rotondo--wholly attributed by the conservatives to reckless imprudence and premature violence, no disinterested survey of the actual political situation can fail to lead the candid observer to acquiesce in the conviction of Italy's consistent and baffled champion: "I shall believe," writes Garibaldi from his island-home to his Bolognese comrades, "that our people mean freedom, when I see the shop of St. Peter's turned into an asylum for the indigent; and the flask of St. Januarius broken on the tonsured pate of the ludicrous sorcerer." He states a patent historical fact, when he declares priests "the pedestal of every tyranny;" superstitious monopolies and vassalage must be overcome to insure absolute national self-assertion; but, meantime, the influence of the Past, as manifest in the lack of private probity and self-sacrifice, is the key to a great part of the existing political evils.

A great obstacle to civic fusion is the local variances among states and cities, the antagonism between them in the Middle Ages having bred an alienation which recent facilities of communication only gradually diminish. Indeed, the comparative isolation that so long obtained has much to do with the remarkable individuality of communities, separated by what we should deem very limited distances. Perhaps no fact is more striking to the American traveller in Italy, than the distinct character and claims of each state and ancient capital; their natural language, as well as the patois, the architecture, manners, scenery, social traits, history, and spirit of all, widely differ, and leave quite a distinct impression. The prosperity and freedom of the whole country, as well as its national sympathies, have thus been checked and chilled. A striking illustration of this, as well as a great proof of the influence of speedy and commodious transit upon civilization may be found in the brief duration of the last war in Italy. Troops were transported by railway with celer

ity, and it was practicable, as never before, to concentrate an army, and relieve a garrison without the tedious marches and expensive carriage of munitions and camp equipage; hence, in a few summer weeks, the conflict was decided. Navigation, indeed, answered a certain purpose in the economy of trade and travel; and the coast, indented as it is with numerous harbors, and accessible at so many points, is, in the view of geographical science, a primary cause of the ancient development and culture of the peninsula. In modern times, however, Italy was much later in sharing the advantages of locomotive facilities, which, in countries more fortunate and better governed, secured a constant interchange, not only of products, but of ideas, and made it possible to create and sustain an efficient public opinion and national unity of interest and sentiment.

Far from being homogeneous, therefore, the people of the various Italian states are divided by traditional characteristics; the elements of culture and barbarism are unequally distributed; patriotism was and is still more or less a local faith and feeling; the place of nativity identified with the idea of country, instead of the whole region known to foreigners as Italy; peculiarities of costume, of language, of vocation, diverse tastes and attachments, special physical and moral qualities distinguish each metropolis and its vicinage; so that the first problem of the national reformers was and is to harmonize discordant attributes, reconcile old animosities, expand local into national loyalty, and bring together whatever of intelligent and liberal citizenship exists. Faction born of local causes has been the great impediment to fusion; narrow views of civic duty the obstacle to united action; a puerile devotion to what is near, customary, and familiar, the vexatious counterpoise to magnanimous recognition of the general welfare. The fierce controversy excited by the removal of the capital, after the kingdom of Italy was estab lished, elicited curious documentary