The Subalpine Kingdom; or, Experiences and Studies in Savoy, Piedmont, and Genoa

Preface

. It has become the fashion of late, from an Italian point of view, to give to the Kingdom of Sardinia, or the Sardinian States — / Stati Sardi — the more expressive title of 11 Reyno Subalpino — The Snbalpine Kingdom. This new title, though as yet rather literary than official, may very properly be adopted by foreigners, who consider the country in refer ence to its present claim to the Hegemoneia of Italy. The introduction of the name of Sardinia naturally confuses the mind. Both the House of Savoy and the Piedmontese people are anxious to get rid of it. There is no need for me to explain the views with which the following Studies were written. I undertook and completed them after the alliance of King Victor Emmanuel with the Western Powers ; and of course before the Congress of Paris — that is, before VI

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. the attempt made by Count Cavour to put himself at the head of a Liberal agitation in Italy. Whilst the sheets were going through the press, however, the events that were taking place naturally induced me to expand certain portions, and make especial reference to the new attitude assumed by the Government of Piedmont. It seems very evident to me that, diploma tically speaking, that Government has placed itself in a false position ; but whether it was urged to do so by overweening self-confidence or by perfidious suggestions, I do not pretend to decide. As King of a small State, taking its title from a distant island, according to an arrange ment made towards the beginning of last cen tury, Victor Emmanuel, despite the services his army might have rendered in the Crimea, has little claim to speak authoritatively at the present crisis, even on Italian affairs.

His true policy would have been to get himself tacitly acknowledged as King of Liberal Italy — if it would not have been considered derogatory to succeed M. Mazzini as King of Subterranean Italy. In these volumes I have unfortunately

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. VII been obliged to show, that for many years the Piedmontese Government, embracing with joy rather than accepting with resignation the humble and solitary career assigned to it by the Treaty of Novara, laboured with success to separate its fortunes from those of the Pro gress party in Italy. All its recent attempts at assuming an independent position, are based on the supposition that Democracy is worn out aud discouraged ; or, at any rate, that ideas of authority have acquired so great a prepon derance in Europe — in consequence of the success of the Emperor Napoleon IIL, and the acquiescence from fear, or other reasons, of England in his schemes — that there is no longer any real danger to " The Throne and the Altar." In Piedmont, Royalty con siders every step towards freedom as a step towards Republicanism.

It is uncomfortable in the half-way house of a Constitution ; and, instead of endeavouring to make itself at home, lives there like a prisoner on parole, sighing and grieving for what it cannot resume without perjury. It is waiting to be delivered by the great General of Despotism, who is now organ ising his forces for a last campaign. The Throne and the Altar are intimately

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. bcund together in Piedmont. Catholicism is declared the State Religion by the first article in the Constitution. This is one of the chief reasons why it is difficult for Royalty and Liberalism in Italy to act together. The real Liberal party know very well that they can never achieve much good without the over throw of the Papacy as a temporal power ; and, in fact, its expulsion from the peninsula. This is why they will no doubt receive with astonishment the very ill-judged letter from Daniel Manin, calling on the Romans to remain quiet, because of the presence of the French. A revolution is not advisable at the present moment ; but when it does take place it must commence at Rome, unless some other point be chosen for strategical reasons. Italy will not be entitled to much sympathy if it be merely moved by an anti-German feeling.

The Austrians are a nuisance in Italy, it is true ; but it is mere foolish prejudice to say that they are a greater nuisance than would be any other foreigners whose government was based on similar principles. Evidently, it is much less humiliating for Italy to receive orders from Vienna than from Paris. The conduct of the Austrians has been reprehen-

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. IX sible from beginning to end, but they have never done anything equal in atrocity to the burglarious attack on Rome. They occupy border-provinces, as it were. The French occupy the centre of Italy. Tliey support a few odious tyrannies, which have, however, the advantage of being laical. The French support the horrible clerical tyranny of Rome, without exception the most repulsive to a Liberal mind of any that has existed since, for the sins of humanity, the immoral institution of government was invented. The history of Italy in modern times is the history of the wrongs it has suffered from all the great powers of Europe who could get at it, but especially from France. It is evident, however, from the vigorous manner in which it developed itself in the Middle Ages, that Italy would have been even now the leading country of Europe, had not the man who, as the Emperor Napoleon IIL informs us, is " the Vicar of Christ " — other wise called the Vice-God — taken up his abode there. He was and is the canker in the bud. The Roman Empire fell, like a ripe pome granate, to the earth, and, being dashed to

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. X pieces, scattered its seeds abroad. Those seeds were municipalities, whose natural tendency was to ripen into republics. The inundation of barbarians would have only fertilised the soil. Up rose the Roman Pontiff, whom bigots may be excused for calling Antichrist, and scattered other seed, the seed of tares. Thus was the good harvest choked. All the monarchies of Europe were based on the doctrine invented by the Papacy — and foolishly preserved, along with many other Papistical ideas, at the hurried Reformation, by the Pro testants — that Christianity recommended one form of government in preference to another. Everywhere throughout Europe, except in England, this delusion remains among religious people. We have relieved our Christianity from so grievous a burden. When Italian Liberals talk of independence, therefore, they mean that they want to be delivered from all foreign armies and foreign influence, and left as free to deal with the Papacy as the Americans, for example, are to deal with the question of slavery. They do not certainly mean, merely, that they want to get rid of Austria, and be sub mitted to a new territorial manipulation.

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. XI Nor do they desire to see one foreign garrison replaced by another. Yet every one knows that there is not a single government in the peninsula really capable of subsisting by its own strength. Even where no armed strangers occupy the strong places, the Liberals are kept down by the consciousness, that if they rise, they rise not merely against their immediate oppressors, but against Catholic and Absolutist Eiu'ope. Sad experience has taught them that Liberals in England can give them no more than sterile sympathy ; and that our Government has always been rather inclined to discourage than assist them. Is this the time to re-open the great Italian debate, with a prospect of arriving at any rational conclusion ? Of course, if the impious confidence of Governments in themselves lead them to attempt playing the part of Providence, present arrangements may be disturbed ; and something good may be won by suffering humanity in the great melee that must ensue. I have been compelled in the following pages to speak somewhat harshly of the policy and general conduct of Count Cavour, and

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. what we know of recent diplomatic intrigues has certainly far from led me to change my opinion. There is something very doubtful, very alarming, indeed, in his movements. Italians may be prudent in applauding him — if they are perfectly sure of themselves, per fectly alive to the dangers of the path in wdiich he is leading them, perfectly aware that there must be ambuscades ahead. For my part, I do not believe in such sudden conver sions. Before leaving Turin to take his place in the Congress, Count Cavour still spoke, like a sturdy Piedmontese of the Old School, with contempt of Italy and the Italian Idea. He has returned to his place in Parliament and pronounced a speech such as, I am told, was "never pronounced in 1848 or 1S49." All this is very consonant to the Count's career as I have sketched it in the following pages, but it would be something new if he were really actuated by Liberal ideas, and were not engaged in some intrigue by wliich some victory of authority over freedom is to be obtained. I am much afraid that the men who now sway in Piedmontese Councils, instead of thinking of the independence of Italy, are

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. XIII thinkiug only of the enlargement of the Sub alpine Kingdom. This may appear the same thing to careless English politicians ; but, as I have endeavoured to convey in the following pages, although Italians are willing to accept the assistance and reward the services of the Savoy dynasty, they are not willing to be regarded as the prize of diplomatic or other contests. Any arrangement, whether made at Moncalieri, the. Tuileries, or St. James's, by which a province or a single village may be made to change hands in the North of Italy, as a compensation for any other change in the South, will naturally be stigmatised as spoliation. All enlightened persons in the Italian Peninsula have their minds now filled with the idea of a New State — no matter under what form of government, monarchical or democratic — whicli shall include all the pro vinces or countries south of the Alps.

In order to assist in the victory of this new scheme, which, in its present unripe state, is open to many objections, a new theory, which may be called Italianism, has been started; but on this I lay no stress, and I am rather eager to point out the differences

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. of race, and character, and language in the various political associations, from Piedmont to Naples. Race can no longer be the basis of anything stable. Italy must become a political word, and have nothing to do with natural history or philology. I confess, likewise, that if the two foreign armies, French and Austrian, which are en gaged in protecting the oppressors of the country, are driven out to make way for anything but Liberalism — some attempts at self-government — I shall feel little interest in the matter. Count Cavour, in his Memo randum, makes no allusion whatever to Political Reforms. He merely talks of Ad ministrative Reforms, and falls far short of the joint Memorandum of the Great Powers of Europe in 1831. I repeat, therefore, that, looking calmly at what is now taking place, I see very little reason for Liberals to re joice — unless they derive satisfaction from the proverb, " When Kings and Diplomatists fall out, honest men get their own."

June, CONTENTS. CHAP. PAGE I. THE FRONTIER ...... 1 II. CHAMBER*! AND ROUSSEAU . .19 III. MADAME DE WARENS* . . . .34 IV. SAVOY POLITICS ..... 72 V. THE GREEN TABLE ..... 93 VI. ENVIRONS OF LAKE BOURGET . . . 106 VII. THE CRADLE OF THE SAVOY DYNASTY . . 123 VIII. THE CAPITAL OF PIEDMONT . . .147 IX. THE CITADEL AND VALENTINO . . .171 X. UNDER THE PORTICOES . . . .193 XI. THE PRESS IN PIEDMONT .... 216 XII. GOSSIP ON RELIGIOUS MATTERS . . . 246 XIII. THE RELIGIOUS QUESTION IN PIEDMONT . 270 XIV. EDUCATION IN PIEDMONT .... 286 XV. CRIME AND PUNISHMENTS .... 297 XVI. PIEDMONTESE WORKMEN . . . THE SUBALPINE KINGDOM.

Chapter I. The Frontier

The Pont Beauvoisin, which connects France with Savoy, crosses the Guier — a little stream, still swift from the impetus it has acquired in tumbling down the mountains of the Great Chartreuse — just in the centre of a large village or borough. You might pass from one territory to another without knowing it, if governments were less anxious to impress the fact that the chief object of their existence is to inter fere with your private affairs, to open your trunks, to feel the lining of your coats, to rumple your linen, to put their noses in your medicine chest, and, iu short, to make themselves generally disagreeable. The change of flag from one kind of tricolor to another would not force itself upon you ; and, indeed, VOL. I. B there would scarcely be anything to notice, save the different shape of the cigars in everybody's mouth.

Savoy writers, discontented with the institutions under which they live, point to the evidences of material prosperity in the quarters on the western bank. I did not see them. The French half is, in truth, as dilapidated and as unlively as the other. Throughout Dauphiny — as throughout almost all France away from the great centres — the houses are small, mean, cut close round the corners, like a sheet of note paper to save extra postage, without physiognomy of any kind, except what they derive from weather stains and the ravages of time. There is nothing, however, antique about their appearance. They seem to have been hurriedly finished in an economical manner, for temporary use, and never to have been kept in repair, although they have become permanent habitations. The churches and the hotels are alike unpicturesque.

The people who loiter about their gates appear dull and depressed, though not wretched looking. Their aspect corresponds with what experience proves them to be. They have no traditions and no aspirations, except that they remember the Great Napoleon as a conqueror who flourished about the beginning of history, and would like to see the few remaining large estates divided into small allotments. Life to them is a monotonous necessity, spent in conflict with the clods of the earth, and varied by bad brandy, worse tobacco, cards, and thc billiard table. Despotism is the form under which govern ment has always appeared to them ; for no attempt has ever been made, within the memory of man, to teach them the duties of citizens. They respect the preset and fear the gendarme. The cure baptizes them, marries them sometimes, and buries them ; and they have a vague belief that he is the agent duly appointed to carry on their transactions with heaven.

No grace, no poetry, no fancy of any kind, adorns their lives. To say the truth, then, there appeared to me some thing more cheerful on the Savoy side, where super stition and ignorance are supposed to be autochthonous. Swarms of legends and sweet absurdities of faith could find a home, as other exiles have done, in the folds of that interminable range of mountains. The people were not better lodged or better dressed ; but we seemed to get into a new atmosphere. The sky was higher, and the horizon wider. It was like coming out of a quiet church, where piety*-, etiquette, or fear of beadles, makes you lower your voice and drop your heel lightly on the pavement, — into a busy, bustling street, where you don't mind how loudly you talk or how carelessly you step. We felt at once that we had left the country where even spies cannot pursue their occupation safely, but are dogged by other spies ; and so ad infinitum.

Some of us b2 seemed stirred by boyish impulses, and inclined to turn round and laugh at the Colossus by comparison, between whose legs men pass, by stooping, on the other side of the river. Almost the first thing we heard in Savoy was a discussion on the policy of government ; and the man who showed us the way to the hotel, as it is called, did not fear to say that he looked upon the Eastern war as a check to civilisation, and upon Count Cavour as a delusion — two points of view upon which we found a tolerable unanimity of opinion all through the country. We dined at the said hotel and were amused by a little incident that occurred. Some Frenchmen, and Savoyards with French sympathies, sat at the same table, near the upper end of which an unmis takable Englishman in a white neckcloth had taken his place.

The knives and forks were rattling ener getically — for they had brought us all the way from Lyons without a single halt — when our countryman suddenly paused in the act of helping himself to trout, gave a sanctimonious roll of the eyes, and volunteered the information that " Louis Napoleon was a good and great prince." As he spoke in club footed French, our neighbours did not understand so soon as we did ; but when they knew what he was about, they, one and all, instead of laughing, turned their backs upon him with every sign of aversion and contempt. I really pitied him at first, especially when after maundering on unconsciously about the Paris improvements for a little time, he perceived the rudeness of his fellow-travellers, blushed in anger or in shame — most probably in shame, for I think he was a Christian minister — and resumed that stubborn silence, under cover of which so many Britons of his stamp delude foreigners into awe of their wisdom.

But there are ample sources of information open on the state of public opinion among the civilised classes in France ; and really such blundering cannot be forgiven. Our reverend companion had no doubt come all through from Calais, torturing genteel Frenchmen in this impertinent way ; and being obtuse to physiognomical language, had not had an opportunity of learning how offensive he made him self. I have heard him — for he is also a type — raise his voice in an omnibus and mistake the dead silence of the company, broken only by the approving grunt of the conductor, for confirmation of his sentiments. He never suspected that some people supposed he might be an informer. I have heard him also develop the same painfully absurd views, in the midst of a struggle with grammatical difficulties, in a salon where Intellect and Beauty had collected to spend the evening.

The gentleman whom he selected as his immediate audience assented, with civil leer ; for the decorated individual at his elbow might have been a member of the high police. It is not kind to recognise hospitality in this way. Of course it is quite natural that educated Englishmen should sym pathise with the choice of masons and peasants. Democracy is the. thing after all, and cannot go wrong. I did not expect our upper classes to be con verted so rapidly. The gentlemen of France, more .over, are not entitled to much pity. But when a criminal is in prison and dare not open his lips, it is considered cruel to taunt him. For my part, when in company with respectable Frenchmen I endeavour, as much as possible, not to allude to their humilia tion ; and carefully keep the conversation, as they do, to " Shakspeare and the musical glasses."

Over thc frontier in Savoy, or in any part of Europe where freedom of speech is allowed, it is not wise to address any intelligent or respectable-looking man, under the supposition that he shares the foolish enthusiasm which has made Englishmen so unpopular abroad; and for wThich we shall probably soon be called to a severe account. Neither countries nor individuals make such mistakes with impunity. But it is not, as I have hinted, the change in the moral atmosphere that first tells you that you are passing from Imperial France into Constitutional Piedmont. An ugly man with a cocked hat and blue trowsers stops you as you enter Beauvoisin and collects your passports ; and the diligence is com pelled to abide in the streets until they are duly examined. A conspirator may be escaping to-day as an Emperor may be escaping to-morrow.

The delay irritates you; and the boys who collect to stare seem more impudent than boys usually are. When a good deal of ink and sand has been wasted, your papers are returned in a gritty state. Then the heavy vehicle gives a lurch, and having turned a sharp corner without upsetting, enables you to learn that you alone are not persecuted, but that the whole population of the borough are in perpetual com munication with the police and custom-house au thorities. Half the lives of these borderers must be spent in such formalities. The bridge, as I have said, spans a narrow stream, over which on either side hang houses of all manner of sizes and shapes, from the windows of which very eager friendship might shake hands. A lover, at any rate, might waken his mistress, should she fall asleep in that high wooden gallery, by throwing bunches of violets at her from the other side, provided he escaped the eyes of the vigilant custom-house officers who set guard at every corner to see that nothing passes.

They would prevent the air of heaven from passing if they could. At either end of the bridge is a soldier. There is not much difference in uniform. They are the guards of the frontier. One represents the French Government ; and his duty is to prevent all pro ductions of Savoy from going from East to West. The other represents the Sardinian Government, and his duty is to prevent all productions of France from going from West to East. A man in a blouse crosses. They feel him from top to toe, pinch the point of his cotton night-cap and look into his shoes. He returns ; the same ceremony is repeated on the other side. No woman, old or young, can run over to speak with a neighbour, without going in to be searched. How lucky it is for them that gossip and scandal are not contraband goods ! Can we wonder that the inhabitants are disgusted, and, as it is not probable that Savoy can conquer France, wish for old times, and that France should reconquer Savoy ?

The feeling is natural if not estimable. It would of course be better if on one side or the other — and why not on the Savoy side ? — thc example were given of removing once for all these ludicrous restrictions on commercial intercourse, and of politely declining the further services of individuals paid to make such intercourse as difficult as possible. But there are vested interests as usual in the way ; and Sardinia, moreover, like many a more pretending kingdom, is up to the axle-tree in the rut of routine. There is little chance of its being made a free port yet ; although an intelligent but irritable old gentle man, Chamberlain of one of the small German Courts, who passed with me on my way back, and whose cocked hat, boots, and padded uniform, were carefully guaged, did threaten to publish a pamphlet on the subject.

The kingdom of Sardinia is a fortuitous concourse of little States. Before it sought the sanction of free institutions, it was nothing but an Austria on a small scale, — with its Tyrol in Savoy and its Hun gary at Genoa. There was nothing surprising, then, that it should imitate the financial policy of neighbouring despotisms, and rather lag in the rear of improvement than take the lead. At present, how ever, it has occupied a peculiar position ; and its object should certainly be to absorb the productions, as it gives a refuge to the hopes, of Italy. This is no doubt why the liberal party, wisely postponing all talk of further organic changes, direct their efforts to the establishment of a uniform system of direct taxation. They have not yet, it is true, stated that they intend to try the experiment of unlimited free trade ; but this must be in reality their intention.

The government, of course, fulfils its mission as a government, and opposes. What else were governments made for ? But the liberal policy, being derived from a true observation of the circumstances of the State, will probably prevail. At present, de spite the difficulties and the cost, the financiers of Piedmont insist on taxing for revenue all round their frontier. It is one characteristic of the country, to keep up establishments out of all proportion with its means. In this case, if custom dues are levied at all, it must be at an immense expense. Along all the mountain streams, the rugged defiles, the shining glaciers, the dreary silent moors, the dancing rivulets, and the green meadows that divide it from France, on the shores of Lake Leman as on the shores of the Mediterranean, on the banks of the Ticino and on the vague border-line towards the Duchies — every where,^ fact, where the country is open to strangers — you perpetually meet armed, prying men, whose duty it is to intercept trade, just as the feudal barons of old did in a more irregular manner from their castles.

Revenue-cutters, coast-guards, douaniers, and cara biniers, have replaced the "mutton-fisted" crew, the Front-de-Bœufs, and the Brian de Bois Guilberts, who of old lightened the bags of the messengers of commerce when they passed within sight of their towers. Piedmont, a state which has perhaps the largest frontier in Europe compared with its size, has undertaken to put itself under lock and key as if it were an island. There were men on the watch for contraband in the depths ofthe Vaudois valleys, where smugglers must be light-footed as chamois, or soar like eagles. There is a custom-house, nay there are many custom-houses, Swiss, Austrian, and Piedmon tese, in sight of the Boromean islands. The Riviera of Genoa is watched as if the plague were perpetually endeavouring to gain a footing ; and the distance between Novara and Milan is lengthened several hours by custom-house precautions — on one side directed, it is true, against liberal ideas and tri colored cockades.

When you enter the Sardinian territory, the annoyances of the police are over. If the country were not so much under foreign influence, it might probably abolish the system of passports altogether. But it has powerful neighbours ; and, willingly or not, must comply with some of their exigencies. I took books from Paris to Turin without having the case once opened. When I wished to bring them back, I was compelled to make a catalogue of the contents, and give one copy to the forwarding agents and one to the police. At Paris they were sent to a particular department of the Ministry of the Interior, where every volume had to be carefully examined, no doubt to see whether it was of an explosive nature. The urbanity of the officials employed for the purpose makes the process as little disagreeable as possible ; but one cannot help drawing the comparison between this mighty empire which may be convulsed by a pamphlet, and this little state where all books are received as hospitably as travellers.

The days are gone by when Lady Morgan's ardent liberalism had to pass disguised as Blair's Sermons. I regret the good old times when a traveller who undertook to enlighten those who stay at home on the physical and moral aspects of distant countries, was not called upon to do more than reproduce exactly the impressions he received and the in formation he gathered in the very order in which he received and gathered them. The system was an easy one and had its advantages. But it has been abused ; and writers anxious to fill up their space have been content to transplant the observations and the researches of those who have preceded them into their journals, adding only a few personal adventures, as when they shaved, and where they dined, and how they lost temper and flesh in their strenuous search after knowledge.

Some care, however, is required in making such use of the labours of your pre decessors. A Frenchman, writing as an eyewitness in 18-47, describes the fortifications of Turin as forming fifteen regular bastions embellished with all the luxury of ornament wliich military architecture can impart ; and mentions as visible from the Piazza Castello four gates of the city, corresponding exactly to the four cardinal points of the compass, with facades in marble, elegant columns, decorations in bronze, and ingenious inscriptions outside and inside, all of which had disappeared without leaving a trace, much more than a quarter of a century before he undertook to enlighten the world ! My principal object in making a special visit to the terras erma provinces of Sardinia was to observe the play of their new institutions, and study how far they are adapted to the genius and character of the people.

I had heard a good deal of emphatic talk about the progress of the country — its wonderful moral de velopment and material prosperity; and I knew that the expression, " Model kingdom," had been whispered by some dangerous flatterer into the ear of Piedmont. Natives of the country whom I had met endeavoured to dissimulate, under a look of bland modesty, the suspicion that they might belong to the most important race in the world. To pass from a despotism — in which old habit of liberty it is true makes life more tolerable than it would otherwise be, but which is still a despotism as unmitigated in intention as Russia — would, under any circumstances, have been a refreshing change ; and as I went along I found myself disposed at first, except in this case of the custom-house, which is equally disgusting in all countries, to look favourably upon everything.