Rienzi | Page 7

give a fair share of
members to the Island of Sicily, it will be rich in the inevitable
elements of discord, and nothing save a wisdom and moderation, which
cannot soberly be anticipated, can prevent the ultimate separation of the
island from the dominion of Naples. Nature has set the ocean between
the two countries - but differences in character, and degree and quality
of civilisation - national jealousies, historical memories, have trebled
the space of the seas that roll between them. - More easy to unite under
one free Parliament, Spain with Flanders; or re-annex to England its old

domains of Aquitaine and Normandy - than to unite in one Council
Chamber truly popular, the passions, interests, and prejudices of Sicily
and Naples. - Time will show.)
Far otherwise is it, with Sardinia. Many years since, the writer of these
pages ventured to predict that the time must come when Sardinia would
lead the van of Italian civilisation, and take proud place amongst the
greater nations of Europe. In the great portion of this population there
is visible the new blood of a young race; it is not, as with other Italian
States, a worn-out stock; you do not see there a people fallen, proud of
the past, and lazy amidst ruins, but a people rising, practical,
industrious, active; there, in a word, is an eager youth to be formed to
mature development, not a decrepit age to be restored to bloom and
muscle. Progress is the great characteristic of the Sardinian state. Leave
it for five years; visit it again, and you behold improvement. When you
enter the kingdom and find, by the very skirts of its admirable roads, a
raised footpath for the passengers and travellers from town to town,
you become suddenly aware that you are in a land where close attention
to the humbler classes is within the duties of a government. As you
pass on from the more purely Italian part of the population, - from the
Genoese country into that of Piedmont, - the difference between a new
people and an old, on which I have dwelt, becomes visible in the
improved cultivation of the soil, the better habitations of the labourer,
the neater aspect of the towns, the greater activity in the thoroughfares.
To the extraordinary virtues of the King, as King, justice is scarcely
done, whether in England or abroad. Certainly, despite his recent
concessions, Charles Albert is not and cannot be at heart, much of a
constitutional reformer; and his strong religious tendencies, which,
perhaps unjustly, have procured him in philosophical quarters the
character of a bigot, may link him more than his political, with the
cause of the Father of his Church. But he is nobly and preeminently
national, careful of the prosperity and jealous of the honour of his own
state, while conscientiously desirous of the independence of Italy. His
attention to business, is indefatigable. Nothing escapes his vigilance.
Over all departments of the kingdom is the eye of a man ever anxious
to improve. Already the silk manufactures of Sardinia almost rival
those of Lyons: in their own departments the tradesmen of Turin

exhibit an artistic elegance and elaborate finish, scarcely exceeded in
the wares of London and Paris. The King's internal regulations are
admirable; his laws, administered with the most impartial justice - his
forts and defences are in that order, without which, at least on the
Continent, no land is safe - his army is the most perfect in Italy. His
wise genius extends itself to the elegant as to the useful arts - an
encouragement that shames England, and even France, is bestowed
upon the School for Painters, which has become one of the ornaments
of his illustrious reign. The character of the main part of the population,
and the geographical position of his country, assist the monarch and
must force on himself, or his successors, in the career of improvement
so signally begun. In the character of the people, the vigour of the
Northman ennobles the ardour and fancy of the West. In the position of
the country, the public mind is brought into constant communication
with the new ideas in the free lands of Europe. Civilisation sets in
direct currents towards the streets and marts of Turin. Whatever the
result of the present crisis in Italy, no power and no chance which
statesmen can predict, can preclude Sardinia from ultimately heading
all that is best in Italy. The King may improve his present position, or
peculiar prejudices, inseparable perhaps from the heritage of absolute
monarchy, and which the raw and rude councils of an Electoral
Chamber, newly called into life, must often irritate and alarm, may
check his own progress towards the master throne of the Ausonian land.
But the people themselves, sooner or