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Sfo. 506. Bec. S, 1859] THE LEADER. 1323
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RETROGRADE ITALIAN GOVERN MlTXTTfi
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w LETTERS FROM ITALY. JfLORENCE. Things ...
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
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Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
Additionally, when viewing full transcripts, extracted text may not be in the same order as the original document.
Who Receives The Taxes? Pboceeding Now T...
but wages . Of the £ 9 , 813 , 181 voted for . the navy £ 2 , 794 , 738 went for stores , £ 2 , 487 , 062 for wages to seamen and marines , and £ 995 , 647 for provisions , leaving . £ 3 , 535 , 734 devoted to tire payment . of the officers . This is another illustration in detail of the transfer of property from the classes living on wages to the upper classes . We enter not into the question whether or not it is right to make these various transfers . Some of them , as those for payment of the National Debt , are necessary , if we would keep the faith the Government has pledged ; but the others rest on a totally different footing , and must be defended , if defended they can be , by their present utility .
Into such an immense questidn as the utility of those services to the labouring multitude , for which they are compelled to pay so largely , we cannot enter at the tail of a long article . We must say , however , that many of the services for which they are compelled to pay are performed exclusively for the other classes , and are directed against themselves . At the same time , it is a matter of perfect notoriety that neither their right of property nor their right to perfect freedom is now , or ever has been , pror tected by the Government in the same manner £ nd degree as it has protected the property and the freedom of the tax - receiving classes .
We have on this occasion no other object in view than to point out the classes who receive the taxes . Only a fraction of the grand total , as we have shown , is received by the class who have no incomes but wages , and the bulk is received by the classes who are comparatively rich * For their behoof exclusively the state seems to exist . AH classes require undoubtedl y to know and reflect on the fact that all taxation is a transfer of property froin one class to another . The services for which the transfer is made are ,
in many cases , of very doubtful utility , especially to the labouring multitude , and what we and others complain of is , that of these services the bulk of the taxpayers—the unenfranchised-. multitudeare not allowed to judge , while they arecornpelled to pay for them . In our estimation this is not just . We cannot say , with this and many other similar examples of injustice in flourishing existence , that such an unjust Government , as the Times asserts , is now impossible ; but we believe that it is every day becoming more a difficulty , and will , at some time or other , be an impossibility . For that time we may nil be on our guard .
Sfo. 506. Bec. S, 1859] The Leader. 1323
Sfo . 506 . Bec . S , 1859 ] THE LEADER . 1323
Retrograde Italian Govern Mltxttfi
a mass of pulp , the features quite unrecognisable . The Government of Francis H . of Naples , so far from being an improvement upon that of his predecessor , Ferdinand , proceeds daily from bad to worse . His father ' s policy was at least frank and open . He never made the least secret of his intention to keep his people ground down beneath his iron will , except , indeed " , when circumstances now and then compelled him to make fair promises , to save his life or his throne , and pass his word to grant a constitution , or some other trifle , which he never , in reality , meant to concede . Upon the accession of Francis j II . to the throne , Naples conceived the ^ brightest hope , from the sympathy which it was fancied he manifested with the war then raging in Upper Italy ; but these hopes were only conceived to be dissipated . The most moderate of the Liberal party saw in General Carlo Filangieri a man capable of embracing the great thought of the age , with sufficient tact to overcome any latent disinclination for progress on the part of the young sovereign , and strong enough to demolish the intrigue ' s of the old courtiers . His
elevation to the premiership , accompanied by a somewhat imposing public manifestation after the battle of Magenta , was looked upon as a sign that brighter days were in store for the Neapolitan kingdom . Although little faith had been placed in Filangieri in 1848 , he was looked up to with confidence as able and willing to assist in promoting reforms in 1859 . A very short time , however , sufficed to show that , instead of reforming the Government and directing it according to the ° alinost universal desire , Filangieri would compelled to succumb to the old party .
He wished and promised , but effected nothing . The Government maintained neutrality in the war rather in appearance than-in . reality , since it prevented volunteers from taking up arms in the Italian cause , and persecuted those who manifested more , sympathy for the Italo-French than for the Austrians . In the management of internal affairs no care was taken to remedy abuses , to restrain the police in the vexatious exercise of their functions , or to set at liberty the numbers who had long been arbitraril y left to groan in prison without examination or trial . The
newministhe case with the amnesty granted to the atiendibili , or persons exiled to some part of the kingdom remote from their homes and families , and to whom the adoption of any profession or pursuit of any calling is rendered impossible . This amnesty was intended ostensibly to improve the condition Of these political and , for the most part , innocent victims , but a circular , issued two days after , completely nullified it in every particular . A striking case has been made public within the last few days of the gross injustice with -which individuals may be imprisoned on the smallest
pretext arising out of personal ill-will and malice , and which well illustrates the stupid bigotry and ignorance of the Neopolitan employes . We allude to the case of Fillippo de Vico , one of the clerks employed in the extensive iron-foundry of the English firm of Guppy and Patterson , at Naples . From his superior talent and industry , De Vico enjoyed the confidence of his employers , and was consequently the object of envy and hatred to his fellow-workmen , who , anxious to effect his ruin , met with co-operation in their design from the priest of the parish in which the works are situated , and the celebrated commissary of police ,
Cainpagna . We refer our readers to the columns of one of our daily contemporaries for a description of the efforts made by Mr . Guppy , during a week , in Order to rescue De Vico from imprisonment , and also for an exemplification of the brutal ignorance in which the Neapolitans are kept , as manifested in the terror , real or assumed , occasioned by _ poor De Vico ' s harmless French exercises . Happily for him . his case was energetically taken up by an Englishman , or he would very likely have ended his days in prison * It is utterly impossible but that
such facts as the foregoing should tell upon the feelings of our Government and representatives in the approaching Congress , and bias public opinion in England , more strongly than , might otherwise have been the case , in favour of supporting those States which are anxious to free , themselves from the cruelty and tyranny apparently inherent in the soil of Italy proper , and only to be escaped by union with that northern portion of the Peninsula so long looked upon as a foreign land , but now regarded as the one spot of safety and independence .
try was composed of the most contradictory elements , none of its members were capable of looking beyond personal advantage . Some of the ministers of the former cabinet possessed the ear of the monarch ; and more than one , though deprived of his portfolio took part in the councils of State . It may readily be conceived in what an embarrassing position Filangieri found himself . After a few months he took occasion of a slight illness to demand six weeks' leave of absence , and retired to his villa of Sorrento . At the expiration of this period , seeing things were darker and more to
RETROGRADE ITALIAN GOVERNMENTS . After months of hesitation and vacillation , _ the Congress for the discussion of Italian affairs is at length decided upon , and invitations have been issued for the meeting of the representatives of the great Powers early in January next . Meanwhile ^ the Governments which may be spoken of as indigenous to the Italian soil are doing their best to keep up their reputation for maladministration . In so doing they perhaps deserve tho thanks of the friends of liberty and progress . Had they been induced by arguments of political expediency , temporarily to modify their arbitrary , cruel and absurd enactments , and yet more arbitrary , cruel and absurd manner of carrying out those enactments , and substituted something approximating to wise regulations applied with justice and forbearance to individual cases , it rnight have redounded to their own interest by causing powers who are at present watching every turn taken in Italian politics to relax , in their vigilance and suffer the affairs of the Peninsula to bo arranged by those Who have taken an active part in unsettling them . As it is , however , tho English , whose influence , both direct and indirect , is so great and important , continue to have their Feelings harrowed and their indignation roused daily by aecountu of systematic oppression and espionage and the most reckless cruelty in tho administration of what can only by a legal notion be termed justice . To take tho States of the Church as an example , and give but one case in point selected from numbers : —only tho other day a soldier named Vaselli was condemned , whether justl y or unjustly , to bo flogged for some infraction of military ' discipline . In the execution of . this eentonoo the . culprit ' s head was struck so that hie face repeatedly came into violent contact with the table on which ho was placed . Having fainted before the conclusion of the punishment he was raised , and hie faoo was found to bo reduced to
threatening than ever , lie asked permission resign his presidentship of the council and of war , declaring himself ready to afford his services to the King as a soldier , but not to be responsible for the false and fatal policy of tho Government , Since then Filangieri has exercised the functions of Minister of WtU-, but not those of President of tho Council . General Carascosa , well known for his Austro-Neapolitan principles , filled Filangieri ' s post as minister , during his absence from Naples . Upon the return of the latter , Carascosa refused to appeud his signature to documents of . an official nature . FHangicri Also refused , because ho was no longer minister . No new president was
appointed , and business , was left unsettled . ' Jstate of things had continued some weeks , when an urgent decree rcquirod to bo signed , and tho signature was appended in the following manner : —For the Prenidetit of the Council absent ; tho Minister of War , Prince of Satriano . From this fact an idea may be gained of the weakness and want of ordor manifested m the Neapolitan Government , and the disaccord which reigns between tho members of tho ministry . Public affairs have no life , but are wrapped in profound niystory and 1 hick darkness—no doubt j in part , tho effect of tho want of precision with which they are oonduoted . Francis II . issues proclamations and amnesties , addrossod to his own subjects , which jpan have no other end in view than to deceive foreign nations , since they are followed by private instructions of a totally contradictory nature sent by tho director of police to the intondanta of tho several districts of the monarchy . Suoli has recently been
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W Letters From Italy. Jflorence. Things ...
w LETTERS FROM ITALY . JfLORENCE . Things go on very quietly with us here . The English shopkeepers complain that trade is dull . The hotels are empty , or at best half full , and solitary travellers feel uncomfortable at the reflection that the whole expenses of these vast gloomy hostelries have to be ^ provided for in some way or other , and that th y themselves form the only ostensible sources of revenue , not to speak of profit . The carriage drivers and the flower girls of the " Caseine , " too , look anxiously for the return of the strangers on whom they live . These classes , however , who form the grout party of order we hear so much about , seem to bo tho only discontented people . The town itself looks wonderfully prosperous . I hardly think I ever was in a place which prcsonted so many outward signs of good government . There are no police , about tlie streets , and yet everything is orderly and quiet . The town is but » ll lighted at the best of times , and in all but tho side streets the lamps are put out by eleven o ' clock . The streets , too , like those of nil southern towns , are very narrow , and tho houses very high , with dark , gloomy doorways , so that anything more desolate and deserted than the stroots oi'Floronco lato at night can hardly be conooivod . Yotj having often returned to my Iodffin « B at a late hour , I have never on nny occasion met with the slightest annoyance . Drunken men seem unknown in this part of the world , with rare , exceptions . Tho surrounding suburbs are cultivated like gardens , and dotted with villas on every side . Aaono walks on an nftornoon out of tho city , on any of tho hill-side roads , as I am fond of doing , one meets whole strings of mulos and carts , and light peasant care , returning homewards from the town * Some on # op other once eaid that all Italy might bo described in tho linos of the hymn" Whoro ovory prospoot plottflos , And man afono 1 b vllo . ' Well , for my part I say that , pleasant as tho
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), Dec. 3, 1859, page 15, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_03121859/page/15/
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