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The character of the ancient inhabitants of these countries is thus sketched ;—"As they came last Into the power of the Komans , it may be supposed that the people of Piedmont and Liguria held out for the greatest length of time against Roman corruption . TRie nature itself of that Ligurian people rendered moral subjugation even more difficult ? Ban military conquest . They stand forth before us as the very hardiest men in the ancient world . There were proverbs to the effect that ' the leanest Ligurian wa 3 more than a match for the stoutest Gaul , ' that ' their women were men in strength , their men had the strength of wild beasts . ' The women shared the hardiest toils of men , both in the fields—or rather rocks , for ths sturdy inhabitants of the Riviera had at all times to turn stones into bread—and in the mines , where they displayed that singular hardihood , which the traveller , visiting the slate - quarries of Lavagna , near Chiavari , may witness at the present day , as he meets young girls walking nimbly with slabs on their heads that would weigh down the shoulders of many a man—that more than natural hardihood which made the good Greek Posidonius wonder by what privilege t he Xigurian women were exempt from the very throes of maternity . " After dwelling on the effeminacy and deterioration of modern Italians be continues : — " Yet , be it observed , the stock of those fierce guardians of the Alps had not vanished utterly . They had only stepped down to more genial abodes , the mildness of whose climate , the fruitfulness of whose soil , and the luxurious habits which all these circumstances were calculated to engender , did not , for a long lapse of years—doe 3 not even at the present day—efface all traces of their sturdy manliness of old . In Piedmont and Liguria the population throughout—* Tiene ancor del monte 6 del maoigno . ' < still smack of their rough mountain flint . ' Dante . —( Cary ' s Transl . ) There is a certain soberness , an earnestness and gravity , a more than Italian vitality in that Subalpine people , displayed , as we shall see , at every stage of their history , which , added to the peculiar circumstances of government , has tended to set them apart ficom their brethren of the east and south . " From the many comments on the character and policy of the Savoy Princes , self-chosen very often as rulers by this independent people , we can give but one and that the most general , u There is enough that is intrinsically beautiful and heart-stirring in the annals of the reigning House itself . For a lineal succession of forty sovereign princes in twenty-seven generations—Counts , Dukes , and Kings—during the lapse of eight centuries and a half , that House has stood its ground . There must have been something more than chance thus to chain the wheel of fortune in favour of a dynasty : and the historians of Savoy find an adequate reason in the fact , that c no royal family has produced so long and uninterrupted a series of brave , able men 5 * or we might say , with more modesty but greater certainty , none has been so remarkable for the absence of bad , idiotic , or craven j nen , and of profligate women—in none have the instances of startling crimes or hideous vices been more unfrequent ; several of those princes may claim the reputation of dist inguished warriors and legislators at home , and two of them at least played a most conspicuous part , and exercised a paramount influence on general events abroad . " After the history of the different peoples during " Primaeval times , " " the Roman era , " the dark ages , and the feudal period has been carefully gone ihrdugu , the rise of the separate State of Sayoy , its extension north of the Alps , the origin and genius of its princes , precedes a similar account of Piedmont , whose " conquest , " we are told , took six hundred years ; " its union and neutralization " three hundred more ; while only during the " last sixty or seventy years have we the result of all the previous work—the standing up of a complete edifice . " From the many striking portraits , both of rulers And ruled , who helped to build up this edifice , we select that of the hero of St . Quentin and Grayelines , whose valour recovered and whose prudence retained all the hereditary dominions wrested from his father by the unscrupulous Francis I . * * * * * * " Such was Emanuel Philibert , one of those grand , heroic figures history loves to dwell upon ; a man to whom history is all the more -willing to do justice , as ho disdained to bribe it ; and when Paolo Giovio offered him the tribute of his venal praises , which that historian so well knew how to render acceptable to all the other princes his contemporaries , the Duke answered with sublime dignity , * that ho valued more the " small ,-still voice within" than all the clamour of the world ' s applause . ' His was a character almost without a flaw , unless it be his excessive tenderness for the fair sex , and his seven or eight natural children—an ' amiable weakness , ' as it was reckoned in that age , with a leniency which the world readily shows to one of his station , even in m ore recent times . With that figure contemporary records have made us sufficiently familiar : hia stature somewhat below the middle size , the broad shoulders , the naturally delicate framo , inured to great hardships by early military trailing , the cold grey eye , the arched brow , the slightly protruding nether lip , the fair curly hair , the short , thiok Iboard , not streaked with silver in mature age , the small round head—the ' Iron-head ' —all is known to us , even to the nether limbs , somewhat bent outwardly—' all' Erco-Una , ' as the Italians have it , a blemish which he turned to good account , einco ' no man ever had a more firm or elegant seat on the saddle . ' " Wo are equally acquainted with his habits : regular , punctual ; his strict and sparing distribution of time ; the account ho kept of it in a diary \ the five hours he allowed himself for sleep , the few minutes at table , his hard fare , exclusively made of strong meats and stronger Spanish wines ; his way of transacting business , always standing ) for over pacing up and down hia garden , always bareheaded , even in tho sun , mist , or rain ; always with his sword , not hanging by his side , after the common fashion , but tight under his arm , ready for immediate use , his sword , without which he never left hia apartment . Then his manners , grow but courteous , ' graceful beyond tho common order of mankind ; ' his quick , laconic answers j hia sudden flashes of anger , always undor control of a long-tried temper ; his hatred of falsehood , or pusillanimity j hia horror of bloodshed , or capital punishment j his strict fulfilment of his engagements ; tho saorednoss of his word , which lie pledged as ' a gentleman , not as a courtiw * ( paroladi cavaliere , nondi corttgiand ) . Then hia unwearied energy and activity—activity of body , which could not bo exhausted by BAx hours' hard play at ball , not by a nine hours' hard run after tho stag in tho woodfl and mountains of Bresso , where he was almost alono in at the death , having distanced tlio ono hundred and fifty men of hia rctinuo , and whore , on putting up for tho evening at a farm-house , ho would snatch the hatchet from tho good man who was splitting wood for hia supper , and bustle about till tho repast waa ready ; then , hardly allowing himself fi-vo minutes at table , ho again sallied forth into tho field , and beguiled tho hours by ehooting At a target , or by other manly games till lato in the night , to tho great wonder and dismay of the aleek , long-robed Venetian , who had scampered after him in tho chase , and mho , with all the rest of the company , was now hardly able to stand . Again , Ha nativity of mind , which found no sufficient employment in political or military studios , toot woo equally turned on mathematics , mechanics ; tho arts , alokuny ; that activity
which dispensed with the services of the three secretaries he had in his pay , and enabled him to carry on his correspondence almost unaided ; partly owing , no douht , to a certain fastidiousness , which rarely satisfied him with any man's doings but his own , and also to that extreme cautiousness -which , prompted him to take no man into his intimacy and on account of which he would suffer no valet about him who could read . Such was Emanuel Philibert , the restorer , the second founder of the State of Piedmont . " In this portrait-painting our author excels . "We have long been familiar with his sketch of " Alfieri , " the " representative man . " We do not share hia enthusiastic admiration for Napoleon and his deeds in Italy . Indeed , M G-allenga is guilty of great relative injustice towards his niuch-sinned-against if sinning Jand . Dealing out the bitterest scorn and blame on his countrymen for their supineness , their easy submission to foreign rule , he is strangely tolerant of French insolence and Austrian usurpation , and even professes admiration of English interference . If we do not wonder that a man who has left his house unguarded should find on his return that his neighbours had taken possession of his goods , and installed themselves in his apartmentB , we could but say , " serve him right , " and aid him to turn out the interlopers who would have no special claim to our respect or confidence . We should like to set M . M . Gallenga and Farini ( author of History of the Roman States from 1815 to ' 50 ) on the subject of French Influence in Italy—to get them well on to their subject , keep at a respectful distance , and hear them " have it out . " What will the Marquis d'Azeglio , for whom our author professes such boundless admiration , say to this tribute paid to the Austrians on account of the skill and cunning with which they recovered their footing in that capital—the scene of the infamous atrocities described by him in '' The Last Five Days of the Austrians in Milan ? " " Honour to Austria , were she a thousand times an enemy ! She showed throughon the most magnanimous perseverance ; she had many a storm to weather in the meantime . Twice or thrice was she brought to the brink of destruction . * * * * The o fficers of Radetzky , at Mantua and Verona , though most of them Hungarians , and at the time that their countrymen were in arms against Vienna , declared that even had the madcaps of the Revolutionary Government at home been base enough to give np Italy , they yet would keep it on their own account . The old marshal himself , as if bent on saving the monarchy in spite of itself , would never , even in his worst straits , hear of the arrangements by which the Austrian Cabinet consented , or only seemed to consent , to the surrender of Lombardy . He -was aware of the unsteadiness of purpose of the Italians , and had too good reasons to rely on their dissensions . He knew that France and England were hardly in earnest , and was , at any rate , determined to push on the contest with that obstinacy which is the destiny of brave men . " So the wily fox who , often baffled , finally succeeds in carrying off a lamb from the fold , is to be admired for the success of his persevering cunning . There are many other points in the handling of the affairs of ' 48 that we should like to enter on , but space forbids . A careful comparison of our author ' s views on many subjects in ' 48 and ' 55 , among others the life and works of Mazzini and Charles Albert , will show that time , and perhaps the course of events , have changed his opinions not only of the results of these works , but of the motives that led to tliem . The last chapter , entitled , " The Constitution of Piedmont , " is one of tW most valuable in the whole book , The information it contains is new to English readers ; and the hopes it holds out of Piedmont ' & progress not only as a separate state , but perhaps , as the Liberator of the Peninsula , are cheering , and well-founded . The treasures the country already possesses in its high-minded king , its practical , prudent statesmen , and its free institutions , are not exaggerated ; while the wants of the country , i . e ., improvement of its systems of moral and physical education , are fairly stated . That these wants will be gradually and effectually supplied , we think , with our author , there is no doubt . Cherishing more certain faith , more boundless , changeless trust in Italvs destinies than M . Gallenga appears to do , we fully enter into his view ol the means of achieving them , as expressed in his concluding remarks : — " The people of Piedmont have , for the last seven years , been redeeming the Italian character , giving the lie to the ungenerous men who cried down a whole nation aa hopelessly sunk and degenerate . Piedmont is rehabilitating Italy , achieving a moral conquest * a thousand times more glorious than any armed subjugation . Friends and foes will be equally convinced that either all Italy ia to bo raised to tho level of Piedmont , or men must despair of God's justice upon earth . In his bold , confident youth , an Italian patriot may have rejoiced in the firm belief that his age was destined to witness the rearing up of * the whole edifice of Italian nationality . Ho must now be thankful to Heaven , if , dying , he can carry with him the conviction that the first stono — tho corner-stone— ia at least laid . Italy may yet be a dream—but Piedmont is a reality ! "
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1 QB 6 THE LEADER , [ No 294 , Saturday ,
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HISTORY OF THE REIGN OF PHILIP THE SECOND . History of the lleian of Philip the Second , Kimj of Spain . By W . H Proscott . Vols . I . and II . Bentley . Mr . PnEscoTThas extracted from a mass of documentary evidence , dispersed through the various libraries of Europe , materials for reconstructing in great part , the history of Philip tho Second . Tho character of that monarch , which has fallen as often into tho hands of the romancist as into those of tho critic , is now presented fairly and clearly . JVc are not yet in possession of the writer ' s summary view , for his work is unfinished , but tho story of Philips life , from his birth to the death of his son , suffices to illustrate his human qualities , nol i less than those qualities not entirely human , which ho imbibed 1 rom tho preachings of tho Holy Roman Church . Ho , like his predecessor , bequeathed a memory over which libellers and eulogists long disputed j bo wns parodied nnd idealised ; and inevitably so , beoauso he contended -with as much force as cruelty against one vast party , and in favour of another . It was natural that tho Papal champion should bo aspersed as the Protoatant scourge . With an obvious desire to arbitrato botweon tho factions of history nnd to place an European name as far from libel aa from flattery , Mr . Prescott hna not found it possible to iutooduce many softening tinta into his picture . The shadows predominate : bigotry , inhumanity , selfishness , a contempt lor tho natural affections , political faithlessness , and an Asiatic indifference to , human suffering . Panegyrists ascribe to him the exaltation of Sptu » > whicn
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), Nov. 10, 1855, page 1086, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2114/page/18/
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