THE MAFIA.

New Zealand Times, Volume LII, Issue 9284, 2 May 1891, Page 3

THE MAFIA.

“ What is the Alalia ?” It is a question in everybody’s mouth, since the account waa published of the lynching of the Italians at New Orleans. Wo have found an answer to the question in Chambers’ Magazine, in the number of May, 1877. The authority quoted in Chambers’ is a writer in the Edinburgh Review. The description of tho Mafia is ns follows : We have a clear account of that system of organised iniquity known as the Mafia, with its kindred associations the Camorras. Tho Mafia, in fact, has an endless ramification of spontaneous and illegal societies, and it acmes pretty much to this, that society in Sicily, high and low, official and nonoflicial, la one groat confederacy to rob and murder at will, and otherwise defy or circumvent the law in anyway that seems best, Tho curious thing is how any show of orderly civilised usages can be maintained. Externally, in Palermo and other places, there is an aspect of peacefulness and honesty ; but beneath tho surface nearly all proceedings are regulated by force and deceit. The very attempt to seek protection from the law brings down vengeance so remorseless that well-disposed persons are fain to be silent under extortion. There are three hundred and sixty communes in Sicily, and every one of them, says this writer,' has its own Mafia, of which the character varies according to local tendencies and interests. In one place its energies arc devoted to the conduct of the elections and the manipulations of the ballot box ; in another, to directing, by means of a Comorra, the sale of church and crown lands ; ia a third, to the apportionment of contracts for public works. ... By a singular anomaly, the middle class—that very class of which the absence is deplored in the rest of Sicily as tho absence of an element of order-forms in Palermo tho chief strength of the Mafia. Its proverbial virtues of prudence, industry, aud foresight arc here exercised in the calling of crime. The so-called Capi mafia are men of substance and education. To them is duo the consummate ability with which the affairs of their association are managed—the unity of direction, precision of purpose, and fatality of stroke. They determine with unerring tact nil tho nice points of their'profession; in what oases life may be taken, aud in what others the end in view can be attained by more destruction of property ; when an important capture is to be effected ; when a threatening letter sent, or a shat of persuasion fired; when it ia advisable to suspend operations, and when to inspire terror by increased ferocity. By them, relations are maintained with government offices in Romo, whose intrigues are generally successful in obtaining the dismissal or removal of obnoxious officials ; so that complicity with crime is an almost necessary condition of permanence in any responsible position,’ For this stale of affairs, which violates all our conceptions of a civilised community, the reviewer offers no practical scheme for redress. Reform, ia the ordinary acceptation of tho word, seems impracticable. Sooiet/ is leagued to maintain a universal terrorism. Judges, magistrates, police offioera are incorporated in the gang of evildoers. The military sent to preserve order ore inefficient. Whether from fear or favour, brigandage is triumphant. Evidently the Italian Government is powerless to cure tho disorderly condition of Sioilly. Tho very members of the Government labour under suspicion of complicity. More probably, they are afraid to give offence by acting with persistent vigour. Coustitutionaliam carried to excess in a region wholly unprepared for it, even in a moderate degree, might be described as the bane of the country. It is In vain to appoint new native magistrates and new police, for all are bad together. The feeble military force sent to support the law is ont-manceuvred or laughed at. Without denying that things may mend in the course of ages, we should say, that what Italy wants ia a Cromwell with his Ironsides to stamp out by military execution the ingrained villainy which now afflicts one of the finest and moat productive islands in the world. As there is, however, no chance of a soldier of the Cromwell type easting np, Sicily, wo presume, must continue to be a disgrace to Italy and aa great a scandal to Europe as Turkey.