ITALY TWENTY-FIVE YEARS AGO AND ITALY TO-DAY.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume VII, Issue 352, 16 January 1880, Page 17

ITALY TWENTY-FIVE YEARS AGO AND ITALY TO-DAY.

(From the Aye Maria.) It may be remembered by many that when our Holy Father, Pope Leo XIII., declared that it was necessary for the independence of the Holy See to have its temporal sovereignty in the States of the Church restored, the claim was scouted by the so-called " liberal " and infidel newspapers of all shades ; the more ferociously, as they had until then tried to persuade their readers that the new Pope was of " advanced opinions, quite in keeping with the spirit of the age, and had entirely forsaken the superannuated principles of his Ultramontane predecessors." In their blind rage they would have it that the fact of reinstating the Pope in his full authority as a temporal ruler was equivalent to a re-establishment of mediaeval customs, such as feudal governments and inquisitions. Among others, the Chicago Times took a most prominent part in denouncing what it was pleased to call " a dream of by-pone days." But now, when a year has scarcely passed, we notice this same journal, generally woll informed in European affairs, asserting quite the reverse. Speaking of the machinations of the revolutionary ring-leaders in Spain and Italy, the Times predicts no success for them in the farmer country, where the horrors of anarchy have been so recently felt, and are still fresh in the memory of all. Speaking of Italy it says:" In Italy, the democrats have not yet had thei** saturnalia. The joys of anarchy with most of them are all in anticipation, not in recollection. The situation in Italy, however, is much more alarming than in Spain. Revolutionary ideas have thoroughly permeated the masses in the great cities [not by any means], which is not the case in Alfonso's dominions. The people are thoroughly tired of the Savoyard monarchs. The country is wretchedly poor, and direct and heavy taxes are levied on the most necessary articles of food and apparel. There is discontent everywhere. Not satisfied with possessing republican institutions under a monarchical name, the people hanker for a trial of the republican form of government. It Deeds only the active participation of Garibaldi to cause the storm to break, and there are signs that the old revolutionist is ready to enter the lists. The consequences of such a revolution in Italy as is now threatened, should it prove inevitable, would be most deplorable. The hope of the country lies in the maintenance of the liberal monarchy, faulty as it is, and the Blow tuition of the people in the art of selfgovernment which a parliamentary regime brings. _ Even France, which is almost a century in advance of Italy in civilization and in the possession of free institutions, has desperate work in saving itself from drifting into anarchy. The establishment of a republic in Italy would be followed in less than a year by a reign of terror. Conservative men in Rome would turn for help to the Pope ; and the people, wearying at last of their mockery of old republican Roman institutions, would see the temporal power of the Papacy re-establish itself over them, slowly crushing all opposition. A varying fate would be in store for the rest of Italy. Possibly some of the old principalities would be restored. Austria would fall heir to much of her old ground, and the peninsula would relapse into its condition of twenty-five years ago." No matter how kind and fatherly the government of the Popes, the Times does not wish to see it re-established,— why, it would find it difficult to answer, for surely the condition of the Italians was far better twe ty-five years ago than it is to-day, when they are so heavily ta^ed to support a bankrupt Government that they have scarcely anything left. Twenty-five years ago, Italy was probably the lightest taxed country on the face of the earth, and yet everything went on comparatively well ; to-day heavy taxes on everything, even to the poorest artist's paints and brushes ; the robbing of private church and monastic property ; murders, robberies, insecurity of life and property ; heavier taxes in prospect, when all the stolen church property and art treasures are disposed of— and still a bankrupt Government ! A pretty contrast truly! And yet the Times and secular papers give this bankrupt Government as the best for the people !