THE FRUITS OF "ITALIAN EMANCIPATION."

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XII, Issue 23, 26 September 1884, Page 29

THE FRUITS OF "ITALIAN EMANCIPATION."

(Ntw York Fireman's Journal.)

The American Picss and some of the American people thr^w up their cajs wberi the breech of the Porta Pia was announce 1. "The Catholic Church is dcad!"eried the Metho lists, tho Baptists, the Unitarians, the I'resbytcrians, the Episcopalians, the Congrcgationalists, the Mormons, the Becond Adve tists, the——-, but why name any more? For once, Protestantism was united, as it always i> uni'd when they can get a "point d'appui" of hatred to the Church. Hatied ofj Catholicity is the only dogma of Protestantism. The papers and the magazines teemed with jubilations of the triumphs" of the galant vomo— the "he-goat" of Italy, as Jus' in McCarthy called him, when that elev<r writer did his series of pen portraits of modern celebrities in the defunct Galaxy magazine. The moral Victor— the modern Priapus— the " he-goat "of Italy, entered Rome, and the English-speaking people of the world, with the exception of a few millions who protested, cried out : " Italy is regenerated— the Italian people are free. Everything is lotglv " The principals in this contest of the Porta Pia were the Father of the Faithful, the Holy and Venerable Pius IX., who was revered as a saint even by Protestants and infidels, whose life was so beautiful as to force admiration from lips that would rather kiss the foot of the devil than the cross on the Blipper of the Pope. This Pope on one part,— on the other Victor Emmanuel, known all over Europe as a compound of snperstition and lechery. But the free- thinking, broad-minded world applauded Priapus, and the " unco quid " joined in the applause. The spectacle of the orthodox Protestants of the world crowning vice and robbery, and pelting virtue and right, might have developed in a Voltaire a new kind of sneer. Truly ; it looked, on the surface of things, as if the " guts of the last king were used to strangle the Uast priest." It was because Protestantism saw in Pius IX. the last rope that it applauded. It reckoned— without the words of Ht. Peter. Protestant 8 did not care very much about the " regeneration of Italy "—the average American Protestant, probably regarding it as a land of organ-grinders, which the Van Meters and the McAlls were to " convert " to staunch American ideas of hard work. But the Protestants, who hated the Pope, cared very much abont the Vatican. To them it seemed the key-stone of the Catholic Church. To put Mr. Spurgeon in the Vatican, to have the " Gospel " preached in Cockney English ! To see the ignorant Italians picking up dropped H's and " Gospel truths "at the same time 1 What happiness 1 But somehow Mr. Spurgeon never i cached the Vatican ;_ the Rev. Dr. Newman was not permitted to " occupy the pulpit " in St. Peter's. The dispersions of these gilded hopes, it is said, reduced the Rev. Dr. Fulton to his present condition of mind. We all know that he is harmless, but think what a wreck he is 1 The people who put their rejoicing on the ground of material gain to Italy were less ridiculous, but more exasperating to sensible people. They were in possession of a few facts which they twiste t and rc-twisled in many forms. The streets of Rome were dirty. There were no " tram care." The Protestant Church was outside the walls. Railroads were not distributed over the country, etc. As " Emancipation " left the negroes in the South in a worse condition than they were before (it was given to them as a boon— which included the establishment of a Frecdmen's Bank, one of the means by which the victora added to the spoils) ; so the much vaunted " Emancipation " of Italy has made Italy wretched and almost hopeless. Progress and taxes in Italy are synonymous wods. A few statistics gathered from various reliable Eources. at various times, will help to support this statement, and show what the Government of the Piedmontese has done for the people of Italy. Mr. Marion Crawford is a new novelist, whose facts are worth more than his fiction. As he travelled in Italy, having the benefit of the eye 3of an observant companion, the late Mr. Samuel Ward, he studied certain social characteristics of modern Italy very thoroughly. Mr. Crawford vouches for the following incident, which occurred in 1880. One of the persons, in a late book of his, says : " I think it is horrible 1 "

"Why— what?" „ , ;{ To see a nation squandering money in this way —(on a navy) — " when the taxes on land are at sixty per cant and more, and the people emigrating by the shipload because they cannot live in their ■- > own homes." „.,«, * • i " Oh, for that matter, you are right," said Marcantonio, turning grave in a moment. " I could tell you a story about taxep." " What is it ? " asked Leonora. " Those things are interest-ing." " Last autumn I was in the Sabines ; I have a place up there, altogether ancient and dilapidated— etreinte. I own some of the land, and the peasants own little vineyards. One day I saw by the roadside a poor old man, a sort of village crUin, that every one knew quite well. We used to call him Angelino ; he was half-idiotic and quite old. He was weeping bitterly, poor wretch, and la3ked him what was the matter. He pointed to a little plot of land by the road, inclosed with a stone wall, and said the tax-gatherer had taken it from him. And then he cried again, and I could not get anything more out of him. I made inquiries, and I found that he had owned a little plot, and that the tax-gatherer had first seized the wretched crop of maize— perhaps a bushel basketful-to pay the tax ; and then, as that did not cover his demand?, he seized the land itself and sold or offered it for sale." . Mr. Crawford states that this happened in 1880. It was not the only case in which the whole crop of the land was insufficient to pay the taxes. , "I love the Italians," continues one of Mr. Ciawforda pereonages," but their ideas of economy are peculiar. I suppose that without much metaphor or exaggeration one might cay that the poor

erStin's bushel of corn is gone into that ridiculous ironclad over there."

" But of course it is," responds Marcantomo. The whole thing probably pail for one rivit." The amount of the land taxes not only equals sixty per cent, but there are at least sixty different taxes laid on the people. The ebimnevs are taxed, th* horses, dogs, sheep, oxen, goats, chickens, are taxed. Windows, chairs, and tablo9 are taxed. Ie is no wonder that the poor Italians find it cheaper to do without these appliances of civilization. Money put out in interest pays one*and» a-half p3r cent. <o the public revenue. There is nothing that can be taxed that is not taxed. Nothing is admitted free of duty. If a farmer kills a pig without paying a tax for killing it, the pig is seized by the paternal and progressive Government. Before 1860, Italy was a formidable maritime power. Now, in spite of her ponderous vessels, that are burdens to themselves and the people, she hns sunk below her former rank. The system of pecnlation in public offices is not equalled outside of Russia. It would seem as if the Italian Government had bought off a large number of the worst brigands and given them good berths in the post offices and municipal buildings. In 1883, the report of the President of the Council of Ministers was most disheartening. The industries of Italy have fallen to almost as low a state as tbose of Ireland, although " protected " by a paternal Government with all manuer of taxation. In 1879, the imports into Italy exceeded the exports by 60,000,000d015. Italy, remember, is a fertile country, inhabited by a class of agriculturists who are willing to make every inch of ground pay. _^^^_^_____^_