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THE

GENTLEMAN'S MAGAZINE.

JUNE, 1831.

ORIGINAL COMMUNICATIONS.

ITALY AND THE ITALIANS.

ITALY, the land of the Church, the country where Christianity first acquired a national character, the soil where on a grand scale a new and purer religion than the world ever saw, became first indigenous, and taught the doctrines of her sacred institutions to the surrounding nations of Europe;-Italy, although in more than one period of modern history, several of her States have, even in the midst of intestine feuds and open hostilities, risen distinguished in art and in letters,- ranks at present low in the intellectual sciences, and all her efforts for political emancipation have hitherto proved unavailing. The various causes which have tended to produce her present state of degeneracy, when compared with her former greatness, may be interesting to the philosophical and speculative inquirer.

In tracing the history of nations, and the varying complexion of human character, animosity is often arrested by the diverse circumstances under which mankind at various periods of the world are presented to our notice. It is remarked by Boileau, while speaking of the characters of the various ages of life,

"Le temps que change tout, change aussi nos humeurs ;

Chaque age a ses plaisirs, son esprit, et ses mœurs."

It may be also said of the several ages of the world, as exemplified in the history of mankind, and having especial reference to some of its periods, that its contrasts, as exhibited in the manners, caprices, and views of its inhabitants, are not less striking to him who contemplates them.

In viewing, then, these contrasts, that which ancient and modern Italy, in some of the periods of its history, presents in the character of her inhabitants, must ever arrest the curiosity

of the student. The ancient Romans must always in their history form a theme of intense curiosity to the reader who explores the peculiar and distinctive features of human character, as displayed on the great arena of nations, together with the causes which push some States on to high eminence, while others slumber in perpetual mediocrity. The storied narrative of their transactions and exploits, blazes forth with a prominence and lustre in the history of mankind which distinguishes the records of no other nation or people.The soul expands whilst expatiating over the lengthened series of their republican history,-over their fame, ripening through centuries, and throwing the transactions of all other na tions into the shade. For the littleness of comparative obscurity circles over the chivalric deeds of other nations, inasmuch as no other State with which history brings us acquainted, ever maintained so long its political ascendancy over the nations of the earth.

The scholar who lucubrates amidst the scenes and narratives of days long gone by, sees in fancied retrospect the ample space which the empires of Semiramis, Sesostris, and Cyrus, occupied on the map of Asia,-although he may not probably credit the prodigious "circumstance" of warlike operation related of the former by Diodorus Siculus, who was in these matters guided chiefly by the authority of Ctesias the Cnidian. But the influence and preponderating ascendancy, if not the actual territorial possession of the Romans has been long acknowledged to be without parallel in the entire history of mankind. The terror of their arms reached much further than their actual conquests; and envoys from all the civilized nations of the globe crowded either to do

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homage, or negotiate an amicable alliance with a people whose military renown was only equalled by the matured wisdom of their policy. While they introduced throughout the nations they subjugated the arts of civilization and the literature of Greece, their magnanimity and patriotic devotion to the interests of their country, protracted through centuries, and animating to deeds of heroism on a grand national scale, has no parallel in the annals of mankind.

In periods of her modern history, alas! how has Italy distinguished herself? and how in a national point of view does she rank at the present moment among the nations of Europe and the world? Alas! a nation of singers and fiddlers can never hope, by any human ingenuity, to rival the dignity and grandeur which attached to her name, when Rome in her republican strength stood the proud arbiter of the universe.

What political and moral effects, it may be asked, have Christianity in modern times had upon the people of Italy? A spectator, in view of the puerile superstitions of ancient Rome, might have predicted amongst the moderns another state of things,-a moral expansion of character at least equivalent to that of any former period. But, alas! nothing (if we view the whole period of their modern history) can stand more utterly in the teeth of any such prediction, than the narrative of those moral and religious virtues which have adorned the character and temperament of the modern Italians.

Constantine the Great doubtless supposed, when he removed the seat of empire to a spot which seemed to command the riches (or the facilities of acquiring them) of Europe and Asia, and Christianized the Roman world, that the ancient vigour and soundness of moral temperament was about to be restored.

The history of Italy, for the last ten or twelve centuries, if viewed in relation to Christianity, may almost indeed in its general character be thought a summary of all that is antiChristian. All ecclesiastical historians concur in depicting in the most glowing characters, the frightful state of obliquity and declension which prevailed in the Church throughout Christendom for many ages after the disso

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lution of the Roman power. After the hives of barbarians, who with such perseverance struggled for the ascendancy throughout the Western provinces, had become the occupants of the soil, the grossest superstitions were presently foisted upon the purer precepts of the Christian faith, and the human mind soon became veiled in ignorance and gloom. The religious orders and institutions which grew with the growth of every successive century, and spread themselves particularly over the nations of Italy, were doubtless, in the abuses to which they led, generative of that blindness and superstition which to this day prevails to a greater extent there than in any other country in Europe, with the exception perhaps of Spain and Portugal. "In this barbarous age," says Mosheim, speaking of the 7th century, "religion lay expiring under a motley and enormous heap of superstitious inventions, and had neither the courage nor the force to raise her head, or to display her native charms to a darkened and deluded world." He expresses himself in similar terms concerning the 8th century; for though, as he says, Charlemagne seemed disposed to stem this torrent of superstition, and opposed the worship of images, yet profound and grovelling ignorance, both as it regarded religious light and the cultivation of mind, again spread itself after his death through the nations of the West.

Italy was the soil from whence most of these perversions of reason and common sense, as well as of religion, may be said to have first emanated, the head quarters of superstition and spiritual tyranny, from which the alleged successors of St. Peter and their innumerable coadjutors, wove their ingenious web of entanglement for enslaving the minds and consciences of all ranks of people.

In point of commercial greatness and richness, the famous maritime Republics of Italy in the middle ages may be said to have rivalled the ancient states of Tyre and Carthage,luxury which followed in its train, was carried to a high excess, and even the independence of its denizens was often asserted and maintained. But over the states of the Church, and their dependancies, there generally reigned a frightful moral gloom, which

1831.]

Works of Eustace and Lady Morgan on Italy.

was mainly attributable, it may be thought, to the benighting influences of the doctrines propagated from the Vatican; and the anti-Christian examples (with some bright exceptions, it is true) which were held forth by the supreme pontiffs.

"The history of the Roman pontiffs that lived in the 9th century," says Dr. Mosheim, "is a history of so many monsters, and not of men, and exhibits a horrible series of the most flagitious, tremendous, and complicated crimes; as all writers, even those of the Romish communion, unanimously acknowledge." The debasing tenets taught by her priests may be thought to have been instrumental, in more than a slight degree, in producing that supine and pusillanimous character, which at length distinguishes Italy, in our own day, so far as regards valour, discipline, and constancy.

Amongst the most prominent of the modern speculators on the subject of Italy, ranks Eustace, author of the "Classical Tour." An enthusiastic admirer of the policy and magnanimity of the ancient Romans, surveying with astonishment, as all must, the stupendous remains of their ancient grandeur, he yet perhaps is disposed to place the character and features of Modern Italy higher in the scale of moral and mental excellence, than the accounts which may be drawn from most other quarters, will warrant. But it is impossible to trace the pages of Eustace-eminent among other travellers, without feeling a spark of that flame which seems to kindle in his own breast, at the recital of the architectural splendours of the "ancient city." The heart swells with a generous and gratulatory emotion while contemplating the elevation of thought, the purity and grandeur of design, which inspired a race of beings to the achievement of works whose consummate skill and astounding magnificence have few or no parallels in the degenerate days of modern times. But Eustace, doubtless, proceeds in the teeth of every other recorded authority, when, in his last chapter, he endeavours to establish a position, as it should seem, peculiar to himself, that the modern Italians, taken in every sense in which a people can be considered, dispute the palm of rivalship with their ancestors. In his conclusive "Dissertation," he labours

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485

most strenuously, by a variety of il-
lustrations, and the use of argument
which sometimes however is any thing
but conclusive, to prove to the reader
that this thesis is built upon a close
and accurate observation of Italy, as
she is. Mr. Eustace's rhetoric is
powerful, occasionally, but it may be
thought he altogether fails when he
speaks of the "public spirit," pa-
triotism," and " magnanimity" of
the modern Italian states,-as (Venice
perhaps excepted) the history of those
states will assuredly testify that they
have in modern times fallen far below
several other European states, in each
of these particulars. In this "Dis-
sertation" he declares that, were a
leader of great abilities to place him-
self at the head of Italy,
"he would
find all the materials of greatness
ready for his use." The historical re-
cords of the modern Italian states, and
their wars with foreign powers, cer-
tainly disprove this assertion. The
truth is, the sons of Italy are, in
point of character, of a different con,
texture from what they were about
the times here mentioned. With every
allowance for the splendid talents, and
the thinking both on subjects of art
and literature which has distinguished
modern Italy, they have indubitably
evolved a very different standard of
bravery and of patriotism from that
which prevailed in the old Republic
during the period of the rising grandeur
of Rome, as Tacitus calls it-for that,
of course, is the period to which all
point who speak of Roman superiority.
The architectural grandeur of Rome
appears to have attained its high emi-
nence and maturity after the enslave-
ment of its inhabitants. Its skill in
the arts rose as its liberties sunk, their
inventive faculty and the expansion of
their ingenuity in the varied works of
imagination and genius, trod upon the
heels of their freedom.

On the subject of Italy, our intelligent countrywoman, Lady Morgan, has also written a work. Whatever rank her Ladyship may hold in her country's literature, it may be said of her book, so far as it relates to the historical state of Italy, that it aims at that species of fine writing which consists of sweeping metaphors and bold generalizing positions. In common with some other writers, she takes for granted that the modern Italian Republics of Milan, Florence, Pisa,

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Genoa, and Venice, as they partook of the same form of government, wearing the word Libertas traced in golden characters on their frontlet, so they were composed of the same materials as the old Roman Republic, animated by the same mind, imbued with the same virtue, prompted by the same public zeal, and the magnanimous spirit of the same stern patriotism. This is by no means the case. The history of these Republics (taken generally) is far from warranting any such assumption. Isolated instances of high and splendid character form, perhaps, exceptions in the annals of Florentine and Milanese warfare, while the long line of Venetian story often approximates, in more than a distant resemblance, the energy and decision of the ancient Roman councils.

Al

The fact of the occupation of Italy during the middle ages, and down to the epoch of our own times, by the troops of Austria and Spain (to say nothing of the military interference of other claimants), is a sort of stigma in the history of Italian Republics, which, while it proves that the fair soils of Italy have always been an object of cupidity to the other powers of Europe, looks with rather a malign aspect upon the hypothesis which speaks of the liberty of her sons. though it must be acknowledged that instances of bravery and good conduct have not only been known to distinguish their armies in the field, but to fire the resolutions of the Senate with zeal in the public cause, upon the invasion of a common enemy,-yet these occasional displays seemed more the sudden bursts of a patriotism which still retained a sense of glorious ancestry, than the uniform impulse of a people free from choice, and brave from a sort of energizing principle. Foreign podestas, as every one knows, were placed in her cities, and were regarded by all the citizens as the common and supreme arbiters of their differences. This measure, in the policy of Austria, doubtless had the effect of perpetuating the submission of her territorial possessions in Italy. Claiming, by right of conquest, what all saw they had not the shadow of pretension to by any other right, the princes of the Imperial House showed a subtle insight into the art of governing, by insinuating the badge of slavery under the precincts of their

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domestic hearths and altars. Until the beginning of the thirteenth century, however, "Florence," says Percival, was governed by Consuls and a Senate of popular choice; but she then fell, like other cities, into the fashion of entrusting her government to foreign podestas.' The early establishment and rise of the five beforementioned famous Republics, was auspicious to the cause of liberty in Italy and Europe; but, as Lady Morgan justly observes, "their existence was a solecism in the reigning system of Europe, and their example dangerous to its permanency."

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"The existence of liberty in Italy," says Lady Morgan, in the fitful metaphors of her style, was like the natural day of her brilliant climate; it rose in bursts of splendour, and sunk in sudden and unprepared darkness." "Italy," she adds, "her republics invaded, environed, overwhelmed by the successive armies of Europe, to the last gasp of her independence, exhibited the results of her free institutions; and, like the dying gladiator of her capitol, was sublime even in the last pang of dissolution. From the walls of Milan to the sanctuary of the Vatican, the loveliest country of Europe was desolated by acts of savage atrocity and brutal violation, from which, even at this distance of time, humanity shudders and recoils."

A summary of a few of the leading characteristics of the Italian Republics may now serve to substantiate what we have advanced, that the moderns had materially fallen from the great and noble lineaments of character which had once animated the ancient Republic. The history of all the transactions of the Italian States dur

ing the middle ages, do not assuredly prove that from HER soils alone emanated the wisdom which was to direct Europe. The rise and progress in riches, arts, and commercial grandeur of the five celebrated Republics of modern Italy, doubtless comprised within the period of their annals many illustrious deeds; and in the enterprise, activity, and greatness of view which occasionally distinguished them, they stood forth prominently to the admiration of all their continental neighbours. But there were periods, and those not unfrequent (especially in the Milanese and Florentine dominions), when neither their domestic

1831.]

Topographical notices of Ruerdean.

or their foreign policy betrayed much of wisdom, but was rather marked by laxness and incapacity. The eternal factions of the Guelphs (or, as Percival writes it, the Guelfs,) and Ghibelins which for two centuries afflicted the cities of Milan and Florence, and their dependencies, with all the calamities of rancorous though petty warfare, was doubtless inauspicious of that prosperity and unity which the free aspect of their constituted government, and other advantages, certainly promised. But that the citizens of so many noble and populous cities, inhabiting soils which rung with the deeds of ancestral glory,—with all the advantages which unity and a concentration of every thing which a superabundance of immense wealth threw into their hands,-should, instead of strengthening themselves against the common invader, on the other hand, exhaust themselves in the bitter animosities of party spite, proves certainly not that they were animated by courage and noble bearing, but rather by a malignant and degenerate spirit of jealousy.

For,

If, indeed, all the Italian Republics were perpetually distinguished by the magnanimity which some writers seem inclined to ascribe to them, history, in the accumulated experience of nations, affords us sufficient reasons for thinking that they would oftener have united for the defence of their own common liberties. though Eustace distinctly states himself of opinion that "their private cabals and party feuds were from age to age the unhappy cause which prevented their thus uniting;" still that such cause should have continued to exist, proved that the high-minded patriotism of their ancestors had no longer an existence. Melksham.

E. P.

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487

have come to my knowledge subsequently to my publication.

Yours, &c. T. D. FOSBroke.

Dr. Meyrick objects to Sir Robert Atkyns's definition of Ruerdean by River Dean because it adjoins the Wye, and thinks that it was originally Rhiwyr-din, "a fortress on the side of a hill;" of which there are remaining earth-works and a small piece of wall, and groins, round, not ogee, and such as we ascribe to centuries preceding the fourteenth. I am inclined to Dr. Meyrick's opinion for the following reasons:

RUARDYN, or Rewardyne, is mentioned as the original orthography in several ancient records, quoted in my History of Gloucestershire, vol. ii. pp. 150, 154. In contiguity are MichelDean, Little Dean, and Deep-dean (in Walford). There is, too, reason to think, from the old records, that originally Dene was the generic term for all these vills; and Michel-Dean is still familiarly called Dean by the inhabitants. Abbenhall, Michel-Dean, and Little Dean, were but one vill in the times of Edward the First and Second. At neither of these places was there a castle, and Abbenhall, which adjoins Ruerdean on the west, was so named from the Abbot of Flaxley having lands and a mansion there. A close roll of the 7 Edw. II.* says, that "All the lands in the forest granted under the old castle of Dean to be assarted were then confirmed to the Abbot and monks of Flaxley. This abbey was founded by Roger, son of Milo Earl of Hereford, in 1140, and in the confirmation-charters of Henry the Secondt, it is said, that the above Roger gave to the abbey the whole land under the old castle of Dean to be assarted. Now, St. Briavel's could not be the old castle of Dean, for it was only erected by the father of the founder of Flaxley. William de AlbaMara, 40 Hen. III. held two carucates in the manor of Ruardyn, by a quitrent to the crown, and attending the vel's-castle. Among his heirs was a summons of the constable of St. BriaWilliam, son of William de Hatesway (whose estate is still called Hatha

*Fosbroke's Gloucestershire, i. 86.
Dugd. Monast. i. 884, old edit.

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