Italy and the Italians (Volume 2) online

was to be carried to the great magazines {caricatoj't)
at Catanea, Girgenti, Sciacca, Termini, and Alicata,
&c. Arbitrary acts, fraud, bribery, annoyances of
every kind, were necessarily connected with these
regulations, and were ruinous to agriculture. And



318 CORN-TRADE.

Sicily is still behindhand in all those improvements
which other countries have derived from better
theories and greater experience ; and persons con-
versant with the subject complain of the like very
great imperfections which prevail in the preparation
of sulphur, while their recommendations tending to
increase the produce are disregarded. The aspect
of the naked hills of Sicily proves that the com-
plaints of the destruction of wood are well founded.

After the decline of the price of corn, the com-
plaints of the amount and unequal assessment of
the later taxes on land grew so loud that it became
necessary to rectify the register, and to take the
average produce from 1820 to 1830 as the standard.
No rise or alteration of the cadastre is to take place
in regard to agriculture before 1 880, and in regard
to olive-trees and woods till 1900. On the question
whether the land-tax is proportionably higher in
Naples or in Sicily, the opinions of the inhabitants
of the two countries differ exceedingly, as they do
on a thousand other subjects. The same may be
said of the question, whether the revenues of the
state in Sicily are higher in proportion than the in-
come and property, or the number of the inhabitants.
Loud and general is the complaint that the govern-
ment promotes the extension of the ruinous lotto
into the smallest villages, and that it has seduced
even the poorest to indulge delusive hopes.

For Palermo, Messina, Catanea, and Calatagirone,



POPULATION OF SICILY. 319

the mill-tax was retained at its full height, and for
the rest of the country diminished. Instead of a
kind of personal tax which was levied in most
places, a tax has been again laid upon mills, even
for the level country. Many regard this, and
justly, as a very inconvenient retrograde step.

For the construction of roads, which are more
rare in Sicily than in any civilized country in the
world, ly per cent of the land-tax is now allowed to
be applied ; and permission has been granted to
raise a loan of a million of dollars at 5| per cent,
for the purpose.

By way of supplement to my former statements
relative to the population, I subjoin the following
particulars which I have just received. There
were in

1798. 1831. 1836.

Palermo 140,000 173,000 175,000 inhabitants.

Messina 46,000 58,000*

Catanea 45,000 52,000 56,000

Girgenti 14,000 17,000

Sicily 1,660,000 1,943,000 in 1833, 1,927,000.

It was computed that there was one monk to
254 persons.

That the administration in the towns of Sicily
needs superintendence is proved by older and later
experience, and also by the discussions of plans
{stato discusso) for the city of Palermo in 1838.

* Others say 83,C00.



320 INCOME AND EXPENDITURE

They form a thick folio, which contains, besides
the plans themselves, the remarks of the city-tax
committee, of the intendant, of the ministers, and,
lastly, the royal decision. For many years past
the expenditure of the city has exceeded its income,
and its finances are not yet in due order. The in-
come of 186,000 ounces arises chiefly from landed
property, land-tax, and taxes on consumption; thus,
for instance, 50,000 ounces from flour, 18,000 from
cattle for slaughter, 5,000 from fish, 32,000 from
wine, &c. Among the expenses there are not only
the ordinary, (salaries, pensions, buildings, interest
6000 ounces, lighting 10,000,) but also some of a
peculiar kind. Thus, for instance, notwithstanding
rich endowments, there are 8,000 ounces more for
churches, convents, and festivals of all sorts, of
which that of St. Rosalia alone costs 4000 ounces.
Still more striking are two items, namely, 4000
ounces for the cure of diseased prostitutes, and
10,000 for foundhngs, while the public schools are
put off" with 1000. Whether it is true that, in
Palermo and other cities of Sicily, the money
destined for this or that purpose finds its way into
other channels, I cannot decide ; but I may venture
to assert that strict financial economy (deeply in
debt and highly taxed as the city is) might diminish
many expenses, or at least establish very different
relative proportions between them.

The revenues and expenditure of the city of



OF PALERMO AND MESSINA. 321

Messina amount annually to 40,000 ounces, about
five-sixths of which arise from taxes on consump-
tion, upwards of 3000 from the sale of snow, and
the rest from rent of property, fees of court, &c.
Taxes on consumption are levied upon oil, tobacco,
fish, wine, must, vinegar, brandy, &c. Wine pays
4 tari per salma; oil 1 tari the cafisso, (156 pounds
Vienna weight,) butchers' meat 8 grani the rotolo,
four for the king and four for the city, which are
levied by two distinct authorities.

The corn-tax too is of a double kind. In the
first place, the salma of corn pays on entering Mes-
sina, for the city 16 tari 3j grani. The levy of
this tax is let for the yearly payment of a specific
sum to private persons {campisti). Secondly, on
the salma of wheat, maize, and barley, 13 tari 1^
grani are levied at the mill for the king. The
salma, therefore, pays altogether 30 tari 8f grani.*
Forty-two rural communes belonging to Messina
are subject to the same heavy taxes.

The salaries paid by the city amount to between
5000 and 6000 ounces. A principal item of charge
arises from the debts, most of which pay 5 per cent,
interest. Money to pay them off is wanting. The
sum of 30 ounces is put down annually for the
library ; on the other hand, 1000 for the festival of

• A salma contains 18 tomoli, or about 5^ Vienna metzen.
A cantaro, or 100 rotoli^ is equal to 141J pounds Vienna
weight. A tari is about 5d. Englisli.

p5



322 FOUNDLINGS.

the Virgin Mary on the 15th of August, and 1600
or 1700 for foundUngs. The number of these in
the city of Messina alone is from 30 to 50 monthly ;
for even wealthy men are not ashamed to send their
illegitimate offspring to be nursed, or rather
killed, in the convenient foundling hospital.

In a general statement for Palermo for 1836,
exclusively of the children found alive, there are the
following three items :

Found dead in the turning wheel 21

half dead, who soon afterwards died... 45

Perished from miscarriage and abortion 36

Such are the occurrences of institutions encou-
raging murder, sin, and wretchedness of all kinds,
and yet patronized and extolled by state, city, and
church !



LETTER CXV.

Roman Archives — Relations between Church and State —
Religions Squabbles.

Florence, Sept. 2nd.
It has been reported at Rome that I was charged
with a secret mission to prosecute the intrigue com-
menced by M, B at the papal court ; and that,

owing to so hostile an intention, the archives were
naturally closed against me. This fiction is rather
too silly. Nobody ever thought of giving me any



CHURCH AND STATE. 323

political commission whatever ; and I have never
said or done the least thing that could in the re-
motest manner have encouraged such an idea. In
Rome they cry out : Thou heretic ! — in Berlin :
Thou secret Catholic ! What wonder if I were
to lose the tramontane, and no longer to know where
my head stands. Accept, therefore, with indul-
gence what (with my weak head) I shall write to-
day, as I am forced into this track. You are ac-
quainted with my sentiments relative to the dis-
pute between Prussia and Rome ; I will, therefore,
set aside all particulars and stick to generals.

If I turn to history, I discover tyranny in times
when state and church were in harmony, and when
they were at variance . I find tyranny on the
Catholic side and on the Protestant side. Neither
party then should set out with claiming for itself
exclusively right, liberty, and wisdom. In the
chalifat, which united the temporal and spiritual
authority completely in one hand, I can no more
discover a model for christian institutions than
when state or church grasp beyond their natural
sphere. Their limit is not absolutely fixed for all
times and all nations ; it has been moveable, and will
continue to be so. But one party alone cannot fix
the limits, nor arbitrarily remove them when fixed.

The pretensions of the hierarchy are certainly
unbounded, and checked only by prudence and the
force of circumstances. Hence not only incessant



324 SPIRIT OF CATHOLICISM.

attention, but often serious resistance, appears ne-
cessary in order not to be vanquished by the well-
appointed army that is ever ready for battle. But
is it not natural, after the failure or wilful destruc-
tion of so many political forms, to seek succour for
once in ecclesiastical forms ? And how can one ever
combat the ancient, consistent, artful absolutism of
the pope with success, if one at the same time
caresses and protects the arbitrary and the super-
ficial absolutism of temporal sovereigns? If, then,
one would raise things from a quarrel that leads
to nothing to a higher point, and aim at greater
objects, the undertaking must be of one piece, and
not in one part diametrically contrary to another.
Every absolutist, bureaucratic, intolerant Protes-
tant is inconsistent.

On the other hand, they are egregiously mistaken
in Rome, when they conclude that every one who
does not aj)prove the conduct of the Prussian court
in all its parts is of course a Catholic, or an advocate
of the intolerant principles of certain zealots. It is
a great pity, said a Roman to me, that the Catholic
church must necessarily be intolerant. A gross, an
atrocious error, if it was intended to express some-
thing more than firmness of conviction and kindly
training — to assert the right and the duty to perse-
cute, nay, to burn, persons holding different opi-
nions.

Unconditional absolutism, however, is by no



SPIRIT OF CATHOLICISM. 325

means the all-embracing form of the Catholic
church. Centuries back it had framed with admir-
able skill what is now called a constitution. Every
theocracy, however, has gone to ruin as soon as it
ceased to stand at the head of a progressive deve-
lopment of the human race ; every opposition has
fallen to pieces when it was no longer held together
by one common interest and object. From this
point of view many conjectures and conclusions
might be drawn relative to the permanence and pro-
gress of Catholicism and Protestantism.

The final aim of Catholicism is, according to
many, to exterminate Protestantism, and of Protes-
tantism to exterminate Catholicism. Might they
not just as well say that the aim of inspiration is to
exterminate expiration, and vice versa 9 Are not
life and development dependent on this double
movement, and if either were about to cease alto-
gether, should one not be obliged to restore it
purified and invigorated, as " his Majesty's oppo-
sition ?'''

It is not by the external way of violence that any
thing can be effected in the long run against Catho-
licism or Protestantism ; the means, the ends, must
be spiritual, must be christian, in the highest sense
of the word. But are not many hard-hearted
tyrants of the 16th and 1 7th century transformed
in our days into heroes? Is it not denied that
Jesuits or Puritans did wrong, because the tempest



326 SPIRIT OF CATHOLICISM.

of wrongful suffering burst also over them ? It is a
lamentable truth, confirmed afresh by experience,
that religious fanaticism is covered by as light and
thin a veil as political fanaticism, and the strength of
the patient afflicted with fever is deemed greater
and nobler than that of one in health. Wo be to
the zealots, whether Protestant or Catholic, who
will not strive to promote the development of mind
by kindliness and moderation, but to renew and
carry on the war with those means which- ravaged
Germany for thirty years together, and gave it up
an easy prey to rapacious foreigners !*

Italy has no German or Protestant predilections,
and is nevertheless more Ghibelline than in the 12th
and 13th century. Nay, many Italians assert that
Guelfism has dissolved and ruined country and
people. But do not many nations, in other respects
extremely jealous of their independence, good-na-
turedly suffer themselves to be guided by Italian
popes and cardinals, as though Italian birth were
inseparable from the idea of Catholic church-govern-
ment .P

May the great, the vivifying truths of Chris-
tianity, the truths in which all professions agree,
continue to be the essence of genuine tolerance and
conciliation ! Let zealots of various kinds do what
they will, the development ordained by God will

* The same was the case in France, England, the Nether-
lands, &c.



SPIRIT OF CATHOLICISM. 327

not carry back the human race either to the i3th
or to the 16th century ; but, according to the ex-
pression of others, after the Petrine and PauUne
character of Christianity has had its day, the Johan-
nean will step into the foreground.

To what end, many may perhaps say, this useless
arguing pro and con ? In times of contention one
ought (as Solon of old required) to choose one's
party and strenuously help to carry on the war, not
sit down listlessly or over-prudently between two
stools. But is, then, the choice always between
two parties only .? Is there but a right and a left,
nothing opposite or ahead ? Needs there not, even
during war, something to point to higher peace ?
That love should get the better of hate, this is the
pole-star, which ought not to be lost sight of in all
contests, and whoever points to it is not so useless
as those imagine who, engaged in the fray, have no
inclination or leisure to look upward.



LETTER CXVI.

Joiiniey from ISaples to Florence.

Florence, September 3d.
Of my run to Malta, and my stay there, I have
already given you an account. Since I left Naples
I have been travelling with not less rapidity, but



328 JOURNEY FROM NAPLES

without any extraordinary exertion, and will inform
you as briefly as possible how and which way.

On Friday the SOth of August, probably just at
the time when you were reading letters from me in
Berlin, I got into the coach in Naples, saw Gaeta
by moonlight, at daybreak the wretched yet beau-
tiful Itri and Fondi, next Terracina, with its reddish
yellow rocks, and the Pontine marshes. Their
aspect is more verdant and cheerful than that of
many a bepraised tract, and, but for the unwhole-
some air, they might be compared with our grazing
districts. From Velletri to Albano beautiful well
cultivated hills, and then the classic Campagna di
Roma. I will hold my heretical tongue, lest I
should be caught and led about by the aesthetic
cord till I cry Pater peccavi, and deny my creed
from cowardice or weariness. Arrived in Rome
between five and six in the evening of the 81st, and
left it again about twelve. I made some prepara-
tions for getting into a mood of melancholy admi-
ration and fondness, but the fit would not come —
the spirit was willing, but the flesh weak. Such
circumstances drive one, in order to justify one's
self, into opposition. And so I inwardly expressed
my displeasure with the imperial era of Rome,
which here glorifies itself almost exclusively with
columns, triumphal arches, colossal buildings, baths,
&c. ; laid the papal government of the 16th cen-
tury by way of shade over the works of Raphael



TO FLORENCE. 329

and Michael Angelo, and almost sunk the sublime
idea of the Cathohc church in the recollection of
the manoeuvres of the spiritual parade. In these
perverse thoughts I was interrupted, or rather pu-
nished for them ; for the postillion plunged with
both horses into the ditch, and if the three animals
had not lain so quiet that we could get out and cut
the traces, there would probably have been an end
to our thinking in this world. The danger over, I
fell into my old train. Instead of looking about at
V^iterbo, and examining localities in reference to
the siege of Frederick II., I merely remarked the
wretched state of all doors, locks, and windows,
hardened my heart against the swarms of beggars,
was but little pleased with the elevated Montefias-
cone, as I passed beneath it, found Radicofani fer-
tile in comparison with the fields of Etna, slept and
saw nothing of Siena, but was fresh and lively
again on the morning of the 2nd in the vicinity of
Florence.



LETTER CXVII.

Journey from Florence to Verona — Austrian Government —
Prohibition of Be^iging; — School Examination — Passport
Annoyance.

Verona, September 5th.

My first, or rather my most important, visit in

Florence on the 3rd of September was to the Tri-



330 JOURNEY FROM FLORENCE.

bune and the other works of art. What I have
seen in Rome and Naples has not diminished my
admiration of the Venus and the Niobe. Even
Titian's Venus, as it is called in the Tribune, is
only the picture of a naked, more vain than beauti-
ful woman ; the body too large, the knees clumsy
— buc ne sutor.

I dined with the extremely courteous G. S — .
The word sentimental having dropped from me, I
know not how, M — observed smiling that he had
never given me credit for any thing of that kind.
Indeed, if I am to shed tears because a piece of
bread has been scorched in the toasting, or because a
butterfly does not live for ever, I am nothing less
than sentimental. My sentimentality lies rather in
the direction of that of the prompter in Wilhelm
Meister, and gladly leaves the other sort to other
people.

The express-coach from Florence to Mantua has
but two places ; the post, however, thinks it right
to sell a third place to persons who are in haste ;
hence I was exceedingly cramped and uncomfort-
able. At five in the evening I started ; the road
in general up hill. A violent thunder-storm passed
on before us, illumined the dark summits of the
Apennines, and laid the dust without wetting us
through. On descending towards Bologna I ad-
mired the verdant and cultivated hills the more.



TO VERONA. 331

because the bare heights of many more southern
provinces were still present to my view.

You need pass but once through the streets of
Bologna to feel, nay to see, that this city has a
totally different character from Rome, and that the
two do not harmonize together. According to ap-
pearance, one would expect more cheerfulness in
Modena; but the booksellers' shops were chiefly
stocked with ascetic and religious works. The fer-
tile, highly cultivated plain of Lombardy has not
the presumption to set itself up for picturesque ; it
relinquishes to others all the charms of the past and
is content with the rich present. As I crossed the
placid Po, and first discerned the Alps, my thoughts
easily flew forward to my home. In passing the
Austrian frontier, I felt, too, as though I were now
entering a country where there existed social rela-
tions and a government, and that the south was to
me a lusus or abortus naturce. Some, I know, will
say that by expressions of this kind I only show the
narrowness and heterodoxy of my notions. I am,
nevertheless, fantastical enough to build myself an
idol nltioris indaginis, standing with one foot on
the Tavohere of Apulia, with the other beyond the
strait on the sulphur-mines of Sicily, having on its
breast a rich cabinet of coins, instead of the zodiac,
holding in the left hand the ordinances relative to
the Tavoliere and the centralization of Sicily, in
the right the ever- memorable contract with M.



332 VERONA.

Taix concerning the sulphur monopoly. Before
this colossus Prince Metternich and his colleagues,
those Gothaniites, as they are called, must fall down,
and learn how to bestride and rule the narrow
world.

In the evening of the 4th of September I reached
Mantua, and set out at half-past four the next
morning for Verona, intending to continue my
journey without stopping across the Brenta. Why
I chose this route I will explain to you verbally ;
but my haste to reach home was checked by the
wiser dispensation of the post, or rather of Heaven,
and I was forced to take an unquiet rest in Verona.
I traversed the city in all directions, and was de-
lighted for the fourth time with its bustle and its
uncommonly beautiful environs. Descending from
loftier hills, the Adige rushes on between richly-
cultivated eminences, benefits and embellishes the
city, and, after it has performed its work, becomes
more placid in the plain.

Unluckily I have found in Verona another con-
firmation of the oft-repeated complaint that the
Austrian government attends only to material in-
terests, but neglects, or even undermines, those of a
higher nature. In my walks for hours through the
streets, great and small, I have not seen a single
beggar ; not a creature asked charity of me, though
it was easy to perceive that I was a traveller.
What does this prove, unless that the Austrian go-



VERONA. JJ33

vernment attends to such utterly trifling matters as
the employment of the healthy and the relief of the
necessitous, while it deprives its subjects of all that
is most noble, namely, the opportunity of exercising
the Christian virtues in the streets ? The other
governments of Italy, in the profundity of their
wisdom, pursue a contrary course, and their subjects,
equally sagacious and docile, profit by the lesson,
and take care that from year's end to year's end
there shall be no lack in the streets of sick, loath-
some, and impudent beggars, in order that no
Christian may ever want opportunity for the exer-
cise of the Christian virtues!

I heard the sounds of lively military music issu-
ing from a church, and found that the city gym-
nasium was holding a poetical sitting, at which
twenty-eight compositions in all metres were recited
in honour of Scaliger. What powers of produc-
tion ! some admirers may exclaim ; what diversity
in unity ! What I heard reminded me of Lichten-
berg's bombast. There was no end to the shouting
and clapping of hands. A troop of little happy
urchins in particular clapped till their hands were
quite red, and the trumpets drowned their fortissimo.
You missed just the best, you may say ; and I will
not contradict this mild interpretation.

To prove to what perfection certain government
arrangements are brought in Italy, and how many
people there are anxious to make the acquaintance



334 JOURNEY FROM VERONA

of a respectable man, I might give you a list of
31 signatures to my passport from Naples. Many
of these signatures (such as the Prussian and Aus-
trian) are gratuitous ; others, especially the Neapo-
litan and Roman, are the more expensive. Thus
the Neapolitan consul in Malta takes 1 dollar
15 groschen (nearly 5 shillings English) for sub-
scribing his name. As you are obliged, moreover,
every time to pay soldiers, people belonging to the
police, lacquais de place, and the like, this passport
system (in conjunction with the depredations of the
custom-house officers and sinners) entails so heavy
and vexatious an expense, that it often costs more
than eating and drinking, and one had better get
off wholesale than be so often plundered retail.



LETTER CXVIII.

Journey from Verona lo Munich — Inspiuck.

Munich, September 9th.
From Verona I travelled up the valley of the
Adige and Eisach, over the Brenner, to Inspruck,
and by way of Zirl and Partenkirch to this city — a
journey (with the exception of the environs of Mu-
nich) exactly calculated to refresh and delight the
heart. Hills of the most diverse kinds, sublime,
beautiful, fantastic, here and there superb preci-
pices and peaks, mostly covered with wood and ver-



TO MUNICH. 335

dure to their summits. Luxuriant meadows, brilliant
flowers, gushing springs, murmuring brooks, im-
petuous torrents, shady trees, houses and cattle,
herdsmen and sportsmen. Ought I to draw com-
parisons? but who forces me to do so? I will,
therefore, merely remark, in a significant manner,
that no Tirolese need be afraid of a Sicilian. Nei-
ther need the garden of Inspruck shrink from com-
parison with the Flora of Palermo. It is impossible
to contemplate Inspruck, so cheerfully spread out
between sober hills, without delight, and the honest
race of inhabitants indicates a German present and
a German future. " The black Manderl " in the
church bore witness for state and art, the Martin's
Wall reminded me of the noble courage of a
German emperor, and the German frontier custom-
house at Mittenwalde relieved the traveller from
search till he should reach home. I must do the