ART. III.-1. Calendario Generale del Regno d'Italia. Torino, 1864.

2. Movimento Commerciale del Regno d'Italia. Torino, 1864. 3. Reale Comitato dell' Esposisione Internazionale del 1862. Torino, 1865.

4. Brigand Life in Italy. By Count Maffei. London, 1865. 5. Report of the Italian Irrigation Canal Company (Canal Cavour). London, 1865.

6. Italian Irrigation. A Report on the Agricultural Canals of Piedmont and Lombardy. By R. Baird Smith, F.G.S., Captain Bengal Engineers. London, 1852.

7. The Marshes of South Italy. By J. Bailey Denton, C.E. 1865.

8. Italy under Victor Emmanuel. By Count Charles Arrivabene. London, 1864.

9. The Finances of Italy. By Count Charles Arrivabene. London, 1865.

10. Murray's Handbooks for Italy.

11. Reports by Her Majesty's Secretaries of Embassy and Legation on Manufactures, Commerce, &c. 1864.

THES

HE kingdom of Italy is now recognised, almost without exception, by all the European Powers, though, in the opinion of the subjects of King Victor Emmanuel, it may not have yet attained its legitimate proportions. It therefore possesses a status which cannot be without some influence in the European system, and which, unless its affairs are grossly mismanaged and its interests strangely misunderstood, must increase from year to year, until Italy, long merely the expression for a number of small States, without connexion or cohesion, may come to signify a nation of the first magnitude in Europe. No country possesses a greater stake in the stability and prosperity of the new kingdom than England. A considerable proportion of its public debt is held by British subjects, and a large amount of capital has been invested in its railways and other works of public utility. The progress of Italy has thus become a subject of special interest to this country. It is important, therefore, to know what Italy, as at present constituted, really is; what are its resources, capabilities, and prospects; and, more especially, to inquire what has been done, is doing, and may be done to raise it to that economical and political consideration to which it naturally aspires.

The Italian Kingdom has, according to the latest census, a population of 21,776,953 souls, and consequently ranks as the fifth Power in Europe. It is superior in this respect to Spain, although Spain possesses a much greater extent of territory. It

is also superior to Prussia. No country in Europe of the same size contains so many large cities and flourishing towns, or more of the elements of a great and enduring prosperity.

Italy may be considered as separated by the Apennines into two great divisions, which differ materially in climate, soil, and natural productions. The length of the Peninsula from Mount St. Gothard to Cape Spartivento in Calabria is about 700 English miles. Its greatest breadth in the northern portion is 330 miles, which diminishes to less than 80 near the centre of the Peninsula, and between the gulfs of St. Eufemia and Squillace in Calabria contracts to only 15 miles. Modern geographers fix the termination of the Maritime Alps and the commencement of the Apennines in the upper valley of the Bormida, a little to the west of Savona on the Mediterranean, where the range, which slightly exceeds the height of 1300 feet, presents the greatest depression in the chain. The physical conformation of this, the most interesting of all the countries of Europe, is thus exceedingly peculiar. To the west and the north are the Alps. Immediately at their foot lies the valley of the Po, of which the great alluvial plains of Lombardy, of the Emilian Provinces, the Romagna, and Venetia, form portions-a territory of inexhaustible agricultural wealth, with the most genial of climates, and under the fairest of skies. To the south run the Apennines, separating Lombardy from Tuscany and the provinces bordering on the Mediterranean. Beyond the valley of the Po, Italy, in fact, consists almost entirely of the Apennines, their offshoots and intermediate valleys, with slips of flat territory bordering on the Adriatic and the Mediterranean. In places, spurs from the central chain encroach considerably even on these contracted plains, and protrude into the sea. By reason of the tertiary and alluvial formations which constitute so considerable a portion of the country, this part of Italy may be almost said to be the gift of the Apennines. The mountain-range exhibits a great variety of picturesque and splendid scenery. The forms of the outlines are eminently beautiful, and in some parts of the range the peaks rise to a height sufficient to create an impression of sublimity. Monte Corno, or Il Gran Sasso d'Italia, attains an elevation of upwards of ten thousand feet, and the summits of many other peaks are but little below it. The largest portion of the range consists of limestones, and sandstones of the age of our English oolites and cretaceous series; granite and gneiss occur in the southern portion and off-lying islands; the great mass of Aspromonte, at the termination of the peninsula, consists chiefly of crystalline rocks.

The peculiar physical configuration of Italy was doubtless the

cause

cause of that multiplicity of States which is believed to have existed from the earliest times. Valleys separated by great mountain-barriers from each other constituted the territories of many petty nationalities. Descending,' says a writer of great authority on the geography of Italy,* into Italy proper, we find the complexity of its geography quite in accordance with its manifold political divisions. It is not one simple ridge of central mountains, leaving a broad belt of country on either side between it and the sea, nor is it a chain rising immediately from the sea on one side, like the Andes of South America, and leaving room, therefore, on the other side for wide plains of table-land, and for rivers with a sufficient length of course to become at last great and navigable. It is a back-bone, thickly set with spines of unequal length, some of them running out at regular distances parallel to each other, but others twisted so strangely that they often run for a long way parallel to the back bone, or main ridge, and interlace with one another in a maze almost inextricable.' As if to complete the disorder, in those spots where the spines of the Apennines, being twisted, run parallel to the sea and to their own central chain, and thus leave an interval of plain between their bases and the Mediterranean, volcanic agency has broken up the space thus left with other and distinct groups of hills of its own creation. The several parts of Italy are so isolated by nature, that no art of man could, it was long thought, thoroughly unite them; to this may in part be attributed the rudeness, pastoral simplicity, and robber habits, still to be found in a portion of the population.

The form of Italy-that of an extremely elongated peninsula, in the centre of the Mediterranean-has placed its inhabitants under conditions peculiarly favourable for commerce. Every part of the country is within easy reach of the sea. Italy possesses three thousand miles of seaboard-a coast-line double that of France. No country in Europe is provided with such a multiplicity of creeks, harbours, roadsteads, and bays. The gulfs of Taranto on the south-east; of Genoa, Spezzia, Gaeta, Naples, Salerno, Policastro, Eufemia, and Gioja, on the west, and of Manfredonia on the east, supply ports, havens, and anchorages, such as no other country in Europe can boast; and when to this happy configuration of the coasts are added a wonderful productiveness of soil and a delicious climate, it can excite no wonder that it should have been once the seat of the greatest empire in the world. The kingdom of Italy, as at present constituted, consists of the

Dr. Arnold.

provinces

provinces of Piedmont, Lombardy, Parma, Modena, the Romagna, Tuscany; of the greater portion of the former States of the Church, the continental territory of the former kingdom of the two Sicilies, the island of Sicily, the island of Sardinia, and offlying islands forming the Tuscan Archipelago and the Ponza group. Piedmont-although Turin has ceased to be the capital of Italy-is one of the most important and prosperous divisions of the kingdom. Its people are energetic and industrious. They are one of those vigorous races which have not been enervated by the influence of a Southern climate. Living almost under the shadow of the Alps, and braced by the bleak winds which blow from their summits, the people of Piedmont have ever shown a marked superiority in masculine energy over the soft, and perhaps more refined and sensitive, Tuscan and Neapolitan; their military qualities have been developed as those of no other Italian people have been; and as tillers of the soil, their industry and intelligence are remarkable. The Piedmontese provinces, excluding Savoy and Nice now annexed to France, are eminently productive. They yield silk and wine, hemp and wool, and many other valuable commodities. The raw silk was formerly almost entirely exported to France, but much of it is now worked up into fabrics at home. Silk stuffs, ribands, satins, and gorgeous brocades, are produced in great variety and of distinguished excellence, and the Genoa velvets still maintain a well-merited celebrity. The prosperity of the province, however, is based rather upon its agricultural than its manufacturing industry. In soil and climate it resembles Lombardy, although its works of irrigation are inferior, both in extent and design, to those of that magnificent province. It possesses, however, nearly two millions of acres of irrigated land, and it has required nearly six hundred years to convert its once arid plains into a vast expanse of luxuriant vegetation. The means of augmenting this production are now about to be greatly increased by the opening of the Cavour Canal, which, by means of its numerous branches and channels, will irrigate a tract of more than three hundred thousand acres, a large portion of which has been hitherto nearly unproductive. As the capital for this great work has been in a great measure supplied by England, a few details respecting an undertaking which promises such important results will not be here out of place.

The Cavour Canal owes its existence entirely to the formation of the Italian Kingdom. Its necessity had been long apparent, but the requisite capital could not be raised until a guarantee satisfactory to capitalists had been obtained. This was conceded by the Italian Government in 1862. The works are on a yery grand scale, and are most interesting to hydraulic engineers.

The

The canal passes over the Dora Baltea River by an aqueduct of 2500 yards in length, and under the rivers Elvo, Sesia, Agogna, _and_Terdoppio, by syphon-tunnels formed of masonry. The Po, which has been aptly denominated the Nile of Upper Italy, descending from Monte Viso in the Cottian Alps, runs through the plain of Upper Piedmont or Montferrat, which consists of a deep alluvium of a most fertile character. The river irrigates the district of Turin, where it receives the drainage waters from the meadows which surround the city, as well as much of its sewage. It then pursues its course, and is swollen before it reaches Chivasso by the junction of the rivers Dora Riparia, Orco, and Malone. The Cavour Canal will tap the Po about ten miles from Turin between the mouths of the Orco and the Dora Baltea, and will enter the Ticino after a course of fifty-three miles with an average descent of 1 foot 2 inches per mile, discharging a volume of water equal to 3900 cubic feet per second. From ten to twelve thousand men will have been employed daily upon this great work until its completion. The opening of the canal will be the inauguration of one of the grandest hydraulic works undertaken during the present century on the continent of Europe, and cannot fail to be the commencement of a new era in the prosperity of Piedmont. The canal is at its commencement forty-three yards wide, decreasing gradually to eight at its termination. The capital to be expended on its construction will exceed four millions of pounds sterling, and, according to the computation of the promoters, 300,000 acres of land, now estimated to be worth 6,000,0007., and yielding a rental of 300,000l., will, when irrigated by the Cavour Canal, attain the value of 15,000,000, and produce an annual rental of 750,000l.

Of all the Italian provinces Lombardy has long been preeminent for the productiveness of its soil. It is a striking proof how important this province was to Austria that its silk alone formed more than one-third in value of the whole exports of the empire. Lombardy far surpasses Piedmont in natural fertility, but that fertility is increased in an extraordinary degree by the most perfect system of irrigation that ever has existed. The great plain lying between the Po and these Alps possesses the water-bearing stratum, which is reached at different depths in different localities. The vicinity of Milan is characterised by the abundance of natural springs or fontanili, artesian wells on a small scale, some of which emit streams of very pure water and of a considerable volume. The traveller in the central region between the Ticino and the Adda is familiar with the aspect of those admirably cultivated plains which stretch far and wide, and are covered with the richest and most varied produc