arm, to level his aggressor with the earth; not to raise a civil war, and drive a whole body forth, for the crime of one. Nay, had Miss Sedgwick lived at the period to which she alludes, it is more than probable that her sympathy might have been as much awakened for the exiled nobles, thus driven forth by an infuriated mob, as it has been for her exiled noble friends of the present time.

Speaking of the country between Brescia and Verona, Miss Sedgwick says:

"This is the richest part of Lombardy, covered with mulberries and vines, and thronging with, as it appears to us, a healthy population, full fed, from the cradle to the grave. The children are stout and rosy, with masses of bright circling hair. The women are tall, and well developed; and the old people so old that one would think they must, themselves, have forgotten they were ever young,-the last thing they do forget. But they are never rocked in the cradle of reposing age, and never cease from their labors. We see even the very old women, with their gray heads bare, or covered with a fanciful straw hat, driving asses and leading cows on the highway. Whenever our carriage stops, there are plenty of beggars around us, but they are, for the most part, sick or maimed. Comparing the peasantry of Savoy with that here, this climate would seem to be bed and board to them."

Things, then, are not in a very bad state, after all, in Lombardy; but the truth is, it is not the people who are galled by the supremacy of Austria, but the nobles,-and Miss Sedgwick, democratic as she is, and always ready to believe the popular clamor when the nobles are its object, seems to have had her democratic feelings give way in favor of the nobles of Italy, for she says:

"It is possible, the peasant may derive a certain kind of pleasure, from knowing that, politically, he is on a level with his lord. The government is, in one sense, to them, a perfect democracy,—a dead level of nothingness. Our proud and noble friend had the same liability to Austrian conscription, as the meanest peasant on his estate, and his vote (they do vote in municipal affairs), counts no more than his who eats broth and black bread."

Yes, and the peasants know well, that this would not have been the case, had the patriots succeeded; therefore, did they never cordially join them; they prefer that things should rest as they are, and thus they will remain, spite of the efforts of the liberals, from Lady Morgan to Miss

Sedgwick. The patriotic nobles, instead of legislating in their petty states, must employ their talents, as some of them are most praiseworthily and successfully doing, in literary pursuits.

That some of the restrictions, made by the Austrian government, must be galling to proud and sensitive minds, we are ready to admit; and the unsuccessful attempts to throw off the Austrian yoke, have, of course, made these restrictions worse. The vigilance of power is kept alive by dissatisfaction, but would soon relax when vigilance should be found unnecessary. If Miss Sedgwick advocates the principle of the greatest happiness to the greatest number, she must take more enlarged views of the policy of nations. There is little doubt but that, in a few years, northern Italy will form an integral portion of the Austrian dominions, and the sources of annoyance and jealousy, now existing, will gradually die away.

The balance of power, at present established in Europe, requires that northern Italy should remain as it is, nominally independent; the moment that balance shall be destroyed, its union with Austria will be inevitable.

Miss Sedgwick, with all her anti-Austrian feelings, pays an involuntary homage to the government, in the following paragraph:

"The road from Como to Milan is such as you would expect princes to make for their own chariot wheels. The Austrian government, sparing as it is in all other improvements, for the public good, is at immense expense to maintain the roads, in this absolute perfection: After four or five weeks of continued and drenching rain, there is not so much mud as an ordinary summer shower would make on one of our best turnpikes! In many places the road is raised ten and twelve feet above the level of the surrounding ground. There is a footpath on each side, protected by granite blocks, like our mile stones, which occur at intervals of twelve or fifteen feet."*

As a pendant to this one meritorious act of a government, so "sparing in all other acts, for the public good,"

Those who have travelled much in the southern and western States, who have been a few times overturned, had their carriages broken, many miles from any place where it would be possible to have them repaired, and seen their poor horses floundering in prairie mud, may, we trust, be pardoned for wishing that some other governments were equally paternal with the Austrian, in providing for the safety of its migratory population.

we will give an extract from a work which has lately appeared, "Italy and the Italian Islands, from the earliest ages to the present time," by William Spalding:

"The most interesting branch of the Austrian system of Education, is the plan of the elementary schools, which, though compulsory and arbitrary, like that of Prussia, yet promises infinite good. It was introduced into the hereditary provinces by Maria Theresa, but not transferred to Italy till 1821.

"All male children, between six and twelve years of age, must attend the elementary schools, and failing obedience to this rule, the parents are fined, unless they can prove that the child is educated elsewhere. Small fees are payable to the commune by the pupils, unless poverty is established. The teachers receive salaries, and before appointment, are strictly examined, and must have attended the normal schools, of which there is one in every province. The elementary seminaries are vigorously superintended; the general direction resting with boards, seated at Milan and Venice. A provincial board inspects the schools in every province, and each of the two hundred and twenty-five districts has also its board, some of whose members examine the lists of children fit for instruction, enforce attendance, and oversee the management generally. Beside all this, the schools of every commune are visited by the priests of the parishes which compose it."

Miss Sedgwick takes it for granted that the Austrian government of Italy is a tyrannical one. Now, the truth is, the Austrian government is strong and powerful, and consequently dares be lenient and just in its administration. From our infancy, we have been accustomed to hear of Italian banditti, of robberies accompanied by murders, and of assassinations in the streets of her most populous cities. A century ago, how few, from beyond the Alps, ventured to visit Italy, and those, who did, were obliged to provide themselves with a guard, and not unfrequently a body of troops, from the territories of the church. Now, all this is changed for the better; travelling is as safe in Italy as in England or America. Murders and assassinations are almost unknown, and, shall we say, that the strictness of the Austrian government in prohibiting men from carrying pistols, stilettos, or any offensive weapon, larger than a penknife, has not had a beneficial effect?

"As we were rowing, homeward," says Miss Sedgwick, "a Venetian gentleman, who accompanied us, pointed out the canali degli orfani, where bodies are thrown, which any one wishes quietly to dispose of."

Miss Sedgwick would have been more correct here, had she used another time of the verb, and said,-were thrown; and not "are thrown."

The great intercourse, which the present long peace has generated between France, Germany, England, and even America, with Italy, has given an intellectual spur to the quick and versatile Italians. From an immoral people, the slaves of ill-regulated and debasing passions, they are rising to be a highly intelligent and moral people. If we judge of the manners and morals of a nation by the purity and intelligence of the women, generally considered as a pretty correct criterion,-Italy can produce female names, of which any nation in the world might be justly proud. Cicisbeism, with all the vice which it fostered, if it was ever general, is now becoming rare. The intriguing and faithless Italian Countess, is to be found only in the novels of the last century, but has no type on earth; and it is but just to attribute much of this happy amelioration of the state of northern Italy, to the example and regulation of the Austrian government.

We have, ourselves, known and esteemed several of the Italian refugees, and whilst we admired their patriotism and heroic sacrifices, in what they deemed the cause of liberty, we much doubt whether the success of that cause would have secured the peace, the happiness and the prosperity of their country. The northern Italian states, are too poor and powerless, to throw off their subjection to Austria.

"It is true," says Miss Sedgwick, in a note, page 41, "we see no rational prospect of freedom for Italy, overshadowed as it is by Austrian despotism, and overpowered by the presence of her immense military force, and, what is still worse, broken into small and hostile states, without one federative principle or feeling."

And were, in an evil hour, the mistaken nobles to attempt a revolution, the now fertile and beautiful plains of Lombardy, would be deluged with blood. Lawlessness and anarchy, would succeed the present happy security. The new governments could only be maintained by force; their weakness would compel them to be both cruel and tyrannical, in self-preservation. The peasants, driven from their peaceful occupations, would again turn bandits, and infest the mountain-passes. The rich plains of Lombardy, un

tilled, distress and gaunt famine, would every where rear their hideous forms; the cry of starving thousands, would be, "give us bread, even with the Austrian supremacy." How would Confalonieri, and the counts Cusati, answer such a cry?

Miss Sedgwick tells us, that her patriotic friend, "Count C., believes the government of the Lombardo-Venetian kingdom, to be the best in Italy." We believe so too. In her own letters, it stands forth, in bright relief, when contrasted with the Italian governments of Naples and Rome. Though, in both these states, there has been a great change for the better, since my Lady Morgan wrote her Italy, and the march of improvement is still bearing onward.

Through the whole of the letters, Miss Sedgwick makes an unnecessary and obtrusive display of her democratic feelings: in a work of this nature, and, particularly, as written by a lady, we deem it a proof of bad taste; and, it appears singularly so, when, as in the present volumes, such demonstrations are contrasted with an equally ostentatious display of the names of titled or highborn personages. We were, too, extremely sorry to find many pages sullied by vulgarisms. If Madame Sismondi talked of "tittery-tattery," we could have excused the repetition; we would draw a pen through" jimcrackeries," and the word "nice," which, she fancies, she uses in the pure English sense, would, as she has applied it, puzzle every English person, as much as it must every American. And, on the whole, though we admire simplicity, we think it would have been possible to have given a little more of elevation and dignity to her style, without injuring that simplicity.

ART. VI.-1. Brief Exposition of the Constitution of the United States, by James Bayard. Philadelphia, 1838. 2. Speeches in the Senate of the United States, on Mr. Calhoun's Resolutions. 1833.

The nature and origin of our government, that is, a right understanding of the text and spirit of the Constitution, and of by whom the latter was formed,-are subjects of the highest importance to the American patriot. They