he oranges, of both the Sicilies, under
skilful cultivation, should equal the produce of Spain and the Orient,
and the harbours of the kingdom (the keys to three-quarters of the
globe) should be crowded with the sails and busy with the life of
commerce. But, in the character of its population, Naples has been
invariably in the rear of Italian progress; it caught but partial
inspiration from the free Republics, or even the wise Tyrannies, of the
Middle Ages; the theatre of frequent revolutions without fruit; and
all rational enthusiasm created by that insurrection, which has lately
bestowed on Naples the boon of a representative system, cannot but be
tempered by the conviction that of all the States in Italy, this is the
one which least warrants the belief of permanence to political freedom,
or of capacity to retain with vigour what may be seized by passion. (If
the Electoral Chamber in the new Neapolitan Constitution, give a
fair share of members to the Island of Sicily, it will be rich in
the inevitable elements of discord, and nothing save a wisdom and
moderation, which cannot soberly be anticipated, can prevent the
ultimate separation of the island from the dominion of Naples. Nature
has set the ocean between the two countries--but differences in
character, and degree and quality of civilisation--national jealousies,
historical memories, have trebled the space of the seas that roll
between them.--More easy to unite under one free Parliament, Spain
with Flanders; or re-annex to England its old domains of Aquitaine
and Normandy--than to unite in one Council Chamber truly popular, the
passions, interests, and prejudices of Sicily and Naples.--Time will
show.)

Far otherwise is it, with Sardinia. Many years since, the writer of
these pages ventured to predict that the time must come when Sardinia
would lead the van of Italian civilisation, and take proud place amongst
the greater nations of Europe. In the great portion of this population
there is visible the new blood of a young race; it is not, as with other
Italian States, a worn-out stock; you do not see there a people
fallen, proud of the past, and lazy amidst ruins, but a people rising,
practical, industrious, active; there, in a word, is an eager youth to
be formed to mature development, not a decrepit age to be restored to
bloom and muscle. Progress is the great characteristic of the Sardinian
state. Leave it for five years; visit it again, and you behold
improve