ment. When you enter the kingdom and find, by the very skirts of
its admirable roads, a raised footpath for the passengers and travellers
from town to town, you become suddenly aware that you are in a land
where close attention to the humbler classes is within the duties of
a government. As you pass on from the more purely Italian part of
the population,--from the Genoese country into that of Piedmont,--the
difference between a new people and an old, on which I have dwelt,
becomes visible in the improved cultivation of the soil, the better
habitations of the labourer, the neater aspect of the towns, the greater
activity in the thoroughfares. To the extraordinary virtues of the
King, as King, justice is scarcely done, whether in England or abroad.
Certainly, despite his recent concessions, Charles Albert is not and
cannot be at heart, much of a constitutional reformer; and his strong
religious tendencies, which, perhaps unjustly, have procured him in
philosophical quarters the character of a bigot, may link him more than
his political, with the cause of the Father of his Church. But he is
nobly and preeminently national, careful of the prosperity and jealous
of the honour of his own state, while conscientiously desirous of the
independence of Italy. His attention to business, is indefatigable.
Nothing escapes his vigilance. Over all departments of the kingdom is
the eye of a man ever anxious to improve. Already the silk manufactures
of Sardinia almost rival those of Lyons: in their own departments the
tradesmen of Turin exhibit an artistic elegance and elaborate finish,
scarcely exceeded in the wares of London and Paris. The King's internal
regulations are admirable; his laws, administered with the most
impartial justice--his forts and defences are in that order, without
which, at least on the Continent, no land is safe--his army is the most
perfect in Italy. His wise genius extends itself to the elegant as to
the useful arts--an encouragement that shames England, and even France,
is bestowed upon the School for Painters, which has become one of the
ornaments of his illustrious reign. The character of the main part of
the population, and the geographical position of his country, assist the
monarch and must force on himself, or his successors, in the career
of improvement so signally begun. In the character of the people, the
vigour of the Northman ennobles the ardour and fancy of the West. In
the position of the country, t