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    tffVirfmmrT •'/itnrWtttYnnftnVi* wi^mn u^u i ippvuuvilU.. ' ¦ ? -.

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    **. (3 ,.^ cxJ)]IJlt ^U.M

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    Untitled Article

    gent and generally highly-educated class of young men , who , from the gentlemanly nature of the duties * seek and . find engagements in assurance companiesj it is imperatively necessary to draw attention . to it * that they may be encouraged to persevere in those studies which may place them in . ; , the most lucrative , honourable , and influential official positions . Cheap , facile * ¦ and popular legal processes , are immediate and essential conditions for extending the blessings of life assurance , and to obtain £ bese advantages our efforts will be directed ; but

    in the meantime it is obvious that the co-operation of those assured in mutual life offices is necessary to urge the importance of the subject on the law officer of the Crown . The perilous condition of those assured in all classes of mutual life offices is conclusively shown by the decision of Vice-Chancellor Kindersley ; and in our subsequent articles on this subject we shall endeavour to show the legal changes necessary in respect , not only to the past transactions of existing companies , but also in regard to those into which they may hereafter enter , arid which should form the legal basis on which future mutual companies ought to be established .

    We can , in the meantime , only again expresj our regret that , the state of the law should , under any possible circumstances , so seriously and so ruinously compromise the position of any mutual policy-holder .

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    STREET VIEWS OF ITALY—No . 2 . . ' . ¦ . ¦ ¦ TURIN . ' ' . ' ¦ . What can . be the law of nature , we have often wonderelV by virtue of which the northern and southern districts of a country possess . relatively to - e ,. ch other the same invaluable characteristics ? The north , is . the abode of energy , and trade , and power—the south is the region of agriculture , and repose , and inactivity . The rule holds good , at any rate , of France , Spain , Germany , and Ireland , not to mention Italy . The fact is obvious ; the explanation not equally so . If ive-found-. that the further we went due north the more enercyetie each

    succeeding population became , . there would be no difficulty about the matter . Thi s , however * is not the- case ; and , therefore , we think that , on the whole , we had better begin by admitting what all social philosophers only acknowledge at the end of their arguiiients that the fact is so because it is so . Nowhere , perhaps , is this difference 'between north and south ' more apparent than in Italy . As you travel northwards—as we did the other day , across the snow-covered Apennines , over the bleak , dreary tableland which surrounds the city of Turin- —you seoni . to have phssed—as , indeed , you have—into another country . The men are small ,

    stunted , and wiry ; the women swarthy , and , to speak the truth , uglier thim French wonlen , which is saying a great deal . Woful is your disappointment , if you enter Italy for the first time by Piedmont , with your head full of Madonna faces , and Venetian senators , and Claude-like scenes . Driven at last to universal scepticism , you take refuge in the consolatory convictioii that the Italy of poets , and painters , and lovers is a sort of Fata Morgana , which vanishes as yo \ i approach . Subsequent . experience impairs your oelief in this negative article of faith , and forces you to the

    sounder conclusion that Piedmont is no more Italy than Wales is England . There is no good in talking sentiment about an Italy- —one and indivisible- —when there is no such entity in existence . Italy is not one , and ia djvided by the eternal laws of fact , and race , nnd climate . If over Italy should be made into one conntry it wiU be by the southern states becoming subject to some ruling race , whether their naiuo bo Franco , or Austria , or Sardinia . At every station along'the line wo took in troops

    of the militia , who wqvo being called out on active service . They were active , brisk-looking fellows , With then * the prospect of war was clearly popular . There wore fraternal embraces from grieving relatives , parting glances from admiring xriends , and oheoi'S from sympathetic boys . Our road , too , was enlivened by patriotic songs , in Which wo trust the , oxnltod character of the sentiments made up for the villainous discord of the melodies . When we got to Turin , the military ardour was at its height . Of all dull capitals Twin is probably the dullest , and a little thing , in consequence , goes a , long way there . Having Boon

    Io n" a ° ro all there is to see there—" not" worth seefng in the way of sights—we joined in what appeared to be the almost universal Occupation of the Ttu-inesc public , and winch consisted in -follow .-. in <* the militia regiments as they walked up and down the Via del Po to the sound of military music . Still with all this playing at . war , there was a sort of look about these civic heroes and their attendant satellites , as if they all meant business . Certainly , if we had been officers in the Austrian service , we should have decidedly preferred being in plain clothes if we had happened to meet any of these patriotic gatherings . . Wishing to learn ; the ' -. way

    ourselves to some neighbouring gallery , we made inquiries of the most benevolent-looking amongst the passers by ^ and , as we conceived , in-our very best Italian . " Whether long residence in Germany has really given us an Italian accent , or whether , what is more probable , all broken Italian bears a strong family resemblance , we know not , but , from some cause or other , * we saw that our friend took us for Germans . There was a sharp and evident struggle in his mind between his national sympalliics and his feelings of politeness . At hist he shrugged his

    shoulders , and turned half away with-the words , " Tedesco in Piemonte , " accompanied by certain whispered ejaculations , which we conceived to have been anything but favourable to the prospects . . our eternal welfare . We hastened to undeceive him with the assurance that we were true-born Britons , when immediately his manner changed from polar cold , to summer heat ; and if we had asked him for his purise instead of for a street direction , we believe our request would have been as freely granted .

    The strangest sight at Turin , to one much tised to continental eit-ies , was the absence of soldiers . AH the regular regiments were on the frontier . About . the streets you met ^ every now and then , with one of the Bersaglieri , in their Crimeanfamed costume , and that " was all . The sentries at the palace doors were all , as at Genoa , townspeople armed-with muskets . The only soldiers of the line we saw on duty were two sentries before the Teatro JEieggio , where we went to hear" Robert the Devil , " and to see the King ; however , Victor Emmanuel did not appear , and the singers sung one worse than the other . We should advise the

    emissai-ies of Dmry .-lano , who are prowling through Italy on Mr . E . T . Smith ' s behests , to avoid Turin and the Teatro Reggie , or , in Captnin Cuttle ' s words , " when found to make-a note on . " . In sj ^ ite , however , of its dulness , and shabbiness , and dirt , there are three good . things about Turin : there are few priests , no soldiers , and numbers of bookshops ; and even if some of the stall fronts bore an : unpleasant resemblance to the shops of pur native Holywell-street , we consoled ourselves with the reflection , that in Turin alone , amongst Italian capitals , you can buy the Bible from out of a shop window .. The churches , too , bear some proportion to the amount of the population ; and , according to the invariable anile in Italy , the number of beggars increases and decreases exactly in the same ratio as the number of chux-ehes . Beggars , therefore , are comparatively rare in Turin .

    The railroads that bore us towards Tuscany are capitally manuged . It is a curious fact , that those are the only continental railroads we are acquainted witji where they allow you to iako yoxir seat at once , as in England , without boxing you up first , like oxen in a pen . Whether this is a proof of independence mid liberty we can hardly say , but wo know that tlie Turineso trains exhibited a perfectly democratic irregularity of amval and departure . Why should a froo railroad novor keep its time ? The other day we travellod 900 miles by an express train through Franco , without being at any station a , minute before or after our time . In coming next day ninety miles- —Dover to London— . wo were three quarters of an hour late . Surely this is n great fact for Mr . I ' roude and the admirers of an enlightened despotism .

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    The Duke ojp Buokincmajw ' s " Mranioircs . "—A letter has been addressed by 9 ir Watkjn W . Wynn to the daily jouruale , oomplalning of tha " unwarrantable publication " by tlio present Duke of Buckingham of letters addressed in the strictest eonfidonco to the late D « lco by his father , which his Grace has thought lit to give to the world in a mutilated form , without the slightest communication of ' hi * intention to the surviving representative or relatives of the writor .

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    FRANCE . Paris , Thursday , G £ p . m . THE NEW I'ROTE ^ STATIOX OF THE CiOVKRXMKST . Sinck I . last-wrote , tlie long-expected declaration of the French Government , which was to restore confidence in . the maintenance of peace and conciliate the estranged sympathies of ' the world , as well as disarm " united" Germany , has made its appearance , and anything more disastrous in result it would be difficult to imagine . When a Government makes the most solemn asseverations ' possible , and they are met , on the part of its subjects , with xmniistakonble signs of increasing and deeply-rooted disbelief , that , I presume , . must bo disastrous to its credit and moral position . When the Monkcur opened the dullest portion—that is to say , the commencement— of its non-official columns to the startled and dreary platitudes of the Imperial scribe , the Three per Cents , fell a half per cent ., and even Bank Stock ,, the ' most stable of all investments , gave way , and tlie depreciations in the value of public securities cannot be interpreted , I ¦ presume ,, to signify anything else but a proportionately increas ed distrust in the security of the declarations of the Government communicated ¦ in a " non-official " manner to the public . Whether' deeds are known to have been performed in secret which belie fairspoken . ' works , ' or whether public suspicion is excited

    merely because the Government doth protest too much , I know not ; but one thing is certain- ^ navncly , the oftencr nnd ? more energetically the authorities affirm their intention to maintain peace , the less they are believed . Were such a thing to hnppeivin private life it would constitute an unpardonable and deadly affront , tantamount to openly proclaiming" a man a liar at ' once . . I doubt much if Lonl Thurloyr ' s coarse , but admirable characteristic of corporate or aggregated bodies 6 f . men , ¦ would justTty in the present instance tliepassing by unnoticed the stigma affixed-to the Government by public opinion , for it is an assembly ' of individuals having neither a body-to be kicked nor soul to be damned ; but is the willing

    unreasoning agent of an individual . In the governing- task of France , Ministers are ' the mere agents , while the Emperor is the principal—so , at least , say the constitution , and all the partisans , of the present regime . Whence , I presume , that if discredit attaches to the nyent , it is only as far as he stands in tlie place of the principal , and whatever slight . or insult is addressed to him is intendcl for the " personage he represents . Now , I apprehend there is great danger in this , i ' or if the Kmpcror should be led . to fimcy that his personal honour was engaged , or that a slight was intended ,, his personal feelings would be roused and override all other considerations , rendering-him deaf to the inspirations of wisdom , or even of personal safety .

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    TUB i « QlVrJ , AND GAT . I . KHV , itKlSl-JNT-WJJKH'I . . Tub private view of this very interesting { . ynlleiyol modern artists' productions takes pliico this dny , ana tho general public arc admitted on IWondiiy , -Although it is to be deplored that men of mark , oven among those who have made it hero , will abandon , what we-might term the ir artistic olmu uuiter , ana trust themselves wholly to tho tender mercies or exhibit ion autocrats , who permit no divided ai egianco , there is still , wo are glad to say , no iu ling off , but tlie contrary , in tlio -year ' s crop ol risen , risimr . and promising painters . Young artists can

    here command , at least , tho certainty ot buing scon . If here , condemned , they can have no . appeal , ana may ,- without vainly looking buck , adopt other ana safbr callings ; if hero approved , they may ivs safely accept tho oracle as an encourangeiiion t to new labour . Wo cannot noto , without regret , tho absentee of Lander , Qakes , and other ornaments of former exhibitions , one of whom , ana not tho least distinguished among Hoottisn painters , doath , has moved from , among us- —but we ara glad to see upon the walls and screens ot tho Hpiricca little association tho " makings " of a' host ol reputations . The landscape painters nro in greutpsc force . Hulmo ' s " Nowark Abbey , Hurroy , u ho »« - tiful work 5 Raven ' s bits of houtli and clover mo marvellous in thoir way ; nud all roudors who may know thoso men bv their works aro , by this umo , jx

    aware thnt their wny is the highway ot niiture , Ruslcin miglit revol ia Mooro ' fl scones irom U' ^ W of w ' hiqh , ospoctally , that with the buokirrouJUl oi hyaainths is a speoimon of loyal , unatloettul i "'"""// Pettitt ' B choice of subjoots irt , m ufluttl . oxooptloim o , though thgy aro finely pnintu . l . l'loturcs in t lie w jno school by iMfct , Hayes , Naish , and Adanifl , y lil not fail to l > o admired . In fltjurcs , wo flnd Wuko * ana

    Tffvirfmmrt •'/Itnrwtttynnftnvi* Wi^Mn U^U I Ippvuuvilu.. ' ¦ ? -.

    ¦ ¦ ' ¦ . ¦ ¦ ' ¦ ¦¦ ¦ ¦ ;• ¦ ¦ ' ¦ » " ¦ — -. ' . ¦ ' ' .. ¦

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    « V 7 o THE LEADEI . [ Ho . 469 , March 19 , 1859 .

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    Jine Jlrffi

• Citation
  • Leader (1850-1860), March 19, 1859, page 372, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2286/page/20/