Eustace, John Cretwode: A classical tour through Italy An. MDCCCII (Vol. 4): 3. ed., rev. and enl (London: J. Mawman, 1815)

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THROUGH ITALY.

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ness of the inutility of resistance; or to some
such incidental circumstance. Hence, nations
most inured to arms display this quality most;
and hence the same army, as well as the same
individual, sometimes gives surprising marks of
courage and of cowardice in the same campaign.
To accuse the Italians of cowardice is to belie their
whole history. The troops of the King of Sar-
dinia were distinguished for their valor, while
their monarchs acted the part of warriors. Even
in the late invasion, the peasantry themselves, in
some parts of the Neapolitan, and particularly of
the Roman state, made a bold and generous
though ineffectual resistance. Not courage, there-
fore, but the motives which call it forth, and the
means which give it effect, that is discipline,
hope, interest, &c. are wanting to the Italians.
Those who reproach the Italians with ignor-
ance must have a very imperfect knowledge of
that people, and have confined their observations
to the lowest populace of great cities, and to the
peasants of certain mountainous tracts and unfre-
quented provinces. Such classes, in all coun-
tries, not excepting the United Kingdom, have
little means and less inclination to acquire know-
ledge ; they are every-where left much to nature,
and consequently retain something of the Savage.
The peasantry of the north of Italy, particularly