66 shaking the hand up and down from the dling the first and second fingers of his wrist; while in this country we simply right and across the first finger of his point with the index finger. In South left, to express a ride; then he pointed to Italy, "hunger" is expressed by extending his own stomach, to shew that he was himthe thumb and first finger, keeping the self the rider; next he pointed with his others closed, over the mouth, and giving hand in the direction of a neighbouring a rotary motion from the wrist. The village; which, together, meant: “As I reader is at liberty to try this upon any was riding to Then he put up his organ-grinder he meets, and mark the re-hands, and bent his head, as one does in sult. 66 To-day" is expressed by closing taking aim with a gun; next held up his all the fingers of the right hand except the hands, palms outwards, and started back index, then pointing downwards, making to express surprise; then he moved one a rapid slight movement of the hand up hand quickly round over the other, as we and down; "to-morrow" is the same, ex- do when imitating a drummer for children, cept that the movement is greater, and and bent his body sideways, to express a from the elbow. Numbers, of course, are fall; which meant: Suddenly a man shewn by holding up the fingers. So much with a gun appeared, and aimed at me, for the language itself, and now for the whereupon the donkey started back with method of using it. fright, and I fell off." At this the friend After the revolution of 1860, the police down below held up his right hand with affairs of South Italy were carried on by the knuckles towards the balcony, and the Italian carabineers, a remarkably fine fingers slightly bent, and rapidly moved body of men, of great intelligence, and it from the wrist backwards and forwards mostly from the north, in place of the na-(the way of inquiring in generals), which tive sbirri. The consequence was that the meant in this instance: "Well, were you malefactors did as they pleased, the cara- hurt? In answer to this, the man above bineers being powerless. They complained | lifted his eyebrows, put his hand to his that it was of no use their attempting to hip, and limped a little way, to express : cope with a people who, by a gesture, a Nothing to speak of — a little lame, that's look, and a word in an unknown tongue (for all; " and thus the conversation prothe dialects of South Italy are unintelligible ceeded. to people from the north), hatched plots under their very noses. Riding once in a carriage in Sicily past a string of country carts, each of which had a driver, armed, lying prone on top of the load, I heard one of these men call out: "Ah ca!" very loud, as if to his donkey; but he meant to attract the attention of the carter in front, Every day, men and women may be who understood perfectly well, and looked seen standing outside the wall, communiback, whereupon the first man held up his cating by gestures with the prisoners at hand, and rubbed together the tips of his the top windows of the houses within. thumb and first finger (the sign for money), The parties to the conversation can see giving a glance at the same time towards one another's faces and their expression, the carriage. In answer, the friend nodded. but can scarcely hear one another speak. The following remarks had been ex- They converse thus by the half-hour tochanged: "Rich folks there, eh?" "Un-gether. One may see a woman, for excommon." I thought at the time, if these ample, moving her mouth in saying gentry had been brigands, and my coach-" Cicco," and putting her hand to her foreman an accomplice, he would probably head, meaning," Cicco is ill." Whereupon have nodded, and straightway the armed a prisoner inside, possibly the father, carters would have jumped down, sur-throws out his hands, making the general rounded the carriage, dragged me off to the mountains; and I should have been the subject of numerous letters in foolscap paper, quarter margin, exchanged between polite diplomatists, who would apparently be only too glad of the opportunity of assuring one another of their "distinguished consideration." But to return to our story-teller in the balcony. The narrator began by strad The chief prison of Palermo, the capital of Sicily, consists of a number of detached houses in a large court-yard surrounded by a high broad wall. The prisoners are kept in the houses, and sentries march up and down the wall, keeping a look-out within and without. sign of inquiry: he wants to know" How did it happen?" and the woman answers: " Hunger did it," by making the sign for hunger, already explained. Then the man throws his hands up, and it can be seen that he says "Dio mio!" and is expressing his affliction. Of course the gesture-language is largely used in rows, and naturally some of the expressions are more forcible than refined. One which invariably winds up every row amongst the women of the lowest class is this a belligerent who is getting the worst of it, but desires to retire with some éclat, suddenly turns her back on the enemy, throws all her clothes over her head, and retreats. Contempt cannot be more strongly expressed. from the object of his balcony affections, and, utterly disenchanted, fled. This story, although nearly as incredible as the first narrated, is given without any reserve: it is quite true. From The Spectator. THE FUTURE OF FRANCE. How is it possible to exhaust all the ill omens for the political future of France which seem to throng over and darken the horizon as we look forth? We can but attempt to enumerate the leading classes of symptoms of evil augury. Love-making by signs is very general. The method has many recommendations; for as the lovers are not seen together, and don't write, they are not easily found out. Every window opens to the floor, and has a balcony, so that neighbours have great facilities for the pastime. The language of love is very simple; it is always the same, and always interesting and new. The gentleman begins by taking out his handkerchief, which he passes over has Foremost stands the worst omen of all, face, looking all the time at the lady, and that the two parties or factions of France throwing into his face and eyes expres- are not divided about a political question, sions of admiration for her; at the same or a political principle, or even a political time he compliments her on her beauty by mode of life, but at bottom about "toleratpassing his hand over his mouth and chin. ing each other in any shape or way. The lady's answer is a blush, hiding her There is no common ground between them face, except the eyes, behind her fan, and at all on which they can even negotiate. pointing to the rear, to indicate that The party of movement, the party of the mamma is coming, and retreats. Next cities, take apparently for their motto time, the same play on the gentleman's Proudhon's audacious watchword, "Deside, followed by possibly a glance, not of struction first, construction afterwards,” discouragement, from the lady; where-“Destruam et ædificabo." The party of upon he hugs his left side, to express that caution, the party of the peasants, take he loves her to distraction; and the lady apparently for their watchword destruction flees, to return the next day, and observe first, conservation afterwards, “Destruam the gentleman, of course to her great as- et conservabo." The Communists would tonishment and displeasure, repeat the destroy the whole system of French society, previous gesture, ending by showing her in order to reconstruct it. The country the palms of his hands, and looking en- party would destroy the specific blossom treaty, which any young lady even unac- and fruit of social life in the great towns, quainted with the particular language in in order to extirpate the cancer that question would understand to mean: I vow threatens property and quiet. The cry of by &c. that I love you more than and so the cities is, "See what a galling and forth. Do you love me? The answer to ignominious tyranny these peasants try to which, of course, depends upon circum- impose upon us; we have been ruled by stances; and thus the ancient comedy their ignorance and cowardice for twenty proceeds. It is understood to be extreme- years; now let us have our turn, and subly interesting to the dramatis persona. ject them to the principles which have Love-making, short of the "ask-papa" fired us with enthusiasm." The cry of the part, is frequently carried on in South Italy in this way; and it not seldom happens that when papa is inexorable, or the lady in a convent, the whole affair, including agreement and preparation to run there is no compromise possible with away, is transacted solely by gestures the spirit of sheer anarchy and self-will apropos of which it is on record, that on which raves of a new order of society, an occasion of the sort, all being pre- without enumerating one intelligible prinpared, and the gentleman in the street ciple of national life." And there neither waiting at the lady's door with the car- is, nor, we are afraid, can be, any middle riage intended to carry off the happy party of any strength and consideration, couple, an awfully gruff voice was heard to bridge the chasm which separates these asking: "Are you there?" The lover internecine political foes, and hold the looked towards the voice, saw that it came scales evenly between them, - and that country, repeated, we are told, in hundreds of letters received every day by members of the Legislature, -is. "Paris must be destroyed, Delenda est Carthago, for a very simple reason, that there is no possibility of gradual transition from the one position to the other. The party of movement understand the destructive part of their creed clearly enough, but beyond that they hardly look. The stand-still party understand the drastic policy which shall annihilate agitation well enough, and beyond that they do not even wish to look. Where, then, is even the hope of mediation between antagonists, the first article of whose creed is to smite the other as the Jews smote the Canaanites, till politically it could hardly lift up its head again? This, then, the violent and ungraduated antithesis between the opposing parties is the darkest omen for the future. Next comes what is an omen of a hardly less threatening character, that neither the town nor the country party appear to have political leaders in whose principles they have the smallest trust. Suspicion is the order of the day on both sides. Amongst the civilian Communists Assi succeeds Louis Blanc, and Pyat succeeds Assi, and each in his turn is an idol trodden under foot; amongst the military, Bergeret succeeds Lullier, and Cluseret succeeds Bergeret, and still the cry of treachery goes up, and at last the only men who can get a little faith are the two semi-foreigners, Cluseret the American and Dombrowski the Pole, whom the people distrust less than they distrust their fellow-countrymen. If it is not quite so bad on the side of the Government, it is only from consciousness of a greater numerical strength and less imminent danger. Yet M. Thiers is accused on all sides of treacherous intentions, by the Legitimists of collusion with Paris, by the Republicans of collusion with the fallen dynasties; and if he retains his place, it is less from any common feeling of confidence, than from the want of any other statesman who would not be even more passionately distrusted. In fact, nothing could be more significant of the utter absence of an idea than the election of M. Thiers by so many Conservative constituencies, for M. Thiers represents only that kind of Conservatism which succeeds a series of unsuccessful experiments on all conceivable forms of political change, and which cries with the Preacher, "Vanitas vanitatum, omnia vanitas!" after all. No wonder that with foreign leaders on the one side, chosen only because they are less suspected than the men at home, and a leader on the other side chosen only because one who has successively tried, and relinquished in despair, Napoleonism, Orleanism, and the European Revolution, must be less suspected than any statesman who has not thus exhausted the whole circle of political faiths, the tie between the people and their leaders is of that frail and feeble kind which so soon ends in the monotonous cry, "We are betrayed!" And it adds, to our mind, to the peril of the situation, that the French people, both the city and the country faction, are so docile, so easily led by any one who will give the word of command. That might seem like a great capacity for organization; but, in reality, docility without loyalty, pliancy without trust, is not a facility for true organization at all. Where docility arises, as it seems to arise so often in France, from mere weakness, from the dislike to resist masterfulness, not from the confidence placed in leaders, it is at once an encouragement to weak and vain men to try experiments on the nation, and a discouragement to strong and loyal men to attempt a career in which they know that they may at any time be foiled by the apathy of their followers. The political condition of France reminds one of the chemical condition of those substances in which the affinities of the constituents for each other are so slight that almost any of them may at any moment escape into combination with some wandering atmospheric element, and so break up the unity of which it formed a part. The party which will obey the first extemporized leader who bids them follow him, without any clear notion either of his purposes or their own, is in far too fluid a condition for real organization. If the resistance to haphazard dictation were stronger than it is in France, the hope of a solid organization would be far greater. As it is, the leaders and the followers alike seem to guide their gravest steps by the cropping-up of those vagrant "happy thoughts," by which our keen English humourist has so skilfully illustrated the loose and sandy purposelessness of "modern thought." Another of the evil auguries of the time in France is that the party of change, the party of progress, is hardly in any perceptible degree the party of light and knowledge. No doubt nothing can be more densely ignorant and superstitious than the conservative peasantry of France who offer the resistance to progress. But then the party which assails them is not the party of higher education, but only of passionate revolt. Its leaders see none of the limitations to the principle of revolt. of France, - during its invasion by Buona- Such are the evil omens as they appear II. THE BRIGHTER SIDE. And if the highest qualities of beneficent and successful revolution are wanting in the leaders of the Commune, are not the highest qualities of beneficent and successful Conservatism in great degree wanting in the country party? No doubt the tenacity with which that party clings to proprietary ideas, to the strict maintenance IF this were the whole truth, as to most of personal property and of public order, Englishmen and Germans it appears to be is the germ of all social Conservatism. the whole truth, we should despair alike But where are the qualities which trans- of Paris and of France; but we seem to mure the Conservatism of self-interest into catch every now and then a glimpse of the Conservatism of a noble and disin- something beyond, of causes for the worst terested national pride? Where is the calamities of the country, which may make heroism in defence of the soil, the heroism them, after an interval of suffering, anyin defence of the community, the heroism thing but calamitous. Amidst all the diswhich makes villages faithful to each other, orders of the day there are signs, few it is the heroism which is eager to die for tried true, but still visible, of the coming of a and proved patriots? Where is such better time. One-half at least of the evils heroism as was shown in the Tyrol, a of France seem to us the result of the virCatholic and peasant population like that tues and not of the vices of Frenchmen, pathy with the common millions who perish like weeds, which in our time has done or is doing the work of a new faith. Citizen Bergeret, compositor and general, fighting "that the poor be no longer despised," as he told the Telegraph's corre of their capacities rather than of their weaknesses. This very revolt of Paris is the result of two feelings, neither of them intrinsically evil, of a disgust with a corrupt and lying Past so deep as to produce a strain towards an Utopia, only to be condemned because it is unattainable. The spondent, is a very anarchic figure, and Communists of the world, and more citizen Smith, patriot and publican, resistespecially of Paris, are crying for the ing the grant of port wine to "those brutes moon; but at least it is for a more of paupers" is a very orderly one; but we perfect, and not a less perfect, broth- have some latent doubts as to the comparaerhood of mankind that they are ready tive nobleness of the two, and no doubt at to die fighting. We in England sup- all as to their comparative force. And pose all this to be a mere cover for self- then the ability of these men. There are ish passions, but mark that the first act no statesmen among them, we are told, no of the Commune was to authorize the elec- men of high degree, none even of education of a Prussian, Frankel, that men of tion, none with visible incomes; they are every nationality are accepted as officers, tailors, printers, porters, mere workmen, that the disgraceful persecution of Ger- "who desire not to be despised," fellows mans ceased, that the sneers and insults whom English correspondents regard as to Englishmen were exchanged for hearty the very scum on the water of the ditch. expressions of good-will, that as we write The statesmen have fled. The rich have the Commune has decreed the destruction emigrated unopposed. The very clerks of the column of the Place Vendôme as have resigned. All that is respectable in an unwarrantable insult to vanquished na- Paris is trembling for its life and for its tions. The mass of those who obey the money, and these contemptible wretches Commune are not Communists, but they organize a Government in a day which no also are going out to fight, or suspending one disobeys; maintain such order, writes business, or suffering hardships quietly for our Catholic correspondent, a lady as hosa cause which is not the cause of their tile to the Reds as religion and cultivation own stomachs. We Englishmen have for- can make her, that "Paris is as safe as a gotten what municipal patriotism once bird's nest; "regiment, arm, and send forth was, what the Apostle meant when he an army of a hundred thousand men, and called himself, with irrepressible pride in for weeks defy all the efforts of 80,000 reghis home, a "citizen of no mean city"; but ular troops. They are the "creatures of though in our modern world a Frenchman's the mob," but they dismiss its favourites; patriotism should be for France, patriotism they use bayonets but they displace Genfor Paris is better than self-love. And erals as Napoleon never could, and after these men feel it to their hearts' core, and every change they make it is noted that a sybaritic, pleasure-loving, thoughtless, or "more dangerous" man is at the top, that evil as we think them, will postpone the is, an abler one; that the reformed regiblessed hour of tranquil money-getting, ments show "more ferocity," that is, a will even elect that it shall never come, higher degree of fighting power. The will slay, fight, imprison, be imprisoned, deeper the depth from which the Reds are in fine suffer all things in order that the drawn the greater the wonder at their discity of their love may maintain her rank. cipline, and the self-abnegation of their In that love there is hope for the future, as followers. Is it a feeble race which, withthere is in that persistent devotion to the out a vestige of a government or an instiRepublic, that angry suspiciousness that tution or an authority left, amid a fierce all save themselves are secretly hostile to conflict of opinion, and with none but the object of their loyalty. Imagine for a workman to use as agents, organizes a capimoment the Republic established and at tal into a mighty State, able and willing to work, would not this passion replace the throw 100,000 men into the battle-field, so old loyalty to a King, be instantly and by to maintain order that crime has ceased, so itself a high conservative force? The to quell the bitterness of its own heart as "cheap defence of nations" is just this, to terminate suddenly an international the devotion to an idea loftier and wider than that of one's own interest. These men, some of them at all events, wish to take from the rich to give to the poor, but their motive, their conscious motive at all events, is that passion of pity and of sym persecution? It seems to us that the qualities which make nations great are all here, however misdirected; that if these men found a leader, if after this frightful churning of the waves a man appeared 'out of the waters, the course of European |