This German influence upon manners and language has been most enduring in the Friuil, or Furlanei, a district bounded by the Adriatic, the Carniolan Alps, and the plateau of the Karst, or Carso. The Friulians were even looked upon as a distinct race, though their ancestors, like those of most Italians of the north, were Latinised Celts. Frequent intermarriages with their Slovenian neighbours {217} contributed in some measure to produce a type distinct from that of Venice or Treviso. The number of these Friulians still speaking their own dialect does not now exceed 50,000 souls.

Fig. 71.—MONTE ROSA, AS SEEN FROM GALCORO.

Amongst the numerous German colonies of which traces have been found in the plains of Northern Italy and on the southern slopes of the Alps, the “Thirteen Communes” to the north of Verona, and the “Seven Communes” in the deep valleys to the north-west of Bassano, are the most considerable. The homines Teutonici of these two districts are supposed to be the descendants of the Cimbrians defeated by Marius, and blue eyes and fair hair still prevail amongst them, but in all other respects they resemble the Italians of the plains, and only a few old women amongst them still talk the language of their ancestors, which is said to resemble the dialect spoken on the Tegern Lake, in Bavaria. Nor were they the champions of German authority on Italian soil. On the contrary, they were charged by the Republic of Venice with the defence of the northern frontier, and {218} have always valiantly acquitted themselves of this duty. In return, they were granted self-government and exemption from military service. But neither the Republic of Venice nor Austria was able to protect these German colonies against an invasion of the “Welsh” or Italian element, and there do not now exist any non-Italian communities to the east of the great lakes. To the north of Piemont, however, in the valleys descending from Monte Rosa and in the valley of Pommat, where the Toce forms one of the most beautiful waterfalls, German colonies still maintain their ground. They, too, would long ago have lost their language were it not for the support they receive from the Germans occupying the Swiss valleys on the northern slopes of the Alps. Alagna, or Olen, one of these German villages, preserved its ancient customs until quite recently. For centuries there had been no lawsuit there; contracts, testaments, and other legal documents were unknown; and everything was regulated by “custom;” that is, by the absolute authority of the heads of families.

The French element is far more numerous on the Italian slope of the Alps than the German. The inhabitants of the valley of Aosta, between the Grand Paradis and the Monte Rosa, of the upper valleys of the Dora Riparia, Cluson, Pelice, and Varaita, speak French, and are of the same origin as the Savoyards and Dauphinois on the western slope of the Alps. The configuration of the ground has facilitated this pacific invasion of the western Celts, numbering about 120,000 souls. They descended from the passes, and occupied the whole of the forest and pastoral region down to the foot of the hills, the last mountain defile, in many instances, forming their boundary. But the French language is steadily losing ground, for the official language is Italian, and every village has already two names, of which the modern Italian one is used by preference. The Vaudois, or Waldenses, in the valleys of Pelice (Pellis) and Cluson, above Pinerolo (Pignerol), alone resist this Italianisation with a certain amount of success, for they have a literature and history, and are held together by strong religious ties. Their sect was persecuted as early as the thirteenth century, long before the Reformation, and ever since, until their final emancipation in 1848, they have struggled against adversity. Many times it was thought they had been exterminated, but they always rose again, and in history they occupy a rank far out of proportion to their small numbers.

The bulk of the population are engaged in agriculture, which need not be wondered at if we bear in mind the fertility of the soil, the abundant supply of water, and the improvements effected in bygone ages. The labour invested in every kind of agricultural improvement, such as canals, embankments, terraces, or ronchi, built up like steps on the slope of every hill, has been immense, and defies computation. The mode of cultivation, moreover, entails a vast amount of labour, for the peasant knows not the iron plough, but tills his field with the spade: he is a gardener rather than an agriculturist. The agricultural produce is immense; its annual value is estimated at £80,000,000 sterling, and it furnishes large quantities for exportation. Cereals, forage, mulberry leaves and cocoons, vegetables and fruit, and cheese, including the famous Parmesan, are the principal products. {219} Lombardy and Piemont occupy the first rank in the world for certain kinds of agricultural produce, and they are almost the only countries in Europe in which rice, introduced in the beginning of the sixteenth century, is extensively grown. The vineyards, on the other hand, are not as carefully tended as they might be, and the wines, with the exception of those of Asti, Monferrato, San Colombano, and Udine (the picolito), are of small repute.

The valley of the Po divides itself into several well-marked agricultural provinces. In the Alpine valleys, between Col di Tenda and Monte Tricorno, the greater portion of the forests and pastures is held in common, but nearly every mountaineer is likewise the free proprietor of a bit of meadow or land, which his labour has converted into a garden. The social condition of these mountaineers thus resembles that of the French peasantry; for they, likewise, enjoy the advantages of a minute division of the land amongst freehold proprietors. The hilly tracts along the foot of the mountains are divided into farms of moderate size. The peasant no longer owns the land, but, in accordance with old feudal customs, he shares in its produce. In the plain, where it is necessary to keep up a complicated system of canals, nearly all the land belongs to rich capitalists, who cut it up into numerous small farms, and for the most part reside in the towns. These small farmers have no resources of their own, and are hardly above the rank of agricultural labourers. Though they cultivate the most fertile region of Northern Italy, they are miserably fed, frequently decimated by disease, and least alive to the advantages of education. The contrast between these miserable peasants and the mountaineers of Vaudois and the Val Tellina is great indeed.

Periodically many of the mountaineers migrate to the towns and neighbouring countries in search of work, and a proverb tells us that there is no country in the world “without sparrows or Bergamosks.” But though the natives of the hills of Bergamo furnish a numerous contingent of these migrants, they are outnumbered by Friulians, inhabitants of the shores of the Lago Maggiore, and Piemontese. The latter cross the passes of the Western Alps in large numbers in search of work at Marseilles and other towns of Southern France, and, small wages sufficing for their frugal wants, they are not particularly liked by their French fellow-workmen.

The metallic wealth of Northern Italy is but small. The only mines of note are those which formerly supplied the famous armourers of Brescia with iron, and the gold diggings of Anzasca, at the foot of Monte Rosa, where 5,000 slaves were kept at work by the Romans, and which are not yet quite exhausted. Marble, gneiss, granite, potters’ clay, and kaolin are, however, found abundantly. In former times silks, velvets, carpets, glass, porcelain, metal-work, and other art productions of the workmen of Venice and Lombardy enjoyed a very high reputation. These ancient industries decayed with the downfall of the old republics, but there are signs now of their revival. The want of coal or other fuel for setting in motion the machinery of modern factories is compensated for, to some extent, by an abundant water power, and this explains why nearly all the important manufactories are met with at the debouchures of the Alpine valleys. {220}

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