Italy. August 3, 1848
Italy.
* Innsbruck, July 28. According to a new victory bulletin from
Radetzky which has arrived here, the Italians are said to have been defeated
at Custozza after a tenacious engagement (on the 25th). Radetzky himself admits
that he lost many officers “owing to the persistence of the struggle”. It is
further asserted that Cremona has been taken by storm by Welden.
Palermo. Here the day lasts without interruption from one dawn
to the next; that is to say, people rest during the hours of greatest heat in
the high, airy rooms and seek coolness there by opening every access to the
draught. But in the evening, and until day breaks again, the merry crowd
strolls about in festive attire on the magnificent promenade, where the
statues of the Bourbon kings once stood—hence called Foro borbonico, but
today named Foro italico. Here all the senses find enjoyment: splendid
music delights the ear, the eye revels in the view over the beautiful, fire-spraying
sea, criss-crossed by hundreds of boats and ships, each movement of which
leaves a fiery furrow far behind, and in the sparkling eyes of the beautiful
women strolling by and their rightly inspired wit. The air is filled with
fragrant scents, and for the palate there are long tables and benches
laden with shellfish (frutti di mare). Everything breathes freedom, a
gaiety and cheerfulness not remarked before – the people seem newborn.
What such a political transformation can do for the mood and the temper of
minds may be judged by comparing the state of Palermo just faithfully
described with what is going on in Naples. Here gaiety and an increase of
population through the influx of the inhabitants of the interior of the

Italy. August 3, 1848
island and of the other towns, and finally also of foreign travellers. Public
security is now very nearly perfect, and as much as one could ever wish.
A few rare thefts in the environs, before the gates of a city sheltering
some 200,000 souls, are surely nothing surprising when one considers
what a quantity of very bad material must have been attracted and then
retained here by the popular movement, and which, only now dismissed,
without earnings—because not all of them seek work—is a burden to
themselves and others. Now imagine, by contrast, Naples, from which
whoever can flees, since the unhappy city, even if the state of siege no
longer continues, still trembles under the cannon of St. Elmo and the
other forts, and where every inhabitant, threatened by the rapacity of the
lazzaroni, who now recognise neither bounds nor oversight, must fear
something far worse—namely the arrival of the Calabrians who are
supposed to come to the rescue or to liberate. Here everyone goes about
freely and unhindered and fearless day and night, and does what he
pleases, without one hearing of many unlawful deeds, whatever may be
reported to the contrary; and in Naples the king himself fears his own
shadow, shuts himself up in the castle—formerly a palace—now girt
with artillery, faithfully and closely guarded by the only reliable, thirsting-for-vengeance
Swiss.