. Italian life in town and country . little or no book-learning, and has rarely moved out of her ownprovince. But she is shrewd and capable, andknows how to look after her own and her child-rens property. She was, perhaps, left a widow,with large but encumbered estates, mortgaged upto the hilt, and she is surrounded by greedy rela-tives and dishonest bailifls, who have taken every 126 Italian Life advantage of her late husband. She sets to workto introduce improvements, to clear off mortgages,to dismiss thieving fattori, and she that is done she does herself, and sherules h
. Italian life in town and country . little or no book-learning, and has rarely moved out of her ownprovince. But she is shrewd and capable, andknows how to look after her own and her child-rens property. She was, perhaps, left a widow,with large but encumbered estates, mortgaged upto the hilt, and she is surrounded by greedy rela-tives and dishonest bailifls, who have taken every 126 Italian Life advantage of her late husband. She sets to workto introduce improvements, to clear off mortgages,to dismiss thieving fattori, and she that is done she does herself, and sherules her dependents and her family with a rodof iron. If they are ill she is kind to them, andhelps them in many ways; but they must obeyher without asking questions. She even decidesas to the marriages of her contadini, and settles alltheir affairs for them. Women of this sort aremostly to be found living in the country or insmall towns; it is really astonishing how muchthey achieve, in spite of active hostility and pas-sive CHAPTER VII POLITICAL LIFE AND THOUGHT ITAIylAN political institutions are avowedly-copied from Knglish models, not directly, butthrough French versions. They are embodied ina series of laws, of which the basis is the StatutoFo7idamentale, or constitution, proclaimed byCharles Albert, King of Sardinia, on March 4,1848. Like all charters based on French lines, itis pedantic and theoretical. In the field of politics,more than in any other, the Latin races love ofabstract ideas, of eternal and inalienable rights has full scope. Individual liberty, the inviola-bility of property and of domicile, freedom of thePress, of speech, and of association are rights and liberties are granted to all citi-zens. The government of the country is assignedto the King and his Ministers as the executive,and to the Senate and the elective Chamber ofDeputies as the legislative power. The franchise has been regulated by successive Political and Electoral La
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