COMO, a province in the Austrian kingdom of Venetian Lombardy, bounded on the N. by Switzerland and Valais, on the E. by Bergamo, on the S. by Milan, and on the W. by the kingdom of Sardinia. Being towards the foot of the Alps, the northern part is mountainous, and the southern undulating. Between the spurs of the mountains are some beautiful and fertile valleys. It extends over 1000 square miles, and in 1851 had 423,206 inhabitants. The chief productions are, corn, wine, fruit, and fish. The manufactures are silk and linen articles; but the inhabitants of many of the districts subsist by making looking-glasses, spectacles, and mathematical, surgical, and physical instruments. The purity of the atmosphere attracts many of the
towns regularly visited by these missionaries."—Hansard's Debates.
The vehement and intolerant terms in which the bishop demanded the suppression of the offensive doctrines created an immediate reaction in their favour. Whatever amount of adhesion they had obtained was speedily increased, and several able periodicals for some time represented the opinions of various clusters of communists and socialists. Free discussion, however, and the known failure of the partial experiments which had occurred, accompanied by the abolition of the protective system, soon undermined any position which such doctrines had obtained in the public mind. The revolution of 1848 was followed by an expiring flash. The communistic periodicals, after a brief period of excitement and success, dropped one by one out of existence. There is at the present moment no known public organ of these systems in Britain; and while this has been the happy result of entire freedom of discussion, there can be little doubt that, in those nations where opinion has been coerced, a communistic spirit of the most dangerous kind still smoulders, ready, when an occasion offers itself, to burst forth in a consuming flame. (J.H.B.)
richer families of Italy to the district, where they have built numerous rural villas.