"Get it into your head that Italy was, even in
1900, immeasurably ahead of England in so far as
land laws and the rights of the man who works on
the soil are concerned.  Some of the follies and
cruelties of great English owners would not now
be permitted in Italy. Certain kinds of domestic
enemy would be shipped to the _confino_.
    You can buy and own pretty villas and ancient
architectural triumphs, but you can't cut down olive-
trees just when you like and you can't drive the
"colonno" of his fields. He can, I think, still be
your "colonno" instead of the "colonno" of the
former proprietor, but you don't by any means own
him despite the feudal decorations or courtesy.
    Secular habit, picturesque, etc., as in the case
of "the sailor."  There is, near here, an antient
villa, and a nabob therein, and "the sailor"
just came and sat in the kitchen where there was
plenty of room, he adopted the villa, and he ulti-
mately adopted the chauffeur's seat, etc.  That
don't  prove anything about anything except certain
phases of mentality.  Servants ask twice as much
from people with big houses as from people with
cottages and small flats.  PRIMITIVE SENSE OF EQUITY
AND JUSTICE OR LATIN COMMON-SENSE."
    [emphasis supplied]
    -- EP
    JEFFERSON and/or MUSSOLINI, chapter XVI