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Leader (1850-1860), 14th May 1859, Edition 1 of 2, Page 623, Untitled Article

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      Untitled Article

      to be at variance with your own expressed opinions . By the public , I believe , such communications are commonly received with a similar understanding , I deal , in a considerable degree , with facts . My remarks are not all speculative . J have been an eye-witness to some circumstances upon which my conclusions are founded ; ana have to lament , in consequence , that too many nersons judge of passing events , not only according to their own prejudices , but as if in our remembrances there had been no " yesterday , while much of the data on which alone the truth can be calculated aright , are essentially those of byegone

      time . In the contest now begun in Italy , I must premise that peace and non-interference are our best policy . It is true that the conflict in the South of Europe is one in behalf of popular freedom , —and so far the success of the Italians is most desirable , nay , the 'fervent prayer of every man worthy of livin <* in this advanced age . It is a sacred cause ; . and , Relieving that every people have a right to choose their own government , and that the present struo-o-le is , w hether no less than 27 , 000 , 000 * of people in the land of the greatest hisin shall that

      torical renown Europe possess power , or be the slaves of the most stolid , arbitrary , and detestable of modern despotisms , there can be no dispute , either as to the virtue of the desire , or the hallowed nature of the contest . One class of individuals , and in this country a class •—too miinerous- —a sordid , slavish , ignorant elass , arranges itself on the side of despotism . It deprecates disturbance , not as worthy people do , from the wicked , wasteful , and sanguinary character of warlike violences , but because it interferes with the customary chances of gambling in the stocks , and renders money-grubbing in a dishonest way someconsiderations of

      what precarious . By such the policy , humanity , and freedom among the nationsthe tiniest security for honest commerce and expanded mercantile transactions—are set at nought . Our' best policy is peace and sympathy with the Italians . We have seen , at a cost of above a thousand millions of money , how futile was the task of Pitt to uphold the French dynasty against the will of her people . This folly was exposed by the Duke of Wellington , in 1829 , ia his acknowledgement of the new Government of France , lie showed that the support of the rights pf kings against the will of the people , a doctrine so

      dishonest and costly , had passed away for ever , so far as England was concerned . Under the . reign of George III . personally , and the principle he inculcated , England was bound , in 1829 , to declare war against France , and to renew the sanguinary scenes that commenced in 1793 , until another Louis XVIII . should be crowned king , beneath foreign bayonets , over a nation to which the dynasty had become justly odious , and contrary to the spirit of the age . If we were right in 1793 , we were wrong in 1829 , in dictating a foreign sovereign in one case , and flinching from our own principle in the Other . Fortunately , Wellington saw the injustice and impolicy of the previous war to enthrone

      kings deservedly dethroned . ixe looked to tue weJSq . ro of England ; his predispositions were towards kingly power , but he knew what war was , and considered only the good of his country . He silenced , wo trust for ever , the brutality of the sentiment which involved us so long in a ruinous combat for kings , the success of which could be only temporary . lie pijt an end to the principle of the supremaoy of royal right over all other considerations , and over nations oppressed ( by the royal right to govern wrong , which George III . supported , although the principle . had been upheld by the Holy Alliance Treaty of 1815 , and sane-Lord hwho toW soino the

      down , without , it s means , provinces of much greater extent than Lombardy and Venice . Why , then ; did Austria disturb the rest of Italy , making all its Governments , under fear of freedom in the neighbouring states , consent to some ground for her invading and occupying them ? The consent of the arbitrary rulers of such provinces being always at her gpmmand- —more perhaps from inclination than fear—Piedmont endeavoured to establish free institutions ; hence the jealousy ' and hatred-of her by Austria . The Knag of Piedmont would not the

      admit Austrian garrisons . Parana * Modenaj Legations , Tuscany , all have or had . Austrian troops , holding possession and repressing even free conversation . Rome was held by the French , who kept it solely to prevent Austria from being in gaiTison there , as well as elsewhere ; and under vile pretences , holding Italy in sovereignty . Naples was in alliance with Austria , together " nine farrow of one sow . " So that , except Sardinia , the Austrian army may be said to be in possession of all Italy , or of twenty millions of people who owed her no allegiance , who justly hate , and rightly detest her .

      Let it be supposed that France or Prussia took military possession of Belgium and Holland in a similar manner , levied taxes , and , in not putting down the sovereign of these two countries , was absolute viceroy over them , despite the cries and remonstrances of the people—what would be thought of such an occurrence in this part of Europe ? Would it be borne ? Sardinia excepted , while Naples and Vienna are sympathisers in feeling , all Italy besides is directly under a tyranical , ignorant , and cruel power ; ajl Italy is in the Austrian ' s usurping grasp ; She sees its fertile fields , and longs to possess them in lieu of her own

      semicivilised provinces— -for . it is but a part of Austria that is German . She Would not venture openly to attach Italy , lest she have all Europe on her back , but she would get the footing she wanted by intrigue , to the operations . for gratifying which desire Sardinia is the bar . That power chooses free institutions , and Austria says , " You shall not have them . I will have no such institutions in all Italy . If you have them , you will make , the people of my provinces discontented , which I am determined to rule with an absolute will . Put down your press , exclude from within your boundaries all persons unfriendly to me ; do nothing within the

      your territories that shall by contrast make Lombards , Modenese , Tuscans , and others envious of the superior laws , freedom , or better institutions of Sardinia . By no act or deed give usany ofFence . If you do give us ofFence , we will march into your country with fire and sword . We will have no independent or free people south of the Alps . We will not be annoyed even by their proximity . Moreover , we insist on yoxxv disarming your troops in three days . It is enough that we will it , for you are the weaker power . We have the strength , and we govern by the law of power alone . Look to it speedily , or prepare to see oxir trusty Croats , as

      usual , plunder your territory , ravish your women , and murder your offspring . ' Sic volo , sic jubeo , ' is our rule , and woe and war to them who disobey it . " In reply to such insolent and arrogant language , the Italians say—" We have appealed to Europe in vain ; Austria SvJll hear no remonstrances ; sho will not alleviate bur sufferings , nor even permit us to cushion the heavy fetters whioh cut through our flesh into the bone . What resource , then , remains but that which attaches to the meanest wormnamely , to turn in defiance , if we perish beneath the foot that tramples upon us . We have appealed in vain to those Governments of Europe that have

      rocommonded quietnoss ana a placable behaviour , but they have remonstrated , in vain , and will do no more for us . For the best part of . half a century we have borne every species of insult and wrong from a state alien to us in all that constitutes intelligence , national glory , traditional recollection , and the blessings of civilisation . " Are we not justified in seeking our independence of one of the most intolerable of human evils , having exhausted a patience and long fluttering wholly unparalleled m weight and duration . Wo have seen unoffending men shot down in our streets with impunity by a barbarian soldiery , and outrages the most " horrible committed on honest citizens . Wo have seen hideous dungeons filled by the most worthy men and purest plobd of J , ta } y while the ruler of Austria has elevated himself to the honour

      tioned by Castloreag , ojt representatives of the Vienna Congress , that the English Constitution was not the best thing the country possessed . The Treaty of Vienna of 1815 gave Venice and Lombardy to Austria , without the consent of their people . ¦ Forty-four years have passed away , and under the worst despotism in Europe—for there is no other so baso , so withering , so senseless , so opposed to every p rinciple of humanity , and reason , as that of Auatna —~ theso provinces of Italy , however , internally discontented , had become apart of the Austrian empire That empire was powerful enough , with its armed hosts , to keep

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      of becoming personally their gaoler , incarcerating for years . this nobleman for introducing Laneasterian schools , and that on a bare suspicion of disliking Austrian rule ; keeping a royal catalogue of his hapless victims ; now issuing imperial decrees that one or-two individuals , females among . them , * shall not enter his unenvied . dominions , ' ' ' the freaks of despotism being lilce the play of the tiger with his prey , at once unsparing in blood and ridiculous in harhnrism . True' this was the Emperor Francis . ft ¦* . •__ _ --¦ 11 j !_ ¦ . 1 • ' : ' ¦ ' _ . • ' ' ¦

      but despotism admits no degrees in turpitude . If Austria cannot preserve her own territory in peace , But is to be permitted to violate that of other nations , to dictate how they shall rule themselves , occupy their soil and threaten their existence if they are contumacious to the law of her will , it was high time for the powerful nations more immedir ately concerned to interfere ; It is not long ago that Switzerland was bullied by the Austrian Government in much the same manner as Sardinia

      has been . The stolid Austrian did not threaten invasion , too independent as the Swiss Republic was for his taste , but he with difficulty restrained himself . Had he acted otherwise he might perhaps have furnished history with a repetition of the tragedy , not much to his taste , enacted at Morgarthen , where thirteen hundred Swiss freemen defeated twenty thousand Austrians , leaving few to carry home the tale of their eternal disgrace . I cannot conceive , Miv Editor , why France is censured for her alliance with and support of Sardinia , and with her the Italian cause generally . A lar ^ e portion of her frontier rests upon France .

      Sardinia was in aUiance with the latter State . It is a mean jealousy of France that originates the feeling . If the Austrain had a right to dictate the internal affairs of Sardinia , France had an e < jual right to do the same , or to support the Sardinians —her allies . The'rule of Austria in Italy , from one end to the other ( I do not allude to the States of Lombardy and Venice , apportioned to her by the treaty of 1815 ) , has been furtive , wary , and continually directed to secure the present mastership of the whole country under false pretences , with a view to its ultimate and permanent possession—a possessionconsidering the genius and

      , character of the two nations , much resembling that of a civilised people under savage rulers . With this view , and to secure the bigots from Sparti Ventotothe Alps on her side , Austria the other day handed over to the Pope the supremacy of all matters relating to religion , binding herself only to interfere with civil affairs ; in other words , she purposel y let loose religious persecution . Such an act in the nineteenth century can only admit the construction all common sense people put upon it , namely , that it was a prospective act to forward the sinister views of Austria upon Italy , to all which she has long been determined to dictate arbitrarily . Austria

      supports to the extreme the doctrine that every people is to be governed by the will or caprice of one individual ; that fallible will being a divine right derived from Heaven , through God ' s selfconstituted vicegerent at Rome . Hence the difference between a monarch and a despot . Thus the " piety" Austria , backed by cannon and bayonet , the last reasons of kings , urged her to occupy nearly all the Italian States , and to assert the principle of despotism , if need be , to her last florin and her last cartridge . Sho is going , shq pretends , to cure disordered Italy of its baleful attachment to its family freedom — to cure

      it by blood and-excision . I suspect it is not tbe disorder , but the physician ; it is not a casual concurrence of oalamitous circumstances ; it ib the pernicious hand of Government which makes the people desperate . The people are the Italians , — the physician is Austria . The Italian's are right . It is better to suffer the temporary waste of war and anarchy than " the eternal hell of dcappusm . Montesquieu admirably painted Austria . " As virtue is necessary in a republic , and honour in a monarchy , so fear is necessary in a despotism : with regard to virtue there is no occasion ^ or i % and honour would be extremely dangerous .

      I fear , in opening an important subject , I have trespassed on your space , and for the ]» " *»*«* - scribe myself , m Editor , your most obedient Paolo .

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      * t ord Holland and Lady Morgan , by an Imporlal deoroo , ndliiffid " t Vionna , woro forbidden torn miming tho iuHtriiin ( lomlniono . Tho dunpeonfl of HpieUwrer » nd » royal JftUo *¦ wewItUo penalty awaiting them tf tuuybrpfco tfcrougU bo soWq a eoif-donlal .

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      * There nro about 27 , 100 , 000 in all Italy , and , . about 20 , 000 , 000 without Venice and Lombardy .

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      exertionin consideration of ^ 477 ^ 14 . 1859 . 1 THlM ^ EAPER 623 ^——m * l * WS ^ M ^ = * l ^^** X ** X ^^ MaBBal ' a ^ ^ m ^^^^^^^^ — — . _ _ . . : ¦ ' ' . ¦ . . ' ... * n . ¦ ' . /» .

  • Citation
    • Leader (1850-1860), May 14, 1859, page 623, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2294/page/19/