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    SAVOY AND NICE . HpHERE has little occurred here during the week of more than local - ¦ . interest , and we are all waiting eagerly to see what tho Carnival , which commences this afternoon , may bring forth . I shall , therefore , take this opportunity of writing on a subject which I see is now exciting considerable discussion in the English press . I allude of course to the annexation of SaVoy and Nice to France , What decree of truth there maybe in the rumours prevailing on the subject / you are as good or a better judge than . I can be , whose sole information on the topic is derived from London newspapers of venerable antiquity . Whether the scheme be arranged , or proposed ,

    Rome , 16 th February , i 860 .

    or rejected , is at present a mystery , about which I suspect even our own ' Foreign-office is q ^ uite in the dark . In Greek verbs there is a mysterious tense , which grammarians designate as the paiilp-postfuture , and statedby them to express the idea of one event . having * rust occurred , after and subject to the occurrence of another , which is to take place at a future time . Now the Savoy-Nice question seems to me to be exactly in the paulo-post-future tense , and I own that , personally , I have no great fears of its being reduced at present to an intelligible and historical perfect . Still , as the question is interesting , I think that some information I can give on the matter may not be useless . . :

    With our usual ignorance of continental matters , we appear in England to consider both parts of the question , on exactly the same footing , whereas they rest on very different grounds . It is . true that , as far as France is concerned , the annexation of either Savoy or Nice may be considered equal proofe of a grasping and ambitious spirit . Subjectively to France , to adopt a metaphysical term , the guilt of eifclier proceeding r iiay be the same objectivelytowards Europe . The evil of the two courses is of very unequal intensity . A simple illustration will show what I want to prove . Suppose that Great Britain was conquered ; by an European coalition , aiid that France proposed to annex . Scotland and Ireland . Now the abstract iniquity might be equal in either ^ proposal , but the practical injury to England , and the amount of injustice inflicted On the subjects of the ... annexation , would be totally dissimilar . Relatively to Sardinia , Savoy occupies the position of Ireland , and Nice that of Scotland .

    Savoy is separated from Sardinia by a barrier , which , for purposes of intercouTsey is an I insurmountable one . During the many centuries in which Savoy has been- united with Piedmont , no teal union has been established between the two nations . North of the Alps there is nothing Italian in thought , or feeling , or language . In outward appearance , Sayoy , as' a traveller sees it , is French all over , far more thoroughly French than the provincial part of France is to this day . In the law courts * the churches , and the " theatres , French is the only language spoken . The whole commerce Of the couniry is with France . The streams of Savoy all run into the Rhone ; and , as I saw remarked th , e other day in a local Chambery paper , " Where the waters of our river flow , there the affections of our hearts flow also . " ' In fact , if ope were to decide

    h priori , what is th ^ . best for Savoy , and what Savoy would prefer , I should . pay , without hesitation , union with France . I am aware , however , that these arguments from , the inherent fitness of things , are often fallacious . By all the rules of nationality , and geographical position * and abstract symmetry , the Channel Islands ought to belong to France . They are French islands , occupied by A-French race ; speaking a French dialect . Their trials and their worship are conducted in French ; their newspapers are written in French . What ' local commerce and trade they have , is with the French coast , winch lies in sight . Nevertheless , any one acquainted with Jersey ; and Guernsey will bear me opt ; n saying ; that n more cruel injustice coxild not be inflicted , than in separating them from

    England . They aro more personally loyal , perhaps , than , any possession of the British crown . They out-English the English themselves in their pride of nationality and dislike to France . I cannot leavn , however , that any such feeling 1 is shown in Savoy , though it-may doubtless exist . There arc some reasons also for expecting it should not be found there . During the last twenty years , tho importance of tho Italian possessions of Sardinia has been inoreasinfr , and that of the Savoy ones decreasing- in an inverse ratio . T | u > Italian policy was not popular in Savoy . Tho war ' was one by which they might lose everything and would gain nothing . I happened to bo in Savoy when the news of " Solferino" arrived , and can testify to the failure of the attempts to get up public rejoicings on the occasion . l » ittle or nothing has been done for

    Savoy . The roads and improvements ^ which alone are waited to bring 1 tho tide of Swiss tourists over every part of Savoy , have been left unnl tempted . The taxation of tho country has been very heavy . The conscription , rendered necessary by tho Austrian enmities of Sardinia , has impoverished further this barren nnd poverty-stricken country j while , to crown all , the visits of their sovereigns have , of late years , been few and far between . All those Cannes have weakened the loyalty of tine Savoyards towards their Italian Icings . Savoy is , oven now , more of a feudal country , than perhaps iipy other west of Hungary . Tho nobles , ' who know that their influence and privileges would disappear under the system of French equality , dread annexation with Franco , and exert nil their influence aiguinst it . Perhaps for the very same reason , tho liberal middle « In » s are in favour of tho change , Tho priests , who have

    great influence in Savoy , follow the cue of Rome , and hate Victor Emmanuel as only a priest can hate . Under the rule of France , they have less fear of prbselytism than under the free constitutional and parliamentary government of Sardinia . Their efforts , therefore , work in favour of the annexation . If the nation too , as I suspect , are influenced by the success of France , and by the wonderful progress which in every French town , however remote from Paris , is now going on under the magic rule of the Emperor , if , in fact , Savoy prefers to be an integral part of the great French nation , instead of a dependency of Sardinia—r-a sort of Cinderella , with Italy for a stepmother , I own I am more disposed towards sympathy than towards blame . . I much doubt Whether the independence of Italy would bo seriously threatened by the French possessing Savoy . The old belief of the extreme importance of balances of power and strategical positions is getting out of fashion . Railroads and telegraphs have altered all -international relations . If the French want to invade Italy , and choose to march across the Alps , the fact that the territory for some score of miles on this side the Alps belongs to Italy , will not seriously impede them . The railroad from Paris to Marseilles brings them practically far nearer Italy , than the possession of all the valleys in Savoy . I own , on these grounds , that if it should be proved that the Savoyards are not unwilling for the change , I should view the annexation of Savoy to France without apprehension , and even with satisfaction . About . Nice , however , my feeling is entirely different . Nice is as Italian as Savoy is Trench . It may seem a fanciful remark , but I know whenever I travel southwards , I always feel that I am getting to Italy when I have passed Avignon ; but travelling the other way , I dojnot feel that I have left Italy till , long after I have crossed the French frontier . When I first knew Nice ,, some seventeen years ago , it was altogether . an Italian town . It is . true that the Italian spoken by the inhabitants was a very broken and harsh patois j but still they understood you if you spoke to them in Italian , while French proved utterly unintelligible . The climate , the vegetation , the features , and the habits of the inhabitants were all Italian . The names of the streets { conirada , as they used to call them . ) were all Italian : On a late visit to Nice , I observed a great appai-ent increase of the French element . Nice has become a great French winter residence and watering place . There are French theatres , French newspapers , French cafes ( I . recollect , by the way , when a cafe' was a novelty there ) , and French hotels . All the shopkeepers and carriage . drivers and donkey boys , the classes whom strangers chiefly come across , speak French , and , in many instances , are French . The spread of railroads in France and the greater facilities for travelling have brought Nice far nearer Paris than it was before , while Genoa and Turin are as far off nearly _ as ever . Still a . very few wanderings in the environs of" Nice convinced me that the French varnish was a very superficial one , nnd that a mile or two from the town the country was as Italian as ever , Wherever the frontier is fixed , even if within five miles of Genoa itself , the vicinity of a great country such as France will always give , a French tinge to the Italian side of the frontier line . Nice has got this tinge , but I think not more so than is inevitable . Nice is thoroughly Italian in its sympathies . The war excited greater enthusiasm there than I witnessed in any other part of Italy ; possibly , I admit , because there' was < less danger in it to themselves . Nice is prosperous , well governed , contented , and could fain nothing by a change . If , as I trust and believe , Sardinia ecomes the great Italian nation , " Nizza la Maritima" will be no insignificant or neglected province of united Italy . If Nice . were even given over to France , there would still remain the same difficulty about the frontier as there is at presen t * The Var is certainly a very poor frontier , but then nature has forgotten to make a better . The maritime Alps , which run seaward . to about duo north of Nice , instead of continuing their southward course , turn eastwards , and run parallel to the coaafc . If those Alps were taken as the French frontier , the whole of the Riviera di , Ponente , as . far as / Volfcri , that is , within ten miles of Genoa , must be coded , There are no navigable riverg that run into the sea between Marseilles and Genoa ; The Var is as large a torrent as any J of those that descend fiotn . the mountains to the coast . If , as I hear rumoured , tho county of Nice were given to France , there is not the slightest superiority in the " Impera" torrent , which flows into the sea at Oneglia , and which would , I suppose , be the frontier line over tho Var . In fact ; if you are to arrange everything by geographical symmotxy , you would give Cannes to Sardinia , and withdraw the French frontier to the ridgo of the Estrelles . In a strategical point of view , too , though I attach little importance to thjs , Nice is very valuable to Sardinia , As long * as Sardinia holds Nice she can pour troops into France , across the Ouneo pass , even if tho Corniche coast-road were blockaded by a French / leefc . However , in my mind , the most important reason of all is that Nice and the Riviera are Italian , and wish to remain Italian ; while Savoy is French in nature , and would probably have no objection to becoming 1 French hy country . The difference between the two oases is ao important a one in the whole discussion , that I have thought it worth wliilp to trouble yon with these remarks , ovon at the risk' of telling you " what yon already know .

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    Hanover , February 20 th , IBCO . flTHE origin and ( renew ! history of European races , not nations , JL must soon become the special study of English statesmen it not of tho English public , lor without a thorough knowledge—ft knowledge not to be found , in our national histories , received aa suoh that ! is' —as to how these tribiial distinctions of Lntins ,

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    ivitR regard to trade , by throwing out the treaty , might lead the Emperor to turn his thoughts to some other source of popularity .

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    190 The Leader andSaturday Analyst : [ Feb . 25 , 1860 .

• Citation
  • Leader (1850-1860), Feb. 25, 1860, page 190, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2335/page/18/