The Press.
London, England, 1855-09-01 00:00:00

THE PRESS.

vainly condemned to silence. In the several com-
munications betwixt the Prince of Prussia and the
Empress Mother at St. Petersburg, the latter dwelt
long and sadly on the prospective ruin of the country,
and the details of grievance have been well reported
in the Judenstrasse of this place. The usual pro-
ductions of linseed, corn, and oil in the south have
been incapable of exportation, from the loss of the
ports in the Sea of Azoff and the Euxine. Corn
continues to be sent through Austria, but in smaller
quantities than usual, since the supply has failed
chiefly from the farm labourers having been taken
for the army ; and for this evil there is no remedy.
By the blockade and possession of the inland seas,
the major part of the agricultural produce remains
rotting on hand—the value becomes trifling, and is
sometimes lost altogether. In proportion, also, as
prices fall the taxes multiply, and the contributions
miscalled voluntary are forced upon the proprietors
and occupiers of the land, without pity as without
discretion. Utter ruin is thus inevitable. Again,
the recruiting system bears upon the landlord with a
severity sufficient to shiver him, without other
auxiliary of disaster. Seven in every thousand serfs
are drafted for the army, and, to provide for the
chances of rejection, twenty one are summoned to
appear before the enlisting tribunal. These several
bands of husbandmen are subtracted from the culti-
vation of the land, without any allowance being
made for the loss of time that, by the delays of care
less and corrupt officials, frequently extends to a
period of several weeks. Then comes the claim
upon farm waggons and farm bestial, and the tax-
payer is charged not only with the cattle impost, but is
compelled to supply the fodder for his distrained pro-
perty, and for a separate and distinct commissariat
demand likewise. A portion of the remaining cattle is
seized for governmental use., and paid for in paper
roubles—the most fallacious of accommodation
paper, and which can be rendered worthless by a
ukase of a single lino. To a system so replete with
the elements of political and social destruction there
cannot be added a single evil in which the war-
catalogue is deficient or exempt in its operation.
And well did the Prince of Prussia demonstrate
to his Empress sister the impossibility of a nation,
extensive soever it be in dominion, being able to
cope against antagonists who have the power to close
its ports and to compel its inhabitants to consume
and to waste the principal of their wealth. Were
Russia commercial solely, ehe might be crumpled
up like a protested bill ; but it is because that
great country of Russia is great in cereal riches,
great in agricultural population, and great by the
support of the landowners, that she is enabled to
make head with such force and for so long a period
against the allies, with closed ports, and trusting to
the true and never-failing resources of national and
natural opulence.
J. E. L.

SIENA, August 25.
THE political fermentation of Italy is extending
through the very means adopted for repression. Is
it not always thus? No crown can long exist un-
supported by law—no beneficial law can be framed
without the consent of governor and governed ; and
the compact ratified by mutual consent forms a
constitution. A sword rule—" le droit du plus fort "
—is stable only so long as the weapon be sharp ;
when blunted or broken the rule becomes dissolved
in anarchy, the simply brutal being destitute of a con-
stitutional moral for self-preservation.
It appears by the Journal de St. Petersbourg that
a Russian general has been removed from his post
to be invested with the command of the Neapolitan
troops, who are utterly deficient in the requisite com-
modity of rule. And, as the royal troops and mer-
cenaries that he is about to take charge of cannot be
trusted, or are not made of stuff proper for military
service, a French detachment is to be sent to Naples
to occupy the country and to protect the person of
"il Re assoluto." Upon the first consideration of
this singular arrangement, the anomaly is forcibly
evident of a Russian general being placed in associa-
tion with a French corps d'armie, but a stricter exam-
ination will make clear the wise policy of France to
secure a footing in Southern Italy to prevent the in-
terference of Austria. The King earnestly desired
that the protection of his kingdom should be placed
in Austrian hands; but Austrian soldiers again oc
cupying Naples as in 1820.1 2.3-4, would have driven
Italy into open rebellion from north to south, and
would have been a direct affront to Sardinia, now
fighting side by side with France and England.
The victory of the Tschernaya, in which the Sardi-
nians distinguished themselves, has had the most
exhilarating effect throughout Italy. It has proved
that Italians, well led, and in a good cause, are
made of materials capable of meeting the most hardy
arid bravest of European troops. Neither are the Tus-
cans to be less valued—which was proved in the Rus-
sian campaign of Napoleon—and the Austrians could
have no chance in Mall with the population against

SATURBArs

them, and which would be befriended by England
and France. The war is beginning to be one of
opinion, and this public opinion is everywhere ex-
pressed against Lord Palmerston. His ability is not
doubted—but his faith is more than suspected, for
it has been heretofore tested and found wanting. Not
less has the declaration of Lord John Russell against
the nationalities given serious offence ; and the Con-
stitutionalists are sensible that they have nothing to
hope either from the one or from the other. They
have learnt that the policy of the Whig and Whig-
Radical Cabinets is ono essentially selfish—that the
animosity between the respective leaders, Lord
Palmerston and Lord John Russell, is exclusively at-
tributable to personal motives, without either of
them caring for anything beyond personal and party
exaltation. This is a sorry truism, admitted on all
hands and in all countries; and the impression must
be carefully fostered, in order to be used in defence
of the honour and reputation of England.
Several of the dispersed bands of Garibaldi are
making their appearance in the Roman Apennines,
and these are in communication with others in
strict league with Mazzini. In the Neapolitan
States, on the contrary, the banditti are the only
persons on whom the King can rely, and they are
strongly opposed to Mazzini. This extraordinary
combination, wherein the Republicans and Mazzini
are opposed to the brigands and the King of
Naples, makes any uprising in favour of constitu-
tionalism impossible without foreign intervention.
The Neapolitan soldiery, now in bandit confedera•
tion, waylay and plunder travellers in the King's
name and at the Feint of royal bayonets. Even the
nobles of the country are not safe from their depre-
dations, and can gain little redress, from the diffi-
culty of identifying the marauders, who are exchanged
from regiment to regiment. Where the victims are
English, and, above all, English ladies, alone and
unbefriended, the robbtr.soldiers are almost deemed
worthy of especial decoration ; and this maltreat-
ment and robbery of English ladies by soldiers in
uniform is a literal fact, ann lately occurred in broad
day and on a public road. is Lord Palmerston dis-
posed to overlook this outrage, and to confine him-
self to the puerility of Whig remonstrance? The
Whigs were ever unpalatable to the fair sex: to this
distaste, however, the Premier of England was always
held to be an honourable exception.
M. T. A.