The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1866-11-10 00:00:00

iKING VICTOR EMMANUEL ON

ITALIAN UNITY

Upon receiving the result of the plebiscitnm from
the Venetian deputatidn on Sunday, King Victor
Emmanuel made the following reply :

_
This day N the proudest of my life. Elzhteen years ago
my father proclaimed from this city the war of independence
and to day you bring to me the manifestations of the popular
will in the Venetian provinces, which, united with Italy,
declare my father's wish to be accomplished. You confirm
by this solemn act what Venetia did up to IS4B, and has main.
tained up to the present day with admirable constancy and
abnegation. I therefore pay a grateful tribute to those
gene-uns patriots who upheld their faith in the deattnies of
the country by every kind of sacrifice, and by their blood.
To-day foreign domination ceases for ever. Italy Is consti-
tuted If not accomplished. Italians must now defend and
make her great The Iron Crown is al,o restored to Italy,
but to that Crown I prefer the one which is dearer to me,
made by tne love of people.

The Da Telegraph in commentmg unon the above,
amon.t,.ther remarks, goculdsumouredly says:—
. —..

"This day is the proudest of my life.' e phrase is
familiar to most sof us, in a domestic and festive sense.
Wnen Tompkins, who is a very neat hand at an after-dinner
speech, gets on his legs at that exhilarating breakfast which
will hereafter glow ou his memory in, the rosiest of hues,
and, in the name of himself and his blushing tinily, returns
thanks for the time-honoured sentiment which has just been
proposed, " May they be happy," it is at least a thi usand
chances to one that be sir All commence his little harangue
with the expression we have quoted. But what seems very
approprietis in the mouth of the British bridegroom toundi
vef odd•ihdrad on thh lips of a foreigner : and We almost
feel as if he had no right to this particular phrase. It hat
Just been used, however, tinder emennistanees the full force
and meaning of which no Tompkins ',odd deny. The King
of Italy, a right honest and gallant bridegroom, Is &lout to
be united in what we trust will prove enduring and indis-
soluble Wedlock with the Queen of the Adriatic, ani her
formal content has just been given to his suit Ile says it is
the proudest day of his life, and Ile has special reasons for
speaking in tones of more than mud exiiltation. Eighteen
years ago his father Charles Albert proclaimed that Italy
must be free and independent, stakeil his life and his
grown on the lame, and died In exile, a martyr to the
sacred catty°. But the cause did not die with him:
it tloriziehed uncle, discouragement., grew stronger In
spite of tyrsnny and repression, became inextricably
Interwoven with the thoughts and aspirations of every
Italian, and finally saw its enemies trampled under font.
Victor Emmanuel remembers the disaster of Novara and the
dark days the: followeii, and he knows that It was during the
midnight of Bourbon and Papal reaction that his father,
who had sounded the note of triumph, died broken-hearted
miner defeat. It is, then, a filial tribute the King pays when
he now congratulates the Venetians on their acconiplished
freedom. And he has ample reason for pride—pride in
the devoted monarch whose name he inherits; in his own
constancy and fidelity to a sacred trust in the „people
Who, through good and evil fortune, have trusted and
believed -him : and, above all, in abs magnificent jewel
now added to hi. crown Italy .'is constituted, If
not accomplished." Durieg full eighteen years the work has
been In progress, and it hat not been done by faction, or an
ambitious King, or an unscrupulous Minister; it has out-
raged no rinse of moral right, defied no popular feeling. The
movement has been that of a united nation, one in feeling, in
faith, in suffering, in aspiration. Ktng Victor Emmanuel
may well say that he dots not value the Iron
Crown of Lombardy when compared with the more than
regal diadem supplied by the love of his people Ile reigns
by • tenure to which no relic of the middle ages can add
fresh authority : and, supported by the willing homage of
his sUbjecte, he can afford to be indifferent to that emblem
'of supremacy which once pressed the brows of Frederick
Baba:hale, nod which has descended to the present age
burdened with painful memories of carnage, trouble. and
Stars.