The Press.
London, England, 1855-08-25 00:00:00

Flap (tortzspoubtutt.

FRANKFORT, August 22.
ENOUSH politics continue to be carefully watched on
the Continent. Every debate in the House of Com-
mons is conned over, every change in the details of
the administration is examined on its probable bear-
ing upon the subject of peace and war. The antece-
dents of Lord Palmerston are nicely traced, his
motives of action jealously sifted, and the general
conclusion throughout Germany determines that he
is not sincere in the prosecution of the war. Of this
insincerity Lord Clarendon is reported to share
largely, and in proof thereof a letter, semi-official,
and coming from a quarter in direct communication
with an ex-Minister, states broadly that the despatch
of Lord Clarendon, for which so much credit has
been given him, was written subsequent to the attack
of Mr. Disraeli, and proceeded from sheer necessity
of circumstance—that means party necessity—and
not from honest conviction. The same authority in-
sinuates that other revelations, of a nature yet more
damaging to the reputation of the so•called war
Ministry, may be possibly forthcoming.
From one end of Europe to the other the last speech
of Lord John Russell and the reply of Lord Palmerston
form the standard topic of conversation. They are
dwelt upon with an earnest avidity, as if the fate of
nations depended thereon. That of Lord Palmerston
contained sentiments expressed years before, which
brought hopes created only to be blighted ; and their
good effect has been neutralised by certain tidings
industriously spread by the friends of his disloyal
antagonist largely to his detriment, and promising a
further instalment of confessional revelations. In
all these disgraceful proceedings, the reputation of
the country suffers without the power of a plea in
justification. Russia is " pro tanto " the gainer, and
the most warm advocate for England Cannot frame,
by the acutest ingenuity, an apology for such damning
profligacy. " It is no longer," say the Germans, " the
England of old. Faith cannot be given to those who
hold no faith among themselves; and if the lives of
parents, brothers, and children are coldly sacrificed—
not for the sake of country, but of party—not for a
grand cause, but for the possession of office—who
can willingly trust men so utterly devoid of every
right feeling that should guide action and ennoble
sentiment ?"
These words were uttered by a foreign nobleman
of the highest rank, and connected with English
royalty. He had passed a winter in England, and
had been in intimate relation with a veteran and dis-
tinguished Whig. This nobleman denied absolutely
the sincerity of the present Ministry in the prosecu-
tion of the war, from facts that came under his imme-
diate observation. And here it may be well to
observe, as a caution to the " Seraphin" politically
inclined, not to disburden themselves too freely when
under the influence of the soft seduction of foreign
manners and a graceful person. A Ministerial
" Seraphin," in reply to the expressed regret of Count
K— at the present disastrous conflict, and the Ger-
manic estrangement from England, said pointedly,
" Nous sommes pousses a la guerre—il n'y a pas
moyen autrement de nous debarrasser de ce malheu-
reux Disraeli." This was uttered in a Ministerial
house, and by a Ministerial "Soraphin." The per-
sonal pronoun, collective withal, has its significance,
and the word " autrement" delicately conveys the
sense that, were it not for " ce malheureux Disraeli,"
the course of policy would have been different. And
so says Lord John Russell, who is about to turn right
honourable and kingly evidence. This evidence will
be produced with a view to weaken the alliance with
the Emperor Napoleon, against whom the Whigs
and Radicals entertain a republican antipathy. It
is impossible for this " consommé " of impostors and
impostures to censure the war without inculpation of
Franoe.
The pompons bravado of Sir James Graham, and
the elated gasconade of the Secretary of the Admi-
ralty, on the perfection of their arrangements
ie
regard to the transport service, has been lately and
miserably tested. A copy of the Hampshire Tele-
graph has found its way here, wherein the life of that
meritorious officer Colonel Lowth is distinctly stated
to have been unnecessarily sacrificed to neglect, and
the faulty accommodation of the transport vessel.
The jnse steam-packet had been employed for the

AUG. 25, 1855.

transport service by Sir James Graham. From the
first the vessel had been declared incompetent for
the conveyance of invalid officers—the cabins were
small and ill-ventilated, and the necessaries for the
sick on this voyage were singularly deficient, and
ungraciously supplied. Raw and offensive food was
the nutriment supplied to the wounded hero, with a
pestilential box for a dormitory. But, shamefully
bad as were the actual deficiencies, the miseries of
the voyage were increased by the most brutal ne-
glect. And these statements from the Hampshire
Telegraph and the Times have found their way into
the German papers. Such brutality of official con-
duct in the managers of the vessel, as described by
the Times, immediately injures the national charac-
ter fbr humanity, not less than for official capacity;
and when the victim of such misconduct is a person
particularly distinguished by his sovereign, what can
others of less signal career expect? "Have the
English," ask the Germans, "really taken leave of
their senses?"

J. E. L

SIENA, August 18.
As everywhere else, the attention of Italy has been
turned to the debate on Italian affairs in the House
of Commons, on the Bth instant. The attack of
Lord Jchn Russell on the Emperor Napoleon for the
occupation of Rome by French troops would seem to
have been prompted by his friend Mazzini, the
present policy of the "Arcades ambo " being to play
the game of Russia. "It is not possible," says the
ex-Secretary of State, and in intent prospective
Premier, " that England can carry on a war at an
enormous expense because Russia has occupied
part of the territory of her neighbour, and allow of
the occupation of Rome by French troops." This is
the precise desire of Mazzini, Cicernacchio, and
other worthies, that Rome should be abandoned to
the action of self-government, of which it furnished
such a proof of trustworthiness in 1848. Then
Lord John proposes that a constitution should be
shaped by England and France—which means a
Whig Refnrm Bill for the Eternal City—France
having first obeyed the Whig instruction to withdraw
her troops. The dictation to France partakes of the
modesty and sense of the Whig school. Lord Pal-
merston makes matters worse. He doubts not that
Russia being disposed of, France, England, and
Austria will interfere amicably in the affairs of Italy.
Why, this Austrian interference has been the source
of all the wrongs and evils of Italy. It is the very
thing—the blight, the curse—complained of even in
the time of Francesco Petrarca. His nineteenth
canzone is in the mouth of every Italian in every
piazza. The proposition for Austrian intervention
in the restoration of Italian liberty and the tran-
quillity of the famed Peninsula, dear to classical
recollection, is the "pons asinorum" of modern
liberal policy. Nothing will find favour with Austria
except an armed occupation. Tuscany has been
made the birthright of the house of Lorraine, and an
intrusion into her councils and management will not
be permitted, unless insisted on by a force wsajeure.
Again, no portion of Italy can be dealt with without
affecting the whole ; and the question at issue will
be determined betwixt Austria and Sardinia. Either
Sardinia must be shaped to suit despotic views—
that is, her constitution must be nullified in order
to bring her within the scope of the combined
absolutism of Austria, Rome, and Naples—or Austria
must cede her Lombard possessions, and allow con-
stitutional Sardinia to be the emancipating medium
of Italy. For Lord Palmerston to praise Austria for
fidelity to the allies—to extol the priceless benefit
of her alliance—and to propose to call upon her to
assist in conoocting a liberal government, with a view
to Italian reform generally—is a string of absurdi-
ties suited only to the capacities and to the ignorance
of a ten-pound-franchise-elected and superlatively
corrupt House of Commons. The Mazzinians alone
applaud the designed mischief of Lord John Russell.
Not a constitutionalist but is sensible that the inter-
ference of Austria and Lord Palmerston together
will end as of old. And for his tortuous antecedents
the Minister has lost the confidence of those who
hoped better things. _ .

The withdrawal-of a portion of the French troops
has been accompanied by an augmentation of the
Austrian force in Lombardy, and by the immediate
appearance of bands of brigands, the old followers of
Garibaldi, in the neighbourhood of Itouiyleoni on the
west, and of Velletu on the east, of the Roman terri-
tory. In the Neapolitan dominions the cassi-
briganti levy black mail fearlessly, under the
safeguard of the cry " Viva Ferdinando—il Re
essoluto !" A bandit chief, during the last month,
went to the local magistrate, or " commissario" of a
"commune," near Ilitetto, in the "terra di Bari,"
declared that his troop wanted money, and that they
would refrain from acts of robbery, pillage, arson,
rape, end murder, if a certain sum were given them,
tiia Qoutnateuk of fix‘iiptusila Welt r9*

THE PRESS.

burse, on account of their unflinching loyalty. The
magistrate refused, as a matter of course, and the
next night two thousand sheep, that were on his hill
pasturage, and in which his chief property con
sisted, were destroyed. All the brigands throughout
Italy are in favour of "it Re assoluto, ed it San-
tissimo Padre." They are the tried friends of
pontifical and royal despotism.
In approbation of the bandit principle of extor-
tion, the King occasionally puts the same in practice
for his own benefit. He lately gave permission to
one of the most eminent of the Italian exiles to
return once more to his country ; but the disburse-
ment of one hundred thousand crowns, privately, and
through courtly channels, was instrumental and
necessary to procure the act of royal clemency. How
is it possible that a Government lending itself tem-
porarily, spiritually, and administratively, to every
iniquity, and participating itself in delinquencies that
should be legally treated with condign punishment,
can remain long permanent in a period of boasted
civilisation? If, as Lord Palmerston said, Russia be
a standing menace to Germany, the state of Central
and Southern Italy is a standing denial of the political
enlightenment of the age. M. T. A.