The Press.
London, England, 1853-06-18 00:00:00

THE STATE OF ITALY.

IT is now upwards of three hundred and fifty
years since CHARLES VIII. invaded Italy, and
overran it with an army of a few thousand men.
He was quickly compelled to retreat ; but the
consequences of his brief conquest have
never been effaced : with it the independence
of the peninsula was entirely destroyed.
The traditions of the Roman empire estab-
lished a connection between Italy and the
Emperor of GERMANY, the representative and
successor of AUGUSTUS and CHARLEMAGNE,
which, though it was occasionally loosened,
was never dissolved. It was as Imperial fiefs
that the Spanish provinces in Lombardy were
held by the Princes of the house of Austria,
and as such they devolved to the younger
branch of that family on the partition of the
Spanish monarchy.
If Italy has not been always unfortunate,
she has always thought herself so, and the
misfortunes of Italy can never be a matter of
indifference to the rest of Europe. Previously
to the disastrous events of 1848, the material
prosperity of the country had vastly increased.
the people seemed rapidly advancing in intel-
ligence, the various Sovereigns vied with each
other in their concessions and sacrifices. The
sanguine politician anticipated a new era.
With all this the threatening present offers
' a gloomy contrast. The Governments, per-
plexed with suspicion and irritated by oppo..
'Rion, have only before them a choice of
errors. The people, unfit to govern and un-
willing to obey, filled with angry recollections
and vague aspirations, exhibit a sullen and
stubborn resistance that perpetuates animosity
and precludes improvement.
In Naples, where foreign agitation and
hostile diplomatists failed to shake the national

SATURDAY,

loyalty to the throne, and where no foreign
assistance was required to quell the insurrec-
tion, we regret that confidence should not im-
mediately have been restored between the
Prince and the people. On the one hand, the
arts of the interested should not have been
allowed to perpetuate ill-will ;on the other,
the King might have exhibited more of the
amiable weakness of forgiveness, and a greater
reliance on the affection of his subjects.
The Grand Duke of TUSCANY, restored to his
capital by the repentance of his people, but
maintained on his throne by Austrian assist-
ance, has not found the same Florence he left,
nor the same people ho once governed in reci-
procal confidence and good-will. He is looked
on by his subjects as an Imperial Viceroy, and
events still recent have proved how little
foreign nations can consider him in the light
of an independent Sovereign.
The Pope, u bigot in religion anti a dupe in
politics, a puppet at home and a firebrand
abroad, stirs up in other states that disaffec-
tion which he needs foreign bayonets to sup-
press in his own.
The Austro-Italian dominions are morally, if
itot materially, in a yet worse condition. Slowly
recovering from the effects of recent rebellion,
commercial prosperity returns sooner than
political confidence; and the physical well-
being of the people is in advance of their men-
tal tranquillity. For this there may be several
reasons, but one alone is sufficient to account
for it. In the tyranny of the secret societies
throughout the peninsula there exists an evil,
the extent of which we can hardly appreciate,
even with the example of Ireland before our
eyes. It is to these, and not to Austrian mis-
government, that the ills must be attributed
of which we have heard so many and such
just complaints. Their ranks are unwillingly
recruited by the well-disposed and the timid,
who dread the threats of the democrats more
than the prison of the Austrians, and who are
compelled to join a conspiracy they detest.
In Italy the members of these societies are not
confined, as in Ireland, to the ignorant dupes and
victims of a corrupt priesthood : they include
persons of education and intelligence—men
who can write with energy and complain with
eloquence of the evils which they themselves
perpetuate. Surely such men should remember
that, to attain the ends they profess to desire,
they should endeavour to regenerate the
country and exalt its character, and not to
sink and degrade it by the demoralising in-
fluence of fear.

Against such societies there is no resource but
espionage, and, if the Government condescends
to practise it, it is in the propensity of Italians
for such associations that they find their ex-
cuse. If the Government may sometimes be
charged with harshness, it is but fair to re-
member how often its clemency has been
abused, its power defied. and its fears excited,
by the intrigues of political associations, and by
those of the exiles who encourage them. The
Austrian Government has long seen the ne-
cessity of putting down these societies, and it
is with a thorough knowledge of the subject
that it suspects the Lombard exiles at Turin
to be among their most active members.
We have seen the correspondence between
the Austrian and Sardinian Ministers relative
to the melancholy events of Milan of the Bth
of February, and the measures of security that
were adopted in consequence ; and we have
read the addresses of several of the most zea-
lous amongst the Sardinian patriots in defence
of the Milanese exiles in Piedmont accused
of participation in those culpable attempts.
While they maintain the innocence of all
the exiles, they endeavour to establish a differ-
ence between such as have taken the oaths of
allegiance in Piedmont and such as have not
the claim of citizenship, and all agree in de
nouncing the injustice of Marshal RADETZICT's
proclamation of the 18th of the same month.
We trust the Sardinian orators are correct in
maintaining the innocence of the Lombard
exiles of all participation in that weak and
guilty movement ; but can they deny a con-
stant correspondence carried on by these men
and the disaffected in their own country, or
their connivance, if not concurrence, in every
plot which had for its object the destruction
of the Austrian Government? Will the exiles

JUNE 18, 1853.

deny (and will the Piedmontese Ministers back
the denial?) their cabals with secret societies.
and their unceasing endeavours to keep up
ill-will and to prevent the acceptance of the
Emperor's clemency by those who would have
been willing to avail themselves of it? Can
they deny that they have boasted of their
uncompromising hostility and the implaca-
bility of their hatred? All this is notorious ;
and, if they have been the unscrupulous Tr-
turbators of the public peace, should all our m-
ai n be reserved for the Government which
finds itself compelled to take up arms against
such a sea of troubles"
In the documents to which we have referred
it is insisted that the natives of Austrian Lom-
bardy, having thrown off the allegiance of their
native Sovereign and transferred it to the King
of SARDINIA. are to be exempted front all the
consequences of their former rebellion and of
their present hostility ; and that their Loin-
bird property cannot be legally withheld or
confiscated on their conviction of the crime of
high treason against the person or government
of the Emperor, of which, it is maintained,
they can bo no longer guilty. This argument,
we imagine, could not be maintained by any
jmist beyond the Alps. But the Austrian Go-
vernment has a yet stronger ease. The exiles,
with few exceptions, might immediately have
returned to Lombardy after the Piedmoutese
defeat in 1849, and permission to sell their
property, with ample time to do so, was
granted to those who were excluded by name;
but neither party chose to avail themselves of
the alternative, preferring to remain in a state
of defiance to the Imperial Government, which
they hoped to brave with impunity, while en-
joying all the dignity of misfortune and the
pride of patriotism. The feelings of the Im
perial Ministers have changed. Perhaps they
have seen cause to regret the moderation of
their first measures ; and the outbreak of the
nth of February, contemptible as it was, ex-
hausted their slender stock of remaining
patience.
In this melancholy state of things it is
deaply to be regretted that the good offices of
En ;land are wholly unavailing. Our fiormer
injudicious interference has lost us the confi-
de ice of both parties. The insurgents believed
we betrayed them—the Governments are per-
sus led we countenanced rebellion. This
blunder is not a new one. In Mr. Moones
life and journals, recently published, lie
quotes a remark of Lord LANSDOWNE on
the revolutionary movements in Italy of
1821 : • The reputation of England," he
observes, "on the Continent has sunk con-
" siderably with one party for having shown
" an inclination to oppose them without being
" (as they think) able to venture, and with the
" other for having given them hopes of assist-
" ance and left them in the lurch."—Vol. 4, p.
151. If such was the opinion of this en-
lightened nobleman of the conduct of the
Ministry of that day, with what feelings must
he regard the conduct of the Cabinet of which
he formed a part, in the year 1848, and of the
noble Viscount, his colleague, at that time our
Minister of Foreign Affairs!
In our opinion the duty of this country was
to preserve an exact neutrality, and neither
countenance the rebels nor insult and irritate
the Governments to whom we did not judge it
prudent to exhibit at more active hostility.
The subsequent protection of the rebels,
when the contest was over, was highly impo-
litic, nor has it escaped its appropriate
punishment. By encouraging, or, rather, Coln-
pelling, Turkey to break her ancient treaty with
Austria for the mutual surrender of prisoners,
we constrained that decrepid State to disgust
its firmest ally and inflict an injury which was
certain to be speedily avenged.
In the recent events that have taken place
at Constantinople, Russia, obviously, no
longer calculated on the opposition of Austria.
That passive but insuperable resistance to her
ambitious designs she perceived clearly had
been foronce overcome, and England deprived
of an ally upon whose co-operation in (our Eastern
policy we might always rely.
We have no intention of constituting our-
selves the defenders and apologists of the
Austrian Government. We believe it to have
been flighted from its decorum as well as

THE PRESS.

irritated beyond its patience ; but our readers
must not believe all the groundless charges of
a hostile press. Forgiveness and ti►rbeartuu•e
must be mutaid. The exiles cannot receive
the palm of martyrdom and the rewards of
submission. But the Government is only
waiting to receive their overtures ; confisea-
dons have nowhere been decreed ; sevleie•xtrer-
times have occasionally been enforced ; and
an inquiry into the conduct of the exile insti-
tuted, during which the revenues of his estate
are withheld. In many eases an imme-
diate restitution has taken place upon submis-
sion, and in none does the sequestration affect
the interests of the patriot's heir, or close the
doors against his own repentance.
The injustice and ill-treatment to which our
travelling countrymen are exposed on the Con-
tinent is a proof of the dislike which our
Government has inspired, and of the contempt
into which it has fallen. In the foreign police-
offices insolent and sycophantic underlings
think to curry favour with their official supe-
riors by showing disrespect to the natives of a.
country with which it is believed their Govern-
ment is discontented; while underbred Eng
lishmen hope for notoriety and praise by
provoking a quarrel which they expect their
Government at home to adopt.
But there must soon be a truce to this petty
hostility: at crisis is approaching that. must.
unite all those who desire the preservation
of peace. Our Ministers must endeavour to
reconstruct the alliances which have so heed-

lessly_ been broken ; and, by a timely change
of conduct, we trust the country may yet be
saved from the consequences of a disastrous
and discreditable policy.

THE BALLOT.
EXCEPT in so far as an abstniet discussion may

be enlivened by telling allusions to the events
of the day, the Ballot question scampi!), admits
of novelty. Any one who had missed hearing
the debate of Tuesday last might form a fair
idea of its tenor by reading in Hansard "
that Of 11438. Mr. 6110TE'S Speech an the one
side, and those of Sir R. PEEL and Lord :lons
RUSSELL on the other, contain pretty nearly all
that can be said for and against secret voting.
In this ease. as many More, the real argu-
ments, pro and con., lie in a nutshell. A single
review, a single pamphlet, will hold them all ;
and the vast volume to which the collected
speeches of the last fourteen years on this
subject would swell is stuffed mainly with idle
repetitions, excuses for individual tergiversa-
tion, amusing personalities like those of the
present) Sir R. PEE!., and cock-and-bull stories
of landlord influence, or of intimidation by
employers. '['he only change which has taken
place is in the number of votes polled by the
followers of Gaon: and BENTHAm. And Itert,
we observe a very perceptible decrease since
the question was first mooted. The subjoined
list of divisions will verify our words :

For Ballot. A gningt.
!Mil
—37
—lB
—39
—42
—47
—49
—SO
—sl
—52
—5:3

We do not, however, attach undue importance
to a test which may be fallacious. For the
House of Commons takes no official nutlet. of
pairs, though the Lords do of proxies; and it
must be remembered that,—the leaders of the
two great parties continuing firm in their op
position—Ballot has 'lynx come before Par-
liament in a practical shape. Now, when
nothing beyond abstract theory is at stake,
Radical M.P.s, under the pressure of popular
constituencies, care little for what they cute.
' But when a friendly Ministry may be shaken,
or when the innovator is called upon to em-
body his reform in a project of law, then the
case alters materially. Sometimes an mote
countable panic seizes the victors in the very
moment of success. Resolutions disappear
suddenly and silently from the uotice-paper.

147

Manchester finds itself indisposed—and the
Brigade is absent on business. Nov 4111
proposition only once supported. under any cir-
cumstances. by 100 members of the House of
Commons, be considered as having come prac-
tically before the country for its trial. Our
view of the matter may lie stated in few words.
We do not believe that Ballot or any other
measuro which does not touch the laws of
property will hive the effect desired by its
promoters—that of destroying territorial nitlu-
enee. On the etnltlllq, tlutt influence, (tat WO-
trusted. with time dy' thes willowner, would
not improbably increase. For thee power of
the capitalist turns, in great IlleaMMV, on the
facility with which he can change or dismiss
his hands ; whereas that of the landlord is
rather moral than material, resting on tra-
ditional influences, which have their founda-
tions deep in human nature itself. But know-
ing that seereey is not even thought of in
.interim—believing that secrecy is not pre-
served( in France—and holding it exceedingly
doubtful whether it even Call or will be so.
under any law, among ounedelves—we regard
the movement as little else than it delusion.
the success of which could end no otherwise
than in the bitter disappointment of its sin-
cere promoters. Other objections nee fillllahlr
—such us the inereased obstaelem thrown in
the way of detecting bribery, the possible eor-
ruption of scrutineers, and the precedent of
secrecy introduced into judicial. and oven into
parliamentary, proeeedings. 'There is, indeed,
one constitution, and one state of society, in
whieh the protection of the individual voter
might become desirable, not to say necessary.
With universal suffrage established, and under
the pressure of a Splint nutimity, it is con-
ceivable that the ballot-box, or the vothig-
piper, should advantageously supersede the
intimidation 4,f the hustings. But universal
suffrage is far distant. iu England ; and what
we see of its working abroad does not pm-
dispose in its favour.

'1'1I1: KEoii II " I NTERPELLATIONS.

Ax itaielP in the Standard of last night con-
tained so true an estimate of this trumpery
mameuvre, that we might content ourselves
with this single reference, for all that it is neces-
sary to state by way ofeomment. An imputation
is made against the present M inistry. as respect s
the appointnwnt of Mr. K it, MI the grounds
of his language and eonduet on certain occa-
sions, and it is sought to meet this imputation
by insinuating that he was Awed a place by
the late Ministry, previous to the date of the
oecasions referred to. There is thus a most
fatal crier in the pleadings which was followed
up last night by the substitution of hypotheses
for evidence.
It. would, in truth. have been neither Un-
natural nor improper, as the statenicats in the
debate disclosed, if Mr. licoun had received
such an offer at a time when he had not yet
utterly abjured his Conservatism. and was
co-operating with Lord NAAN in attacking his
present colleagues ; but Lord NAAS was neither
authorised to make, nor did make, either
directly or indirectly, any otter of this descrip-
tion. On a friendly deprecation of opposition
to his return at the Kildare election, Mr.
KEooli founded an ingenious inference, which
seemed natural to his own fervid imagination
(at. least so he represents it), to the effect that
ottice was 01101 to him if he pleased. He does
not appear to have heeded the fact that every
offae milder the Government was tilled up at
that time ; and he puts as an assumed analogy
to I.4mrd I.IAM'S language, " Suppose a gentle-
man were to say to a lady, ' If 1 should ask you
to marry me, what would be your answer ?'----.
what would she understand by it ?'"f o which
we reply. that, with the discretion of her sex,
she would understand very little if the gentle-
man were married already, and that little of no
praetieal enliven' to herself when the question
was simply its to what she might have done
had he been single.
If. however, Mr. K main hall proved his ease
to the entire satisfaction of the House and
the country—viz., that he, u young Irish bar
lister, on his promotion, imagined that he had

148

been offered office for the first time in his life,
and had paid no serious attention to the proposal
—it would he really as nothing to the subject in
dispute. Why is he a member of a Govern-
ment which contains the Lord CLARF.NDON
whom he was [ready to impeach, and the Lord
.JOHN RussELl. whose Eeelesiastical Titles Bill
he trampled in the mire? This is the ques-
tion to which an answer is due, not from him,
but from Lord JOHN Ressim., if the latter con
übtnin leare to explain himself.

VOTE OF CENSI7RE ON OOVERNOP
BLACKALL

THE politics of Dominica appear just now to be as
torrid as its climate. The House of Assembly some
weeks since voted "No Confidence " in Governor
iILACKM.I., on a division of 11 to CI; and it is worthy of
remark that the Speaker of the Assembly voted
against the Governor. The debate on the resolution
appears to have raged with tropical fury. Governor
litActutt is more familiar to our readers as Major
litAreAu.," recently M.V. for Longford, who entered
the House of Commons under the especial auspices
of the priests of that county, whose code of politics
he endorsed with his approbation, and, after four
years' obedience to the whims of Nlr. HAYTER, ex-
changed the functions of lush agitator for those of a
Colonial ruler. The vote of censure was couched in
the following emphatic form :
" The committee, having taken into consideration sundry
sets of the administration of his Excellency the Lieut.-
iovemor, are of opinion that the confidence of the House
should be withdrawn from Ids Excellency the Lieut.-
t inventor, and that the removal of his Exeellency from
this tiovernment would Is. of advantage to the peace and
welfare of the island, and they recommend the appointment
of a select eommittee, by ballot, of three intbmberia, to pre.
pare an humble address to the Sovereign, embodying the
grounds of such withdrawal of confidence, and praying
fur the removtd of his Excellency from .this tiovernment."
The grounds on which the foregoing censure was
passed upon this priest-appointed Governor were
summed up thus by Mr. 8E1.1.0T :
" The appointment by Major Maria of his private
secretary, an utter stranger to the island, to the tretutury-
ship, over the heads of competent natives and old residents
—the appointment of a stranger youth, yet in his teens, to
the responsible post of third revenue otticer—the dissoln•
that of the late House because it interfered in the matter
—the prevention of the Marsha to take Isis seat in the
House, although returned by the constituency—the Gover-
nor's protwedings in the disposal of alleged Crown lands at.
Prince Rupert's—his final settlement of the three•ehains
question—bin veto on the reeent resolution of the Board
sad House for obtaining a loan to meet a temporary exi•
gency—and, tly, he issuin of the new ootumission.-
Want of las
space t
compelsg us to be thus brief on a
subject which has been hitherto overlooked by our
contemporaries, but of which, probably, the bearings
are sudiciently obvious.

THE TAX ON SUCCESSIONS.
To THE EDITOR 01.• " THE PRESS.
Sir,—Amongst the many unjust provisions of the
Suet-est:ion Duties Bill now before the House of
Commons, I will instance one so obviously opposed
to comntou fairness that. I can only imagine the
Chancellor of the Exchequer has presumed on the
inability of his victims to do a common sum.
It is to be observed that the duty is to be levied on
the capital sum inherited, and not on the income,
which latter is only important. as a means of ascer-
taining the value of the capital.
It is provided that, in case a succession should
devolve, charged with any sum of money, that in as-
certaining the income an allowance shall be made for
the sums paid by way of interest.
If, then, a man inherits an estate worth at the
hammer 20,000 f., but burdened with charges te the
extent of 10.000/., with interest at 4 per cent., it is
pretty clear to all plain men that he will receive but
10.011111.
Now, he is entitled to deduct from the 'insane of
the estate 4001. a year, representing, according to the
tables appended to the bill, the following sums :
If he is 1 year old
If the Mean—soy IS
If tat the verge of the grave—say 113 '23/.1
New, should the successor think tit, or lte directed
by the testator, to sell the estate, he will find that he
has paid duty, not on what he will actually receive,
namely. 10,000/., but on the sums of 11,4:12/., 14,840.,
or 19,7411., according to his age; and the Exchequer
will, in the case of the aged man, be still further
aggrandised by the certainty that a fresh succession
must presently ensue.--1 remain, sir, your obedient
servant, A Lutt %TEE.

CHOBHAM AM) THE PEACE SOCIETY.
TO THE ninon OF "THE EitEss."
Sir,—Nothing more thoroughly proves the Btulical
principles of the present Government than this
silence of the Peace Society, this apathy of the
Economists. at a juncture like the present. The po-
sition Sir W. Molesw•orth and the Irish members