The Press.
London, England, 1854-09-16 00:00:00

English people were anxious for the " libera-
" tion of Italy " ! At length, on the Bth of
Augult, Lord ABERDEEN caused the town to
be astonished by a pretentious announcement
in his organ that " the Emperor of RUSSIA had
" accepted the propositions of the four
" Powers ; " and as this most important intelli-
gence virtually proclaimed the danger of war
to have passed, it was, as became it, made an
occasion of administering a buffet to " the
" taunts and impatience of that party which
" had urged upon the Government. a more
" active policy," and of triumphing in " the
" appropriate reward of the steady forbear-
" ante with which these negotiations had
" been conducted." It is not our design to
trace the intrigue which informed Russia of
the conditions of the Vienna note previous to
communicating them to Turkey. The result
of that unfortunate negotiation is well
known. It was hoped by the Coali-
tion that Turkey would succumb. It was
suggested that her "real friends were not
" those who would goad her to resistance ; "
and thus the Coalition parted with Parliament,
putting into the mouth of their Sovereign the
expression of a hope of peace, the grounds of
which they either never investigated, or knew
to be false. As the question became more
serious the Ministry still anxiously .endeit
voured to avoid the responsibility of action,
and, according to their organ, "neither desired
" for England the position of a principal or a
" party in the contest." But Austria occa-
sioned them much uneasiness, though to the
efforts to secure her co-operation they referred
every delay, and the country, so late as the
7th of December, was assured that " Great
" Britain, France, Austria, and Prussia were
" combined in a firm and deliberate union,"
The same tone, and with as little real ground,
was adopted on the meeting of Parliament,
when Lord ABERDEEN, on the 31st of January,
the first day of the session, stood up in his
place and declared :

I am not afraid of being overruled (sic) when I say that
Austria is the natural ally of this country • • •
because I think we have no points of collision nor subjects
of difference, and we can act cordially together in all the
great affairs of Europe.

It was clear that the threat that " the people of
" England " desired the liberation of Italy was
not to be the tone after the meeting of Parlia-
ment. There was no longer any necessity for
pointing the attention of the Cabinet of
Vienna to the Kossuth mobs of Copenhagen-
house, or the public feeling of Barclay and
Perkins's draymen. On the same night the
" hopes " from Austria found expression from
Lord JOHN RUSSELL. Mr. DISRAELI, who had
justly described the abortive Vienna note
as an expedient " which if carried into
" effect would, in fact, only operate as a ruse,
" giving to Russia an opportunity of effecting
" those objects which all unnecessary delay
" and procrastination could only aid and
" secure," was thus answered :
I say ( said Lord John Russell) that our time has not
been lost in our efforts for conciliation, and in doing
everything that we could, consistent with our honour and
our interest, to persuade the Government of Austria to take
what we think a more enlightened and a more successftil
course.

Here was the key of the whole delay. With
that concert in public for which the Coalition
has become famous, the Premier in the Lords
and the Leader of the Commons spoke in a
different tone as to the alleged certainty of the
Austrian alliance, but both agreed that we