The Express.
London, England, 1853-04-04 00:00:00

AUSTRIAN (IL ARREL WITH PIEDMONT.

fierond the fact that a correspondence wee going
ou ls;tween Turin and Vienna respecting the appli-
cation of the sequestration decree to Sardinian rub-
jtcts, little has been known on this subject. Letters
from Vienna enable us to report the character of the
Sardinian intervention, and the spirit in which it
has been airep ed. Since the outbreak at Milan
every mail has brought us word A some measure of
rigour to which the Sardinian government has re-
sorted, at the hazard of its own popularity, for the
security of the Austrians in Italy. The end and re-
ward of all this ie, that Austria is at this moment u
hostile in her demeanour towards Piedmont as to
Se garland.
As soon as the official promulgation of the decree
of confiscation was known at Turin, Count Revel,
the minister of the King of Sardinia at the Court
of Vienna, net ivtd instructions to mako an energetic
protest against it, and to demand explanations re-
specting the interpretation put upon it at Vienna.
M. Revel obtained no satisfaction on the subject from
the Imperial Mini-tcr of Foreign Affairs: on the
contrary, Count Buol declared that the emigrants
naturalised in Sardinia were not excepted, although
it might be sustained with some plausibility that they
were released from their duties towards Austria.
M. Buol declined to go very far into the question,
alleging that full instructions would be sent to M.
Apponr, Imperial Minister at Turin, to whom the
Sardinian government was, for the rest, referred.
These instructions were not long delayed: they bear
dire March 9. and M. Appony was authorised to
!rare a envy of them in the hands of the Chevalier
ltab rmids, Foreign Minister at Turin.
In this document, M. Baal informs M. Appony of
the application of M. Revel. The Sardinian govern-
ment has demanded explanations respecting the im-
prial decree of February 13, and the proclamation of
Marshal ltadetzky, by which the Austrian govern-
ment sequestrates all the property of all the emigrants,
without exception. M. Rued replies : that the im-
perative motives which have dictated this determina-
tion, are indicated in than proclamation itself, but that
he has noobjection to go inure fully into the subject.
He then proceeds to say, that when Austrian au-
thority had been re-established in Lombardy after
the events of 1848-49, the Emperor treated the
authors of revolutionary attempts with infinite
clemency. This great moderation however, had been
responded to by the chiefs of the emigration with the
basest ingratitude : they had established themselves
on the frontiers of the Austrian possessions, and
with the revenues derived from estates in Lombardy
had kept up a system of disaffection and agitation in
that country. They
.had founded demagogic jour-
nals. bought shares in Mazzioi's loan, and kept in
their pay the lower order of revolutionaries, those
whose weapons are the dagger and the knife. Hence
it was necessary that the Austrian government
should resort to rigorous measures of surety, such
as should bring with them the hoariest punishment
to the authors of troubles. _ _ _ _

At this point M. Baal asks what the Sardinian
government has done to restrain or paralyse the
activity which the emigrants have excited against
Austria. Piedmont could and ought to have bridled
the demagogic press, but it has not chosen to do so.
It was aware of the machinations carried on against
Austria: it did not report them to the im-
perial government. Austria pointed out to
the Sardinian government those of the refugees
whom it knew as the most profoundly perverse, and
whose audacity was most enterprising, and demanded
their expulsion ; the demand was rejected. More,
the imperial government demanded that, conformably
to t-esties, the refugees who were accused of high
treason should be given up, but the cabinet of Turin
peremptorily refused. The imperial government
was thus left to its own resources. It has used them
in self-defence, and has struck as far as it could its
rebellious subjects who have become its implacable
enemies, and have only procured their naturalisation
in Sardinia to carry on the part of conspirators.
The Emperor has taken this measure in the fulness
of his power, and in the interest of his empire,
and concedes to no foreign government the right to
ask why was this or why was that emigrant's
proper sequestrated, or what are the proofs of such
as one's guilt, inasmuch as the measure itself is not
the verdict of a judicial court, but a measure of
politic safety, applied to estates lying within the im-
perial territories. M. Buol concludes by noticing the
character of tho emigrants. whom be divides into
three categories. First, there are, he says, the active
instruments, who know the handling of a poignard ;
next, those who employ and pay these fanatics ; and
lastly, and shrewdest of all, those who affect a pru-
dence and reserved exterior, who await, without com-
promising themselves, the success of the attempts
into which they precipitate the etifan4 perdess of the
revolution to profit by it when the hour shall arrive.
All these, says M. 13tiol, are equally guilty; and
since their crime is the same, there can be no reason
for establishing in the infliction of the punishment a
distinction which does not exist in the culpability.
To this despatch M. Dabarmida responds by
another addressed to Count Revel, on tho 20th of
Ruth. The Piedmrintese minister expresses at the
outset his astonishment that M. Buol should refer
him to the proclamation of ltadetzky for the infor-
mation desired, that ho should decline so much as to
discuss the legality of the sequestration in so far as
concerns the refugees who have become subjects of
Sul:ilia, and that the minister of the Emperor
should adopt a style of general recrimination and
accusation, not only against the entire emigra-
tion but also against the Sardinian government
Itself. lie will not dissemble the painful impression
left oa the public mind in Piedmont by a measure
which extends so widely, striking alike the innocent
and the guilty: but he will only speak of the emi-
rants who are legally subjects of Piedmont. The
dispatch of M. llabm-Mida is divided into two parts:
In the lir.t he discusses thu legality of the measure,'
in the second he refutes the accusations which M.
11. ml has made against the government of the King.
Cri the first point, he maintains that Itadetzky's pro-
ciair.ation of August 12, 1819, was an express condi-
cf the ratification of the 'Rae:. of August ti;,
that this proclamation grants to all emigrants with-'

out distinction the right to demand and re-;
ceive legitimation of their withdrawal of allegiance
to Austria-; that the imperial decree ef Dec. 29,
1839, disconnecting all the refugees from rights and
duties of Austrian subjects, has assimilated those who
had not demanded legal emigration to those who
had, so that all such refugees who have since received
naturalisation in Sardinia ought to be considered by I
the imperial government as legitimate subjects of the
King of Sardinia, and in that capacity ought not to
be troubled by any measure aimed at the political refu-
gees whom Austria accuses of conspiring against her.
These naturalised emigrants have the right, like all
other subjects of the King, to possess estates in
Lombardy without being exposed to sequestra-
tion, and cannot be despoiled of it except by
judgments pronounced by regular tribunals.
On the second point M. Dabormida protests for the
honour of the King. He denies that Piedmont has
been the Taus of conspiracies: there may be secret
societies there as in the government of the Em-
peror ; the government may not always be more suc-
cessful in discovering and breaking them up than
the government of Lombardy ; but before and after
the troubles of Milan it did its best to put down
pots against the imperial government. The press
in Piedmont exists under the regime of the law and
the constitution. Its freedom is a consequence of
the charter to which the King has sworn ; lint its
liberty is regulated by law, which is amply sufficient
to redress any wrongs of which foreign sovereigns
may have to complain. The Austrian government
has never pointed out dangerous refugees and de-
manded their expulsion ; this expulsion could never,
therefore, have been refused. The treaty
to which M. Buol appeals in complaining that re-
fugees accused of high treason have not been given
up, has never been interpreted as applying to poli-
tical offences. In conclusion, M. Dabormida appeals
to the justice and good sense of M. Buol to abandon
these unfounded accusations against the government
of his Sardinian Majesty, and to admit the justice of
the claims, which he repeats, on behalf of the
emigrants.