The Express.
London, England, 1861-06-07 00:00:00

SION WArn AT LONDON 11111TDOIL

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ItiasSifini—aissiim 11. MO.. .. - Abeemoss. 2k. 7n.

LONDON, FRIDAY, JUNE 7.

CA itit is dead. Who that read these tidings
yesterday will profess that even to-day he has
got from them more than a vague sense of some
portentous derangement of the facts on which the
politics of Europe have turned T The event has too
many bearings and suggests too manyconsequences
to be grasped at once. In every free country the
name of CAVOUI was almost as the name of one
of its own statesmen ; while in all countries he was
regarded as the man on whose decisions the most
momentous European questions hinged. Like
moat great events, it has come upon the public by
surprise. Probably most people have at one time
or another been disposed to ask themselves
what would happen if CAVOUR disappeared ; but
the thought has been instantly repressed ; the re-
sults to be apprehended were too painfuL Now
that the fact has to be looked in the face, we can
see many reasons why we might have expected it.
The fatal excesses of labour in which the Count
indulged to the total exclusion of recreation and
repose ; his customary annual attacks of illness ;
and the well-known atrocious abuse of the lancet
in Italian medical treatment, are enough to make

it unreasonable in us to be startled at what has
happened! but we are startled, nevertheless.

the calculations of the enemies of his country.
Again, the condition of Italian affairs demanded a
decision and unity of administration, to which the
concentration of power in a single hand was vary
favourable. The prestige of Cavora's name, like
the ascendancy which he enjoyed in the Cabinet
unchallenged, was of gradual growth, and its loss
cannot be supplied. But we cannot, on reflection,
participate in the fears which so naturally arise that
the conduct of Italian affairs must necessarily be-
conic embarrassed in consequence of his removal.
Italy, which has given great ministers to every
principal country in Europe, will not now be want-
ing to herself. It is true the hour is one
of great gravity. Dangers menace, foes
and friends may be tempted alike to
presume on fancied weakness. But if the public
men of Italy display a spirit of self-abnegation and
unity equal to their ability—if the RICASOLIN
(RATA/ lA, FARINIS MAMIANIK, MINUHETTIA, Pt-
rous, and others only—as assuredly they will—
lay aiiide any personal consideration for the sake
of their country, we shall look for a successful
prosecution of that policy which its illustrious
author lived long enough to develop, and which
with his dying breath he bequeathed to his
country.

The hold which Count CAVOUR had taken of the
public mind was in proportion to the rapidity and
vigour with which he developed a policy directed
as much to the satisfaction of great European ne-
cessities se to the independence and greatness of
his own country. We must go back to some
great formative period of history—far beyond the
pretended " peace" of 1815, when Europe was
barbarously and traitorously hacked about, to give
future generations remedial work todo--back to the
times of It iissme and °mammas, to find men
of the bold conception% the skiffs' combinations,
and the masterly execution of Cavotia. His
works proclaim his character. Hs found Italy
afflicted with the satraps of Austria, against whom
the sight of their country's degradation continu-
ally pricked on her children to a passionate and
fruitless resistance. He leaves Italy a united
nation, entitled by population and achievement to
take its place among the great Powers. This has been
the work of only ten years. Daring this period
we have seen his grand policy gradually unfolded.
Perhaps Austria was the only Power which sew at
the time the lofty aims which prompted the extra-
ordinary offer of Count Cavors to send an
auxiliary army to the Crimea in 1855. Her
apprehensions were justified when Count Civotia
took his place in the Congress of Paris, and
there formally appealed to Europe against the
illegalities and usurpations under which his country
suffered. The alliance with France for the over-
throw of Austrian supremacy in Italy was a com-
pact all the more daring because none had better
considered than Count Csvora the risks which a
small state runs when it accepts the military aid of
a powerful neighbour. The result at first seemed
rather to warrant the early apprehensions than
approve the final resolution of the Minister. At
the crisis of Villafranca, LOUIS NAPOLEON
constituted himself the sole adviser of VICPOII
IEII,4•NUEL, and expressly excluded CAVOOR
from the counsels of his master. Had the policy of
the Minister been less than national and Italian he
had now been irretrievably undone. But the
Lombards, the Tuscans, the Romagnese knew the
man who had stood by them, and took up the
cause in which he had taught them to confide, and
sustained it until he was again at the helm of his
country's affairs. Ihe extension of the free Italian
Kingdom which followed his return to office was
nut accomplished without sacrifices which sorely
tried all Italian hearts, and which, ae CAVOVII was
wall convinced, could never be repeated even by
him. The time is not come for publishing the
history of these transactions; but whenever it
arrives it will be seen that not Gamisaua
himself could have striven harder to pre-
vent the separation of Nice from Italy.
The remarkable events which have since
exhibited his policy, the annexation of Umbria
and the Marches, with that of the Two Sicilies,
are fresh in every memory, and his settled pur-
pose to complete the work by acquiring Rome and
Venice are just as well known. While he was
alive nobody ever doubted that be would obtain
both. Before the tint article of his faith and the
chief aim of his career—the unity and nationality
of Italy—a hundred considerations would per-
plex and stagger pedantic lookers on, and in truth
we must add some others, which have at times made
the most candid friends of Italy doubt and pause,
were set aside. Onward he went without psecipi-
tation and without delay, as free from rancour se
from remorse, sometimes compelled to suspend,
but never induced to renounce the pursuit of
his magnificent ends.
And now he is gone ; and his mighty energy,
his calm and far-seeing prudence, his vast political
knee ledge can no more be useful to his country.
It is natural to ask—Who will take up and finish
his work t The feeling congenial to the hour is,
that this lois sustained in his death is irreparable.
We may admit this undeniable truth without ex-
aggerating it. What Italy needs in her political
situation is power ; and Csvors was power. His
character as a versatile and resolute statesman,
full vf resource, and with a knack of rising
stronger from every defeat, was appreciated in
emery court of Europe, and entered largely into

THE EXPRESS, FRIDAY EVENING, JUNE 7, 1861.

ITALY.

(raoat 0111 OWN

TURIN, TomoAT.

It would be doing violence to the feelings I share
with hundreds of thousands of other people here,
to begin this letter to-day in a tone of exultation,
even after the perfect success of the national festival,
which is an important political event. In truth, we
are still anxious, more than we like to confess,
about the preservation of that great Minister, to
whose courage, energy, and wisdom, beyond any
other human agencies, the present fact of this
Italian Kingdom, with its promise of a completer
development, is due. Before my letter reaches
London, the crisis of Cavour's malady will probably
be past, and the telegraph will have informed you,
I trust, of his certain restoration to health. It will
then do no harm, in that case, for me to
say, that the condition in which he lies
this morning, from all authentic reports, inspires
us with the deepest concern ; his disease, I believe,
has been pronounced to be an intermittent fever,
of the typhoid type. But it is certain that he has
already undergone the operation of bleeding six
times, and few men could endure so much ; on the
other hand, his sanguine temperament and natu-
rally strong constitution may enable him to support
those frequent applications of the favourite prac-
tice of Italian surgery is at the house of his
elder brother, the Marquis Gustavo di Cavour,
with whom be usually resides ; it is almost close to
the Chambers, in the street formerly called Via
dell' Arcivescovado, from the palace of Monsignor
Franzoni, which stands there, but now baptized by
the municipality Via di Cavour, or at least one
portion of it, where the minister lives. Many a
visit of inquiry has been made there since Thurs-
day morning last, and many a life in this city, or
throughout this land, would be willingly offered
by its owner in exchange for that most
valuable life which is now imperilled. I only
repeat to you the expressions I have heard from
grave and thoughtful men, who cannot be charged
with senthnental affectation, but who can appre-
ciate the immense loss that Italy would sustain, at
such a moment of her destinies, if she were to be
suddenly deprived of the advantage of his eounsels
and his character, when more than ever needed to
influence the policy of Europe on her behalf. May
God grant that the fears, which we cancot entirely
dismiss from our minds, or disguise from each
other, shall result only in silencing the voices of
envy and faction, so that, with perfect unity of
spirit, and a cheerful recognition of just claims to
leadership, the Italians may complete their glorious
work !

I scarcely feel disposed to enter on any elaborate
description of the pageants and public entertain-
ments with which the -people have been gratified
for the last two days. The most interesting cere-
mony, to my mind, was the distribution of prizes,
yesterday morning, to the deserving pupils
of the evening schools for adults of the
working classes, which are maintained under the
patronage of the municipality of Turin. These
schools are a part of the system of popular instruc-
tion, both in town and country, which has done
incalculable good in Piedmont during the last ten
or twelve years. Voluntary effort has gone hand
in hand with the ungrudging liberality of the com-
munes, and with the sanction, or superintendence
merely, of the royal government, to produce this
result. The prizes yesterday. were given away in
a building called the Seminano, formerly a clerical
training college, the spacious open court having
been canopied, and handsomely decorated with
coloured cloth, as well as with medallion portraits
of the natives of Piedmont most famous in the
history of literature, science, and art. The Mini-
ster of Public Instruction, Signor De Santis (the
governor of the pTovince), the Syndic of the
city of Turin, Count Cossilla, and several dis-
tinguished members of the Cliambse, took
part in the proceedings, which were enlivened
by the presence of many ladies, and by the
music of the National Guard. Among the
students who received prizes were not only journey-
men carpenters, masons, shoemakers, and other
artisans, but a street-sweeper and two aboeblacks,
who had profited by the opportunities of learning
these excellent schools afford.
The next thing I looked after yesterday was the
fancy fair got up by a hundred of the Turin ladies,
countesses, marchionesses, and other fashionable
fair, who sold a variety of pretty wares at very
exorbitant prices in the pleasant shady garden of
the Royal Palace. It was the first affair of
that kind, I believe, the first in Italy,
unites the Florentine ladies have tried it
on ; for at Naples and Milan this amateur
shopkeeping is unknown. It is so common in Eng-
land, that I need not say much about it here. The
profits of this bazaar went chiefly to the funds of
Santa Zita, an institution for the pious education
of unprotected girls.
Tho races have taken place every evening on the
Piazza d'Armi, but there again, you have just got
over the Derby, and will not care to be told of the
poor third-rate jockeyship of Turin. Last evening,
however, there was a peculiar feature in it, the
eorsa dei birrucixi or trotting gig race, which hau
not been exhibited in Piedmont before. It is a
favourite pastime in Romagna, in Lombardy, and
especially in the Venetian provinces, where the
Friuli breed of horses, with an odd pace of their
own, a compound between the trot and the gallop,
are famous fur speed on the roads. I may dismiss
the subject by remarking that our ambassador, Sir
James Hudson, a thorough Englishman in his
tastes and habits, as you know, gives the prize this
evening for a steeplechase, or rather, a hurdle race,
to be contended for by gentlemen den ; and the
King, who watches all theme sports with great in-
terest, has added to the same prize a splendid
horsewhip, the !melte set with diamonds. The
King's own horses run iu the name of Mr. Carter,
the master of his stud ; they are almost all of
English breed.
The illuminations and fireworks, I suppose, may
as well be left to the imagination of yeurireaders ;
but I would assist them to conceive of the brilliant
spectacle last night by observing that it took place
along the aide of a high range of steep hills, all
verdant and beset with gardens or villas, directly
opposite the city, on the south bank of the river
Po. For a length of perhaps two miles, and from
the river shore up to the summits of this chain of
hills, the houses, the roads, the hedges, and garden
walls were marked out by lines of blazing lamps.
The Church of La Gaul Madre, which is a circular
building with a large Corinthian portico, at the end
of the bridge, was the nearest object, being
scarcely more than two or three hundred yards
from the Piazza Vittorio Emmanuel., where thirty
thousand people were assembled. The architecture
was shown by lines of light, and festoons
of tricoloured lamps, with appropriate mot-
toes and ciphers, hung in front. The
Monte dei Cappuccini, with its lofty dome crown-
ing a bold eminence in the foreground, looked ex-
tremely brilliant. The iron bridge near the public
gardens higher up the river, was also illuminated ;
and the ravines or hollows between one bill and
another were spanned by inimiOuspension-bridges,
composed of pendent or horizontal lines of light.
Behind these objects the remoter buildings, such as
the Vigna dells Regina, half way up, embosomed
among the hills, and the private mansions
there situated, were ahiuing and flaming ; the zig-
zag lines of road and hedge-row, climbing or
creating the heights, were like a necklace of
flames thrown over the Q,llina's shoulders ; and
five miles off, the mighty church of Superga, the
royal mausoleum, placed on high and conspicuous
at any distance from the plain, was plainly
with its shape marked out in fire. All sorts of
aspiring rockets, fire üballoone emitting variegated
showers, and coruscating, dazzling, detonating in-
ventions, were profusely employed. But the
simple inscription, " Vittorio Emmanuele, Re
d'ltalia," which had been legible on all the palace
of the city the night before, wan enough for this
national festival.

We have the most satisfactory accounts by local
newspaper or telegraphic despatch of Sunday's
doings at Milan, Genoa, Naples, Palermo, Flo-
rence, and all the other free Italian cities, which
celebrated the occasion iu various ways, but all in
good order, and in the best spirits.