Northern Times.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1859-08-01 00:00:00

usiver fro

aid that, pending the decision of the cabin(
xpress my own opinion that the time had
taling any proposition to the belligerents.
•.•

Such 1

the first piacc to desire that you will express to' Barc
Schleinitz the thanks of her Majesty's Government for ti
friendly tone and zeal for the welfare of the States of Euro'
which have inspired this overture:

The efforts Made by a power so enlightened as Prussia t
restore peace to the Continent of Europe, will always.be dul
appreciated by her Majesty.
Her Majesty's government are at once ready to declar
that they would hail with joy the moment when any equit
able proposal for an armistice or negotiation might b

, accepted. •
But her Majesty's government think themselves bound in
fairness to go further, and meet the friendly proposition of
Prussia with equal candour..
It is their opinion that in the present posture of affairs in
Italy, no termination of this war can be expected without
some cession of territory on the part of Austria.
The Emperor of the French has not contented himself
with repelling the Austrian invasion of the territory of his
ally : he has declared it to be his purpose to liberate Italy
from the Alps to the Adriatic. This proclamation has been
received with transport wherever,' in northern and central
Italy, Austrian troops do not exercise a power of compres-
sion. Milan, and the whole of Lombardy, Parma, Modena,
and Tuscany have eagerly proclaimed their adherence to
the war to which they were 'thus in ited.
Yet, neither have we reason to suppose that the Emperor
of Austria is at present prepared to yield his hereditary
possessions to any other sovereign.
Such is the difficulty of the present European crisis.
The great and ancient monarchy of Austria may naturally
be slow to acknowledge any defeat as irreparable, or to
record by treaty the success of any popular insurrection
against her dominion. •
Yet, after the events which have occurred since the de-
claration of war, it is not to be expected that any treaty,
procured by the whole force of Germany, which should
restore Austrian supremacy in Italy, would have in it the
elements of permanence and security.
The Prince Regent of Prussia looks with becoming
anxiety to the maintenance of the balance of power in
Europe. Let us examine this matter. The balance of
power in Europe means, in effect, the independence of its
several states. The preponderance of any one power threa-
tens and destroys this independence.
But the Emperor Napoleon, by his Milan proclamation,
has declared, as Baron Schleinitz has justly noted, that in
this war he seeks neither conquest, nor territorial
aggrandisement.
It might, perhaps, be premature to discuss whether the
King of Sardinia should reign over Lombardy, Parma,
Modena, and Tuscany, or whether several independent states
in Northern Italy should be maintained or created.
Be their divisions and boundaries arranged as they may,
it is the firm persuasion of her Majesty's Government that
an Italy in which the people should be "free citizens of a
great country" would strengthen and confirm the balance
of power.
The independence of states is never so secure
as when the
4c
sovereign authority is supported by the att hinent of the
pe . .

• A sovereign maintained. wholly by the fore,e of arms over
a disaffected people, is a perpetual object of attack to her
ambitious neighbours ; and a balance of power founded on
such discordant elements, gives only an unstable equilibrium.
If Italy could be ruled over by sovereigns possessed of
the affections of their people, that country,
with its twenty-
five millions of inhabitants, its natural wealth, and its an-
cient civilisation, would, in the opinion of her Majesty's
Government, be a valuable member of the European family.
I must not omit to state that any settlement of Italy
would, in the eyes of her Majesty's Government, be incom-
plete, which did not effect a permanent reform in the ad-
ministration of the states of the church:
Every one knows that Rome and the legationsilave been
much worse governed by the Pope's ministers than Lom.
bardy by Austrian archdukes, and that would be a partial
and unsatisfactory arrangement which struck down the rule
of the latter, and left the former in all its deformity.
Our views upon this subject have not been withheld from
the government of the Emperor of the French.
Such being the opinions of her Majesty's government op the present state o affair they are averse to any in,tet
tion
which mgr •posi-
lirove fruitless hi the firt4 ilistiVee.
o
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partial'and insedive settlenient.
rwhieh might
leadtthtectr a
Her Majesty uled bar utmost efforts, 60nr4,3tEmt with row,