Northern Times.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1859-05-23 00:00:00

THE NORTH MIN TIMES, MONDAY, MAY 23, 1859

The Italians partake of the common lot of the Conti-
nental ration,--manly, perhaps, they have rad2er
more than their share of the universal oppression.
But surely if they are to be singled out for special
deliverance by the sword, the deliverer should him-
self have clean hands. He that is without sin, and
only he, should " cast the first stone." The poet has
glowingly exclaimed,—
" To tame the proud, the fettered slave to free—
These are imperial acts and worthy thee."

But worthy of whom Not surely the proud, who
himself needs to be tamed,—not, by any means, the
enslaver of his own people, who themselves require
to be made free. Such an idea would involve a
great inconsistency. Reform, like charity, must
begin at home. It is a divine injunction, that we
first pluck the beam out of our own eye, and then we
shall see clearly to pull out the mote that is in our
brother's eye.
Apply this reasoning, then, to the case of this
Italian war, and it is the reasoning of plain
common sense, no less than of justice and truth,--
and where are LOUIS NAPOLEON'S pretensions to be
the liberator of Italy—to go forth, and leave his own
oppressed people unrelieved, to free from oppression
the people of Italy ? "We do not forget," said an
able contemporary the other day, " as the French
trumpets are ringing out their Portant pour la
Syrie,' the Emperor's antecedents. We are not now
disposed to let the 2nd of December and its unspeak-
able wickedness fade from our memory. As RIVERS,
GRAY, and VAUGHAN sat heavily on the conscience
of our great historical example of the Imperial
system, so ought the ghosts of December, the
wailings from Cayenne, the shrieks from Lambessa
to do their work on the Messiah of Order.
We are not going to forget, at this particular
epoch, that Louis NAPOLEON found France
free, and quits it enslaved free, we say,
or at least on the way to freedom, for the
Red Republic had worked, or was working itself,
out, and CAVAIGNAC would have reconstructed what
the President destroyed. And from the hour of his
election to this, Louis NAPOLEON'S line has been
undeviating. The coup d'gtat itself was only a step
in the regular order of things. Liberty has been
trampled out by a system which is even more
demoralising and criminal than that of the old
Roman proscriptions. Mind and freedom of thought
have been manacled ; the press is extinct in France ;
literature is poisoned ; religion is corrupted, and has
not risen superior to the most sordid temptations.
Massacre, treason, and deportation of the best
citizens are crimes neither to be forgotten nor
forgiven. And this, and nothing less than this,
is the internal aspect of the Imperial system.
It has never wavered nor swerved a single
hair's breadth in the dreadful directness and
completeness of its aim.'" Is it possible that
Italy can be worse than this ? Is there no oppression
in such a state of things as this in France ? Do the
people who are thus enthralled themselves need no
liberator? Has he why thus enslaves, thus oppresses
them, no occasion to begin his deliverances and his
liberations at home ? Must there not be a beam in
the eye of such an one, which it is necessary should
be plucked out, before he pretends to pull out the
mote that is in his brother's eye ? It is in the
answer to such questions as these—and there can be
but one answer— that we must look for the grounds
of a right judgment of this Italian war ; and such a
judgment may well arouse the people of England, to
insist that this country shall have nothing to do
with it.

by Ministers of the Crown, but by almost every
leading statesman of this country." Here, then,
there is a clear understanding manifested of the real
eerits of the question. " The English people at
large have no sympathy with either of the despotic
rulers ,engaged in this mischievous war." How can
they ? .;'here is despotism involved in it ; and how
can a free
_people ever sympathise with depotism ?
It is truly a " mischievous war,"—not only because
it is waged by t ,vo despots against each other, but
because it is begs under false pretences, and its
ostensible object cal.' never be attained under any
system of despotic sway'.
At another place whe're the subject was dis-
cussed, the following res Ilution was adopted,----
" That this meeting, though deeply sympathising
with Italy in her apprehensions .Itnd sorrows, cannot
regard with confidence or with hope the armed
agencies which have been put in operalion professedly
for her deliverance." How is it possible that a free
people can have any confidence, or any h.Ve, where
such " armed agencies " are those of despots ? And
well, therefore, was that resolution followeJ by
another, to such an effect as this,—" That, in to
opinion of this meeting, a policy of non-intervention
in the struggle between Austria and France is most 1
consistent with the dignity of Great Britain, the
interests of civilisation, the progress of constitutional
liberty, and the most conducive to the safety and
welfare of our country." All this we verily believe.
No possible good could ever come of England's
intervention in such a war; but, on the contrary,
an incalculable amount of evil. Even Piedmont is
not blameless in such a war. Not only is her object
a very questionable one ; but her own people are
being oppressed by the very process of carrying it
out. " The people of Piedmont," says the letter of
an intelligent and independent observer upon the
spot, " are not in favour of this war. So far from it
are they, that nothing would be easier than to raise
the population of this part of the country against the
Government. Count CAVOUR is detested. As for
the King, they consider him a mere puppet of
CAvouß's. The entire power, they say, is in the
hands of agitators, principally from Milan." How
could the English people, then, have any confidence
or any hope in such a war ? Row could one expect
that it would ever serve " the interests of civilisa-
tion," or " the progress of constitutional liberty ?"
It is furthermore most satisfactory to observe,
that there is at least confidence in our own Govern-
ment, at so critical a conjuncture. At most of the
meetings we refer to, they have declared how much
they rejoice in the conviction expressed by one and
all of her Majesty's Ministers, that it is no part of
the duty of England to meddle in this deplorable
contest between the potentates of Central Europe.
And Ministers themselves,—and the Parliament,
too, when it meets,—cannot but be encouraged to
persevere in the maintenance of a pacific and
non-intervention policy, by the prayer of these
memorials, " that the same views may continue to
prevail, and that England may be thereby preserved
from the guilt, sufferings, and penalties of any
participation in the war, and from all entangling
engagements which may commit her to the support
of either party."