Northern Times.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1859-05-09 00:00:00

THE MERITS OF THE WAR.

WHEN we use such a phrase as " the merits of the
war," we do so, of course, as respects its character.
The merits, or desert of a thing, may be for evil, or
for good, as the case may be. Here, unhappily, it is

for evil—unmitigated evil. It is a crime, as well as
a calamity. But the merits of the whole case must
be considered, if we would judge correctly where the
fearful responsibility rests,—whether with Austria,
as having first broken the peace; or with France
and Sardinia, conjointly, as having provoked it ; or
whether it is not to be shared by all three, as having,
one with another, driven a dispute, which might
have been *micably adjusted, to so terrible an
extremity.

The Emperor of the French, in another commu-
nication to the Corps Legislatif, by the mouth

of his Minister for Foreign Affairs, puts the case
of the actual resort to hostilities very ingeniously
for his own exoneration, though certainly any thi4
but fairly for the interests of truth. He says of
Austria's having, at the last, had recourse to arms,
that he "has not wished the Court of Austria to be
ignorant how the French Government contemplated
this eventuality; and the chargé d' affaires of his
Majesty at Vienna, on the 26th ult., informed the
Austrian Government that if her troops
passed the ; frontier of Piedmont, France
would be obliged to consider that invasion of
an allied country as a declaration of war."
Well, but having done this beforehand dOes not
serve to exonerate either the threat, or the executor
of it. The real question is, was it a casus belli for
France ? Taking into account all that had gone
before, we don't think it was. But the acme is in
what follows, —" The Court of Austria, having per-
sisted in employing arms, and her troops having
entered the Sardinian territory on the 29th, the
Emperor has ordered me to make the Corps Legis-
latif acquainted with this fact, which constitutes
Austria in a state of war with France." Now, we
must consider how this "constitutes Austria in a
state of war with France." And it is thus—as we
understand it : France says to Austria, if you do
so and so, we will consider it a declaration of war ;
and Austria having done it, France proceeds to
construe it as " a state of war " with her. But this
does not justify FranCe in what she has done. Not
only was she not bound, but she had no right to do
it. To adopt such a pretext for war, was to show
that she preferred war to peace., And this, on the
part of one whose boast it has been 'Empire c'est la
paix, must, to say the least of it, be a fatal incon-
sistency.

But let us glance, for a moment, at the Austrian
side of the question. We begin with Sardinia's
provocations. " Under the most frivolous pretexts,"
says Count BuoL's circular dispatch to the Austrian
diplomatic agents, " Sardinia declares herself
liberated from the obligations clearly imposed by
treaties, as proved by th; conventions with Austria
and the Italian States for the extradition of
criminals and deserters. Her emissaries overrun
the neighbouring States, exciting soldiers to disobey
their chiefs ; treading under_ foot all the rules of
military discipline, Piedmont admitted deserters
into the ranks of her own army." From these and
other hostile acts, Austria, not unnaturally, came to
the conclusion that her rights —the rights conferred
upon and guaranteed to her by treaties -were to be
invaded and assailed, "by all the means of a
dishonest policy." It was not, we say, an unreason-
able inference to draw from such acts ; and more
especially when, apparently, to carry out their
object, Sardinia was providing enormous arma-
ments ; and, what is far more threatening, leaguing
herself with France, who, in pursuance of the same
purpose, makes still more formidable provision for in-
vasion and assault. "IVho, ,after this," asks Count
BUOL, "can any longer doubt that that Government
regarded as the chief obstaCle the rights which Austria
derives from treaties, and accordingly sought to get
rid of them by all the means of a dishonest policy ?
The true intentions of Piedmont," he adds, " which
had long ceased to be a secret to any one, were
openly avowed as soon as that State was sufficiently
assured of foreign assistance, and had no further
necessity for concealing its projects of war and
revolution." Such is the fact. VICTOR EMMANUEL
of Piedmont leagued himself with Louis NAPOLEON
of France, in furtherance of his "projects of war and
revolution." And no sooner was the King of Sar-
dinia thus " sufficiently assured of foreign assist-
ance," than he cast off all reserve, and began to
assemble his armaments almost within gunshot of the
Austrian territory. Nay more than this,—France
sent forth her armaments also—hastily marched them
across the Alps to pass them into Piedmont ; thus
but indorsing and enforcing the threats which had
already emanated so offensively from Turin. So
that, it is evident from this, that when the
King of. Sardinia declares, as he does, in
his recent proclamation to his troops, "Austria,
which increases its army on our frontiers,
and threatens to invade our territory, because
liberty here reigns with order ; because not
force but concord and affection between people and
Sovereign here rule the State; because the cries of
suffering of oppressed Italy here find a hearing—
Austria dares . to intimate to ' us, armed only in
defence, that we are to lay down our arms and put
ourselves in her power, —his Majesty has recourse to
a most audacious tissue of misrepresentations. It
was for none of those causes that Austria threatened
to invade his territory; neither, in her intimation to
Piedmont to disarm, did she do so that Piedmont
might "put itself in her power." All this, we say, is
gross and malicious misrepresentation. And it shakes
one's confidence very much in any cause, in fur-
therance of which it is found necessary to have
recourse to such vile expedients. -

By far the most fearful, and most inexcusable part
of the affair, is that which belongs to France. For
without the co-operation of France, Sardinia's threats
would probably have remained very much of the
character of a mere brutum fulaten. But France
goes quite out of her way to enter into the quarrel,
and thereby give a force and effect to it for extensive
mischief which otherwise it could never have had.
Having, ever since the present year came in shared
the responsibility with Sardinia, it has now proceeded
to assume it altogether. " And why, we ask," says
the Austrian official circular, " were the legitimate
hopes of the friends of peace in Europe thus to be
annihilated by a single blow ? Because the time had
arrived at which projects long meditated in silence
have arrived at muturity—at which the second
French Empire desires to give substance to its ideas
—at which the political state of Europe, based on
right, is to be sacrificed to its illegitimate pretensions
—at which the treaties- which- form the basis of
public European power are to be replaced -by the
political wisdom which the Power which rules at
Paris has announced to the astonished world. The
traditions of the first NAPOLEON are resumed. Such
is the signification of the struggle on the eve of
which Europe is placed." We give this explanation
with no view of favouring Austria. We give
it simply to show, -in so far as such facts
enable us to do, what we set out by calling
the merits of the war. We do not twist it in
any wise to Austria's advantage. We put the case
as the merits require it to be put, in justice, and
fairness. Austria-herself is otherwise very far from
being free from fearful responsibility likewise. Her
despotic rule in Italy has at least given occasion for
all this Mischief. • But to Sardinia and to France--

and principally to the latter Fower—must attach
the infamy of having precipitated a war, the fearful
and sanguinary issues of which it is at present
impossible to calculate.