The British Press; or, Morning Literary Advertiser.
London, England, 1824-02-28 00:00:00

the Stititift WOO.

The BRITS= POW Commenced publishing yesterday morning
st six o'clock.

LONDON, SATURDAY, YziatrAzy 28, 1824.

The French Papers of Il'ednesday and Thursday con-
Orin, as they usually do of late, little of any interest: but
a telegraphic despatch had been received at Paris, stating
the death of the former Viceroy of Italy, Napoleon's

adopted an, kupene Beanbatneia. He closed his mortal
career at Munich. on the slat of February, at four o'clock ,
in the morning. Beauharnois was one of the best of the
Napoleon school: he emerged from that crowded circle of
blood and ambition with a character almost unstained.
Early reared in the school of adversity, his natural dispo-
sition was good, and remained unspoiled by subsequent
elevation. Ile was most popular in Italy ; he seemed in
Milan to forget he was a Frenchman, and devoted all his
endeavours to resuscitate the arts and glory of that fallen
mistress of the world. Under his administration, and the
mighty influence of Napoleon, the enervated Italians were
roused from the slumber in which they had lain for centuries.
Eighty thousand men appeared in arms, as the soldiers of
Italy, troops as brave and devoted as ever the first Cesar
led to victory. The Italian division, under the Viceroy,
encountered the worst horrors of the Russian campaign,
and many of them defied those rigours under which the
French, the Germans, and even the Poles sunk in thou-
sands.
Labaume's memorable narrative gives a terrible
picture of what the Italian army, under Beauharnois, en-
countered on this occasion. While Napoleon subsequently
was fighting for existence in Germany, and by the victo-
ries of Lutzen and Bautzen* previous to the dreadful
catastrophe of Leipsic, stemming the overwhelming tide of
universal confederation against his power, Beauharnois
was contending, with almost equal ability and success, in
Italy, and foiling the worst efforts of Bianchi and the
Austrians. His life, since the first deposition of Napo-
leon, was one of retirement and tranquillity. While the
fortunes of the former prevailed over Europe, and tribu-
tary monarchs were vassals at his chariot wheels, Beau-
harnois intermarried with a daughter of the House of
Bavaria, and the last ten years of his life were spent in
unassuming retirement, principally in Munich and its
neighbourhood. Under him the kingdom of Italy sup-
ported
a military college at Pavia, a school of engineers
in Modena, a cannon foundery also at Pavia, a manufac- ;
tory of arms at Brescia, and a national institute in Milan:
If Napoleon threw chains over Italy, they were not the
cold iron of the Bohemian—they were glittering, and al-
most unfelt by those who wore them. We are no apologists
for his boundless ambition and tyranny ; but both were ,
freedom contrasted with the vassalage that now enthrals
the Italians. The Senate, the Council of State, the Elec-
toral Colleges, the Treasury, were, under Napoleon's in-
fluence,
it is true, silent and powerless ; but they pre-
sented, at least, a semblance of independence ; they con-
ciliated the self-love of that sensitive people ; tyranny lost
half its effect, by losing all its grossness ; and these bodies
might, at a future and a better day, have started into free-
dom, vigour, and activity. The taxes were heavy during
the ;regal power of Bonaparte : but all was expended in
the country : thus distributed, they gave activity to indus-
try and commerce; and, in twelve years, the rapid increase
of both, with agriculture and population, spoke strongly as
to the policy with which Italy was governed. Austria has
continued the same duties, and even increased them ; but
a considerable portion of the produce is clutched with a ra-
pacious hand, and sent out of the country: out of an an-
nual receipt of more than 90 millions of francs, levied by
Austrian agents, in Lombardy and the Venetian States, 23
millions, at least, are annually remitted to the treasury at
Vienna. Everything like knowledge is put down by the jea-
lous Bohemian. The Austrian Government suddenly sup-
pressed the schools for instruction, established on ►he Lan-1
casterian model, at Mantova, Brescia, and Milan; a Com-
missary of Police shut the doers, and expelled the youth-
ful students. This despotic Government insisted that the
schools in Piedmont should share the same fate, alleging,
us the pretext, that they taught 11mA:tilts Of man. Yet
this Power joined the league against the Imperial Ruler
of France and Italy, under the guise of liberty, and
urged the Italians to rise against his power, to vindicate
their freedom! What a detail is that we have had
within a few days, of the horrible exhibitions of Gonfal-
onicre and others in Milan, doomed, under the semblance
of mercy, to die by slow degrees in chains, in the appal-
' ling dungeons of Moravia. The Austrian code allows
neither defender nor counsel to the accused. The agent'
who proceeds against him is at once his accuser, his de-
fender, and judge. The examinations before this iniqui-

tons tribunal are so harassing and protracted, that human
strength and anxiety:cannot support them, and many have
fainted during their continuance. The proceedings, when
referred to Vienna, are so tedious, that years often pass
away while the accused remain in dreadful uncertainty,
pining in dungeons. The Marquis Pallaviceni, of
Milan, became delirious from the sufferings he en-
dured. Signor Ansi, professor of political economy,
expired in the prisons of Venice, worn out with
sufferings. To twelve individuals condemned to death in
Venice, on the mere accusation of connexion with the Car-
bonari, mercy was extended, commuting their punish-
ment to twenty years of chains and captivity. The wife of
Count Gonfaloniere, though she went to Vienna to implore
justice for her intrepid husband, was insulted with the
mandate of perpetual imprisonment, in a Moravian fort-
ress, as the mercy of the Austrian. This is the way that
power rules Italy, with its Croats, its Pandours, and its
police. The sway of Napoleon was perfect liberty, com-
pared with this. Italy enjoyed comparative freedom and
perfect happiness, under the mild and paternal rule of the
Viceroy Beauharnois. But a day of dreadful retribution to
Austria will yet arrive: the Italians are indignant under
their fetters ; they feel the naked iron at their very souls
and they will yet make a general and desperate eftbrt for
redemption. Where is the friend of even justice or hu-
manity, that must not wish it, when undertaken, to
succeed ?

We are authorized by Mr. Charles Flint to state that
the withdrawing his petition by Mr. Denman was wholly
without his sanction ; that, on the contrary, he distinctly
caused it to be intimated to that gentleman by a Member,
who, in the course of the debate, applied to know Mr.
Flint's wishes on the subject, that it was his earnest re-
quest that it might not be withdrawn, but pressed to a divi-
sion if necessary. It is difficult to conceive on what
ground Mr. Denman could feel himself justified in adopt-
ing this course, against the express protest of the petitioner ;
the more so, as a copy of the petition had been for several
days in his hands, and the petitioner had held more than
one deliberate conference with him on the subject. The
petition was not read to the House; the Members there-
fore who so strongly took part with Mr. Chetwynd must
have been wholly ignorant of its contents, beyond what they
could collect from the general statement, and from the
contradictions it received from the individual whose con-
duct it impugned. Why was it not read? Indefinite
praise is no answer to specific allegations. Mr. Chetwynd
as a Magistrate, must know that positive accusations are
not disproved by calling witnesses to character. It is an
' admitted maxim in our Constitution, and, perhaps, a wise
one, that the King can do no wrong, but we cannot extend
this perfection to Mr. Chetwynd, when, in his conduct as
a Magistrate, be is publicly arraigned. When the sufferer
petitions the House of Commons,--whose bounden duty it