The Sun.
London, England, 1855-11-19 00:00:00

THE SUN, LONDON, MONDAY EVENING, NOVEMBER 19, 1855

the Rhine might not be numbered with the Alps
and the Pyrenees as among the natural boundary-

lines of France ! Whether the arch-crime of the
last century might not be grandly expiated by the
resuscitation of the Polish Sovereignty ! Whether
the latest political atrocity consummated by
Russia might not be dashed to the dust by the
liberation of the Hungarians ! Whether Italy
may not after all be something more than a geo-
graphical expression I

There is a future for Italy after all—a great
and glorious future. Thanks to Russia, the con-
stitutional ruler of Sardinia, and the wretched
tyrant of Naples, gleams of welcome light are
now struggling above the murky horizsn. No
longer can be found inscribed over the portals of
that grievously oppressed laud—" Whoever en-
ters here must leave hope behind." The day, off.
we are no prophets, is not far distant when, hav-
ing spurned the festering yoke of petty tyranny, the
Italian people will inaugurate, in the establish-
ment of constitutional liberty, a new era worthy of
the immortal past.
The commencement of hostilities between Russia
and the Allied Powers, there can be no doubt,
stimulated the Italian mind at once to activity,
The condition of some of the petty States could
not become much worse, and the probabilities were
great that it might be made much better. Those
whose aspirations after liberty were not altogether
extinguished by suffering and apprehension
plucked up spirit and began to breathe in some
sort like men. Nu longer concealing beneath
affected indifference the bitterness welling from
their hearts they began to look the petty tools
of despotism in the face, and canvas with ani-
mation the likelihood of success attending the
Allies in the contest. This was too much for
King BOMBA. Born a BOURBON, and besotted with
tyranny, his subjects must be made to think as
he thought, and sympathise with whomsoever he
sympathised, or find sympathy where they might
for the sufferings their disobedience brought down
on them. His unlucky people were handed over
to the police. Inspired with a new hope no
stimuli that an obscene tyranny could supply was
withheld from them. Fastening their eyes on the
struggling dawn, the tribe of spies, informers,
galley birds, and assassins flitted, grinning, jab-
bering, murderous, and ghost-like, before and
around them. At a moment when it kehoved
the tyrant to seem human, he gloated and wal-
lowed like a drunken satyr. The people shrank,
as might have been expected, in disgust. Then,
inflated with his apparent triumph, King BOMBA
capped the climax of his audacity by offering
insult to the Allied Powers. France con-
trived to have expiation for that offered
to her, but with this country the case
was different. The pitiful rascal, instead of
making amends as he promised by dismissing the
police minister, kept him for a few days out of
sight, and then brought him back, without having
been for a moment deprived of his office, to confer
on him the most signal marks of favour, and ulti-
mately to nominate him to the high distinction of
Consultore of the Kingdom. The result of all this
is the Two Sicilies are now in a state of revolt, and
nothing is wanting but the presence of a British
squadron to level the throne of the wretched
BOMBA with the dust. Sooner or later a squadron
will have to be sent, and the sooner there can be
little doubt the better. At the present time the
example of Sardinia has a powerful influence, but
if matters go on that influence will cease, and in-
stead of a constitutional government under a con-
stitutional king being sought at once, that con-
summation may not be arrived at until a period of
licence has intervened. He should be a bold pilot
and be well backed who steers the vessel of the
State now, for the nationalities are breaking loose
at last, for good or evil, as their liberation is in-
augurated.