The Sun.
London, England, 1864-01-14 00:00:00

WHAT ARE THE REDS ABOUT ?

At this moment, says the Spectator, the Reds are
all as busy as birds before a storm. They see, or
think they see, that war :s coming in spring, a war
out of which Austria cannot keep, a war in which
Louis Napoleon must overtly or secretly be on the
Mazzinian side. Consequently, all the signs of
disturbances to be raised from below are coming in
thick and fast. The V.natian Committee, which,
alas ! has no longer Ar_anin for chief, warns its
followers to be ready for action by the middle
of March. Garibaldi; with that contempt for
true freedom which nakes him as dangerous
as he is single-minded, has thrown up his seat in
Parliament because the representatives of the nation
chose to condone—no:, mind, to sanction—the
severity used in Sicily to enforce the conscription,
and in defiance of law has announced his intention
of levying war for Rom 3 and Venice. He is apply-
ing once more for " a million of muskets," and
though he will not gat a million;he will get the
means to purchase thirty thousand weapons
rejected from the State armouries, and perhaps ten
thousand good rifles from Liege. The Neapolitans
will follow him wherever he leads, and either on the
Danube, or in front of the Quadrilateral, this single
man throws the force of a considerable State on the
side of the Revolution. He may be acting with
Victor Emmanuel, who is tired of deficits and longs
for an opportunity ; but if he were, he would
scarcely apply to Victor Hugo for muskets, and
acting alone, he is simply :a knew and exceed-
ingly formidable element of disturbance, a perma-
nent menace to the Parliarient, which in its calm
patience and fixed resolve 30 admirably represents
Italy. Every hour of foreign domination in the
Peninsula is an injury to the world; but it is for
the nation and not for an individual to fix the time
and the means for snapping the last links of the
chain. We all live in an age of electric telegraphs,
but the cause which has outlived the Bourbons may
well afford to wait a few more months.
Kossuth is another element of disturbance. He
is no professional agitator, no do we dream of
placing him in the same category with Mazzini.
He represents a nation still without free institu-
tions, and has a right, therefore, to point out the
hour which he thinks opportune for action. But he
has no right whatever to threaten such Hunga-
rians as may agree with his views with the
" penalty inflicted upon traitors," that is, death,
nor to announce that his committee " is determined
to secure obedience to its orders and the accomplish-
ment of the measures it must take." Those sen-
tences point to terror, and terror is as vile an in-
strument in the hands of the Reds as in those of
the Kings. It is also, we have admitted, as
successful a one, and Louis Kossuth as he
condescends, contrary to his own better
nature, to use it, may raise a most formidable re-
sistance to the Austrian Government. The result
of that, as of all Red movements, will we fear be
disastrous, for the fear of a Hungarian rising will
compel Austria to abandon the attack upon Den-
mark; and Hungary—which during a general
war might have obtained her own terms—
will only be brought once more face to face with
with her old antagonists. The preparations once
made, it is as easy for the Austrian Government to
precipitate the revolt as it was for the Russian, and
another chance for Hungary will have been thrown
away. Still the Reds, as we have said, are far
stronger than ever they were; and in Hungary, as
in Italy, if not also in France and Germany, states-
men, amidst all other complications, have to reckon
with that great element of disturbance which, till
the nationalities are freed, calls itself very wisely
the New Revolution.