The Sun.
London, England, 1864-08-01 00:00:00

SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS,

THE "SATURDAY REVIEW" ON THE HOLY
ALLIANCE.—The fictitious letters which appeared
in the Morning Post, and which purported to un-
fold the designs of the great Powers of Eastern
Europe to form a Holy Alliance for the good order-
ing of public affairs and the general subjugation of
democracy and liberalism, afforded exactly the ex•
case that was needed to bring the danger which
threatens Europe to the notice of the English Par.
liament. These letters were evidently not written
by the persons to whom they were attributed, but
they were as evidently the production of some one
perfectly acquainted with what is going on in Euro-
pean politics. It was because they were fictitious
that Lord Stratford de Radcliffe could elicit an
expression of Ministerial opinion, without obliging
the Government to utter a direct menace ; and it
was because they were the exponents of actual
facts that he could attribute to them sufficient im-
portance to make it natural that Lord Russell
should formally notice the main subject to which
they referred. There can be no doubt that recent
events have drawn the three Powers of Eastern
Europe more closely together, and that the main
bond of union is the necessity which they ail con-
ceive themselves to be under of sternly repressing
the elements of disunion and disaffection. Russia
has to keep the Poles down; Prussia has to damp
the energies and crush the hopes of liberal Ger-
many ; Austria has to tighten, if possible, her pre-
carious hold on Hungary and Venetia. A couple
of years ago, it seemed as if each of these Powers
was about to enter on a new path. The Emperor
Alexander was engaged in his great experiment
of freeing the serfs, and had begun a serious
attempt to govern Poland through the Poles. In
Prussia the Parliament seemed determined to win
its way to constitutional freedom ; and Austria ap-
peared to be patiently labouring to realise her great
idea of a central representative assembly for all
her provinces. But the Ethiopian cannot
wash himself white all at once, and a despotic
Power, that has robbed and plundered and slain for
generations in support of authority, cannot make
itself free by a mere stroke of a pen. These Eastern
Powers have been brought face to face with the
rising tide of free nationalities, and they feel that
they cannot bear the shock. They must crush or be
crushed. They may be credited with a reluctance
to appeal to the sword, and to quench all the pro-
mise of advancing improvement in that large part
of Europe which they hold in their hands. The hesi-
tation of Austria with regard to Poland shows that
she more especially dreads the consequences of
throwing herself into the arms of the reactionary
party. She naturally shrinks from the sad neces-
sity of always waging the same tacit, deadly con-
flict with dependencies at her gates. Bat circum-
stances are, as she thinks, too strong for her. She
cannot do as she would; for her existence is so arti-
ficial that Venetia is necessary to it, and in order to
retain Venetia she must hold herself aloof from
everything that is liberal in Europe. It is possible
that Russia, and it is probable that Prussia, may
help her to retain Venetia, provided she is docile,
and aids her supporters to carry out their favourite
projects. The increased severity of Austria to the
poor Poles, and the timidity with which she appears
to be ready to abandon her position in Germany,
are the signs of what she is willing to do and suf-
ferif only Venetia is secured to her. Lord Russell
proved from history that a Holy Alliance was an
anachronism, and must necessarily fail. He spoke
to an English audience, free from ail personal recol-
lections of the miseries which the last Holy Alli-
ance caused, and very glad to hear that bad things
always fall to pieces without good persons stirring
their fingers. But there are many persons
on the Continent whose estimate of recent Euro-
pean history can scarcely be so rosy, In
Italy, for instance, the old Holy Alliance put
forth its strength. An Austrian force marched
through the kingdom of Naples, and quenched out
all the hopes of liberty with steel and fire. Lord
Russell says that this was wholly futile, and that
the end of it all is that Naples is a part of free Italy.
If there is ono thing more than another that must
make the blood boil of those who have actually
suffered under Continental tyranny, it must be this
Rosa Matilda philosophy of outside historians. The
new Holy Alliance is sure to fail because the old
failed after forty years of success. During those
forty years a whole generation of Italians lived and
died. They were born under a system of cruel,
bigoted slavery. They passed their life in despair,
or in that servile acquiescence which is more de-
grading than despair itself. They were ruled with
the iron rod of Bombs, and were netted down in
the thick meshes of a jubilant priesthood. Brave
men wasted their lives in the filthy dungeons of
Naples or the long death of the hulks, or were
blessed with a speedy though bloody end, because
they tried to undo the work which the Holy Alli-
ance, under the sanction of historical philosophy,
had been pleased to carry out. Able men had to
lead a hopeless, indolent, mean life, because all
avenues to distinction and to honest work were
closed. Mothers, who could remember that, when
they were girls, Italians had dreamt of freedom,
were condemned to see their boys growing up ina-
nimate, puerile, sheepish, and dastardly. And
during all this time a philosopher like Lo rd
Russell would have explained to them that nothing
of all they endured mattered in the least, because
the views of the Holy Alliance were essentially
erroneous. At last, it is true that the fabric which
the Holy Alliance had raised up was shattered ; but
how was this effected P Not by the triumph of Papeer
principles and the bloodless flow of dogmatic plati-
tudes, but by sheer hard fighting. It
was because
men gave their lives at Magenta and Solferino, be-
cause Garibaldi and his followers ran one of the
most tremendous risks that were ever faced by
human audacity, that the work of the Holy Alliance
was upset. And even now that the old tyranny has
seemed to pass away, it has left behind it a mourn-
ful
i
legacy of bigotry, cowardice, anarchy, and fans..
ticism. The Holy Alliance is a thing not to be
philosophised over, but to be resisted ; and fit were
of quarrel arose, and if a fair promise
pressed much further than at present, if a clear. case
is not the slightest reason to suppose tangible and permanent good were held eut, there
of effecting a
Eng-
lish nation would refuse to do its duty,
. or would
shrink from playing a great part. in. a just fight
ppose that the
against Continental despotism- It is in every way
satisfactory that the first effect of the new Holy
Alliance—or, to speak more accurately, of the new
cohesion of the Eastern Powers—against what they
consider to be the aggressors of freedom, has been
to draw tighter the bonds of friendship between
England and France. We have owned with the
utmost frankness that we cannot do much on the
Continent unless France is with us. We were
obliged,
France would not help us to make war. But France
it is alleged, to desert Denmark because
has shown herself equally powerless without E. ng.
land. The Emperor has not occupied a y shining
position during the last six months. He has seen
matters of moment arranged at .his. very doors
without his being consulted.
.111 s Mae at Lord
Russell's letter may have been justifiable, but it led
him into an isolation which has paralysed France
quite as much as his alienation
from us has
crippled England. In one sense, it is true, that
the influence of this country remains what it
was before the blunders of Lord Russell. Foreigners
like Count Bisrnark may have learnt to despise the
blustering of English Secretaries so long a s England
stands alone, and the cause of dispute is obscured
with serious doubts as to its justice; but Europe
has probably as great a respect for England and
France united as it ever had. There are many
reasons why the union should not be very intimate,
and, so long as the conduct of other Powers is in.
offensive, we cannot help remembering that France
has many projects which we ought not to encourage,
and that the triuran'a of France is apt in these days
to mean nothing More than the triumph of Impe-
rialism. But still, when the despotism o f Eastern
Europe begins to parade itself in all its horrible
nakedness, we feel at once how much nearer we are
to France in sympathies and aims than we are to
tyranny that crushes Poland and Venetia; and
France, with all its faults and shortcomings, ap.
pears to be our surest and most natural ally. Bye-
goncs may now be bygones, and we may permit
ourselves to forget that Lord Russell has meddled
and muddled, and that the Emperor has indulged
far too long in the petty luxury of a pique. For
the future, we way hope that calmer sense and a