The Sun.
London, England, 1847-09-21 00:00:00

FUTURE PROSPECTS OF ITALY.

Under this head we find the following remarkable
article in the Constitutionnel of Sunday:— _ _

" The treaties of 1815 form to-c 4 the basis of
public European right; but they are not the last ex-
pression of it. The actual distribution of Europe—
ttie result of compulsion, the work of a few days—is
not so perfect as to last for ever ; and the internal
heavings on every side warrant forebodings of serious
modifications. When that day, now far distant, shall
have arrived, Italy must be prepared to belong to
herself alone : she must show at once the power and
the will to be neither Austrian nor French, but to be
Italy.
" All sincere friends of Italy, all friends of hu-
manity, must offer up ther fervent prayers for the
accomplishment of this; but to have recourse to force
would be dangerous, as well as foolish. Nothing can
last that is not founded by the hand of time; and
rivers of blood might flow to erect what might be,
after all, as fragile an edifice as the preceding ones.
This century will certainly behold the liberty of
Italy; before it be realised, Heaven grant that she
may behold her independence
" It is not without a reason that we draw a dis-
tinction between the two words. Independence is not
liberty. To unite them ought to be the high aim of
all nations, but some begin by independence, others
by liberty. Switzerland in the middle age, and Bel-
gium in our own time, obtained liberty through in-
dependence, whilst it is through liberty that Italy
and Hungary will arrive at independence. What is
urgent to-day in Italy is the cultivation of the young
sprouts of liberty, to enable her one day to accom •
plish her own emancipation. All who attempt to
succeed by; other means will compromise instead of
furthering the regeneration of Italy.
" What are the obstacles, and which the support
and the means for this regeneration ? This holy and
much-desired work has only one declared enemy,
Austria, who will not allow liberty in Italy, far less
independence.
" But Austria has treaties on her side, which con-
ceded to her a vast portion of the Italian territory, and a
great influence on the remainder : she has also physical
force in her favour. She could not therefore be de-
prived of her prey without destroying treaties, with-
out having recourse to force, and commencing the
fearful game of warfare. No one, thank Heaven! is
so inclined to-day—no one must be so for the future.
The consequences would be most disastrous for
Europe, especially for Italy. She herself must redeem
herself from the yoke of the stranger. , Woe to her if
she needs foreign aid to accomplish it I A people
which is indebted for its independence to others
never sets its full value upon it, and does not fail soon
to lose it.

" The vulnerable point of Austria is also the point
legitimately accessible. Like all despotic, unen-
lightened, and tyrannic Governments, Austria cannot
parry ideas—she has no barriers against moral in-
fluences, against the contagion of liberty. This is
the spot where she may be struck even now, without
any violation of treaties, without drawing the sword
from the scabbard, and it is there that the blow will
strike deepest and to the best effect.
" And what says, then, human prudence with the
conscience of right, and agreeable to the interests of
Italy ? To set earnestly to work all around Austria,
to create around her order and liberty, to establish
everywhere military institutions, banks of credit, an
active, enlightened, and liberal administration, a com-
plete reform for the better, so as to allow material
prosperity to keep step with political emancipation ;
in a word, to imprison Austria in a girdle of states
becoming each day more free and more prosperous,
to draw this contagious circle closer and closer around
her, so as to leave her no chance of escape from de-
struction except by becoming a convert to liberty.
"To say that moral force must be employed
against Austria, is to point out clearly enough the
adversary the blows of whose arm will be most
powerfully felt. The Pope is the prime instrument
for the regeneration of Italy ; he must direct it, for
without him it were all hut impossible. Pius IX. is
the chosen of the Lord to commence the great work,
and he possesses all the qualities necessary for its
accomplishment, if his generous plans are not
thwarted, if his upright mind and pure thoughts, his
love of jnstice and right are not trampled down. A
pacific and irresistible conqueror, he will gain every-
thing for Italy if the way is left open before him. No
obstacles, therefore, must be cast in his way, nothing
must cause him to look back, his people must be the
most loving, and especially the most docile, the most
confiding, and the most patient of people. They
must obey his voice as the flock obey the voice of the
shepherd, having but one will, and that will his.
Pius IX. must be enabled to organize national guards
around him capable of protecting him from any sudden
aggression, he must be enabled to re-establish his
credit, to organize his kingdom, fallen into decay,
and, of all things, first to acquire security within.
Words of friendship and encouragement must alone
sound in his ears, never a cowardly or perfidious
counsel. To cause a shadow of sadness or of fear to
flit across the brow of this holy Pontiff, would be a crime
of lese-humanity, and the Government which histery
in after years should convict of having stopped Pius
IX. in the task he his before him, would be stig-
matized with eternal infamy.
" But in this world moral force must lean for sup-
port upon physical force. Pius IX. stands in need of
security without as well as security within. Here
again Italy can provide for her own wants. The
task of diplomacy must be to develop, to protect the
realisation of that fruitful idea which drew its birth
simultaneously at Naples, at home, at Lucca, at
Florence, and at Genoa, the idea of an Italian
League. What nobler task could there be than to re-
commend at once union and progress to the Italian
States, to encourage the Sovereign of Tuscany to
follow the example of the Pope, him of Lucca to per-
severe in his promises and his concessions as the
only true policy, to induce the King of Naples to re-
instate his subjects in their pristine representative
institutions ! What an honour, if that family in-
fluence which upset everything in Spain turned here
to the advantage of liberty !
" The main object is to strengthen and render firm
against every attack the bonds of amity and common
action which have already commenced between the
Pope and Charles Albert. Piedmont must be the
shield and the sword of the Italian League.
We are aware what legitimate fears and sus-
picions arise at the name of Charles Albert; we do
not seek to uphold;or accuse this Prince, who com-
bines courage with cunning, intrepidity with temerity,
enlightened and yet bigoted, full of hatred towards
France and of envy towards Austria ; we shall con-
tent ourselves by saying that he has not one fault
which may not be turned to account for Italy, and
that if human prudence forbids us to place reliance
on his word, it allows us to calculate upon what is in
his own interests. Charles Albert is the last man in
the world to prove false to the destinies of his race.
" The position of Piedmont is the chief cause of
the vices of its rulers. Situated between France and
Austria, compelled to be the auxiliary of the one or
the other, it is by a series of alternate acts of treason
that the louse of Savoy left the narrow defiles of the
Alps, and gradually advanced to Buffalora, within
twenty leagues of Milan. From their mountain
heights the hardy race of the Piedmontese cast
covetous looks on the rich plains of Lombardy, ready
to pounce upon them, on the condition that France,
their powerful neighbour, would not interrupt them
in the act. Hemmed in between the Alps and the
sea, and yearning for extension, the only chance of
doing so is on the Austrian side, and Piedmont will
eagerly seize on the first occasion that offers any
chance of success.

"We have proof sufficient in the movement of
1821. Central Italy rose to obtain freedom and a
constitution. The Piedmontese nobility, with the
exception of a few eminent minds, only regarded the
movement as a fit occasion for robbing Austria. The
military leaders of Napoleon's school
. pointed mitt. ton
armyCl ut r Charles
was A
advancingl b ert how
ieasynte
theit w
middlea s.
to fall upon the Milanese territory, and
eaP°if Europe, llsstta
the enemy at bay but a few daystttehhseu sAfodiscon-
certtrallayltans had kept
still undecided, had remained neuter their whole plans. If the N
ained his Silesia
longer,n Italy and in
Spain, Charles Albert would av F 5
had
soldiers proclaiming a
.constitution which. they.
not read, to have the right of attacking Austria.
With that single hope we beheld prince, generals, and.
Naples fell, Europe sided with the victor, and Charles
Albert, placed in the alternative of renouncing his
opinions of a :day and his friends, o r of staking his
crown single-handed against Austri▪
a, did not hesi-
tate, any more than the Grand Duke of Savoy,
who betrayed Louis XIV. in hi▪ s misfortune, to
obtain Sicily when his ally lost his conquests.
"To imagine that the Piedmontese will devote them-
selves in the cause of Italy is a great illusion; they
are not Italian enough for that. They are too much
so not to reject with equal hatred Austrian and
French domination. As to their Sovereign, he sub-
mits, as his ancestors have done, to the necessities of
his position; he will not be one whit more faithful to
his allies, a more scrupulous observer of his word
than was the Great Frederick a hundred years since:
But if he be far from possessing the genius of the
King of Prussia, Charles Albert knows his interests
better than any one. No one has a will more firm
or more tenacious, or unites to more personal courage
a greater degree of perfidy. He knows that his states
do not contain the elements of a constitutional go-
vernment, and that the only form yet possible for
Piedmont is an administrative monarchy. There is
not in fact in that country any middle class between
tte people and the Sovereign; there is only to be
found a nobility, avaricious, greedy, brave as steel,
little enlightened, full of taste for a military life,
and careless of political liberty because it is mis-
tress at home. It provides excellent officers,
eminent lawyers, and sometimes political eco-
nomists, but never Utopists or theorists. No admi-
nistration is better than that of Piedmont; its legislative
institutions ore on many points more Adyauced than