The Sun.
London, England, 1847-08-25 00:00:00

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LON)')N, WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 25, 1847.

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Rome and Austria are now in direct collision
Abandoned to it,,elr, we are satisfied that Rome will
not be assailed with impunity. The Pontifical
IlLineas.voit has surrounded himself with bulwarks
=ewe impregnable than fosse or rampart ; he has
'raised a phalanx more invincible in its organization
than that of the Phyrrics. Italy is armed with en-
thusiasm, and that enthusiasm is rendered the more
irresistible by its unanimity. Whatever may have
hitherto been the successes of METTERNICH, he will
inevitably meet with discomfiture in his infamous
aggressions upon the Papal States, for Pope Pius IX.
has rendered those states the abode of strength, and
loyalty, and power, and confidence by invoking the
Spirit of Patriotism. The Spirit of Patriotism is
the Palladium of Rome, and it is better than that of
'Troy, seeing that its influence cannot be counteracted
*by guile or audacity.
Impregnable, however, as is that portion of the Italian
peninsula which is subject to the authority of
the Sovereign PONTIFF, it is impossible to conceal the
fact that the Government of Vienna has still the
capacity to cause the most deplorable excesses and
bloodshed by its hostile movements, and its many
diabolical machinations. The conspiracy which was
almost consummated in the Piazza del Popolo on the
anniversary of the amnesty, shows this ; and the
recent occupation of Ferrara is another emphatic cor-
roboration. It becomes, therefore, the bounden duty
of those kingdoms which are allied to Rome and its
reforming Chieftain, in the spirit of liberality which
is the very genius of their constitutions, to afford
either countenance or assistance to them in their
present dangerous and deplorable predicament. Civi-
lisation demands this; religion demands it ; srlf-
interest demands it; reason and humanity a:ike de-
mand it. What would History say if the Free
Nations of Christendom looked on with a passive
indifference at the invasion, and possibly the subju-
gation, of the Roman territories by the hireling
troopers of despotism, at the very dawn of that liberty
which promised the emancipation of many millions ?
She would say that those nations were culpable
beyond the mere culpability of indolence ; she would
assert, and assert truly, that they were parties to the
retrogressive movements of the German EMPEROR,
that their neutrality covered them with the guilt of
complicity, and rendered them odious and contemp-
tible in the eyes of posterity. That would be the
certain deduction of History, supposing the more
enlightened Governments connived at the evil deeds of
the-crowned criminal of Austria. Already has the Ca-
binet of Vienna prospered with impunity by following
the dictates of its avarice. It has fomented such
villanous passions in Gallicia that the country has
been saturated with the blood of wholesale assassina-
tions. It has exulted in the spoliation of Cracow
with no more serious consequence than a formal re-
monstrance from the Court of the United Kingdoms.
It has endeavoured to effect the massacre of the
Roman population by plots more dastardly than those
of CETHEGES And LENTULIJS. And, notwithstanding
all these infamous proceedings, it is still unembar-
rassed 1:13 the opposition of those Governments who
should strive to suppress its malign influence, and de-
stroy its most execrable devices.
Austria has at length taken courage to itself from
the apparent lethargy of its natural antagonists..
Lieutenant Marshal Count AUERSPERG has taken mi-
litary posseabion of Ferrara in the name of
his imperial master; and the brave Ciaccui,
the Cardinal Legate of the province, has solemnly
protested against that invasion of the dominions of his
Honneess, "in the most holy name of GOD !'
Austria, then, has drawn the sword ; the scabbard
will soon be flung away, and the Romans will have
to fight for their freedom, and not only for their own
freedom, but for the freedom of many generations.
The Romans! Let that name inspire them. Let
them press onwards under the banners of the great
FERRETTI to the measure of the war-song of the
kindred Tribune—the last of the Tribunes--
RIENZI :
"March I march ! for your hearths and your altars!
Cursed to all time be the dastard who falters.
Never on earth may his sins be forgiven ;
Death on his soul slut the portals of heaven ;
A curse on his brow, and a curie on his brain
Who fights not for Rome, shall to Rome be her Cain !"
Every generous heart in Europe throbbed with in-
dignation at the news of the American invasion of
Mexico, how much more at the Austrian invasion of
Italy—of Italy, just awakening to the light of free.
dom—of Italy, led in the van of the nations by the
enlightened and patriotic Pius ! England cannot
remain idle while the emancipated population of the
Roman
provinces is threatened, and is not only
threatened, but actually assailed by the forces of the
Vienna Cabinet. From France all aid to the Sove-
reign PONTIFF is hopeless. M.Gtrizor is so bewitched
by the evil eye of Absolutism ; he is so inoculated
with the virus of Retrogression, that his HOLINESS can-
not look for assistance, and scarcely for neutrality, in
that quarter. One reprisal remains open to the
POPE, and it is a reprisal imperatively demanded by
nature, sanctioned by policy, enforced by religion,
and required by decency. By granting a divorce to
ISABELLA 11. a terrible blow would be struck at the
Power of the Tuileries' intriguers, the Spanish
nation would be released from shame and ignominy,
her Catholic MAJESTY would be restored to her
self-respect as a woman, and her indepen,lence as a
Queen, the KING-CONSORT would be left to his
imbecility and his orisons, and Italy would be
backed, not merely by the aid which we anticipate
for her from England, but by the friendship and
gratitude of Spain. Once restore the Spaniards to a
sense of their nationality—once inflame their hearts
wits the memory of brighter days, and render their
Monarch, as of 3 ore
'The glory of old Arragon, and the pride of old Castile!"
Once do this—and the divorce would do it !—and
Spain would be prepared not merely to abet Rome in
of Leper assailants, but to work out in the
--tiero regeneration. The Pyrenees would
tbim be-n sred again among the mountains of the
globe, nil Fratkce would be left to her internal crimes
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