The Sun.
London, England, 1848-02-14 00:00:00

bntn lini

LONDON, MONDAY, FEBRUARY 14, 1548.

Prince METTERNICH, in the August of 1847, ad-
dressed a brief dispatch, but one pregnant with hypo-
crisy, to Count DEITRICHSTEIN, in which he spoke
thus :—" Italy is a geographical expression." That
sentence is a key to the policy of the Austrian Go-
vernment. It reveals that the Cabinet of Vienna is
so blinded by the fanaticism of absolute and irrespon-
siblo sovereignty, that it cannot recognise the existence,
much less sympathise in the development, of Italian
nationality. Italy is a geographical expression
That is to say, the Roman peninsula is a mere agglo-
meration of subordinate principalities, insulated from
each other in political interests, estranged by social
differences, and separated by the insurmountable bar-
rier of the memorable treaty of 1816. Italy is a geogra-
phical expression !—ln other words, there are no
longer any Italians, either in name, in circumstances
or in inclination, the people of that immortal land
whose central city was once the imperial mistress of
the world, have degenerated into the mongrel occu-
pants of inimical states, partitioned at the mandate of
a Congress, and inhabited in one quarter by Tuscans,
in another by Romans, in another by Neapolitans and
Sicilians, in another by Piedmontese and Sardinians,
in another by Lucchese, in another by Medenese,
and in another by Lombardo-Venetians. Daly is a
geographical expression /—To speak plainly, Prince
METTERNICH would have us to understand that in the
opinion of Austria the southern peninsula of Europe
is a territory chalked out into the possessions of cer-
tain arbitrary Princes, some of them chained by
dynastic bonds to the chariot of the KAISER, others of
them associated by blood or intermarriage with the
royal house of CArxT, arid one of them an eccle-
siastical potentate, elected by a congregation of Car-
dinals, and armed with a spiritual power more
despotic in character than that of any temporal
authority on the surface cf the globe. Austria, in
short, considers the Italian peninsula to be simply the
property of certain anointed personages, which per-
sonages she would willingly preserve in strict sub-
serviency to herself. She has been so taught by the
stagnation of thirty years to regard that country as a
track of land containing the orchards and granaries
of her obsequious and powerless allies, that she can-
not relinquish the impression in an instant. Im
pervious herself to the august light of Reason, and
the glorious voice of Liberty, she cannot comprehend
the refulgence of the one, or the sonorous potency of
the other, in the kingdoms which are adjacent.
Italy up to this moment continues to be, in the
opinion of the Austrian Government, precisely
what it was intended to be by the Treaty
of Vienna, namely, " a geographical expression."
Austrian absolutism is not yet aroused from the
dismal vision of thirty years—the acclamations of a
race of freemen from the city on the seven hills, the
joy of Florence, the exultation of Turin, and the
passionate ardour of Palermo, have all failed to
waken her from her prolonged and pernicious trance
—she is still possessed by the illusion that the several
principalities of Italy are virtually the provinces of
that occupant of Schoenbrunn, whose shoulders
are covered by the imperial robes of Austria, and
whose brows are girdled by the diadem of
Hungary. Italy is still to the Cabinet of
Vienna, as it has been for years, nothing more
than a mere " geographical expression." If Austria is
conscious at all of the enormous and indestructible
importance of the recent movement southwards of the
Po—a movement which has rolled the surges of
patriotism even to the foot of the Carpathian Moun-
tains—she is conscious of it only as of a night-
mare in the long, and still unbroken, sleep of her
absolutism. Pio Norio is to her but as a phantom
of the night. The Grand Duke of TUSCANY and the
King of SARDINIA have in her sight the same ghastly
attributes. Italy is still to Prince METTERNICH the
Italy of 1816—a mere "geographical expression," to
quote yet once more the remark of that veteran
statesman in his dispatch of August, 1847, addressed
to Count DIETRICHSTEIN.

In another column will be found the
official correspondence from which the above
exclamation of Prince METTERNICH has been
abstracted. From that correspondence it will
be perceived that Austria is still true to her
repressive policy, and that England is prepared to
oppose that policy in act, while her language con-
tinues to be throughout the language of courtesy
and conciliation. The two letters written from
Vienna, and the two penned in London, the questions
put to the Foreign Minister of England, and the
answers returned to the Foreign Minister of Austria,
are perfectly in character with the two Governments.
METTEENICII is, as of old, the champion of arbitrary
principles, and PALAIEnsToN remains, as he ever was,
the staunch supporter of those principles which are
alone compatible with the onward march of events
and the progression of ideas, with social liberation
and constitutional reform, with the truths of Chris.
tianity and the necessities of Civilisation.
Austria yearns for an interference in those sove-
reignties of Italy which have already experienced the
beneficent influences of innovation. England h
averse to a proceeding so diametrically opposed to the
ideas impressed upon her own constitution, and pre-
valent amongst her own people. If any occurrence
Was wanting to testify the justice of this determina-
tion on the part of the British Government, that occur
rence has just revealed itself among the classic hills
of Sicily„-tipao those bills %Tigre rding to the
~ Pg ose I BCCO