The Sun.
London, England, 1848-09-11 00:00:00

trienin 31

LONDON, MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 11, 1848.

Italy is still in a state 01 perturbation, nor can
the continued effervescence of political opinion in
that peninsula he any matter of astonishment under
existing circumstances. The insurrection which has
just broken out at Leghorn is only a local and iso-
lated evidence of an anxiety which struggles unseen
against the loyalty of the whole Italian population.
It is simply a conviction of the reality of this under-
current which can explain the otherwise inexplicable
fact that the Duchy of Tuscany has of all the inde-
pendent principalities been the scene of such a com-
motion. For without this diseased sensitiveness on
the part of the Italians, without this latent irritabi-
lity, or rather, we should say, this exaggerated pre-
disposition to set all authority at defiance, the sub-
jects of the Archduke LEOPOLD would most unques-
tionably have been the very last men in the whole of
the Roman peninsula to rise against the constituted
representatives of their SOVEREIGN. The truth is—
and there is no possibility of blinking the matter,
however much the diplomatists of France, England,
and Austria may be solicitous to do so, in the hope
of affording themselves leisure for a gradual negotia-
tion of peace between the belligerents—the people
not only of Lombardy, Venice, and Piedmont are
chafing under their recent disasters, but their anguish
has awakened a sympathetic pang among the Luc-
obese, the Alodenese, the Tuscans, the Romans, and
even among the more remote and enervated Neapo-
litans. We question very much whether the Italians
can restrain themselves from a renewal of the attack
until such time as the Plenipotentiaries from '
London and Paris can arrange matters to the
satisfaction of the Cabinets of Turin and
Vienna. It must be borne in recollection that the
inhabitants of the Roman peninsula are in a
position the least likely of any to admit of a very
speedy pacification. Scarcely thirteen months have
elapsed since they were summoned by a coincidence
of extraordinary events to a revival of their ancient
nationality, and to a reclamation of those civil and
municipal rights which had been filched from their
possession by a series of adventurers, and confirmed
by a despotism of many centuries duration. We are
"roe that among those whose conservative predilec-
tions are appalled by the late catastrophes of royalty
upon the continent it has become the fashion to affect
aslllyderision for what they call the democratic cant
about f
aternization and nationalities. If it were, as
these quibblers represent it to be,
a. mere squabble
about phrases, ye
would
rqiudeicstuiloen., and at once waive the
As it
enter into a full appreciation of their
however, the words, so far from being
mere cant and claptrap,
aiorhe the symbols of those two
great principles upon
which
greatness and prosperity are the whole of our national
mmediately dependent.
The disposition to fraternize i
3 nothing more than
that devotion to constitutional liberty which was so
happily and conspicuously evidenced
last April in this very metropolis on the 10th of
; whilethe love
of nationality is simply the inspiration of patriotism.
And it is against these ennobling
principles of concord and of patriotism, which
so cherished within the circumference
olcfrhtahirlee
British islands, that the lovers of continental tyranny
are striving to provoke the scorn of satire and the
sneer of ridicule ! It is against the efforts, the
glorious and sublime efforts, which are being made
simultaneously by the Germans and Italians to en-
graft these two principles upon their political consti-
tutions that the sarcasms of English Toryism are
directed—as if there were anything grotesque in the

struggles of a great people to vindicate their inde-
pendence, as if there were anything bizarre in the
agonies of a revolution, as if the emancipation of a
hundred millions of the human race were a fitting
subject for frivolous gibes and laughter !
That our estimate of the present disposition of the
Italians is, to say the least of it, both probable and
judicious, has been demonstrated, we think, with suf-
ficient emphasis by the late explosion of popular rage
in Leghorn. The entire narrative of the insurrection
is demonstrative of the suppressed passions of a mul-
titude driven almost to distraction by a conscious-
ness of the perilous position of their country. A little
incident of comparative insignificance was the signal
for the outbreak—such an incident as would, under
any other circumstances, have been insufficient
to elicit a blow from the most quarrelsome
whisky-bibber in the precincts of Donny-
brook. A proclamation forbidding the assem-
bly of political clubs had been placarded
on the walls of Leghorn during the evening of the
2d instant—one of these proclamations was torn
down by a young man—his hand was wounded by a
policeman—the people rose, and a fight ensued be-
tween the constabulary and the populace. According
to the statements contained in the Genoa Gazette, the
soldiers, on being called out, fraternized with the
multitude, the Governor and several detachments
were driven back into the citadel, and the constituted
authorities were immediately replaced by the formation
of a Provisional Government. Now, making every
reasonable allowance for the force of the mere
tendency towards imitation, we maintain that no
such outburst as the one here mentioned would have
been possible in a well-regulated principality like
Tuscany, unless the political ardour of the population
had been heated to an almost unendurable frenzy
by the sense of national peril and tribulation. More
peculiarly, perhaps, than any other, the Government
of the Archduke LEOPOLD may be designated a
paternal Government, a Government which re-
cognizes the wants of the age, and mitigates
the sufferings of the multitude, a Govern-
ment which dedicates its energies to the diffusion
of knowledge, to the systematising of education, to
the encouragement of agriculture, to the facilitation
of mercantile enterprise, to the reformation of the
criminal, the incitement of industry, the protection of
property, and the solid improvement of the various
institutions of the Duchy. Nothing, therefore, can
account for the insurrection of the people of Leghorn,
but that irritability of disposition which has been
excited among all classes of Italians by the suc-
cessful advance of RADETZKY. Ever since
CHARLES ALBERT was compelled to abandon
the line of the Mincio, to retreat to the
Oglio, to the Adds, to the Lambro, to the
Olona, and at last to the banks of the Ticino,
the people of the Roman peninsula have chafed under
the renewed pressure of Austria, they have been
maddened by the discomfiture of the Piedmontese,
they have yearned with:their whole heart, with their
whole soul, and with their whole strength, to exhaust
upon the ranks of the German army the vengeance
which has been long accumulated in their bosoms.
These considerations should stimulate to a certain
degree of activity the negotiations of peace in Lom- '
bardy—not only from a solicitude to promote the
happiness of the Italians, but from an anxiety also
to prevent a deplorable and useless effusion of blood
in that illustrious peninsula.

We resume the consideration of the Report of the
Select Committee appointed by the House of Com-
mons to consider the best means of promoting the
dispatch of public business, to which we directed the
attention of our readers on Saturday.
What is the duty of the House of Commons, and
how may that duty be best performed ? This is a
question which just now particularly excites public
attention. A session of very unusual length has
just drawn to its close. Its long duration is the
theme of general remark, while the amount of public
business dispatched during its continuance is the sub-
ject of a ♦ery close and criticising scrutiny. At this
most opportune moment, the Committee have pub-
lished the result of their deliberations. The report of
the said Committee is full of interest, and worthy of
very general attention. The number of Committees,
public and private, which have been sitting during
the session, undeniably affords a most convincing
refutation to any charges impugning the industry
of the Members of the House of Commons. During
the last session it appears there have been forty-four
public Committees, twenty-eight election Committees,
fourteen groups on railway Bills, seventeen groups
on private Bills, and one hundred and twelve other
Committees on private Bills. The Committee on
commercial distress sat thirty-nine days, that on
sugar and coffee planting thirty-nine days ; the Core-
mittee on the navy and army expenditure sat forty
days, and that on the miscellaneous estimates thirty-
seven days. As far as Committee business is con-
cerned our representatives cannot very justly be ac-
cused of idleness. " But," says the report, " this
great amount of Committee business, and the heavy
demand it makes on the time of Members, must be
borne in mind in considering the course of
public business in the House itself. The thin at-
tendance in the House from the hours of seven
to ten o'clock, necessary in some degree from the
exhaustion of the morning labours, interferes in an
important manner with the progress of the debates."
This is an inconvenience for which it is not very
easy to find a remedy. The Committee suggests
none. "The characteristic of the present session,"
so proceeds the report, " has been the number of im-
portant subjects under discussion at the same time,
and adjourned debates on all of them. This inter-
mingling of debates, adjourned one over the head of
the other, has led to confusion, deadening the interest
in every subject, and prejudicing the quality of the de-
bates on all." Most assuredly it has, and this pernicious
practice has in a great measure added to the length
and detracted from the interest, of the recent session!
The Committee, fully impressed with the practical
evils of this custom, have especially enumerated
among their " recommendations," one to the effect,
"that in the case of an adjourned debate, it would be
of advantage that the debate should be resumed on
the next sitting day, and should have precedence over
all other business." At the same time they admit that
this regulation may be advisedly varied according to
circumstances. The recommendations of the Com-
mittee are, however, few in number and of little
material significance. The subject of their investigations
was one of extreme delicacy and difficulty, the
grievances which it was proposed to remedy, cannot
well be amended by fixed rules. "It is not so much on
any new rules, especially restrictive rules," says the
report, " that your Committee would desire to rely
for the prompt and efficient dispatch of business by
the House. The increasing business calls for in-
creased consideration on the part of Members in the
exercise of their individual privileges. Your Com-
mittee would desire to rely on the good feeling of the
House, and on the forbearance of its Members." This
is assuredly the best recommendation which the
Committee could :possibly have framed. Forbear-
ance and consideration on the part of individual
Members would be worth infinitely more than
all the rules and regulations which could pos
sibly be devised. As it now is, any individual Mem

ber of the House, incited by personal vanity or pri-
vate animosity, may take up the time of the House,
and materially delay the passing of matters of grave
importance. But this is an evil which no laws can

remedy without leading the way to greater evils,

The paeans adopted in one instance to prevent an

abuse of senatorial privileges might be made use of

on another occasion to retrench those privileges them,

selves. The Committee, aware of this danger, proposed

no other remedy to a practice the evil effects of which

•
they deplored than an appeal to the individual Mem-
-

- -
bers of the House of Commont. In that appeal the

constituents of those Members would, we are assured,
most cordially concur. Those constituents, and the

constituents of every individual Member, if examined

before the Committee, would have unanimously de-
clared that they had chosen their Parliamentary re-

presentatives in the hope and expectation that those
representatives would devote their attention to the

interests of their electors, and of the community at
large. Their votes had not been inscribed in the
polling-books in order that Mr. A might distin-
guish himself as a showy rhetorician, or that
Mr. 13. might have an opportunity of giving frequent
vent to his ill-humour, or that Messrs. C. and D.
should be enabled to test to their utmost the limits of
gentlemanly forbearance and popular endurance.