The Sun.
London, England, 1848-05-30 00:00:00

0111111111 c

LONDON, TtiESDAY-2-MAY 30, 1848.

From one extremity to another, Italy is distracted
by :evolutionary commotions. Intrigue in one city,
conspiracy in another, rioting in another, butchery in
another—tumultuous meetings in Rome, stormy de-
bates in Turin, dismay at Venice, astonishment at
Florence, anxiety in Bologna, and massacres at Na-
ples—war in Lombardy, reaction in the Papal States,
and bloodshed in the Neapolitan capital ;—everything
conspires to enhance the awe and inflame the enthu-
siasm of the Italians. That the Roman peninsula
should. experience this prolonged agony is not sur-

prising, when we remember that it is struggling for
the achievement of its liberation, and that the throes

by which its very womb is tortured are the throes of
the birth of a new Italian nationality. When

upwards of twenty millions are battling for
their freedom, it cannot be any matter of
amazement that the result should be at first disastrous
as far at least as the bloodshed, the disorganization,

and the temporary desolation of the country are con-
cerned. If you would exorcise the Demon of
Tyranny by the magic of Revolution—such is the
language of an eloquent essayist—you must expect
that the nation will be wracked and torn almost limb
from limb in the exorcism of that great Devil. Italy
is now writhing in the pangs of that exorcism ; and
until the evil spirit of despotism has been driven be-
yond its frontiers it can never hope to enjoy the bles-
sings of tranquillity or the glory of a Constitutional
Government. What is perhaps the most remarkable,
and certainly the most unfortunate circumstance is
the whole of this revolutionary movement on the part
of the Italians, is the fact that of the four principal
Sovereigns of the peninsula three are regarded with
suspicion and one with abhorrence.
CARLO ALBERTO is watched with a vigilant and
doubtful eye by the whole of Christendom, for it is
conjectured that under the mask of patriotism he is
concealing the culpability of an unprincipled ambi-
tion. Like the goblin Lover of LEONORA, he is the
skeleton in the armour of the knight-errant. Instead
of being looked upon with that unconditional confi-
dence and that unrestricted admiration with
which he was at first regarded by the
Lombardo-Venetians and their compatriots, the
King of SARDINIA is viewed by thousands as a
royal adventurer, fighting for the extension of his
territories under the plea of becoming the liberator
of an entire people. We have already explained our
sentiments as to the projected union of Lombardy,
Venice, Parma, Piacenza, and Modena, under the
same sceptre which rules the population of Piedmont,
Savoy, Genoa, and the island of Sardinia. We have
maintained that such a combination of northern
Italy into one superb kingdom would be the safest
and readiest means of securing the indepen-
dence of the whole peninsula. We have insisted
that it would not only, for this reason, be the
most judicious course which the people of that
peninsula could pursue, but that the recom-
pense would not be too splendid for a Monarch who
has acted with so much valour, devotion, and enter-
prise from the first opening of the campaign of eman-
cipation. By this arrangement the dogmatic sentence
of Prince METTERNICH would be controverted—ltaly
would no longer be " a mere geographical expression',
—and that dynastic adage would be ;realised which
designates the Royal House of Lorraine as the guar-
dian of the Keys of Italy. Notwithstanding all these
considerations, notwithstanding the brilliant success
of Goito, and the precipitate and unlucky daring dis-
played under the walls of Verona, King Cam.°
ALBERTO is scrutinised with an eye of jealousy.
LEOPOLDO SECUNDO is watched, in like manner,
with the keen and critical gaze of suspicicn. Al-
though he has dwindled into comparative insignifi-
cance during the late continental changes, and
although the fair fame acquired by him as Grand
Duke of TUSCANY, in improvising a constitution for
his subjects, and in volunteering the beneficent sys-
tem of free trade, has been in no manner marred by
proceedings indicative of a tendency to retrogression
—even he himself, even the Reforming Prince of
Florence is considered in a very doubt-
ful light —it is imagined that LEOPOLDO
dreams of resigning the coronet of an Arch-
Duke, and of assuming instead the imperial diadem
of CHARLEMAGNE. That the empire of Germany
should excite his cupidity is comprehensible, but it is
decidedly incomprehensible that he should be so blind
to the obstacles which must for ever prevent the
consolidation of a nationality formed out of such
incongruous materials, as to aspire to ioe accepted as
the ruler of the Germanic Confederation. So long
as Northern Germany remains Protestant, and so
long as Southern Germany remains Catholic, the
vision of the ballad writer must remain unrealised
and the famous couplet—
" 0 nay, 0 nay, 0 nay,
Our fatherland must greater be,"

will continue the burthen of a song of Hope. De- I
spite those obstructions, however, the Grand Duke
of TUSCAICT is conceived to regard his coronation
as Emperor of GERMANY as by no means an impos-
sibility, and hence it is that, amidst the convulsions
of the political affairs of the Roman peninsula, he
i 3 viewed with a very great degree of distrust and
hesitation.
Pio Novo, again, the originator of the grand
struggle for an Italian nationality, the first, the
bravest, and the holiest of the reformers of this hemi-
sphere—Pto Norio, whose name has become the ad-
miration of civilised Europe, and whose reign has
already become one of the most illustrious in
the extraordinary annals of the Pontificate, not-
withstanding that the time of his elevation to the
Papal Chair has not yet reached its second anni-
versary, Pio Norio—is regarded with suspicion. True
he has within a reign of scarcely two years accom-
plished immeasurably more towards the political
' emancipation and social advancement of the people of
Rome than had been acquired during the eighteen
preceding centuries. True that Pio Norio has
already given the Romans a national guard, a
representative chamber, a liberal constitution, a
free press, and a variety of minor advantages
such as they had never before enjoyed under
his predecessors. True that his proceedings at
the commencement of his Pontificate were so glo-
rious that it was said of him, reverently said of him
by DON JEREMY SAVONAROLA—Fuit 1101740 missus a
Deo cui nornen erat Johannes. True that his cha-
racter is such as to have induced a pamphleteer to
write of his election by the conclave to the dignity of
the tiara thus :
The object of the choice of the Sacred College was a
man of great piety and virtue, and one who had seen vicis-
situdes of human life; first a soldier—then a missionary
in barbarous countries—then the model of a Bishop;
and, lastly, raised to the purple amidst the hearty accla-
mations and blessings of the entire population of his
diocese. Such was the great and holy man who was
elevated to the most extraordinary trust in Chris-
tendom."
True all this indisputably is ; but the populace even
of Rome is fickle, and State movements are some-
times dubious in integrity to the uninitiated, and the
reactionary party is strong in the neighbourhood of
the Quirinal, and the duties of Pio NONO, as Pope
and as Prince, as Prelate and as Politician, as Priest
and as Patriot, are altogether incompatible, and Pio
Noxo is therefore looked upon with suspicion!
FERDINAND of Naples is no longer viewed with
jealousy—his name has become a byeword among the
nations ; he is abhorred as never before was tyrant
abhorred, and his crimes have degraded the Bourbon
dynasty beyond the possibility of redemption.
Those are the relations in which the four Sove-
reigns of the Roman peninsula stand towards the
Italian multitude struggling for their independence.
GOD grant that the misapprehension of the sincerity
of the King of SARDINIA, of the Grand Duke of
TUSCANY, and of the Sovereign Porimr, may not
lead to more terrible disasters than those which have
ensued from the tyrannous cruelty of the King of
NAPLES ! Let the Italians look with confidence to
their Reforming Princes, and let the war-cry of the
army of liberation be still Viva Itaii.u!

The House of Commons last night resumed the
consideration of the Ministerial propositions with
respect to the contemplated changes in the navigation-
laws. The interval of a fortnight, which had so fairly
been permitted to elapse between the first enunciation
of these efficient and comprehensive reforms and the
discussion thereon, afforded ample time to all parties
to consider maturely the nature and extent thereof,
and to decide on their respective courses of action in
reference thereto. We are now made acquainted with
the result of these deliberations, so far as the Protec-
tionist party, the chief opponents of the measure, are
concerned. They have resolved to contest to the
utmost the removal of the restrictions that have been
found to operate so injuriously to our trade and com-
merce—to maintain, by every practicable means, the
principle of monopoly, ,although, happily, it has
been reduced to a mere skeleton, hoping that while
even a portion of the spirit survives, so long as the
objectionable principle retains a shred of vitality,
efforts may be made to restore it to all its quondam
dimensions. The Right Hon. Gentleman the Mem-
ber for Stamford has fairly raised the question—the
issue is now before the country, and it is for the