The Sun.
London, England, 1848-07-25 00:00:00

tution c i never be overthrovst by merely human
agencies—because it shows that that Constitution is
rooted in the hearts of an united people.
Voices earthly and unearthly cry out to Ire-
land in the first paroxysm of her insane rebellion.
The Voice of O'CONNELL the Liberator sounds
from his august tomb—repeating that noble
axiom which fell from his living lips like a
diamond of thought—" No political advantage is
worth gaining which requires the effusion of a single
drop of human blood!" The Voice of History, the
reproaches of England, who, in the days of her own
tribulation, lavished ten millions of the public money
and four hundred thousand pounds of private charity
upon the starving peasantry of Erin; the warnings
of LAMARTINE, who repulsed the traitorous de-
putation from Dublin ; the contempt of the
Paris newspapers, at this moment breathing
scornfully from the capital of Republican France
upon the would-be Republicans of the Ro-
tunda ; the mandates of the benevolent Pius speaking
as their spiritual preceptor to the Roman Catholic
population of Ireland ; the horror of Europe, the exe-
crations of humanity, the anathemas of Christendom
—all sound bodingly across the waters of the Chan-
nel to the promoters of this mad Revolution. Will
Ireland hearken to these appeals of reason—or will
she listen merely to her own dark passions, to the in-
sidious war-whoops of her demagogues, to the
atrocious dictates of a mistaken and suicidal ven-
geance ? England awaits an answer—earnestly
but serenely. And accordingly as the answer is fa-
vourable or otherwise will the historian of Ireland
have to write of 1848 as the year which witnessed
the propitious commencement of her happiness or the
awful and tremendous consummation of her misery.

Italy is now in that intermediate position which is
the most perilous to a civilized nation. It stands
midway between revolution and tranquillity—be-
tween anarchy and order—between constitutional
freedom and unbridled democracy. To retrograde
would be to cause a terrific explosion among the
passions of nineteen millions of the human family.
To precipitate the reforms rendered necessary by the
age would be to loosen those beautiful ties which
bind together In the network of fraternity the
different classes of the community. The former step
would be dangerous because it would defy into
frenzy the natural yearnings of the Italians. The
latter would be dangerous because it would stimulate
too hastily the already over-excited ambition of the
multitude. Never was a medium course more im-
periously demanded by circumstances than it is at
present throughout the Roman peninsula. Never
was the holy cause of Moderation more imperatively
required than it is at this moment in the council-
chambers of the Italian Princes. Christendom has
recently seen the glory of 'LAMARTINE darkened in
consequence of his faithfulness to that great political
creed of Moderation. It will soon see whether the
kindred glory of Pius can be obscured by a similar
devotion to the interests of humanity. The spectacle,
we must allow, at once, is a terrible one; but it is as
sublime as it is terrible.

A glance at the map of Italy, and a moment's re-
flection upon the position of affairs in that country,
will satisfy the most sceptical that its inhabitants are
lying in the intermediate state we have already' ex-
pressed—however similar the situation of the parties
in the different divisions of the peninsula, may, at first
sight, appear to be. Lombardy, it is true, is still in-
volved in the doubts and vicissitudes of war—to the
eastward, the Venetians are awaiting the issue of the
contest between the Sazdician Sovereign and the
Pro-consul of Austria, to the westward, the Pied-
montese (those at least who have not embarked
their lives and fortunes in fighting the battle of
independence against Germany) are tarrying for
the consummation of the victories already gained
by CARLO ALNERTO, in a kind of ecstasy of con-
fidence. Further southwards the petty principali-
ties, such as Parma, Modena, Lucca, Guastalla,
and Piacenza, are drifting to and fro amidst the
convulsion of the political elements of Italy
a circumstance which is scarcely surprising
in a time when the moral electricity of
civilization is setting all our calculations
at defiance, when the needle varies to all
points of the compass in the hands of the most ex-
perienced statesmen, when, in short, even the cele-
brated " Pilot who weathered the storm " of mis-
government in England, would find himself distracted
by the innumerable shoals and sunken rocks which
have suddenly sprung up about the bows of Europe.
Tuscany, more than any other of the independent

states of Italy, is paralysed into inactivity for the
time being, until the prospects of the Italian million
are snore fully developed, when it must be whirled
away either to the right or to the left, either to
ultra-democracy, or to constitutional moderation,
with a velocity only commensurate with its recent
quiescence. Beyond these—beyond Venice, Lombardy,

Tuscany, Piedmont, and the minor principalities—are
the States of the Church, the kingdom of Naples,
and the island of Sicily. For the last-mentioned
territory has severed the yoke which chained it to
the footstool of the inhuman Bourbon, who only the
other day wore upon his brow the crown of the Two
Sicilies, and whose name is now the execration of the
whole world. Once more - the famous island of

THEOCRITUS with his idylls, and of POLYPHEMUS

with his one eye and his jealousies, has assumed to
itself the right of choosing its monarch, and of vindi-
cating its long derided nationality. The diadem
which, according to a beautiful legend, passed from the
head of Good King ROBERT, when he slumbered one
Sunday evening in a church after the chaunting of the
Magnificat, has descended at last, towards the middle
of the nineteenth century, upon the forehead of the
Duke of GENOA. The plums of good fortune seem
to be falling to the lot of the house of Lorraine.
The symbols of Venice and of Lombardy are flung
at one moment into the helmet of CARLo ALBERTO,
band at another, the symbol of Sicily is tossed into the
ducal cap of his son. Meanwhile the fate of FEB..
DINAND of Naples is very different. His troopers
and their coadjutors, the brutalized lazzaroni, being
his only defenders against an ignominious assassi-
nation, and the remembrance of his atrocious and
dastardly triumph over the unfortunate Neapolitans,
being his only consolation for the present abhorrence
of his contemporaries and the future execration of
posterity. Last of all—most sad, most affecting,
most solemn, most unaccountable, amidst all this
mournful catalogue of vicissitudes—there is Rome
and the surrounding dominions of the Papacy. It
was the PONTIFF who gave the signal of regenera-

tion, it was from the hill of the Quirinal that the tri-
colour of United Italy was first unfurled, it was from
the heart of the Eternal City that first emanated those
doctrines of civil and religious liberty which have
since, within a few months, carried joy and exulta-
tion from one extremity of the peninsula to the
other. And yet, it is the POPE, who, every
now and then, feels most bitterly the sorrows of
ingratitude, it is the Quirinal which is inter-
mittently regarded with the most suspicion,
it is the Eternal City which is at all times the most
embarrassed by the vices of democracy and by the
intrigues of demagogues. Already GIOBEZTI has
spoken upon this subject—and of the patriotism, of
the liberality, of the democracy of C
TIOBERTI, who
and
be t:
dares to raise the whisper of a doubt? GIOBERTI----
this true, patriotic, radical, democratic GIOBERTI—bas
spoken of the possible alienation of Pio Norcolvo the
Romans, and he has spoken of it thus
me! " he cried, " if, losing sight of the double
dignity and double responsibilities of Pius, I
can ever have the madness to doubt the sincerity of
his patriotism." No, the Romans should ever re-
member that ; they should ever remember that
while they are squabbling in the precincts of
the Roman Parliament the soldiers of Piedmont are
fighting for the freedom of their common-land, to
the war-cry of " Pius—ltaly—and CHARLES AL-
BERT !" There is at this moment, however, an inter-
mediate pause throughout the peninsula. Let the
Italians avail themselves of the opportunity and
unite, or—to use that cant phrase of the day, which
expresses so much—let them fraternize!

No political pamphlet ever appeared more oppor•
tunely than that to which we have already referred on
two occasions—we mean the intelligent " Sketches
of the Progress of Civilization and Public Liberty,"
by JOHN MACGREGOR, M.P. We are induced to
recur to this brochure, not only because we have
been captivated in a great measure by its
serene and masculine declamation, not only
because we regard the arguments of a close