The Sun.
London, England, 1860-03-15 00:00:00

CENTRAL ITALY.

As far as depends on the vote of the population
the fate of Central Italy is now decided. The result
of the elections in all four provinces of Tuscany,
Parma, Modena, and the Romagna, is now suffi-
ciently known. By enormous majorities, by a vote
almost amounting to unanimity, the people have de-
cided for annexation to the Sardinian Kingdom,
and have utterly rejected both the claims of their
legitimate Sovereigns and the scheme which has
been lately put forward by the Emperor of the
French. So important a political act has not been
performed since the autumn of 1852, when the
French nation, by a vote almost as decisive, over-
threw the Republic, which had been founded less
than five years before, and established the Imperial
Monarchy which now rules their country. The
present appeal to universal suffrage will, however,
have the sympathies of Englishmen more than any
former display of the kind. It cannot be doubted
that the act of the population is sincere. A nation
which has suffered more than any other in Europe,
the whole of whose modern history has been a long
record of oppression,--a nation which has not only
never known public liberty and national indepen-
dente, but nose private life has been embittered
and degrade by all that the petty tyranny of
Courts and the bad activity of a police can perpe-
trate, has at length been able to pronounce in favour
of union and Constitutional Government. No one
—not even Lord Normanby, not even the organs '
of the Viennese Government—will venture to say
' that this extraordinary vote does not express the
real feeling of the Italian people. There is no ques-
tion of force or fraud, of terrorized peasants and
cheating ballot-boxes. The Pope, the Austrian press,
the Ultramontane clergy, and their few sympathizers
in this country, will be able to say that the Italian
people are mad, possessed, led away by the teachings
of atheists and revolutionaries; but they will
he obliged to confess that, right or wrong,
the whole mass of them utterly reject the
Government under which tht.-v have hither-
to lived, and desire to link their fate to that of
the Monarch against whom Austri-t would willingly
let slip the dogs of war, and at, whose head Inc
Pope is ready to hurl an excommunication. Where
all are so completely in favour of annexation it is
impassible to say that one province exceeds the
other in enthusiasm. But undoubtedly the vote in
Tuscany and in the Romagna has a greater impor-
tance than in the two minor provinces. The French
Government had already assented to the union of
Parma and Modems with Victor Etnmanuel's king•
dote, and consequently the voting there may be
taken as merely formal. The addition of these
small States to Piedmont seems to excite no jealousy
on the part of the Power which desires the Alps as
a protection against a too powerful Italy. Austria
has made up her mind not to interfere, the popula-
tion is known to be friendly to Piedmont, they have
no traditions of provincial rivalry to keep them
apart, and their addition to King 'Victor Emmanuel's
domains may be taken as a matter of course. But
we own that we have been much relieved by the
approach to unanimity in Tuscany and the Ro-
magna, for the destiny of these provinces still hangs
in the balance. Tee French Emperor cannot be
considered to have ,iven up his plan of an inde-
pendent kingdom in Tuscany, and of a Piedmontese
regency in the Papal province. If any considerable
number of voters had pronounced in favour of
these views the destinies of the two provinces
migt t be very doubtful. A party favourable to
Papal suzerainty and to a new Duchy of Tuscany
would, when disclosed by the ballot-box, have given
encouragement to all the enemies of Italian unity.
The apparatus for working on continental popula-
tions had beer carried to such perfection in certain
quarters that we may be sure that a fourth, or even
a fifth, of the Tuscans or Romagnoli, if supported
by France or Austria, would have the power to
counteract the wishes of the great majority. But,
happily, and we should think somewhat to the
surprise of the French Government, the proposi-
tions emanating from Paris have found hardly
a partisan in the two provinces. By the.. 4
telegrams which we publish it will be seen that !tt:
Tuscany not one elector in 25 voted for the sepa-
rate kingdom. • The list is made up, with the ex-
ception of 108 communes, and stands thus :—For
the annexation to Piedmont, 259;000; for the sepa-
rate kingdom, 10,729. Now, we do think that
this is a most remarkable and important result.
Nothing can show the fixed resolution of the
Italian people more than the Tuscan vote. The
Duchy and its celebrated metropolis have a long
and glorious history. Every Florentine has been
accustomed to consider his city as a capital, as
rivalling Rome in the presidency of Italian cities,
as the pure fount of Italian literature, ancl.7, the
classic home of art. Nor has Florentine jealousy
of other cities wholly died out. Many very prac-
tical politicians have been in favour of preserving
the present Italian sovereignties, and being con-
tent with uniting them in something like a federa-
tion, and this solely on the ground that neither
Milan, Florence, nor Turin would ever recognise
the claims of any city but itself to be the capital of
the monarchy. This sentiment has been appealed
to and encouraged by the manifesto of the French
Emperor. Florence has been told that the greatest
potentate of the Continent thinks that she should
still remain a capital city, and that the banks of
the Arno should still be honoured with the resi-
dence of a Court and the throng of visitors from
all parts of the world. To give up, or, at least, to
stand the chance of giving up all this, and at the
same time to offend the master of half a million of
men, has been the choice of the Tuscans. They
have voted unconditional annexation to Piedmont,
and the small minority which has listened to the
counsels of M. Thouvenel only Serves to show the
preponderance of the opposite opinion. Florence
is content to take its rank with the other cities of
Victor Emmanuel's kingdom in order that the
slarling cljcet of I taiian unity may be attained.
Nor is the result of the elections in the Romagna
less noteworthy. In that province, of Bologna,
which suffered so much from Austrian oppression
and priestly mischief, the Pope has received a
severe lesson. The votes for annexation to Pied-
mont are 78,478 ; for a separate kingdom only 70.
In the province of Ferrara 48,000 people have voted
with the like re:,ults. We trust that we now see
the end of the Papal pretensions over this rrovince,
and that the Ministers of Pins IX. will learn from
the loss of this fair region how necessary it is to
rule with wisdom, justice, and ' mercy. But a year
ago the Pope felt himself secure from the anger of
his ill-treated subjects. Their complaints and the
remonstrances of the world, including the first
Catholic Power of Europe, failed to move him.
" Non possunws" was the answer to every appeal
in favour of justice and good government,. Now
the retribution has come. The territory of St. Peter
is rent in twain ; in a whole province hardly a frac-
tion of the people can be found to declare in favour
• of their former ruler, and they leave the spiritual
head of Latin Christendom without a regret to find
happiness and prosperity under other auspices.
One remarkable circumstance remains to be