The Sun.
London, England, 1860-09-18 00:00:00

THE INVASION 01 TILE PAPAL

TERRITORIES.

The Sardinian Government, iu a circular to its
representatives at foreign Courts bas explained at
great length its motives for thb invasion of the
territories of the Church. The document is very
much what we might have expected to see, only
that it defends a step about which neither doubt,
nor ambiguity, nor dissimulation is possible, with
a little less candour and straightforwardness than
might have been desired from the character of the
Sovereign and the peculiarity of his position. The
step which Victor Emmanuel has taken requires
no long and laboured preamble for its defence. We
need not go back to the Peace of Villafranca, we
need not consider the case of the .Emilia and of
Tuscany, we need not consider whether united
Italy will be a source of peace and quietness or of
war and disturbance to the rest of Europe. The
past we know, the future we cannot conjecture.
Neither need we follow the Sardinian Manifesto
into its lamentations over the state of Venetia.

That question we shall also hear of again, sooner,
probably, than we wish. Nor need we dwell "on
the almost providential" change which has taken
place in Central Italy. Providence, or almost
Providence, has handed over the kingdom of Naples
to Garibaldi, and Garibaldi has handed it over to
Victor Emmanuel. On that point also there is
little to be said.
Dismissing for the present these topics, the dis-
cussion of which takes up half the Sardinian Mani-
festo, we come at last to the real pinch of the case
—to the reasons which have induced the King
to enter the territory of a neighbour with an
armed force, and to commence military operations
with great vigour and impetuosity. Sardinia has
a war to justify. Let us see how she sets about it.
The Government of Rome, she says, has obstinately
resisted the national movement of Italy. It has
long placed itself in open hostility to its people. It
has abused the spiritual power which it holds for
other and better purposes to the support of its tem-
poral government. By misrepresenting his cause
to Roman Catholic States, and by appeals to
fanaticism, the Pope has gathered men and money
from every corner of Europe, and formed an army,
strangers not only to Rome but to Italy. All that
protects the Government of Rome wherever the
power of the French garrison does not extend is an
army of robbers or fanatics. These things provoke
the Indignation of the Italians who have already
achieved liberty and independence. They sympa-
thise with the people of Umbria and the Marches,
and eagerly desire to put an end to a state of things
so derforabl.e. The king of Sardinia entertains the
same sentiments, but hitherto he has not acted upon
them. Now, however, that Naples has fallen, that
the wish of Italy to assist the Pope and his subjects
can only be controlled by force--now that by re-
maining passive he would only place himselfin direct
opposition to the nation—now that there is the most
imminent danger of an outbreak of violence, passion,
and anarchy, the King has deemed it his duty to
Italy and to Europe to intervene. He called upon
the Pope to dismiss his foreign mercenaries, and
on his refusal, and on the request of the people of
Umbria and the Marches, he has ordered his troops
to enter the Roman territory, to re-establish order,
and give the people an opportunity of manifesting
their sentiments. The King disavows all intention
of interfering with the Pope's residence at Rome,
and reminds him that it was his voice which first
summoned the Italians to struggle for independence.
Now, we must admit that it is impossible to find
among the reasons given in this Manifesto any
statement which would in ordinary times, and under
tile understood conditions of international law,
justify the King in making war on the Pope. The
Pope has misgoverned his subjects—that is their
and his affair. He has collected mercenaries—that
is not in itself an offence to any foreign Power. He
has resisted all reforms—it is within the acknow-
ledged jurisdicton of a Sovereign Prince to do so.
His people are in insurrection—that is no justi-
fication for a foreign Prince to aid them. The jus-
tification of Victor Emmanuel must be sought in
some other code than the existing law of nations.
Why should not the matter be stated truly ?
Victor Emmanuel comes to conquer and annex
to his own dominions all those portions of the
Papal territory which he has not annexed
already, or which are not occupied by a French
garrison. He enters Umbria, as lie annexed the
"Emilia, not in his capacity of King of Pied-
mont, but in his capacity of leader and director
of the Italian Revolution. The question is not
whether this particular war could be justified
standing alone, but whether the Italian Revolu-
tion, of which it is a necessary consequence, is justi-
fiable. It is quite clear that the power which Gari-
baldi has raised up and the army which General
Lamoriciere has formed cannot exist side by side—
one must destroy the other, and that it is the duty of
the man who has assumed the guidance of the revo-
lution to take into his hands the decision of this con-
flict, and, by bringing an overpo werin e• force to bear
upon it, to shorten its duration and diminish its
ferocity. It is too late to tell the man who already
holds by a purely revolutionary tenure all Italy, ex-
cept the States of the Church and Venetia, that he
must guide himself by prescription and interna-
tional law. The die has long been east. The only
difference between the "Emilia and Umbria is, that
in the "Emilia the wishes of the people were kept
down by Austrians, while in Umbria they are kept
down by mercenaries. The conflict in Northern
Italy drew away the Austrians ; is not armed force
equally justifiable to drive away the mercenaries ?
The Constitutionnel, in commenting upon the an-
nouncement in the Moniteur of the withdrawal of
the French Ambassador from Turin, undertakes to
vindicate the conduct of the French Government
rather than to impeach that of Victor Emmanuel.
Certainly, never was so strong a step as the with-
drawal of an Ambassador accompanied with so
very faint a remonstrance. The Constitu-
tionnel praises the admirable consistency of
ren ell policy, eernmencing, conveniently enough,
with the Peace of Villafranca, and ignoring
the Manifesto of Milan, the admirable consistency
of which with that peace, so far as Venetia is con-
cerned, it would be rather difficult to establish.
France has always been in favour of a Federal
Union, says the Constitutionnel, and cites in proof
of it the pamphlet " Napoleon 111. and Italy," the
Imperial authorship of which we suppose is no
longer denied. We cannot concede to France the
extraordinary consistency to which she lays claim.
She gave Lombardy to Piedmont, not as a confede-
rate, but as an integral part of the kingdom. This
was the first step towards federation. She left
Venetia to Austria, a German Power, which at once
rendered the presence of Venetia in a federation im-
possible. She did all she could to lower the position
of the Pope, the proposed head of the federation.
She allowed, when a word from her would have pre
vented it, Piedmont to unite Parma, Modena, Tus-
cany, and the "Emilia. We are told she disap-
proved it. France disapproved the conduct of
Austria, and she asserted her disapproval by the
sword. France disapproved the conduct of Pied-
mont; a word would have done in the latter case
what a sanguinary campaign did in the former, but
that word was not spoken. Who but M. Grand-
guillot could call this a Federal policy, and cite a
pamphlet written before the war to show, as he says,
that the French programme was carried out to the
letter ? Now we are told that disapproval must
change into disavowal, because the temporal inde-
pendence of the Pope is threatened by Sardinia.
Was not that temporal independence threatened
when France,in a pamphlet avovved as the exposition
of her policy, threatened the Pope wit h the restriction
of his temporal power to the city of Rome ? Was
it not threatened by Sardinia when she united the
Romagna to herself? Is it not threatened by La-
moriciere, who exercises a power in the Roman
States over which the Pope can have no control
And is it not more grievously threatened by Gari-
baldi, who is about to fling on the Southern fron-
tier the forces which have already overthrown a
kingdom, and which burn with a peculiar ardour
to overturn a Papacy ? What does the attitude of
France really amount to ? She wishes, if we are
to believe her semiofficial press, to maintain as