The Sun.
London, England, 1860-11-10 00:00:00

20'11
100

STATE OF EUROPE.

The following view of the state of political affairs
in Europe is extracted from an article in the number
of the Revue des Deux Blondes which has just ap-
peared, and is from the pen of M. Forcade :
" The present moment is favourable to take a rapid glance
at the ground passed over by each Power of Europe for the
last two years. Indeed, each seems now to prepare instinc •
tively for new movements. France herself, who began to
move, is now silent, looks on and waits. She began with an
Italian Confederation ; she has arrived at Italy united.
She promised the Papacy new lustre by the Presidency of
an Italian Confederation; she now witnesses the destruc-
tion of the Pope's temporal power. Instructed by experi-
ence, and more modest in her hopes, we do not know if at I
this day she thinks she can guarantee even for any length
of time the presence of the Sovereign Pontiff at Rome.
Austria forgets her pride, and is learning common sense;
she answers no provocations ; she seeks her regeneration
in liberal reform. Prussia ceases to be envious and quarrel-
some, and holds out her hand to the Court of Vienna. Rus-
sia grows generous, and the Emperor Alexander pardons
the Emperor Francis Joseph. Warsaw sees a Congress of
Sovereigns. King Victor Emmanuel is at the head of a
State of 24,000,000 men, and the most circumspect Italian
federalists of last year are now the foremost unitarians.
England, isolated the other day, without defence, without
soldiers, and whom fanatical idiots pretended a year ago to
push to the brink of decay,—England who would not make
war for an idea, England who had deplored the war in Italy,
—England whom a certain press meant to exclude from
deliberation in the affairs of Europe, has at this moment
formidable armaments, an army of volunteers, and in
Europe a position at once the freest from all engagements,
and is the most courted. She warns the Italians that she
will not fight for them; and yet the greatest Italian
patriots look upon her as the surest and most solid
support of their work. She avows to the northern
Powers the sympathies which the Italian revolution
inspires her with, and yet the northern Powers, full of
deference for her advice, combat in theory only the
principle of non-intervention. She did not treat us ever
well in the affair of the Savoy and Nice annexations, She
gave as a pretext for her armaments the fear v:hich we
caused her; and yet France has, in a celebrated letter, re-
plied with the most friendly words and protePitations. The
remark of Cromwell is, then, true for us--t One never goes
so far as when one does not know where one goes.'
"In the state of things before us the European Power
the most worthy of being observed is England. When we
speak of England, let us at once say that her actual policy
is incarnate in one single man—in that extraordinary man
who has just completed his 76th summer, in the lucky Lord
Palmerston, for whom we should not hesitate to declare our
partiality if we could suspect him of having some friend-
ship for France. Lord Palmerston is at the present moment
—let us say the word since it is the fashion—the real Dic-
tator of England. Singular, that this new supremacy
of Lord Palmerston should be established in silence—no
great fact, no remarkable resolve in foreign policy explains
it ;it is enveloped in a sort of mystery. Between the coun-
try parties and the statesman it is admitted as a sort of
tacit fact. It looks like a freemasonry. Not a man in Eng-
land but says to himself—' That's the man,' and none but
has understood the meaning of what binds the Minister to
the people, the people to the Minister. The English, who
talk so much about their affairs and those of others, are
wonderful sometimes for the silence they keep on matters
which they have much at heart. It would be foolish at
this moment to look at the British press for any serious dis-
closures of English policy. 'We are, besides, at a season of
the year when the bonds of political discipline are loosened
for the great English press, when writers indulge their
whims and talk of men and measures without setting any
importance on the fact. It is better, then, to try to understand
the silence of the politicians of England than to interpret
the c,,mmonplaces or the eccentricities of the press. This
silence, which the suspended character of the situation com-
mands, has been artfully maintained at Leeds by Lord Pal-
merston. Some words of general sympathy for Italy, in
which no express mention was made of any fact or of any
name; and that is all. We mistake—Lord Palmerston
really talked politics at one of the meetings which he at-
tended. The passage in the speech which has an interest
for the present passed unnoticed in the press of Europe."
M. Forcade quotes Lord Palmerston's remarks on what
Mr. Crossley said about his being more successful in poli-
tics than in weaving, and goes on—
" Lord Palmerston said no more, but the few words he
spoke set all the weavers laughing and applauding vehe-
mently. This what may be called speaking by signs ; and
this is a specimen of the cypher by means of which Lord
Palmerston and the English nation correspond with each
other just now.
"Be this as it may, and though it be true that Lord
Palmerston has the habit of putting his hand to webs only
to unravel them, it will be admitted that he has succeeded
in giving to England this singularly favourable position,
which permits a people to profit by events without engaging
themselves in them. The question of the moment, the
Italian question, is in course of being resolved in the manner
which best suits her interests, and, more, pleases her sym-
pathies. Rome was for ages the nightmare of Protestant
England, and, to all appearance, the temporal Papacy is at
an end. The dynasty of Naples was particularly hateful to
Lord Palmerston; and Lord Palmerston is disembarrassed
of the Neapolitan Bourbons. The unity of Italy was among
the events desirable to English policy, which in 1814 gave
Genoa to Piedmont to raise up against us a more dis-
agreeable barrier ;—and Italian unity is effected. By a
strange contrast the effect produced by the events in Italy,
so odious to the continental Courts, increases in these very
Courts British influence. England appeared isolated in
Europe a year ago; now she has but the difficulty of choice
between the alliances which are offered to her. Not only
France, in an official document emanating from the highest
source, is forced to show the conformity of her policy with
English policy on the most important questions, but every-
thing proves that at Berlinand Vienna there is at this mo-
ment a marked deference for the counsels of England. A
great
regard for the wishes of England will not be attri-
buted to the Court of St. Petersburg; it would, how-
ever, be a dangerous delusion to believe that the
rancour and antipathy which the Crimean war has left
behind are still a strong barrier between England and Rus-
sia. England, then, sees accomplished at this moment in
Europe that which suits and pleases her. The con soling
feature for those who in international competition do not
forget the superior interests of humanity is that England
employs this great ascendant which the faults of all as well
as present events give her, in protecting, or, we should
rather say, imposing, the maintenance of the peace of
Europe."

The writer notices the statements put forth in

the manifesto published some days back in the
Constitutionnel, and adverts on the mistakes found
in it. " France," he says—
" If, unfortunately, not so free with respect to the conse-
quences of the Italian movement as this se mi-official article
would have us suppose. In the first place, the Italian move-
ment having taken place in consequence of our initiation,
it is clear that we cannot absolutely discharge ourselves
from the responsibility of its ulterior developments. Again,
if war breaks out in Italy, either in consequence of Aus-
trian or Piedmontese aggression, it is almost impossible

that we can accept the consequences if they be fatal to
Piedmont, for they would destroy the work of our own
campain in 1859. Finally, even supposing the mainte-
nance of peace, we still have in Italy an immense dfficulty,
which is entirely personal to ourselves, and which we do
not share with any State in Europe ; we mean the respon-
sibility we have undertaken by the occupation of Rome,
with the temporal power of the Pope. It would be
childish to forget that we are at this moment the only
European Power which intervenes in Italy; and, on the
other hand, it is difficult to foresee how we can with
honpur put an end to this intervention. Nevertheless it is
the only thing which we have to think of, since the mani-
festo has declared that we could not re-establish the Pope
in the provinces which Piedmont has taken from
hini.
we hope that the Holy Father will himself relit etvhee
us from
present
the embarrassment? But we cannot hope h
Pope, that the Papacy itself before half century
rt a
Yet
the will c cr
gni
s-
o
p
sent to the abdication of the temporal wethr.ee richest
is imminent, The Pope, despoiled of
pro-
vinces, and reduced to the patrimony his
sf
St. Peter, is en-
cumbered with charges which he cane?t, meet without the
resources of the whole Pontifical State.
M. Forcade notices the various items of expendi-
ture, the impossibility of the Pope satisfying them
with a miserably reduced revenue the probability
of Bankruptcy, and expresses the fear that Europe
will stand apart and leave to France the whole of
the responsibility and the difficulties which France
has herself sought in Italy.
M. Forcade next examines the situation of
Austria. He looks upon the reform of her internal
institutions as the most important of the last mani-
festations of Austrian policy, and asserts that all the
bincere liberals of Europe ought to encourage it,
inasmuch as " every capitulation of despotism, in
whatever point of Europe it may take place, is a
victory for us; and it is not for us to depreciate our
victories." He passes to the situation of Piedmont,
and concludes :—" Let them, then, continue on all
sides to prepare and observe; we must resign our-
selves to it, not without compensation, as this sin-
gular attitude of defence and expectation, taken by
each, makes war more distant. Doubtless, we do
not know whither we are going ; but in going on
thus from day to day we gain time for peace, and
who knows ? Some unforeseen diversion may
change our anxious thoughts, and, by leading us far
from the way in which we :now are, may procure
for us some lucky surprise."

A CENTENARIAN.—The Registrar-General's re-
turn of this week notices the death at Hackney Workhouse,
on the 23d ult., of a female servant, aged 100 years, from
"natural decay—subarachnoid effusion." She possessed
her faculties to within two days of her death.