The Sun.
London, England, 1860-10-30 00:00:00

un

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STAMPED. SD.

THE CONFERENcEs AT TFAR6'4W.

In that ancient city which stands like a monv-
ment over the ruins of Polish independence have
just met the three lineal representatives of the three
Sovereigns who ninety years ago oph'?menctd the
work of extinction and partition which it ,!aas been
reserved to our own days to see fully consummcced.
Austria, Prussia, and Russia have met in their secon
triumvirate, a conjuncture of ill omen to the
liberties of Europe, as when of old it proclaimed
wrath "to Poland and to man." But the spoil that
they divided among them has not thriven with
them. They meet, not, as of old, to plot the ruin
of their neighbours, and to divide among themselves
that which is not their own. They meet in terror
and dismay—with discontent at the present and
sinister forebodings for the future. The pillars on
which they believe their power immutably based
are cracking and tottering beneath them. A new
spirit has arisen in Europe, no longer the frantic
spirit of innovation which burst forth so vehe-
mently in 1793 and 1848—the easiest antagonist
with which an absolute Prince can have to cope, the
most suicidal of all manias, which, if it suz,ceeds in
overthrowing despotism, is sure to lay a broad
foundation for a worse tyranny in its stead. The
spirit of the present day is more moderate, more
rational, and therefore to those who rest their claims
neither on reason nor moderation more truly for-
midable. The spirit of modern Europe spurns at
theocracy, whether in the person of a priest who
has made himself into a temporal monarch, like the
Pope, or of a temporal monarch who has made him-
self into the head of a religious sect, like the Czar
of Russia. It demands equal rights and equal laws,
freedom of commerce, the abolition of invidious and
exclusive privileges, and a voice for the people in
the affairs of the Government under which they
live and suffer.

These things must sound to the ears of men
swathed in the purple, and taught to lisp in the ac-
cents of absolute dominion and Divine right strange
and horrible indeed, and we cannot wonder that the
Sovereigns of Eastern Europe have met together to
take counsel how this plague may be stayed and
matters retained a little longer in their original
happy state. But the Council, if we have been cor-
rectly informed, has ended in nothing. It has been
a solemn display before the eyes of Europe of
anger and impotence, of alarm at approaching
danger, and of feebleness which has no power to
avert it, The interview has, if we mistake not,
revealed to each of the triumvirate the secret of his
own and of his associates' weakness. But it has
done something more. It has taught these Empe-
rors and Princes how little real harmony there is
in their views ; how little they possess the will, even
if they possessed the power, of united action. The
solemn hunting which was to conclude the delibera-
tions of these mighty personages has been ad-
journed, ostensibly on account of the illness of the
Empress Dowager of Russia, but really, we believe,
because the terms on which the Emperors met
each other were such as to render a protracted in-
tercourse extremely undesirable. They are gone
back, each to his own home, with little contentment
with themselves or each other, and with, we sus-
pect, the firm conviction that those principles of
non-intervention which they so cordially detest are
forcibly imposed upon them alike by their weak-
ness and their disunion. The Emperor of Russia
must be well aware that he has enough on his
bands in the interior of his country without
plunging into the stormy waters of Italian politics
He is standing face to face with a whole servile
population, which he has taught to know and
demand its rights without having devised any
means of conceding them. Were he as powerful
as the greatest of his ancestors, he might tremble
before the domestic troubles by which he is sur-
rounded, and which threaten not only the subver-
sion of government, but the destruction of society
itself. The southern half of his dominions is deso-
lated by the war which the rashness of his father
provoked, his army is much reduced in numbers,
and even those numbers it is difficult to support.
The credit of the Government is gone, and it is
next to impossible for it to borrow even on the most
exorbitant terms. Russia can recall her Minister
from Turin, can advise the Pope to stand firm, can
frame protests on behalf of that martyred saint the
King of Naples, but the days when Suwarrow
crossed the A:ps to reconquer Italy from Napoleon
are passed, not to return. Russia cannot spare her
army, and, if she could, she has not the money re-
quired to put it in motion. The Czar may pray
against, but he cannot fight against, the new
Italian kingdom.
Prussia must at length be thoroughly convinced
of that of which she ought to have been convinced
long ago—that the arts of a truckling and ambigu•
ous policy are unsuited to the urgency of the pre-
sent time. She has tried to persuade Russia and
England, the two poles of the political world, that '
she is entirely in accord with both. After the
failure of the conference at Warsaw, she has
nothing for it but to relapse into that semi-consti-
tutionalism from which for a moment she seemed
to wish to emancipate herself. But we should
imagine that no one has returned from this abor-
tive meeting so utterly discontented as the Em-
peror of Austria. His feelings and prejudices have
been as much outraged as those of his neighbours,
but with him the evil does not stop there. The
emancipation of Italy is to him something more
than a speculative injury. It commenced by
robbing him of Lombardy, and it will assuredly not
terminate without depriving him of Venetia. He
has played the last card in his hand by the grant
of a Constitution to his discontented provinces
The Constitution is scanned in a narrow and dis-
trustful spirit, and, as far as we can judge, has done
nothing towards allaying existing discontent. His
troops are collected in immense masses behind the
fortresses of Venetia ; his resources are exhausted
by the effort, and yet he dare not take the decisive
step for which he has made every preparation. He
is not sure of the provinces he leaves behind—he
is not confident against the enemy whom he may
have to meet in front. Something is apprehended
from Hungary this winter, something the proba-
bility of which the Emperor can scarcely admit to
himself. If Russia were only able and willing to
give the same assistance in case of need as she did
in 1849—but that is hardly to be thought of.
Whatever be the extent of the reconciliation of
which so much has been made, it cannot give
Russia the means, even if she had the will, for a
second crusade against the liberties of Hungary.
Then there is the question of finance, or rather the
certainty of almost immediate bankruptcy. Nor is
this all. The Emperor of the French adds a bat-
talion to every regiment, pours his troops into the
Romagna, and, while he recals his Minister from
Turin, secretly approves and stimulates the very
policy which he disavows. As far as the letter of
treaties is concerned, Austria might invade Modena,
Parma, Tuscany, the States of the Church, or
Naples, without giving France a cause of war. But
France has already shown how easy it
it would be
a easus belli when she wants it, and
should induce the
very dangerous confidence which n
-intervention
Emperor to violate the principle ohf
emphasis in the
recently laid down with so is to_ make_a
semi-official article in the
the recollection of
the Emperor has
recalled
fllheas violated the Treaty of
Austria that she herself tf ftnoautionnel.Besides,
Tel
Venetia, so that is
arern To remain in her
a sufficient cause of qe e
to
n of armed expectation isAustria
present position Villafranca by her treatment
financial ruin, and a sacrifice of all the prestige
and a sacrifice of all the prestige
which she has ot lost alread ; to advance alone
which she has
and to recede yis scarcely possible.
is full of danger,
that the
No wonder
the Emperor sought at Warsaw an
m these troubles in the alliance of Russia
escape' o°7
~, That hope has also failed
and .and
with "" home wi very little reason to hecengra-
return
on his journey, on
tulate himseiA c the state of things
he left at IVarß aw or the state of things he finds at
Vienna. We caul: of pretend to regret these things.
Could we see in th.
I actions of these great Powers
any wish to preserve the balance of power in Europe
while respecting the right of every nation to choose
its own Government, the case would be different ;
but we see nothing but narrow and dynastic oppo-
sition, and a policy having for its object the alliance
of Princes against peoples, and we cannot regret
that such councils should be covered with confusion,
and that such schemes should come to nought.-
71711C5.

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(May 12, 1858), 286,317.
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