The Sun.
London, England, 1859-10-27 00:00:00

TUSCANY.

No sooner were the preliminaries of the Treaty
of Villafranca known in Tuscany than the Govern-
ment in Council, the only authoritative body left
by the fugitive Grand Duke, took measures to calm
the apprehensions of the people. The memorable
proclamation of the Emperor, whom they acknow-
ledged as the Liberator of Italy, encouraged the
Provisional Governments of the Duchies to proceed
with the formation of their constituent assemblies.
Napoleon 111. said to the Italians, in his famous
speech at Milan, " That Providence sometimes
favoured peoples as well as individuals by
affording them an opportunity of making them-
selves great all at once, but on this condition
Fonly, that they should know how to avail them-
selves of the occasion." The remarkable man who
spoke these remarkable words will surely be the
last to injure those who acted with so much mode-
ration upon his counsel. Two modes of forming a
representative assembly lay before the Government
Council (Consulta di-Governo)—the one was to ap-
peal to universal' suffrage; the other to take the
Electoral Law of 1848 for a basis. The Council

preferred the latter-for several reasons; it had this
special advantage among the rest, that it was the
Electoral Law promulgated. by the Grand Ducal
Government when the Constitution of 1848 was
conceded, but which was subsequently revoked by
bad faith. It was, therefore, a law to which the
friends of the absent Grand Duke could not rea-
sonably object, and was above suspicion. It placed
the constituency upon a broad basis. 1. Every
freeholder in an electoral district, who paid £1 a
year land-tax, had the suffrage. 2. All the learned
professions, including the clergy and down to the
apothecaries of five years' standing, had a vote, in-
dependently of any rates or taxes they might or
might not pay. 3. All heads of houses who paid
•not less than 10 lire,- or 6s. Bd., as a family tax.
Some modifications were made in the Electoral
Law of 1848, but generally tending to extend the
suffrage ; but the result of the application of this
law was that for a population of 1,806,940 souls
there were 68,311 electors, nearly double the num-
ber which obtained in the elections .of 1848, and
exceeding in its proportion the electoral body in
Piedmont, being one elector for every 261 of the
population. It is about equal to the constituency of
Great Britain and Ireland. Sunday, the 7th of Aug.,
was the day fixed upon for a general election. The
votes were to be taken by ballot. Many termed citi-
zens feared that it would be a day of riot and dis-
order. It passed off with the utmost tranquillity.
35,240 electors actually voted, a large number when
it is considered that the whole subject was new
to the people, and that the population of the pea-
santry, or those who dwell in the country is
1,449,000 out of 1,806,990. The Tuscan peasantry,
however, must not be classed in the same category
with the population of the rural districts in France,
as there are but few secluded hamlets or villages in
Tuscany. Every traveller must have observed in
passing through that smiling land that there is
very little of a scattered population. The country,
people, as they are called, live in clusters of habita-
tions which crown every hill and descend into the
valleys, so as to make the whole country appear
like the continued suburbs of a city. The votes of the
Tuscan agriculturists, therefore, who have access to
sources of information, are fully equal in intelli-
gence to those of the town inhabitants in the pro-
vinces of France, and are worth. more than the uni-
versal suffrage of 30,000,000 ill-educated peasants.
The result of the election of the 7th of August
was a Representative Assembly of 172 members, a
faithful and true representation of the Tuscan people.
In that assembly were found two princes (Strozzi
and Corsini), one baron (Recasoli), 23 marquises
and conatts, 12 cavalieri, 6 military officers, 10 pro-
fessors and literary men, 4 ecclesiastics, 8 magis-
trates, 31 advocates, 45 doctors in laws and sciences,
2 engineers, 5 bankers and manufacturers, 20 private
individuals of note, thus representing every class of
the community, for it is to be observed that many
of _the noblemen are large proprietors of land, and
therefore represent the agricultural interests. Will
any one but a sworn enemy of Italian independence
dare to say that these are but the doings of a fac-
tion, and that the people desire to have their Grand
Duke once again in the Pitti Palace ? Something
has been said about an appeal to universal suffrage ;
the Governments de facto of Tuscany and the other
Duchies are ready to adopt that test, and, confident
of the result, they will, if the great Powers agree
to abide by the issue, place before the whole people
the names of two candidates for the sovereignty—
Ferdinand IV., Grand Duke of Tuscany, and Victor
Emmanuel, King of Sardinia. No one doubts
that out of the urn of universal suffrage would
come out the " II Re galant'uomo." The Tuscan
Parliament met in the Grand Saloon called
Dei Cinquecento, and on the 16th of August
unanimously declared, "That the Austro-Lorraine
dynasty, which on the 27th of April, 1859, aban-
doned Tuscany without leaving any Government
and repaired to the enemy's camp, has thereby ren-
dered itself absolutely incompatible with the ord( r
and happiness of Tuscany; declares further that
there are no means whatever by which the said
dynasty can be re-established and maintained with-
poiLiffecorerppnreedfiute:caegledta.:in:dtiafisileitteilyealiNlTucli
out outrage to the dignity of the country, without
oefdathnge
erpeopfusleaetiinogn,tshveitphyoubt
feelings
continually
to Italy. Declares, consequently, that the Austro-
nbreb
recalled
withoutn or reicnejityl injury
to reign agi.in in Tuscany."
Qn the `..?.oth of thy cttple Month tl Ae..A.ssembly de-
clared it " to be the fixed resolution of T
form part of a strong constitutional Itinadrai under
the
Cr
the sceptre of King Victor Emmanuel."
The Tuscan Representative Assembly cited his-

torical precedents for these acts ; they appealed to
the parallel case of James IL abandoning his throne
and the English Parliament declaring the throne
vacant, and calling another Sovereign to reign over
England; they cited the case of France, where ex-
periments were made twice of the two houses of the
Bourbons, but neither of them satisfying the wants
and wishes of France, the people chose another Im-
perial ruler, who now reigns "by the grace of God
and the national will." Tuscany recalled the Lor-
raine dynasty in 1849, but 10 years' experience has
proved that an Austrian dynasty is incompatible
with the peace and prosperity of the land. Through
the medium of Leopoldo Galeotti, who speaks the
sentiments of the Government in his able " consi-
derations," they cite Vattel in their favour. "An
independent nation," says that great authority on
international law, " recognises no judges. If the
body of the nation declares the King to have for-
feited his right by the abuse he has chosen to make
of it, and the nation deposes him, it can do so with
justice when its grievances are well founded, and it
belongs to no other power to pass judgment upon it.
The personal ally of such a K ing ought not then to as-
sist him against the nation which has made use of its
right in deposing him. If the ally should under-
take to do so he would commit a wrong upon that
nation."—Droit des Gens, lib. 2, cap. 12.