The Sun.
London, England, 1859-07-11 00:00:00

surrounded by overwhelming aumbers, and Venice,
the fairy-like floating city of the Adriatic, was
menaced with all the horrors of a formidable, and,
it might be added, as irresistible bombardment—
then with his heel upon the neck of the prostrate
foe, NAPOLEON 111. concedes to FRANCIS JOSEPH
these five weeks' armistice. Considering that
hitherto the advantage has been entirely on the
side of the Allies throughout the whole of this
rapid and masterly campaign—it is not probable,
we might even go so far as to add, it is not possible,
it does not stand to reason, that the conditions de-
, manded by the Victor should be now voluntarily
diminished in any way under these, to him, extra-
ordinarily advantageous and auspicious circum-
stances. Those conditions, then, are worth re-
verting to, as they were sketched out in
the Paris Manifesto before the Emperor had
quitted his capital for the seat of war, there to
take the command-in-chief of the allied armies—
and as they have been since, if possible, more ex-
plicitly reiterated, as before observed, in his famous
Milan Proclamation. They are simple enough,
these preliminaries of a pacification. In the first
place, they require that Northern Italy shall be
swept clear of the Austrians—from the Alps to the
Adriatic. That is essential just to begin with. In
the next place, the whole of the great Powers of
Europe are to combine in solemn conclave to re-
organise afresh--de novo and. ab initio—the whole
of the political arrangement of the Roman Penin-
sula. Foreign troops are to be then withdrawn
altogether from her territory. NAPOLEON
with all his marshals, and with the whole
of his gigantic army, is to return to his
dominions. The glory of Italian emancipa-
pation is to be the reward of France—a re-
ward far beyond any possible amount of territorial
aggrandisement. The Sardinian monarch alone
will—as he well deserves—have considerably ex-
tended the boundaries of his dominions. The other
legitimate powers of Italy will be placed respec-
tively upon a footing of perfect independence—
their Governments being either entirely remodelled
or thoroughly reorganised. These are the broad
outlines of the obvious and notorious conditions of
this earnestly and eagerly-wished-for pacifica-
tion. There is another opportunity for the
diplomatists of Europe at least attempting
this most desirable solution of the difficulty within
these five weeks marked out as the interval of the
armistice—before the arrival of the term of the
truce—the 15th of August—the fete Napoleon !
Rejoiced from our inmost heart should we be if
the great work of Italian Liberation, already so
heroically commenced, might only thus pacifically
and gloriously be consummated

The unexpected armistice will now afford Austria
some time for wholesome reflection on the evils of
war, and its concomitant effects on the national
resouroes, both with respect to present financial
necessities, and prospectively as to her credit both
at home and abroad. With regard to the first,
such has been the suicidal policy of the Austrian
Chancery that the forced contributions at home
have materially re-acted on its forlorn credit abroad.
When a man ceases to be honest to his own imme,
diate friends, he thereby proclaims to others to be
on their guard; and so it will be with nations as
with individuals—they must succumb to the effects
of their own misconduct and untrustworthiness.
Scarcely had the war of aggression burst forth
on Piedmont, when Austria, great andunscrupulous
in her rapacious career on the helpless subjects
of VICTOR EMMANUEL conceived the kindred
idea of robbing her own Italian subjects by the
forced issue of paper money throughout the Lom-
bardo-Venetian territory, then groaning under her
relentless tyranny. The people were ordered to
take her paper, with the intimation that it would
not be received for war, or in payment of any other,
taxes ! No ; Austria knew the value of her own
credit too well to give and take on equivalent terms.
The poor people were condemned to pay all taxes
in money, not in paper, and any refusal was to be
visited with confiscation and all the horrors of a

state of siege. This was a precious beginning,
before a shot had actually been fired.
That there was gloom spread over the land in
addition to its other miseries may well be imagined :
in fact, the greatest objection was manifested by the
Italians, not generally, but universally. Who
would give his produce and his labour for apparently
no return in actual value? for the Austrian paper
was not marketable, nor, indeed, was it intended to
be. The German oppressor stamped the paper as
worthless at its issue, so that it actually became a
forced loan. It was a gratuitous insult to common
sense, much after the fashion of gamblers at pitch
and toss, " Heads, I win ; tails, you lose !" On this
point we find the following in the Derbyshire Courier:
" The Austrian Government has decided, it is said,
on the issue of fresh Bank paper in the Lombardo-
Venetian territory. This Bank paper money must
be accepted, and is not receivable for taxes. This is
neither more nor less than a system of legalised
plunder. The issue of paper money which the state
which issues it will not receive back for taxes is as
foolish as it is wicked. It is foolish, for its imme-
diate effect is to throw discredit on the paper
money, and to cause its depreciation. It is wicked,
for it violates all contracts, and causes incalculable
injury to trade and industry. What would be
thought of our Government if it were to issue out
Postage Stamps, and then refuse to take back such
stamps in discharge of postage, except at a heavy
discount ? The Austrians are not making use of
Paper Money : they are committing a profligate
drum of this valuable circulating medium."
But the race is not always to the swift, nor the
battle to the strong. And so it has providentially
happened to the Italians, even at the moment of
their imminent calamity. The splendid and rapid
successes of the French and Piedmontese armies so
completely paralysed the Austrians, that they were
even fain to run for it, leaving their paper kites to
fly after them! Italy became, as if by magic, one
fervent blaze of enthusiastic rebellion against the
foreign oppressor, and repaid his insolvent paper by
bullet, and the keen blade of patri-
the vindictive
otic scorn !
Nor is this all :—Austria is now in a
fair way not to
turn her worthless paper to a pro-
fitable account, but to lose the land so cruelly
pressed down by her sanguinary savages. Nor is
there any hope for her by negotiation, for what
right has she beyond the Alps ? The force of treaties,
we may be told. Treaties, indeed ! Granted by
whom ? Guaranteed by: whom ? Why, by herself
and her congenial spoilers—a band of Crowned
Robbers, who had privately sworn to break every
promise and every sacred stipulation at the very
first opportunity, and they have done it ! And we
are to be told that because England, or rather her
bribed Representatives, gavE, their (we hope unwil-
ling) consent to such villanous documents, that
therefore we ought to abide by the faith of treaties !
We really pity the self-complacency of some noble
lords who stood up in their places in Parliament
and advocated the support~~fsuch treaties—treaties
perpetrated while the blood of millions cried out
for vengeance. But Austria, who grasped at the
fairest portion of the spoil, has now stepped for-
ward and destroyed the sad illusion, by tearing
those records of her guilt into shreds, thereby
realising the proverb, that when certain gentlemen

fall out honest people get their own. And the
Italians will now recover their own fair land, so
long contaminated by the footstep of the oppressor.

The Lords and Church-rates—a pleasant episode.
Last year the abolitionists pushed forward for the
first time their advanced posts into the Upper
House; there, of course, they encountered the
main body of Ecclesiastical Austrians—and had to
fall back again upon the liberating army in the
House below. In that House the old leader, Sir
JOHN TRELAWNY, has again begun his march, and
the Lords, foreseeing the speedy approach, a second
time, of the enemy, are this time strengthening
their defences and taking measures to ensure a
successful resistance. We like the look of this ;
it betokens at least distrust of undisciplined
bigotry. Something more is felt to be necessary
than mere stolid resistance. The dash of the abo-
litionists, with the reserves of the country and the
press to back them, may, it is feared, prove too
much even for noble lords backed by spiritual lords.
Last year it was enough to say non-content ; this
year the non-contents want the report of a select
committee to enable them to say so without blush-
ing. This is beyond doubt a point gained. The
select committee is the trophy erected by the lords
themselves to the strength of the Abolitionists. The
latter of course behold it with pleasure. It will
give them a definite point of attack ; a little more
trouble perhaps to storm it, but the very battle is
a pleasure when one party rushes to the charge in
the name of religious liberty, and flushed with
splendid victories in the House of Commons
and the other timorously cowers behind its sand-
bags and begs for eleemosynary mercy on behalf
of the wealthiest Church in Christendom. Two of
these beggars of Monday last are in receipt of at
least one £15,000, and the other £lO,OOO a-year
from the Church for which they beg !
The Low Church seems just for the moment
to occupy the post of honour. The Duke of
MARLBOROUGH is highly honoured in its breviary,
indeed we believe that he and Lord SHAFTESBURY
are bracketed as its patron saints ; and on this
occasion Churchmen prayed to him with much
better success than the countryman had with
HERCULES. The Duke of MARLBOROUGH, indeed,
can sympathise with the poor country parishes, on
whose behalf the Archbishop, and our metropolitan,
" begged the favourable consideration of noble
lords." When in the lower house, he essayed in
vain to represent the populous constituency of
Middlesex, where Church-rates are abolished
without mercy, and was obliged to content himself
with the rural constituency of Woodstock. We do
not say Woodstock borough, because, it consists of
thirteen of those devout little villages which pay
Church-rates without grumbling, because in each
the clergyman and the duke are the gods they
worship—at least in matters ecclesiastical. And
the Duke's plaintive pleadings in the Lords indi-
cated a tender interest in things as they are in
Blenheim Park, and in the twelve other hamlets
which formerly enabled him to edify the Lower
House.

Of course the Duke is to have his select com-
mittee. Lord GRANVILLE knew and said that it
was superfluous, but also knew it was useless to re-
sist an archbishop, a bishop, and their patron saint
or lord in their own house. So the select committee
will sit—will prove to the satisfaction of every
bishop who sees things only with episcopal spec-
tacles, and of every old lord who sees things through
the recollections of the good old times, when
Church and King was the patriotic toast, that
Church-rates are essential to the support of the
Established Church ; that the Established Church
is essential to the existence of a House of Lords;
that a House of Lords is essential to the existence
of the Throne itself ; therefore to the existence of
the English Constitution—indeed of England
itself—Q.E.D.

To glance at the speeches of the four or five
right rev. and noble speakers, seems like going
from the light of day into the twilight of some
old cathedral. If we do not, all of us, know all
about church-rates, we should like to know what
we do understand. The subject has been discussed
ever since we had a reformed Parliament. And,
not only that, but we have all had to do
with the thing itself. It is, like the Ballot,
a people's question, on which the people have far
more practical knowledge than their lordships.
We have all had to pay church•rates, or
to vote, where we are strong enough, that they shall

be paid no more. What do per centages of parishes
such as the thirteen that could not muster alto-
gether 350 electors to elect Lord BLANDFORD
(the Duke of MARLBOROUGH)—what do per cen-
tages of such petty parishes concern us ? They
must require but very small churches, and it is
strange indeed if they cannot keep such as they
have wind and weather tight. Some parishes in
Cumberland—exclaimed our wealthy diocesan—
what would they do without church-rates ? Why,
in all probability, much better than we do here in
so many London parishes. They would meet easily
their own small wants, and when anything requires
special help would appeal to the gentry of the dis-
trict, would use the county Gazette as clergymen
here use the metropolitan press, and would find it
the easiest thing in the world to get a long list of
subscriptions from the Sir JOHNS and Sir HARRYS
with their £lOO or £5O, down to the shopkeeper
with his guinea. And, what is really the best part
of the business, these subscribers would feel an
interest in what they contributed for voluntarily,
while of those who pay rates one-half care nothing
the more for the church they must repair, and the
other half hate it, 'sot for the amount they pay,
but because they are forced to pay it. The Bishop
of LONDON, indeed, told us that he thought the
fallacy of the voluntary system had been long
exploded. But what says the noble lord, the late
Secretary for India, who lives amongst men and
things—why, that this exploded "voluntary system,
whether we like it or not, is certain to be the creed
of the next generation, and that he voted for
Church-rate Abolition as a desirable preparatory
discipline for it." We believe, watching as we
have to do the progress of public opinion, that the
Lord is nearer the truth than the Bishop.
One legal fact seemed to annoy the patrons of
Church-rates a good deal—that Dissenters are
Churchmen, in the sense of having as much legal
power over, and in, the Church, as if they did not
dissent ; that while it is a national Church, sup-
ported by national property, they have a voice in
its administration, and a claim upon its funds as much
as those who worship at the national churches. From
this humbling view of their case, however, Church-
men have not and cannot have any escape. If they
accept the golden honours of State support, they
must accept with them the humiliation of being
servants of the State—and, as Dissenters are a part
of the State, of being so far servants of Dissenters !
We cannot assist the Duke out of this perplexity
—we can only remind him that to the extent to
which the Church pays its own expenses it is
morally-, at least, a free Church.
•

The Right Honourable C. P. Villiers, President
of the Poor-law Board, hits appointed Mr. J. Thomely as
his private secretary.