The Sun.
London, England, 1859-01-11 00:00:00

THE SUN, LONDON, TUESDAY EVENING, JANUARY 11, 1859.

THE USURPATION OF TITLES IN

FRANCE.

The following is a translation of the report to the
Emperor Napoleon, on the re-establishment of
penalties against the usurpation of titles and dis-

ment of the members to the Council of the Seal for
Titles.
I am, with profound respot, Sire, your Majesty's
most devoted servant and most loyal subject,
The Keeper of the Seals, Minister Secretary of
State to the Department of Justice,
E. DE ROYER.

The foregoing report.is accompanied by the decree
which establishes the Council of Seal of Titles, a
sort of Heraldic College, and nominates the members
of that council.

foes were equally solicitous to learn what language
the wary but enterprising Ministers of Piedmont
would put into the mouth of their sovereign. After
the long protracted suspense in which the affairs of
Italy had lain, people in general would have been
content to wait with solicitude, but with calmness,
for the announcements that might be made on the
day appointed for the opening of the Legislative
session at Turin. Some days previously they had
been startled, however by the authoritative utter-
ance of expressions which, if they meant anything,
seemed to be a forestalling by a greater Power of
the policy about to be adopted and avowed by the
lesser state.. The abrupt and laconic declaration
of the French Emperor was interpreted generally
as a prelude of war. The Funds fell ; diplomacy
became hysterical ; negotiators looked indignant
at the interruption of their unfinished task;
and an ambiguous note appeared in the Moniteur
designed to adjourn panic sine die, and requesting
all discreet and loyal believers in Imperialism to set
down the escapade of the Ist January in what the
Dutch would call " their Forget Book." But the
disinterested patriotism of the Bourse is not so
easily reassured ; and the memories of men are even
more prone to disobedience than their convictions
or their consciences. .Public curiosity could not be
coaxed to sleep by the softest notes of the Guides.
The Sardinian Parliament was summoned to meet
upon the 10th inst.; and in its presence it would be
impossible to play fast and loose with the great
issues of peace and war, and Italian independence
of Austrian domination universally believed to be
depending.
To do M. Cavour justice he has not attempted to
elude the great responsibility of his position, as
chief adviser of a confiding and courageous King.
For some years he has deemed it his duty to dis-
suade his countrymen and their Soirereign from
anticipating what they and he-believed to be their
destiny. He has been content to incur distrust at
home at the hands of the impetuous and unreason-
able, because he would not rashly risk all of good
already achieved and of glory hereafter to be won,
in a desperate struggle with one of the greatest
military powers in existence. He was equally un-
moved by the ceaseless complaints of foreign diplo-
macy at the studied reserve he perseveringly main-
tained. Neither Count Buol, M. Manteuffel, nor
Lord Malmesbury could lure him or his colleagues
into the rash avowal of warlike purposes on the
one hand, or into momentary paltering with the
hopes of Italy on the other. He felt that the best
if not the last chance for freedom in the Peninsula
during the present generation had been given him
in charge; and that compared with the duty of
wisely exercising that sacred trust all other duties
were and ought to be subordinate. He could not
be unconscious that the character of the youthful
Monarch whom he served rendered him at once
peculiarly fitted in many respects to play the part
of a Royal liberator, and at the same time rendered
him peculiarly liable to be led away to his ruin
by injudicious or insincere counsellors. Victor
Emanuel is neither an ambitious politician nor a
military genius. Is it too much to say it is fortu-
nate for himself and his country that he is neither?
The role which ten years ago he was suddenly called
on to undertake is that of a constitutional Sovereign
With a small hereditary realm in possession and
with greatly extended territories in expectancy.
Had he been either a diplomatist or a strategist, he
would probably have tried long since to realise by
anticipation what could only come to him safely and
lastingly by way of reversion ; and he would have
infallibly lost, in the attempt even that which he
seems to have. Lombardy and Venetia were not to
be won by him at any time during the last ten years
by any use of either arts or arms. Until in the ful-
ness of time he should have proved himself
thoroughly trustworthy as a constitutional King, it
was not to be expected that millions of people who
had never owed allegiance to the House of Savoy
would cordially turn to him as a deliverer. It is in-
finitely to the honour of the Lombardo-Venetians,
that amid all their sufferings under Austrian rule
they should have been slow to do so. By his very
forbearance, blended with unswerving firmness, the
priceless conviction has at length grown up in
Italian hearts that Victor Emanuel is thoroughly
loyal—a man whom no temptation will induce to
renounce the claim of his country to indigexous rule,
but who cherishes no dreams of personal aggrandise-
ment incompatible with the will or the interest of
that country. In a word, he has by a faultless po-
litical reign of ten years' duration, satisfied his
neighbours that he is a safe man and a fit man to be
trusted with extended power, and that he will
never try to seize it, but wait until they summon
him to confer it on him.

One thing only was wanting, and that is now
wanting no longer. It was necessary that the gal
lant King of Sardinia should tell the people of Italy
who dwell beyond his frontiers that he was prepared
to look all eventualities in the face. and to accept the
noble but perilous liabilities they might impose with-
out hesitation and without fear. " The future," said
the King, in his speech of yesterday, "cannot fail to
to be fortunate, because the policy of Piedmont is
based on justice and love of its country's liberty.
Piedmont is small, but great in the councils of
Europe, on account of the principles it represents
and the sympathies it inspires. It respects treaties,
but is not insensible to Italy's cry of anguish."
What is this but a simple though dignified answer
to the inarticulate prayer for deliverance which all
men have heard of late from the lips of an exaspe-
rated and oppressed people ? It is as though M.
Cavour had advised his Sovereign to say to the
Courts and Cabinets of Europe, to his own Parlia-
ment and army, and above all to the multitudes
who writhe beneath a hated foreign yoke :—" If
you want me, I am ready ; if I arm, it shall not be
said I do so for any unrighteous or unworthy pur-
pose ; other rights or powers I seek and will have
none, but those which I now exercise as a constitu-
tional King ; by the letter of treaties, so long as the
status quo exists, I will scrupulously ab ide, because
I am a King ; but to the cry of a nations grief and
agony I do not pretend to be insensible, for Italy
is my country, and I have the feelings, the in-
stincts, and the obligations of a man." Well might
Victor Emanuel close his soul-stirring address with
the significant words, " Let us resolutely await the
decrees of Providence."