The Sun.
London, England, 1859-05-24 00:00:00

the moral effects of such revolutions must produce
great changes in all the Italian States, including
those under the Papal domination.
But the Austrians, although decisively defeated
in their two first contests, are by no means con-
quered. They occupy very strong positions, and
have powerful fortresses which would be dangerous
to pass while theyremained in their hands, and their
reduction would be a work of time and difficulty
which LOUIS NAPOLEON would scarcely wish to
encounter. The French, therefore, having the sea
at their command, may feel disposed to carry the
war into the enemy's country by means of ship-
ping, or possibly to enter Lombardy on the west,
provided they continue to respect the neutrality of
the minor Duchies, which we certainly do not
believe will long be the case.
There is already a French corps at Leghorn, and
that under the command of a Prince of the blood,
which seems to indicate a movement by sea. When,
however, the interests of Austria are so closely
engaged in the maintenance of the neutrality of
Central Italy, it is scarcely probable that the allies
will long continue to respect that neutrality,
or avoid a movement which would give
them great strategical advantages, so long as
petty States only were concerned. The only thing
that could suspend their movements would be the
interference of Prussia and the German Confedera-
tion, and that will scarcely occur so long as the
war is restricted to Italy. Indeed, such an event
would be an excuse for Russia, who could thus
avenge her quarrel with Austria, and that in the
most decisive manner.

Without affecting the gift of prophecy, Louis
KOsSUTH, seven months ago, uttered a distinct pr a.
diction. Speaking at Glasgow, on the 19th of
November, 1858, he said—" In any war in which
France will stand on one side and Austria on the
other, France has but to advance to the frontiers of
any of the nationalities oppressed by Austria and
say, ' Here I am to help you, rise and throw off the
yoke of Austria,' aid they will hail the invitation
with enthusiasm." A little more than half a year
has elapsed—and, lo ! the ex-Governor of Hungary,
speaking in the City of London, on the 21st of this
present month of May, 1859, can point to the fulfil-
ment of his prediction ! He can remind us that
we have but just now seen realised, in Italy,' the
incident marked out in that bold anticipation. "As
the Frence advance," he cries out exultingly, "you
may see in them new Deucalions, raising up an
armed foe to Austria from every stone." It is not,
however, in her southern heel alone that Austria is
vulnerable. Scanning the whole of the proportions
of that giant Despotism, Kossum—turning his
keen glance towards the eastern frontier, which
has the repute of being the European buckler of
defence against Muscovite encroachment—observes
"Now, imagine Russia [not France this time,
but Russia] desiring to strike an ambitious
blow anywhere. Will Austria be a barrier to her ?
Was she ever a barrier at any single moment of the
past? Why, Russia need only to say, as the Czar
ALEXANDER instructed Admiral TSITSAKOFF to say
if he found Austria playing fast and loose, 'Ye
seventeen millions, rise against the oppressor
of your nationality—here I am to help you ;'
and they will rise, and where will Austria
be ?" Russia, indeed, has but to give the
signal for revolt to Gallicia and Transyl-
vania, as France has recently sounded the war note
of preparation for Lombardy and Venice, and the
movement of insurrection will spread from the Bug
to the Adriatic, from the western borders of Podolia
to the eastern boundaries of Switzerland. "Is that
a barrier ?" asks the ex-Governor of Hungary deri -
sively—adding, " Why, it is a high road inviting
ambition to an easy march." Thanks to the out-
spoken voice of this great Tribune of the Hunga-
rians, we are again hearing some wholesome truths
about Austria, about the treaties of 1815, about the
Holy, or, as it ought more accurately to be termed,
the Unholy Alliance, in which those disgraceful,
but by this time for the most part utterly exploded
and contemned treaties, originated. "It is woful
to remember," said KOSSUTH, with an indignation
in the justice of which BYRON himself would have
entirely concurred, "it is woful to remember that the
sovereigns who, on pretence of asserting the liber-
ties of Europe, enticed the nations to shed their
blood in streams for nearly a full quarter of a cen-
tury, and to waste away the prosperity of genera-
tions for the preservation of dynasties, at last
repiited the deluded nations, at the Congress of
Vienna, by selling and bartering them like cattle,
and by treating Europe like an allodial farm."
Yet these are the treaties by right of which Austri?,
claims her ill-gotten dominion upon the plea. of
their inviolability ! "In violable treaties, indeed !"
exclaims KOSSUTH. " Why, my lord, the forty-four
years that have since passed have cribbled those
treaties like a sieve. The Bourbons, whom they
restored to the throne of France, have vanished,
and the Bonapartes, whom they proscribed, are
restored. Two changes—the transformation of
Switzerland from a confederation of States into a
confederated State, and the independence of Bel-
gium—ha`ve been accomplished in spite of those
treaties, to the profit of liberty ; but for the rest,
the distinctive feature of the cribbling process
through which those treaties have Passed is this,
that every poor plant of freedom which they had
spared has been uprooted by the unsparing hand of
depotism. From the Republic of Cracow, poor rem-
nant of Poland, swallowed by Austria, down to the
freedom of the press, guaranteed to Germany, but
reduced to such a condition that in the native land
of Guttenburg not one poor square yard of soil is
left to set a free press upon—everything that was
not of evil in those inviolable treaties has been
trampled down to the profit of despotism." And
" all those violations of the inviolable treaties were
accomplished," the orator reminds the people of this
country " WITHOUT ENGLAND ONCE SHAKING HER
MIGHTY TRIDENT TO FORBID IT I"

And now having thus, during the lapse of those
forty-four years past, connived at the extinction of
the last fragment of Poland, the Republic of Cra-
cow, at the change into a confederated state of the
confederated States of Switzerland, at the disintegra-
tion of Belgium from Holland, at the substitution
upon the throne of France of the Imperial Bona-
partes in lieu of the Royal Bourbons—now, after
having complacently agreed thus, without one
murmur of objection, to these world-famous and his.
torical violations of those so-called inviolable
treaties—shall England now, forsooth, at the be-
hest of Austria, draw the sword under any emer-
gency, for the maintenance of the sanctity of those
rotten parchments, torn and blotted, with their
seals rased or broken, with their characters blurred
or obliterated—washed over with the blood of
buried thousands, and blackened with the stneke of
forgotten cannonades ?
England, however, has happily decided already
for once and for all, the course to be followed out
by her undeviatingly, while France and Sardinia
are striving upon the plains of Lombardy to win
the great battle of Italian Independence. That
course has been marked out during the late elec-
tions unmistakeably by the various constituencies.
That course will be maintained to the last by the
patriotic unanimity of the British House of Com-
mons. It is the simple and straightforward course
indicated by the policy of honest neutrality and
strict non-intervention—leaving the belligerents,

as they are now, entirely to themselves to fight it out
to the close uninterruptedly. KOSSUTH avows
frankly that he looks to the result with
implicit confidence. And for arriving at
this satisfactory conclusion as to the future
he certainly gives reasons sufficiently cogent and
numerous. Beginning at the beginning of the
source of any doubt at all in the matter, he ob-
serves—" It is said that the Emperor of the French
cannot be actuated by any other than ambitious
views; that he means conquest," and so forth.
Whereupon observes KOSSUTH, emphatically, de.
liberately—" What may be the special motives
which induced the present ruler of France to
engage in this war I do not pretend to know, but
I know what cannot be his interest, and therefore
cannot be in his intentions. It cannot be in his
interest to enter on the career of a conqueror, be-
cause that would be positive ruin to him, as it was
the ruin of NAPOLEON I. It was the irreverent
disregard of the sentiment of nationality which
sent NAPOLEON I. to die a fettered eagle on the
scorching rocks of St. Helena ; it is the same
irreverent disregard of the sentiment of na-
tionality that will shatter to atoms the tottering
throne of perfidious Austria. And verily it does
strike me that NAPOLEON HI. is not the man to
repeat the fault by which NAPOLEON I. fell. By
doing good to the oppressed nationalities," added
KOSSUTH, " he may win great moral advantage ; by
doing them harm he could not earn anything but
ruin for himself." Immediately afterwards, ima-
gining to himself, for the sake of argument, a most
hopeful conjecture—" Suppose," said KOSSUTH—
" I give it you as a supposition—suppose that the
logical development of the present war should offer
to my own nation, not an incitement to hazardous
desultory riots—these I should sternly advise her
to avoid—but should offer her such a chance as
would, with reasonable prospects, place her inde-
pendence within the reach of her own determina-
tion, would you advise her to reject the chance be•
cause, under the mysterious dispensation of PRO-
VIDENCE, it would have come to her from a BONA-
PARTE ? Why," he replied, " she would be a fool to
reject it !" Hungary, once emancipated thus through
French intervention, the Hungarians, he added,
would be at once too strong in themselves, and too
remote from France, ever to allow their native land
to degenerate into a French department. As to
any danger in this way to Italy and the Italians,
KOSSUTH observes in regard to the latter that,
" thanks to athe assistance of France," they can
now organise and arm their nation, and break
asunder at last the iron rod of Austria—adding
" Let them be wise enough to take
advantage of the occasion ; and, having
had assistance in getting delivered from
the foe, if they should not know how to secure
their future independence from the friend, they would
not deserve to be free." The words thus uttered
by the great Hungarian leader are thrilling at once
with the trumpet tones of Warning and Encourage-
. ment. May they resound through the ranks of the
Italian patriots now in arms under the banners of
France and Sardinia for the vindication of their
, independence ! May they in the fulness of time
find an echo at last at the hearths—in the hearts—
: of ten million expectant Hungarians.

As the partizan champion, organ, and avocate
of whatever coalition Cabinet may in the chapter of
accidents emerge from the Opposition, the Times, as
a matter of course, has hitherto made out the result
of the recent Appeal to the Country, as entirely
adverse to the existing Government. It has done
this, we say, as a matter of course, It predicted,
before the general election eqmmeneed, that the
verdict of the constituencies would be condemna-
tory of the Administration. Its credit as a prophet
was consequently at stake. Its interest in
every way was to prove, if possible, that it
had been in every respect justified in its predic-
tions. Therefore it has, until to-day, made the
very worst of the returns so far as they concern
the Government. Therefore, on the other hand, it
has made the very best of the returns so far as
they affect the Opposition.
Altogether these returns number 655, instead of
654, representatives, from England, Ireland, Scot-
land, Wales, and Berwick-upon-Tweed. But the
discrepancy caused by the additional number is
seen at a gla-Ace to result from the circumstance of
there being a double return for the borough of
Aylesbury. Dividing these 655 members into two
Partles—a very bold thing, indeed, to attempt
v:nder existing circumstances—the Times, even the
Times, is compelled to award no more than
353 to the (so-called--for the nonce) Libe-
rals, and actually no less than 302 to the
side of the Conservatives. This balance shows, says
the Times, a clear majority for the former of fifty-
one ! Fifty-one be it, then : but now comes the
question immediately thereupon—While the 302
Conservatives are marshalled distinctly under the
banner of the present Leader of the House of
Commons, the Chancellor of her MAJESTY'S Ex-
chequer—under whose banner, think you, can be
led forward compactly or loosely, or in any way wgat-
ever together, the 353 Liberal representatives con-
fronting them on the side of the Opposition ? Under
the standard of Lord PALMERSTON ? Hardly—the
noble viscount's late Secretary for Ireland would
scarcely march now under that standard, to say
nothing of independent spirits like the hon.
anti learned gentleman the member for Sheffield !
Under the standard of Lord JOHN RUSSELL ?
Hardly under that standard either—if there be any
truth, as there is undoubtedly, in Lord JoHN's own
philosophic remark, " It is the habit of Party in
England to ask the alliance of a man of genius,
but to follow the guidance of a man of cha-
racter." For of late years, as a leader of
party, the political character of the noble lord the
member for the City has, during the last few years,
been deplorably damaged. Was not his nearly six
years tenure of power reprobated by his former
colleague, the ex-Chancellor BROUGHAM, as a
period during which the affairs of the nation were
administered with—what ? "with feebleness, inca-
pacity, vacillation, and imbecility !" A Cabinet
in which " measures were feebly proposed, tremu-
lously supported, and weakly abandoned !" The
country wants no revival of that lamentable and
effete administration. It desires not to see installed
once more in Downing-street a mere Cabinet of
Cousins—GßEYS, ELLIOTS, and RUSSELLS. It has
not quite forgotten yet how Lord JOHN'S political
character as a leader of party has been grievously
affected by such incidents as those of his diplomatic
mission to Vienna, followed soon afterwards by his
abrupt abandonment of the responsibilities of office
in the midst of the agonies of the Crimean conflict.
Hence—from the consequent decline in Ms influence
as a leader of party—Lord JOHN has found himself
for some time past doomed to a seat below the gang-
way on the side of the Opposition. To whom, then,
will those 353 Liberals look as to their commander-
in-chief—if neither to Lord JOHN RUSSELL nor to
ce to Mr. BRIGHT, or to Mr.
Lord
look
LolrE
guidance
Tu
da
nN? Certainly they might as
well
HORSMA.N, as to either of those noble lords, under
existing circumstances. It is simply preposterous,
therefore, to talk of a clear majority of 51 to an Op-
position thus disunited by internal dissensions and by
the rivalry existing between its principal leaders.
If those 353 could be marched together in a com-