The Sun.
London, England, 1859-08-08 00:00:00

THE SUN, LONDON, MONDAY EVENING, AUGUST 8, 18594

lord of the soil," but we are told that in his con-
duct at this first election, " he has shown a calm
appreciation of h: is influence, and, on the whole,
has nothing to be ,ashamed of in the result."
One singular accident of secret voting, almost a
ludicrous one, we cannot but notice. "It has
stimulated betting to a considerable degree." We
certainly do not to encourage such a practice,
not only on the score of morality, but in the inte-
rest of electoral purity itself. But we accept
gladly the testimony' it furnishes to the possibility
of secrecy. If it were thought that any one could
know how the poll was proceeding, there would be
no betting. We hope our readers will read the
entire extract. It is not a long one, and is sug-
gestive enough.

We have just read with much interest a small
pamphlet on the Italian question, which will at
least furnish new views to many of its readers, and
we should say some instruction also.* It com-
mences with the remark of a foreigner to the writer,
" L'aristocratie Anglaise est fort heurease," and the
news of the peace of Villafranca, which came next
day, only, says our author, confirmed the remark
on which the foreigner had more than once in-
sisted ; for the " condemnation of the war by the
English aristocracy was justified, although every
reason which it had assigned for that condemnation

was wrong."

The three arguments, as we all know, were, that
Italy had never, since the fall of the Empire, been
independent of foreign rulers, and that it was vain
to hope it could ever become so ; that the principle
of nationality on which Italians claimed indepen-
dence is chimerical ; and that the war could only
result in overt or virtual French conquest, and the
substitution of French for Austrian domination.

To each of these arguments Mr. ARNOLD gives a
full reply. With regard to the first he can appeal
to the facts of history ; after sketching, truthfully,
the process of Italian emancipation from feudalism,
he shows that from 1310 to 1494, nearly two
hundred years, Italy was free from the foreigner,
and was divided into five purely Italian States ;
States which struggled indeed vehemently with
each other, but which were at least Italian, and
would have struggled till one obtained the prepon-
derance, as in England and other countries once in
the same circumstances. The natural development
of Italy was hindered, however, by CHARLES VIII.
appearing in Italy at the head of a French army
at the close of the fifteenth century, and by the other
great powers following him in the sixteenth. The
favourite scoff of the Times and the aristocracy
is thus effectually got rid of, if indeed it be possible
to " refute a sneer."

The " nationality" argument against unfortunate
Italy is also cleverly argued, though we cannot
agree with it throughout. If, however, Mr
ARNOLD successfully maintains the claims of Italy
to a national existence on his grounds, which he
does, she might claim it a fortiori, on what would
be called more extreme views of the subject. The
parties who claim nationality must of course be
dissatisfied with their present connection, but they
must also " belong by nature and origin to a great
nationality." Cornwall and Wales could not, for
want of the latter condition, resist absorption by
England and complete fusion with her; and
Brittany has for the same reason amalgamated
in fact and feeling with France. Mr. ARNOLD
observes that there are but two other countries
besides England—France namely, and Italy,
which have any historical grounds for
" crying with such just humiliation and de-
spair in undergoing a foreign rule, uncle lapsus!"
Not even the great Powers, Russia, Prussia, and
Austria, have any glorious past—any history, art,
or literature—in which they can take a Rational
pride, like that which Italians can feel in theirs.
Italians are not more separated by language and
political changes from the SCIPIOS and CESARS
than we are from our ALFRED ; and they must, as
we have so often remarked, feel it most keenly
that, with their vast superiority in intellect, civi-
lisation, taste, in all that constitutes modern refine-
ment, they should be degraded beneath the rule of
such a brutal, and comparatively uncivilised, con-
glomerate of half-barbarous races as Austria.
Certainly Austria has no nationality in either
its language or history. As certainly Italy has
both historically, and as speaking one language—
a language rich in literature from the days of
PLAUTUS—one of the noblest nationalities of
Europe.
But the third reason—the fear of a war
of conqnest—this certainly, before the event, ap-
peared to be one not easy to impugn. It was
an apprehension only, but surely not an
unreasonable one. Perhaps, generally, the
apprehension was less that France should
annex territory —even Savoy than that
Louis NAPOLEON should render himself
through a necessarily subservient Sardinia, vir-
tually supreme in Italy, and that, in the interests
of Imperialism, he should use all his power to pre-
vent the development of constitutional freedom in
that country. Now Mr. ARNOLD does assign strong
reasons for thinking that a war of conquest, in the
literal sense, would have been unpopular, even
alarming, to the French peasantry and shopkeepers;
but that they were eventually rather pleased with
a triumph of French arms over those of Austria,
and a short but brilliant war limited to that coun-
try. He is strongly of opinion that the Emperor
is really the approved, and even the admired, cer-
tainly the trusted of the great body of the people—
of all but the several small parties opposed to him ;
but, with these, as comprising the education, the
talent, and the good-breeding of France, English-
men are most in contact, and from them they de-
rive their impressions of the estimation in which
he is held. He is the man of the superstitious
anti-aristocratic plebs and army ; but the natural ob-
ject of aversion to all there is of birth, intellect, and
refinement in. France. The chosen monarch of the
rural mob and the pretorians ; the iron-handed
despot over the class through which alone France
can keep the lead of European civilisation. Thus,
at least, we must interpret Mr. ARNOLD, though
he professes a style which would not, we imagine,
frighten the post-office authorities of Paris, or the
Minister of the Interior.
Mr. ARNOLD thinks that the chief reason which
induced Louis NAPOLEON to make peace so sud-
denly was the threatening attitude of the French
Clergy. They were frightened for the POPE, and
they began to beard him in the the Univers—the
zealot journal for the most degrading aspects of
Popery. Our author believes his fear of the power
of the clergy to be newly groundless. " The Catho-
licism of Europe out of France need have occa-
sioned him no apprehension whatever. In Italy
itself, the seat of the Papacy, its moral force is per-
feetiy insignificant. Nowhere is the party of the
Priests so little loved or respected as there, where
it is best known. In France it is more powerful;
but even in France it has no real hold on the
masses of the population, and the Emperor dan-
gerously overrates its power." Through this, how-
ever, he submitted to a peace at which " his own
mortification must have been immense."

As to the part we should take in the final set-

tlement to result from ,the peace, Mr. ARNOLD
justly thinks that Lord PALMERSTON should avail
himself of the admirable position he took in 1848,
and refuse to be a party to any settlement for
Italy which leaves Austria in Venetia.

LATEST NEWS,,

The following telegrams have been received at
Mr. Reuter's office :

PARIS, A CC., 8,

The 111oniteur of to-day contains the following :
The Emperor left yesterday for the camp at
Chalons, where his Majesty will stay several days.

The Minister of the Interior, the Duke of Padua,
is appointed officer of the Legion of Honour.

PARIS, AUG. '7.

The IWoniteur of to-day contains the following. :

" The Plenipotentiaries charged with the mission
of concluding, from the preliminaries signed at
Villafranca, a definitive treaty, were to have arrived
on the Gth of August at Zurich."
The Moniteur contains also a paragraph stating
that Marshal Canrobert had despatched as early as
10 a.m. the troops of the division Renault, in order
to cover the right flank of the 4th corps d'arinee ;
while the report of Marshal Niel on the battle of
Solferino had stated that Marshal Canrobert had
brought up his supports only at the end of the day.
The conession of the railway from Toulon to the
Italian frontiers, with a branch to Draguigan and
another branch from Privas to Brest, has been
granted to the Mediterranean Company.
The Moniteur contains also a report of Admiral.
Romain Desfosses on the last operations of the
French fleet in the Adriatic.

BERNE, AUG. 6.

Letters from Zurich state that a guard of honour
h-is been placed before the Hotel Baur, where
the Conferences are to take place. M. Desambrois
has arrived and has been welcomed by the mem-
bers of the Government. The first sitting of the
Conference will take place on Monday next.

ZURICH, AUG. 7.

A deputation of the Government of Zurich,
attended by their ushers, paid a visit this morning,
after mass, to the representatives of France, Pied-
mont, and Austria. On Thursday next the Govern-
ment will give a dinner to the ambassadors.

MILAN, AUG. 7.

To-day, at 60.30 p.m., the King of Sardinia en-
tered the toivn, accompanied by his Ministers, by
the Members of Parliament, and the municipal
bodies of Turin and Genoa.

His Majesty passed through the Corso on horse-
back amidst the enthusiastic acclamations of the
people.
A Te Deum was performed at which his Majesty
was present, and he afterwards received the autho-
rities of the city.
This evening a grand illumination took place.
The aspect of Milan during this national fete is
very imposing.

TURIN, AUG. 6.

The Sardinian Government has recalled the Sar-
dinian commissioners and authorities at Parma and
Piacenza.

Chevalier Jocteau, Minister Plenipotentiary of
Sardinia, at Berne, has been appointed second re-
presentative of Sardinia at the Conference of
Zurich.

The King will make his entry into Milan to-
morrow, at six p.m,

BELGRADE, AUG. 5.

The Pacha of the fortress of Belgrade has given
cause of provocation to the Servian Government by
ordering, without any right, the construction of a
rampart round the town. He has likewise ordered
a plan for the alignement of Belgrade to be made,
which the Servians wish to prevent. The Pacha
has also ceded to an Austrian company a plot of
ground within the fortress for the purpose of orga-
nising a system of protection against smuggling
into Servia. It is feared that serious complications
may arise. The population is in an excited state.

ST. PETERSBURG, AUG. 6.

The construction of a railway of the length of
700 versts between Moscow and Saratow has been
authorised. The capital of the company will be
45,000,000 roubles, in 4;50,000 shares of 100 roubles
each, with a Government guarantee for 80 years of
41 per cent.

THE CONFERENCE.
(From yesterday's iloniteur.)

The plenipotentiaries empowered to change into
a definitive treaty the preliminaries of Villairanea
are to meet this day (August 6), at Zurich. These
plenipotentiaries are :

For France—The Baron of Bourqueney and the
Marquis of Banneville.
For Austria—The Count of Colloredo and the
Baron of Meysenberg.
For Sardinia—The Chevalier des Ambrois.

MARSHAL CANROBERT AND MARSHAL
NIEL.
(From the Moniteur.)
The marshal commanding the 3d corps of the
Army of Italy has objected to a passage in the re-
port of the battle of Solferino, addressed to the
Emperor by the commander of 'the 4th corps. His
Majesty has ordered the insertion of the following
note :

It i 3 said in this passage that the 3d corps only
gave its support to the 4th towards the end of the
day. Nevertheless, upon his arrival at the N illage
of Medola, Marshal Canrobert sent the first troops
of Renault's division by the Ceressa road for the
purpose of covering the right flank of the 4th corps.
The presence of these troops had, therefore, as its
result, from ten o'clock in the forenoon, to remove
from General Niel all apprehension as to the attacks
he might have to fear on his right flank, which was
only guarded by three of his battalions. It is just,
therefore, to acknowledge that Marshal Canrobert
had already given useful support to the 3d corps,
before the hour when Renault's division came and
occupied the village of Rebecco in order to enable
General Niel to withdraw from it a part of Luzy's
division, at the same time that the first brigade of
Trochu's division was fighting in tne midst of the
troops of the 4th corps. Besides, General Niel
could not have the intention, in his report to the
Emperor, to incriminate in any way the conduct of
Marshal Canrobert, whose chivalrous character is
well known.