The Sun.
London, England, 1859-06-23 00:00:00

THE WAR IN ITALY.

In the interyal between the great battle of Magenta and
that yet more terrific crash on the Mincio, of which we are
expecting news, the world has an opportunity of appreciat-
ing the wisdom of that last general distribution of political
power in Europe of which this war is the natural and pre-
dicted fruit. A conflict of races is now raging in Lombardy
because the statesmen and diplomatists of the last genera-
tion thought the high and permanent interests of millions
of men could be safely postponed to monarchical cupidity
and the petty intrigues of the hour. In vain right-hearted
men like our own Mackintosh, and Horner, and Henry
Brougham, warned them, that the gigantic wrongs of the
treaties of 1815 would recoil on the heads of their perpetra-
tors ; in vain the far-seeing politicians of the Continent,
who had no court to gratify, foretold that the installation of
Austria in Italy was as anti-European as it was anti-Italian,
and described by anticipation the history of the last forty
years as accurately as we can describe them in retrospect:-
Metternich prevailed, and in the suffering and anxiety at
present diffused through so many countries, we of this
generation are reaping what our fathers sowed.
There is no reason to believe that the authors of the
Treaties of 1815 were chargeable with the error into which
some admirers of their handiwork have fallen, that of sup-
posing that the documents they so solemnly signed could
guarantee the Continent against the changes which result
from the rise, growth, and decay of States. They had
had too much experience of treaties to expecmore from
theirs than thikt they should put an end to the war. As
for peace, its basis was the natural right of every nation
to live in the enjoyment of its own—a right which treaties
can neither increase nor diminish ; and its security was
the loyalty of contented peoples. Austria wanted no
treaty to secure her in possession of the Tyrol or Hun-
gary ; those countries were under their natural rulers, who
had been wise enough to consider the character and satisfy
the moderate demands of their inhabitants, and they were
a source of immense strength to. his Empire. But the
future condition of countries which had either never
known or never acquiesced in the rule of the powers
that survived the Napoleonic wars remained to be settled,
and here a splendid opportunity was afforded to the pro-
fessors of diplomacy, called to the worthy exercise of their
art after an era of capitalations and truces. Men were
weary of the long reign of violence, and—for there were
sentimentalists in those days—hoped that the reign of
equity and reason would begin. The French Revolution
' had taught the people that they were the object of all
government, and that they do not exist for individuals but
individuals for them, and they were neVer to forget the
lesson.

But in the councils of the great Powers the military
spirit prevailed over every dictate of humane policy. Aus-
tria, Russia, and Prussia, which broke up the old constitu-
tion of Europe by partitioning Poland, and were the
examples and guides of Napoleon in the art of spoliation,
now showed that there was no injustice in his rapacious
career which they were not prepared to emulate. The
Congress of Vienna, of which those three Powers were the
controlling elements, arrogated to itself the hershest rights
of conquest. They were the dictators of Europe and claimed
the disposal of every territory which had been occupied
by France. If old sovereigns were restored, it was by
their generosity or kindness—never as an act of justice.
No new or restored Power was tolerated but as a feudatory
of this corporation of kings. Old national independence
disappeared : the wishes of populations were sternly
silenced.
Sir James Mackintosh has well described the character
of the considerations which were suffered to prevail at the
last territorial settlement of the Continent :—" These new
masters of civil wisdom tell us that the whole policy of
Europe consists in strengthening the right flank of Prussia
and the left flank of Austria; they see in that wise and
venerable system, long the safeguard of Europe, only the
millions of souls to be given to one Power, or the thousands
of square miles to be given to another. They consider the
frontier of a river a better protection of a country than the
love of its inhabitants, and provide for the safety of states
by wounding the pride and mortifying the patriotic affec-
tion of their people."
The effect of a policy of this character in Italy might
easily be, and actually was, foreseen. The wars of Napo-
leon, disastrous as they were, had opened a new existence to
the people. The Lombardy which Austria, returned to
seize in 1814 was no longer the Lombardy she had
known 20 years before. On reviewing the labours of
the Congress, a publicist like the Abbe De Pradt
could write in 1816 :—" Let Austria be on her guard. The
Italians have tasted independence : they are supported by
the sentiments of generous minds in all countries ; they are
esteemed, and have appeared with honour on the field of
battle ; they are convinced that they have everything neces-
sary to the formation and the glory of a nation. They know
it by experienee, and find themselves in the service of mas-
ters to whom they do not regard themselves as inferior in
any circumstances."' And without betraying any con-
sciousness that he was venturing into any hazardous
depths of prophecy, this practised observer could add :
" The feeling of independence has made so rapid a progress
in the country, that in the course of time a general reunion of
Italy in a single and sovereign capacity must result from
the restraint to which she has been compelled to submit."
We all know what happened. The Continent was re-
partitioned on military pretexts, and yet notwithstanding
all the wrong done to gain material guarantees for security.
Europe was left open to Russia, with Poland a great for-
tress projecting into its centre, while no real security was
taken against France. The history of Italy has since been
a history of the marchings and countermarchings of the
Austrian armies—now into the Legations, now into the
Duchies, into Naples, and even into Piedmont. Lombardy
and Venice were deliberately sacrificed. When we com-
plain that peace has been interrupted in that country, we
do not mean the peace of its inhabitants, for under
Austria they have no more enjoyed peace than liberty.
The war which is now waged in Italy with few inconveni-
ences to the inhabitants than the population of a country
full of warriors ever experienced before, only intercepts for
them an era of revolutions, assassinations, forced loans, a
worse than Spanish Inquisition, and shootings and hangings
for political offences. It is so long since the grand mistake
of delivering Italy to the barbarian was committed, that we
of this generation, accustomed to judge according to the in-
stincts of humanity, are disposed to think that in Lombardy
a well-meant experiment has turned out badly. But the
passage quoted from M. De Pradt, and which it would be
easy to match from a dozen writers of equal and greater
eminence, supplies evidence as to the degree of light which
the authors of the Treaties of 1815 enjoyed, and compels
us to believe that they know perfectly what they were about
when they gave Italy, with its renewed national life, to
Austria. The connexion was monstrous, and the wrongs
done to Italy were sure to avenge themselves on Europe.
At first sight it does not seem equally certain that the
manner in which the settlement of Italy should bring on
war should be discernible to an observer 40 years before the
event. Yet in -1816 the Abbe de Pradt wrote—" When
Aukria shall go as far as the Ticino, what will the
King of Sardinia do against his powerful oppressor
Will he not naturally have recourse to France ? Then
we behold Italy in conflagration by the hands of
Frenchmen and Germans." To provide against this
serious contingency the Abbe proposed just what men
who have studied the question are recommending now :
" It should be the invariable and eternal principle of Europe
not to permit either France or Austria to set foot in Italy.
The welfare of Europe requires that there should be a king-
d established, to commence at' the Isonzo and terminate
at_the foot of the Alps and the States of the Pope. Then
Italy would form three states ; this kingdom, the States of
the Pope, and those of Naples. Reason, and we may say
the nature of things, adjudge the throne of Italy to the
House of Savoy. The Italians would feel themselves

-
honoured in baying for their first king, foz their permanent
sovereigns, the Prince of a House that has produced so
many illustrious men, who will recall to them so
many impressive recollections; and which, in its elevated.
rank, will show one of its own children to Itetly in the per
son of its sovereign."
If then the state of Italy is and has been such that intelli—
gent and impartial observers have these forty years seed in.
it the source of inevitable war, how idle it is to seek tine
causes of the present hostilities in the will of individuals..
The young Italian nation could not long want allies. She.
sought them here—sought them there—with earnestness:
and with arguments which will startle us or our children,
and perhaps redden their cheeks whenever events make the
publication of our corresppndence with Sardinia since 1856
possible, and she went away sorrowing. 'Whether she shall
this time succeed in effecting her deliverance or not, cer-
tainly Austria will never again have peaceful possession of
any part of Italy. War- never leaves a nation where it
found it, and the cause of Italy grows because it Byes.—
Daily News.