The Sun.
London, England, 1859-09-24 00:00:00

HIGH WATER AT LONDON BRIDGE.

Tnts DAY.—.Morning, Oh. Om.—Afternoon, 12h. lm.
To-Moßßow-Morning, 12h. 27m.—Afternoon, 12h. 52m.

Congress or no Congress, there is happily every
reason to hope for the best in regard to the libera-
tion of the Italian peninsula. Under Providence,
the Italians have now, to this end, simply to look
to themselves. They possess at the present moment
what they have for centuries pined for in vain—
the opportunity. Throughout the whole of Lom-
bardy, of Tuscany, of Parma, of Modena—ltaly at
this moment belongs to the Italians. Let that not
be overlooked. And, together with the recollection
of that, let it also be especially borne in mind that
but very recently the three duchies and Lombardy
were, directly or indirectly, under the domination
of the Austrian empire. Lombardy—that we all
know is absolutely and completely un fait accompli
—lopped from Austria, and amalgamated with the
Sardinian territories. The Germanic Princes
until within a few months back reigning in the
duchies have been summarily deprived of their
authority by a rising of their own subjects of
yesterday—have hastily fled beyond the frontiers
of what constituted until yesterday their own
dominions—have doomed themselves as far as they
possibly could to perpetual banishment from
Tuscany, from Parma, from Modena, by enrolling
themselves among those mercenary troops who
fought under the banners of the two-headed eagle
against the liberties of the Italian population. Sud-
denly left to themselves the people of the duchies
have presented to Europe, during these last four
or five months, a spectacle off—what ? Anarchy ?
Pillage ? Massacre ? Nay, absolutely of the very
reverse—a spectacle of calm self-reliance, self-
restraint, and self-possession.
" A Tuscan " wrote the other day in the
Times a letter, dated from Florence, implying
in every syllable of it that our English views
on the character of this spectacle presented
to European observation by the Duchies was
from first to last nothing better than a delu-
sion. But delusion in a matter of this kind we
hesitate not to declare to be an impossibility. The
gaze of Europe during all these months has been
in a manner concentrated upon Central Italy and
its population. We are living, moreover (re-
member that), in the days of steamboats
and railways, of electric telegraphs and
of newspapers. The journals of Belgium, of
France, of Prussia, of Germany, but above all,
the journals of England have scanned closely and
searchingly every movement of the population of
the Duchies. There has been scattered abroad
in all directions from that central point of the
Duchies a perpetual stream of correspondence,
There can be no " hocus pocus" in regard to a
matter of such glaring notoriety. In that broad
flood of light which has during the last half-year
been thrown continually upon the state of things
in the Duchies, we cannot help seeing things there
as they actually are, not simply as we might wish
them to be. But fortunately the two things, as it
so happens, have been there all this while identical.
The Tuscans, the Parmese, the Modenese have been
precisely what we should have wished then
to be. They have been all this while—
we know it—it is not matter of conjecture, it is
Pureand simple matter of fact—they have been
throughout the whole of this interval in which they
have been left to themselves, Calm, Resolute, and
Prepared. They have preserved order amongst
themselves. .
They have had elections and discus-
sions—they have passed resolutions of the most
vital import—they have
closed parliamentary
value—aad they have done
sessions of historical
all this with the uninterrupted maintenance of
general tranquility. There have been
no
outrages,
no insurrectionary movements, he violations of
the public peace, or seizures of private property_
none at any rate that we can get any tidings of
from any quarter whatever.
And in the meanwhile the 'Crowned Champion
of the Liberty of Italy, King VICTOR EAIMA-
NUEL, has had his dominion aggrandised by
the incorporation into it of the whole of the
magnificent province of Lombardy. He has had
kis chivalrous reputation enhanced by his per-
sonal participation with his heroic French allies
upon the battle-fields of Magenta, Montebello, and
Solferino. He has had his hands strengthened by
all these recent events, both as a soldier and a
Sovereign. And that other great Soldier of Italy
—the preux chevalier of the Free Corp of Italians,
the great modern Condotheri—GAßlßALDl—is he
not at this crisis in the destinies of Italy—there, in

the very spot, of all others, where the friends o f
Italy would most like him to be ? In the Duchies •
themselves ! With 20,000 disciplined troops at his
command ! Himself untrammelled by any prince
at his elbow—free from any one of the petty meshes
woven by diplomacy ! With his good sword
is his hand—the ball at his foot—and the
goal before him ! Besides it were ridiculous to
regard Villafranca as capable of being in any way
definitive. For the arrangement there was simply
an arrangement, conditionally and so forth, between
two potentates, between the Emperor of FRANCE
and the Emperor of AUSTRIA. Their Imperial
Majesties might decide whatever they pleased over
that little green table, where he of Austria pulled
the flowers to pieces, while he of France puffed his
his little paper cigarettes—BUT after the Emperors
have parted and passed from the scene with stage
alarums and a flourish of trumpets, like the kings
of a Shaksperian drama—there are some others to
be consulted before the views of their Imperial
Majesties can be so very readily carried out !
There are a few Italians in the Roman
Peninsula—say about 28,000,000 ! There is
King VICTOR EMMANUEL in the North, with
his power enhanced by the actual absorption of all
Lombardy into his dominions—as well as by the
proferred allegiance of the populations of the
Duchies ! And at the central point there are GARI-
BALDI and his 20,000 patriotic Veterans ! Again,
then, we say—Congress or no Congress—there is
every reasonable hope for the best (whatever the
prophets of disaster may say to the contrary) in
in regard to that already half realised day-dream
of the Italians—the political liberation of the whole
Roman Peninsula. Even now, to all intents and
purposes, Italy is for the Italians. Lombardy is
rescued from the grasp of Austria. Tuscany,
Parma, Modena—are rid of their German dynasties.
A little more—and this " little" not on the part of
France or of any other foreign Power, but on the
' part of the Italians themselves—a very little more,
• and Italy may be free, as free as the Milan procla-
mation predicted—Free from the Alps to the
Adriatic !

Our Tory friends in Lincolnshire deserve as-
suredly the praise of moderation. We lately heard
the counsel given to propose a vote of "no confi-
dence," on the re-assembling of Parliament, and to
crush at once the men whose small majority has, by
the Election Committees, been almost converted
into a minority. Lord ROBERT CECIL and Sir
STAFFORD NORTHCOTE advise, however, in a far
different strain, and one which we may be pretty
sure the leaders of the Conservatives will adopt.
It is perfectly certain that, unless the present
Ministry be guilty of some inconceivable blunder, a
"no-confidence" motion would utterly fail. Scores
of the best Conservatives, if they did not vote for it,
would walk out of the House. Business must all be
brought to a complete standstill if any set of men
could be found, who, on the mere question of the per-
sons who should hold office,would call for an annual
vote, although no fresh election had taken place.
Even were Lord PALMERSTON and his friends in a
confessedly small minority, we should argue now, as
we did for Lord DERBY last year, that their pro-
posals ought to have a fair trial. They have turned
out their predecessors ; it were simply childish not
to see what they themselves propose to do,better than
those whom they deposed. We may feel certain, how-
ever, that the sentiments of the members for Stam-
ford are those of the great body of respectable
Conservatives.

Lord ROBERT CECIL justly observes that we have
had now not fewer than seven Ministerial crises in a
period of nine years! and that the result was that
Ministers never had. time for useful legislation,
being almost always strange to their business.
These crises, we know, nearly always occur in the
very middle of a session, and spoil that session for
all but mere routine business. His lordship depre-
cated a change of Ministry unless with the reason-
able hope of obtaining a majority—such an one as
should enable the Government to carry its measures
through both houses. And while he, of course,
thought it very patriotic in the late Government
to accept office when in a confessed minority, under
the circumstances he did not think it would be to
their credit to place themselves again in a position
essentially so humiliating. In these views Sir
STAFFORD NORTIICOTE entirely concurred, and held
that the conduct of the Opposition should be " firm
but not factious." It would be easy, he showed,
for so large an Opposition to find many occasions,
by taking advantage of casual opportunities,
to embarrass and defeat the Government,
but such a course he could not sanction.

The present Government has certainly no easy
task before it. On the Italian question they will,
we doubt not, do their best. Lord ROBERT CECIL
seems a little afraid of their being too liberal
abroad ; we have always, however, acknowledged
that we are heartily glad that men with their an-
tecedents have charge of English influence at this
moment ; and, unless events compel us, ere long,
to think otherwise, we shall hope that they will
obtain for Italy all that can be gained by influence
alone. We must confess that we fear Lord R. CECIL'S
friends would have cared more for Austria than for
Italy, which we, and we believe the great majority
of Englishmen, most certainly do not. Italy will
possibly be no easy task ; but it is satisfactory to
hope that PALMERSTON, RUSSELL,arId GLADSTONE
would never disgrace themselves, if the blue-book
should not show, eventually, that they had main-
tained, in every way short of war, the rights of
Central Italy.
The chief difficulties, however, will be home diffi-
culties. With a Chinese war urgent, demanding
money, as well as men, it will not be easy to meet
all expenses, without asking for another fourpence
in the pound in 1860. The National Defences will
call for a larger outlay still, unless the five millions
can be saved in the way indicated by Mr. LINDSAY
and Sir MORTON PETO. But this would be to cut
the throat of aristocratic jobbery, or to supersede
aristocratic incompetence by men who knew how
to get most work done for money. And, the wail
in Downing-street, at the Horse Guards, and at the
Admiralty, would be such that no old stagers dare
provoke it. The ways and means for next year
are a task that Conservatives will do wisely, indeed',
to cast on their opponents. The income-tax should
then lapse, by the arrangements of the present
Chancellor of the Exchequer. The people, too, will
have been just smarting under the extra five mil-
lions taken from them through this odious tax ;
yet probably he will have to lay stripes on the old
stripes, and to re-impose a tax demonstrably the
most unjust of all. He will have to do it, also, in
the face of the Manchester_ men, who are now agi-
tating to the very hopeful cry of " more income
tax!" but who will, we expect, have been compelled
by the country to change that note for the very
opposite one before Parliament meets.

And then tloir Reform Bill. What can that be
but to make it of more worth to the country than
Mr. DISRAELI'S last ? We have it on the testimony
of Mr. LINDSAY thct he had, before he gave his
vote, an explicit engagement, in writing, that the
DERBY Government would at least propose a £6
rental franchise in boroughs, and a £lO one in the
counties, with the disfranchisement of 36 small
boroughs. We are certainly curious to see what
Lords J. RUSSELL and PALMERSTON, backed by Mr.

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THE SUN.
SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 24, 1859.