The Sun.
London, England, 1859-10-19 00:00:00

AUSTRALIA.

PLYMOUTH, TUESDAY EVENING.

The shiiTDover Castle, Captain John Adams, be-
longing to Messrs. Green, of London, 89 days from
Melbourne to the Start, was off this port to-clay,
with 83,000 ounces of gold-dust, 100,000 sovereigns,
a cargo of copper ore, black sand, wool, and hides,
and 140 passengers, among whom are the Baron
and Baroness Lutwiiz, of Prussia, and Commander
Jessie, R.N. The Dover Castle sailed July 20,
rounded Cape Horn August 24, and crossed the
line September 15. In the South Pacific northerly
winds were experienced, and some immense ice-
bergs were observed. After passing the line, calms
prevailed. Spoke, lat. 10 S., the ship Wellesley,
outward bound; 10 N., the ship Yorkshire, which
left Melbourne July 30, with some gold and pas-
sengers; in the latitude of the Azores, the bark
Ben Lomond, of Glasgow, and, three degrees south
of the Lizard, the ship Adept, both outward bound.

DIPLOMATIC CIRCULAR OF THE PRO-
VISIONAL GOVERNMENT OF PARMA.

The following circular has been addressed by
Signor Parini, chief of the Provisional Govern-

milt of Parma, to the representatives of that

Government abroad :

The 'National Assembly of the Parmesan provinces has
by its unanimous deliberations joined the political move-
ment of Central Italy. The decision upon the future des-
tiny of this country had already been submitted in the form

of a plebiscite to direct and universal suffrage. The Assem-
bly has been convoked for the purpose of adding to the re-
sult of the popular vote the guarantee of a free and solemn
discussion. The elections have passed with the greatest calm
and regularity. The Government felt happy at thinking that
in the city of Piacenza French soldiers were present at the
noble spectacle of an Italian people making use of that
liberty for which they had shed so ranch generous blood.
The Assembly, having been elected from all that was most
illustrious in the land by birth or talent, and even the most
distinguished members of the clergy, proclaimed the depo-
sition of their Bourbon family and the annexation to the con•.

stitutional kingdom of the Savoy dynasty. It would be
highly unjust to judge of these votes of deposition and all

these acts taking place in Italy by deceptive revolutionary
analogies derived either from history or from the pro-
grammes of the parties and political struggles that may
have taken place elsewhere in Europe. As better days

have appeared to shine on the national cause, it has been
found that to the mind of every Italian the supremely legi-
timate aim consisted in the reconstruction of his native
country. We should be mistaken besides were we to evoke
as regards Parma those ideas of tradition or of a consecra-
tion by time which are attached to the historical name of
the Bourbons. A dynasty may find its basis in the free
choice of a people, or it may derive its moral strength from
that historical community which connects the fate of a
family with that of a nation, causing them to flourish to-
gether under tho same trials and with the same remem-
brances. The dynasty of the Bourbons of Parma has fulfilled
neither of these two conditions, and the people of the duchy,
exposed to continual political changes, have constantly seen
their fate decided by ambitions, diplomatic agreements, and
general arrangements completely alien both to their will and
their interests. By the treaty of the Quadruple Alliance
(August 2, 1718), between England, France, the Empire
and the States General, the Duchies of Parma, Pia-
cenza, and Guastalla were declared male fiefs of the Em-
pire in opposition to the claims put forward by the Holy
See; and the Emperor, in the life-time even of the last
Farness duke, conferred the inheritance and investiture on
Don Carlos, the son of Philip V. Don Carlos took posses-
sion of remain 1731, but by the preliminaries of Vienna
(1735), confirmed by the treaty of Vienna (November 13,
1738), the duchy fell to the share of Austria, who, by the
peace of Aix-la-Chapelle (1748), transmitted it to the
Spanish Infanta, Don Philip of Bourbon, and to his male
descendants, with a clause of reversibility. Occupied by
the French armies in the wars of the Revolution and even-
tually ceded by Spain to Franco in 1800, the duchy was
formally united to the French Empire under the name of
the department of the Taro. We have seen what nume-
rous vicissitudes have befallen the sovereignty of the Bour-
bons, who have renounced as often as they have affirmed
their sight over Parma, considering this right of theirs
rather as an appendage, or as an indemnity for more im-
portant combinations.
The Powers themselves, who after the disasters of
France signed with Napoleon the treaty of Fontainebleau
on the 10th of April, 1814, did not hesitate, at that time, to
dispose of the duchy in favour of the Empress Maria
Louisa, her son and his heirs. It was only in consequence
of the return from the Isle of Elba and from their fear of
leaving the Emperor's son upon the throne, that they
agreed by the 19th article of the finalact of the Congress
of Vienna to give tho duchies to the Archduchess
Maria Louisa without making mention of her son.
By the treaty concluded at Paris on the 10th of Juno, 1817,
the rights of the fourth branch of the house of Bourbon
were re-established in the way of reversibility, after being
made subject to a suspension duringtheli h
life of the Empress
ooEbneipremses
Maria Louisa. This dynasty in expectation
more and more a stranger to the country. The remembrance
of tho French rule with its strong and impartial adminis-
tration, it prosperous condition, and military glory, and the
tolerably liberal and tolerant government of Maria Louisa,
had quite effaced the traditions dating from before the.*revo-
lution. The prospective view of the future sovereign in-
creased, it may be said, the regrets caused by the death of
Maria Louisa. Is it not, then, natural if this people after
so many uncertainties and changes, which have allowed
no ancient dynastic faith to take root in their minds, should
endeavour to fix their destiny by binding it to a strong and
stable kingdom, to a dynasty that has its basis in the tradi-
tion and love of its subjects, and that is consecrated at the
same ttme by ancient and by new right ?
The Duke Charles 11. of Bourbon, even during the life-
time of Maria Louisa, deeply outraged the most respectable
feelings of the inhabitants by signing the treaty of Florence
on the 28th November, 1844, in which, under the pretext
of rectifying the frontiers, he promised to cede to the Duke
of Modena the duchy of Guastalla, exchanging that fertile
country for a few mountainous communes of the Garfag-
nana.a By so doing the Duke discharged engagementsiotfof
personal kind, but thereby alienated a considerable
a diminution of annual revenue estimated at GO ,
his domain before taking possession, whilst causiongoothopfe.as.taantde
ueb
jtehout withouts
by placing
fhthisefDtl future
sof Modena. aghtyheemehusniddeeir.atithaenhdairslosyseadyoof
sooth permitted to see a singular violation of those austere
ngudlaor fb
An example rather unique than rare,
in which we are in
by the partisans of di vine
and generous principles boaste
inviolable legiti-
matesub-nationali-
separate governments an
right, and a manifest contradictiondof to those ideas of
rejected by the will of the nation
ties that are invoked in behalf of the petty Italian princes
death of Maria Louisa, in 7,
184 when the
Parma on the
The Duke Charles 11. took possession. of the Duchy of
and thatregard should
manded civil and pOlitical reforms,
Italian people, with a feeling of their common unity, de-
tria the treaty of Feb. 4, 1848, in
concluding with 'Austria be paid to the national . principle. Charles 11. began by
e declared, after the example of the Duke of Modena,
wh h
that his states entered within the defensive lino of the
ent, he abandoned his states, after having
Aus-
trian Emperor's Italian possessions. Surprised by the na-
tional mov.em
vainly intrigued to gam the confidence of the patriots. Ile
abdicated in exile, and his son was reinstated by the troops
of Austria after the reverses of the Italian arms. I shall
not speak of the sad excesses of Charles the Third's reign. I
shall only cite two facts, which do not concern the man, but
his rule. An ordinance ci the Duke's decreed that whenever
public demonstrations of liberal opinions occurred, the guilty
party should be punished with the bastinado, according to
the discretion of the military commandants. And this
punishment, to which the Italians prefer that of death, was
often inflicted in the public square.
Another law, dated March 19, 1850, after declaring that
several landowners were discharging their peasants because
these did not share in the revolutionary ideas of their
masters, ordained that no dismissal could be given them
without a previous law .suit before the tribunals; it con-
tained threats against the judges, and placed them under
the supervision of the police. In one of these trials, the
tribunals having declared in favour of the landowner,
the Duke, by a decree of January 21, ]B5l, ordered the
peasant to remain, notwithstanding, upon the lands of the
owner. We see what evil passions it was sought to excite
in the heart of Italian society.
The crime which put an end to the life of Duke Charles
111. would deprive us of the right of condemning with just
severity the acts of that Prince, if ive did not reflect that
the perversion of the moral sense which argues for the law-
fulness of assassination is only one of the numerous mis-
fortunes for which those governments are responsible who
first set the example of violating the moral law. The
Duchess Maria Louisa of Bourbon assumed the reins of
Government in the name of her son, and dismissed the
greater part of those evil counsellors of the throne, who had
been the accomplices of her husband. Nevertheless, a
short time after that an insurrection broke out in Pm-ma-
it was suppressed in blood, with the assistance of Austrian
troops, whose occupation had not ceased since 1818. Parma
was delivered up to the horrors of an unbridled soldiers-,
and the Government declared in an imprudent proclama-
tion that it might have prevented but bad preferred to
suppress. That day was fatal to the dynasty The city,
s ti
et
ldi
placed in a state of siege and fallen into the power of
arigour a
duty a
d P
\an Austrian general, was steeped in blood by numerous
executions.
tchuot ons.
government,Sueh \s- s
whichsystemdoubtless
of
the Duchess to sacrifice her feelings of clemency,e since r.
one
of the condemned, notwithstanding the recommendation
the judges themselves, had the capital sentence passed of
upon
him confirmed. Those acts led to bloody reprisals on the part
of this people which now gives to Europa so admirable
spectacle of order and moderation. The accused
were a
trans-
ported to the prisons of Mantua; the Austrian
governed in the city itself,avhere the Duchess reigned still ;
the ducal government found itself suspended by this • viola-