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

cs duct at thi soil," but we are told that in his this kingdom, has gradually enabled Mr. FElit lUg.
'lord of the
s first election, " he has shown a calm
con-
SON to conquer the prejudices arrayed against 1
aPPreciatir in of his influence, and, on the whole,
system of fortification, and Sir -WILLIAM AItM-
STRONG to mount his guns upon our batteries. has nothir ig to be ashamed of in the result."
Whatever may be the resources of the royal do&- One sin gular accident of secret voting, almost a
yards, they are equalled if not surpassed by the ludicrous. one, we cannot but notice. "It has
immense private establishments which form part of stimulat ad Letting to a considerable degree." We
the ship-building power of the United Kingdom ; certainly (lc , not wish to encourage such a practice,
and, in the fabrication of machinery, the workshops not only on the score of morality, but in the inte-
of the Clyde and the Thames are constantly lend- rest of elect oral purity itself. But we accept
ing their forges to the Government. There is too gladly the teatimony it furnishes to the possibility
great a tendency in purely naval critics to argue of secrecy. U' it were thought that any one could
i the question as if our whole maritime strength know how the poll was proceeding, there would be
\were comprised in the Navy List and the no betting. W'e hope our readers will read the
dockyards. The reverse is the case ; and the entire extract. It is not a long one, and is sug
true problem we have to solve is to render these 1 gestive enough.
vast resources promptly available for the defence
of the country, which at present they are not."
As a striking foreign recognition of the too noto-
rious fact that they are not, the reviewer then
quotes the opinion to that very effect, expressed in
1851 before the Commission d'Enquete, by Captain
de MONTAIGNAC. Appended to this, however,
immediately afterwards, are the impressive words
recently addressed to her MAJESTY by her own
Royal Commissioners. Those words are in many
respects, we cannot but think, very remarkable,
and in their tendency fraught with encouragement.
They are these :—" Your MAJESTY," say the
Commissioners. " possesses in the merchant service
elements of naval power, such as no Government in
the world enjoys. It is true, that hitherto no suf-
ficient organisation has existed for securing to your
MAJESTY the immediate command of these re-
sources. During a long peace, reliance has been
placed, either on the improbability that danger
would arise, or on the efficacy of impressment to
furnish the means by which danger could be con-
fronted and overcome. Changes in public senti-
ment, and in the circumstances of the case, have
shaken that reliance. We rejoice to believe, that
by improvements in the administration of your
MAJESTY'S Navy, and in the regulation of the
merchant service, other resources have in the
meantime been placed within the reach of your
MAJESTY'S Government, and that it is now in
their power to substitute for untrained compulsory
service, a system of defence, voluntary, effective,
and calculated to draw closer to your MAJESTY at
the moment of danger, the loyal enthusiasm of
those on whom your MAJESTY will rely. We
therefore humbly and confidently submit to your
MAJESTY the adoption of measures which, while
their primary object is the protection of this country
from the hazards of war, must at the same time
improve the position and elevate the character
of the British seamen in 'the two services, and
unite them together in the firm bonds of reci-
procal good feeling and of common interest."
Let those two services so be brought together, so
bound by common ties of sympathy each to each, and
the Commission will not have sat in vain. There
would remain no hazard then of the recurrence of
these periodical fits of national, and we may say
also of rational, solicitude. Englishmen will then
have practically recognised—recognised in deed as
well as in word, the literal truthfulness of those
thrilling words of the patriotic lyrist :
" England needs no bulwark, •
No towers along the steep ;
Her march is on the mountain wave,
Her home is on the deep "

If the Ballot Society has not risen yet to the
magnitude of a "great fact," the facts which con-
stitute its best arguments keep flowing in from
every quarter. Melbourne has borne its perfectly
satisfactory testimony to the success of leaving
every elector to " do his own voting," irrespective

of the influence of the briber, the intimidator, and
even the personal canvasser; and that colony is now
waiting with some curiosity to see what will be the
working of the ballot with a suffrage almost " uni-
versal." Meantime the news arrives of its success
in the oldest Australian colony—the colony which
must contain the largest number of those who have
either been criminals, or been brought up by those
who have been convicted of considerable crimes, the
colony where the " currency" must, we may sup-
pose,
largely preponderate aver the " sterling."
An extract, which we give in another column,
from the Sydney Morning Herald, can hardly fail
to interest all our readers at this time. There is
one point which at least will inevitably attract at-
tention in its relation to the builders' strike. The
really odious thing in these strikes is the despotism
of noisy, arbitrary demagogues over prudent and
industrious men. It is but too certain that work-
ing men are the worst of tyrants over each other,
and that many a poor man who would gladly con-
tinue to labour steadily his ten hours and take home
his wages on Saturday night dares not do it.
Many persons fear similar conduct if the fran-
chise be made to include the class which now
orders a strike at the Messrs. TROLLOPE'S, and
certainly not without reason. It would, to
be sure, be but adding the intimidation of
one class more to that of the landlords and others
who practise it so largely already, but we have in-
timidators enough already, and it is not, it must
be confessed, desirable to hazard its increase ; we
want, rather, to get rid of that which already exists.

We have just ,read with much interest a small
pamphlet on the _ltalian question, which will at
least furnish new v.iews to many of its readers, and
we should say saam e instruction also.* It com-
mences with the rem. trk of a foreigner to the writer,
" L'aristocratie Angla ise est fort heureuse," 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

1 It is, therefore, gratifying to observe that on this
point the Sydney journal testifies very expli-
citly : " The working classes have enjoyed the
benefit of the Ballot ; not in relation to their em-
ployers, but in reference to each other." The Editor
gees on to observe with truth enough, " There are
everywhere noisy, dogmatical, and oppressive men,
who, by force of will, domineer over their neigh-
bours. Thus many, rather than incur the opposi-
tion and contempt of people with whom they have
daily to work, have often voted against their incli-
nations and their conscience. From this necessity
they are now (by the Ballot) relieved. If the
despotism of wealth and .official authority is to be
deprecated, how much more oppressive is that
grinding insolence, which, clothed in vulgar and
oppressive forms, assumes the name of liberty."
Our readers may remember how at Berwick, here,
and it was once the case, we believe, at Stockport,
the working men combined to intimidate the trades-
men with whom they dealt ; all this intimidation
of each other, and of the class just above them, is
found to be, in Sydney, counteracted by the Ballot.
The general testimony of this writer on the spot,
and one evidently not biassed in favour of the bal-
lot, is that " the ballot has tended greatly to abate
the outward excitement of the election, and to give
every man ample freedom in exercising his fran-
chise." There has been, we are told, in Sydney, as
was the case at Melbourne, " much less impor-
tunity. Men have felt indisposed to ask what
many have thought proper to conceal ; and it has
been deemed useless to purchase support or demand
pledges, since the class of men who would give pro-
mises under pressure are just the class of men who
would avenge themselves by breakinc, them."
Officials in Government employ are mentioned 6 as
specially benefited by the Ballot; and though the
writer anticipates that attempts at fraud will be
made, he does not think it difficult, as we know it
cannot be, to counteract them. The ,g bunching,'
system—that of voting in regiments--is broken up
by the impracticability of the requisite surveillance.
The Australian " poor man," richer there, as here,
than many who are obliged to dress better, is now

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 13W 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 CBARLES 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 C.F.SARS
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, be 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 Unieers—the
zealot journal for the most degrading aspects of
Popery. Our author believes his fear of the power
of the clergy to be neat ly 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-
fectiy 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 ocerrates 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-

* England and the Italian question. By Matthew
Arnold. London ; Longman.