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

cept this responsibility, it would be hard to find
reasoins why such union should not take effect.
Supposing this to happen, or the three Duchies to
be farmed into one new constitutional kingdom,
there would next arise the still harder question of
the Italian Confederation. To this proposal the
consent of the existing Powers of Italy will be neces-
sary ; but it is hardly likely to be given. Sardinia
is not likely to consent to a confederacy of which
Austria is a member ; while the Pope and the King
of Napless will scarcely consent to one in which she
is left out.. To withdraw foreign troops and elimi•
nate in perpetuity the influence of Austria would be
to hand Itaiy over to the gradual influence of reviving
liberty, and pave the way to her ultimate elevation to
the standard of the other free nations of Europe,
which is the last thing that Francis 11. and Pio
Nono desire to see. Austria is now the only obstacle
to Italian reforms. Make Italy self-supporting, self;
contained, and self-governing, and nothing will
stand against her advance. The legitimate influence
of the people will in time prevail, and the day of ab-
solute Sovereigns will have for ever passed away.
But as long as Popes and tyrannical Kings take
refuge from their subjects in the protection of
foreign troops, popular freedom will have no chance.
Here, then, a serious obstacle will arise. The Con-
ference cannot force a Confederation on Italy ; and
if it be positively refused, a very large part of the
Italian question will be precisely where it was last
January. It will be next to impossible to admit
Austria into an Italian Confederation, and quite as
impossible to cut off Venetia from the rest of Italy.
What, then, is to be done ? The Plenipotentiaries
at Zurich must answer that question.
Then comes the crowning difficulty of the posi-
tion and prerogatives of the Pope. It might be easy
for two Emperors to agree between themselves that
the Pope should be the honorary president of the
Confederation, but it is quite another thing to effect
that design. The success of that part of the pro-
gramme involves conditions most unlikely to be
consented to, and which it will be quite impossible
to enforce. First and chiefly, it involves a reform
of the Government of the Papal States, and this in
its ultimate stage involves the abandonment by the
Pope of his temporal sovereignty. This is a very
improbable concession, not only because the Pope is
sworn to Oefend the temporalities of the See, but
still more because those temporalities give him a
place among Sovereigns that he would not other-
wise possess, entitle him to send legates to foreign
courts, and furnish tile supplies of the system which
enables him to exercise so powerful an interest in all
parts of the world. If the Pope refuses to seculariso
his Government, the Conference will again be non-
plussed. It is hardly likely' that the Roman
Catholic Powers of Europe will cG.T.npel his submis-
sion. Indeed, it is more probable that by the
greater number the proposal will be looked on with
great disfavour, and we may expect to see the rank
and file of the priesthood busy everywhere in mov-
ing public opinion against. it. If then, there be no
voluntary concession and no external c• ercion,
there will be no Roman reform, no honorary Presi-
dent, and no Italian Confederation, and so another
article of the treaty must fail.
We need not pursue the difficulties further, for
the more we follow them the greater is their entan-
glement. We only notioe some of the most obvious
of them by way of cautioning our readers not to
expect too much of the Conference. Most heartily
do we wish the plenipotentiaries well through their
work ; most happy shall we be to chronicle their
success, and to be able 'to tell the world that the
Italian question is solved—'- that the parties who
made war have 'been able to makc a satisfactory
peace, and that there will be no need for any action
on the part of the neutral powers.

(From the Morning Advertiser.)

The idea of an Italian Confederation, as fore-
shadowed by the programme of Villafranca, meets
with the most energetic resistance from the real
Liberals of Piedmont. The mere fact that the Pope
is to be " Honorary President" of this precious
league suffices to condemn it in the eyes of all free
thinking men. A Diet of Italian envoys, assembled
at Rome, with a cardinal as chairmtn, and with the
Pontiff as supreme authority, to what result could
it possibly lead but to an extension of the political
power of the Roman Church over the only State in
Italy that has emancipated itself from the priestly
yoke. The glory of the Constitutionalists of Pied-
mont has been, since 1848, their struggles to pre-
serve the basis of representative government, and
their combats against clerical encroachments. Un-
happily, their efforts, we are sorry to say, have to:a
great extent been weakened by the self-delusion
.vith which, under the leadership of Count Cavour,
they entered into an alliance offensive and defensive
with the worst enemy of European freedom. But
if they were now to consent to the formation of the
Italian league under Napoleonic and Papist aus-
pices, they would effectually destroy whatever
might still remain of Piedmontese liberty. Sar-
dinia, in consenting to despatch an Envoy to the
Diet at Rome, would be offering her own hands to
be fettered. She would encounter at that Diet the
reactionary influence of Austria and Naples, the
theoretic designs of hierarchy, and, last but not
least, the despotic influence.of France. whose ruler
would be virtually Protector of the Confederacy so
long as the " Honorary President" is kept in
his chair in the Eternal City by force of French
bayonets.