The Sun.
London, England, 1859-01-07 00:00:00

STATE OF ITALY.

(From the Daily News)
" Austria must well know that from England she
could expect no help in 4 war waged for the main-
tenance of her Italian dominions, and that no States-
man, whatever might be his views as to maintaining
the balance of power, would venture to make such
a proposition to .the popular branch of the British
Legislature." This plain truth was stated in the
Times of yesterday. W. think it of some import-
ance to, fix our contemporary with the explicit and
unqualified admission of this significant fact. It is
even so. English statesmen cannot, if they would,
aid Austria in Italy; for the simple and sufficient
reason that the English people will not consent to
the expenditure of one drop-of English blood or
one coin of English money
.in the base attempt to
rivet a foreign and oppressive yoke on the neck of
a down-trodden people struggling to be free. We
should 'like to see the English MiniSter who would
dare to move war estimates ,for such a-purpose .as
that. The thing is so palpably absurd that even
the Times, compelled for once to love truth better
than Austria, has been moved, in terms the most
unequiVocal, to confess its impossibility— That
much, then, is clear—that dream is gone—that bad
hope has vanished into space. The diplomats and
the balance.of power men will never be gratified by
the spectacle of free and Protestant England fight-
ing 'side by side with despotic and Pope-ridden
Austria, in order to crush out, underthe hoofs of
her old oppression, the resistance and the hopes of
Italy.
What' -then, is the, part which. England is to
play in thatstruggle of the nations which all signs
announce to be not far distant ? The answer to
those who look with a single eye to the welthre of
their country, is simple in the• extreme. England
has no part or lot in this strife. She cannot and she
will not strike a stroke for Austria in Italy ; she need
not, and therefore she will not, strike a stroke on
the other side. If what all the aspects of the time
announce should come to pass, if the cloud that now
gathers over Europe should burst in war, English
statesmen will have but one duty—the observation
of a strict though of course a watchful neutrality. If,
as we are confidently told, France and Russia are
pledged to support Sardinia in the impending
struggle, the aid of England cannot be required to
increase the strength of such an alliance embarked
in such a cause. The Italians are twenty-five mil-
lions, and the Italians- have at length been crushed
by despotism into an unanimity- of hatred. Here,
then, are the parties to the strife : on the one side,
France, Russia, Sardinia, and a vast population
impassioned by hate and panting for vengeance : on
the other side, Austria, commanding no loyalty
which she cannot coerce by her cannon, and safe in
the possession of not an inch of territory which is
not covered by her troops or contained within her
fortresses. We are told that Austria will make a
stout fight of it. No doubt she will. Her army is
brave and well disciplined. Her garrisons are
skilfully planted, and 'fortified with the utmost
skill' of Which engineering science is capable. The
spirit of her young Emperor is high ; that of her
aristocracy proverbially elastic under discourage-
ment and defeat. Her history has been one long
I record of a national life tenaciously prolonged under
disasters, and miraculously restored after ruin. No
doubt Austria AM make a sturdy fight of it ; but
will her resistance be, so obstinate and prolonged
that France, Russia, Sardinia, and the twenty-five
millions will be compelled, before they can do their
work, to ask England to fling her sword into the
balance ? The very question is an insult to the
prowess of the three Powers and to the spirit of the
Italian population. No ; England cannot and will
not draw the sword on behalf of Austria—she will
not, for she need not, unsheath it on behalf of the
enemies of Austria. Her line is absolute neutrality
—herstrength is to sit still. She has work to do
at home from whichour politicians and our diplo-
mats would only be too 'glad to call her away by
raising the'disturbing slogan 'of European war.
Let us give no heed to this interested clamour.
We - have had enough and too much of mere
balance-of-power wars. It is time that the .world
shook itself free from this costly nightmare of its
rulers. We will not war in 'Europe for figments ;
we will work at home for realities. We want

to strengthen and complete that free polity
which in itself and in its fruits is the first concern
for us and for our,children. We wish to see that

freedom extended to others; but we have deeply
learned this lesson, that ' the only freedom worth
having is that which men mid nations earn for
themselves. That which is conferred or imposed
on them by others 'preves "too often but a fatal gift
—a veil of Creusa or a shirt of Nessus which dooms
the wearer to convulsions and death. If twenty-
five millions of Italians, aided by France and Russia,
cannot shake off the yoke of Austria, no assistance
which England can bestow will enable them to do
so.

In the apprehension of a calamity so terrible as a
general European war, it is natural for all the friends
of human happiness and human progress to desire
that every available means should be exhausted be-
fore resorting to the actual arbitrament of arms.
No doubt if the passions of princes were amenable
to reason, and subordinate to an enlightened sense
of their own interest and that of their people, the
question of Austrian domination in Italy might be
an eminently fit subject for a European Congress.
If the condition-of-Italy question,as submitted to
the Paris Conference by Count avour, had really
been entertained by that Parliament of the Nations
in a spirit worthy of its paramount importance,
much evil that now presses upon us might have
been avoided, and many imminent dangers have
been averted or-postponed. The mode in which the
subject was introduced to the notice of the Confer-
ence by the Representative of Sardinia was worthy
of the importithce of the theme and the gravity of
the crisis. It was earnestly submitted to the col-
lected Powers of Europe that the state of the Italian
Peninsula wiis the common concern of all, inasmuch
as it involved a• standing menace to the' general
peace of the world. The Ministers of England and
of France were not indisposed to support the rea
sonable and farsighted views of Count Cavour. But
there was an insurmountable obstable. Austria
would not for a moment allow any proposal to be
mooted which in any degree tended to interfere
with the unimpaired ascendancy of her detested rule.
And so it would be always. Austria is not to be
larotocolled out of the Lombardo-Venetian pro.
winces.. Inheriting the traditionS of tho old Ger-
man Kaisers, and_ counting back some centuries of