The Sun.
London, England, 1866-09-03 00:00:00

SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS.

TIMES.—AII's well that ends well. The cession of
Venetia will be effected by an arrangement satisfac-
tory to all parties concerned. The Emperor of the
French has found an issue out of the difficulty
created by the inconsiderate' haste of the Emperor
of Austria. Indeed, it may be said of all the Potenr
tates engaged in the late hostilities that, however
improvident some of them may have shown them-
selves in matters connected with their own interests,
they have, on the whole, behaved more handsomely
to each other than the leaders in any war which
history records. Even the Emperor Francis Joseph
must be acquitted of any illwill towards the Italians
in the resolution he came to after Koniggratz to
make over Venetia to a neutral Power. Placed
between two enemies, both of -whom he hoped to
overcome, he adopted from the beginning a very
different policy with each of them. With Prussia
he knew that he was struggling for very life. But,
as to Italy, he was from the first resignad to the
loss of Venetia, and was only bent on administer-
ing a severe humiliation to the Italians before he
had done with them for ever. To gratify this
vindictive feeling, which he justified on the plea
of maintaining the honour of the Austrian•arms, he
sent the elite of his troops to the south of the Alps ;
but he purchased his victory of Custozza dearly by
the necessity it involved of leaving Saxony and the
Bohemian passes exposed to the inroads of the Prus-
sians. Warned Ortis fatal error by the disaster of
Kouiggratz, he endeavoured, though too late, to re-
trieve his fortunes by cutting short the Italian
struggle, and by a concentration of his forces for
the defence of his capital. Recurring to his
original resolution, he was only too anxious to
be rid of Venetia, and would at once have
marched out of its fortresses could he have found
a retreat consistent with his safety and honour.
He could, however, even had his pride allowed it,
come to no terms with the Italians, as they had
their hands tied by their treaty of alliance with the
Prussians ; nor could he address words of peace to
the Prussians, as he knew they would insist on con-
ditions he was not yet prepared to accede to. In
this complication of difficulties he turned to the
Emperor Napoleon, and as in 1859 he had given up
Lombardy to France, although he was perfectly sure
that it would immediately be transferred to Italy,
he now thought that a cession which was really and
solely to benefit King Victor Emmanuel might be
effected with less loss of dignity if it were made to
the Emperor Napoleon. He was hardly aware of
the mischief he was doing. Neither he nor the
Emperor Napoleon doubted the readiness of the
Italians to accept the proffered boon, no matter
under what circumstances it came to them ; but
they were mistaken. A chivalrous sense of duty to
their Prussian allies, and the consciousness of un-
merited defeat, prompted the Italians to spurn as a
gift the prizd they were bent on winning by might
of arm% and they marched upon the disputed ter-
ritory little caring whether it still belonged to their
enemy or had actually become the property of their
former benefactor and ally. Had not the French
Emperor's patience and moderation, or, we may
well say, his sense of justice, been proof against all
provocation, had he resented Cialdini's advance as
an attack upon himself, and had he, as it was then
said, issued orders to the Toulon fleet to proceed at
once to Venice, it would be difficult to calculate the
consequences of such a resolution upon the desti-
nies, not only of Italy, but of Europe. But the
Emperor Napoleon was in this matter actuated
throughout only by two great motives—the welfare
of Italy and the restoration of peace. To bend
Austria to peaceful counsels, after her overthrow
at Koniggratz, was easy, It was only necessary
that he should clearly give Austria to understand
that he neither could nor would do anything
for her. Austria had to accept Prussia's terms,
and among the Articles of the Prussian Treaty
the unconditional cession of Venetia was dis-
tinctly stipulated. That cession, however, had been
made by the Emperor Francis Joseph to France,
and Italy had refused the boon at the hands of the
French Emperor. Happily, he was too magnani-
mous to take offence at the stubbornness of the
Italians. He honoured in them that feeling of
jealous pride which had borne up against a long
series of undeserved misfortunes, and he determined
that Venice should be ceded neither to France nor
to Italy, but to the Venetians themselves, and the
emancipated people are now to dispose of themselves
by a popular vote. What the results of an appeal
to universal suffrage will be, under such circum-
it is easy to foresee. Neither
stances, in Venetia,
the French Emperor nor any man in the world can
have a doubt on the subject. The Venetians had
already pronounced in favour of annexation to
Piedmont by a vote of their National Assembly,
under the Dictator Manin, in 1848. That vote has
been confirmed by the unmistakable yearning of the
population for the last eighteen years. The King of
Italy is already in possession of at least three-fourths
of the territory. His commissaries have promul-
gated the Italian Constitution in their seats of Go-
vernment. They have re-organised the municipal
authorities. The liberators have everywhere been
hailed with frantic joy. In Venice itself women are
busy night and day preparing tricolour cockades and
standards for the happy day of deliverance. No one
knows better than the Emperor Napoleon what the
vote of the Venetians will be. No one can be better
convinced than he that a restoration of the ancient
Republic of St. Mark must appear to those people
scarcely more desirable than a continuance of the
Austrian yoke, for Venice has only a chance of re-
vival if reunited to Lombardy. Abandoned to her-
self and her province, she would he in almost a worse
condition than that from which she hopes now at
last to escape. The Emperor Napoleon, however,
has only, as we said, put forth that condition of an
appeal to the population to save the susceptibilities
both of Austria and Italy, and to relieve himself
from a province which was never intended for him
and which he could never turn to any good pupose.
Whatever errors may be attributed to his policy in
other parts of the world, there is no doubt that his
conduct to Italy has been consistently generous and
considerate. The liberation of Italy was the dream
of his youth, when he and his brother joined the
patriotic ranks in Romagna thirty-five years ago.
It was his mature design as Emperor of the French
when, in his Milan proclamation of 1859, he bade
the Italians be soldiers, that they might become free