The Sun.
London, England, 1859-10-07 00:00:00

TUSCANY.

A letter from Florence, dated Oct. 1, says,—The
Italian cause has made what may seem, even to the
soberest-minded people, a considerable step. The
Tuscan Government, by a proclamation dated Sept.
29, announces that "King Victor Emmanuel ac-
cepted (accolse, received) the free deed of allegiance
of the Tuscan, Modenese, Parmesan, and Romagnese
people, and declared that the first act of his sove-
reignty would be to make good those rights he held
from tho people."
A meeting to:k place the other day on the sum-
mit of the Apennines which part Bologna from Flo-
rence, at an inn between Searicalasino and Lojano,
between the three dictators, Farini, Cipriani, and
Ricasoli, in which the measures now before us were
proposed, discussed, and unanimously agreed upon.
You know that Farini has for the last three or four
weeks placed Parma and Modena in the very posi-
tion in which Tuscany is now, since the publication
of yesterday's decrees. He has breathed his own
brave spirit into the hearts cif his two confederates,
and henceforth the four united provinces are com-
mitted to the same policy, and bound to follow one
common destiny.
Whatever may be the real ultimate fate of these
Central Italian provinces, there is no doubt but a
commercial and monetary league will be established
between them. In the worst events Italy will be
united in a confederacy, as we see the Getman Zoll-
verein making one country of the Ns hole Bund with-
out interfering with the individual sovereign rights
of its 3G Princes, or influencing the good er bad
policy of their internal Gouernments. Here, how-
ever, it.is almost high treason to express any
misgiving as to the actual fusion or union
of the " Great and strong Italian kingdom." Any
step, however short and timid, taken by the
Governments towards annexation gives rise to the
most buoyant hope and the wildest exultation. It
was market-day yesterday (Friday) at Florence,

the union flag of Italy was hoisted on the tower of
the Palazzo Vecchio, the square was full of country
people, and the mass of the peasants were as frantic
with joy as the warmest patriots could wish to see
them—frantic with joy at the idea that their exist-
ence as Tuscans was at an end, and that their
branch had merged into the common stock of the
great Italian family—that Tuscany had given up
her autonomia, or separate existence, only to become
part of a State, or nation, to which a sufficient
strength would insure the blessings of a really in-
dependent, free, and eternally united self-govern-
ment.

The moral effect of these measures, in short, is
infinitely greater than their real worth as political
acts. It is a case of " better late than never," and
the Tuscans are grateful for what they have re-
ceived. They give their rulers credit for that very
indecision which characterised their policy hitherto,
and which they look upon as caution and discretion.
Men who have so long wavered and temporised,
they think, would not now be so resolute and free
did they not know how far they may venture with
safety. They fancy their new boldness, which no
new incidents or opportunity seems indeed to
justify, must arise from some hint this Government
has received from Turin or Biarritz. The article in
the Illoniteur, for the tenth time disclaiming
all 'dews of dynastic aggrandisement in Italy on
the part of France, is supposed to have been fol-
lowed by some secret instructions to the Cabinets of
Turin, Modena, Bologna, and Florence to be " up
and doing." There are men here whose faith in
the Emperor Napoleon would move mountains.
They do not care to settle to their own satisfaction
the question that if the Emperor is true to them,
then must he break his most sacred promises to
Rome and Austria; and that if he sets no store by
his words to Austria and Rome, any reliance on his
engagements to themselves is no better prop than
a broken reed. That he has been tricking, and
must ultimately swindle somebody, they are willing
enough to acknowledge, only they have a sanguine
assurance tilt they, at any rate, will not be the
duped party ; nay, that the Emperor will maintain
so much less than he promised to their adversaries
in order to fulfil so much more than he promised
to them, or, indeed, to fulfil what he never pro-
mised to them—to fulfil the very contrary of what
he promised to them, as, in sober truth, he has
always expressed himself to the effect that the an-
nexation scheme was " an impossibility."
Private letters from Turin inform me that a long
despatch in cipher from -the Emperor to the King
reached Turin on the 24th, and was answered by
the King from Monza. It is possible that the new
energies displayed both by the King's Ministers
and by the provisional rulers of Central Italy may
be the result of some encouraging words from
Biarritz ; for, if we are to believe the .Aioniteur,
and if Napoleon 111. truly renounces the scheme
of an Etrurian kingdom for Prince Jerome
(whether or not such a scheme ever entered into his
views), there certainly ought to be no reason why
he should not rather wish to see these provinces
united to Piedmont than brought back to Austrian
allegiance by the restoration of the exiled Princes.
General Fanti published his first order of the day
on the 24th ult.,and Garibaldi, under whose standard
flock the youth of Romagna in large masses, has
opened a subscription for the purchase of small
arms, the list bearing the name of the hero himself
at its head. Central Italy will soon suffer from no
lack of volunteer soldiers. Fanti has decreed that
20,000 men shall be the contingent of Romagna, and
it is to be hoped that public munificence will aid
the Government to bear the expence of their main-
tenance. The Tuscan armament alone, lam told,
costs this country 15,000 dollars per day, something
like £lOO,OOO sterling monthly, although the w hole
Tuscan force, I believe, does not exceed 20,000 men.
On the other hand, we hear that the Duke of Mo•
dena's force amounts now to 17,000 men, and that
the Grand Duke of Tuscany had scraped together
5,000 or 6,000 combatants. The actual numbers of
the Papal army no man can ascertain, as the gar-
risons of Pesaro and Perugia are a kind of Dan-
aides' sieve, where as many men are lost by deser-
tion as are daily brought in by very lavish recruit-
ment. There is no doubt, however, that Austria
is straining every nerve to supply the Pope and
the Dukes with as many men as she can spare, and
it is likely enough that she will not be very strict