The Sun.
London, England, 1859-01-10 00:00:00

FRANCE AND AUSTRIA.

(From the Times.)
We have already shown in a general review of
the political relations of the great Powers what
those opportunities and temptations are which may
make the prospect of war acceptable to the French
Emperor,—the resentment of Russia for Austrian
ingratitude in 1855, the ambition of Piedmont, the
threatened insurrection in Lombardy, the lukewarm
and temporizing policy of Prussia, and the sup-
posed indisposition of England to place herself in
opposition to any movement professing, with what-
ever insincerity and hollowness, to have for its ob-
ject the assertion of Italian independence and
unity. These are probably the motives which in-
duce the Emperor Napoleon to look with com-
placency on a quarrel with Austria. The reasons
put forward are no secret to any one. It appears
that, after ten years' occupation of Rome, the Em-
peror Napoleon has, in the fulness of time, become
disgusted with the Government which he made it
his mission to force by a great political crime upon
the reluctant subjects of the Pope. He finds the
theocracy which he established is becoming more
and more exclusive every day, and gradually ex-
pelling the few laymen whom it admitted to the
possession of office. The priestly Government has
no sympathy with the people. It forestalls and
monopolizes their food for the sake of sordid gain,
and seeks to discourage trade and industry in the
hope that misery will produce submission. Its
prisons are crowded with vast numbers of persons
whose accusation has been found easy, but whose
trial is impossible. These things we are told have
become a serious distress to the Emperor. He
vainly urges reform on the Pontifical Government,
and threatens, in case his recommendation be not
attended to, to withdraw the troops whose pre-
sence alone renders so much iniquity possible.
Strange to say, the Pontifical Government is deaf
to the Forayers of the Emperor Napoleon. Of
course, it cannot doubt his sincerity in the cause
of freedom and popular rights, of which he has
given so many convincing proofs, not only by the
pen but by the sword—not only in the closet but
in the streets and thoroughfares of Paris ; but, still,
these counsels, recommended alike by their own
intrinsic merits as well as by the character of the
Potentate who offers them, the Pope does not see
fit to adopt. Perhaps, after all, he doubts their
sincerity. Perhaps he thinks that his subjects
languishing in the miserable and filthy gaols of
Rome, with the visionary prospect of being some
day or other, when every pretext of delay is ex-
hausted, brought to trial, have no great cause to
envy the subjects of his Imperial monitor, taken
from their beds in the middle of the night, without
even a knowledge of their accuser or of his accusa-
tion, and sent with all the secrecy in which an
absolute Government can envelope the transaction
to perish under the malaria of Lambessa, or rot
above ground for a few miserable months, awaiting
a deliverance from their misery, from the fever that
never leaves the putrid swamps of Cayenne. What-
ever be the cause, the Pope refuses to reform, even
at the bidding of this great reformer of the age.
The alternative, then, of the Emperor is to with-
draw his troops from Rome ; but here the Austrian
difficulty begins. Austria, as an Italian Power, has
the strongest interest to keep down revolutionary
movements in the States of the Church. It is for
that purpose that she occupies the Legations, and
for that purpose we cannot doubt that, as the
French troops leave Rome by one gate, the Austrians
would enter it by another. This being so, the
Emperor of the French proposes to Austria, that
at the same time that he withdraws his troops
from Rome she should withdraw hers from the
Legations, and thus leave the field clear for a duel
between the Government of the Pope and the revo-
lutionary party, which has already once dethroned
him. Austria is not prepared to take this step, and
her refusal forms the ground of the quarrel which
endangers at this moment the peace of Europe.
Now, the more we consider the grounds of this
dispute, the more forcibly we are struck with the
hollowness and futility of the pretexts on which
France is apparently willing to draw the sword.
We need not enlarge on the grossness of the arti-
fice which seeks, after the experience of so many
years, to palm upon us the Emperor Louis Napo-
leon as the enemy of any abuse, however inveterate,
or the champion of any reform, however necessary.
He has had the choice between absolute power and
tempered freedom, between progress and reaction,
between mildness and repression. He has made his
election, and he must abide by it. Europe will not
twice in the same century be deceived by the empty
professions of a despot who conquers, devastates,
and pillages in the name of the rights of man and
the brotherhood of nations. As the tree falls it
must lie. The French Empire has not attained to
the stability and traditionary prestige of the elder
despotisms of the Continent, but it has at any rate
severed the last link which connected it with the
friends of free speech, free writing, and free thought
in every part of the world. Its professions of sym-
pathy for the misery of the Romans can deceive no
one, and yet it is upon this sympathy that the whole
ground of quarrel with Austria rests.
Again, can the French Emperor be in earnest
when he calls upon Austria to withdraw her troops
from the States of the Church, and leave the Pope
and his people to fight it out ? Austria is, as we
have said, an Italian Power. France may with-
draw from Italy and leave the revolution to run its
course, ready to intervene when the propitious mo-
ment arrives, but Austria must immediately be in-
volved in its vortex. A revolution in the Papal
States must be violent in proportion to the repres-
sion which has been exercised, and to the abuses
which have been suffered to exist. Naples lies
unshed under the basest and most cruel despotism
which modern times have seen, a despotism which,
finding that spies and torture do not produce con-
tent, has no other remedy but more tortures and
more spies. Lombardy is on the very verge of
insurrection, and Piedmont panting for war like
a greyhound in the leash. How long would the
Roman revolution be confined to the States of
the Church ? How long would it be before
it spead to Naples in the south, and Lom-
bardy in the north, and involved the whole
Peninsula in one vast conflagration ? Piedmont
might be the vanguard of the movement, but its
reserve is on the other side of the Alps—in the
French army of four hundred thousand men. We
are not considering whether this catastrophe would
be desirable or not, we are only trying to regard it
from the Austrian point of view. The Italian policy
of Austria is neither liberal, enlightened, nor far-
sighted, but it is clear and easily comprehended.
She does not trouble herself with the future, but
she holds with an iron grasp what she has, and puts
down by the sword whatever interferes with the
tranquillity of her Italian dominions. Can the
French Emperor seriously suppose that Austria
could for a moment listen to a proposition to in-
augurate a revolution in Italy of which she would
be the first victim? Granted she is standing on a
mine ; can he expect her to light the match, and
with her own hand blow herself into the air ? The
proposition is too monstrous ; and, when France
seeks to make the refusal of Austria to join in
getting up a revolution in Italy the ground of war,
she must be, indeed, destitute of a reasonable pre-
text. Such are the grounds on which we are
threatened with a Continental war, the heaviest
scourge with which the wickedness of man can
visit his fellow-creatures.

We, at least, stand aloof from this desperate
iniquity. For once we are involved on neither side,
and, did we believe that such arguments would
have the slightest effect, we would earnestly appeal