The Sun.
London, England, 1859-02-11 00:00:00

DIPLOMATIC LETTER BY COUNT
CA YOUR.

The following circular has been addressed by
Count Cavour to the diplomatic agents of the Sar-
dinian Government at foreign courts :

TURIN, FEB. 4.
The Government of tho King has asked the sanction of
Parliament to the contracting a loan of 50,000,000 lire, de-
signed to meet the exigency of events that might come to
pass in Italy, and the nature and extent of which it is yet
impossible to foresee.
As this measure, which prudence has suggested to us,
may give rise to unjust comments, I have thought fit clearly
to represent to you the idea that has dictated it, in order to
enable you to rectify any inaccuracies of juctgment on the
part of politicians and of the organs of public opinion in the
country where you reside. Three years will soon have ex-
pired since the King's Government, while calling the atten-
tion of Europe, by the organ of its plenipotentiaries at the
Congress of Paris, to the grievous state of Italy, protested
against the extension of Austrian influence in the Peninsula
beyond the stipulations of the treaties, and announced that,
if a check were not put to it, the result might be serious
dangers for the peace and tranquillity of the world. The
representations of Sardinia were favourably received by
France and England, and were reproduced in some sort in
a solemn manner in the congress itself. Italy then con-
ceived hopes, and men's minds seemed to calm down. But
the hopes to which this manifestation of interest on the
part of the Western Powers gave birth have little by little
b'een dissipated.
The state of Italy has undergone no modification. The
preponderating influence which Austria there exercises be-
yond the limits that treaties have assigned to her, and
which constitutes a perpetual menace to Sardinia, has rather
augmented than diminished.
On the other hand, the different states of the Peninsula
have persisted in a system of government the result of which
could but be the discontenting of the population and a pro-
vocation to disorder.

Notwithstanding that the dangers wherewith Sardinia
was menaced in consequence of such a state of things had
become more serious and more imminent, the conduct of
the King's government has always been regulated by a
spirit of propriety and reserve which men of good faith
cannot refuse to recognise.
If his Majesty's government proudly repelled the preten-
sions of Austria, which demanded modifications in the in-
stitutions of the country, it did not assume a hostile atti-
tude towards her, when the cabinet of Vienna thought
proper to seize a protext, judged futile by almost all the
statesmen of Europe, to break off with éclat diplomatic re-
lations with Sardinia.

Sardinia limited her course of action to reminding, from
time to time, those governments with which she entertains
friendly relations, of the sad predictions which facts daily
verified, and to invoking their solicitude for the condition
of the peninsula.
She has never concealed the apprehensions and the sym •
pathy inspired in her by the state of the greater part of the
Italian provinces. But when she has deemed it her duty to
manifest them publicly, she has done it with as much
moderation as propriety. By her example, by her conduct
in the last war and in the congress of Paris, by the mani-
festation of her interest and commiseration towards the

Italian populations, Sardinia has striven to bring back hope,
patience, and calm in the midst of despair, impatience, and
agitation. She has abstained, with the greatest care, from
playing a part in any degree irritating, and if public right
has been infringed, it is certainly not Sardinia that can be
accused of the least infraction of existing treaties.

This spirit of moderation, of which all the acts of the
king's government have hitherto borne the stamp, has been
appreciated by all impartial men and by public opinion in
Europe.
But now the extraordinary military measures which the
Cabinet of Vienna has just taken, and which are evidently
directed against Sardinia, whose armaments are relatively
very weak, force the king's government, without abandon-
ing that reserve, to prepare itself against a danger which
may become imminent. Those measures aro known to
Europe. I think it right, nevertheless, rapidly to recapitu-
late them.
In the first days of January, before the king had pro-
nounced the opening speech of the new legislative session,
the Vienna Cabinet announced in its official journal the
sending of a corps d' armee of 30,000 men into Italy. This
corps, added to three others which are established there in a
permanent manner, would increase the strength of the Aus-
trian army to an extent very disproportionate with whit the
maintenance of order and
.of intornal tranquillity could
require.
At the same time that those troops were sent into Lom-
bardy and Venetia with extraordinary rapidity, frontier
battalions, which leave their country only in case of war,
were known to arrive. The garrisons of Bologna and An-
cona were reinforced. But, what is most serious, Austria
concentrated considerable forces on our frontier; she col-
lected between the Adda and the Ticino, and especially
between Cremona and Piacenza, and Pavia, a real corps of
operations,. which certainly could not be destined to main-
tain order in these towns, which are of quite secondary
importance.
For some days the banks of the Ticino presented the ap-
pearance of a country in which war is about to break out.
The villages were occupied by detached corps—every-
where quarters were prepared and measures were taken to
form stores. Vedettes were placed even the bridge of Buf-
falora, which marks the limits of the two countries. I say
nothing of the menacing discourse held publicly at Milan
and in other towns by the greater part of the Austrian offi-
cers, without excepting those of eminent rank, for I know
that one must not always render Governments responsible
for the language of their agents.
But I think it necessary to call attention to the reception
given at Venice to the troops coming from Vienna, and to
the ostentation with which vast preparations have been
made at Piacenza by occupying forts which were constructed
in defiance o treaties, and which the Austrians have ap-
peared to neglect for some time past.
In presence of arrangements so menacing to us, the coun-
try has been much agitated. Confiding in the patriotism
of the King and of his Government, it remains calm; but it
demands that thought should be given to putting it in a
position to confront the eventualities, of which such a dis-
play of forces on the part of Austria may be taken as a fore-
runner.

It is to this end that the ministry resolved to summon
into Piedmont the garrisons established in Sardinia and
beyond the Alps, and has asked the chambers for authority
to contract a loan.
This laSt request, which I expect will be adopted, while
proving to the nation that the Government has the con-
sciousness of what the security and honour of the country
impose upon it, will maintain tranquillity in the public
mind, and will permit us calmly to await future even -
tualities.
I hope you will have no difficulty in convincing the poli-
tical persons with whom you are in relation that the measure
above indicated has an exclusively defensive object—far
from containing a menace for the tranquillity of Europe, it
will have for result to calm the agitation in Italy and to
reassure men's minds by giving birth to the feeling of confi-
dence that Piedmont, strong in her good right, and aided by
the allies which the justice of her cause can alone procure
her, is ready to combat every element of disorder in the