The Sun.
London, England, 1859-04-30 00:00:00

preliminary/that all parties concerned should dis-
arni. Why, disarming is the resolution and the act
,of a successful' congress, and not the beginning of
its negotiations. It was putting the cart before
the horse. (Hear, hear.) Why do men arm ?• To
obtain some object. They may deliberate, in order
to see whether their object may not be obtained by
peaceful negotiations, but they will naturally not
disarm until they know whether their object can
be obtained ; because they feel in their own minds
that if the object cannot be obtained by negotia-
tion, the arms must be used for the purpose of
obtaining it by force. (Hear, heat.) Therefore
the demand of Austria that disarmament should
precede negotiation, was in other words a civil way
of saying that she declined the congress altogether.
But if that demand was absurd with regard to
France, it was most ungenerous as regarded Sar-
dinia. For what was it in effect that they pro-
posed ? They proposed that Sardinia should at
once deprive itself of adequate means of resistance,
whilst they should merely withdraw their troops
to other stations, and that if the negotiations failed
as they must have failed, they should be at liberty,
in return for Sardinia disarming, to fall with accu-
mulated strength on the country which had dis-
armed in obedience to the requisition of the con-
gress. The main question is, I believe, one which
Austria might settle fairly, amicably, and speedily.
Nobody that I am aware of meant to wrest from
Austria the territories in Venice and Lombardy
which she possesses by virtue of the treaties of 1815.
Those are hers by right, and the judgment of
Europe has affirmed that she is entitled to them.
I do not say the sympathies of Europe, because,
unfortunately, the system of governino• those pro-
vinces has been such that nobody can deny that the
discontent of the people of those provinces is justi-
fied by the maladministration of Austria since she
possessed them. (Loud cries of Hear, hear.) But
in 1815, after the great war, and when Europe was
settled, men looked at what had been the danger
of the preceding period. That danger was the
overwhelming power _of France, and it was
against the recurrence of that danger that
almost all the arrangements of the congress
were made. Austria was thought to be the Power
which could best oppose a barrier to France in
Italy, and possessions were given to Austria in
Italy which, I believe, Austria did not wish to have,
but which have since been a source of infinite
misery to the whole 'of the Italian peninsula., (Hear,
hear.) For Austria, not content with ruling her
own provinces in her own way—and heaven knows
that way was one which no well-minded Govern-
ment would persevere in—not contented with that,
entered into negotiations, exerted her influence, and
extorted treaties from all the other States of Italy,
from the Po down to the Mediterranean, by which
in all those countries, from that time down to the
present moment, a most abominable system of mis-
government has been supported by the confidence
which the respective Governments felt, that if the
discontent, the just discontent, of their subjects
should at any time break out into open rebellion,
Austria was ready with an overwhelming military
force to compel . obedience, and to support the mal-
administration of the Government. (Hear.) Well,
that which Austria ought on the present occasion to
have consented to, and that which I believe if
Austria had consented to would have prevented the
outbreak of the war, was that she should consent
for the future to confine herself within her own
rightful limits, and should forego any interference,
by influence or by military force, in the internal
affairs of the countries of Italy south of the river
Po. I believe that if that were done, there is so
much intelligence amongst the people in the differ.
ent States, there is so much education and so much
enlightened political knowledge abroad, that you
might leave the different peoples to discuss with
their Governments all those arrangements which
are so greatly required, and that you need not have
done anything else but to have withdrawn once and
for ever any interference on the part of a foreign
military force. (Hear.) If Austria had agreed to
that, my belief is that for a time at least Europe
would have remained at peace.. There are those
who say, I know not how justly, that Austria was
afraid of meeting the other Powers in congress, be-
cause she was afraid that there a bill of indictmeut
would be preferred against her, enumerating all
the evils which her influence and interference had
produced in Southern Italy. What may have been
her reason it is not for us to say, but now she seems
to have chosen the lot of war, and apparently hav-
ing drawn the sword, she seems to have thrown
away the scabbard. It is said in her behalf that
she has the Governments of France and Sardinia—
and perhaps Russia—against her, that they mean
to eject her from her Italian dominions, and that
therefore it was better for her to fight now when she
was prepared than to wait until she should be less
able to cope with her adversaries. But that is a bad
argument. If Austria has invaded Sardinia she has
torn the treaties upon which she rests for the secu-
rity of her own possessions. She has put herself in
the wrong by a military movement, which, unjust
in itself, cannot lead to ultimate success. She may
be successful at first, but infallibly that success will
be followed by subsequent reverses, and those who,
like him, think that there is great advantage in
having a considerable power in Germany to act as
a barrier between the east and the west, to main-
tain the liberties and independence of Europe—
those who are of that opinion must deeply lament
the course which tends, I fear, to results that must
alter materially the future position and condition
of Austria._ If the war is confined to Italy, and if
the consequences of her aggression should be that
she should be compelled to withdraw north of the
Alps and leave Italy free to the Italians ; why,
however we may lament the calamity by which
that result is to be brought about, yet every gene-
rous mind will feel that out of evil good may
sometimes flow, and we shall be glad of the result,
however we may lament the means by which it has
been obtained. (Hear, hear.) But, gentlemen, the
Government seems to have been exceedingly ill-
informed as to the course of events. In the first
place, they failed in giving that official character to
their mediation.which, if they had done, it would
have been difficult for France or Austria to have
escaped from; but, in the next place, what shall
we think of their state of information when we see
that on last Monday week they covered. Austria
with praise, talked of her " dignified conciliation,"
stigmatised the conduct of Sardinia as " ambigu-
ous," and I know not what, declared themselves
the partisans of Austria, and designated the course
Ifllich had been pursued by that power as one of
" dignified conciliation." (Hear.) Why, on the very
day, I believe, on which these panegyrics were
'uttered that arrogant and insulting message was
sent by Austria to Sardinia, calling on her to disarm,
with only three days' notice, and telling her that
war was to be the result of a refusal, or an evasive
answer. Did the Government know—it was
their duty to know, but they might have been igno-
rant—that the Austrian army was on the point of
invading, the Sardinian territory ? Well, but a week
after, a the Lord Mayor's dinner last Monday,
, furious at having been taken in, they went from
one extreme to the other, talked no longer of the
dignified conciliation of Austria, but were loud in
denouncing her criminal conduct. Why, this dig-
nified conciliator was in the course of one week
transformed into a criminal offender. (Hear, hear.)
Really this was the anger of schoolboys, the anger
of men who had been deceived by their own want
of foresight, want of intelligence, want of knowing
what was actually going on in the world around
them. It was their duty to know, and they might
have known, that things were in a different state
from what they took them to be. I say, then, that
they have failed in domestic legislation, and that
they have also failed in the conduct of great Euro-
pean interests ; but they now say that we are all
sent to: our constituents in the hope that " under
'the blessing of Providence," a Parliament will be
returned who will support by a majority some Ad-
ministration or another. Now, while every man
here mist concur in that fervent prayer, what that
Administration is to be I will not undertake to
foretell, but if one may judge from what has passed
from the conduct of the present Government, if one
may-infer from that what is likely to be the opinion
of the country, and of the Parliament which is
about to meet, I should be disposed to infer that the
opinion of that Parliament will not be very differ-
ent from that of the one which has been so summa-
rily dissolved, and that the present Government
will not' have the confidence which they wish the
electors to repose in them, that the result of their
appeal will be to confirm the unfavourable opinion
which they say has been the cause of the present
dissolution. Gentlemen, I should be breaking my
pledge if I detained you any longer. I.see before me
convincing reasons why these proceedings should not
last beyond a certain hour. I thank you from the
bottom of my heart for the kindness I have always
experienced at your hands, and for the fresh proof
you have now given me of it. I can assure you
that my, gratitude to the electors of Tiverton can
only end with my life. (Loud cheers.)
Mr. DENMAN briefly addressed the electors, de:
daring himself to be the strenuous advocate of all
liberal measures, and promising to vote for the
ballot should it be found impossible to carry a good
reform bill without it.
One-or two questions were asked Lord Palmer:
ston by his friend Mr. Rowcliffe as to what he
meant to do with 'respect to reform, to which the
noble lord said he would give his catechist a fair
answer, namely, that "he would not tell him." •
The proceedings terminated with the usual vote
of thanks to the mayor.

At %he Bank of England• yesterday there was a
full demand for money at the increased rate. In the open
market the terms are quite as high as at the Bank, and the
dealers are indisposed to take long paper. For bills having
six months to run 5 and 5i per cent, are the loweet rates.