The Sun.
London, England, 1859-11-28 00:00:00

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TILE CONGRESS.
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(Frdoi the Doily News.)
Austria still demurs. For several weeks the
French Government has been assiduously employed
in the endeavour to persuade the Court of Vienna to
leave the arbitration of Italian affairs to an Euro-
pean Congress. The reluctance shown by the Em-
peror Francis Joseph and his advisers was not per-
haps unnatural. It foreign force was not to be used
to impose a regime of restoration and reaction, what
would it avail to have such a regime for the Duchies
and Legations diplomatically enjoined ? Yet re-
sort to force had keen so plainly and explicitly re-
pudiated by France, and its specific renunciation by
all foreign States was so explicitly insisted on as an
indispensable preliminary by England, that it was
hopeless to think of it as a means of carrying into
effect any resolution or advice which the dynastic
map-makers of Europe might be persuaded to offer.
Then there was the question of who should be' in-
vited to assist in the proposed deliberations—a
question not easily freed from difficulties, from what-
ever point of view contemplated. Should all the
siguitaries to the fraudulent compact of 1815 be
asked to participate in its revision ? And if not,
where was the line of omission to be drawn ? In
vain Austria applied to other powers to sustain her
views as to the bases of the proposed Congress. It
was not as on former occasions, when all felt a deep
interest in coming to an agreement and enforcing a
determination. More than one of the more influen-
tial states have in the present instance taken secret
pains to conceal their indifference as to whether any
Congress at all took place or not. Austria and
France had gone to war in spite of their counsel
and. remonstrance ; and, however neutrals in the
quarrel might differ in their wishes as to its even-
tual results, none of them affected any particular
anxiety to undertake
.the collective task proposed
to them. At length, however, by dint of confiden-
tial assurances perseveringly administered by M.
Walewski,the Austrian Government was brought, or
was supposed to havelieen brought to the poi n tdesired
The form of invitation was publicly declared to
have been agreed upon, and in terms all but iden-
tical the other leading Powers of Europe were to
kave been requested to aid in the general consulta-
tion which Austria, by way of compliment to her
vanquisher, was to propose should he held at Paris.
Notwithstanding, at the eleventh hour, new delays
are known to have arisen, and new difficulties to have
been made. The cause assigned is currently al-
leged to have been the nomination of M. Buoncom-
pagni to the Regency ad interim of Central Italy,
an appointment by which, it was asserted, the
whole question at issue, namely the legality of the
representatives of the people tendering their alle-
giance to whom they would, was virtually pre-
judged. Nobody perhaps believed that this was
put forward as the sole or substantial cause of re-
calcitration at the last moment on the part of the
Holy Apostolic Empire. The events that have oc-
curred during the last fortnight in Italy; especially
the withdrawal of Garibaldi from the post he had
previously held in the army of Central Italy, are
known to have revived hopes and pretensions that
were flickering, apparently their last at Rome. In
the chilled and trenfbling bosom of the Sacred con-
clave, the warm pulse of returning courage throbs
again. Anticipations of disheartenment and dis-
organisation among the volunteer troops, And dis-
cord, capable of being assiduously augmented, if
proper means be used, into open disruption among
the actual rulers of the hitherto united States, oc-
cupy the thoughts of the Vatican. Already the
meek and virtuous Antonelli dreams of reconquest
and revenge. Vienna is now besought to hold
her hand, eschew all compromise, and await the
course of events. Les agens provocateurs are
known to be ready to act in the cause of impatient
liberty, whenever the signal shall be given ; and
everything, as in 1848, may be hoped f'rom partial
outbreaks, divided councils, and the combined
energies of retrogression of the Governments not
yet overthrown, if France will only now; as
then, limit her sympathy to vows in favour
of order, and command her soldiers to main-
tain it a tout prix. We need hardly say how illu-
sory we deem these hopes of evil ; but they are not
the less vivid or the less likely to prove influential
because they are incapable of justification in the
realities of the ease as it stands. Garibaldi has
neither seceded in snik because he has not had his
own way, nor is he less ready than at any former
time to lead the van of the still deferred up-rising
of all Italy to assert nationhood and freedom be-
cause, in deference to the reasonings of others, he
has temporarily withdrawn from his troops the
daily excitement of his presence. Neither Rome
nor Vienna can understand the moral necessity
which, more than all his own genius and daring,
has invested him with the power they dread.
Whether his decision of last week be right or wrong
as a matter of policy signifies comparatively little.
All Italy (that is Italian) feels that he has acted
unselfishly and acted for the best. The generous
laying down of military command by a popular
leader in the midst of a popular struggle, when his
motives are unquestioned and his fidelity undoubted,
never yet diminished his personal influence, but, on
the contrary, has generally tended to augment it.
We have little doubt that it will he so with the
gallant chief in question. Nor do we see any cause
for uneasiness should Austria determine on refusing
to send the required invitation for a Congress, or
upon annexing to it such conditions as must lead to
its indefinite postponement, or to the eventual re-
fusal of England and other Powers. The game of
time is, after all, as things actually stand, no bad
game for Italy. Every day that passes uninterrup-
tedly of fusion and freedom throughout the Duchies
and Legations is a great fact, and one that cannot be
effaced from the consciousness of men. Napoleon
111. is not a man on whom treachery and tergiver-
sation, in requital for conspicuous forbearance and
generosity, are likely to be lost. Whatever be the
depths of his character as a political strategist, he
cannot as a man be insensible to the differencebetween

the too relying fidelity of the King of Sardinia and
the unfathomable fatuity and falsity of the Court
of Vienna. Nor can he, as a monarch whose throne
rests on universal suffrage, be indifferent to the con-
sequences of securing peace, contentment, and free-
dom to the nation he undertook to liberate by arms,
even though the tenure of those blessings be for the
present but tenancy at will. If Rome will not re•
form and Austria will not confer, why should he
incur the thankless odium of trying to effect a Com-
promise of interests in the Peninsula ? England,
Prussia, and Russia will be only too glad to be
saved the trouble of a Congress. To keep his word,
unfortunately pledged at Villafranea, he has thus
far deemed himself bound to try and bring about
such a compromise; but if those for whose sake he
has already incurred infinite trouble and solicitude
should think fit to thwart his efforts he has but to
leave them to the enjoyment of success in their
own conceits, and to permit the union of the whole
of Central Italy to subsist provisionally and peace-
ably under its present rulers. If he values popu-
larity at home, nothing can contribute to it more
effectually—for even the ultramontane piesthood
will have nothing whereof to accuse him ; and if hp
values the goodwill of the people of this country,
no act which he could perform, however striking
or brilliant, could more certainly tend to propitiate
their goodwill. What might possibly come of a
Congress we know not; but what is tolerably cer-
tain to ensue were the project abandoned we think
we can very clearly see.

(From the Times.)

It is not lightly, then, that we can regard the
prospect of a general Congress to re-open questions
of distribution of territory, nor is it without
anxiety that we await the invitation of France and
Austria to accept a part in their proceedings. That
invitation, however, will certainly arrive, and a
course must be taken upon it. A very onerous re-
sponsibility rests with our Government as to what

that course shall be. England is not now in the
position
she held in 1815. She had a good right to
hold high pretensions when she had for many
years subsidized all Europe, had borne the whole
brunt of the naval warfare, had monopolized all
the glory of the seas, had given the first check upon
land to the great enemy, had liberated Portugal
and Spain, and had dealt the final blow which
shattered the power of the commo❑ oppressor ; but
now she must appear in the somewhat inglorious
position of an importunate adviser as to how other
men shall wear their laurels. We havebcen lookers-
on while others have been fighting. We have
wished well to Italy, but we have not always been
sanguine as to the results of the vicarious sacrifices
whereby she has achieved her present position.
We have had our " idea," like other nations, but,
so far from going to war for it, we have openly de-
clared that we had no intention of going to war for
it. We have not only professed the principle of
non-intervention in the struggles of other popu-
lations, but we have given practical proof
that in our vocabulary non-intervention is
not, as Talleyrand defined it, " a diplomatic
phrase, which means precisely the same thing as
intervention." We have no locus standi, there-
fore, in this Congress except to argue, to expostu-
late, to enounce constitutional principles, to demon-
strate the existence of an original contract between