The Sun.
London, England, 1859-08-11 00:00:00

CENTRAL _ITALY.

PARMA, AEG. 4.
The affairs of Central Italy, which bore so gloomy
an aspect as I contemplated them at a distance,
look a hundred times more ominous now I can see
them nearer. Parma is in a state of indescribable
excitement. Not a fortnight has elapsed since the
Sardinian Government, Count Pallieri having re-
ceived the most distinct instructions and most posi-
tive assurances flora Count Cavour to that effect
(previous to that Minister's resignation), asserted
freely before a popular assembly in the main square
of the town, attended by more than 10,000 persons,
that the Duchy of Parma was, and would remain,
by the terms of the peace of Villafranca, annexed
to Piedmont. Consistently with this announce-
ment, when. the Sardinian Government found itself
compelled to withdraw its agents and representa-
tives from Modena, Bologna, and Florence, it still
directed Count Pallieri and his subordinate agents
to remain at Parma, and wield the supreme power
in the name of Victor Emmanuel. All this had
the effect of lulling the Parmesans into a state of
false security, and of putting Pallieri and the Go-
vernment in whose name he acted in a false and
dangerous position.
The sober facts, however, are the following :
When the two Emperors agreed upon the terms of
the peace of Villafranca, the Austrian monarch
obtained from the French autocrat a promise that
" his family," that is, the Dukes of Modena and
Tuscany, should not be sacrificed. As to the Duchess
of Parma, either no stipulation was made, or the
Emperor Francis Joseph, indulging a feeling of
petty spite against the Duchess for the neutrality
she had" dared" to proclaim between the belligerent
Powers, expressed himself quite willing that the
Duchess of Parma should be left to settle her dif-
ferences with her .subjects as she best could.
Subsequently, as Austria came to a better and
closer understanding with France, and the latter
had good reasons, whatever they may be, to gratify
the former in all its desires, it was settled between
the two. high contracting parties that not one mile
of territory should be given to Piedmont beyond
what was awarded to it at Villafranca—viz., Lom-
bardy up to the Mincio.
More lately, also, it became apparent that, what-
ever mays. be the motives by which the French
Emperor is actuated, he has set his heart on grant-
ing the Duchess of Parma's earnest and repeated
entreaties, by restoring her to her States. The
upshot of these new resolutions has been repeatedly
and in very clear terms conveyed to the Sardinian
Government after Cavour's resignation, and, as
ttic.re is no doubt that the annexation of Parma and
pineenza would be productive of far more solid and
durable adv.:lntage to Piedmont than even the ces-
sion of Lornbart:", and as, besides, the Government
of King Victor tnussanuel see themselves in the
cruel necessity of eating their own words and
acknowledging that they hove held out false hopes
to the Parmesans, they have been thrown int: the
greatest perplexity, and have tried to gain time by
a great deal of unworthy shuffling.
' Matters, arc, however, rapidly coming to a crisis;
the real truth is by this time known to all who
cared to know it; and the Sardinian Government
is strongly suspected and even loudly accused of a
cruel wish to deprive the Parmesans of their last
resource, by preventing them from joining their
brethren of Modena and the Romagna, and making
their cause one with that of. all Central Italy. In
real truth, however, the Sardinian Government are:
only confounded and stultified by the dark and
crooked policy of higher Powers. Tliey and their
agent here, Count Pallieri, than whom there is
neither a more honourable nor, under ordinary cir
cumstances, a more able man, are plainly at a loss
how to act. Their presesst plan is to proceed to a
convocation of the comitia, or popular election,
directing Pallieri to resign immediately after the
promulgation of the decree, that the public suffrage
may be said to emanate free from all influence on
the part of Piedmont. There is no doubt as to the
results of a vote obtained under present circum-
stances ; it would be almost unanimous in favour
of immediate, unconditional, and irrevocable an-
nexation to Piedmont. My impression, however,
is that no time will be allowed for such an appeal
to public suffrage ; and that what was quite feasible
a fortnight ago, has become almost utterly imprac-
ticable at the present stage of the crisis. I have
told you already that Count Reisset has been sent
from Paris to persuade the people of Central
Italy to submit to their Este. Of course, a pacific
mission of that nature would be void of effect.
But in the meantime a French division, 10,000
men strong, has occupied 'Piacenza. I have no
doubt we shall have one-half of that force here,
if not to-morrow, at least in a very few days.
With 6,000 French bayonets to back her, the
Duchess will not hesitate to come forth with a pro-
clamation, appealing to popular suffrage to declare
in her favour, and then, under such circumstances,
the people's vote will be loud enough in her behalf ;
for that she has a party in the country no one need
doubt, and that party, which is quiet and invisible
enough at the present moment, will take courage
in the same measure, as the Moderate Liberal party
is disheartened by the display of French force.
I beg you to observe, however, that besides the
Ducal and the Piedmontese, or Moderate Liberal
party, there is also a third party, which is already
giving unmistakeable symptoms of its readiness to
hatch mischief.
This is the Ultra-Liberal, Red Republican, or
Mazzini party, the visible and acknowledged head
of which is a young, hot-headed advocate, named
Ermelonghi. This is the man who was the author
of the first abortive revolutionary movement of
Parma of the Ist of May last. These men, or the
most desperate of them, have been organised into
a kind of brotherhood of the dagger ever since the
murder of the Duke in 1854, and have had a hand
in all the bloody deeds which followed close upon
the first assassination for the whole of the follow-
ing year. These men are now armed, and belong
to
the ranks of the National Guards. Their numbers
are daily increased by the return of hundreds and
thousands of volunteers who have lately broken loose
from the Piedmontese regiments in which they had
enlisted, and from the various volunteer corps which
went out to fight in Lombardy, and which are ex-
tremely loud in their denunciations of the ill-
treatment they have met with.at the hands of their
Piedmontese officers, and of the "t eason" of which
the Sardinian Government is glty towards he
national cause. In short, 1859 threatens to he a
rehearsal of all the disorders of 1849, and the down-