The Sun.
London, England, 1859-02-05 00:00:00

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institutions or with the principles adopted by his Imperial
and Royal Majesty for the internal government of his Italian
provinces.' It is impossible to render morp apparent the
hand of Austria. Evidently under such a stipulation it may
be said that it rules at Naples as at Milan. But will King
Ferdinand, who in 1847 freed himself from that domination,
always feel himself protected by it? If it is permitted to be-
lieve that he feels the humiliation as well as the embarrass-
ment of it, and that he would be happy to lend a hand to
an organisation which, without prejudicing the prerogatives
of which he is so jealous, would permit him to bb an Italian
prince, and to win back the sympathies of the intelligent
men from; whom he cannot remain divorced the whole of
his reign.
"At Florence the Grand Duke Leopold has seen eclipsed
the brilliant popularity which encircled him before 1848,
and the fruits of which he gathered in his spontaneous re-
storation to the throne. Between him and his people
stand the bayonets of Austria. Austrian domination presses
on Tuscany as on Naples. There is also a contract which
confirms it. A treaty of alliance, offensive and defensive,
between the Emperor of Austria and the Grand Duke of
Tuscany delivers this part of Italy to the powerful hand
which reaches over her in the north, as in the centre and
the south. In order that this situation should cease, that
Florence should again become Italian, as in the times of the
Medici, and that her Princes should recover their popula-
rity, a national Government and an Italian army are as
much needed in Tuscany as in the Roman States.
"At Parma the Grand Duchess has resisted better than
elsewhere the influence of Austria, which she has not per-
mitted up to the present to have a garrison in her States.
It is a good example ; and it is worthy of remark, that this
inspiration of patriotism should emanate from the heart of
a woman. But the Duchess of Parma, like all the Sove-
reigns of Central Italy, is bound by treaties and by policy ;
she belongs to Austria, and until Italy recover now life she
cannot withdraw herself from that yoke.
"As to the DIA° of Modena, he is the admitted Lieu-
tenant of Austria ; he has the frankness of his situation.
In 1847 he did not hesitate to call upon the Austrians to
combat, not the revolution, which had not yet raised its
head, but the national movement of which Pius IX. was'
the chief. I have behind the Po,' he wrote some time
previous, a reserve of 300,000 men.' The 24th of Decem-
ber, 1847, he signed a treaty of alliance with the Cabinet of
Vienna, and by the 11th article of that treaty he granted
to the Emperor the right of marching the Imperial troops
on the territory of -Modena, of garrisoning lns forts with
them every time the interest of the common defence and
military precautions should require it. This alliance did
not hinder him from quitting Modena on the 21st of
March, 1848, after having instituted a regency, charged
with granting reforms which might be judged useful, and
giving to the Duchy a representative statute on the basis of
that of Piedmont. It is thus that at Modena, as in all the
States of Italy where it is established, Austrian domination
keeps up the revolutionary element, which can only be
dominated and annihilated by the national element.
" Such is the actual state of the Peninsula ; at Rome
antagonism between the Ecclesiastical Government and the
interests of civil society, isolation of the Sovereign in the
very midst of the respect which surrounds the Pontiff;
French occupation indefinite ; at Turin, excitement of the
national feeling that may lead to war, and rupture with
Rome that may end in schism ; at Milan, universal protest
on the part of nationality, beaten down but still living,
against the sovereigntyy. of Austria ; at Naples, at Parma, at
Florence, at Modena—in every place where Austria governs
by her treaties, by her counsels, which are commands, and
by her garrisons ; revolt of the Italian feeling, capable of
degenerating into revolution ; in a word, an Italy where the
greatest recollections of history are effaced or blasted by the
greatest misfortunes, where the most essential interests of
society, religion, order, independence of people, authority
of princes, are endangered or lost, and where rise up as a
reproach, and as a permanent danger for Europe and its
civilisation, sufferings to which humanity and policy cannot
remain indifferent;—such is the picture presented to our
view on the other side of the Alps. In producing it here, in
its melancholy truth, we accuse no one • we wish only that
opinion shall decide, with a complete knowledge of affairs,
not if such a situation is just, but if it is possible.
" IX.

" At the Congress of Paris i'rance and England perfectly
agreed that it was advisable to make Naples and Vienna
hearken to good advice. That desire, which found nothing
but sympathy in the assembly of the Plenipotentiaries, be-
came the point de depart of a negotiation which required, as
the first condition of success, the co-operation of Austria.
Rome was first taken into consideration. Tho Cabinet of
Vienna and that of the Tuileries mutually explained their
views on this grave subject, and both endeavoured to come
to an understanding to propose to the Pope a plan of reforms
the urgency and necessity of which were contested by no
one.

" The Emperor's Government wished clearly to define its
principles in this plan, which may be thus intimated :
" Secularisation of the administrative power by the for-
mation of a Council of State, consisting of laymen, charged
to examine and discuss the laws; . _ _

"Representation of all the interests of the country in a
Consultum elected directly by the provincial councils, or at
least selected by the Pope from a list of candidates pre-
sented by those councils and called upon to deliberate on all
the laws, and to vote the Budget ;
" An efficacious control over local expenses by provincial
councils, receiving their mission from the municipal coun-
cils, which themselves are nominated by electors, conform-
ably to the edict of the 24th of November, 1850 ;
" Judicial reform, by the promulgation of a code of laws
on the plan of the ' Code Napoleon,' or the Code Lom-
bardo-Venetian,' or that of Naples ;
" A regular levying of taxes, according to the system
adopted in France ;
"Finally, reconciliation of all classes and all opinions by
the enlightened and paternal exercise of clemency towards
all those willing to snake respectful submission to the Sove •
reign Pontiff.
" Such were the bases of the project sent from Paris to
Vienna in the month of .Itine, 1857. The Austrian Govern-
ment made immense modifications, and submitted, in return,
a counter-project where all guarantees of control proposed
by France had nearly disappeared.
" Under the circumstances, France thought, with reason,
that it was better not to do anything than to join Austria in
blowing soap bubbles and deceiving the expectations of the
populations by sham reforms, when what they essentially
required were serious improvements.
"By refusing her co-operation to serious reforms, after
having frankly admitted their principle, we admit that
Austria obeyed a political sentiment, which we cannot
blame, but cannot acknowledge. Not being able to make
reforms in her Italian provinces, she cannot allow them to
be made in other parts of Italy. She fully understood this
in 1815, when she forbade the King of Naples by the
secret article of the treaty already quoted to introduce
reforms which could not be reconciled with tho principles
she had adopted in the internal arrangement of her
Italian provinces. M. de Metternich, with that keen glance
which was peculiar to him, thus laid down the principle of
the situation which has since arisen and which henceforth
can deceive no one.
"To ask Austria to exercise a milder and more liberal
rule in Lombardy would be simply to ask her to commit
suicide. It is evident she cannot maintain her rule in
Upper Italy, except by the strong hand ; every atom of
liberty conceded by her to that conquered country would be
made use of as a weapon towards enfranchisement. But
this is not all, and this was well understood by M. de Met-
ternich in 1815. Place the Roman States, Naples and
Tuscany, under a better system of government, and the
first effect of this change would necessarily be to create a
bond between those States and Lombardy the pressure of
which would immediately be felt by Austria.
"Thus Austria would not be menaced only by the re-
forms she might introduce into her own provinces, but also
by those introduced into these independent States.
' She is condemned to oppose a firm resistance to every
innovation ; immobility is the absolute condition of her
power. It is, therefore, impossible to obtain her co-opera-
tion, and without that nothing can be done at Rome, at
Naples, in the Duchies, wherever her power is feared and
her impulsions obeyed. We must therefore come to the
sad conclusion that the wishes of the Congress of Paris for
the improvement of the government of the Peninsula are
sterile, and that the negotiations in which France took the
initiative consequent upon the Congress are powerless. At
least, these negotiations without a result will testify to the
sincere desire which animated the Emperor's Government
to remedy a state of things prejudicial to the quiet of
Europe and to the interests of civilisation.
"Between the impossibility of a reform and the immi-
nent dangers of a status quo what does there remain tor
Italy ? How will she get out of the dilemma
"Will it be by the desperate resource of a revolution ?
This means would not only be dangerous—it would be of
no avail. Let us demonstrate it once for all
"Enthusiastic revolutionists of eveed wi every country
their untryhave
common passions and illusions. nf,
tu
n a
.t rb ael Iye
esratut
ab
isut ittiue
st e. heir ru s ideas,afnor
strangers to realities, they
tastic ideas for more appreTa
instance they have long fancied, and still fancy, that there
is nothing so easyas to arouse Italy and drive the Austrians
beyond the Alps. This betrays more ignorance than pre-
sumption. The slightest knowledge of strategical positions
would convince any man. We maintain, without fear of
denial by any competent authority, that if all Italy were to
rise from the Gulf of Taranto to the Alps the Austrian
army might certainly suffer partial losses, but, in the long
run, would be always able again to make herself mistress
of the Italian peninsula.
"In fact, revolutions produce enthusiasts, but seldom
practised warriors, or a solid military organisation, or that
immense materiel requisite to struggle with a great Power
like Austria. Italy alone could not defend her indepen-
dence, unless capable of bringing 200,000 disciplined men
into the field, of which 20,000 should be cavalry, 500 field
pieces, and 200 siege guns, which implies at least 50,000
draught horses. This simple statement shows that it
would require at least 10 years of a strong and energetic
Government to produce such a military power.
" It must also be admitted that nature has done much
to protect Austrian domination in Italy, and what nature
has done has been strengthened and increased by the hand
of man. Upper Italy is a large plain, bordered on the
north by the Alps, on the south by the Appenines, on 'the
east and west by the sea. That plain is traversed by large
and deep rivers, as the Ticino, the Po, the Adda, the
Mincio, the Adige, the Brenta, the Piave, the Livenza, the
Tagliamento. All these rivers offer admirable lines of
defence to Austria, who has covered the chief passages by
forts which art has rendered almost impregnable.
" Let us even suppose that by most extraordinary cir-
cumstances an Italian army should have arrived triumph-
antly as far as the Adige, and that the insurrection should
have spread through the flat country. Let us even suppose--
what is scarcely probable—that fortresses like Pavia, Pla-
centia, Ferrara, Brescia, Bret-sera, Pizzighitone, pcschiera,u
Mantua, Milan, Laveno, la Rocca d'Anzo, Prag
Venice, Osppo, Palma Nuova, should have fallenhie into the
hands of the victor. Well the game would nuotd
the
Alips
Austria ;for, if Italy is her battle-field, Tyrol
of Carinthia are real fortresses, of which -Veroana,
and an outpost
with its
immense fortifications, is a retrenched camp,
capable of holding 50,000 men.
" Well I Let us suppose Austriaatiyvetno
enjcukytoittshme
0A en;
she may allow the whole Italian
waiyunwsphruich ck 7
snhe from
can
from
tart' triumph. With her linevsio arenuf retail
u
Verona to Trieste, and
and by the new routes she has traced
forward fresh armies,
out which lead to the Alps, either by Bassano, or Vicenza,
or Verona, or Lake Idra, or Lake Iseo, or the Lake of Como,
she can fall suddenly upon the flanks and rear of the enemy,
t off all his communications, and throw him back in the
twinwing of an eye beyond the Po, repeating the victorious
anoeuire of Marshal Radetzki in 1848.
n 6, From these facts a military man will at once admit that