The Sun.
London, England, 1861-07-20 00:00:00

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THE SUN.
LONDON, SATURDAY, JULY 20, 1861.

The Sardinian question was before the House of
Commons last night. The country is indebted to
Mr. KINGLARE and Sir ROBERT PEEL for it. We
need not say, after what we have more than once
written on the subject, that it is a very great one.
If France went wrong upon it, it must issue in a
speedy and deadly war. If Italy surrendered the
island to anything but open force, England could
not easily forgive her. Indebted as she is to France,
she is quite as much indebted to England. Indeed,
we believe that it is not too much to say, that for
her vast advances since the ignominious peace of
Villafranca, she owes the non-intervention, which
gave her free scope to act as she pleased, from the
Po to the Island of Sieily—to the English Govern-
ment and the English fleet. A painful alienation,
therefore, from Italy must be the result of her sur-
rendering Sardinia, and with it the mastery of the
Mediterranean, to France; while with France itself
it would speedily come to a test of the strength of
the new ironsides. of the two countries.
We have already given fully the opinion of the
one man who knew, if any did, the naval value of
Sardinia. It was worth, said Lord NELSON, forty
Maltas. The harbour of Maddalena would hold
our whole fleet, and were it in the possession of a
great naval power not one ship could pass to the
eastward. In every form of language the great
Admiral expressed his conviction that France must
not have Sardinia, and that if she had the Mediter-
ranean must become a French lake. We cannot,
therefore, wonder if the present NAPOLEON would
like to carry out the "Ideas" of the First NAPO-
LEON, it being notorious that he was as bent on
having Sardinia, as Lord NELSON in keeping it
from him. His only crime in getting it into his
hands would be that of unscrupulous ambition ;
one to which, we presume, he would little care to
plead guilty, and one for which his people would
most certainly be ready to bestow all the honours
they could give—if only he was successful. Nothing
in the world, we believe, would keep him from an-
nexing Sardinia off hand, but the attitude of Eng-
land, Italy he is at present able to coerce. She
bas not the fleet and army to keep him out of Sar-
dinia. The evidence is now brought to light
that he did coerce Count CAVOUR in the
affair of Savoy and Nice ; the Count resisted to
the last, and the threat of the military oc-
cupation of Tuscany alone compelled him to
yield. Similar threats will be employed by
the master of Rome, if only England does not
formally tell him that the alternative is a rupture,
and one that must end in war, with
us.

The grounds of suspicion in regard to France are
very strong. The rumours to which we have again
and again adverted are indeed themselves strong
grounds. In the case of the EMPEROR they are a
very different thing to what they would be in any
other quarter. All his preparations for deeds of this
kind have been begun by rumours, intended not
merely as feelers, but as the means of accustoming
Europe to the idea on which he wished to act. Our
Government itself has acted on these rumours both
at Turin and Paris. Last year Count CAVOIIR was
formally questioned on the subject and warned of
our views ; M. TIIOUVENFL also was informed of
what we had heard; both the Sardinian and French
Ministers gave the most emphatic assurances that
nothing of the kind was contemplated. The sub-
ject was soon brought a second time by Lord
COWLEY before M. THOUYENEL, because sinister
rumours had again reached England, but, alas ! we
are not informed by our Government how Lord
COWLEY and M. TROUVENEL settled this rather
awkward questioning of French sincerity.
One very suspicious fact is, however, too special
to be passed over. Count CAVOUR, Mr. KIN GLAXE
Says, applied to a gentleman well known to her
Majesty's Ministers to visit the Island, and to make
personal inquiries as to whether any French machi-
nations were actually in progress. The gentleman
naturally asked the Count what progress he had
made with his negotiations, and whether the island
was to be ceded ? Count Cavouß's answer was—
" 2he -EnTer" of the _French is always pressing
me ; hitherto I have held out ! " Precisely what
he could have said about Savoy and Nice, till the
moment when the master of the half-million sol-
diers pointed to his arra,. The gentleman went
and found two committees of annexation formed.
The detective was no other than Sir -int
—OBERT PEEL,
the committee-former no other than