The Sun.
London, England, 1859-09-01 00:00:00

TUSCANY.

The following is the text of the memorandum
addressed by the Tuscan Government to the Euro-
pean Cabinets, and which has been already briefly
alluded to in a tElegraphie despach :--
" The causes which produced in Tuscany the na-
tional movement of the 27th April, and the circum-
stances in the midst of which the State was aban-
doned by the then reigning prince and by the whole
of the grand ducal family, are already too well
known to be necessary to repeat them. What it is
important, however, to state, is the perfect unani-
mity of all Tuscans in the Italian sentiment ; the
wonderful order maintained in times of such diffi-
culty ; and the accord, constant and full of dignity,
of all wills, both as to the object in view and as to
the means considered best calculated to attain it.
And if, on the one side, we witness such things, on
the other there may be pointed out an invincible
obstinacy, fist to oppose the most noble and the
most legitimate wishes of Tuscany, and afterwards
a contempt of those same wishes, and of national
opinion, to the extent of seeking an asylum in the
camp of our enemies, and of Lighting on their side
against the Italian arms.

" These facts were already known when the news
of the unexpected piece of Villafranca arrived in
Tuscany. The whole country was deeply affected
by that intelligence, not only because, in presence
of the gre It hopes which had been raised, the gene-
ral cause of Italy received a grievous blow, but also
because certain articles in that treaty inspired a
fear of the dynasty of Lorraine being restored in
Tuscany.

" The calmest minds and those most versed in
political affairs endeavoured to remove the gencial
anxiety by calling to mind the general sympathies
of the Emperor Napoleon 111. for the Italian
people, and his noble words relative to respect for
their legitimate wishes, and by concluding that it
was absurd to fear that the French Government,
which, by the participation taken in the war by
the Tuscan army under the orders of an Imperial
Prince, 'had sanctioned the fall of the Loraine
dynasty by supporting the movement against its
throne, would afterwards effect a restoration by
force, or tolerate that others should do so. T .ese
prudent words were listened to, and the country
was restored to the most perfect calm. Every one
reacquired confidence in the destinies of his coun-
try, but it was impossible not to conceal from our-
selves that our future fate was subject to great
uncertainty. With the peace ceased the protec
torate of the King of Sardinia, and the commis-
sioner extraordinary left Florence and transferred
the supreme authority to the Ministry in the same

manner as the Provisional Government had trans-
mitted it to him by its decree of the 11th May.
" tinder such serious circumstances, the Govern-
ment of Tuscany felt the duty and necessity of im-
mediately convoking the national representation.
The Constitutional Charter of 1848 still incontest-
ably represented the public rights of Tuscany,
since no one could doubt the illegality of the
Grand Ducal decree of 1852 which had abolished
it by a coup d'etat. It was, therefore, decided
that the elections should be proceeded with accord-
ing to the enactments of the law of March 3,
1848. The law itself was extended and liberal
enough at the time it was decreed, and the succes-
sive increase of the family had rendered it still
more so by considerably increasing the number of
the electors. This law, moreover, presented the
additional advantage that, emanating as it did from
the Grand Ducal Government, the partisans of the
latter, both at home and abroad, would not be able
to approach it with giving results in disaccord with
the true state of public opinion.
" So many and such grave considerations deter-
mined the Tuscan Government to convoke the As-
sembly according to the provisions of the law of
March 3, 1848, as well as to decree a new one.
One subject of alarm for some, and of hope herhaps
for others, was to see a nation, so long accustomed
to any act of political life, and who was now called
on to accomplish one so serious in the midst of cir-
cumstances so calculated to excite anxiety and pas-
sions, fail in the trial. The Tuscan people came out
of it, on the contrary, in giving striking proofs of
patiotism and good sense. Admirable order, the
enormous affluence of electors, the concord which
reigned in the elections, and the nomination of re-
presentatives who are in different ways the illus-
tration of the country, eloquently showed that Tus•
cany was worthy of the independence and the
liberty which she claims from the justice of Europe.
" The National Assembly, regularly convoked,
regularly assembled, and legally deliberating, has
put forth two decisions which in substance only
form one, because, when united, they correspond
to the object of the convocation of the Assembly,
in providing for the definitive organisation of the
country.
" It has adopted a first resolution, which de-
clares the reign of the Austro-Loraine dynasty to
be irrevocably finished in Tuscany. It has also
passed a second resolution, which declares that the
will of the Tuscan people is to form part of a
powerful Italian kingdom, under the constitutional
sceptre of King Victor Emmanuel 11.
" We believe it necessary to speak of each of
these resolutions apart, in order to show not only
the full right which the Tuscan National Assembly
had to adopt them, but the grave political reasons
which recommend the sanction of them to all the
Governments.
" That Tuscany, abandoned to herself and left
without a government, had a right to elect a go-
vernment in conformity with her sentiments and
interests, is a truth so elementary that it needs no
demonstration. It will be sufficient to cite, in
proof of this, an authority which in the present
case can meet with no objection, that of the Grand
Duke Leopold 11. himself. That prince, in his de-
cree of the 12th May, 1848, relative to annexation
to Tuscany of the provinces of Massa, Carrara,
Garfaguana, and Lunigiana, solemnly proclaimed
the principle which we here invoke, and did so on
the same facts and for the same reasons.
" The hostile sentiments of a sovereign against
the country he governs constitute, according to the
international law of all times and all civilised na-
tions, another motive of the gravest kind for de-
priving him of the rights of sovereignty. Sove-
reignty is the protection of a people, and not hatred
of and war against them. Now there are unfortu•
nately too many proofs of the sentiments of hos-
tility of the Loraine dynasty to Tuscany. Belve-
dere, the asylum sought in Austria during the war,
and Solferino proclaim those sentiments so clearly
that we abstain, from moderation and from regard
for propriety, from insisting on the subject. W hat
can be said too of the violation of faith which
took place by calling foreign soldiers into
the country, and by destroying, by the abolition of
the statute, the fundamental compact which bound
the Prince to the people ?
" But if the right of the Tuscans not to accept
the Lorraine dynasty is incontestable, not less
evident arc the political reasons—not only in them-
selves, but as regards the general tranquillity of
Italy and the world—which imperatively counsel
all the Governments of Europe to accept and sanc-
tion the wishes of Tuscany. The consequences of
a restoration of the Lorraine Dynasty in Tuscany
would be so politically fatal that no statesman
can regard them without dismay. The conduct
and the tendencies of. the Lorraine dynasty during
the last ten years have raised up between it and
Tuscany a barrier which cannot be passed. If a
sovereign of the fallen dynasty were to return to
Tuscany ; he would do so—no illusion in this
respect shonld be entertained—with the profound
and invincible sentiments of hatted against the
whole country, embracing in his aversion all
classes of society, the highest as well as the
lowest. The country would respond to such senti-
ments by sentiments still more hostile. Profound
animosity on one hand, incurable distrust on the
other—that is what would prevail between the
rulers and the governed. Mutual repugnance and
personal divisions would render any Government
impossible. Tuscany would become the permanent
centre of the revolution and would reduce the
peace of Italy to a dream. Where would be the
force of the restored Government, where its sup-
port, where would it find the authority and the
means of governing ? In all countries where re-
volutionary agitators are to be found the army is
the natural guardian of public tranquillity and the
natural defender of the Government. But in Tuscany
it is precisely the army which more than any other

class of citizens is compromised with regard to the
dynasty of Loraine, which more energetically

than any other has manifested its reprobation of
the anti-national conduct of that dynasty, and
which more than any other bas actively contri-
buted to its fall. It is easy to determine after that

what would be the tendencies and the spirit of the

Tuscan army. The dynasty must therefore have
recourse to auxiliary troops, to foreign interven-

tion, and then would begin again with more ter

rible intensity that series of violent proceedings on
the one hand, and revolutionary conspiracies on the

other, of oppression and vengeance, which have at-
tracted the attention of the world on this unhappy
Italy, and proved the necessity of applying a re-
medy for her numberless grievances.

It is important to remark that Austria, though
obliged by the fortune of war to consent to the
peace of Villafranca will never accept it heartily

and sincerely. She will, always be ready to seize
any opportunity either to recover Lombardy or to
resume her former position in the rest of hely, and

with that view will ever be ready to avail herself

of any European complications that may arise.
Already the journals most devoted to Austria

make no mystery of these projects. Should it so
happen, Italy ought and wonld again make a

great national effort to preserve the immunities
obtained by the bravery of the Franco-Italian
army, the exploits of King Victor-Emmanuel, and
the powerful and generous co-operation of the

Emperor of the French. With an Austrian dy-
navty in Tuscany, we should be again in the same

position as on the 27th of April. But no one
prctcnd that a country can be always risking
its destiny and welfare in a continual alternation
o! revolutions and restorations.

The questions now pending between Tuscany
and the dynasty of Loraine may be thus summed
up :--The question is whether the vanquished shall
give the law to the victors—whether a civilised
ation, which has given proofs of all the civic

virtuks ouglat to be sacrificed to those who are
maninstly disposed to pay no attention to such
t Lies ; whether the ambition and interests of one
family shall outweigh the interests and will of two
millions of men ? Let Europe ayid the public con-
science decid?..

"'l'..e Tuscan Government, although diplomatic
communications are still wanting, is nevertheless'
aware that great importance is given in diploma-
tic circles to a pretended abdication of Leopold
and a pretended programme of his son Ferdinand,
containing ample promises of liberal institutions and

Italian policy. It is on that abdication and those
promises that are more especially based the counsels
of a friendly Government, to the effect that Tuscany
should not refuse to consent to the restoration of
the deposed family. In order to yield to such sug-
gestions Tuscany must first forget all her history
during these latter times, and numerous violations
of sworn faith ; she must also forget that the fallen
dynasty was so completely assimilated with the
interests and passions of Austria as to be incom-
patible with the feelings and interests of the coun-
try. She would also have to forget the presence at
Modena of this same Archduke Ferdinand, who, all
impatience and anxiety, there awaited the issue of
the battle of Magenta, in order to return into Tus-
cany at the head of the Austrians, if the latter had
been victorious in that battle. The name of Sol-
ferino should also be razed from the pages of his-
tory. Wbat a singular example of public morality!
A prince who seeks refuge in the camp of the ene-
mies of his country, who fights against it at their
side, and who, when the allies whom he chose
are vanquished, says to those against whom
he had fought, and whose defeat he had hoped
for, ' Now I am one of you!' The sentiment
of her own security, as well as that of
reciprocal dignity, will not allow Tuscany to
subscribe to this humiliating capitulation, extorted
by defeat and the fruit of too long delayed re-
pentance.

"In tracing out this rapid sketch of the conse-
quences which a restoration might give birth to in
Tuscany, we have abstained from considering the
hypothesis that such restoration might be brought
about by foreign intervention. We have abstained
from it because assurances emanating from a high
authority, and coming to us from different quar-
ters, guarantee the impossibility of such a calamity;
we have done so because, after the events which
have been accomplished in Tuscany, a foreign in-
tervention to re-establish at the point of the bayonet
an Austrian archduke on an Italian throne would
be a thing so enormous that even to think of such
an act for a moment would be not only an absurdity
but a gratuitous insult towards a friendly Govern-
ment.

" The Tuscan Government is not ignorant that,
intervention being rejected and excluded as impos-
sible, there are people who think that the same
object may be attained by other means. There
are some who speak of the not recognising the
vote of Tuscany, and of abandoning her to herself
until htr state of political uncertainty and the con-
sequences resulting from it, shall bring about in
one manner or another the wished-for restoration.
Would that be an act of justice or of political
prudence ? We feel a firm conviction that such a
plan would not succeed, because Tuscany -would
remain united, calm, and disciplined; but if un-
fortunately the contrary should happen, can it be
relied on that agitation in Tuscany would not ex-
tend to other parts of Italy, and not become the
starting point for new and terrible complications ?
A sanguinary war has just been carried on to re-
store tranquillity to Italy, and to destroy a hotbed
of incessant perils for the peace of Europe, and
the country could not again be thrown back into
a state which would form the foundation for future
agitations. Romagna, and the provinces of Mo-
dena and Parma, are in a situation similar to ours,
and naturally the same system would be applied
to them. Thus, therefore, if certain eventualities
were to be realised, upwards of four millions of
Italians, ii the centre of Italy, would be in a state
of agitation from revolutionary disorders, and
Europe would look on impassible and indifferent !
And if, to the disgrace of such a system, the people
should persist in not recalling the dethroned princes,
and that agitation should become anarchy, what
would Europe do ? Would she allow anarchy to
give itself up to all excesses and the people to destroy
each other ? Would she interfere ? And in that
case would it be Austria or France to do so, either
separately or together ? Each of these hypotheses
is a political impossibility. Thus, the Tuscan Go-
vernment, confident in the wisdom and the equity
of the great powers, feels a firm conviction that
after having coolly weighed the system above-
mentioned, and after having looked at its useless
and dangerous effects, they will all agree in regard-
ing it as impracticable.
" But in declaring that the reign of the Austro-
Loraine dynasty is at an end in Tuscany, the
National Assembly had not entirely accomplished
its mandate, inasmuch as such a vote was not suf-
ficient to provide for the definitive organisation of
the State. It, therefore, came to a second resolu-
tion, unanimous like the first, declaring that the
will of Tuscany was to form part of a powerful
constitutional kingdom under the sceptre of King
Victor Emmanuel. The communal representatives,
interpreting the public wish, recently adopted a
resolution in conformity with all this. The mu-
nicipal deliberations on this subject are of 225
communes, in which are comprised the cities of
Florence and Leghorn, and all the other important
towns of Tuscany. To give an idea of the im-
mense majority which the resolution has obtained,
we will confine ourselves to saying that out of
1,350 suffrages 1,297 were for, and only 53 agains.
Thus, the resolution of the National Assembly has
already, as an expression of public opinion, a pre-
cedent which shows all the importance and value
of it. Numerous and powerful reasons have dic-
tated this wish, and numerous and powerful ones
recommend it to the sanction of Europe.
" The principal, or, to to speak more correctly, the
sole and exclusive, character of the Italian move-
ment of 1859, is the sentiment of nationality. That
is so true that no question of the internal form of
government has this time, as was unfortunately
the case in 1848, disturbed the aspiration of the Ita-
lians for national independence. All the Italian
populations, on the contrary, have applauded the
temporary restriction of constitutional liberties in
Piedmont, because they considered the measure
useful for the good conduct of the war the subject
of all their thoughts.
" The resolution adopted by the Tuscan Assem-
bly in the sitting of the 20th of this month was
principally inspiredly that sentiment of nationality,
and by the wish to satisfy it. When Austria pre-
serves a strong position in Italy, which may be-
come still more formidable, if the confederation of
which there is a question in the preliminaries of
Villafranca should be established, the necessity of
constituting in Italy a powerful state, the most
powerful possible under present circumstances,
becomes manifest to everybody. It is, on the one
hand, a necessity of defence, and, on the other, a
necessity of equilibrium, without which the con-
federation proposed will never be possible. That
this attachment to the national cause, and this pa-
triotic foresight, weighed greatly in the resolution
adopted by the National Assembly, and that they
now prevail in public opinion, is clearly proved by
the circumstance that the number of 'partisans of
the union of Tuscany and Piedmont was greatly
augmented after the peace of Villafranca. As long as
the war lasted, and it was hoped that, the Austrians
being driven out of the Peninsula, the kingdom of
Upper Italy would have seen its force increased by
that of Venetia, the independence of Tuscany had
its partisans. But they have now disappeared, and
Athy ? Because in Tuscany the Italiam idea domi-

nates all others. There are, perhaps, few people
who would be disposed f o reproach us with that.
But if, under present circumstances, Tuscany had
displayed various aspirations, those who now consi-
der our wish as excessive would have reproached

us with our old municipal rivalities, and with our
petty local quarrels, and would haveconcluded that
the Italians are incorrigible and unworthy to he-