The Sun.
London, England, 1859-10-15 00:00:00

.AFFeIIRS OF ITALY.

A letter from Turin, dated October 11, says :
The conclusion of peace, although delayed by acci-
dental causes, may yet be regarded as a fact, and
immediately about to be announced. The impor-
tunities with which the Sardinian Government is
visited from Paris are such that it seems not to be
prudent to persevere in any longer resistance to
them. There are not wanting some persons who
blame this deference on the part of our Goverment,
and allege that it has not managed to obtain any
important modification of the first article of the pre-
liminaries of Villafranca. In reality, the frontier
line has been left, as I told you, precisely the same
as it was marked out by the armistice. As for the
debt charged upon Piedmont, Austria has certainly
obtained a great deal, though it may seem but little
compared with her strange and exorbitant demands.
Ati any rate, the present Sardinian Government
defends itself with this consideration, that King
Victor Emmanuel receives Lombardy such as
France chooses to hand it over to him, since it is
to France that Austria has ceded it. This would not
have happened if Count Cavour had not been re-
moved from the ministry. I believe I am accurately
informed when I assert that he would have advised

the King not t) accept Lombardy except on condi
tion that this net should be preceded by the free vote
of the population. You may well understand that
th;s fact would have altered the character of the
Conferences of Zurich, and would have invested
Piedmont with an authority and a right which she
does not at present enjoy. But the strategy
adopted preparatory to arriving at the Villafranca
preliminaries of peace was to deprive Count CAvour
of power. It is, perhaps, useless to refer to these
circumstances now, but as they belong to history, I
have thought it worth while to mention them.
The exemplary quiet and order of Central Italy
have been unfortunately and culpably disturbed by
the atrocious homicide of Count Anviti. But if the
iniquities, the provocations, and the imprudence of a
wicked instrument. of tyranny could diminish the
guilt of those who immolated him, without trial and
mercilessly, to popular vengeance, this would be the
case. He was the most shameless and the most
odious satellite of all the blackguards of that
Caligula in duodecimo, the late Dake of Parma,
Carlo 111. Nevertheless, Parma would not now
have to deplore, along with all Italy, the commis-
sion of such a misdeed, but that all organisation of
a police force was lacking, and ever since the hor-
rible times of the late Duke the people have been
urged by despair to defend themselves by the
agency of the secret societies, and to arm them-
selves with daggers, to one which the Duke him-
self fell a victim. The effects of all this could not
disappear in one moment, and the populace of the
city could not forge; all at once the habit which had
been imparted to them of witnessing revolting scenes
of violence and torment. Zustice will, however, be
done. Yesterday evening the dictator Farini arrived
at Parma, in order to make speedier and more ener-
getic arrangements. France might therefore have
abstained from passing such a bitter though indirect
censure on the government of Parma as she did by
publishing in her semi-official journals an announce-
ment that if the crime were not promptly punished,
her representative, Cavaliere Paltrinieri, had orders
to withdraw. I cannot tell you how much public
opinion has been agitated bythe sad event at Parma,
and, in general, by the inactivity of which the pre-
sent ministry are accused with respect to Central
Italy. If lam to judge from the signs which seem
to me per6epticle, some course will quickly be de-
cided upon ; and the Sardinian troops would al-
ready have entered Partna, if Commendatore Rat-
tezzi had been present at the last cabinet council,
but he has been confined to his bed for several days
by indisposition. The times are becominr, difficult,
and it is to be hoped that the courage which they
require will not be wanting. The clergy here be-
have quietly so far, though the circular letters des-
patched from Rome to the bishops throughout
Europe command them to get up a general levee de
boucliers, and you have doubtless read the curious
pastorals and protests of many of the French bi-
shops. The greatest impression has been produced
here by the publication of Monseigneur Dupanloup,
who, as a Sovoyard, is a born subject of King
Victor Emmanuel's, yet speaks of him in the most
irreverent manner possible. The Piedmontese and
other Italians read his letter out of mere curiosity,
then fold up the paper, and shrug their shoulders.
We shall see whether it will be received with the
same good sense in France.