The Sun.
London, England, 1861-04-24 00:00:00

TYE ITALIAN REVOirlllo:j.

If it be true that " history is philosophy teaching
by example," it may nnt,be useless, to compare the
events now passing in'ltaly- with the circumstances
of other great revolutions: • Let us turn over:the
chronicles bf the first French Revolution. let- us
pause for a moment at the memorable time when
the destruction of the old Monarchy had been con-
summated in France. We may pass on a few more
months, and, we find-that the King had been put to
death and his* office had been abolished, the nobility
were in exile, and the Church had been s wept away.
The ground had been cleared, but nothing had been
built up in the place of what had been destroyed.
There was a weak Government and a distracted
people. Many, close observers have thought that if
France could at this 'moment have called to her
service a few courageous men and bad met with
some forbearance from her neighbours she might
have been spared all that she afterwards endured.
It was the 'time to consolidate and rebuild, and she
' was not allowed quiet for the task. What had passed
was the fury of wrong long endured ; what followed
was the ferocity of fear. Even Robespierre con-
sented only through terror to the murder of Marie
Antoinette ; even Barrere, the chief murderer, saw
in " waves of blood" only the necessary means of
his own safety. Even earlier still, Robespierre is
said to have decided his hesitating companions,. de-
liberating upon the fate of the King, by asking,
"If the King is innocent, then what are you?" The
Reign of Terror, with all its horrors, was a frenzy
of cowardice. The priesthood would not wait ami
let the storm pass over, but would excite anti-
revolutionary action in every parish. The emigrant
noblesse would not wait for the moment of return
to calm sentiments. Europe would not wait, but
poured her invading armies upon the frontiers.
There was insurrection at Toulon and at Lyons,
there were conspiracies in Paris, there was disaster
on the frontiers, there was retribution imminent,
rand there was a weak and a poor Government.
Then it was that the French Revolution became
horribly formidable in its desperation. It made
itself temporarily safe by the wholesale massacre'of
every one it feared, temporarily rich by the whole-
sale confiscation of the property of its enemies, and
triumphant in war by creating armies even out of
the miseries itself had created. This fact, that it
was terror which created terror, has not, we think,
been sufficiently dwelt upon by the historians of
those times ; but it should not be lost sight of now,
when we have again to deal with successful revolu-
tion, and when it becomes again the interest of the
world so to fashion its policy as to prevent the
, reiteratien of such deeds of bloodshed and of horror.

Southern Italy is at this moment very much in
the condition in which France was in those earlier.
and happier stages of her revolution, when, previous
to the erection of the guillotine, liberty was un-
stained with blood ; when despotism was dethroned,
but religion had not been altogether proscribed ;
and when, although resistance had been successful,
Robespierre could obtain sympathy by denounc-
ing- "the law which commanded judicial mur-
ders." There are, however, some other points
of resemblance which are more disquieting.
Like France in the early days of 1792 Southern

Italy has become the very focus of ecclesiastical
intrigue. Emissaries from Rome are exciting
unavailing but irritating insurrections in every
town and every village. Money is squandered to
get up reactionary demonstrations at every fete to
which the populace resort. The telegraph is used to
enable a small number of conspirators, spread over
a large space, the opportunity of making an appear-
ance c)f strength by simultaneous action. The clergy
are always found working the details of these move-
ments, and are always able to foretell them. At
Naples, during the Easter week, all the prisons
were to have been opened, and religion and order
ere to be restored by the aid of the bandits and
assassins who were then to be let loose. The gaolers
had been gained over to the good cause, and the city
owes its preservation from pillage to the vigilance
of the National Guard, aided by a happy accident.
When the discovery had taken place, when the
prisons had been surrounded and the threatened

localities occupied in force, when the peril was past
and there was leisure to investigate the circum-
stances of the conspiracy, it became plain that the
plotters were amongst the highest in rank of the
nobility and the clergy. Thousands of stands of
arms, magazines of ammunition, had been bought
and laid up by these noble and reverend conspira-
tors, as the instruments in the bloody struggle they,
were about to evoke. These were to furnish forth
that army of the faith which'was to be recruited
among the thieves and murderers of the Neapolitan
prisons. A parish priest was ringing the alarm bell
when the National Guard surrounded him. Three
bishops of the Church are compromised by written
proofs of their part in this nefarious attempt, and.
many nobles of the Court of Francis 11. are dis-
tinctly shown to have been parties to the projected
alliance between counter-revolution and crime. This
frustrated conspiracy does not appear to have been
an isolated case. It is but part of a system. The,
same party are accused of instigating assassinations
in the streets and of omitting no means to create
confusion and destroy society. The lower classes,
who in. Naples are always hungry and who desire
ever to be idle, are tempted to rise and plunder in
the name of the King ; acts of violence are con-
stantly being committed against the officials of the
present Government by those who avow themselves
partisans of Francis 11. ; and all these people are
acting, combining, and conspiring under the eye of
the Revolutionary Government by which they are
protected. Nothing is wanted but that Austria
should issue from her fortresses, and the parallel
between France just before the Reign of Terror and
Naples at the present moment would be almost
complete.
For the sake of all classes and all parties in that
beautiful land we would ask a hearing for a word of
warning. This state of things cannot endure. Society
cannot exist under it. If the reactionist nobility
and clergy elect to reside in Naples under the pre-
sent Government they do so under the tacit condi-
tion of engaging in no act of hostility to that Go-
vernment. If they make themselves the accomplices
of the criminal population of the city t icy will
terrify the inhabitants for their safety and their pro-
perty. Irritation and fear will work out their cotil-
lion results. The weak Government of Victor Em-
manuel—for hitherto the Government of Victor
Emmanuel is weak in the southern extremities of
his new kingdom—will not be able to restrain the
frenzy of a population trembling for its own safety
and having in its power the enemies of whose in-
cessant machinations it is the victim. It there is
anything to be learnt from history there is danger
lest the Italian Revolution pass into a bloody.phase.
Is this the desire of Francis 11. ? Perhaps it may
be; for there might be some small chance of
his
picking up his crown daring the confusion. Bat is
iwtotrhkeshdoepsiroef oofooNspapirosloeioons Iwllh.e,
nwc eh_oa pr °tilt eeestes thatevils
emanate ? Again, is it the desire of the Father of
who at least is so far burdened with
tChher
responsibilityisten m "
do
that he has the power to prevent them ? We hope
of these tentatives to massacre
_
the people of Italy will. be still courageous and.
longsuffering—not weak against these evil-doers,
but still steadfast against panic impulses to shed
blood in terror. But surely the friends of order
have some duty in this crisis? Surely it is not to
be allowed to them to aid in tempting a people be-
yond the power of endurance, and then to exclaim
in indignation if violence should follow ?--I'i ides.

Copious showers of rain fell yesterday at 8 outh•-
ampton, and hopes were entertained that the long drought
and easterly winds were over. Towards the latter part of
the day, however, the wind shifted round to its old quarter.
WARNING TO SMOKERS.—On Friday afternoon,
John Ham, a butcher, aged 61, in the employ of his brother,
at Dedham, was sent to Higham, Suffolk, with two joints of
meat in his basket. Whilst walking home across the fields
from Stratford to Dedham, between five and six, ihe dis-
covered the skirts of his coat to be in a blaze, having been
immediately endeavoured to strip
itritertedsmbyokia
smoking. He
etobacc pipe Which he put in his pocket
off his clothes, when he felt suffocated and remained Wen:
Bible, until two men, subsequently hearing his c rie! body
except s
sistance, came and found everything burnt co hisa shirt'
except his boots. Having, we understand, borro,l7
Ds, they
at Stratford Hall, to cover the poor fellow's limbs,
and he
removed him home in a state of great exhaustil)
Do o'clock in the
gradually sank until five minutes P
morning, when he expired. It is said,
and sober at the time he waif
fond of drink. He was well„ka
eccentric but harmless indiva" orraw,
fatally of eight ebildrea,—
Alma geihniiseomseetbalet
f°,,,,iun.aa,c;t3htewas Dedham, as a rather
He alhhsouleft a wife and