The Sun.
London, England, 1859-09-08 00:00:00

THE SUN.

THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 8, 1859.

The, present crisis—and, when we speak of the
crisis, every Englishman understands by it the
Italian crisis—is one in which we for once place full
confidence in the wishes of our Ministers. The
three leading men in the Cabinet are all pledged,
by their antecedents, as well as by their sincere
public language, to do their best for Italian liber-
ties.lThe most conservative, avowedly, of the three,
Mr. GLADSTONE, was the man who aroused all
Europe to the atrocities of the late King's admini-
stration at Naples, and to the wretched conviction and
torture of POERIO and his companions, by his cele-
brated letter to Lord ABERDEEN. We have, there-
fore, three statesmen of the highest standing in
Europe as well as in this country, three statesmen
whose abilities are confessed by all parties at home
and abroad, and all of them favourable, earnestly
favourable, to Italian liberties. These statesmen,
too, possess, and have a right to possess, the ear of
the French Emperor. They were the most prompt
of all the statesmen of Europe to accept, indeed to
approve of the caup d'etat, and even to lecture the
press of their own country for its indignant denun-
ciation of the deed. They have done not a little to
secure for Louis NAPOLEON his present position in
Europe, and they may still (the greatest motive to
political gratitude), may still do him service.
We may expect, therefore, that three such able
men, with such claims on the victor of Solferino,
must be able to exercise on him no ordinary in-
fluence.

But the Emperor of the FRENCH himself—what
of him? Pledged to the restoration of the Dukes
he cannot be ; Austria would soon have told us if
the stipulations at Villafranca had secured their re-
placement on the thrones they had deserted. We
may confidently assume, therefore, that that was
not the case. Equally may we be sure of it, if the
French EMPEROR'S intention was to secure a king-
dom of Central Italy for his cousin ; since, in that
case, he could not have bound himself to defeat his
own real object. It may be unjust to the EMPEROR,
still the latter is the general supposition. One thing
at least is certain—it could not be displeasing—it
must be agreeable to the Emperor of the FRENCH,
to see one of his family on an Italian throne, while
it could not be supposed that the King of SAR-
DINIA would pertinaciously object to having the
husband of his daughter for his neighbour Italian
monarch. Some Italians, indeed, have talked of
inviting the Piedmontese Princess to become Queen
Regnant, giving her husband the position assigned
to Prince ALBERT here. We may be pretty sure,
however, that no Bonaparte will consent to be King
Consort, or H.R.H. only. It is quite possible that
the recollection of the last Emperor, and the appa-
rent congruity with Napoleonic ambition may be
the only source of the prevalent opinion ; still we
must deal with Louis NAPOLEON as having this
chance on his cards. It is laid down that force shall
not be employed to restore the dukes—they are ex-
cluded by the national votes. If Austria declines
to sanction the annexation to Piedmont, then,
what next ?

We reply—whether by a congress,lbr by ordi-
nary diplomatic representatives, for this country to
assert the rights of the Italian States. We may
be quite sure that Austria will never allow Ciat
annexation to take place except under compulsion ;
we do not mean the compulsion of another actual
war, but of such an unanimity among all the other
Powers as shall render it at least respectable to
yield to them. Now what is the case of our states-
men, as counsel for Italy, with all the Powers of
Europe? First, they have to plead with all of them
the confessed legality of all that the Duchies have
done. The Legations, to whom, for their good
order and ability, praise is equally due, may be
technically rebels ; for the POPE, thanks to a French
garrison at Rome, has not this time run away. But
if ever the grossest maladministration by a ruler
contrasted with the mo ,t able administration by
subjects of their own affairs could warrant the
latter in voting the decheance of the former, the
delegates at Bologna have acted as legally as those
at Florence, Modena, and Parma. England can
say to all—on the same ground on which you ac-
knowledge our QUEEN and the Kings of SWEDEN
and BELGIUM, all heirs of revolution, on the same
grou:4d on which you acknowledge the Govern-
ment of France—en that ground acknowledge the
right of the Duchies and the Legations to exclude
a
hostile and hated rulers, and to select a Sovereign
by their own free choice. It is inconceivable, as
the clever answer of the Sardinian monarch ob-
served to the Tuscan deputies; that the Powers
of Europe should demur to rendering the same j,„.
tice to Tuscany as they have done to so many other
small States. No pretext of the " balance of
power" is at stake, since if Sardinia embraced the
whole of northern Italy she would even then be no
match for her northern and western neighbours.

But the soundest reasons, We too well know, arc
not the most weighty ones in diplomacy. Political
interest is the great power. Austria, of course, has
the interest of pride in replacing her Viceroys in
Central Italy ; .of hope, since the reversion by legit
timacy of the States is hers ; of military advantage,
since they would be an extension of the quadrangle.
But LOUIS NAPOLEOY, we must not say France,
has two conflicting interests ; to place a rela-
tive on their throhe, or to stand forth in history as
having done, by his victories, if not all he talked
of,, yet something substantial for the liberation of

Italy: It could but be agreeable to him, if the '
Duchies voluntarily relieved him of a troublesome
relative, whom he would rather send to the other
side of the Alps ; but, if they cannot be got to do
this, except by so much underhand work, or so
much constraint as to render the Duchiel reluctant
subjects, and to taint the honour of "the Liberator
of Italy" with selfishness for all time to come, it
will be the real interest of Louis NAPOLEON to
sacrifice his hopes for his Cousin, and to keep his
glory. It is for England's friendly statesmen to
say to the EMPEROR—" Snatch not at a present
family advantage, at the sure sacrifice of your pre-
sent and historical name." To be the creator of a
substantial free power in Italy is enough for the
reputation of one man. Louis NAPOLEON, if he is
wise, will not sigh over the disappointment of his
cousin. In truth, over and above the desirableness
of forming a stronger kingdom in Northern Italy,
the said cousin is an article not in demand.

If France and England, then, should, for the
best reasons, combine to ratify the acts of the
Duchies, they might defy Austria and all
Europe to touch them at their peril. But
there would be no need of this. Prussia
could hardly separate herself from England
on this question. Her love for Austria or the Pope
would not lead her to do it ; and Central Italy, at
least, is no outwork for the defence of Germany.
Russia, too, both hates Austria and is on the best
of :.terms with France, on better terms even than
with us ; but in Sardinia she has found an accom-
modating friend, and desires to retain that friend-
ship to strengthen her interests in the Mediter-
ranean. While Russia cherishes, and that will be
for long, her present views in regard to that sea, it
will be for her direct interest that Sardinia should
be strong. Austria, therefore, may well dread a
Congress. It must outvote her if England can but
secure the adoption of her views by France. With
our statesmen's cordial interest in Italian freedom,
and their natural influence with the Ruler of
France, we do not see why we should fail to enlist
him on the side of his own glory, even if it does in-
volve a renunciation of his family interests. Louis
NAPOLEON is not the man to despise either the
praises of England now, or the praise of history
and posterity.

A blue-book of about a hundred pages appeared on
Saturday last, giving us, so to speak, the guage of
the strength, the wealth, the vitality, the energy,
the daring enterprize, and the indomitable perse-
verance of the great Anglo-Saxon race. Rather,
perhaps, we should say, of the nucleus from which
that now vast and scattered aggregate has radiated.
Thd document we refer to is more everithan.this--
it affords the world a notion of the price paid down
by England for her liberties, of the actual money
value of her Constitution. An epitome of the con-
tents of this remarkable blue-book we published
in our columns on Monday evening. And
those who read that synopsis of the State papers
comprised within the comparatively narrow limits
of a single volume will remember that it was a
volume resulting from the motion made in the
House of Commons as far back as the 11th of May,
1857, by the now Earl of RIPON, then Viscount
GODERICH, " for certain returns
,of the whole
amount of the national debt of Great Britain and
Ireland (including any foreign loans which
have been considered as forming part of
the national debt of Great Britain), funded
and unfunded ; also of all annuities for
terms of years, and also of the charge for
management of the national debt from the year
1691, to the sth of January, 1857." After immense
labour in their accumulation, and extraordinary
care in their arrangement, these returns have at
length, as we know, made their appearance. And
this publication, as but just remarked, took place
as recently aill last Saturday. The revelations
here made in divers ways, it must certainly be added,
are in some respects truly astounding. Within
very little more than a century and a half the funded
debt of this country has increased and expanded
to its present preternatural dimensions. In 1691-=
it is like looking back into the Arcadia of SIDNEY,
into the Utopia of MORE, into the Flying Island of
GULLIVER—as recently as that year of grace and of
national non-indebtedness, there was no funded
debt at all either in Gnat Britain or in Ireland.
Happy age—so far—fortunate grandsires ! But at
that period, in that year of grace, 1691, there was
a modest little unfunded debt, amounting to
no more than £3,130,000, the merest bagatelle !
What was 4 in fact, the. other day, but the
extent of the deficiency of one single financial year
—a deficiency readily made good by an odd two-
pence or sa superadded to the income-tax inflicted
upon us, like the thumb-screw on the scavenger's
daughter, by that modern torturer the Chancellor
of the Exchequer ! Well, then, in 1691 there was
no funded debt at all, and there was an un-
funded debt amounting merely to the " ridiculously
small amount," as MONTAGUE TIGG would say,
of £3,130,000. That little aggregate of £3,130,000
represented in effect the residue of the loans raised
by the Sovereign in anticipation of duties receivable
by the Crown. The residue of such loans we say—
for of course other loans had " many a time and
oft" been raised by the King or the Queen Regnant
in these realms, which loans had been duly reim-
bursed to the capitalists by whom they had been
advanced. Among these capitalists appearing such
men of mark, for example, as GEORDIE HERTOt,
familiar to the readers of the listoric romance
of the " Fortunes of Nigel," or as that far mote
renowned Merchant Prince glorified generation
after generation in the dear old nursery song—
dusty urchin listening to the sound of Bow bells
from that milestone on Highgate-hill—London
'Prentice, owner first of all of one cat, and after-
wards of we don't know how many " ponies"—and
then eventually " thrice Lord Mayor of London"—
good, honoured, beloved, munificent, and magnifi-
cent Sir RICHARD WHITTINGTON. There actually,
for example. among the State papers comprised in
the official blue-book published as recently as last
Saturday, there may be found duly notified
among the sums borrowed by the Sovereigns
of England, how, on the 22d of November,
1420, otherwise in the seventh year of the
reign of King HENRY V. came this matter-cf-
fact memorandum :—" To RICHARD WUITTING-
TON, citizen and alderman of London, ill money
paid to him by the hands of RICHARD KNYGIITLEY,
in discharge of 2,000 marks which he lent to our
Lord the King at the receipt of his Exchequer on
the rith of June in the sth year, as appears by the
roll of receipts, &e., £333 Gs. Bd." A very
cheering and a strictly legal payment it
sounds altogether—with those " three times
three," followed by that six and eightpence !
We feel grateful to the official volume, however,
for the revival of the
nalri:
record—it is like opening. a
wae-book at a page
a with a flower-leaf from
fairyland ! This mention of actual money dealings
between Sll.ki,:itl'i:Rli's TIARItY the FIFTH and that
i
:
welcome.ut it is welcome to as for far more
hero of every Englishman's childhood. DIcK
WITTINGTON ! If but for this single a item" alone
B
the blue-book under considera lion would be heartily
than a pleasant comment upon a 4cgiriotti
nursery ballad. It is welcome to us peculiarly,
because it enables us to feel the pulse of the nation,