The Sun.
London, England, 1844-08-15 00:00:00

int

LONDON, THURSDAY, AUGUST 15, 1844.

Though quiet and apparently inactive, the Irish
Repeal agitators are evidently on the alert, watching
the progress of events, and omitting no opportunity
that may present itself, of furthering their darling
scheme of domestic legislation. (no:climes ready,
intelligent, and energetic spirit influences all their
proceedings, and presides over all their discussions,
though the man himself is safe lodged within
the four walls of the Richmond Penitentiary.
At the last weekly meeting, for instance, of
the Dublin Repeal Association, a motion was
made and agreed to, having for its ob-
ject the extension of Repeal Reading rooms
throughout the country. This motion, which from
2t3 ingenious character, would seem to have been
suggested by the Liberator, will, if carried fully into
effect, give a greater impetus to the cause than even
the monster-meetings; there will to be sure be less
noisy demonstrations, and the results will not be so
immediately perceptible ; but not one of the proposed
Beading-rooms but will become a school of quiet, de-
termined agitation, where men will he in the constant
habit of resorting, to read all that may be written
from time to time on the subject of the Repeal
crotchet, to debate the question with each other
and confirm each other's convictions. It will
be impossible for any authority, no matter
how stern and arbitrary it may he, to
interfere with a pacific system of agitation like this.
Power will be deprived of every pretext for interposi-
tion, and thus the evil—for the continuous, systematic
agitation of Repeal is an evil—will run its course un-
checked, assuming daily a more alarming aspect.
How much of this might have been avoided, had Sir
lionaar PEEL but taken a hint from experience, and
learned the valuable lesson to be wise at the fitting
Season ! There was a time—and that not so long
since—when the slightest show of conciliation,
If worthily followed up by acts, would have all but
neutralised the Repeal question, and caused it
to be regarded by the majority of thinking people on
both sides the channel as the mere clamour of a
faction, instead of the stern demand of a nation. But
klinisters hesitated, and tampered, and dallied with
their obvious duty, keeping the mind of Ireland in a
Constant state of ferment ; and now, at the eleventh
tour, they have thrown out a hint—for as yea it is
nothing more—that next session they will be pre-

pared with some remedial educational measure
that they hope and trust—sanguine creatures!
—will go far to pacify the titter tonntry.
We congratulate them on tier tardy demonstration
of good-will towards Ireland, but we are by no
means confident as to the results. They have de.
layed conciliation so long, that it has already lost
half its grace, and whatever remedy they propos.,
will, we fear, be accepted as a boon wrung from their
apprehensions and necessities, rather than cheerfully
accorded from their own kindly feelings. At any
rate, however, the experiment is worth making, and
we most devoutly hope that we may be mistaken in
our doubts of the issue. And here, while on the
subject of Repeal, we may observe that the Association
has just issued an Address to her MAJESTY, in which
occur the following remarks :—" In the British Par-
liament Irish interests are neglected, Irish feelings;
find no sympathy, Irish opinion possesses no weight
tild the fruit of British legislation for Ireland has
been the prostration of all those resources, moral and
material, which can give dignity, prosperity, and
contentment, to a nation." The experience of the
four last Parliamentary sessions proves that there is
too much truth in these observations, for during
all that period—though the fruitful subject of her
undeniable grievances has been often discussed and
deplored with sincerity by the Whigs, with hollow
mockery by the Tories—what real, substantial, com-
prehensive boon has been conferred on Ireland ? All
that she has yet obtained from Government has been
an Arms Bill, of a more stringent and insulting
character than ever, together with a formal declara-
tion that her bloated sinecure Church Establishment
stands in need of no Reform, and shall receive none
The conclusion of the Association's Address to
the QUEEN—which we may state, by-the-bye, is
penned in a temperate, though energetic, strain—
is not a little curious, for her Majesty is ac-
tually implored to assist the endeavours of the
agitators " in obtaining a repeal of the Act of Union,"
notwithstanding that she has twice denounced the
project from the Throne, and deliberately and reso-
lutely expressed her determination never, under any
circumstances to consent to it ! It is a bright and
truly original conception, this supplication to the
QUEEN, that she will be kind enough to falsify
her pledge, eat up her own words, forswear her prin-
ciples, and turn Repealer !

The aspect of affairs in Italy is calculated to
arouse the liveliest emotions of regret, the profoundest
sentiments of indignation, in every European bosom,
whose pulses still throb to the recollections of Italian
greatness. It is not enough, it seems, that she
should have expiated, by the political humiliation and
moral debasement of ages, the magnificent crime of
having usurped in the Roman Empire the dominion
of the known world, and for many years maintained
it against all antagonists. It is not enough that she
who, for centuries, marched at the head of civilisation,
letters, and refinement, should in these latter times have
fallen far into the rear of that social progress which
in more northern kingdoms is so rapidly extending
itself. Italy is parcelled out into territorial sections,
one only of which, Tuscany, is blessed with anything
like sound political institutions and guarantees for life
and property. In all the others, she is once more
exposed to the same sanguinary and vindictive
tyranny which desolated her fairest provinces through-
out the eventful struggles of the Middle Ages; that
is to say, to the supersession of the laws by the arbi-
trary mandate of the Sovereign—not palliated, but
rendered more intolerable, by the intervention of arbi- •
trary Commissions, whose functions, for the most
part, are limited to the mockery of passing sen-
tences on political offenders, always in servile confor-
mity with the will of the powers from whence the ju-
risdiction is derived, and to the recording their own
decrees, always irregular, generally iniquitous. But_
with the tyrannous excesses, the various communities
of unhappy Italy inherit nothing of the chivalrous
grandeur, derive none of the political advantages, of
the conflicts that distinguished the Middle Ages. For
if these latter too often affirmed the power, and con-
solidated :the ill-gotten acquisitions of her petty
Princes and her brigand Barons—her BORGIAS, her
MANFREDS, her CAsTßuccANls—they gradually ex-
tended the privileges of the municipal democracies,
developed the resources of industry, cherished and
rewarded mercantile enterprise, and finally elevated
to the highest pinnacle of political influence and
authority, that mercantile opulence whose great-
ness was destined so soon to absorb their
own. Under the protection of such commercial
Republics as Genoa, Venice, and Florence, the Italian
Commons, at least, were taught the secret of their
own strength ; and the popular voice in the councils
of those States, on the most memorable occasions of
domestic interest, was usually raised to temper the
ferocious cruelty of their oligarchical members. In
the same spirit, the general policy of these Republics
was usually to mitigate the savage resentments of
their allies—such as the Dukes of MILAN, FERRARA,
&c. But since the Spanish line of the Bounnosis
was installed after the execution of JOACHIM MURAT,
in its hereditary throne of Naples—and from the
moment that the Papalty, after the close of the
last war, was reinstated in the full sovereignty
of the " States of the Church," those fair
and beautiful portions of Italy have once
more become a prey to those imbecile and
lawless schemes of Government which seem to be the
destined scourge of the land. The dominion of
Austria over her Milanese and Lombard territories,
however open to objection on the score of its
arbitrary pretensions and its obnoxiousness to the
wishes and nationality of a vast section of her Italian
subjects, is yet, upon the whole, under the Emperor
FERDINAND, exercised in a mild and paternal spirit.
The Imperial Government has repeatedly remon-
strated with the Government of his Holiness on the
dangerous and impolitic system -of persecution and
intolerance, religious and political, enforced in the
Papal States by the Ministers of his Holiness. These
remonstrances have been disregarded, but the political
troubles to which it was foreseen, in Vienna, tile perse-
verance in such a system must inevitably lead, have long
since broken out. The Papal Government, instead of
dispassionately inquiring into the political, municipal,
and social grievances, which have for years so cruelly
harassed and insulted its subjects, seems occupied with
no other schemes than those which may aid it in the
accomplishment of the most bloody and unchristian
vengeance against the unhappy Italians who have been
induced to attempt an insurrection against its autho-
rity. A htßidful of these unfortunates (for we at
once avow that we cannot altogether withhold our
sympathy from men whom rank and obsti-
nate and bigoted misgovernment has driven to

_ --
desperate courses) having made at Corfu some
ill-matured arrangements for their meditated move-
ment, landed on the coast of Calabria, under circum-

stances marked by so much disorder, precipitation,
and temerity, that it is almost impossible to avoid the
suspicion of treachery on the part of those who in-
vited, or who conducted them thither. With the

Calabrese, on whom they appear to have anticipated
that they should make a proselyting impression, they
had no time for even communicating. In an instant,

as it were, like the diisipation of a dream, the incur•

gent movement was made, met, defeated, terminated.
Before all their party had disembarked, some were

wounded—all were prisoners. They were taken by
_ _

;he forces of a Government perfectly prepared for their

attempt.

The discomfited, disarmed, unresisting

prisoners, consisted, for the most part, of men (says

the Morning Herald) " of birth, fortune, and educa

tion ; two of them sons of that Admiral B.tNDEIRA

who commanded the Austrian squadron which as-

sisted the English fleet on the coast of Syria in
1840." Such men had given, at any rate, an earnest
of their sincerity and good faith in this abortive
effort to rescue their countrymen from the thraldom

of their political misery and debasement, by the

greatness of the stake which they were content to
sacrifice on the very threshold of the enterprise. Of
the whole band, some 17 or 19 strong, nine were
presently shot, like dogs, in cold blood, by order of the
Neapolitan Government. Another confederate, one
GIUSEPPE GARDINGHI, having escaped from Bologna,
took refuge in the territories of the Grand Duke of
TUSCANY. The Minister of the POPE demanded his
extradition; and this demand, though at first strenu-
ously resisted, was at length acceded to by the Tuscan
Government, but not without the express condition,
agreed to on the part of the POPE, that his life should
be spared. But, alas! this condition was made in a
bad faith, which history associates instinctively with
GARDINGIII was re-conducted to
ti.s we have given of
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