The daily press. (Cincinnati [Ohio) 1859-1859, 1859-05-04
The European War Nationality OF
Italy.


The idea that LOUIS NAPOLEON seeks to
attach to the war which-according to
present appearances-he is about to wage
with Austria, is that, upon his part, it is
a war in defense of the nationality of
Italy No one understands better than
himself the moral power with which his
pide will be invested in the eyes of other
nations, in case he can induce them to
believe that he has at heart to restore to,
or confer upon Italy national existence
and character. In the absence of all
other apparent cause for hostilities this
will doubtless be readily enough ac-
cepted as sufficient, especially as Austria
seems inclined to join issue, at least in
some degree, with the French Emperor
upon that point, and to make the contin-
uance and defense of its present Italian
occupancy the practical ground of dis
pute.
1t might be worth the while to inquire,
What is Italian nationality Italy is, at
this time, divided into number of petty
States, kingdoms and principalities, each
of which has population whose charac-
ter, habits and dialect vary from those
of the others, and which have, so far as
appears, in their civil condition no real
impulse to more intimate union than at
present exists. To override all these diff
ferent sovereignties for the purpose of
giving form of entireness to Italian ma
tionality, would be q hazardous and
thankless experiment. We do not know
that such thing as nationality, in the
sense which we popularity apply to the
term, ever existed in Italy. In the days
OF Roman greatness that country was
rather an appanage to the metropolis
than nation, and in the breaking up of
the Empire it was parceled out among
the conquerors, and has, ever since, con
tinued in state of subdivision. Split up
into dukedoms and principalities, some of
which were in state of continual war
with others, Italy was, during the middle
ages, world by itse'f-unimportant ex-
cept through its ecclesiastical power,
claims and influences in the general poll
tics of Europe. The peculiarly hetero-
geneous character of its people, in whom
the Asiatic blood of the vast hordes of
slaves which Rome, in the days of her
power and luxury, had imported-and
which were the prime cause of her de-
generacy--was intermixed with that of
several races Of barbarian invaders and
conquerors, had produced such state of
anarchy and social disintegration, as to
render, to all appearance, any other than
local and arbitrary government impos-
sible There was either no nationality,
or there were some ten or twelve imper-
feet nationalities, each of which was per-
petually in state of warfare or of insur- |
rection-varying the pleasure Of hostili- |
ties without, with those of treason, civil |
strife and private assassination within. |
1t is this condition which, in dogmatic |
form, is painted with such startling dis |
tinctness in the political writings of NIcH- |
oLAs MAcHAvELLg and he who reads the |
FLoRENTINE HISTORIES of that author |
will be at no loss to account for the origin |
of the murderous sentiments-the very
climax of atrocity, as they appear to us
inculcated in The PRINCE.
1t is not probable that LOUIS NAPOLEON,
who, whatever else may be said of him,
Is an acute politician and believer in |
the doctrine that it is useless to force
upon people form of government not
their own, entertains the Utopian idea
that it is practicable, or even possible, to
unite all or great part or even several
States of Italy under the same dynasty.
We are, therefore, to take the snowy
phrase in which he has declared or con-
cealed his motives in narrower sense
but in what particular sense is question
not so easily determined
From the intense feeling of hatred of
the person of the French Emperor mani
tested by the republican fanatics of Italy,
it would not seem that his professions of
respect for the nationality of that country
were looked upon by Italians as of much
Significance His instrumentality in the
restoration of the Pope to his dominions-
however necessary to the tranquility of
the Papal States-is, in their view, an
ohense that can only be atoned for by his
death at the hand of an assassin. His
right, as the sovereign of France, to in
terfere in Italian affairs, questioned then,
may, upon the same principle, be ques-
toned now: for it is not tho professed, or
even the real purpose of the interference