Sugar planter. [volume] (West Baton Rouge [i.e. Port Allen, West Baton Rouge Parish, La.]) 1856-1925, 1859-05-28
From the New Orleans Commercial Bulletin.
AUSTRIAN RULE IN ITALY.

AUSTRIAN RULE IN ITALY.
We have but "a faint conception
in this country Of the nature anc
results of Austrian rule in 1tal "
We can readily understand that
the causes of the intense hatred o1
Austria on the part Of the ltalia's
of all classes, in and out of the dis.
tricts technically under her author.
ity, must be Of an aggravated char
acter. The effects, so widespread
and SO manifest, cannot he account.
ed for upon any other principle
till we fail to al |.preciate the nat.
ure and force of those causes until
we get an insight into the acts and
their numbers perpetrated in the
Italian Sts>tes by Austrian officials
under the express orders Of their
Government When the cnrtain
rises and we perceive distinctly the
long rows Of victims Of every class,
bothzsexes andsof.all ages, whom
the Austrian areign Of terror has
doomed to deathsand tortures worse
than death, the implacable hatred
that fills every italian bosom for
everything 4 nstrian becomes natu-
raj, and the enthusiasm throughout
all Italy for the Sandman cause de-
spite the shadows cast upon it by
the man Of the Tuileries, is all ex-
plaiued. No other effect from the
causes could take place while hu-
man nature remains as it is.
A foreign correspondent of a
Northern journal has taken the
pains to collect from various official
and private sources a small frag-
ment Of the Austrian rule in Italy,
and ccrtainly"it would be difficult
to find parallel to the long, black
catalogue in any civilized country
The brutality exhibited by Austrian
officials is monstr us, their despot-
ism stupendous. The flesh creeps
and the blood boi]s at the simple
recital Of the appalling sitting Of
human groans, at the pressure upon
human hearts whose throbs have
been exhausted. and whose eye
sockets have been driedsup. It is
not wonderful! that the land rocks
and reels like a drunken man be-
meath the terrible throes Of human
wretchedness past all endurance
1t is not strange that the people
should be willing to hazard every
thing upon the cast Of the die, thor
oughly convinced that matters cam
not be worse, and may become
better, and that the young men and
tie old men even should throw
themselves into the scale against
Austria with the most abandoned
and vehement recklessness, prefer
ing death to longer existence under
the tortures that have become in
tolerable.
The writer to whom we refer de
clares that the separate history OF
each act of barbarous tyranny .ex-
ercised by Austria in her Italian
Provinces since. they have come
under her odious rule would make
a whole i" Alexandrian library:"-
Since '1S4S, the number Of prisons
who have abandoned home, proper
ty and friends to save their lives is
reckoned at not less than fifty
thousand. Fifteen thousand at least
have perished upon the scaffold or
by Austrian bullets. Thousands Of
young men have been seized and
compelled to do military duty in
the hated armies Of Austria, far
from their native soil, whichethey
are never to see again. The least
resistance has been followed by the
lash till nature in her agony sweat
drops of crimson. The substance
Of the people has been consumed
to feed and clothe their oppressors:
Thousands have been seized and
shot without trial, and wholly ig-
norant Of the nature of the ofenses
charged upon them. Old men un-
conscious Of crime have been sud
denly: dragged from their families
and doomed to inevitable death. -
In asingle year, from August 1848,
in Lombardy alone, ninehundred
and sixty one capital sentences were
passed and executed, while the
number of victims executed with,