The daily dispatch. [volume] (Richmond [Va.]) 1850-1884, 1859-05-17
7 III E DISPAT CHI
= So. - -...'.MAf ~, lsos
THE TRUE NATURE OF THE PRESENT
CONTEST.

IiiE TRUE NATURE OF THE PRESENT
CONTEST.
While the belligerent forces of France
Sardinia and Austria, are on the point of
coming into deadly conflict, public opinion
In this country seems to be still in abeyanee.
1t cannot, therefore, be ont Of season to
present few considerations upon the cha
racter of the war in which they are about
TO engage, the end of which no man can
foresee.
Let us strip the question Of the drapery
with which il has been surrounded by di-
plomatists and politicians, and present it in
its naked proportions. Whatever may be
the pretext for an actual resort to arms, the
true cause of the war lies in the ardent de-
sire OF the Italian people to rid themselves
OF their foreign rulers-to expel from their
country the tools of that despotism which
has rendered all reform impossible, and
which has openly assumed, on more than
one occasion, the right to interfere for the
purpose Of crushing all attempts to estab-
lish representative government-which has
always upheld, and continues to uphold, a
number of governments, the most cruel, the
most tyrannical, the most unenlightened
OF which history makes any mention
whose dungeons have been filled, and are
still filled, with Italians, whose only crime
is that they felt for the suferings of their
bleeding country. Surely the sons of those
sires, who drove the legions of George III.
from their country, for attempting to force
taxes upon them, without allowing them to
be represented in Parliament, cannot but
sympathize with people engaged in such
struggle as this; and if this were all, it
would hardly be worth our while to ask on
which side their feelings are enlisted.
1t is objected, however, that Sardinia.
leaving her own immediate boundary,
stands forth as the champion of Italy. And
has she not, at least, as much right to say
Italy shall be free, as Austria has to say
Italy shall be enslaved Granting that
Austria has perfect right to play the ty-
rant in her own dominions, Lombardy and
Venetia, has she any more right to assist
iIt DuktS vi 4nOhCEh anu III liid, ttIC OEtuu
Duke Of Tuscany, the King Of Naples, and
the other petty tyrants of Italy, in oppress-
ing their subjects, than Sardinia has to as
sist those subjects in obtaining a moderate
degree of constitutional reform? Is the
right divine of kings to govern wrong. a
maxim SO firmly established that it must
not even be questioned 2 But the Ally of
Sardinia-the Emperor Of the French-aye !!
there lies the burthen of the difficulty
There can be no objection to Sardinia's
seeking assistance from abroad, but it must
be of the proper kind. 1t must be Republi-
can assistance, or at least coustitutionally
royal or imperial assistance. But the Em-
peror of the French is despot, and there
fore his alliance should be spurned. Such
is the doctrine which is preached by por-
ton, and unfortunately very influential
portion of the English press, and has found
its endorsement in America. For Our own
part, We cannot forget that our ancestors,
in their struggle with the gigantic power of
Britain, sought allies wherever they could
hope for them on the Continent of Europe.
They had ambassadors at Paris, at Berlin,
at Vienna, at ST. Petersburg, at Madrid, as
well as at the Hague. They drew Spain
as well as Holland into the conflict ard
at Yorktown, they stood shoulder to shoul-
der with the soldiers of Louis XVI, one of
the most absolute monarchs of an age when
the rights of man had scarcely come to be
regarded as anything more than the
burthen of an enthusiasts dream. They
enlisted, even, the sympathies Of the Great
Frederic, the very model OF military ty-
rant, in their behalf, and he was only pre-
vented from lending them actual assistance
by the consideration that it was dangerous
to monarchs for one of the craft to enccur-
age revolted subjects in resistance to their
lawful monarchs. They made profound
impression, even upon Catharine H., who
constituted herself the head of that armed
neutrality of the Northern Powers, the OBJ
iect of whose alliance was to curb the over
grown power of the British Navy. 1t is
said that the Emperor of the French has
objects in view, very distinct from any
which can be suggested by disinterested
love of Italy, or of Italian independence
Very well. Did Louis XVI. have no ulte-
rior object in view? Was the reduction of
British power, which but nineteen years
before had robbed his grandfather of all his
possessions on the continent Of America, an
object not worthy of his attention? Was
the recovery of the Islands which his pre-
decessors had lost in the West Indies, and
which was so eagerly pursued by his admi-
raj 1.-THE Count de Grasse) that he refused
the aid of his feet to blockade Charleston,
after the capture of Cornwallis, when such
blockade must have resulted in the cap
ture of all the British forces in South Caro-
lima, au object not worth contendiug for !?
Is it to be presumed that the Spanish king
thought not of the opportunity which the
multitude of enemies surrounding Great
Britain presented, to recover Gibraltar ?
Did Holland have no thought of claiming
her position as great naval power? Is It
to be supposed that any of these powers
took upon themselves the weight OF dan
gerous and expensive war, from no motive
but sympathy with America? Suppose
the Emperor of the French has views of his
own. Is that reason for rejecting his al
lance when Sardinia, with but 20, 600 men
in the field, has to contend with the gigantic
power of Austria, backed by the whole Of
Germany, which can at any moment deluge
Italy with million and a half of p
Above all, can the views of Napoleon ILL.,,
be they as bad as they may, be any worse
for Italy than the actual measures of Aus
tria have already been a?
The Russian Alliance is a fertile theme
of defamation for the English newspapers
o. O certain bias. The Emperor Of the
French is about TO engage in contest with
the whole power of Austria, who has on
foot $50, 900 soldiers. In this position he
is ostentatiously threatened by Prussia. and
the small German powers, who proffer the
aid of their entire military force (75o, 900
men) to Austria. His proper ally, England,
instead of using her good Offices to keep the
peace, notoriously sympathises with Aus
tria, in her obstinate determination to OPP
press Italy, and to send her troops in the
Italian States not under her dominion,
whenever she may find it necessary to ac-