Worcester daily spy. [volume] (Worcester [Mass.]) 1850-1888, 1859-02-24
THE REIGN OF THE SWORD.

suicide will sometime or other die by their
own hands. tits historically true, perhaps on
the same principle, that nations Which, familiar
ize themselves with possibilities of war, are on
the verge ofthat deplorable maelstrom wherein
so much of the strength and the flower of the
human family has been lost If the analogy
holds good, Europe will be involved in gen.
eral war before the present year comes to
close. There was probably never time when
the war spirit, without clear and weldefined
cause, was so nearly universal as it is now. TIA
", Germany France Austria, and England
are pervaded by the general frenzy, and, with
the single exception of Italy, would send le-
gions of armed men into any field to which
they might be called. Italy herself, once free
from the military power of France and Aus
tria, would respond to the same call. But her
people would not fight for the defence of alb
solutism, nor for any crown but that which an
independent Italian sovereign might honorably
wear
About month ago, news came by steamer
that the French Emperor had intimated to the
Austrian minister a regret that their relations
were not so friendly as formerly. Within
week this little diplomatic expression was
flashed half round the globe, stock declined
J per cent. on the Exchange, and panic ragged
on the Bourse. No better indication could be
given of the sensitiveness of public feeling
with regard to general outbreak. This was
the first cautious expression of that concealed
bitterness and jealousy with which the two
representatives of European absolutsm have
long regarded each other. This premonition
of danger has expanded almost into a certain
ty, and is enlisting, on one side or the other,
the sympathies of the whole continent To
the original cause of quarrel new ones are
being daily added, whose force it will soon be
impossible to resist.
These two powers have had Italy under
their feet since the last struggle for Italian in
dependence failed. Austria holds the Northern
provinces; France occupies Rome itself
Since the present year commenced, Napoleon
has been attempting to convince Europe that
Francis Joseph doesn't lse Italy courteously,
and ought to be required to leave. The as
sumption of the dictatorship, on the part of the
Imperial murderer of Paris appears the more
ridiculous from the fact that Austria is under
stood to have occupied the Roman legations
by the consent of the Pontifcal government,
while France has occupied the very seat
of that government in defiance of both
the people and the Pope. Actuated by
the fear that another Orsini may repeat the
experiment of the Rue le PcIletier, Napoleon
has suddenly become an apostle of Italian re-
form, which is one excuse for his present COM
pications with Austria. If the excuse were
sincere one, the object might be readily Sc
cured if Napoleon would withdraw the obsta-
cles he has persistently thrown in the way of
Italian progress. But rather than release
single rood of the soil he has usurped, or give
up single jewel he has stolen, he prefers to
throw all Europe into confusion, to arrest the
course of industry, and, in the language of the
Times, "to threaten us, it may be only too
truly, with the calamities of causeless and
bloody war" So that, with whatever hypo-
critical tears the assassin of the Tuilleries
may appeal for the sympathy of the world, he
is entitled to it no more than any other tyrant
who for an hour stands within the danger of
his victim.
Between two such contestants, an American
hoping for the triumph of genuine Republican
liberty, could have nothing to choose Of the
two, the Frenchman has the worst history 1t
is wholly covered with examples of cunning,
treachery, debauchery, cruelty, without a sim
gle known example of disinterested and mag.
unanimous craftsmanship. Perhaps the same
might be said of Francis Joseph. But less was
expected of an Emperor educated in the des-
potc school of the House of Hapsburg, and who
never INDUCED an impulse of affection for the
popular cause, than from him who had once
suffered with those whom he saw suffer-an
outcast and an exile, and who was at last
chosen by popular voices to be the President
of Republic. When we remember how
he has violated every trust that was COM
mitted to him, and every pledge which he
made; how recklessly he perjured himself be-
fore the world when he seized the State, and
made himself its perpetual Emperor how his
mercenary troops murdered the brave and
stalwart patriots by hundreds, who stood in
his pathway of power; how the rest were sent
to "eat the bitter bread of Punishment" in
Siberian solitudes, or to wear out weary life
In the dungeons of the French provinces and
the Islands of the Mediterranean-the Aus
trian shines by the side of record SO utterly
black and perfdious. Who can tell whether,
having secured the moderation of Italy, by
the withdrawal, or the expulsion of Austrian
troops, he would not pour his own armies into
her provinces, and transform them all into
conquered tributaries of his military despotism
at Paris
But in such struggle as would ensue
from conflict between these two powers.
there isroom for hope, that the crushed but
unsubdued spirit of Italian liberty would find
means to establish its own independence, and
to make ITSELF hereafter, power to be recog-
nized, consulted, and feared, among the powers
of Europe. We are accustomed to dread the
steps to such consummation; they are often
so injudicious and SO sanguinary. Let the cen
sure fall on those who have mercilessly closed
against those brave spirits every other avenue
TO success.
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WAsHIEGToN's BIRTH-DAY was celebrated
with considerable spirit in Boston, which can