The Council Bluffs nonpareil. [volume] (Council Bluffs [Iowa]) 1857-1867, 1859-06-04
AUSTRIAN RULE IN ITALY-OPINION OF
ONE WHO KNOWS.

The editor of the Post-W. c. Bryant
has for the last two years or more, been ir
Europe, a considerable part of the time il
Italy. He is a clear-sighted, sagacious and
experienced traveller, and could not be de-
ceived in regard to the present condit on ol
the Italian people, and he is incapable OF
wilfully giving currency to an untruth. In
the Post Of Wednesday last, We find IAN ar
ticle combating certain notions OF the Eng
lish press, in which the condition Of the Ital-
tians under Austrian dominate on is described
We quote:
The English press warns the Italians that
French successes in Italy may destroy the
bulance of power in Europe, and lead to the
establishment Of an overshadowing military
despotism on both sides of the Alps. 1t as
sures them that it is folly to suppose that he
who so ruthlessly d,stroys free institutions
in his own country is ke to establish them
in Italy. We admit thlt it does not seem
probable tha. he will do so. We admit that
his antecedents are everywhere calculated to
inspire distrust of his singleness of purpose
and purity of intention. We know he is n o
Washington; we know that he does not prac-
tically admit the capacity of the masses for
any larger share ID the work If government
!! than the choice of their despot. But We
must not forget that the balance of power
wears an aspect at Milan and Venice very
different from thatYhich it wears at London.
| To have the forced which govern Europe so
nicely adjusted that none shall be able to
ov vsrawe the other, may seem to people whose
| liberties are secure, and who are jealous on
ly of their glory, tho greatest aim of a states.
man. When a n's house is safe from
domicilary visits, his back is safe from the
stick, his head from the sabre Of the militia
ry bully, his son from service in foreign
army, his person secure against spies and
dang erous secret trials, his wife and daugh-
ter from the jailor's lash, his tongue free
to wag, and his pen to twaddle as much as
he pleases, it may seem an awful thing that
Louis Napoleon should put the Murats on
the throne of Naples, or make his son King
of Rome, or subject the newspapet to the
censorship.
But it requires no great stretch of imngi-
nation to believe int these terrible contln-
gences sink into 1amentable insignifcance
in the eyes of people whose common law is
Austrian martial law who are daily liable
to seizure and perpetuaA imprisonment OF
castigaton on the bare back, without ever
learning their accusation or the name of their
accuser. Dreadful as Louis Napoleon's reg.
ime may seem to 'freeborn Englishmen,' or
Americans, to Lombards or Venctians it
would be paradise itself, even if they were
certain of falling under his yoke. There is
a chance that still nobler fate awaits them,
but small blame to them if they embrace
even the certainty of it in preference to their
present lot. 1t would not secure them liber-
ty in It's highest sense, or even in any sense,
but it would secure them equal laws well
administered, police, stringent certainly,
but not vexatious; it would exempt them
from cruel anu degrading punishment it
would accord them trial by jury, and in the
face of day; it would open career for their
sons, and give their trade and commerce
room to develop themselves. With all these,
ue, it is true, should still suffer from a name
less pain !; but every mans notion of harpi
ness is, in great degree, dependent upon
what he has been used 10. TO one who had
for years been obliged to submit to kick
lng in the public street ,sthe mere exemption
from the infiction wo vpseem positive bliss,
though to one who ha4 never undergone it,
/ it would seem no boon at all.
There are certain stages of misery in
which any change is a change foftN better,
and that stage Italy has unquestionably
reached. She mil ght technically be e'topped
from mpugniDg the treaties OF 1915. if she
had had voice in their constructions, or
had ever been consulted rs to the DISPOSE
ton which they made of her. In settling
her status as they did England, Austria and
Prussia consulted their own fear, and not
her welfare. They ask of her now again to
sacratce her welfare to their fears, but recent
events show that nothing is farther from her
thoughts. The deliberate delivery of twenty
millions of people to foul tyranny, in or
der that 'the great Powers might be saved
possible rehearsal of French victories,
was as black a crime as ever was perpetra-
ted. One generation of noble people has
already gone down to the grave blasted by
its operation. 1t is for this reaso on that the
Italih youth of the present day will die
sword in hand in preference to living their
fathers lives. The ''sreat Powers y have
! for half century left them to their fate
they will now leave the great powers' to
theirs.
!