The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1860-03-05
The News ny the notwithstanding OF
a COAgress.

The News ny the Africa-Probability OF
Congress.
The advices received by the Africa. although
still indefinite in regard to the political pros
poets OF Italy. are on the whole satisfactory
II we do not acquire from them the assurance
that the people of that country are to be lef
to the settlement Of their own affairs, we Al
| least find reasonable grounds for belief tina
| France will raise no collateral issue which
| would oppose obstacles to decision favorable
| to their interests. But before we enter upon
consideration of these probabilities, let us re
capitulate the principal points of the news
AS to the keystone to the combination which
can alone furnish satisfactory solution to the
Italian question, we are rejoiced to find Mr.
Gladstone's new budget embracing the altera-
rions made by the commercial treaty with
France is regarded as safe from all danger OF
defeat by the opposition. The general sense
OF the English people, as expressed through
their principal organs, is unanimous in its ap-
prevail of its provisions; and although, as is
usually the case, some slight notifications are
slider themselves hardly pressed upon, they
are not of nature to affect the gene.
rally sagacious character of the measure
So little important, indeed, are these
demands considered, that Mr.. Bright de
ciares himself against alterations of any
kind. "The budget, the whole budget, and
nothing but the budget" is his cry. In the face
of such support as this, we think the Derbyites
must have more than ordinary courage and i'm.
pudence if they make their threatened onslaught
ON the measure. In addition to the cheering
prospects which these facts hold out we have
the statement that France has opened negotia.
tons with Prussia, as member of the Zollve-
rein, for commercial treaty similar to that
with England. Should the Berlin Cabinet lend
favorable ear to the proposition, another link
will be added to the chain OF potent Influences
which will, for the future, keep the bellicose
propensities of the European governments in
check. At all events, it will promote such a
good understanding between three of the five
Powers interested in the peaceable adjustment
of the Italian question, that it will smooth away
many of the obstacles that might have other
wise opposed themselves to its satisfactory set
Element.
1t will be seen by the commercial circulars,
quoted elsewhere, that considerable uneasiness
has pervaded the English markets in reference
to the proposed annexation of Nice and Savoy
to France. 1t seems to have been the
general impression in mercantile circles
that if this project were persisted in,
war would become inevitable. In a de-
bate upon the subject in the House of
Commons, on the 10th, Lord John Russell
stated that as far as Sardinia and Switzerland
were concerned, there was no desire on the
part Of those governments that any change
should take place in the existing state of
things. He had received from Sardinia an
assurance that she had no intention of ceding
Savoy to France; and az to Switzerland, that
government considered that no annexation of
territory would take place without the districts
of Chablais and Faucigny being given to her
and guaranteed in the general guarantee of the
republic, as was done by the treaty of Vienna
His lordship added that these assurances had
relieved him from some uneasiness, for it had
come to his knowledge that it had been COM
municated to the government at Turin that if
the kingdom of Sardinia were aggrandised to
any considerable extent by the annexation of
Central Italy, France would think her frontier
was not secure without the annexation Of at
least some portion of Savoy, and he
was afraid that the Swiss government
might have been rendered favorable to
the annexation by the prospect Of an
addition being made to its own territory. The
London Tines, in commenting upon the project,
asserts, with the perspicacity and bitterness
usual to it where the French Emperor is con-
cerned, that the object of the latter in making
this demand was to throw fresh obstacles in the
way OF the union of Italy, in order to establish
kingdom Of the Central States under Prince
Napoleon. These speculations had not long to
wait for refutation. On the 18th the London
PoSt-Lord Palmerston's organ-announces in
regard to the proposed annexation Of Nice and
Savoy that the French government had ex.
pressed its willingness to defer to the decision
that may be arrived at by the great Powers Of
Europe on the question, and that consequently
all fear Of q collision might be considered q:
definitively obviated. From this statement il
may be inferred that the Emperor regards hi:
commercial reforms as paramount to all other
considerations, and is unwilling to risk them
on aquestion which is but Of secondary import
ance, and which can be brought up with equal
chances of success in Congress over which he
will naturally exercise powerful influence.
1t seems to be now pretty well ascersained
that Russia will not give her assent to any
settlement of the Italian question that is no:
the result Of an understanding between the