On this page
-
Text (3)
-
¦ Kn. 477. May 14. 1859-1 THE LEADER 623
-
* Thoro ivro about 27,100,000 in all Ita...
-
* jLprd Holland and Lady Morgan, l>yj»n ...
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
-
-
Transcript
-
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
Additionally, when viewing full transcripts, extracted text may not be in the same order as the original document.
Italian Libbrty ^ No. »• Si»,—In Asking ...
to be at variance with your own expressed opinions . By the . " public , I believe , such communications are commonly received with a similar understanding . I deal , in a considerable degree , with facts . My remarks are not all speculative . 1 have been an eye-witness to some circumstances upon which my conclusions are founded ; and have to lament , in consequence , that too many persons judge of passing events * not only aceordmg to their own prejudices , but as if in our remembrances there had been no " yesterday , while much of the data on which alone the truth can be calculated aright , are essentially those of byegone
. In the contest now begun in Italy , I must premise that peace and non-interference are our best policy . It is true that the conflict in the South of Europe is one in behalf of popular freedom , —and so far the success of the Italians is most desirable , nay , the 'fervent prayer of every man worthy of living in this advanced age . It is a sacred cause ; aridVbelieving that every people have a right to choose their own government , and that the present struggle is , whether no less than 27 , 000 , 000 * of people in the land of the greatest historical renown in Europe shall possess that stolid
power , or be the slaves of the most , ^ arbitrary , and detestable of modern despotisms , there can be no dispute , either as to the virtue of the desire , or the hallowed nature of the contest . One class of individuals ^ , and in this country a class . —too numerous- —a sordid , slavish , ignorant class , arranges itself on the side of despotism . It deprecates disturbance , not as worthy people do , from the wicked , wasteful , and sanguinary character of warlike violences ^ but because it interferes with the customary chances of gambling in the stocks , and renders money-grubbing in a dishonest way ^ somewhat precarious . By such the Considerations : of nations
policy , humanity , and freedom among the - —• the truest security for honest commerce and expanded mercantile transactions—are set at nought . Our best policy is peace and sympathy with the Italians . We have seen , at a cost of above a thousand millions of money , how futile was the task of Pitt to uphold the French dynasty against the will of her people . This folly was exposed by the Duke of Wellington , in 1829 , in his acknowledgement of the new Government of France . , He showed that the support of the rights of kings against the will of the people , a doctrine so dishonest and costl y * had . passed away for ever , so far Under the ol
as England was concerned . reign George HI . personally , and the principle he inculcated , England was bound , in 1829 , to declare war against France , and to renew the sanguinary scenes that commenced in 1793 , until another Louis X VHI . should be crowned king , beneath foreign bayonets , over a nation to which the dynasty had become justly odious , and contrary to the spirit of the age . If we were right in 1793 , we were wrong in 1829 , in dictating a foreign sovereign in one case , and flinching from our own principle in the other . Fortunately , Wellington saw the injustice and impolicy of the previous war to enthrone
kings deservedly dethroned . He looked to the welfare of England ; his predispositions were towards kingly power , but he knew what war was , and considered only the good of his country . He silenced , wo trust for ever , the brutality of the sentiment which involved us so long in a ruinous combat for kings , the success of which could be only temporary . He put an end to the principle of the supremacy of royal right over all other considerations , ana over nations oppressed by the royal right to govern wrong , which George III . supported , although the principle had been upheld by the Holy Alliance Treaty of 1815 , and sanctioned by Lord Castlereagh , who told some of the
representatives of the Vienna Congress , that the English Constitution was not the 'best thing the Country possessed . The Treaty of Vienna of 1815 gave Venice and , Lombardy to Austria , without the consent of their people . Forty-four years have passed away , and under the worBt despotism in Europe—for there is no other so base , so withering 1 , so senseless , so opposed , to every p rinciple of Humanity and reason , as that of Austria ^—these provinces of Italy , however , internally discontented , had become a part of tup Austrian empire That empire was powerful enough , with its armed hoots , to keep
down , without exertion , in consideration o : its means , provinces of much greater exteni than Lombardy and Venice . Why , then , die Austria disturb the rest of Italy , making all its Governments , under fjear , of freedom in the neighbouring states , consent to some ground for he ] invading and occupy ing them ? The consent of th ( arbitrary rulers of such provinces being always ai her command—more pernaps from inclination that fear—Piedmont endeavoured to establish fre ( institutions ; hence the jealousy and hatred of he : by Austria . The King of Piedmont would no admit Austrian garrisons . Parma , Modena , th < Legations , Tuscany , all have or had ^ Austriar troops , holding possession and repressing , evei free conversation . Rome was held by the French who kept it solely to prevent Austria from being in gaiTison there , as well as elsewhere ; and undei vile pretences , holding Italy in sovereignty Naples was in alliance with Austria , together " nine farrow of one sow . " So that , except Sardinia , the Austrian army may be said to be in possession Of all Italy , or of twenty millions oi people who owed her no allegiance , who justly hate , and rightly detest her . Let it be supposed that France or Prussia took military possession of Belgium and Holland in a similar manner , levied taxes , and , in not jratting down the sovereign of these two countries , was absolute viceroy over them , despite the cries and remonstrances of the people—what would be thought of such an occurrence in this part of Europe ? Would it be borne ? Sardiniaexcepted , while Naples and Vienna are sympathisers , in feeling , all Italy besides is directly under a tyranicaL ignorant , and cruel power ; all Italy is in the Austrian ' s usurping grasp . She sees its fertile fields , and longs to possess them in lieu of her own semicivilised provinces—^ for it is but a part of Austria that is German . She would not venture openly to attach Italy , lest she have all Europe on her back , but she would get the footing she wanted by intrigue , to the operations for gratifying which desire Sardinia is the bar . That power chooses free institutions , and Austria says , " You shall not have them . I will have no such institutions in all Italy . If you have them , you will make the people of my provinces discontented , which I am determined to rule with an absolute will . Put down your press , exclude from within your boundaries all persons unfriendly to me ; do nothing within your territories that shall by contrast make the Lombards , Modenese , Tuscans , and others envious of the superior laws , freedom , or better institutions of Sardinia . By no act or deed give us any offence . If you do give us offence , we will march into your country with fire and sword . We will have no independent or free people south of the Alps . We will not be annoyed even by their proximity . More- * over , we insist on your disarming your troops in three days . It is enough that we will it , for you are the weaker power . We have the strength , and we govern by the law of power alone . Look to it speedily , or prepare to see our trusty Croats , as usua l * plunder your territory , ravish your women , and murder your offspring . ' Sic volo , sic jubeo , ' is our rule , and woe and war to them who disobey it . " to such insolent
In reply ana arrogant language , the Italians say—" We have appealed to Europe in vain ; Austria will hear no remonstrances ; sho will not alleviate our sufferings , nor even permit us to cushion the heavy fetters which cut through our flesh into the bone . What resource , then , remains but that which attaches to the meanest worm— ¦ - namely , to turn in defiance , if we perish beneath the foot that tramples upon us . We have appealed in vain to those Governments of Europe that have recommended quietness and a placable behaviour , but they have remonstrated in vain , and will do no move for us . For the best part of half a century we have borne every species of insult and wrong from a state alien to us in all that constitutes intelligence , national glory , traditional recollection , and the blessings of civilisation . Are we not justified in seeking pur independence of one of the most intolerable of human evils , having exhausted a patience and long suffering wholly unparalleled m weight and duration . We have seen unoffending men ijhot down in our streets with impunity by a barbarian soldiery , and outrages the most horrible committed on honest citizens . We have seen hideous dungeons filled by the most worthy men and purest olood of Italy , while the ruler of Austria has elevated himself to the honour
f of becoming personally their gaoler , incarcerating t for years this nobleman for introducing Lancasl terian schools , and that on a bare suspicion of dis-3 liking Austrian rule ; keeping a royal catalogue of his hapless victims now issuing imperial decrees r . that one . or two individuals , females among them r * i shall not enter his unenvied dominions , the freaks b of despotism being like the play of the tiger with l his prey , at once unsparing in blood and ridiculous i in barbarism . True , this was the Emperor Francis , r but despotism admits no degrees in turpitude . If b Austria cannot preserve her own territory in peace , i but is to be permitted to violate that of other i nations , to dictate how they shall rule themselves , i occupy their soil and threaten their existence if , they are contumacious to the law of her will , it was r high time for the powerful nations more immedi' * ately concerned to interfere . It is not long ago . that Switzerland was bullied by the Austrian Go-• vernment in much the same manner as Sardinia has been . The stolid Austrian did not threaten invasion , too independent as the Swiss Republic f was for his taste , but he with difficulty restrained : himself . Had he acted otherwise he might perhaps have furnished history with a repetition of the tragedy , not much to his taste , enacted at Morgarthen , where thirteen hundred Swiss freemen defeated twenty thousand Austrians * leaving few to carry home the tale of their eternal disgrace . -r . j - ?_• Tl f _ . lj ' . ^? 4 > fvM * . T » ' »* Pitanttft 1 CP conceive j / + f
a cannot , xu . jcjuha * , n * j -. « . *¦••»**»•• ~ censured for her alliance with and support of Sar" dinia , and with her the Italian cause generally . A large portion of her frontier rests upon France Sardinia was in alliance with' the hitter State . JCt is a mean jealousy of France that originates the feeling . If the Austrain ; had a right to dictate the internal afiairs of Sardinia , France had an egjual right to do the same , or to support the Sardinians —her . allies . The rule of Austria in Italy , from one end to the other ( I do not allude to the States of Lombardy and Venice , apportioned to her by the treaty of 1815 ) , has been furtive , wary , and continually directed to secure the present mastership of the whole country under false pretences * with a view to its ultimate and permanent possession—a possession , considering the genius and character of the two nations , much resemblmgthat of a civilised people under savage rulers . With this viewy and to secure the bigots from Sparti Vento to the Alps on her side , Austria the other day handed over to the Pope the supremacy of all matters relating to religion , binding lierself only to interfere with civil affairs ; in other words , she purposely let loose religious persecution . Such an act in the nineteenth century can only admit the construction all common , sense people put upon it , namely , that it was a prospective act to forward the sinister views of Austria upon Italy , to all which she has long been determined to dictate arbitrarily . Austria supports to the extreme the doctrine that every people is to be governed by the will or caprice of one individual ; that fallible will being a divine right derived from Heaven , through God ' s selfconstituted vicegerent at Rome . Hence the difference between a monarch and a despot . Thus the " piety " Austria , backed by cannon and bayonet , the last reasons of kings , urged her to occupy nearly all the Italian States , and to assert the principle of despotism , if need be , to her last florin and her lost cartridge . She is going , she pretends , to cure disordered Italy of its baleful attachment to its family freedom to cure it by blood and excision , I suspect it is not the disorder , but the physician * it is not a casual concurrence of calamitous circumstances ; it is the pernicious hand of Government which mokes the people desperate . The people are the Italians ,---the physician is Austria . The Italians are xight . It is bettor to suffer the temporary waste of war and anarchy than " the eternal hell of despotism . Montesquieu admirably painted Austria . "As virtue is necessary in a republic , . and honour in a monarchy , so fear is necessary m a despotism , with regard to virtue-there is no ocoasion tor » t , and honour would be extremely dangerous . I fear , in opening an important subjeot , I have trespassed on yourjrpace , and for the present flubsoribo myself , Mr . Editor , your most obedient Pao & o .
¦ Kn. 477. May 14. 1859-1 The Leader 623
¦ Kn . 477 . May 14 . 1859-1 THE LEADER 623
* Thoro Ivro About 27,100,000 In All Ita...
* Thoro ivro about 27 , 100 , 000 in all Italy , wad about 80 , 000 , 000 without V « nt « o ana X . omJD < wdy .
* Jlprd Holland And Lady Morgan, L>Yj»N ...
* jLprd Holland and Lady Morgan , l > yj » n imperial dewee , e & te £ Bts * L * fe & ti & k £ i royal JaUor woro tUo Wtmlty awaiting . tftwa tf they WOW through bo bovojto a eolf-donlal .
-
-
Citation
-
Leader (1850-1860), May 14, 1859, page 19, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_14051859/page/19/
-