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684 THE X E A D E B. [No. 330, Saturday,
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ITALIAN POLITICS. IiOKD John HtjsseIiIi ...
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THE ALLEGOltY OF APSLEY GUISE. The story...
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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.
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"^ Diplomacy And Its Accomplices. A Stob...
diplomacy hiding each couple from all the rest , every one of those Powers is maintaining some kind of secret agency to play the spy upon all the rest . But by the nature of things , in the larger number of transactions © ach Government confides more to the secret agency than to the avowed . Yet again * by the nature of things , a class of animal must be employed in the secret agency minutely lower than the lowest officials of the public agency . Our own Government is compelled in a great measure to be public ; our statesmen are trained in a school more or less wedded to publicity and responsibility , and
they are so far disqualified from carrying on the veiled statesmanship of Europe . It is a tend of game in which England must be the ioser , at the same time that those of our statesmen who acquire the greatest ability in that school must be the less fitted to manage the affairs of this country honestly—the least qualified to he trusted in Parliament , or to obtain from Parliament the kind of confidence essential to an English executive . The game at which we cannot succeed on the Continent
spoils our men . for the proper conduct of our affairs at home ; and Downing-street becomes more or less subservient to the lowest intrigues of Leicester-square .
684 The X E A D E B. [No. 330, Saturday,
684 THE X E A D E B . [ No . 330 , Saturday ,
Italian Politics. Iiokd John Htjsseiiii ...
ITALIAN POLITICS . IiOKD John HtjsseIiIi accepts and proclaims the principle that the Italians have a right to be delivered from foreign interference , and left free to deal with their governments as they will . But the question of Italian independence is to be argued in presence of the fact , that Italy is under the control of foreign powers — of IVance and Austria , both , in their influence , ruinous and hateful . It is at this point that the doctrine of intervention or of non - intervention
must be applied . The Disraelites go so far as to maintain that Great Britain has neither the right nor the power to interpose between the people of the peninsula and their alien oppressors . Whatever authorities are in existence , in the several Italian states , it would , according to this theory , be unjustifiable and unwise to employ more than the good offices of the British Government for the solution of menacing difficulties .
This appears to us the only question which English politicians are officially competent to discuss . They have not , in Italy , another Greece or Belgium to fit with a promising king . They are foreigners , discussing the claims of other foreigners to govern one of the most important countries of Europe . It is pure presumption to debate , with the desire of giving effect to your decision , whether the Italian nation is ripe for liberty , wlief / hoT it . slimilH "h « n on noli dated or
federalised , monarchical or republican , left to its natural developments or conferred as a gift of easy gratitude upon the Constitutional House of Savoy . The politics of Italy constitute a European interest , in so far as other European powers are concerned in determining them . The formula has been pronounced that Italian independence means the right of the Italian people to settle with the Papacy , and with their kingdoms and dukedoms , precisely as the Americans have
a right to enact their own laws , and elect their own president . The question is , then , what shall be the policy of England with respect to the foreign influences working in Italy ? The Austrian occupation ib a breach of the public law of Europe , as laid down by the Treaty of Vienna —that compact which , infamous as it was , contained some provisions too just not to be violated by the reigning monarchies . The French protectorate at . Rome is a political crime , and a political danger , keeping open ,
perpetually , the way to a European war . That is the positive extent of the evil . While Italy remains in her present state the peace of Europe is not safe for one day . What , then , are the declarations of British statesmen ? Lord IiYJamintsT , disparaging the propositions of the Sardinian memorial , incredulous of French generosity , suspecting tho professions of the British Government , regards the encroachments of Austria as attacks upon Piedmont , and urges that
foreign armies must be withdrawn , at whatever hazard , from the Italian soil . Lord Ci . areitdon ' s reply , as a declaration of policy , is devoid of meaning . It simply confirms our opinion , invariable from the first , that the Italian Governments , excepting Sardinia , are too strongly entrenched as outworks of the great military system of Europe to fear the mild admonitions of English sympathizers , and that Austria and France are conspiring in a common cause . Both Lord Lyndhurst and
Lord Lansdowne believe that , ultimately , it may be necessary to employ force to prevent the absolute powers bearing down , every liberal institution in Christendom . In the House of Commons , Lord John KttsseIiIi , setting as ide the impossible and irrational doctrine of " non-intervention under all circumstances , " contended that Great Britain was pledged to uphold the Liberal cause in Italy , to defend Sardinia , even at the risk of war , and to resist the continuance of foreign military occupations . But he
could not blind himself to the reigning curse of Italy—the French garrison of Home—and he hinted , what he dared not say , that the British Government was fettered by the " views" of Louis JNTapomion . That touches the secret of Italian misery . Set Rome free from this immoral and debasing protectorate , and more than half the weight is lifted from the peninsula . But , as long as the Papal chair is in practical union with the Imperial throne at the Tuileries , Austria is safe , Italy is hopeless , or has only one hope—the Revolution .
The Disraelites , who are animated by not one generous sentiment towards the people of Italy , were well represented on Monday evening by their theatrical leader , who talked of the " awe" with which he approached the subject of secret societies . Those societies , he suggested , constituted a formidable organization , not in the Italian peninsula alone , but in France ; so that an insurrectionary movement against the AustrianB , the Papacy , and the King of Napi / eb , might be followed
hy an insurrection at Paris . Mr . Monckton Milnes , commenting upon , this insinuation , remarked , " Where no man could speak bis mind , secret societies existed , and God forbid they should not . " Diplomacy is secret , cahinet deliberations are secret , why should the advantage of secrecy be denied to such men " as have the audacity , " to use Lord Joiin BtjsseIjI / s expression , " to devise for their country something better than miagovernment ?"
The effect of the parliamentary debates on the minds of Italians will be to assure them , that there exists in England a sincere solicitude for their welfare ; but that they have nothing to hope from English policy . They do not expect that Austria will adopt the desperate course of attacking Piedmont , and thus putting to the tost the good faith of
Eugland towards her ally . They perceive that it is the design of the military powers to keep a firm and cautious hold upou Italy , and recognizing in the constitutional Government of Sardinia an agency that disquiets Austria in her Italian possessions , they rejoice that there should bo an Italian Btato in which men may dispute concerning the qualities of their Government .
It is here that we have found ourselves at issue with those politicians who represent Count Cavotjb as unpatriotic , and Piedmontese Constitutionalism as a quicksand . From the force with which these views are urged , it is to be feared that they may operate injuriously on the sentiments of the English people . But has not Piedmont improved her institutions , created for herself a happier social state than is enjoyed by Rome or Naples , opened a vantage-ground for Italian of the
liberals , checked the influence Jesuits ? Grant that Broffeeio ' s ideas are preferable to Cavour ' s—are not Cavour's preferable to the King of Naples' , or Radetsky ' s ? It is folly , no doubt , to dream of governing the whole of Italy from Turin—it would be as rational to propose Edinburgh as the capital of the British Empire ; and it is equally absurd to contemplate the subjection of the great Italian nation to a Savoyard family ; yet Count Cavoxtr , a noble , a
diplomatist , and not an extreme politician , has represented a policy which , if it be not the best for Italy , has gained distinction for Piedmont . He is bitterly criticized by the Piedmontese journals , but the privilege of being bitter is enjoyed in no other part of Italy . Manin , who protested manfully in 1854 against the doctrine that the Italians ought not to revolt , because the Austrians occupied Italy ux overpowering force , has called upon
the Romans " to remain quiet , because of the presence of the French . " We believe that Manin" is an ardent friend of Italian independence . Mazzint , in two magnificent letters recently pr inted in the Belgian Nation , declares that his government of Venice will be remembered while an Italian lives ; but denies that Italy must wait , or trust herself to any royal family , or identify her cause with that of a throne . He accuses Manin—an
undoubted patriot — of subserving , imprudently , the interests of a princely faction , by prophesying that Victor Emmanuel may wear the crown of Italy . Manln" retorts that he is neither royalist , nor republicau , but Italian , and devoted to the independence of Italy . " We do not see , in this diversity of opinion , a reason for despair . There is much to hope
for Italy , when so many generous and intellectual men , though varying in their idea * , are engaged in planning her deliverance . As we have said , the Italians must decide upon the form of their future government ; we fear , moreover , that they have before them the task of driving out the French and Austrian armies , the most that tho English public can expect to do , being to pi-ohibit the interference of their ministers in iavour ol despotism .
The Allegolty Of Apsley Guise. The Story...
THE ALLEGOltY OF APSLEY GUISE . The story of the Babratts reads like a chapter out of the Pilgrim * s Progress—a new chapter moralized for the instruction of the present day . It is an allegory as pertinent and pregnant as any tale of real liie can bo . Samuisl and Susannah his wife lived in a well-appointed cottage , neatly kept , sufliciently furnished , with no signs of poverty . With them lived their daughter Elizaukth , aged thirty-three , three other daughters , and a boy . Tho boy is employed in keeping cowh ,
and of him wo hear little ; it is tho three daughters whoso fate gives rise to the story . Theso three girls were aged respectively eighteen , sixteen , and fourteen . Tho eldest of the throe lately diod , and a coroner ' s jury examined into the case . Although n ^ cd eighteen , the girl was exceedingly diminutive in mze , and tho condition of her digestive organs ahowed a state of chronic starvationthe intestines absolutely empty , the stomach containing only ono ounco of thin barley gruel . Tho case of Hjsusn waa that of the
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), July 19, 1856, page 12, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_19071856/page/12/
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