ed to be re-established in Naples as a Napoleon | Western Powers; and forces connected with in Paris-may induce him to let affairs take the Western Powers would be more or less in their course, without being over cautious as to occupation of the territories comprised in the the circulation of his signature; and we can now understand something of the nature of the movement that centres in Naples while it has federative connections with movements in Central and North-eastern Italy.

alliance, reciprocating support with the peoples of those lands. The prudent Piedmontese see the tendency of events, know how much insurance they derive from their daily increasing connection with the West, and are anxious It is not for us to lecture the Italians on the above all things that that connection should virtues of prudence; but when we see English not be broken or weakened. Even a differjournals encouraging the idea of sympathy in ence of opinion on any essential point might this country, we do not think that it will be in be hazardous to the consolidation of constituvain if we correct the false impression which tional freedom in Piedmont; but if constitusuch writing might create. Again, when we tional freedom be consolidated in Piedmontsee the public of this country told, as a politi- if the press, which is there issued in Italian cal axiom, that peoples must rely upon them- and is quite free, maintain its ground-it will selves, and that the Italians will never achieve become a mechanical impossibility to check their liberties unless they work out their free- the spread of opinion throughout Italy. The dom for themselves, we must ask, whether the consideration of these circumstances shows condition of Europe is such that any people how important it is that no premature movecan act as if it were isolated from the rest of ment amongst the Italians should break up the Continent? England herself can scarcely the constitutional foundation of Piedmont, do so, but England stands the most removed throw France into antagonism with the Neaby her insular position and her strength. politan movement instead of aiding it, and preThere is not a people on the Continent that cipitate a solution of the Austrian alliances can predetermine its own relations, or its own before they can use the necessities of the day domestic institutions. If Italy cannot count to make Austria discern the policy of a Libeupon the assistance of other states, it must ral course in Italy. Painful as it may be to count upon their obstruction. It was not cer- wait under the inflictions which Naples entain that Piedmont could have adopted a free dures, we must believe that waiting is the constitution, even with the aid of its King; most rapid as well as the most direct course but if its King had been adverse, he might towards independence and freedom. have obtained assistance which could have put it down as quickly as the German rights of From the Economist, 8 Sept. Schleswig-Holstein or the pretensions of any ITALIAN PERPLEXITIES. German people were suppressed. So long as Austria remains in any degree allied to the In addition to the symptoms of approaching Western Powers, the great military forces movement in Italy which we enumerated in that are at the command of France and Eng- our impression of last week, is now to be menland must be regulated in their movements to tioned a Muratist proclamation, said to have some extent in harmony with the movements been addressed to the people of Naples. In of Austria herself. At the same time, we hold this document, which is circulated secretly, the it to be almost self-evident in the state of son of the once popular monarch of the Two things, that if Austria should remain in alli- Sicilies reminds that kingdom of his existence, ance with the Western powers, she could nei- and, without inciting its patriots to precipitate ther obtain their support nor effectually use a change, generously informs them that he is her aid, unless she placed her administration at their call if they should need his services. in harmony with the notions that prevail in This announcement, if serious and authentic, the West of Europe. The success and the adds another to the many complications of failure of her finance have illustrated that dy- Peninsular politics. Garibaldi, too, the assonamic necessity under which Austria lies ciate of Mazzini in the republican defence of while she is in friendly relations with the West. Rome, has been taken into the Sardinian naAgain, if she were to break with them-which val service and made a post-captain. This is not yet impossible-it would be inevitable, looks as if Piedmont at least had resolved on She in the simple state of things, that the Western a decided and straight-forward course. Powers should accept any alliances that would has indeed placed herself in courageous and offer themselves, and should at the same time we believe judicious contrast and opposition to repay their allies by the consolidation of the Austria on several recent occasions. strength which they could give as well as re-received and pensioned the noble refugees ceive. In that case, some of "the nationali- whom Austria banished and whose property ties" would instantly become de facto the Austria sequestered. She boldly joined the allies of the Western Powers. They would Western Allies, when Austria selfishly, faithplace their territories at the disposal of the lessly, or pusillanimously shrank from their

She

things would easily step back into their old condition; and Tuscany would soon, and as a matter of course, be imitated by Parma, Modena, and Lucca. Piedmont is already in so happy a career that all one can wish for is that other Italian States may either follow her example or be absorbed in her existence.

The real difficulties of the Italian question are-Austria and the Pope. These are Governments which, being bad and inadmissible in themselves, cannot be made endurable by

side. She has authorized an establishment or has so distinguished itself by bigoted persewithin her frontiers of a depot for recruits for cution alike of the scantiest civil rights or the the foreign legion, which is the dread and most restricted religious freedom. But all abomination of Austria. And now she has this is the doing of Austria. Once remove given rank and employment to the Roman that baleful and paralyzing influence, and patriot whom, next perhaps to Mazzini, Austria has most reason to suspect and hate. Indeed, the affairs of Italy, both actual and prospective, are involved and perplexed in no ordinary degree. There is one bright spot and many dark ones. In Naples, probably the most oppressed and worst governed of all the Peninsular States, the behavior of the Monarch is growing more stupid and unendurable day by day. His badness seems degenerating into madness-not an unusual or unnatural royal road to ruin. The police have become so any reformation. It is of no use trying to atrocious and indiscriminate in their tyranny moderate, to civilize, to amend them. Their as at last apparently to have assumed an atti- faults are inherent and ineradicable. They tude of direct hostility to the military, as they are Governments of priests and of foreigners have long done towards all the other decent both hateful, both objectionable, in themclasses of society. But unfortunately here, as selves; and no administrative improvements in many other countries, the lowest orders of can make them otherwise. This characteristic the community are the active supporters of it is, which renders all the salves and palliaregal oppression. The lazaroni of Naples still tions recommended by the Western Powers feel loyalty and affection for their abominable devoid alike of significance and of hope. King, and we fear would in any civil strife be They are medicines beside the mark. They prompt to embrace his cause. Nevertheless, are prescriptions founded on an erroneous or if once the hope and fear of foreign interven- imperfect diagnosis. No ingenuity can recontion were withdrawn; if the Allied Powers cile the rule of an infallible priest with the would only proclaim that neither Austria nor civil rights and requirements of the subjects Russia should interfere between the Sovereign of a free and well-ordered State. Such a rule and his subjects, we should feel little anxiety must be despotic. Despotism of any sort is as to the result of the struggle which seems at least only rarely and questionably good: impending. The patriots of Naples and the despotism of ecclesiastics is necessarily and Sicily are many of them men of ability and unquestionably bad. In all times it has been resolution, and far superior to any opponents so: in all times it must be so. Even in days who could be pitted against them; a large before the recent convulsions, no traveller part of the army and nearly the whole of the could pass even from groaning Lombardy or upper and middle classes are ripe for revolu- wretched Naples into the States of the Church tion; and the King, if left to himself, would without being struck by the sudden change easily accept, as he has done before, whatever for the worse. Misgovernment and all its conconstitution the leaders of the movement sequences were written even on the surface of might dictate to him. If any rising does take the soil, in every hamlet, and on every face, place, we trust that no Muratist ambitions in characters which he who ran might read. will be suffered to interfere with its purely Now matters are more deplorable still. Every national character. King Joachim, no doubt, vice seems to have been aggravated; every was formerly much beloved by the Neapoli- incapacity to have grown more incapable; tans; but Italians of all classes are so unani- every wretched peculiarity to have enlarged mous and so intense in their repudiation of all into colossal dimensions. We deliberately beforeign domination, that they would prefer lieve that nowhere within the limits of the even the wretched Ferdinand, if once in their civilized world is to be found a Government own hands, to any prince of alien race, how-more abhorrent to God and man, more defiant ever able or liberal he might be.

of the laws of the one and more reckless of Tuscany was once the sole well-governed the rights and wants of the other, than that of State in the Peninsula. The Grand Duke the Pope of Rome. Yet he is the nominal was liberal, and his people were prosperous, head of Catholic Europe; he still holds a real, industrious, and contented. His dominions though a shaken and an undefined, sway over presented a marked and reproachful contrast the minds of some princes and of many mil to the States of the Church and to the mis- lions of people; it would be nearly impossible managed and oppressed kingdom of Sardinia. to depose or supersede or de-secularize him Since 1848, however, all has changed. No without the consentaneous action of the prin Government has attained a worse eminence, cipal Catholic States of Europe, especially of

From the Times, 20 Sept.

LORD PALMERSTON.

France and Austria; and the ideas of these two peat, it is idle to look for any other solution of Powers, as well as their designs, are so utterly the problem. discrepant, that such consentaneous action is not to be hoped for. The problem is how to retain the Pope as a spiritual sovereign when deprived of territory and secular rule,—a problem difficult enough at best; and as yet the Potentates of Europe are not even agreed as to the desirableness of attempting its solution. Yet solved it must be if "the Italian question" is to be set at rest.

quire and retain power with and through the goodwill of those they govern. To their success popularity is an indispensable condition, and to set at defiance public opinion deliberately and universally expressed is little less than committing an act of political suicide. We confess that we are glad it should be so, because it seems to us only fair that men who have gone out of their way to identify themselves with the cause of our enemies, to depreciate our motives, to extenuate our successes and exaggerate our reverses, should, for the encouragement they have given to our foes and the despondency they have sought to infuse into us, pay some heavier penalty than that of being demonstrated by events to be totally and utterly in the wrong.

In ancient times to be sorrowful in a period of universal joy, or joyful at a time of universal sorrow, was in itself an offence very likely to be visited by immédiate and condign punishment. We are far from contending for the The case of Austria is clearer, if the mea- application of such a maxim to modern times, sures needed are stronger. Once more we but a certain school of modern statesmen has must press upon all politicians that it is undoubtedly something to learn from it. To useless for Austria to attempt to govern her be opposed to the wishes and feelings of a Italian dependencies justly, clemently, or whole community is not in itself an offencewell. It is absurd to urge her to do so. She nay, it may actually be a merit; but it is one could not do so if she wished; she would not of those meritorious actions which any one who succeed in satisfying them if she did. If she aspires to administer the affairs of a free peoruled as wisely as Solon or Lycurgus, and as ple will do wisely to commit as seldom as posrighteously as Aristides or as Washington, she sible. English statesmen must ultimately acwould still fail in reconciling the Lombards and Venetians to her sway. She cannot be mild; because in her position mildness would be weakness. She rules over a people who hate her; and any relaxation of the reign of terror would therefore be followed by an outburst of rebellion. The curse of crime is upon her she has no business where she is, and therefore cannot retain her position except by measures of the most odious and unjustifiable severity. She may and must offend against the laws of God and Nature, if she insists on retaining an unjust dominion wrested by violence and perfidy from the people to whom God and Nature have given it. She may and must trample on all civil liberties and mental privileges, if she still clings to an authority whichhaving no root in consent or in affection, no By comparing the position we now hold with foundation in similarity of interests, no support that which we occupied while the Vienna from any one principle that cements men to- Conferences were sitting we have some kind gether in society-can only be upheld by ruth- of rough measure of the amount of advantage less and relentless force. What the Italians we should have reaped by listening to the want from her is not her kindness but her ab- counsels of Mr. Gladstone, Sir James Graham, sence. What they demand, and will never and their followers. Not merely should we cease to demand, is not good government but have missed a great advantage, but we should self-government. We may call them unrea- have incurred a great disgrace. Not only sonable; we may denounce them as revolu- should we have been foiled in our own objects, tionists; we may throw all our weight into the but we should have opened to the Emperor scale of the status quo, immoral and inhuman of Russia the only possible escape from a great as it is; but never will the Italians acquiesce and overwhelming disaster. Peace at Vienna or remain passive under a foreign yoke. No was, as it now appears, the only thing that one conversant with that people has the slight- could have saved Sebastopol; and peace at est doubt upon this head. If we want peace, Vienna was strenuously urged upon us by sevif we want permanence, if we want justice, eral of the men who planned and sent out progress, or improvement in that quarter, the expedition. We do not think full justice there is only one road to these blessings::- has ever been done to the gross inconsistency Austria must resign her Italian provinces. of this conduct. Premature proposals for Statesmen may be some time yet before they peace came with a bad grace from men who are prepared to accept this conclusion as inev- held office during the first year of war, who itable; still longer before they are prepared left it on grounds which were not in the slightest to carry it into effect; but once again we re-degree pacific, and who only found out in Op

But, while awarding a just amount of cen

position that it was criminal to carry out the tune of the country; the first of which he plans they had matured in Administration. did all in his power to betray, and the second to this hardy and daring enterprise, to involve these statesmen which will long outlive the to Sebastopol, to commit our fleet and army cast a light on the character and capacity of But it was still worse to plan the expedition to destroy. The flames of Sebastopol have the Emperor of Russia, to place us in a champ us in a duel of the most formal character with beacon from which it radiated. clos from which there was no retreat without sure to those who have striven in the Senate ruinous dishonor, except by complete victory and in the Council to deprive us of the just seek to break up the lists and terminate the we ought never to forget the debt of gratitude or absolute failure, and then to be the first to reward of all our labors and all our sacrifices, been defeated before Sebastopol, to have re- and the hands that executed this great and combat while it was yet indecisive. To have we owe, not merely to the heads that devised pelled to lay down our arms, were alternatives have persevered in and carried out this unembarked with loss, or even to have been com- glorious enterprise, but to the stout hearts that on which a brave and resolute nation might dertaking, in spite of all the opposition that look without shrinking, because they are in- could be raised against them in Parliament by cident to the fortune of war, to whose arbitra- renegade colleagues, in spite of every species we had committed ourselves; but to of discouragement, and in spite of a resistance

ment

commence an

enterprise and abandon it when

the protracted obstinacy of which forms an

cess at the very moment when our own success volutionize the whole system of the attack and was within our grasp, to allow the Emperor defence of fortified places. To Lord Palmerof Russia to boast to all the world that he ston are due the heartiest acknowledgments had thwarted the combined exertions of France of every true lover of his country for the unand England, would have been an inexpiable shaken firmness with which, under circumdisgrace upon our arms, an irretrievable dis- stances of the utmost difficulty, he has adhered credit to our national character, the possi- to the one end and aim of his administrationbility of which we cannot even now contem- the maintenance of the ancient honor and reritation. If Mr. Gladstone and Sir James pride of Russia, and the consolidation of the Graham meant only to carry on the war till French alliance. Of those who entered with Russia could be induced to offer colorable with him into the war, and who planned with terms of peace, they ought, above all things, him the expedition to the Crimea, how few to have avoided the committing us to an en- remained at his side when that expedition terprise which required either a successful terminated! Lord Aberdeen and the Duke of termination or concessions on the part of our Newcastle yielded to the weight of popular inenemies so decided as to leave no doubt of the dignation caused by the Crimean disasters of opinion which he entertained of the probable last winter. Mr. Gladstone, Sir James Gratermination of the conflict. We have a right ham, and Mr. Herbert retired because they therefore to accuse this class of our statesmen would not submit to a Committee of Inquiry, of having most unwisely, upon their own de- and Lord John Russell because he had beclared principles, planned this enterprise, of come a convert to Austrian principles and by having most feebly and pusillanimously sought indiscreet revelations in negotiation and unto abandon it when more than half completed, candid reticences in debate has justly forfeited and of having been shown by the event to be the confidence of the House of Commons. In as shallow in their calculations as they were all these seceders, with the single and honorcareless of our national honor and tamely able exception of the Duke of Newcastle, subservient to our enemies. They resent the Lord Palmerston has found covert or open title of Philo-Russians, and maintain that the enemies. He has had to construct and resame injustice is done to them as was expe- construct, to re-establish and reinforce his Minrienced by the Whigs during the late war; istry, and has watched over its existence from but, now that Sebastopol is taken, let us ask day to day in the House of Commons with an whose game, except that of Russia, were they untiring vigilance and assiduity which few of playing. What had we to gain by acceding our youngest statesmen would have found to the terms of Russia at Vienna? Absolutely themselves capable of imitating. Under these nothing; while to Russia such a termination of trying circumstances he has never swerved the contest was, as events have shown, every- from his end, or suffered himself to be led thing. Of course, Lord John Russell is even aside from its pursuit; and he is now deservmore censurable, having been in the com- edly rewarded, not only by a splendid sucmencement of the war more prominent and cess-not only by the triumphant termination more violent, and in the negotiations intrust- of a quarter of a century spent in diplomatic ed, above other men, with the honor and for- conflicts with Russia-but by the gratitude of

men

his countrymen, who view in him the cham-cates, and the theological law which the Cadi pion of their interests and the preserver of enforces. Its members preach, and sometimes their honor, when meaner hands strove to stain practise, obedience to the Koran; but, as usual and tarnish it. Nor ought we to forget, when with the votaries of a dominant creed, those acquitting this debt of gratitude, the services texts are most frequently remembered which of the Marquis of Lansdowne, Lord Claren- indicate their own superiority and the duty of don, and Sir William Molesworth, who have excluding the infidel, and even the lukewarm adhered to the national cause with the same believer, from the worldly power and wealth firmness and constancy, and are therefore which should be the reward of those carnest worthy of all honor in this the moment of for the faith. The other party has not a pubtriumph. We have just passed through an lic, if that term can be applied to the porters, ordeal which has tried by a searching test the boatmen, and peasants, who form the Mussulmetal of which our statesmen are made, and man population. It is composed of men more we should be neglecting the lessons of expe- instructed than their brother Pashas rience if we did not carefully and minutely who speak French and are capable of discusrecord the result for future use. But, while sing with Europeans questions of policy in a we find so much to blame and so little to praise manner which surprises a stranger. A Pasha among the class of professional statesmen, it is of this limited class disappoints the expecstrange that out of that charmed circle every tation both of those who ignorantly admire one is deserving of the like commendation and those who too much depreciate his nawith the PREMIER. In the nation at large tion. He is neither the majestic Ottoman, there has been no wavering or flinching, no with calm and innate dignity, which the vacillations of purpose, no over-estimate of tourist has imagined, nor the semi-barbarous difficulties and disasters, no under-estimate of satrap which a reaction from Turcomania has resources with which to meet them. The Mi-caused many to picture him to themselves. nister has represented the people faithfully, He is not unlike a Frenchman in his manand in that has been his strength. We are ners and turns of thought, is ready with all victorious because we have found a magnanimous leader, but also because as a nation we also have shown our full share of magnanimity.

From the Times, 20 Sept.
TURKISH GOVERNMENT.

the newest cant of civilization, and is gifted above all men with a quiet engaging duplicity, which is the highest boon of nature to a politician in Stamboul, though probably not without value in other capitals. But the enlightened Pasha is not a favorite with his country

THE appointment of Mehemet Ali, the Sul-men, who are unable to find that he resists the tan's brother-in-law, to the high office of Capu- temptations of power and wealth better than dan Pasha is an event which, though not im- those who talk less about progress and regeneportant to the world, or likely to obtain much ration. There is nothing in the character of the attention at such a moment, is interesting to men who have caught up and who parade the those who wish to learn something of the state sentiments of London platforms and the manof Turkey, and of the principles which guide ners of Parisian drawing-rooms which can inits sovereign and leading men. At a time fluence the mass of the Turks, and compensate when the armies of the West were preparing for their supposed desertion of sound Mussulfor their great final effort against the enemy's man opinions. They are known to be a class stronghold-when danger was supposed so to of shrewd politicians called into existence by threaten the Asiatic provinces as to call for the the knowledge that the European embassies services of an approved General-when the rule the destinies of the country, and that to means of continuing the war had just been ob- stand well with them will lead to power and tained through the guarantee of the two great fortune. Power and fortune they have, most Powers-an exercise of the Sultan's will of them, achieved; what real benefit they have placed near his person and high in the State conferred on their country, we have yet to the man who, above all others, represents the learn. I untamed and fanatical spirit of his race and The popularity of Mehemet Ali Pasha arises creed. Two parties divide the adherence of the from his position as the acknowledged leader official world in Stamboul, though the mass of of the Mussulman party. Education or politithe people is one in its prejudices, its hatreds, cal knowledge he has none; yet he is enand its fears. These parties are analogous to dowed with a force of character which has prothose which are found in every country, and duced no small results. His origin is obscure, the necessary existence of which may be predi- like that of most of the Pashas; for, in Turkey a cated wherever opinions are formed and ex- governing class has never existed, and the capressed by even a small section of the commu- reer has been always open to adroitness and sernity. The one represents Islamism in all its vility. The common story is, that Mahmoud, intolerance and love of isolation; it upholds on his way through Tophaneh, saw Mehemet the arrogant doctrines which the Moollah'incul- Ali at work in a carpenter's shop, was struck