THE ITALIAN QUESTION.

Wellington Independent, Volume XV, Issue 1403, 3 February 1860, Page 5

THE ITALIAN QUESTION.

The London Times of the 11th November, in a leading article on Italy, puts forth a statement in a semi-official tone, which, if true, must bring thin question of Italian nationality to a speedy close. After quoting the spirit of the Emperor Napoleon's letter to Victor Emmanuel, which startled the public two or three weeks back, the primary feature of which was the restoration of the old rulers, and a federal Italy with one flag, one customs, and one currency, the writer declares that it would be impossible, for England to enter a Congress of which these were the conditions to be settled, supposing that France was determined to enforce them. " Lord John, or Mr. Disraeli, or Mr. Gladstone declaring for joining France in the restoration of the Grand Dukes," he says, " would not carry twenty members with him into the House of Commons." But if the influence of France is confined to moral persuasion and not to physical force the position of affairs is materially altered. " If, he adds, " Italy should yield and restore her Grand Dukes under the influence of a too exuberant gratitude, England would have nothing to say against this exercise of the right of the population to take back their old governors. If, on the other hand, Italy should determine to hold with unrelaxing grasp the freedom which fortune has placed in her hands,' Napoleon the Thud would have nothing to say but to deplore the iugratitude of mankind." We beliere that this reasonable solution of the difficulty has been effected, aud that the apparent antagonism between the desires of France and Italy is reduced to the unimportant difference that the two nations will use their influence with the Italians in opposite directions ; or, to speak more accurately, that England will leave the Italians alone to pursue their own course, while Fiance will be free to counsel, persuade, or entreat the Italians to carry out the promises which, unauthorised by them, but confiding in their compliance, the Emperor of the French made in their behalf. We hear that all the Powers have now espoused the policy of non-intervention in Italy, Russia alone declining to admit tbe principle that subjects have a right to choose their own Sovereigns. This protest is of little importance, so fur as the practical effect of the now pending negotiations is concerned. All the powers are agreed upon the principle that nothing, more forcible than words shall cross the Alps to direct the action of the Italian population." Assuming then, the correctness of this iin portanj! exposition put forth by our metropolitan contemporary, — and, we see no reason to doubt it, — the Italian question will be settled in a way satisfactory to the Italians themselves. Whatever they decide will be accepted by the great powers as a portion of the international law cf Europe. If they suffer themselves to be cajoled, they will have no reason to complain hereafter ; but the moral triumph thus attained by the arms of France will be regarded by most dispassionate people as exceeding in gran? deur the greatest of her victories in the late campaign. We held to the belief from the first that Louis Napoleon could not, without ren-

tiering- his reign infamous and his memory execrable, do otherwise than leave |he question of self-government to .the Italians, but we hardly expected, as is now stated^ that Austria would also accede, and that even Russia would give a qualified assent. The world has rapidly improved of late, and Kings have at la.st learned the art of going with the times. If we compare the decision to which the great monarchs have now come — two, if not three, pf thera absolute raouarcbs — with the principles of the Holy Alliance, as it was blasphemously called, thirty or forty years ago, we cannot fail to be struck with the difference between the past and the present. It is now found, however tardy the discovery, that there is something stronger than stauding armies and rifled cannon — the eternal principles of justice and equity — and that, when these principles are earned in the case of a

whole people, the moral principle will speedily supersede the physical one. Austria, having made this discovery, has a wide area on which to apply it, and as the Italians may be safely left to take care of themselves, it will be real wisdom on the part of the Emperor Francis Joseph to put it into immediate practice in the most discontented portion of hia dominions. — European Times, Not. 18.