TOPICS OF THE DAY.
THE INTERNATIONAL PARLIAMENT.
LIMITED as the function of Congress may be, and perhaps should be, its proceedings will constitute a great legislative act for Europe. No previous conditions can shut out that inevitable consequence; no desire to avoid idle irrelevancies or complications can make far- seeing statesmen shrink from the opportunity involved in the duty. The question is raised—" What is the duty of England in regard to such a Congress, and of all the great neutral Powers" ? for we are told, that " all the neutral Powers of Europe have a positive and most imperative duty in the matter." In the Russian war England made a selfish protest against the doctrine that we must keep ourselves to ourselves ; but we can now do more, and we may do more, even " without the smallest hazard of war, with the certainty, indeed, of preventing the worst form of war,"—that worst form being foreign wars undertaken to impose upon nations governments that they detest. The argument is maintained with great ability by our able and influential contemporary the Economist :— " It is a mischievous thing to talk as if England could stand wholly aloof in the present crisis with unstained honour. In the recent Italian war it was very ditfifrent. The issues were not clear. The intentions of the Em- peror of the French were not known. The wishes of the Italian people themselves were only half known. Their fitness for freedom was not tested, and their capacity for it was gravely doubted. To have joined in that war would have been a reckless and unjustifiable implication of our country in a net of confused international relations. But now there is a great and tangible aim easily within our reach. Europe is already prepared for the great principle we have contended for. France has virtually acknowledged it in Italy. England has long professed to act upon it in her own foreign poliy, and has now the chance of elevating it into au international prin- ciple. She cannot stand aloof, and leave it bereft of the aid of her powerful intluctine, without a dereliction of duty, without a real national sin. She can isolate herself if she please. But never before was there a more solemn obligation placed upon her not to isolate herself, but to contend with all her strength for a principle which will do more to tranquillize Europe and sus- tain the self-confidence of trembling nations, than any of those triumphs of scientific discovery of which this age of progress' so quaintly and blindly boasts."
A certain relation between our contemporary and an authorita- tive circle in the country has been no secret ; and we hail with satisfaction this marked assistance in clearing away false opinions on the subject. Our Ministerial contemporary, the Globe, adds another word, which assists in the same process :— " The war is without result, if it does not leave Italy stronger—and atm./yet. /a its omen strength—to resist renewed foreign domination. The popular instinct in Central Italy appears unanimous in seeking that strength iu union with the sole Italian State at once free and warlike. Whoever may take umbrage at this, the recent Imperial ally of Sardinia cannot do so, consistently with any continued adhesion to the cause for which he so recently took the field. And we entertain good hope that the justness of coup Wadi, which has distinguished the present ruler of France in former critical European situations, will show him now that the policy best calcu- lated to aftbrd real and permanent satisfaction to the real aspirations of the active and instructed minds of Italy at the present time must be the best policy for the chief who so lately entered the lists as her champion. Any mere dynastic object (supposing any such to have been entertained) must be seeotalary to the main object, success or failure in which will be success or failure in carrying out the ` idea ' with which France entered on the war."
It is as certain as anything can be which rests upon the direct assertion of the principal person concerned, upon a variety of converging evidence, and upon the general tendency of events, that the Emperor Napoleon has entertained no " dynastic objects" in Italy. On the contrary, although in no manner pledged to his support, and not orginally ingratiated by his antecedents, we have been unable to withhold the recognition of a single-minded and public-spirited motive in his Italian policy. We have throughout stated the main principles of that policy. Without desiring to court hostilities, anxious indeed to abandon hostilities as soon as possible, Napoleon determined to defend Italy against a coercion which violated the letter of the treaties constituting the charter of Europe and the spirit of public law. We hold, indeed, that the Emperor has had just cause for dissatisfaction at seeing his motives decried by our press, and by some of our public men, who have constantly professed to desire the liberation of the Italians.
Even Emperors, however, cannot entirely shape the progress of events, especially when other potentates are too dull to perceive the coming necessity, and so make opportunities for impatient nations. The programme suggested to Austria at Villafranca very considerably resembled, in a more systematic form, the Note of D'Azeglio. During the progress of negotiations, perhaps, the Treaty of Villafranca has been brought into nearer approximation to that Note ; but in the meanwhile the terrible mistakes of Austria, her military blunders, and the still more ludicrous errors of the Dukes, have all contributed so materially to alter the ground, that the Treaty at Villafranca is almost as much out of date as the D'Azeglio Note of 1856. Still the Emperor Napoleon stands so far pledged to the Treaty, that he at least cannot be the person to suggest its abandonment. He stands also pledged by his own generous and spontaneous actions to protect the Italians against aggression from without ; and in his replies to the De- puties from Tuscany and from Parma he has signified his resolu- tion to maintain that principle.
The reply of the Prussian Minister to the deputation from Tuscany is not one of the least instructive of the momentous events that have happened recently. Prussia has conned the lesson forced upon her by Austria, and has profited by it. The rampant Bernardism into which the Emperor Francis Joseph has suffered himself to be drawn, has manifestly revolted the Prussian Court ; and the Imperial Government, which could condescend to browbeat its compeer in the Germanic federation, has shown that it has not right on its side in every contest that it undertakes. Undoubtedly Austria has no ground to complain of impatient rivalry in Prussia, which has, under the Prince Regent, behaved with the greatest consideration to its Imperial rival ; but every day proves that Austria is losing as much on all sides of her as she has been losing in Italy. While the people of Pesth are asking leave to speak their own native language instead of the alien tongue forced upon them, the Prussian Minister is avowing that Prussia will take no active part to oppose the wishes of the Italian people. In opposition to the dogmatism and Imperial arrogance which have hitherto dominated in Eastern and Southern Europe, two important elements are daily gaining ground in all regions. They are the principles of common sense and of practical economy. The Emperor Napoleon has been directing the power and influence of France towards promoting better relations all round, particularly with a view to friendly intercourse and commercial development. The domestic measure which France awaits, as soon as a Congress shall have secured the pacification of Europe, consists in the de- liberation on those commercial reforms which M. Michel Che- valier has on the order of the day for 1860. While the German people are asking for a more judicious arrangement, in order that princes and people may act together for the better interests of Germany, the reports of the Money Market show us that the trading classes are beginning to be irritated, because they are not enjoying the full commercial advantages of peace, although they have an accumulating capital which is impatient for profitable employment. Austria, on the other hand,—the great dogmatic incendiary of Europe,—is also thePower that hasjust exposed her own flagrant violation of fiscal obligations in the unauthorised excess of the national loan. Amongst the objects for which the Italians are seeking liberty is the better development of their own resources, in which an example has been set them by the energetic finance and liberal commercial policy of Piedmont. The Emperor of Russia has succeeded in procuring the aid of his nobles to ar- range the matter of serf-emancipation, both for the more judicious governing of his vast nation, and for the better manage- ment of its industrial economy. And all round, while each country is seeking to render its own discipline more accordant with common sense and thrifty management, there is un- questionably an avowed advance of public opinion, equally amongst Princes and statesmen as amongst peoples, favourable to looking at home and leaving other nations to manage their own affairs.
It would be a burlesque on the doctrine of non-intervention if England stood aloof and refused to promote the acceptance of the very principle which she has vainly urged. With others, indeed, we have violated it in times past, and the Treaty statutes of 1815 stand upon record as evidences of the degree to which we gave our assent, though on many occasions, as we have since learned to know, the assent of England was given reluctantly after protest, and only to avoid the evils of continued discord. Since 1815 the statesmen, and even the Princes of other countries, have advanced inure to the view which was then enforced by the maligned Castlereagh ;—we can scarcely say the unjustly maligned, since his Government withheld from the people of England the explanation which was due to public opinion ;—and, thus letting judgment go by default, it had no right to complain if public opinion judged it by its company. But since that day we have learned that it is not the duty of any state to force its ideas upon alien peoples. On the contrary, we have arrived at the conviction that the best policy is to stand aloof, save in cases where the people may develop ideas that command our sympathies, and then we shall find it accordant with our own instincts, with our disposition, and with our material interests, to aid that people in developing such spon- taneous ideas.
In latter years we have faithfully obeyed this policy. We have done so in Spain, in Belgium, in France. We cannot with- hold our meet of approbation from the development which we see going on in Russia. We cannot refuse our word of vindication for the unjustly aspersed Germans and the Duke of Saxe-Coburg Gotha. And in Italy, both people and circumstances are com- bining to bring about precisely that policy which we have avowedly recommended.
If they succeed, international war as well as civil war will be prevented ; if they fail, the conflagration- may be lighted in Southern Europe to spread to the rest of the Continent. The sole authority which can take the necessary measures for effecting an insurance upon the tranquillity of Europe is a Congress ; and the sooner Government can clear away the dubities and misconstruc- tions which impede the assembling of that international Parlia- ment the better.
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