NEWS OF THE WEEK.
THE events which have taken place during the last eight days have proved the solid growth of Italian nationality, and have
not only given the most substantial testimony to the policy of • King Victor Emmanuel and his official coadjutors, but have shown that the events of succeeding years have greatly . strengthened the popular cause in Italy. The Tuscan deputa- tion arrived at Turin on Saturday last, and tendered to King Victor Emmanuel the annexation of Tuscany with Piedmont, the wish for that measure being inspired, not by the mere desire to aggrandize the King's state but by "the love of Italian na- tionality." That is to say, ;he Tuscans believe that by making common cause with Piedmont and .Genoa, and consolidating themselves with those States, they shall be not only strengthen- ing the guarantees of their own independence, but enlarging the nucleus of a renovated Italy. • King Victor Emmanuel and his official coadjutors, but have shown that the events of succeeding years have greatly . strengthened the popular cause in Italy. The Tuscan deputa- tion arrived at Turin on Saturday last, and tendered to King Victor Emmanuel the annexation of Tuscany with Piedmont, the wish for that measure being inspired, not by the mere desire to aggrandize the King's state but by "the love of Italian na- tionality." That is to say, ;he Tuscans believe that by making common cause with Piedmont and .Genoa, and consolidating themselves with those States, they shall be not only strengthen- ing the guarantees of their own independence, but enlarging the nucleus of a renovated Italy.
The acceptance of King Victor Emmanuel, as our readers have been led to expectovas at once frank and reserved.; frank as regards: his own feelings and intentions reserved only with re- ferene,e to his powers. He did not conceal his strong sympathy with the desire of the Tuscan people to-rnalr9 the last vestige 'of foreign domination in TuseanY cease, or ir Constitute it strorig- kingdom which shall defend the independence of Italy. He promised to second their desire, to support their rights ; but he
• avowed his inability to do so of his own mere motion, and re- ferred them for a final decision to the Powers of Europe.
The desire for Italian nationality has made greater progress than the policy of those Princes and statesmen who, in 1856, either showed themselves scarcely prepared to debate the ques- tion, or, like the leading statesman of Austria, were unprepared even to believe in the existence of such a question. In his more recent conferences with our diplomatic representative, Baron Bach, the acute Austrian Minister, expressed his utter inability to recognize the necessity for any reforms in Italy ; so com- pletely subdued has the Austrian mind become to the mannerism of its own style of governing. In the meanwhile, however, Ita- lian statesmanship has been working upon the intellect and con- science of Italy, and the effect is, that the ideas which first emanated from Massimo d'Azeglio, and were so admirably taken up and practically developed by Count Cavern.' have obtained a complete possession of the Italian mind in all of the provinces that have asserted their substantive existence during the recent
conflicts. We have all along known that the minor Duchies, Parma and. Modena, have been preparing to go with Tuscany, but now the people of the Romagna, as represented in the as-
sembly at Bologna, have declared their desire to be annexed to the kingdom of Northern Italy. Thus the opinion, and, if we
may say so, the organized wish of the Italian provinces has out- stripped the proceedings of statesmen in other countries, however provident and farseeing. A very striking proof is given to this extension of nationality in the proposals of the Romagnese deputies : they not only indi- cate their own rights, but they also propose to take the initiative in a general subscription to purchase the independence of Ve- netia. The proposal is generous and dignified; and it is one of
the strongest amongst many evidences that the provincialism which has cut up Italy into separate States, divided by dialects and. jealousies, has been rapidly disappearing under the influence of modern facilities for travelling, under the working of a na- tional literature and a national mind, and above all under the
ceaseless industry of Piedmontese statesmanship. The events of the week form a noble page in the history of European nations.
