NEWS OF THE WEEK.
A. RECENT communication from the Austrian to the French Go-. verument, indicates a state of public feeling in the North of
Italy, alarming to the Imperial Protector of that country. METTERNICH, it seems, has applied to the Dec DE BROGLIE, for permission to march a body of Austrian troops into Piedmont, for the purpose of quelling the revolutionary spirit which prevails among the subjects of the King of SARDINIA. Our readers will recollect that this Monarch, when Prince of CARIGNAN, headed an insurrectionary movement in 1821, against the authority of his royal father ; and that his conduct on that occasion laid him open to the imputation of treachery and cowardice. His behaviour then, and subsequently, was at all events such as to entitle him to the support of the oppressors of his country ; and accordingly, no opposition was manifested to his accession to the throne in due course, by the Cabinet of Vienna. Since he has been King, he has proved himself worthy of the confidence and countenance of Prince METTERNICH. He has persecuted every man suspected of Liberalism in his dominions. Law and justice have been violated, substantially and in form, in the trials of the suspected. Special commissions, military courts-martial, and all the most approved instruments of tyranny, have been actively in force during the last year. We have heard the stifled groans, as it were, of his vic- tims ::the rumours of detected conspiracies, followed by military exe- cutions, banishments, and incarcerations, have been rife ; but no dis- tinct intelligence of these dark and bloody deeds, has been suffered to transpire. Italians will endure a vast amount of oppression without murmurs ; for, unfortunately, centuries of barbarian rule have ha- bituated them to it. But there is a limit to Italian forbearance in this respect; and it would seem that the spirit of the Piedmontese has become so formidable to their contemptible Sovereign, that he has applied to his patrons at Vienna for the loan of an army to keep them down. This, of course, they would be exceedingly pleased to afford him : but since the overthrow of the old Bourbon despotism in France, it has become necessary for the Austrians to use more caution in their mode of interfering in the affairs of Italy. Hence the application to the Due DE BROGLIE; who, it is gratifying to find, has been the reverse of accommodating to the designs of Austria. The French Minister for Foreign Affairs is reported to have declared, that if Austria occupied one part of his Sardinian Majesty's dominions, France would take possession of the other; that Savoy and Nice should be garrisoned with French troops, as soon as the Austrian forces crossed over from Lombardy to Piedmont. This reply, we presume, has settled for a time the question of Austrian interference. It is cheering once more to see some symptoms of approaching resuscitation in the South of Europe. Perhaps before we arrive at the close of another year, we may have to record the peaceable existence of Liberal Governments in Spain and Portugal, and at least a modification of the despotism which breaks the spirits of the struggling Italians.
