SARDINIA AND EUROPE.
THERE are two Spectacles witnessed but seldom on this earth of evil passion and sin, which exceed in impressiveness every- thing of human effort, and upon which the moral vision dwells with a rare and keen delight. One is that of a brave good man struggling with adversity, but inflexible in his adherence to right and honesty. The other is that of a small nation battling for liberty and truth, while environed by hostile governments, and, as it were, with the sword's' point ever directed at its throat. There is a dramatic and ethical grandeur not unmixed with pa- thos in the solitary strife in each case. But the solitude, while it enhances'the splendour of the struggle in the individual and the nation, while it secures to its history, whether issuing in failure or success, a deeper and more enduring reverence and admiration from all the future generations of men, is the bitter-
while these momentous issues between heaven and hell are on their trial. Such a nation at this moment, struggling in noble solitude for public right and national existence, is Sardinia. May it not stand written on the indelible page of history, that such a bystanding nation indifferent both to the august eonffict itself, and to its own honour when touched to the very quick during its progress, was this England of ours. What Bacon said of the general business of the world is more emphatically true in this connexion, that none but God and angels can dare to be mere lookers-on. And the nation or the man, which " stands by the blood of its neighbours," though it may seem powerful to out- ward view, is like that oriental tree, which preserves a fair show of leaves, and flowers, and branches, while the worm within is turning its pith to dust and ashes.
The debate in the Sardinian Chambers upon the Deforests law, brings out with startling force the actual position and work of Sardinia, and is well timed, with the Cagliari case, for the pur- pose of forcing the people and statesmen of England to a due con- sideration of the principles and duties involved. Amid the frank- ness and military determination which shine through the speeches of the Sardinian statesmen, it is easy to discern, what, indeed, Count Cavour does not shrink from expressing, a profound anxiety. And it would be strange were it not so, when Europe is filled with rumours about the concentration of Austrian troops on the Sardinian frontier, when the French Emperor bears him- self so ambiguously towards Italy, as to stoop to advertise himself through the manifesto of his Italian assassin, whose brain had given way under tyranny, for which, he, more than any other man, is responsible ; and while England, who is her natural, and should be her unequivocally reliable ally, against the despotism of the cowl and sword, is playing fast and loose with its arch- patron, Austria ; and examining her own legal rights, and critici- zing her diplomatists with the languor of utter indifference, rather than the stern deliberation which is justified by a stern purpose. It is lamentable that the great lesson of 1833 should be lost upon our statesmen. One thing was unmistakeably taught by that year of diplomatic confusion ; that national indecision, and languid infirmity in negotiation, when serious international questions are involved, is the course most likely of all others to provoke war. England occupies so peculiar and mediatorial a position between the Liberal and Absolutist fanaticisms of Europe, fanaticisms which lurk like smouldering fire beneath the dry ashes of every diplomatic controversy, that when her judicial voice rings clear and firm through the tumult of litigant passions, it wins de- ference and averts hostilities. But when she is silent, or utters only stammered or doubtful words, then, indeed, are her own fair fame and the peace- of Europe alike endangered. It is, in fact, not too much to say, that upon, the moral attitude of England de- pends yet the question whether the problems which press upon the nations of Europe can be solved without that war of opinions, with the hideous thought of which men's minds have become but too familiar since the prophecy fell from Canning's lips. If the great arch of Christendom is destined to fall in so terrible a man- ner, and prepare the ground, after a blank of barbarism, for the edifice of a new civilization, the great crash will be due to this cause beyond all others, that its keystone was untrue to its func- tion, the constitutional Crown of England. Upon the particular question which the Sardinian Chambers are debating, it is excessively difficult, and fortunately, we have no inclination to pass an opinion in its judicial aspects. It is not possible for English laymen or lawyers to affirm dogmatically that the judicial system which is our great safeguard, in political and private cases, is invariably applicable to questions involving such delicate issues at this moment as the assassination of Kings, in a country so peculiarly situated as Piedmont. The only as- pect of the case seriously affecting the well-wishers of Piedmont, is satisfied by the emphatic declarations of able statesmen and soldiers like Cavour and La Marmora, that they are not acting under foreign pressure. Provided that the Deforests law is not made the instrument of judicial iniquity, a supposition forbidden by the character of King and Ministers, it is immaterial that it has the collateral merit or demerit of conciliating that enigmatic personage, who seems compounded of Julian and Cagliostro, with a slight infusion of Tiberius, the Emperor of the French. With us the case of the Government of Lord Palmerston was different. For, in the first place, we had been plainly put under the pres- sure of the French army, and, on the other hand, the few persons
who had critically examined the proposed Conspiracy Bill, had satisfied themselves that its provisions were of a kind anomalous to our jurisprudence, and upon all grounds of jurisprudence and policy utterly unacceptable. If no point of right is', sacrificed, Sardinian statesmen are right to throw tubs to Imperial whales ; for the chance even of securing alliances. For while Count Cavour spoke in a strain which showed that the King and his advisers hold themselves pledged to the cause of Italian independence, while their actions appear so plainly to be a throwing down of the gauntlet to the Austro-Roman despotic powers of Italy, all true Sardinian patriots and sympathizers should acquiesce in the necessity which imparts a diplomatic and belligerent character to legislative acts. In effect, Count Cavour says to the Chambers, not so much that Sardinia will take up
the cause of Italian freedom, as that she is in the very thick of the fight for it, and must- try for foreign alliances to help her to success.
Still, the course is a hazardous one, and Sardinian statesmen
at reproach to those, who, having power to help, stand idly by I will be too keen not to see that the friendship of French lupe-
rialism, as practically expounded by the Delphic doctor who re- presents it on the throne, is a strange armoury wherein to temper the weapons which are to revolutionize Italy, in a constitutonal sense, a striking phrase used during the Sardinian debates. Count Cavour appears to suggest to the Chambers, that if they would build up an everlasting political habitation they must not be overscrupulous in making friends with the French Mammon of =righteousness. But it is not for Englishmen, while their country lies under the appearance of skulUng from plain inter- national duties under the cover of diplomatic mistakes, and legal difficulties, to be over censorious with Piedmont, if she grasps doubtful or unclean hands in her hour of agony. . The intensity of the strife of principle, in which Piedmont re- presents the right and the truth, is shown in nothing so much as in the way in which the most responsible orators of the Sardinian Chambers have torn to pieces all the veils of diplomatic reserve. All the world knows and on indisputable authority how coldly selfish is the republican liberalism of your Lamartines, and your Cavaignacs ; and with what polite cynicism distinguished French literary statesmen can tell the leader of the van of Italian free- dom that they prevented the President of the Republic when half- willing, from giving French help to Italian armies. It will be felt throughout Europe that this frankness represents the sound po- licy of which overpowering necessity is the best teacher, and evinces a just appreciation of the power of public sentiment in thisage. For to recall to the Emperor the sentiments of the President is at once to warn Austria to prudence, and the Monarch himself that infidelity to this purpose, following so many infideli- ties, might, if nothing else did, make of his throne the unsteady and perishable thing, which the Republic itself proved to be. But, again we say, what of England? It would appear that the Law-officers of the Crown are really in serious doubt as to the legality or illegality of the Neapolitan proceedings touching the Cagliari, though clear as to the unlawfulness of the detention of Park and Watt. We must emphatically say that we care not how much statesmen and lawyers deliberate, nay, the longer and deeper the better, provided the deliberations are intended to secure an impregnable position for action, and are not a mere cover for delay, or doubting purpose. Therefore, we are far from endeavouring to prejudge questions on which we would have such grave issues of action depend. At the same time, it is not a little difficult to understand where the doubt in pronouncing against the Neapoli- tan position really lies. The whole ease is that of a vessel, per- fectly legitimate in original character, used for a temporary anti- Neapolitan purpose, but restored to her normal authority, and captured after the restoration by the via major of Neapolitan fri- gates, beyond the sea-limit of Neapolitan jurisdiction. We are not insensible to the very important truth, that often legal doubts, which appear to the lay mind as mere trivialities, are matters of truly vital import. But in this ease the hesitation touch- ing the point of capture in the minds of English jurists is, as yet, inexplicable to us. And we anxiously wait for the publi- cation of the opinions of all the Law-officers for enlightenment. In our view Lord Clarendon solved this point, when he wrote in the famous letter of suggestions to Sir James Hudson, that it was ridiculous to talk of the Cagliari as not having been captured by force. And, after all, the real question of law in the case does not touch the mere capture in its inception, but the proceedings, taken as a whole, of Naples in regard to the vessel. And we await with no little curiosity and anxiety, the announcement of that train of legal reasoning, which shall acquit the acts of Naples in the capture and condemnation of the vessel from the charge of almost wilful violation of maritime international law : and shall show that the reasonings on which the acts are founded are not what competent jurists have pronounced them, a subversion of ouch law in its very foundations of principle and authority.
The development of this question, and of the Sardinian position towards Europe generally, cannot, according to all present ap- pearances, be long postponed. If we repeat again the memorable expression of opinion, that "constitutional government is on its trial," it is because we feel that England is as much placed at the bar of the world's opinion as Sardinia in that great litigation. The conscience of mankind, which in these cases is an inexorable judge, pronounces that free governments should deal with one another as beins° of the household of political faith. And no mere motive of diplomatic necessity, in the case of a powerful empire like that of England, will excuse such rapproehenzent to despotic powers as shall prevent, or appear to prevent, the discharge of duties which devolve upon us not merely from political sym- pathy, not merely as the guardians of European liberties, but as the parties principally interested in the maritime law of the world. It is not agreeable to find English statesmen complacently drawing a distinction between our national duties to Park and Watt, and our international as regards the Cagliari, especially when the two appear bound together, in the law andreason of the special question. And every Englishman must feel the attitude of Sardinia towards France as a personal reproach. No person who is capable of justly appreciating the King and statesmen and people of Sardinia can suppose that this conciliatory demeanour to the French Emperor is due to inclination. And we, for our part, are able to affirm the contrary upon grounds not of mere speculation but of authorita- tive knowledge. It is to England that the eyes of Sardinians are turned. It is England which is and must be the Mecca of modern constitutionalists ; it is towards England that are set the faces of those who pray for the dawn of a happier day upon this Europe of noble scientific civilization, and vulgar political despotism. Be- yond a doubt we cannot take up the political regeneration of the whole world, or draw the sword to establish constitutional kingdoms in Europe. We have difficulties and duties enough to forbid world-wide schemes of political propagandism, had not the ex- perience of mankind condemned their very principle. But at least we can and must do our duty ; at least we are bound not to shrink from the defence of our allies in plain questions of right' because we are tied and bound by the silken chains of the diplomatic salons of Europe, and infected by the abominable doctrine which would repeal all. rules of international right under the,plea of keeping in chains the wild beast of the Revolution. Those who believe that men or nations who shrink from their duty are chastised, a law which certainly is not yet repealed, should keep these things, and ponder them in their hearts. The empire which has defied the world in arms, and rode victoriously through the storms of Spanish and French despotisms, keeping for the world's admiration a sacred soil of liberty untouched for eight centuries by the invader's foot, may not survive a wilful departure from its chief duty. If the insular position -which has hitherto been the sign of our political individuality, become the sign of an egotistical indifference, there will be a heavy retribution. But we will not entertain this doubt or dread. England will be true to herself, and will speak at last in no doubtful voice. If the peace of Europe is to be preserved there is no way so sure and just as that. If not, we believe she will ever throw her sword into the scale of right. For the sun of the political firmament is not yet destined to be struck out.
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