LAST WEEK.
THE ITALIAN SITUATION.
Success at Ancona, a check before Capua; popular enthusiasm in the south of Italy, a more disciplined and orderly preparation for coming events in the north; the Austrians still in the Quadrilateral, and the French at Rome; Count Cavour and Joseph Garibaldi the rival chess-players, the Emperors of France and Austria watching the game with heavy stakes on the result; Italy, save the patrimony of Saint Peter, from the Savoyard frontier and the Mincio down to Reggio, clear of foreign soldiers; the King Lackland, late of the Two Sicilies, making a last stand, and the garrisons of Messina and Ancona still holding out; the continent of Europe wholly alive, and England only half-alive to the true meaning of passing events—such are a few of our Italian jottings for the Last Week.
What is to be the end of all this? Two principles are at work in the Italian Peninsula—which will triumph in the end?
On the one side is Garibaldi with his great heart—sick to death of diplomacy and priestcraft—indignant at the juggling partition of Italy completed under the auspices of Cavour; mindful of the past history of his country, and resolved to hazard everything upon his present throw; profoundly convinced that the policy now in favour at Turin means little more than the substitution of France for Austria as the dominant power in Italy; determined to try conclusions with the French at Rome, and with the Austrians in Venetia, as soon as he has given good account of the débris of the Neapolitan army; but hampered with difficulties which close round him the moment he pauses in his triumphal progress; an object of suspicion and distrust to all Continental Statesmen; pre-eminently a Revolutionary Chief, and the needful man if Italy is to be saved by revolution; the popular idol of his own country, and beloved and respected by the Liberal party not only in his own country, but throughout the civilised world.
On the other hand we have Count Cavour who, no doubt, on his side also very honestly means the liberation of Italy from the grasp of the foreigner, but who pursues the object he has in view by very different paths from those in which Garibaldi is to be found. Cavour thought that the assistance of France to clear Lombardy from the Austrians was well purchased by the sacrifice of an Italian province. He bargained and sold away Savoy to France in return for Lombardy. He would not only not venture to attack the French troops in Rome, but he would put forth the armed power at his disposal to interpose between them and attack from the Italian side. He has actually taken the step of causing Umbria and the Marches to be occupied by Sardinian troops, and has dissipated Lamoricière’s mercenaries more with the view of warding off a collision between the French and the Garibaldians than with the idea of annexing the provinces named to his Sovereign’s dominions.
As matters now stand, and unless the Pope departs quietly from Rome, Garibaldi must break through a Sardinian military cordon before he is admitted to the privilege of a struggle with France. In the journals published at Turin and Milan, and which are written more or less under the auspices of Cavour, it is emphatically denied that any intention of attacking Austria either in Venetia, or in any of her Adriatic provinces, exists at all in the minds of the advisers of the Sardinian King. At the same time, military preparations are pushed forward with extreme vigour, and, as far as Upper Italy is concerned, Count Cavour would seem to be putting himself in readiness for any eventuality. There cannot now exist any doubt that Garibaldi’s expedition to Sicily was carried out under the sanction, and with the active assistance, of the Sardinian Government. Cavour, therefore, is willing to take advantage of the revolutionary feeling to a certain extent—but it must not develop itself beyond measure. He would keep the whirlwind within control, and discount earthquakes if he might. If the liberation of Italy, as Cavour understands the question, is to be carried out, the result will be brought about by sacrifices and compromises. At the end of the year 1861 we should, in all probability, still see the French at Rome, and the Austrians in Venetia, and the Italian Peninsula itself more or less a satellite of France.
Meanwhile forces are at work which would seem rather to be on the side of the great revolutionary chief than of the shrewd diplomatist at Turin.
Austria is hopelessly bankrupt, and must fall from bad to worse, unless the young Emperor and his advisers make up their minds to handle the various provinces of the empire in a spirit very different from that which has inspired the counsels of Austria for the last forty-five years. Francis Joseph is in the position of an Irish landlord with a very fine, but a very heavily mortgaged estate. If he adheres to the old traditions of Castle Rackrent he must soon come to the Encumbered Estates’ Court;—if he have energy enough to turn his back resolutely on the past, there is yet for him a tempus pœnitentiæ. On the 21st of last month Count Clam presented to the Austrian Reichsrath a report on the financial condition of the empire. Here are a few of his figures. During the last ten years Austria has paid away in the shape of taxation 800,000,000 florins more than it paid in the preceding ten years. But despite of this severe addition to the national burdens, the national debt is 1,300,000,000 florins larger than it was ten years ago. More than this, State domains have been sold to the extent of 100,000,000 florins. Even if peace is maintained, the estimated deficit for 1861 will be 39,000,000 florins, and 25,000,000 in the following year. More than this again, what is called the “extraordinary war contribution” of 32,000,000 florins has broken down; and at the conclusion of the year 1861, according to all probability, the bulk of this sum will have to be carried to the wrong side of the deficit account. The home creditor has already received such scurvy usage at the hands of successive Austrian Chancellors of the Exchequer, that unless the most violent pressure be employed there is an end of voluntary loans. An Austrian