TOPICS OF THE DAY.
THE CRIMINAL STATES OF EUROPE.
A cams seems impending on the continent. Some few States, in the infatuation of obstinacy or bigotry, threaten the peace of the world. The chance is actually before us that the whole continent may be deluged with blood ; and. that millions of people may be doomed to want, starvation and the far worse horrors of war. In the meantime, a constituted orthodox statesmanship dallies with the danger ; tries to exorcise it by the empirical nostrums of routine; and thinks to sneak out of the difficulties which beset it by a trimming policy. Should the great criminals who are now, by their benighted folly, threatening to plunge Europe into bloody wars, pursue their reckless course, it will be by the suffer- ance of those statesmen in certain countries who profess to be moderate and pacific.
The danger is evident in the whole face of the news. There are some half dozen centres about which the storm appears to be gathering. Let us start with Christian Europe, where the wicked infatuation is worst, both in degree and in circumstance. The King of Naples is hardened in his infatuation. Instead of accepting whatever terms the Government of King Victor Em- manuel would allow, he has haggled ; his plenipotentiary is with- drawn from Turin ; and virtually the Kinvb declares that he will accept conflict rather than peace upon the terms granted to him. Let us see whose good offices he has thus cast away. France, in some degree supported by the passive acquiescence of England, had called upon Garibaldi to hold his hand ; had urged the Government of Turin to form an alliance with Naples under a common Italian flag ; and had, in fact, secured to King Francis the Second one chance more. In refusing the bargain at Turin, Francis the Second has thrown these good offices in Napoleon's face. By whose advice had the wretched King done this ? Not his Ministers', not his Army's, not his Navy's, not his sub- jects'. One and all they are telling him that they cannot resist the invader ; that they sympathize with the Italian cause ; that they desire the union with IN orthern Italy. But he hopes for sup- port from Lamorieiere, with the troops recruited by the Pope. In the Eternal City, the reactionaries have been deploring the re- call of Goyon, because they looked upon him as favourable to their projects, and thought that he would have been glad to lead the French troops against the Italians. The Ministers of Pius IX. have made arrangements to carry him off in safety to Gaeta; and similar arrangements have been made for the trans- port of the Neapolitan family to Gaeta, Laybach, or to Vienna,— the further the better. The Pope, therefore, equally with Francis the Second, casts in the face of the Emperor Napoleon the good offices which that potentate has so perseveringly extended to the Governments of Southern Italy. There can be but one reason for this apparent recklessness ; they must hope that Austria is intending to set aside the stipulations of Villafranca. But what can induce Austria to take this posi- tion? How can the Government of Francis Joseph believe that it can hoist the reactionary flag in Italy, and again subdue the Peninsula to the detestable tyranny from which it has broken ? The young Emperor of Austria has been told, like the young King of Naples, that he must not rely upon his own subjects, whether in Venetia .or in Hungary. Even Bohemia is doubtful. But he relies on something else. At Toplitz, he has been meet- ing the Prince Regent of Prussia, who is supposed to have agreed once more upon a joint action for the defence of German interests ; prostituting Germany to uphold in Italy the hated tyranny of the two-beaked eagle. Germany, it is supposed, will be drawn into that combination by its dread of the French eagle. In other words, prejudice and cowardice are the two great motives by which the idiotcy of Vienna hopes to make a tool of the intellect of Berlin ; and just at present, the intellect of Berlin, as repre- sented by the Prince Regent, seems willing to play the part of tool for the Emperor at Vienna. On something else, too it is said, Francis Joseph relies —some language that our Prime Minister had uttered ; a story which we believe to have been wholly without foundation. It is possible that a Government which is eking out its hopes, just at present, by collecting tittletattle in every court of Europe, may have heard from its own creatures reports favourable to its preconceived ideas. We can well understand that Austrians in certain capitals send up to Vienna reports highly pleasing to that Imperial master whose good favour is the one object of their desire ; and the poor Emperor' entirely surrounded by men who speak him fair, lends no faith to the more truthful reports of a Hubner or a Benedek. Francis Joseph, therefore, whose melan- choly countenance betrays the state of his mind, is, by his own will and pleasure, for the sake of the Ultramontanes of Rome and the idiot King of Naplev about to plunge the half of Europe into a bloody war ; and the statesmanship of Germany thinks it pru- dent, "moderate," legitimate, to encourage Hapsburg and Bour- bon in this frightful mission. While Europe proper is thus threatened with widespread war, the state of Turkey, both in Europe and in Asia, adds to the coin.= plication. In Syria the massacres continue ; we almost deRly have some addition to the list of places that have been swept by the storm. In European Turkey, the Mussulmans of Ronmeta are known to have been conspiring ; and from every quarter which possesses any kind of local or original information on the condition of Turkey and its movements, we have the same sto , —that Mussulmans are conspiring to rise and decimate the 0 jp• ht tians in order to their complete subjugation. We ourselves have information to that effect, direct from Syria and from Constanti- nople. Abd-el-Kader has vindicated his rising fame by standing forward as a witness, to the extent of the massacres, to the possi- bility of preventing them to the lukewarmness or treachery of the Turkish officials, and them, the impracticability of restoring quiet in Turkey without an effectual suppression of the Ottoman arrogance. Servia is now added to the list of those Christian provinces which are claiming protection ; and the feeble Govern- ment in Constantinople is yielding before the Servian claims. The Sultan, Abd-ul-Medjid, is copying the English plan of meeting grievances by" commissions of inquiry ;" but there is Jittle hope that his contumacious Moslem will wait for the report of these commissions. The danger is imminent. It is probable that the conflict will extend from Syria to European Turkey. In that event, Russia stands ready with 80,000 men on the Pruth ; and what Englishman could wish Russia to hold back at such a time ?
But it is impossible to separate scenes of conflict in the East from the actual state of Italy and Austria. Whatever may be the present turn of diplomatic communications, there is no doubt that, de facto, Russia is likely to be on the side of Christianity in Tur- key, of the constitution in Hungary, of nationality in Italy. The Emperor Napoleon has already taken his position : should there be war in Italy, he will be on the side of the Italians ; should there be war in Turkey, he will be on the side of Christianity. Austria can scarcely lend herself to the support of the Crescent in the East ; though she is hoping to accomplish a malversation of Ger- man influence, by getting the Germans to uphold the spirit of na- tionality in the North by helping to suppress nationality in Italy. In the approaching conflict, therefore, we see, on the one side, Russia and France; on the other, reckless Austria and "moderate" Ger- many. It seems to be absolutely impossible that England should be anywhere but on the side of Christianity in Turkey and of na- tional independence in Italy. Hence, we say, whatever may be the present course of diplomatic negotiations, Englishmen must expect to see on the one side Austria, her German abettors, her Italian creatures, and her Mussulman accomplices ; on the other, Italy, Russia, France, and England. But surely if England possesses either the sagacity or the influence which her statesman- ship claims, she can rescue the German Princes and people from the infamy of abetting the criminal governments of Europe and of thus promoting wars which would be a wanton sacri- fice of living millions to the Idol of Legitimacy.
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