KOSSUTH ON ITALY AND THE ITALIANS.

Colonist, Volume II, Issue 202, 27 September 1859, Page 3

KOSSUTH ON ITALY AND THE ITALIANS.

As everything relating to Italy now excites the most intense attention, the following quotation from a speech made hy Kossuth, at Boston, U.S., on May 14, ,1852, will be read with much interest, more especially as such a hollow peace lias been hatched up:— Italy! the sunny garden of Europe, whose blossoms are blighted by the icy north wind from St. Petersburg,—ltaly, that captured nightingale, placed uuder a fragrant bush of roses, beneath an ever blue sky !—ltaly was always the battle-field of the contending principles, since (hundreds of years ago) the German Emperors, the Kings of Spain, and the Kings of France fought their private feuds, their bloody battles, on her muchcoveted soil; and, by their destructive influence, kept down all progress, arid fostered every jealousy. By the recollections of old, the spirit of liberty was nowhere so dangerous for European absolutism as in Italy. And this spirit of republican liberty, this warlike genius of ancient Rome, was never extinguished between the Alps and the Faro. We arc'taught, by the scribes of absolutism to speakof the Italians'as. if they were a nation of cowards; aud we forget that the most renowned masters of the science of war, the greatest generals up to our day, were Italians—Piccolomini, Afonteeucculi, Far'nese, Eugene of Savoy, Spinola, and Buonaparte—a gailaxy of names whose glory is dimmed only by the reflection that none of them fought for his own country. As often as the spirit of liberty, awoke in Italy, the servile forces of Germany, of Spain, and of France, poured into the country, and- extinguished the glowing spark in the blood of the people, lest it should once more illumine the dark night-of Europe. 'Frederic Barbarossa destroyed Milan to its foundations, when it attempted to resist his imperial encroachments, by the league of independent cities, and led the plough over its smoking ruins. Charles the Fifth had to gather all his powers around him to subdue Florence, when it declared itself a democratic republic, Napoleon extinguished the last remnants of republican self-government by crushing the republicans of Venice, Genoa, Lucca, and Ragusa, and left alone (to ridicule republicanism) the commonwealth of San Marino untouched. The Holy Alliance parted the spoils of Napoleon, rivetted afresh the iron fetters which enslave Italy, and forged new spiritual fetters, prevented the extension of education and destroyed the Press, in order that the Italians should _not remember the 'past. Every page, glorious in their history for twentyfive centuries, is connected with the independence of Italy; every stain upon their honor is connected with foreign rule; and the burning minds^of the Italians, though ,all spiritual food is denied to them, cannot be taught not to remember their past glory and their present degradation. Every stone speaks of their ancient glory ; every Austrian policeman, and every French soldier, of the present degradation. The tyrants have no power to unmake history, and to silence the feelings of the nation; and" amongst all the feelings powerful to stir up the activity of mankind, there is none more penetrating than unmerited degradation, which impels us to redeem our lost honor. , What is it, therefore, that keeps those petty tyrants of Italy, who are jealous of one another, on their tottering thrones, divided, as they are, amongst themselves, whilst the revolutionising spirit of liberty unites the people ? It is only the protection of Austria, studding the peninsula with her bayonets and with her spies; and Austria herself can dare this only because she relies upon the assistance of Russia. She can send her armies to Italy, because Russia guards her eastern dominions. Let Russia stand, off, and Austria is unable to keep Italy in bondage; and the Italians, united in the spirit of independence, will easily settle their account with tlieir own weak princes. Keep off the icy blast which blows from the Russian snows, and the tree of freedom will grow up in the garden of Europe; though cut'down by the despots, it will spring anew from the roots in the soil, which was always genial for the tree. Remember that no insurrection of Italians haa been crushed by their own domestic tyrants without foreign aid. Remember that one-third of the Austria., army which occupies Italy are Hungarians,'who have fought against, and triumphed over, the yellow-black flag of Austria—under: the same tricolor which, having the same colours' for both countries,, shews emblematically th&t Hun-

Gary and Italy are bufc two wings of the same army united against a common, enemy. Remember that even now neither the Pope nor tlie little princes of middle Italy can subsist without an Aust rjan and aFi'ench'ga'rrison; and remember that Italy is a halt isle, -open from three sides to the triendship of all-who sympathise with civil and religious liberty on earth; but from the sea not .open to Russia and Austria, because they are not maritime powers;" and so long as England is conscious ofthe basis of its power, and so soon as. America gets conscious of tlie condition upon which its future depends, Austria and Russia will never be allowed to become maritime powers. And when you feel instinctively that tho heart of the Roman must rage with fury when he looks back into the mirror of hia past—thafc the Venetian cannot help to weep tears of fire and of blood from the Rialto. When you feel all this, then look back how the.Romans have fought in 1849, with a heroism scarcely paralleled in the most glorious days of ancient Rome. And let me tell, in addition, upon the certainty oF my own positive knowledge, that tlie world never yet has seen such a complete and extensive revolutionary organisation as that of Italy to-day —ready to burst out into an irresistible storm a"t tlie slightest opportunity, and powerful enough to make that opportunity, if either foreign interference is checked, or the interfering foreigners employed "at'home, The revolution of 18_8 has revealed ahd developed the warlike -spirit of Italy/ Ex. ce Pfc afe w?althy proprietors, already very uninttuential, the most singular, unanimity exists, both as to aim and to1 means. There' is no shade ot difference of opinion, either to what is to lie done, .and how to do it. All are unanimous in • their,devotion to.the union and independence of Italy, With France, or against France, by the sword,; at'all sacrifices, without compromise they are bent on renewing the battle ever and' ever again, with the confidence that, even without aid, they will triumph in the long run. The difficulty^!. Italy is not how to'make a revo ution, but how to prevent its untimely outbreak; and still even in that respect, there is such a complete discipline as the world never yet has .seen. In Rome, Romagna, Lombardy,: Venice, Sicily, and all middle Italy, there exists an invisible government, whoseinfluence is everywhere discernible. It has eyes and hands in all' departments of public service, in all classes of society ; it has its taxes voluntarily paid, its organised force, its police, its newspapers regularly printed and-circulated, though the possession of a single copy would send the holder to the galleys. The officers of the existing government convey the missives of the invisible government; the diligence transports its agents. One line from one of these agents opens to you the galleries of art—on prohibited days gives you the protection of uninformed officials.— Kossuth!s Speeches, edited by Professor Newman.