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Italian Affairs

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The Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Dec 3, 1867

FromReview and Herald, Vol. 30, No. 25.

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Italian Affairs.

The Italian question remains as it was. Louis Napoleon, as usual, proposes a European Congress. The Italian government protests upon the ground that the temporal rule of the Pope is incompatible with the welfare of Italy, and the Pope himself objects to a conference, probably because he fears the result. Garibaldi, meanwhile, is a prisoner. The feeling of the Italians is very hostile to France, and Victor Emanuel, who has certainly been in a very difficult position, is apparently out of favor with all sides. The most hopeful sign is the declaration of General Menabrea, the Italian Prime Minister, that the peace of Italy requires the temporal dethronement of the Pope. When that demand, as we said last week, is made by Italians and Catholics authoritatively and unanimously, the end will be at hand. The Catholic monarchs can hardly fail to see that the dethronement of the Pope is an advantage for them, because it tends to destroy that foreign allegiance of a powerful part of their subjects, which has always been one of the chief troubles of Europe.
During all the excitement Prussia has been silent. The reason of the silence seems, however, to be plain; for however warmly Bismarck may desire the unity of Italy under the government of his ally, Victor Emanuel, it would be very unwise for him to appear to support King Victor against the Italian Volunteers on the one hand, because there can be no Italian unity if the regular government and the Garibaldians are at issue; and, on the other hand, it would be extremely impolitic for Prussia, as a Protestant power, to support the Italian government against the Papal throne. It is a difficulty which Prussia wishes, of course, to see settled without the necessity of taking part, and the king, therefore, says in his late speech that Prussia is upon friendly terms with all other powers, and that the peace of Europe is not likely to be broken.—Harper’s Weekly.