Rassegna storica del Risorgimento

Documenti americani sul conflitto itala-austriaco del 1859 9
Such ground* are so insufficicnt and impossible in the present state of the world, tbat I have hitherto treatcd ligbtlv the rumore which bave occupicd the public mind here for sotnetime past. Officiai declarations have rcndered it nccessary uow to notice the present thrcatbcning aspect of affaire, but I do not and cannot yet belicvc that Europe is to be plunged in hostilities without rea-8onàblc cause: and despite of ali that has been said and doue expect no impor­tami results from the present uproar.
John M. Daniel a Lewis Cass
Turni, Feb. 28, 1859. No. 97
Sir: [Scrive che la guerra non è popolare in Francia]. At least one thing is certaiu that we are upon the ève of very considcrable events. The Sardiniau Government is so complctcly committed to war, and have spent so much money in preparing for it, that if Louis Napoleon deserts them and they should there-fore be obliged to hold themselves quiet, and renounce their ambitious projeets they cannot maintain themselves. The Cavour Government will come to the ground, and the King, who is merely a pageant in rcality, but is stili the repre-sentative of the Government itself before the popular eye, may even abdicate the thxone.
The crisis cannot pass without important results. '* War will change the face of Europe; peace will min Sardinia aud do much to destroy the preponde-rant influence of Louis Napoleon in Europe.
... Mr. Cavour passes for a very adroit man. But he has certainly placed his country between war or revolution for no conceivable or pretended motive except that of ambition and the hope for agrandizement [sic] by violence.
John Y. Mason a Lewis Cass
Legation of the United States, Paris, March 8, 1859. No. 379.
Sir: I have delayed writing on the subject of the state of relatious between . France and Austria, in the hope that some development would enable me to speak with conndence. The hope has not been realized. The public mind has been intensely agitated by vague apprehension. No definite exposition of the precise causes of the quarrel has been given to the public, and the occasionai paragraphs in officiai newspapers have been so ambiguous that the apprehension has increased instead of being aJlayed. lts effeets on business generally, and the stock market especially, have been very disastrous.
It now appears beyond doubt that in France the war is not popular. The Corps Legislatif is in session. The sessione of the Senato are always secret,
') Alla fine del dispaccio 96 [11 gennaio 1859], il Daniel aveva scritto: ... and despite of ali that has been said and done [1] expect no important results from the present uproar .