The armistice” concluded as the result of Charles Albert’s. 


treachery will expire in about three weeks (on September 21). France 
and Britain have offered to act as mediators. The Spectateur 
républicain, Cavaignac’s paper, writes that Austria has not yet stated 
whether she will accept or decline the offer. France’s dictator is 
getting annoyed over the discourtesy of the Austrians and threatens 
armed intervention if by a given date the Viennese Cabinet does not 
reply, or rejects mediation. Will Austria allow a Cavaignac to 
prescribe the peace terms to her, especially now after the victory over 
democracy in Vienna*™ and over the Italian “rebels”? Austria 
understands perfectly well that the French bourgeoisie wants “peace 
‘at any price”, that the freedom or bondage of the Italians is 
altogether a matter of complete indifference to the bourgeoisie and 
that it will agree to anything so long as it is not openly humiliated and 
thus reluctantly compelled to draw the sword. It is said that Radetzky 
will pay a short visit to Vienna in order to say the decisive word about 
mediation. He does not have to travel to Vienna to do that. His policy 
has now prevailed, and his opinion will be none the less weighty for 
his remaining in Milan. If Austria were to accept the basis for peace 
proposed by Britain and France, she would do so not because she is 
afraid of Cavaignac’s intervention but for much more pressing and 
compelling reasons. 

The Italians were just as much deluded by the March events as the 
Germans. The former believed that foreign rule at any rate was now 
at an end; the latter thought that the old system was buried for good 
and all. On the contrary, the foreign rule in Italy is worse than ever, 
and in Germany the old system has recovered from the few blows it 


Mediation and Intervention. Radetzky and Cavaignac 403 


sustained in March and it acts with greater ferocity and vindictive- 
ness than ever before. 

The Italians are now making the mistake of expecting salvation 
from the present Government of France. Only the fall of this 
Government could save them. The Italians are further mistaken in 
regarding the hberation of their country as possible while democracy 
in France, Germany and other countries continues to lose ground. 
Reaction, to whose blows Italy has succumbed, is not merely an 
Italian phenomenon, it is a European phenomenon. Italy alone 
cannot possibly free herself from the grip of this reaction, least of all 
by appealing to the French bourgeoisie, which is the real pillar of 
reaction in Europe as a whole. 

Before reaction can be destroyed in Italy and Germany, it must be 
routed in France. A democratic social republic must first be 
proclaimed in France and the French proletariat must first subjugate 
its bourgeoisie before a lasting victory of democracy is conceivable in 
Italy, Germany, Poland, Hungary and other countries.