He then goes on to speak of the administration of such nationalities, and
continues:--'The spirit of the Austrian Government in the Italian provinces
we heartily deplore. All things considered, it would have been better for
Austria herself if England and the other Powers had not insisted in 1815
on her resuming the government of Lombardy, or if the Lombardo-Venetian
kingdom had been erected into a distinct State; but that consideration is
utterly insufficient to justify a deliberate breach of the public law of
Europe.'

And he adds a note:--'We believe that we are strictly correct in stating
that the Emperor Francis, foreseeing the difficulties his Government would
have to encounter in Lombardy, and anxious to avoid causes of future
dissension with France, expressed his strong disinclination to resume that
province; but it was pressed upon him by the other Powers, and especially
by the Prince Regent of England, as the only effectual mode of excluding
the influence of France from Northern Italy.'

The argument, throughout, is that the attack on Austria about to be made by
France and Sardinia was an unprovoked aggression, a violation of European
treaties; on the part of Sardinia, for lust of territory, and on the part
of France, for a desire to remodel the map of Europe, to annex Savoy--
which was to be the price of her assistance--and to carry out the ideas
'conceived at the time of his early connexion with the Italian patriots in
the movement of 1831.'

_From Lord Hatherton_

_Teddesley, March 5th._--I have been from home two days....Pray excuse my
not having thanked you before for your kind announcement of Tocqueville's