The Express.
London, England, 1848-05-15 00:00:00

ITALY.

Our Paris correspondent writes as follows,
under date of Saturday: The journals and corre-
spondence of Turin to the 9th have reached me, in-
cluding a variety of details from the theatre of war.
It appears that the Duke of Savoy was actively
engaged in inspecting the works constructed round
Peschiera preparatory to the bombardment of that
place. The Italian forces which invested it were
making the most active preparations for the siege.
General Manno commanded the artillery, and guns of
enormous calibre had alrea.:y been fixed to batter
it; it was expected that the cannonade would be
opened on the 6th.
According to the latest accounts at Vienna, Baron
Wilden had arrived with his men at Volargno, and is
therefore in close communication with the Field
Marshall, General Radetzki. Count Nugent was
with the head-quarters at Conegliano ; the vanguard
was at Sussigano. The enemy is on the other side of
the river, and has there placed its field-pieces and
troops. The Ponte di Piare has been completely
burnt down. Two battalions have been despatched
to Carp di Ponte, and to Ilellerno, to keep open the
communications in the mountains and the Strada

d'Allemagna.
PAPAL STATES.—A great mass of journals and
correspondence have been received to-day, bringing
news from Rome to the 4th instant. All that we
have communicated for the last few days in a
scattered form is substantially confirmed. A
struggle, in fact, is maintained between the pontiff, in
his capacity as a temporal prince, and his subjects.
The pope, on the one hand, entertains conscientious
scruples against levying war against Austria. His
subjects, on the other hand, devotedly attached to his
person as they are, and not unthankful for the part
which he has taken in advancing liberal institutions,
are nevertheless inflexibly determined that the Roman
states shall not stand passively by while all the other
Italian provinces and principalities are uniting in a
noble effort to expel foreign rule from the peninsula.
In short, they are resolved, one and all, to drive the
Austrians beyond the Alps, and the utmost that will
be conceded to the conscientious sera; les of Pius IX.
is permission to retain the nominal sovereignty of his
states, while a laical ministry, exercising the execu-
tive power independent of him, shall do that which
his scruples forbid him from doing.
It appears, from the letters we have received, that
frem the lst to the 3rd inst., Rome was without a
government. The ministers had resigned, and others
had not been appointed. The manifestoes of the Pope
remonstrating against a war with Austria, were no
sooner posted on the walls than they were indig-
nantly torn down ; the civic guard were placed in
pickets at the palaces of the cardinals, to protect
them from popular indignation; the entire population
resembled in clubs, and sat in permanence.
A deputation, consisting of MM. Fiorentino, Mam-
miani, Sterburi, and General Rigano, was unani-
mously named to go to the Quirinal to inform the
Pope of the ultimatum of the people, which involved
three conditions :-1. A ministry composed only of
laity. 2. The dismissal of Cardinal Antonelli. 3.
The dismissal of the Austrian Ambassador. 4. That
war should be proclaimed in the official Gazette.
The ministers, in reply to this demand, supplicated
the people to grant them two days to endeavour to
accomplish these objects, and promising that if they
did not succeed they would retire in a body.
It was notified also that a statement would appear
in the official Gazette to the following effect:
The ministry, with its president, being unanimous upon
ill questions, is engaged at this moment with Italian hearts
in adopting all the measures which they believe in their con-
science necessary or useful for the well being of the state,
and for the triumph of the Italian cause.
It was also decided that an envoy should be de-
spatched to the army to regularise the position of the
troops and the volunteers. M. Farina was accord-
ingly despatched on this mission.
At seven in the evening the deputation returned to
the assembly with the reply of the ministers, upon
which several motions of a violent character were
proposed, whereupon M. Fiorentino exclaimed, " Do
you desire a revolution—do you desire anarchy or
foreign intervention ?" The people responded, "No
revolution !" "No foreigners in Italy r " Then,"
rejoined M. Fiorentino, ' you must grant two days
to the ministry to resolve the immense difficulties
which surround them." The cries of the people, not
satisfied, called for an explanation from the balcony.
M. Fiorentino thereupon entreated Ciceroacchio to
address them. " Alas ! my dear sir," replied the
tribune, " if the question is to disembarrass the Fear
Pope of the scoundrels which surround him I am
your man, but I am not good at speechifying."
Again urged, he went to the window and said to
the people, " My friends, a common match is suffi-
cient to burn a straw mattress,but it seems that three
days are necessary to overturn a government. Let us
wait!" The crowd then retired in admirable order,
bat with an unequivocal air of determination.
These events took place on the 2nd. Op the night
between the 2nd and 3rd the nationaltuard con-
tinued under arms. A letter dated on the morning
of the 3rd says that all the ministers bad secretly
fled from Rome, and that a new ministry was then
being formed.
A letter of the sth from Civita Vecchia, announces
the formation of a new ministry, thus composed :
Cardinal Chiacchi, President of Council, par inte-
rim, Cardinal Grioli, Count Marchetti, Foreign
Affairs; Forenzio Mamiani, Interior; Pasquale de
11°6i, Grace and Justice; Lunati, Finances; Prince
Doris. Samphili, War; Duke di Rignano, Commerce;
Caletti, Police.

Letters of the 4th say that Rome was then tran-
quil, and that the cardinals were relieved from the
Poreillance of the national guard, with the exception
of Bernetti. The.department of foreign affairs was
resolved into two, ecclesiastical and temporal ; Car-
dinal Orioli presiding over the former, and Professor
'Marchetti over the latter. Distrust, however, still
prevailed. Complaints were made of the undue inter-
"nee of foreign ministers at the Quirinal. The
ministers of the Italian states, informed of this,
assembled at the Dutch embassy, and protested
against this abuse of diplomatic privilege.

An address to Count Mamiani was presented by
the national guard, demanding that the following
articles should form the programme of the new
ministry :
1. Po re-establish the Italian nationslities, which had been
trodden under foot. 2. To unite with free people and
liberal gnvernmen I, and preserve only with absolute
governments such relations as the interest of commerce
oblige. 3. To trust in lumen', and not in foreign assistance
and promises. 4. To create a new pact between the people
conformably to their true interests and the natural and un-
changeable principles of international right. 6 Never to
compromise with Austria, nor to sign any peace not having for
its basis the Alps as the rontien of Italy from the Vero to
Brenner° and thence to ()warner°. 6. A blank in the
original. 7. To make our diplomacy worthy • free and
great nation. No znore dissimulation, no more deception—
moderation and courage.
The municipal council held a meeting, at which it
expressed a wish that the Popo should become a
mediator in the Italian question; and that if his ne-
gotiation should not have a happy result, that the
war should be continued. The propositions to recon-
cile the duties of a prince with the requirements of
conscience that should be made to Pius IX. should be
the following :
1. To become a mediator of peace. 2. Not to oppose the
military operations pending any negotiations. 3. That the
conditions of peace should be—A, Italian nationality and in-
dependence; B. withdrawal of Aurrians from Italy; C, a
diet to sit at Rome to tiz the conditions. 4. After the ac-
ceptance of these preliminary conditions the Popo to be
created pres Vent of the diet. 5. If the conditions are not
accepted the war to be prosecuted with his consent anti ap-
probation, and with the aid of the prntiflcal army.
One of the expedients proposed for evading the'
difficulties arising from the conscientious scruples of '
the Pope was to order all the Roman troops to place
themselves as volunteers directly under the standard
of Charles Albert.
The last advice. say that the ministry above men-
tioned had not proved satisfactory to the people, and
that all was stiil involveti in uncertainty.
PIEDNIONT.—The Prince Eugene, lieut.-general
of Sat dinia, opened the parliament on the 7th, with a
speech on the part of the crown, in which, alter re-
viewing the position of the King of Sardinia and of '
the country, with reference to the other Italian states,
he declares that as he has the courage to undertake,
so will he have the courage to carry out to its termi-
nation the liberation of Italy, and that so soon as the
desired league shall be firmly established with the
other parts of the Peninsula, such changes in the laws
shall be made as should tend to attain for Sardinia
that degree of favour to which, for the welfare of
Italy, Providence would lead it.

NAPLES.—We have a letter from our correspon-
dent, of the 4th inst., which, among other interesting
matter, contains the news of an armistice having
taken place between the Nlessincse and the com-
mander of the citadel on the tad of May.

GERMANY.

CAPITULATION OF THE POLES OF POSEN.
PRUSSIA.—The following letter from our Cologne
correspondent brings the latest news from Posen, and
other parts of the Prussian territory:
COLOGNE, SATURDAY MORNINO, MAY 13.
The Polish insurgents in Posen, threatened as they were
with utter annihilation by a vastly superior army in point of
numbers and discipline, have laid down their weapna un-
conditionally, and placed themselves entirely at the mercy of
their conquerors. The capitulation took place on the Nth
lest., at Mielozyn, between 0 mum and Wretches, the Polish
force at that time amounting to 13,000 men. According to
the Breslauer Zeitung, the Poles bad lost 7,500 in killed and
wounded during the battle, near Miloslaw, on the 4th inst.
The same journal states that during the contest at Zokalews,
where the Poles defeated the Prussians, the former had
some hundreds of their men burned to death in a sheepfold,
which the latter blocked up and set fire to. These lows,
and the intelligence that almost every day the Prussians
were receiving reinforcements, particularly in artillery,
made the I'ules reflect on the desperate nature of
the contest is which they bad embarked, and in-
duced Mieroalawski, a judicious as well as brave par-
tisan chief, to otter terms of submission, after he
had in vain attempted to break through the enemy's ranks
that hemmed him iu on three aides, leaving only one outlet
of escape—the one leading to Minis. General Von Womb,
the bitter enemy of the 1 olish race, and to whose irritating
conduct the majority of the evils which have lately afflicted
the duchy of Posen may be attributed, taking advantage.of
his position would listen to no terms, but sternly demanded
an unconditional surrender. As before stated, the entire
corps then laid down their arms. The government has sub-
mitted to the king a proposition to parcel out the
national demesnes in the duchy of Posen to those soldiers
who have fought against the Poles. The price of the acre
is set down at 15 silbergrotchen (about Is. 61.), and the land
will he duty-free during three years. The tenants, more-
aver, will be furnished (gratis) with timber for erecting their
dwellings. It appears to be the general opinion, that al-
though the Poles have surrendered unconditionally, they
will be treated indulgeatly. In fact, the government will
not dare to punish them as rebels. It is worthy of mention
that 104 students of the university of Berlin have petitioned
the government to grant a full amnesty to the Poles. It
appears by severs' journals that the men under Mieroalaw-
ski's immediate command, had attained to a good state of
discipline, and unequivocally declared in favour of the prin-
ciples of their leader, who is a stern republican.
The Minister of War has issued a circular, expressing his
conviction that all those officers who have been chosen as
deputies to the Berlin or Frankfort Diet will be allowed by
their superiors to proceed to either of those cities, in order to
fulfil their honourable miesivil.
The elections for the German parliament at Frankfort ter-
minated at Berlin on the 10th ind. Herr Camphausen, the
president of the council, was one of the six successful candi-
dates; and Dr. Nauwerck, a republican, another. Both were
elected in two districts ; and as Herr Von Roan (formerly
president of the commercial tribunal, and at present the
Prussian ambassador to the United States of America) was
chosen in two or three districts as a substitute, it is probable
that he will be electeu as a deputy.
There appears to be some doubt respecting the accuracy of
the statement that the Emperor Nicholas had arrived in
Warsaw. Several German journals persist in the assertion,
but an English courier who arrived at Berlin on the 9th
inst., declared that when he left St. l'etersburg, three days
before that date, the Emperor was still in that capital, and
that there was no talk of his going to the Polish capital.
Acccording to the Berlin correspondent of the Cologne
Gazette, the cavalry regiment of the Lsndwehr of that me-
tropolis is about to petition for the return of the Prince of
Prussia, under whom, it is added, they will conquer or die.
The want of employment is still the great complaint of the
working classes of Belli°, and the hopes which they had
placed on the great fair at Leipsic have been disappointed,
as very little business has been transacted there up to the
present time, and as no fresh orders have been given. The
Berlin manufacturers at present in Leipsic have requested
the minister of finance to advance the sum of one million of
thalers upon the goods which they have in that town, where
they purpose depositing them until there is a demand for
them. By sending them back to Berlin there would be no
chance of selling them—so state the manufacturers. The
minister has held out the prospect of a compliance with their
demands. This advance will enable the Berlin manufactu-
rers to meet their pecuniary engagements. The one million
in question will be deducted from the ten millions voted by
the last Diet for the support of Prussian industry,
The elections in the above capital of Silesia for Berlin
have terminated in favour of the radical party.
AUSTRIA.—From Vienna, under date May 8, we
learn that the Emperor had accepted the resignation
of Baron von Falatzka, president of Lower Austria,
and had charged Count von Montecucoli with the
affairs of that office.
The Deutsche Allgemeine Zeitung contains a corre-
spondence from Tenth, under date May 3, in
which it is stated that the cabinet of Vienna has re-
ceived a note from the French cabinet, threatening to
interfere in Italy, with a force of 250,000 men, and
400 cannon, in case Austria should enter into an
alliance with England against the independence of
Italy. This statement has a very doubtful appear-
ance. Gallicia is still greatly excited.
Two new ministries have been created at Vienna ;
one for public works, and the other for commerce
and industry.