The Express.
London, England, 1853-02-22 00:00:00

THE EXPRESS, TUESDAY EVENING. FEBRUARY 22, 1853

. FEli 14.
The few sealed letters whichTUltlS have found their
way to this city, and which arrived this morning
from various parts of Italy. describe, in the most
piercing terms, the honor excited all over the
country by the situation Lombardy and Venice
are now reduced to. The quietest of men have be-
come violent, and the local governments are taking
precautionary measures, particularly at Naples,
Rome, and in Tuscany, to resist insurrections which
they seem to consider as imminent. Numbers of
people are arrested and imprisoned upon the slightest
pretences. Troops are kept closed up hi their
barracks that they may be ready to sally out on
first notice. Others are forming strong patroles in
the streets.

Let us hope that no ill-timed outbreak will take
place. The provinces of Lombardy look us if anima-
tion, in every sense, had disappeared from them. A
deadly calm prevails in the cities—people look pen-
sive and mournful—the storm is gathering in silence
and darkness.

As to Milan, in particular, we learn this mornin4
that four more men have been hanged, one of them a
most respectable old man, a schoolmaster, who for
ten days before the outbreak had been confined to
his room by illness, but who on his first leaving
the house was snapped up in the street with a hand-
ful 11
of insurgents who were going by at the time.
The soldiers who, on the Gth, were panic-striehen,
have taken eoun,gc since the issue of Gyulai's and
Radetzsky's proclamations, and now insult, provoke,
and injure young and old. The Hungarian military
are closely watched by the Austrian officers intro-
duced into their regiments. It is believed that many
officers and men of the former nation have been
secretly shot inside the Castle—the firing was heard
daily by the people living in its neighbourhood. Al-
most all the gates of the city are still shut—no one
can come in or go out of thu tout, without a special
written permission from the military commander,
to obtain which is no easy matter. so church bell
is allowed to be rung. Most of the shops are still
shut up, and will no doubt continue to be so, until
the authorities compel the owners to open them. I
The streets are deserted, for people are afraid to
go out, now that the generals have given the com-
mon soldiers license to shoot down whom they
please with the certainty of not being called to an
account. The effect produced on the minds of the
Lombards by the latest proclamation is represented
in every letter as something indescribable. The first
which was issued—that by Count Strassoldo—was
moderate and reassuring. People recovered breath,
took their shutters down, walked about the
I streets and talked of the imprudence of M.l
Mazzini. But the brutal manifesto of ltadetzsky
has converted every feeling of patience and resigna-
tion into a deep and undying resolution of revenge.
The tiger-like ferocity of this white-headed bandit
in delivering up the people to murder and plunder
has fused all Lombardy into one party, compacted to
avenge Italy and expiate the criminal forbearance W-
I wards oppressors which marked the last revolution.
I am now merely interpreting the sentiment which
heaves in Italian breasts. You, accustomed to the
blessings of regular government, cannot, however
willing, measure all its justice.