The Express.
London, England, 1859-07-21 00:00:00

EXPRESS FROM PARIS.

(rams ova ova ormameorivisro
PARIS, WEDNESDAY EVENINO.
The Emperor's speech is perhaps as good a one as

be could possibly have made under the circum-
stances. It is remarkably free from those oracular
ambiguities in which he is often wont to indulge ;
and although (as I think I shall show presently)
several of the facts alleged are gratuitous assump-
tions, it is upon the face of it a plain unvarnished
tale, containing, with much apparent modesty and
candour, • confession that he bad undertaken the
war without counting the cost, and that he has in
consequence experienced • bitter disappointment.
All the arguments founded on the great strength of
the quadrilateral, urged by way of excuse for not
having driven the Austrians out of Italy, are ad-
missions that the Emperor wee mistaken when he
calculated from the beginning that he would
be able to accomplish hie programme and
yet keep the war localised. It was no
sudden and unexpected discovery that the Aus-
trians in Venetia were "entrenched behind great
fortresses," that " sieges are tedious," and that
neutral territory on either aide of Peschien and
Mantua precluded the French army from "making
diversions on the enemy's flank " without giving
just ground for hostility on the part of other powers.
All these things were well known to the Emperor
when he leaned hie Milan proclamation promising
to free Italy from the " Alps to the Adriatic." He
had taken his measures in the view of the very dif-
calties which he suddenly finds to be insurmountable,
or at least surmountable only at a sacrifice too great
for France to sustain consistently with her interests.
A powerful French fleet was in the Adriatic, provided
with all means and appliances for landing an
army at Venice. A flesh corps d'armee (Prince
Napoleon's) eager for comb's, harassed the Austrians
under the walls of Mantua. The fortune of war
had favoured the allied forces beyond all anticipa-
tion. With unexampled rapidity they had driven
the enemy out of Piedmont and Lombardy. The
Austrian army—demoralised,dispirited,distrustful of
its chiefs, encumbered with wouuded, and threatene I
by pestilence—was cowering in its last place of
refuge, the fortresses, and expecting in common with
all the world to find those mach vaunted bulwarks
but a sorry protection against the terrible siege
artillery of the French. It is a great surpe.ie to
France to be now told that the difficulty of
storming these fortresses was so great that it would
have been hopeless to attemin it without
" resolutely breaking through the hopediments op-
posed by neutral territories," and accepting the
struggle on the Rhine as well as on the Adige.
Here we have an explanation of the phrase in the
proclamation to the army thet the struggle was
about to assume populism incommensurate with

the isterest of Frau°e in the question. The Emperor
does not now say that Prussia or any other power
would have declared war upon him rather than see
Austria driven out of Venice. He plainly confesses
that he felt himself unable to take Venice without
operating in the Tyrol, encroaching upon the
territory of the Germanic Confederation, and
thus necessarily provoking the interference of
Germany. It is quite certain that the Em-
peror of Acadia was, in his own point of view,
" abandoned by his natural allies," and there
is even evidence to prove that one of the arguments
used by Napoleon 111. at Villafranca was founded
upon papers which be then and there produced,
showing to Francis Joseph that nobody would come
to his assistance as long as the war was confined to
Italy. We now have the explanationof the dilemma,
heretofore unintelligible, which has been put for-
ward by the French press that the Emperor had
no choice between signing peace on the Mincio or
at Vienna. The extension of the war which he
dreaded, was not to come from the initiative of
et►er powere,bat from the unforeseen impossibility on
his own part of carrying on the war any farther
without assuming the aggressive towards other
powers by extending the line of his operations. He
admits and advertises the Austrian positions in Ve-
netia as impregnable against any force that can
be brought against them upon Italian ground. I
do not believe that thin argument will had favour
' with the army or with the public in France. 'Fis
pity if 'tie true, but at all events it should have
! been thought of before the war was undertaken.
A curious reason for not going on with the war is
found in thin part of the speech—namely, that it
would have been necessary " frankly" to accept the
, support of the "revolution." So that hitherto the
Emperor has been merely coqaetting, more or less,
with the people whom he calls revolutionary, and
whom he has now thrown over. Tee speech, when
it sets forth modestly the results actually attained
by the war, contrasts favourably with the absurd
assertions of the Emperor's flatterers that his pro-
gramme has been really fulfilled and that the Italian
sato:moldy is constituted. His :Majesty, on the
eontrary, frankly unfolds his grief at having been
compelled in the face of Europe openly to cut off
Venetia from his programme. He admits, with
lamentations, that ".noble illusions" and " patriotis
►opes" which he has encouraged are destroyed, and
so far from boasting that Italy is yet a nation, ha
says that " the idea of an Italian nationality is now

accepted by those who were once its most strenuous
opponents." One of his last assertions, and one
which I venture to think unproved, is that ►ll the
sovereigns in the Peninsula " new understand the
' necessity" of salutary reforms. His conclusion is
that the future will reveal more and more every day
the benefit of the peace for the " happiness of Italy,
the influence of France, and the repose of Europe."
It is clear from the phrases last alluded to that even
in the imperial mind the Italian question remains
unsettled. There is an " idea of nationality" which
is left to germinate in the face of the impregnable
fortresses in the possession of Austria, and the
aroused but unsatisfied passions of the Italian
population.
I am glad to observe that there is not a word in
the speech threatening Europe with another war.
On the contrary, the tone of it is that of • man
thoroughly sated with an experiment which has
ended in disappointment.
The speech failed to re-assure the Bourse, which
was very hefty all day. The Rents fell 20c. for
cash and account, closing at 68fr. and 68fr. bc.
Mobilier fell Ur., and railways were about 2fr. 60e.
lower.