The Express.
London, England, 1866-07-09 00:00:00

T INTELLIGENCE.

All rrAL W OF THE CESSION OF
NETIA.
tosigThe'uly 6 comments as follows on the
cession of Venetia to France :
' The fears which, out of regard for the national honour.
we entertained yesterday with the grey—leit caution.; have
unfortunately to-day become a reality. Now, let missy it at
once; far betterto have leftthe sword in the mebbsni; better
to be discomfited in a new and bard fight—better to for-
get Venice and her woes than possess it at the met of
insults, and—of Frame. Against the inclemency of
fortune, and the delays of time, Italy, long tried
in suffering, and in the painful habit of expec-
tancy, would have opposed her faith, the tenacity of
' her resolves,so much had her misfortunes strengthened her
temper and consolidated the relations of fraternity and
I reciprocal good feeling of her people. The misfortune
I which has come upon us has moreover at expect of such
perfidy that one more severe could not happen to a nation
which respects Itself. Austria, who before boasted of
haviag " struck us on the hips with the fist of the left
hand," now cedes Venetia to France, thereby deprives us
of the opportunity of rescuing it, humiliates our national
right, and touches to the very quick this young Italy,
who ardently desired to re-establish in face of the world
the reputation of her doubted valour. The blow is an
atrocious one, for it deprives us at once of friends and
enemies. Forlorn Austria escapee, and poor Venetia is
presented to us covered with our shame. And,to crown our
anguish, Austria's charity is conveyed through France,
from which we always get the most costly ideas and the
most imperative counsels. Are we fallen so low that we
must seriously ask if it be true that Italy has overturned
five thrones and placed 500,000 men in arms? Was it all
but a solemn mockery? In Italy we believed we were
fighting, and there was an idea that a have army, Inferior
to none in the ardour of battle—that 40,000 volunteers
who had left their hearths and homes to fight possessed
valour and arms equal to any other troops in
Europe. It was ell a mistake. We essayed vain
miracles. The enemy sometimes deigned indeed
to make a slaughter of us, and then he treats
with others about the fate of this despised Italy ! We
ardently desire to believe that bat one cry will be raised
throughout the entire Peninsula—let us tear the offer-
ing ; let us teach this insolent foreigner that a
people does not barter its future in a chap-
man's fashion, and that Italy, however poor
in intelligence, has memory and experience enough to re-
collect that gifts basely acquired are soon heedlessly loot.
But it is said we shall have Venetia at all
event s ; we shall acquire the dreaded Quadrilateral,
and it is not possible to join in battle with
a retiring enemy; let us even make a golden
bridge for him to cross over ; betides if the plan I. elabo-
rated in France it is useless to resist. It Jibed to submit
and sacrifice our pride to the exigencies of a European
peace. It is false. Let the government take notice that at
this solemn moment it is not given to compromise
with impunity the destinies of the nation, and that over
all there watches as the final and severe custodian of
the country—the people. The people and parliament,
we hope, will render impossible this infamous com-
pact. What will our brave army say, condemned to
bear the mark of the gash of the 24th, without the
hope of avenging that day ? What will the King say,
he who came upon the field with the sword of Palestro
sad St. Martino to fulfil the vow made at the tomb of
King Carlo ? Austria insulted the exile of Oporto, and
now she insult.; the son.