The Express.
London, England, 1866-05-31 00:00:00

? rill CON VERENCH.

The Times, depicting the state of mind in which the
members of the conference will assemble, represents the
statesmen of the hostile powers as declaring the Con-
gress to be a useless ceremony, assented to merely
to conciliate the good will of neutrals ; and, pre-
dicting the course which the discussion will take, pre-
sumes that at the first meeting Italy will declare the ces-
sion of Venetia to be an indispensable condition of negotia-
tion. Austria, relying on her splendid army and war
material, will assume a lofty bearing. The neutral
p were must be prepared to find the Austrian as
obstinate and supercilious as the Italian is passionate
—leaving the neutrals to propound if they can
something which shall insure the peace of Europe
without hurting in any way the honour of the Emperor.
Prussia, though with leas haughtiness, will probably be
equally disinclined to initiate any proposal. If the neutral
powers on whom the burden of proposing terms will fall
can prevail upon Austria and Prussia to submit the ques-
tion of the duchies to the confederation, the original cause
of these troubles would be removed. As to the cession of
Veneta, which is undoubtedly the most difficult part of
the progranune, the Times puts aside as too gross an out-
rage on political morality the idea of compensating Austria
with the Dantbian Principalities, but thinks an indemnifi_
cation at the expense of Turkey might not be so flagrant an
act. But there are treatiesinthe way, nor is it st all unlikely
that Austria would refuse to have a Bosnian population
added to the races of the Empire. Possibly it may be ne-
canary at last to propose nothing but a pecuniary indem-
nity. Money is a common-place, but still a good and
honest, equivalent for territory or anything else, and it
would show more sense in Austria to accept it than to en_
deavour to extend her sway over another discontented
PeoPle.

The Daily News doubts whether in the plans which are
mootedatParis forthe division of territories the real welfare
of the states is considered. The territorial question is really
raised by Prussia, and if the people of the Duchies desired
to be annexed to her, that would be a fair ground for pro-
eeeding to complete the union in harmony with the interest
of neighbouring states. But it is not pretended at Berlin
that any such desire exists, and there is nothing, there-
fore, in the character of the Prussian claims to
I the Duchies to entitle them to be withdrawn from their
proper judge—the Diet of the Germanic Confederation.
The case of Venetia is altogether different. All the world
knows that the desire of free Italy to have Venice is
equalled by that of Venice to share the fortunes and free-
dom of that kingdom, and no one doubts that her pro-
sperity would be promoted thereby. On every ground,
therefore, Austria might fairly be invited in a conference
to negotiate on the basis of an indemnity which history
and contracts give her the right to claim, for
the evasion of Venice. No *did reason has been
advanced why this indemnity should not be a pecuniary
one without having recourse to the detested expedient of
territorial equivalents as she certainly would lose none of
her military strength by giving up • province which is a
source of weakness. Consequently, if there is no need to
give the Duchies to Prussia, or to find a province to give
to Austria in exchange for Venice, the basis of the whole
scheme of equivalents devised at Paris falls to the ground.
The Teieprapls sees some significance in the fact that
Garibaldi has not yet left Caprera. His resolve to await
the signal for action from Florence minimises the risk of
any premature breach of the peace.