The Express.
London, England, 1866-09-17 00:00:00

ITALY.

• (now cos snCIAL coaszeroormrr.)
VENICE, SIP?. 9.
With dripping gondolas and rain-splashed water,
Venice in a thunderstorm is less bright and pic-
turesque than your readers will have a right to
expect when they travel hither. Let them delay
their journey but a few days, and political clouds
will have rolled away as the rain clouds of this
morning are destined to roll. Let them wait until
Venice has become an Italian city, recognisable as
such by the diplomatic mind, and they will dis-
cover small trace of gloom or discontent. It is
not here, as in Frankfort or in Hanover, where ,
national unity is being swallowed as a bitter pill
at the hands of a disagreeable practitioner—doubt- I
less a wholesome pill, yet very bitter for all that.
Here, in Venice, the people have earnestly desired I
to unite their fortunes to those of Italy. They
have had a grand republican career, but that was
blotted out long ago, and they have not had a king
of their own residing amongst them to be re-
gretted as George V. may be by many Hanoverian..
Venice stands in the position of a captive whose
chains are to be knocked off because the giant of
the castle has at length suffered ruinous defeat.—
never mind from whom—and because the giant's
neighbours have told him that he has behaved like
a short-sighted jailor. How the people exult at
what is soon to come ! They are quiet on account '
of the chains above mentioned ; but ask any native
what will be the numbers of the vote, should a
plebiscite be taken, and you will hear that ninety-
nine votes out of every hundred are safe for Italy,
and that the hundredth vote will follow the ninety-
nine, unless some strange accident should lead it
astray. There is already an air of suppressed
jollity among the citizens, as though they were pre-
pared to shout themselves hoarse when the proper
moment shall have arrived, and I fancy that tri-
color flags by the dozen are held in readiness for
hoisting.
This Venetian captive must not be compared with
that poor old man in the-" Tale of Two Cities,"
who was so spirit-broken by his experience of the
Bastile that he could scarce understand the words
"You are free." There is nothing here of stupefied

indifference, but a great taking breath to shout '
idle dream, though I have no doubt thousands all
Viva r Italia all the louder. I have been passing
over the North cherish it at this moment, and the
quickly through regions of friend and foe during I
1 pro-Southern press is labouring might and main to
the last week, and have found something in Venice I bring
it about, with what effect will depend
which is not paralleled by either of them—a joyful
on the amount of good sense which the President
looking forward, without display of flags or be- I and Mr. Seward conceal under their present
dowel of medals, or even a victory to rejoice over. I
si behaviour. The slightest move in that
Berlin was proud though dull when I left it—proud I
direction would cause a tremendous outburst at the
of Sadowa and of Count Bismarck, and of the I
. North, and although the President'sfriends perhaps
army which would soon return home. Down in '
flatter themselves, as they did in 1860, that it
Silesia they were busy with hospitable cares—acres
would bring on what they call a " war of neigh-
of black and white bunting waved above the rail- .
bourhoods," they would, I think, find themselves
way stations ; there were laurel wreaths and in- I
woefully mistaken. It is most unfortunate at the
scriptions of welcome to be seen, and there was
present juncture that Mr. Johnson is not in the
handing round of beer as the trains full of soldiers
I hands of a wiser counsellor than Mr. Seward. It
halted for refreshment on their northward journey.
1 is now no secret, and there can be no indelicacy in
In Moravia there were still other trains heavily
my mentioning, that this gentleman's powers have,
loaded with King Vr illiam's men, whilst at the sta- I
within the
last year or two, especially since the
tions there were soldiers waiting to come away,
attempt to assassinate him, greatly declined. He
and peasants of subdued aspect, who could do is
still
in possession of wonderful physical
little beyond staring at them,
to spoed vigour for one of his years, but his old
their parting guests. The plain near Vienna
calmness,ood g sense, and clearheadedness are
was no longer traversed by Prussian patrols,
gone. The speeches he is delivering on
and we rumbled on towards the city with a bold-
the present war with the President are
netts which seemed marvellous when I recollected
even sorrier and less coherent than those of his
how formidable an affair such a headlong advance
chief, which is saying a good deal, and his demea-
would have been in the end of July. Why, here
nour and jokes on more than ono occasion have
was the village in which I had been shown a
been such as to cause pain even to his enemies—to
glimpse of a white uniform among the trees, whilst
every one, in fact, who feels for the credit of the
my companion warned me not to go a step nearer
country, and remembers him in his prime. Mr.
—and we were now charging into it at 20 miles
Johnson has, I believe, never before been at the
an hour. Surely the conductor had betrayed us, North, and knows nothing of the tastes, habits,
yet his manner was polite, and he had spoken of i and feelings of a great, populous, and highly civi-
the exact moment of our arrival. Bismarck him- Band community. His standards are those of the
self could not have been more confident of success. wild, half-settled, and semi-civilised South-west, in
The Viennese were talking less of those military which he was born and passed his life, except the
excursionists who were returning home from
time passed in the scarcely less barbarous atmo-
Moravia than of certain peaceful excursionists
sphere of Southern political circles in Washington.
who had gone to the fetes at Trieste. People did .On Mr. Seward, therefore, devolved the task of
not pretend to be cheerful, and meant to have keeping him from any aberrations that would be
everything reformed which had caused them to likely to alienate or shock the Northern public,
lose the fight with Prassia. But they looked south- : especially during his present tour. Probably
ward by preference, and saw the victorious Teget- the best plan would have been not to make
thoff in a blaze of maritime glory. Putting aside
other reasons, it would be a pity if Maximilian .
it, but the next best would have been for the Pre-
were forced to return from Mexico, sine, his indent to confine himself, in his addresses, either
Majesty's old position at the head of the Austrian to common-places ,or else to a calm and temperate
navy is no longer vacant. True that he patronised statement of his own views, without any onslaught
the fleet, but the lucky vice-admiral has conquered on his adverwies. He has, however, done little
with it. else than heap vituperation on his enemies, and
From Vienna to Trieste was a longer journey
than the mere distance, as measured on a map, to
himself—thus disgusting the public here
would appear to justify. When the railway line to a degree of which I can hardly give you an idea
had wound through valleys and narrow river-side without seeming guilty of exaggeration. For this
passes, until it could wind no more, there was an certainly Mr. Seward is largely responsible. Mr.
ascent by slow degrees to the level of the Alpine Johnson's sins are a great deal due to ignorance ;
ridge, and a passage across a bleak stony track,
but Mr. Seward knows what Northern society is and
where boardings might be seen near the line, to
requires,and was until the last three or !our years
check winter snow drifts. Then came a glimpse of
the Adriatic, shining far off in a blaze of sunlight, an unusually good specimen of the Northern
and a gradual descent to the port of the Austrian man. As a mere piece of electioneering there
Lloyds, and the headquarters of Austrian commerce could not have been a greater blunder than bring-
in general. Trieste is more than half Italian, ing Mr. Johnson northward.
so far as language goes, and from the other
1 There is now no question that it has lost him the
portion may be taken a specimen of every tongue
in Europe. The city was in holiday attire when I election. This is admitted on all sides. It is con-
arrived, and the fleet was anchored not far from ceded by every one I meet that Mr. Johnson's
land. Excursionists had visited the fleet, old resi- :di stumping" has turned the scale against him in
dents had visited the fleet, sailors had been feasted ' every State of the North, except perhaps New Jer-
ashore, and had given a ball to their friends on
sew About New York there is still some doubt,
board an old line-of-battle ship. Everyone had . ---' •
looked with curiosity at the bow of the ironclad ' tr'4'"". te the fact th at three ef the most influential
the Kaiser Max, onboard which no ball was given, I members of the Johnson party—Messrs. Seward,
but which had steamed a-head with such deadly Raymond, and Weed—were amongst the ablest
purpose into the ribs of the Re d'ltalia. After managers in the republican party here, and their
that achievement Trieste could part company from defection, besides influencing a large body of their
Venice, and see her rival hoist the tricolor without ,
political adherents,
deprives the republicans of
feeling too much afraid, and the people over here, , 1""""'
in Venice, can and will make merry at pining I
the.
benefit of their counsel and ma:tegument-
company. Still 011111 with these disadvantages I think

it may be said that the triumph of the radicals even
here is tolerably certain. The first of the State
elections has just Dome off in Vermont, and there
the party of Congress has won by a majority of
s,ooo—much greater than last year.
A convention of "loyal Southerners" met yes-
terday
in Philadelphia, and a very large body of
the most influential members of the radical party
at the North have gone on to join them, so that
as far as numbers and enthusiasm go, the present
convention far surpasses the Johnionite one
which was recently held, to fraternise with the
disloyal Southerners. The city authorities and
I population of Philadelphia, too, lent it a support
and countenance which they steadily denied to the
adherents of the President. Frederick Douglas
was elected as a delegate by a white con-
stituency, but I believe it was found that
his presence might offend the weaker bre-
thren, so it was arranged that he should not
formally take his seat. The Southerners of the
convention are, of course, furiously radical—too
radical, no doubt, to carry the Northern public
with them. They are smarting under the pro-
scription of the last four years ; the robberies,
' i murders, and outrages of all sorts, of which they
I I have been the victims, and therefore seek protect
1 . tion, even though it be through permanent mar-
, : tial law. With these theories people here are not
likely to agree, but the story of their sufferings
will doubtless produce a deep impression on the
public mind.