The Express.
London, England, 1866-05-17 00:00:00

refrained from putting the question whether be
bad entered the Austrian navy voluntarily or on
compulsion ; but I hope for his honour's maks, and
have little doubt, that he had be odlinallY
forced into the service as a conscript.

ITALY.

Glom OUR OW 00111WIPONDZWL)

FLOM:NOB, HAT IL
The "damnable iteration" with which the
various organs for the expression of public opinion
in England continue their attempts to scold Italy
into abstaining from war is producing an effect
here which it is painful for an Englishman to wit-
ness. The English press may threaten us with the
loss of the sympathies of Europe, as seen in the
microcosm of Capel-court'; noble peers may declare
in parliament that they for their part can discover
no cause for war in Europe. It is a waste of in-
dignation and of eloquence. Italy means to go to
war—to risk her alt for Venice. If it is true that
by doing this Italy will really forfeit the sym-
pathy and the good wishes of England, Italy
says and feels that it is so much the
worse for England. She says that such would not

have been the case onoe—that the time wea when

the sympathies of England would have been all in
favour of a people determined to risk all, to do
all, and to suffer all for the vindication of its
liberty, for the securing of its national existence,
and the redemption of a portion of its soil and its

citizens from the iron oppression of the stranger
_ _

and the tyrant. She has a notion that she world
not have forfeited the sympathy of Hampden, pr
of Cromwell, by engaging in the enterprise
for which she is now girding up her

- - -
loins. What ! You cannot understand that there is

any just cause for war ! Can it be that money
interests and the holding of stocks has blinded
you to every noble sentiment to this degree 1
Monetary panic and financial disasters are, doubt-
less, very grievous things, very real and terrible
misfortunes in this age of the world. But surely,
surely, at the bottom of your own hearts and con-
sciences you must feel that the money losses which
are now overtaking you are the result—the directly
traceable result—of your own Mammon-worshipping
selfishness. You know when you played the main

- -
part in making the German lord of Venice that
you were assenting to a wrong. Do you think
we do not know that Lord Castlereagh brought
home with him from Venice diamond epaulettes I
Do you imagine that we can suppose them
to have been honestly earned ? But those are old-
world stories, the scandals of a bygone age. Aye !
the wrongdoer may forget the wrong ; Nemesis
does not forget, though she move " pede daudo."
And you have been dead to all subsequent warn-
ings. You have been told again and again that
your sin would find you out ; that there would be
no stable peace in Europe till this great wrong was
righted ; that your buyings, and selling', and stocks
would be liable to sudden storm and catastrophe as
long as this iniquity was allowed to continue.
But you would not give ear. And now you
preach to us, and would fain take a high
moral tone because you are threatened with loss
of money. Italy might, perhaps, be excused
for seeking to take her own by force of arms
under other circumstances ; but not now ; not in
alliance with Prussia ; the wrong-doing of Prus-
sia ought to tie her hands—ought to make her
acquiesce in her own wrong (which has now reached
that pitch of unendurableness, that acquiescence in
it is tantamount to acquiescence in national ruin),
rather than strike contemporaneously with Prussia
for the righting of that wrong. The proposition is
so monstrous that we cannot think that you are
really the dupes of any such sophistry.
What! A ruffian ravisher is carrying off my
daughter ! lam not strong enough to rescue her ;
but I follow the wrong-doer, with wailing and pro-
tests, and threats. Suddenly a pickpocket jumps
out of the hedge and assaults the strong man,
caring nothing for me nor my daughter, but intent
on picking the strong man's pocket. And am I to
be told that I must fold my arms, give up the hope
and the attempt to rescue my child, and abstain
from taking advantage of the ravisher's difficulty
with his new foe, because that foe is not an honest
man?

We cannot think that the outcry of England
under the circumstances is dignified, her moral.
filing sincere, or her advice either magnanimous or
wise.

-- ---
For the rest, be very sure that these proclaimings
of peace when there is no peace are as vain and
nugatory as they are little calculated to conciliate
respect or esteem. Italy is going to fight for
Venice. Things have now reached that peas that it
wouldbe (if there were anyquestion about the matter)
an alternative between war with Austria and civil
war. Believe me, no king, no minister, no govern-
ment, no parliament, could now prevent Italy from
attempting this great task and duty, which is laid
on her. One way there might still—perhaps even
still—be of preventing war in Europe ; one way,
and one only—an immediate cession of Venetia,
'as the base of an alliance between Italy and
Austria. This would be such a card for Austria to
play as it has rarely, in the history of nations,
been in the power of any nation to play. She
would obtain a sincere, useful, and natural
ally. She would completely, and for ever, turn
the tables on her perfidious foe in the north,
and make for herself such a position in Germany
as she has long hoped for, but has little prospect of
ever attaining. She would also effectually neu-
tralise the ulterior and more latent schemes of a
yet more dangerous enemy. She would at once
change a position of extreme peril and difficulty for
one of security, and the occupation of such a com-
manding vantage ground as would enable her to
make it the starting point for a new career of
greatness and prosperity. With Austria alone it
lies, by making this one sacrifice of mistaken pride
to the eternal principle of right, to save Europe
from war, and to make herself at the same time
the champion of the right.
As to the answer of facts to the peace-exhorta-
tions of your capitalists, I have only to tell you that
we have 180,000 men in line on the frontier, and
20,000 more in the close neighbourhood of them ;
that within this month of May we shall have
400,000 men under arms, and 300,000 of them on
the northern frontier, with the exception of such
of them as may then be on the further side of it.
I have still reason to believe thee the list of a
new ministry which I sent you the other day is
correct, at least as far as the position of Ricaaoli
at the head of it, and the admission to it of those
members of the Left which give it its character of
[ conciliation, are concerned.