The Express.
London, England, 1867-04-26 00:00:00

FOREIGN A7►AIII&

There is something almost angelic, the Times
thinks, in the temper with which the Comet:shorted assures
us that France " puts aside every claim," and is willing to
allow the Luxemburg question to be *Dividend as • Euro-
pean one. If it were true that the question is reduced
to the mere ramparts of the citadel, the solution would only
be too obvious. What Prussian pride might refuse to the
peremptory demands of France might with a good grace
be granted to the represent►tions of friendly powers.
The destinies of the Luxemburgers should be left in their
own hands, and, whether they declared in favour of an in-
dependent government or voted for re-union to Belgium,
the fortress should by all means be made over to the free
but defenceless Belgian community. to whom, as we
learn from Lord Stanley, we are really bound by
clear engagements—if to any state on the Conti-
nent. If the mediating powers will but act with
earnestness and unanimity, the Times thinks they
will have • less arduous task than is generally
imagined. France seems to show sufficient complaisance,
and Bismarck is not the man to be led astray by the mere
outcry of beer-house enthusiasm.
The Dail y News refers to two supreme follies in cos-
nexion with Italian politics, which happily have yet to
peas from the region of vague conjecture into fact, and
which, to the last moment, it refuses to reckon among the
possibilities of the future that is to make or mar the
destinies of the Italian peninsula. Rumours of something
like a coup Waal, though not perhaps of a coup do tat of
strictly Parisian type, have passed from ear to ear and
from mouth to mouth in the public places of the Italian
capital. It was doubly unfortunate for Signor Retard
that be should have succeeded to power at • moment
when such rumours were rife. As to the expectations
formed of Italy by the Emperor of the French, Italy, the
Daily News feels sure, will never turn round upon an un-
sentimental but unselfish and safe ally, to whom, if to any
foreign power, she owes the liberation of Venice, to
become the contingent of an imperial army, and to drain
her life-blood for a Third as for • First Napoleon. Abaci.
lute neutrality in the event of war between France and
Prussia is a question of life and death for the kingdom of
Italy.
The Herald, recalling the significant fact that Italian
Five per Cents. have been sold this week at 42, insists
that Italy must disarm. She has no enemy to
apprehend, and she is not in • position to concern
herself with the affairs of her neighbours. Small
economies will not do—the day has gone by for them ; the
fleet must be kid up to rot, or, better still, sold ; and the
army must be reduced till it is nothing more than a gen-
darmerie. It is rumoured, indeed, that remedies so radical
will not be assented to by the highest person in the realm.
That may be the intention at present prevailing at the
court, but it cannot prevail long.
The Star sincerely trusts that our government has not
committed our influence, even by the weight of • diplomatic
note, to France, to whom belongs the aggressive side of
this deplorable quarrel. Whatever right Prussia has to gar-
rison Luxemburg now, it is certain that until she herself

superseded the Germanic confederation she had not only
the right but the obligation of garrisoning it. We can
hardly wonder, therefore, if she refuses to understand that
her own victories actually diminish her rights, and that
because she has conquered the Genniknic Confederation,
she is bound to yield to a demand which no one would have
dared to make upon her while she was the servant of that
confederation.

TIM Telegraph shows the opinions which are entertained
in France of the subject in dispute. Frenchmen, it says,
sincerely believe that in opposing the transfer of the
duchy and the fortress, Prussia is simply striving to carry
out a system for reducing their country to the position it
occupied in the dark days of their history. The belief, the
Telegraph is convinced, is erroneous ; but popular impres-
sions founded on far less basis of fact have ere this driven
nations into war.