The Express.
London, England, 1866-05-09 00:00:00

THE LIPRCTED WAR.

The Times is glad Lord Clarendon was able
last night to declare that England bad refrained from
importunate solicitations to the rival powers. So long as
one power covets what another will not yield, no conside-
ration of morality or economy can secure a permanent
peace. The only thing that can prevent hostilities is the
dread of defeat, but the two powers which, in the event
of a war, would be the aggressors, have no such appre-
hensions ; they believe in their success, and look
forward to substantial gains from a short campaign.
The confidence of the Prussian Minister is ominous of a
convulsion, and at this very moment it happens that the
arbiter of the continent who alone could check these am-
bitious states, speaks only to spread dismay in every ex-
change. The result is that we may have to look on the saddest
spectacle that the world has seen in our time. If the
accounts the Times receives be correct, Lord Clarendon's
estimate of a million of men in arms falls very far short of
the truth. Prussia has placed five army corps in her central
and south-eastern provinces on a war-footing, and four more
in other parts of her territory, the whole amounting to
365,000 men. Reserves, which may be called out at any mo-
ment, would add 210,000 to this force, so that the Prussian
army, in case of war, may be made to reach the enormous
number of 575,000 men. On the morning of the 2nd in-
stant an order to place all the Austrian armies on a war
footing was issued, and 630,000 men will soon be under
arms. The levies of Italy will probably amount to 400,000
men. The minor German powers have considerable armies.
Such are the forces about to be marshalled in this strife.
We can only hope that at the last moment France will in-
terpose to prevent this fatal war. Perhaps it may be in
vain to speak to Austria of the cession of Venetia, but
if the imperial pride could so far stoop, all pretext for the
conflict would be taken away, and the sympathy of the
world would be completely on the side of Austria and its
German allies. _ .

Calling to mind the immensity of the troubles Count
Bismarck is pertinaciously bent on entailing on his
country, the Post cannot affect surprise at hearing of an
attempt to cut short his career, and the count himself will
probably regard the fact as the most natural thing in the
world, whilst the German people will have the opportunity
of reflecting on the different course affairs would most
likely take if the aim of the assassin had been perfect.
The time bas gone by, the Post concludes, when well
directed diplomacy might have averted a war.
According to the Herabl Austria could not reckon upon
being able to fight at any future time to better advantage
A few months or a few years hence her armies may, owinii
to the impossibility of finding the money to maintain
them, be small or ill-equipped ; her cause may ap-
pear far less just to Europe ; and even her Ger-
man subjects may be despondent and have lost all their
present inordinate love for fighting. The inducements
to Italy to embark in war at once are even stronger.
The differences between Austria and Prussia, and Italy, are
not susceptible of arbitration or compromise. They can
only be settled by the decisive defeat of the one or the
other, and no power can therefore interfere effectively
unless it adopts beforehand one cause, and is both able
and willing to exert sufficient strength to insure its
triumph. The last measure of the Italian government can
hardly fail to provoke immediate hostilities. The call to
Garibaldi can have but one meaning. Austria can treat it
in but one way, and give but one answer.