The Express.
London, England, 1866-05-08 00:00:00

TRW WINDING WAIL

Of all the parties who are involved in the existing com-
plications on the continent, Austria, the Times remarks,
is the only one who has no designs of aggression. Sheer
conquest and nothing less forms the motive of Prussia, and
of taly it can only be said that the sentiment of na-
tionality overpowers every other, and that for the sake of
acquiring Venetia Italians are prepared to league with any
enemy of Austria on any terms and in any cause. To sum up
the demerits of the case, we must add that, though a fourth
power could probably prevent the conflict by a word, that
word is not spoken. If war now ensues, and its
history should be written, it will appear as unjust, as
unnecessary, and as wanton as any war of past times.
The hopes of peace, observes the Daily News, are fast
declining, for the hearts of both Prussia and Italy are set
upon objects which, in the present temper of Europe, and
especially of their antagonist, can be obtained only by war.
Did Prussia once possess the Duchies, Austria would be
reduced as a German power to the condition of a minor
state, and in opposing herself to the dangers with which
violence and treachery threaten her, Austria would imams
the sympathy of all in Europe whose good wishes are worth
having, and with the certainty of success, but for the false
position she occupies in Italy. Venetia belongs, by every
moral title, to Italy, and its possession is a vital necessity
to the new kingdom. Austria's position, therefore, is dan-
gerous only so far as it is unjust. In these circum-
stances diplomatic or philanthropic persuasions to pesos
seem but a waste of words, and a Congress of Paris
but a stirring up of strife, unless they take the
form of representations to the Cabinet of Vienna to
enter into negotiations for the cession of Venetia to Italy.
The only way of escape from the present fatal complica-
tion would be for Austria to utterly destroy the web which
Prussian cunning is weaving about her by ceding Venetia
on terms and conditions which the kingdom of Italy could
accept. This measure would give them friends where they
have now enemies ; it would close a wound at which the
strength of the empire is oozing out ; it would enable them
to concentrate their whole military force upon
those who, unlike the Italians, seek their destruc-
tion ; it would give the empire a position of command
in Europe such as it could not otherwise occupy.
The Herald presumes from the speech of the Emperor
Napoleon to the Mayor of Auxerre, in which the treaties
of 1815 were denounced, that he wishes for war. As the
chief effect upon France of the treaties of 1815 was the
taking away of that extension to the Rhine which she had
conquered under Louis XIV. and the first Napoleon, we
may not unreasonably infer that Napoleon 111. persists in
regarding the Rhine as the natural frontier of France.
This certainly is the sense in which the speech will be
generally understood. This speech of the Emperor, in the
opinion of the Herald, does something more than diminish
the chances of peace, it absolutely annihilates them.
The Star hopes we shall keep out of congresses and
amicable interventions. A congress which does not mean
to enforce its decrees would in such a crisis be a dull
blunder ; a congress which intended to enforce them would
be a monstrous crime. Above all, let us at the present
moment have no private arrangements with the French
government. Let us remember what our diplomacy did
for Poland and for Denmark ; and let us not forget that
the internecine war now apparently imminent between
Austria and Prussia began in a cordial alliance.