The Express.
London, England, 1859-04-28 00:00:00

LONDON. THURSDAY, APRIL 28

'We are Jost beginning to learn what it is to live
in the aged railroads and electric telegraphs. How
many changes have we not withered since Good
Friday As we laid down the broad sheet at break-
fast that morning we wondered how poor Piedmont
would employ the three days of grace considerately
allowed by her executioner. Teo days, or at least a
week, must elapse before she could be succoured
from the other side of the Alpe, and before then she
would he crushed. The maw:tunes of our friends are
quite displeasing, say. ROCIITEMCACI.D. Some
of w took tires of Piedmont so philosophically that
we could treat their cause from the artistic point of
view, and applaud the • cleverness" of Imlerial
sad Apostolic burglary. A few days have made a
surprising difference. The bearer of Count Scot's
polite lava-awn to King VIC7OI Emmanuel. to throw
himself upon On mercy of the Austrian Court, has
been courteously escorted to the frontier by a Sardi-
aim officer, with a fitting answer. He will have
told a strange story to those who sent him. He will
have reported that he saw at Turin the admire
guard of the armies of France: that these divisions
were already at Sum and Gates which were
to have been toiling along military roods and ever
Alpine steeps, while Comet Gertst was levying •
war contribution at To in. The Austrian Enrsaon
meant his message to Sardinia to be a virtual deer-
ration of war : he is taken at his word. The lento.
lions which the French EMPEROR had accumulated
under the Alps have been hastened over, and to the
number of 40,000 can be concentrated in Twin by
railway is two hoer. Is • coople of days their
writhes will have been raised to 80.000, and every
day will see their fixes augmented. Yet we certhot
be cure that the Allies are in a condition to meet
and repel the invader. Until the French can come
op in much greater fore,., and with their gnus and
material, the Allies mast purses defensive and Fabian
tactics.

When Austria tutted she bad gained all the ignominy
and was in daoger of miming the profit of her intended
coup de main—when the French EMPEROR had
Owed his army on the scene, and borrowed money
for war, and not before—her EMPEROR declared his
readiness to accept the English proposal of media-
tion which Lord DERBY unfolded at the Mansion-
boom, and to postpone a declaration of war. The
Emperor of the Fatncit declined; and no wonder.
Lord Ma t xesbUILY had nothing to offer either to
France or to Sardinia sea basis of mediation. Lord
Cote UT.- four points are indeed mentioned; and, if
the object were to inflame the quarrel, nothing
could be more suitable. Those proposals, as they
are called—for in fact they were only topics—inter
preted as they have been by Austria, were
points of aggravation, not of agreement. Imagine
France and Sardinia suspending their prepara-
tions to discuss " the means of bringing beck
" Sardinia to her international duties." Austria
has been till this moment cynically contemptuous of
the accusations brought against her, and which are
the heart and soul of the Italian question, The
single mediation was a conception suited to the
narrow measure which Lord MALMESBORT took of
the difficulty, but applied to a great European quer
tion was a most dangerous experiment for England.
Whether even &European Cooper was equal to the
task of so adjusting the affairs of Italy as to avert a
revolutionary war is doubtful. Bat had England
undertaken it with seriousness, we should certainly
have found ourselves entangled before long
in obligations such as we ought not to
incur for any Interest but our own. The pro-
posal that England should renew in a solemn
number the treaties of 1816, and give Austria a
guarantee of Lombardy and Venice, was urgently
and deliberately recommended to the English public
by an influential contemporary, who, it will be re-

membered, • week or two afterwards raked • loot
alarm because Lord MALMESIWRY, to use his own
wordy, "made a proposition to Sardinia, that if she
" consented to disarm, England and France would
'• protect her against any attack on the part of nor
" trio, taking the guarantee of the latter power et
'• the same time that she would not make any mob
" attack.•' Looking at these facts, we cannot but
think that t►e French EYPEIWIt'.4 resolution is fee
us rbe means of a moat fortunate escape.
TM alliance between Frame and Russia, mid&
we asmoe•ced yesterday, is an event which every.
body at owe recognises as of the very gravest poli-
tical importance. The memory of the portentous
designsesseeiated with the alliance of an A Le7tAteDlß

.and a N. PoLEON excites the irosgisatiou to vision*
grand and far=aching enterprisess, of tratiafornm-
,inis of the map of Europe, and perhaps of invasion
of our own interests. Let es distruit those my-
ges•.101111. WO shall he safer if ws sae observe this
alliance with calmomv, patience, and self-poems-
@ion. It may be that it is inevely an expedient far
white iog ends much men limited than fancy is m
eager is 'egret. The Itemise Enraaon has nothing
to pia by war ehich be may not man surely ob-
tain by peace. Ha is engaged in great internal re-
forme. demanding the friendly cooperation of the
mobility, to wbeepease end commerce with Mislead
ass essential. Of the Emperor of the Farscu it
would be folly to predict anything with confidence ;
yet we believe them who know him beat
agree that ha is solieitoos to preserve peace
with this country. The history of this treaty
favours the behaf io the temporary and oc.
omiceal character of the alliance. The first pro-
posals respantsrig' it were mode on the part of Franco
towards the tied of last February, at a tine when
Germany was snakiest doessootratione en the side
of Austria. The Eat-beret NAPOLZOX 111. was ba
finning to perceive that that q"like
hod intended to treat or Italian woo likely ts