The Express.
London, England, 1866-01-19 00:00:00

Zile eramtlifs•

TO CORRESPONDWIS.
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paper, must be at the Office, 10, Bouverts-etrest. by Two
o'clock on the day of pablication.

HAYMARKHr.
THIS EVENING, BROTHER SAM. Madam Sather°, Buck.
no, and Compton ; Misses Nell.), Moore, Snowdon &c.—
0 HEUS IN TH .6 HAY LI ARK KT. Messrs Farren &D. /fisher :
Wane Keeley, Howard & Wrlght.—MY HUSBAND'a GHOST.

MINCERS'S.
Tars Emma, QUIET LODOINOS.—After' which IT TS
BEVER TOO LATE Tr) MEND. Mean. Vining, G. Melville,
Y. Need, D. Murray, b. Calhoun, F. Vrlllere..l. O. Shore, G. Mur•
vim and R. Cathay{ : Wises L. Moore and L. Rodgers.

LYCEUM.
THIS Emma, THE ILLUSTRIOUS STRANGER. Mr. H.
Wlddlcomb.—THE MASTER OP RAVENSWOuD. Meson.
Yachter. Jordan, Veen, Emery, Widdlcomb, Fitzpatrick, Evans;
Mesdames Ternan, Elaworthy, Lavcnu, C. Leclerc%

BRITANNIA.
THIS Manse, OLD DADDY LONOLEGS AND SIR REGENT
MRCVS; OR, THE RACE FOR THE GOLDEN APPLES.
11. and Edme. Stertzenbach.—lllgnor Havant —oLnar.—Shower
of Golden Halo.—And JESSIE, TES MORMON'S DAUGHTER.

MOH WATIM AT LONDON-BUBO:IL
TUB DAT Itaratog, 80. 39m..... Afternooa. 33 575.
Lo-molsow -- MorAlm 40. leas.— —Monson!, 4h. Sow.

LONDON. FRIDAY. JANUARY 19.

EVERY now and then among the telegraphic
gossip of the day appears an announcement, of
more or less official origin, that the Austrian
Government is about to introduce reforms into the
organization of Venetia, "having for object the
" greater development of the autonomy of that
" province." We are most unwilling to suppose
that this chronic effusion of goodwill to the
Venetians is meant to simulate an accom-
plished reconciliation. We therefore accept
it for what it is worth, as only one sign
among many that the Cabinet of Vienna, having
once adopted a constitutional programme, is begin-
ning to see the impracticability of maintaining
things as they are in Venetia, and is prepared to
take almost any steps, and to make almost any
concessions, if that province will only be contented
to remain an integral part of the empire.
With every disposition to give the present
Austrian ministry credit for the beat intentions,
we cannot but observe that there are two parties to
every bargain, and we would ask if the Emputoit's
Government really imagines that anything it can
offer will reconc"e the Venetians to Austrian rule,
or abate their longing for union with the Italian
kingdom. Putting aside for the moment any such
vague and empty considerations as that sentiment
of nationality which in many parts of the Austrian
empire is apt to be so ridiculously abused, what is
there in the condition of Venetia as a province of
the Austrian Empire that should induce her to ac-
cept her present situation ? What progress has
she made since the iniquitous Treaty of Campo-
Formio ? or what prospect is there of progress
now ? The question is but too easily answered.
During the last seventy years the decline of Venice
has been so rapid that it is hard to believe that
she has not been sacked by barbarian invaders in-
stead of merely lapsing by the fortune of war, or
rather by the lottery of a Congress after war,
under the sway of a European Prince. Her
palaces are deserted and falling into ruin, and, like
her family pictures, may be bought for a mere
song ; her great historic monuments are crumbling
away; her public buildings are turned into Austrian
barracks. Her commerce has not even been
allowed to take its chance of life or decay, for it
has been systematically sacrificed by the Govern-
ment to Trieste. Her lagu nes are becoming swamps,
and the arrival of an English coal brig is now a
maritime event in the waters which once sent forth
fleets to save Christendom from the Turk.

It is not only in a financial point of view that
Austria suffers from this fatal possession. Her action
as a great power—her credit as a solvent power—
her reputation as a liberal power—is paralyzed by
it. It is her two weak places—Hungary and Vene-
tia—which have lost her all her former influence in
Germany, and which have caused her to be dragged
at the heels of Prussia through a war on which
she must now reflect with anything but pride or
satisfaction. Tho EMPEROR has seen this, and has
frankly, and, we trust, successfully, set to work to
heal one of these wounds by the recognition of
Hungarian rights, and by a determined attempt to
appease Hungarian discontent. It has seemed
possible to Austrian statesmen that the same plan
might succeed with Venetia. But they overlook
the radical, and to every one else patent, diffe-
rence between the two countries. Hungary is
attached to the House of Harssuro by old
historic ties of loyalty and affection, by common
disasters and common triumphs. A quarrel
between Hungary and her KING is a constitutional,
not a national, quarrel. But, above all, Hungary
is not one section of a great people, forcibly rent
from the remainder, which exists in independence
by her side. How can such a kingdom as
this be compared to Venice, which, after a
glorious history of ten centuries, was handed over
seventy years ago, in a fit of spite, by one
foreign general to another as a punishment for
insurrection? It may be doubted whether even in
Hungary itself the EMPEROR can hope to reap the
full advantages of reconciliation until this Venetian
question is finally settled. There are eminent
Hungarians, who have far too much sympathy
with their late fellow•suferers in Venetia to be
ready to offer any active or willing co-operation in
case of • war with Italy. Such an event might
possibly rekindle all the discord that a wiser po-
licy at Pesth is endeavouring to extinguish.
It will no more detract from the mili-
tary prestige of such a power as Austria to aban-
don an unprofitable province, and to release from
her sway an alien and irreconcileable population,
than it could detract from the naval prestige of
England to abandon the protectorate of the
lonitn Islands, and to give up the gates of the