The Express.
London, England, 1859-10-10 00:00:00

LONDON. MONDAY, OCT. 10.

WITHOUT attaching exaggerated importance to
the recent language of the Consliturionnel regard-
ing the annexation of Lombardy to Piedmont, we
cannot but express, our satisfaction at the decisive
tone in which the Austrian insinuation has been re-
baked—that in such a matter the Emperor of
the FRENCH might possibly be induced to
go back from his publicly plighted word. For
some time the Vienna press has been labour-
ing to prove that at Villafranca the cession of
Lombardy was made conditional upon the re-impo-
sitioa of the viceoregal authorities of Auatzia
in Central Italy ; and even Parisian journals
have been found openly arguing that in case
the cashiered dynasties were not restored, that pri-
mary and fuodameutal article of the peace might
possibly if not probably be treated as non arenu.
It was certainly time that suggestions so
perilous to its ehrecter for good faith should be
repudiated on the part of the French Government
in a way not to be mistaken. Nsrotsote 111. can-
not be insensible to the moral necessity be is ander
of maintaining that character in his dealings with
other Powers. As the undisputed victor in the
civil struggle that ended in the obliteration of
all that in France questioned his exclusive
right to bear rule, he possessed the power
to narrate the history of the transaction
in his own way, and to prohibit the promulgation of
any other venire'. But in dealing with foreign
States, whether friendly or hostile, he has ever.
shown himself conscious of the need of ostensible
fidelity (to say the least of it', to engagements ; and
it is but justice to admit that, up to the present date,
we have had no cause to complain that he has deviated
from the part of " loyalty" which, sis an ally,
he has professed his ambition to play. In the
affairs of Italy he has from the outset sought
the co-operation of England u well u of other
Powers; and though co-operation by arms has
been declined, intimate and confidential relations
have been uninterruptedly maintained; and our
Government has received from time to time ex-
plicit declarations of what was intended and what
was not—and equally explicit statements of
what had been done in certain matters, and what
had not been and could not be done. As sovereign
belligerents the two Emperors claimed the right to
emitted. • sudden armistice, without esegraltatioa
with their allies. But on the morrow of its conchs- I
non every neighbour with whom they hoped to live
on terms of amity naturally sought to know its
term.; and whatever differences of construction
and of inference may have arisen as to points of de-
tail, no doubt has been suffered to seat with regard
to the substance of what was agreed an at Villa-
francs. Europe was duly informed that Austria
acknowledged and soquiesord in the conquest of
Lombardy by France, for the sake of preserving
undisputed her possession of Venetia. NAPO-
LEON IIL disclaimed all territorial aggrandisement
for himself, and declared, therefore, that be would
cede the conquered province to N'teroa ENSIANCIL
without any stipelation or condition. Other articles
there were—that amongst the rest which declared
the mutual willingness of the two Emperors to
consent to the return of the Grand Duke of TU.-CANT
to his former dominions ; but we have it on
French semi-official authority that this was not to
involve an attempt by either of the two Emperors
to impose the fugitive family by force of arise
on the people whom they formerly ruled. To
unsay all this at the end of three mouths'
negotiation, and to try to set up an an-
expressed and heretofore unheard-of stipula-
tion essentially at variance with all that
has been till now asserted by one of the contracting
pasties and sequinned is by the other, would be to
wreck irreparably all faith is both. lo the public
opinion of Europe there would and could be no
rum for hesitation as to the character of such
an set. lty the very nature of the case the
clumsy interpolation suggested by Austrian despair
would bear upon it the most unmistakeable mark
of fraudulent afterthought. For, as it is truly
observed by the writer in the Consligutiorwsel, Lom-
bardy was never said to be • concession by the Em-
peror FRANCIS JOSEPH to his kinsman of Sardinia,
but was simply and specifically surrendered by treaty
of pesos to NAPOLEON 111., who had fairly won it
in war. and whose victorious troops held it in actual
and unconteieed possession. If Austria, therefore,
repents her submission to the fortune of war, she
must reclaim Lombardy from Frazee not Sardinia,
and prepare to re-conquer her loot dependency. The
compact of Villafranca once repudiated, France woad
be remitted to her previous position, with all its
menacing incidents. But she would likewise be
bound by all the ties of international honour to
make ir.od to her Itnian allies that which, without
their anent, she agreed to swept ou their behalf
as the ini*lOcaas of what they were 'elided to at the
close of a successful campaign.
It would be impossible for NAPOLEON 111., with-
oat utter self-stultification, to abandon the monarch
at whose call he crossed the Alps, and the nation of
whom hut six short months ago he solemnly pro-
claimed himself to be the appointed liberator. It
would be equally impossible ter him, were he piqued
or persuaded into such an act of tergiversation
and timidity, ever again to hope for the respect or
confidence of neighbouring States. For oar parte,
we have never harboured the suspicion of his con-
templating au act so suicidal of his influence in

Europe. Of that influence he i manifestly proud,
and we have never supposed that he would delibe-
rately destroy it, whatever the temporary temptation
might be. But in the present instance there is
none. The Elect of Universal Suffrage may bid
France be content with the glary of securing the
partial emancipation of Italy at the cost of many
thousand lives and many millions of treasure, but
he cannot consent to occupy a position in which
France would be able to make it a reproach that all
these had been sacrifloed in vein.