The Express.
London, England, 1859-06-06 00:00:00

LONDON, MONDAY, JUNE 8.

We bare this morning decisive news from the seat
of war. A great battle was fought and won by the
Allies on Saturday lest, the Austrians being not only
defeated, but defea•cd with enormous to 20,000
men hors de combs', 7.000 prisoner,, 3 guns, and
2 standards; while the allies, according to the
telegraphic despatch of the Emperor of the Fitercu,
lost only 3,000 men and 1 gnu. The rival srmics
met at Magenta, a small town on the left or Lom-
bardy tide of the Ticino, about two miles from the
bridge of Boffaloramnd about twenty miles from Milan.
The &strums, having recrossed in rapid retreat,
the river which joins the boundary between Sardinia
and Lombardy, endeavou•cd to prevent the Allies
from following them, and, thls attempt having
failed, they were compelled on Saturday morning
to accept battle at Magenta, the result being their
complete overthrow, aid the placing of Milan at
the mercy of their triumphant adversaries.

Within seven days the Allies have thus swept
the Austrians from the free roil of Piedmont, which I.
they had wantonly invaded, and inflicted
upon them within their own territory • loss
equal to a cups of the invading *ray. The week
that comiassesd with the double victory of the I
ling of SMIDINII on the banks of the Buis was
closed by this grand triumph of the Allies on the
banks of the Ticino. It is impossible for those who ,
sympathise with the Italian cause not to rejoins at
this signal success; bet the feeling it excite* is not
one of pure exaltation. The detail of war—the
fierce shock of bounding life, and the awful
recoil of wounds and agony, of violent and
sudden death—are always revolting. And the
swift and wholesale destruction it involves
necessarily tempers the general rejoicing which this
great victory will inspire. If we receive it
with gratitude it is became we recognise the
necessity of the present war, and rejoice that the
righteous cause has so sixedily and completely
triumphed. For Austria herself we cannot profess
to mourn. She, and she alone, is responsible for
all the blood shed in the present war. The
heavy wrongs of her Italian rule, which the prin-
cipal European Cabinets hare recognised, she obsti-
nately refused to redrew. She first appealed to the
sword after insulting the Cabinet of Turin with
humiliating demands. She first entered the Pied-
monts= territory, end, in the fulness of her despotic
pride,*outraged the loyalty of the inhabitants with
insulting proclamations, and wuted their property
with forced and penal contribution,. She Das but
paid the natural penalty of provoking a quarrel in
an unrighteous cause. She seised the sword to
defend a career of Imperial crime; and without in-
dulging any extravagant views of Divine Fuel-
deem, ;am we weeder that such a weight of guilt
should paralyse her arm 'n the day of battle ?
Foe while it is perfectly true that suc-
cess in itself is no test of right or wrong,
there are socce causes so bad that the
moral e:ement enters deeply into the struggle
and becomes an important instrument of victory or
defeat. This is pre-eminently true of the present
conflict. The oldest nationality in Europe•—a gallant,
brave, ant cultured people, after years of bitter
suffering &NI wrong, confronts in arms her imperial
oppressor, who is the representative of the most cruel
despotism the modern world has ever known. For the
sake of justice and:humanity, for the sake of the
great principles of national liberty and independence
involved in the quarrel, we rejoice in the defeat of
Austria.

Bet, to want no more such victoria ce defeats;
awl if Austria is wile in time, she will withdraw
from the unequal conflict. She may even now yield
to the victoria, sword of the Allies the just demands
she has so low; re;ase 1 to the peaceable voice of in-
ternatiw►l law and diplomatic remonstrance. We
want no more ►loodshed, if the end in view can be
obtained w t!-.out it. The campaign already affords
a @efficient basis for a new and better attempt to
eettle:the:ltalian:qoestion. This great victory place
the Allies in a position to ask, what the war
was undertaken to secure--the retirement of Austria
from Italy. If Austria consents to this act of
obvious justice and necessity, she may still save her-
self from farther loss and Europe from prolonged
bloodshed. But if negotiation is attempted it mast
be conducted in a frank, honest, and thorough-going
manner. There must be no f►lse or illusory settle-
ment this time. The old sores mast not be left to
rankle, and in a few years produce again evils
which war alone can remedy. The blood already eked
cries aloud from the ground against any shaker',
temporary treaty—agaiust any compromise of the
quarrel that would practically confess it had been
shed in vain. No; the quarrel may be settled, sad
ought to be stttled now, at the outset of the cam-
paign; but if in, it mo,t be decided in a just ad

TnE first feeling of every Englishman when he
read of the " treaty of offensive end defensive alliance

" between France and Russia," was indignation at
astounding treachery; his first thought, that the
fruits of the Crimean campaign, purchased at
so many sacrifices, were in a moment lost, and
that we might have to fight the war over
again at tremendous odds. The fact is that
the proposals made by the French Government
to that of Russia—proposals which, aooepted, form
the agreement between the two Powers, relate en-
tirely to the West of Europe, and refer only to this
Italian war, limited ea it has been by the disclaimers
of the Emperor of the FIENcn, repudiating terri-
torial and dynastic aggrandisements. Attenuated
and slight as the agreement is at best, it would
altogether fail were the Emperor of the Flaxen to
pursue the grasping policy which is so often ascribed
to him.

As to the East of Europe, not only were partitions
and spoliation' excluded from the agreement or
understanding between France and Mimi", but
it was expressly notified to the Cabinet of St
Petersburg that the policy of France as regards
Turkey remained, and must remain, unchanged ; that
it was now what it had been in the Crimean war ; and
that the alliance with England in which that policy
had been manifested subsisted in all its force.

Once more, the proposals of France were such u
might be made to any Government ready to acknow-
ledge the fairness of the war which France was
preparing against Austria, and desiring to prevent
its extension. Accordingly they were made to the
English Government before they were made to the
Government of and it was only when
the English Government had declined to accept
them, that France se a matter of defensive precaution
sought a limited and conditional support in another
quarter.

Oar readers will give as credit for not making
these statements inconsiderately, or upon any an-
thlrity short of the highest. They agree with all
that hes taken place publicly since the outbreak of
war, sod their chief value in our eyes is, that they
show that the French Earrnon, while be employs
the material forces of France, is under a real responai-
bility to European public opinion. Russia, a juror
in the great Court of Europe, has not found
if she ever sought, a purchaser for her vote:
She is in a position of freedom, and has more-
over every motive to scrutinise the acts of the
French Eserzzon, and to avert in its development
any tendency to trangress the limits of the pr-
gramme which that Potentate has laid be-
fore Europe. We trust also that we shall
not be diminishing the security of the
country, if we express an opinion that in this basi-
neu of the agreement with Russia, I.ouis faro.
LEON has not forfeited the reputation for fidelity
which we were all ascribing to him three years ago.
IL was an ill compliment paid to this ementry when
he was represented as selling his faith to the CZAR
The alliance of England must always be of far more
importance to the Emperor of FRANCR than that of
any other power. Why should Englishmen be the
last in the world to see this?