The Express.
London, England, 1866-05-17 00:00:00

AUSTRIA.

(no* ova owa col

VIENNA, Mar 13.
Yesterday morning early General Benedek
arrived here from Verona. From a number of
incidents one might suppose that war, instead of
being expected, had already begun. On the walls
of the town large placards are posted up, calling on
the citizens of Vienna and the inhabitants of
ILower Austria to make every sacrifice for their
country ; asking each according to his means to
contribute in aid of the war which, iniquitous as
it is and baleful in its consequences, cannot be
avoided. Then, again, many Vienna householders
have already sent in their names to the authorities,
stating how many wounded each is willing to re-
ceive and tend at his own coat. A committee of
ladies is also formed for the same purpose, but the
men are to be lodged in the country places around
Vienna. Young men, too, are enlisting freely.
Yesterday 400 were accepted as fit for service. In
Styria a corps of volunteers is about to be formed,
and sharpshooters enrolled in Carniola, Carinthia,
Styria, and Upper and Lower Austria.
In Bavaria not only is the whole army mobilised,
but the Chambers are summoned for the 20th, in
order to vote the sums necessary for war. This
looks like being in earnest. The Prussian thaler
notes are accepted at Munich only when given at
2 per cent. under their ordinary value.
The men enlisted here, and who were on the
point of sailing for Mexico, have just been ordered
to remain. It seemed a foolish act to allow a body
of strong men to leave the country, when no one
could say how soon they might be needed at home.
This consideration, and probably the remonstrance&
of Mr. Motley, have caused the order for relanding
to be issued at the eleventh hour.
By order of his Majesty a fifth battalion has
been added to each of the 80 infantry regiments of
the line, and a depot division to each of the 32
Jager battalions. By this measure the strength of
the infantry and sharpshooter regiments alone is
raised to 500,000 men.
The order for mobilising the Prussian army
would enable the infantry to be raised to 394,000
' men ; cavalry, 63,000 ; artillery in the field and
the fortresses, 37,000 men, 15,000 horses, and
9. 3,714 field pieces. Pioneers 10,000, and the train
11,000 men. With the Landwehr the numbers
would be 646,000 men, and 100,000 horses.

VENETIA.

(pi:or OUR OWN COMSPONDUPL)

VENICE, MAT 8.

The impression now prevailing here is, that war
within a fortnight is inevitable, and that its
opening episode will be an irruption of volun-
teers into Venetia. Thus, the onus I
may be allowed the expression—will be shifted
from off the shoulders of any regular govern-

ment, and the war will have begun as it were of
itself. The Garibaldini, not Italy, will have
attacked Austria, and nothing will have happened
literally contradictory of the assurance which was
the other day given by M. Rouhor to the Corps
Legislatif.
Up to 6 p.m. we are quiet, without news here,
and rumour has it all its own way. Accordingly,
throughout the day we hear vague whispers of
engagements on the frontier, the approach of the
Italian fleet, the destruction of railways and bridges,
the blowing up of Austrian men-of-war, the deser-
tion of Hungarian troops, &c., &c. At 6 p.m.
the Gazzetta Ufliciate—the only daily newspaper
published in Venice—makes its tardy appearance,
and the public, thirsting for information of a sub-
stantial kind, learns from its columns that his Majesty
the Emperor has been graciously pleased to confer
the order of the Black Eagle (second class), upon
Lieutenant-General Freiherr von —, or that
Oberst —, Chief of the Staff, attached to the sth
Corps d'Arm4e, at Verona, has been transferred
to a similar position at Pesth. By the time the
foreign journals, which, having passed the ordeal
of official scrutiny at Vienna or Verona, are per-
mitted by the government to circulate within the
province of Venetia, reach us, the news they con-
tain is so stale and unprofitable that it requires an
unusually strong appetite for so-called intelligence
to swallow it with any zest. The columns of con-
flicting telegrams, which, dated Paris, Berlin, or
Vienna, Sunday evening, appear in the London
papers on Monday morning, and give such a plea-
sant and perplexing relish to a London breakfast,
read wofully stale here in Venice towards the end
of the week. The falseness of the intelligence
conveyed by most of them has become long since
apparent, and they read like a batch of self-oon-
victed lies.
In the meantime the preparations for war here
are being pushed on with the greatest activity, and
the city is positively swarming with soldiers and
sailors. The increase in the number of the latter,
in the last few days, is very observable,
and blue jackets are at the present mo-
ment hardly less conspicuous than the
white tunics of the infantry. An Austrian
man-of-war, the Venus, arrived on Saturday from
Trieste, and now lies at anchor between the Island
of San Georgic and the Rica dei Schiavone, in the
company of several pugnacious looking gunboats,
ready to bombard us at a moment's notice. The
guns of the fortress of San Georgic, too, are di-
rected in a most pointed manner towards the win-
dows of the Hotel Daniell, rendering a residence at
that favourite establishment more exciting than
suits the nerves of quiet travellers.
Whether Austria would be justified in placing
much reliance on her navy, in the event of a con-
flict with Italy, is open to grave doubts ; for,
while about one half of her seamen are Italians by
birth, the other half consists of Italians and Dal-
matians, to some extent imbued with Italian sym-
pathies, and not uncommonly speaking the Italian
language. Whereas in the case of the soldiers
drawn from Venetia, Austria takes good care to
remove them to some distant province of the
empire, she has nothing for it but to give up her fleet
altogether, or to man her vessels to a great extent
with Italians. In spite of Shakespeare's views to the
contrary, we all know now that Bohemia has no
sea board to be touched by Sicilian or other
barques, and therefore Bohemians are no more
available than Hungarians, Sileeian.s, or Moravian
for maritime service.
The position of those naval officers in the
Austrian service who are of Italian origin and
sympathies is most distressing at this moment. In
the course of a conversation which I held with him
the other day, one of them—the commander of
a gunboat—left me in little doubt as to what
course he should follow in the event of a war. I