The Express.
London, England, 1866-07-16 00:00:00

THE THREATENED FALL OF AUSTELL

No effort having been made since the disaster of
Koniggritz to stem the tide of Prussian invasion, and the
Federal troops having met with an irreparable defeat at
Aachaffenburg, the Times speaks of the "almost in-
stantaneous collapse" of Austria. The Italians must by
this time have completely isolated the Quadrilateral,
cutting off all communication between its garrisons and
Vienna, and by some bold stroke on the coast near Trieste
the admiral of the fleet may have gained possession of
some point of the railway along shore in time to cut off the
retreat of the Austrian divisions on their way to Vienna.
No diligence on the part of Cialdini would enable him to
reach the Danube till long after the destinies of the
empire have been decided under the walls of its capital ;
but there is no doubt that the Italians, by their prompt
advance int) Venetia and Tyrol have thrown irresolution
and disorder into the Austrian plans, and thereby aided
the progress of their Prussian ally. The' Emperor of
Austria has promised that Vienna shall be treated as an
open city, and that he will limit his military opera-
tions to the defence of the line of the Danube,
and the Times believes that he will be deterred from a
final encounter when the Prussians assemble before the
capital, probably to-morrow or the day after ; it trusts
that before the Prussians are ready for their onset that in-
terview between the two monarchs will take place which
might have been so much more opportunely held on the
morrow after the disaster of Koniggritz. But at that
juncture the Emperor Francis Joseph overrated the ability
of the Emperor Napoleon to help him out of his difficul-
ties ; and the Emperor of the French, with all the rest of
the world, miscalculated the probable duration of the
struggle of which he had made up his mind to be a neutral
spectator. . _

The Emperor Napoleon, observes the Daily News, will
do what is required by the interests of France, but as to
the quarrel between Prnuia and Austria, he never under-
took to perform impossibilities, and it is no impeachment
of his wisdom that he finds the work of mediation beset
with greater difficulties than he had reason to expect.
The fact being so it is much better for Austria that
her government should at once learn its real situa-
tion, instead of being encouraged to delude
itself, as it has done during the past week.
Marching at the present rate, the Prussians will be before
Vienna before the end of the present week. It is most
improbable that either of the federal armies will ever fight
again ; and the Austrian troops in Italy, except those in
Venice itself, having now no railway communication with
Vienna, the Emperor Francis Joseph, unless ('dal lini
can be dislodged, must dispense with their aid in the ins-
, pending battle with the Prussians.
The Pod thinks Count Bismarck is determined to go on
so long as the neutral powers confine themselves to verbal
protestations against his rapacity. When they show signs
of passing from words to deeds it will be time for him to
decide whether he has gone far enough in his career of
conqwst. It is scarcely possible to suppose that France or
Russia would quietly assent to the reduction of Austria to
a prrsly Sc'avonio power.
The Herald says it is quite certain that King Victor
Emmanuel would not have ventured to continue the war
after the cession of Venetia to France if he had not
un lerstood that the Emperor of the French would feel no
particular ill-will at his persistence in a murderous war. The
arliole mistake cf Austria has been, according to the Herald,
in ceding Venetia and trusting to France. There is nothing
! as far as it can see to prevent the Prussian army advancing
; upon Carlsruhe and Studtgart, and unless the Emperor Na-
poison should appear as the Deal a »utehtrui to solve the
dispute in favour of Austria, or the military genius of the
Archduke Albert should give the Austrian army a signal
victory in Moravia, there is nothing but a beaten and dis-
united army to prevent the Prussians from " revendi-
catusg" Baireuth or oven Nuremburg, or meeting some-
where south of Munich the Italian army, which the " tele-
graph" tells us is marching upon that capital through the
Tyrol.
In the opinion of the Telegraph nothing is more likely
than that Francis Joseph, who has lately shown that he
can yield with dignity, will accept the inevitable, and sub-
mit. to deprivation in Germany with as good a grace as he
has already submitted to exclusion from Italy. Cut off
from all distractions in the centre of Europe, the Austrian
sovereigns would be driven to devote more attention to
Hungary, Croatia, and the magnificent dominion that
would still extent in one unbroken sweep from Saxony to
Wallachia, from Poland to the TyroL