The Express.
London, England, 1859-10-19 00:00:00

LOXDON, WEDNESDAY. OCT. 19.

Tux signing of the Treaty of Zurich is, we fear,
scarcely an appreciable step towards a settlement of
the Italian difficulty. Those who have, during the last
few days, spoken of • general Congress as having
gamed the acquiescence even of the Continental
Powers, could not have first considered the
antecedent improbability of any sort of con-
currence of opinion being u yet obtained, even
among any camiderable section of the neemesry
parties to it. In truth, it is obvious that the real
Italian question has not made any important advance
during the whole period that unfounded rumours have
successively made their way from the Continent to
this country. Those Powers whose concurrence

would be necessary to a Connie are at preterit
pledged in directly opposite directions; in spite of
the Treaty of Zurich they apppear in sores

important particulars much more at variance
at this moment than they were on the conclusion of
the war ; and therefore the brooch of opinion is now
wider than when the preliminary treaty of Villafranta
wee signed. Then no controversy had arias in re-
gard to the Duchies, and France and Austria were
both gently ultramontane. Nor, while the official
journals of the Austrian Government are daily grow-
ing in anionimity towards the Duchies, the Emperor
of the FIUME, with a strong desire to defeat
the recent unanimous vote of Central Italy, finds
himself neverthelee drawn into the vortex of the
liberalising Italian policy which his ♦ictories mi.
ginated ; and while Austria i. still clinging with the
MIN unshaken tenacity to the Pors, the Emperor
of the Fithstrit he. virtielly announced at
Bordeaux his broach with the Ultamontane party.
Indeed, them is net mach apparent distinction,
la pout of their real force, between the differences
that preceded and brought about the late war, and
the differences subsisting at this moment; except,
indeed, that the pledges and policy of France and
Austria are thrown into somewhat sharper contrail's-
tiusction now than they were before the war began.

While such is the relation of French to Autriaa
policy, and while a direct breach is threatened at
Rome, the policy o: Sardinia, of the Duchies, and of
the Romagna, is assuming a eoneo.idated form,
which would render a discussion in Congress imprac-
ticable, without an entire capitulation both by the
Autrian and Papal Governments of the =distal
pinta of their Italian policy. Tuscany twists on
having VI, Ton ExmAxt:Et. for its King, whether he
wid or no; and the three other emancipated
Sates are not much behind Tuscany ; while the
great fact, which is heeded enough by diplomatists,
is overlooked by the publio—that Free Italy is now
becoming so strong, through the increase of her
military organisatios, as to have a will of her own.
We doubt both whether a Congress could in the
present state of almost hopelessly divided opinion
be d , and whether, even if this were other-
wise, the verdict of a dissentient body could exercise
any weight in Italy, and would be received with much
more respect than a Papal excommunioation. The
Emperor of the FIENCII and Count RECEIBLIG are
both too shrewd politicians to submit their influence
to inch a checkmate.
Thus far, we have excluded Great Britain as well
si Prussia and Russia from consideration. In re-
gard to the policy of this Government, that has been
distinctly stated by Lord Jon Itreseu. at Aber-
deen ; and that statement serves to indicate the
assumption of a position distinct from that
which both France and Austria have hitherto
assumed. Lord JOHN Mutt'. has stated, with
great force and decision, that he will be a party
to no Congress which does not proceed on a
recognition of the right of self-government by the
free States of Italy. Now it is well known that
France, though differing from us in many re-
epecti, hu anxiously promoted the partici-
pation of Great Britain in a Congress, in
a degree which heightens the improbability of
her going to Congress without this country, while
she is certain that eht cannot obtain our concurrence

until she has forced an animnivocal surrender from
the Court of Vienna, Moreover, we have every
reams to believe that neither the Court of St. Peters-
burg nor the Coon of Berlin has formed any deci-
sion ; and with respect to the rumour now afloat of a
Congress in which cot only the five greet Powers,
but such States as Sardinia, Rome, and Naples
should be included, such a body would involve coats:
aim enough to be the antitype ofllaDel. No Congress
ever yet assembled without distinct preliminaries or
beam of discusion. Thus the four points were made
the basis first of the Conference of Vienna in 1835,
and then of the Congress of Paris.% 1856. Whin
are these basse in the present case
The Treaty of Zurich is, properly speaking, little
more than the ratification of a fact created four
months ago successively by Magenta, Solferino, and
Villafrancs. The greater part of its provisions will,
we suspee, be found to be of little mere than a
mechanical neon, and to concern such matters as
toe demarcation of the Sardinian Kingdom from Co.
Austrian Emp'.re, which had already been roughly
estt:ed by the iliafranca Convention. The great
uestion of &spate has, from first to last,
bee undersOod to be the ; inition of the
Lombard debt between the State that relinquishes