The Express.
London, England, 1857-03-21 00:00:00

wise P Sardinia has too feudal odds against her to

fee T justified in an atteek, notwithaanding the
indisputed holiness of her rights : and Austria will
never go beyond a little raponring and blustering,
were it for no other reason than this, that she is aware
if there is a eases la the world for which the "nation

of shopitespen• "add be ready to threw down
their lediate and yard measures, and take to bills,
and clubs, and partisans, it is this. It is the ease of
the little moose who ventured to bite the elephant's
I heel, whilst the generous lion was grappling with
the huge beast. Attack Piedmont! 0 Limoges ! 0
Austria! The bastard Faltynawitife never so eagerly
offered to twist thy ducal nose in behalf of the Lady
Coastaace of old, u JOHN BULL now would strain
every nerve to give thee the drubbing thou so richly,
I for a hundred rations, deservest at the hand of all
I thy neighbours, wert thou so rash as only to
Use a hair of his plucky Sardinian pet.
sober earnest, if all the beet feelings, the
ltamere, and interest of England are engaged in the
dies, not merely of the territory, but also of the
Med= of Piedmont, will it ever be possible for
I dill country and its government to estrange them- I
'elves from the cause which forms all the pride, all
the might, all the danger of Sardinia? Either
Piedmont is Italy or she is nothing. Austria—every
child is aware of it—has no grudge against the House
of Savoy, no very inordinate craving for any part of
the Sardinian dominions. It is the national standard
of Italy that disturbs her slumbers ; and either that
standard must be struck at Turin, or it must wave
at Milan. It is madness to hope to escape the
alternative; and we must either prepare eventually
to fight out the great Italian battle, or suffer our
bravo little champion of the Crimea to venture into
the field alone—to venture, there would be too much
-'n to fear, on assured destruction.

To the threats conveyed by Austria in the with-
drawal of her official spy, the Piedmontese Parlia-
ment answers by a sanction, of 114 votes against 4,
given to the enormous outlay of money proposed by
the Government foe the fortification of the old city
of the Lombard League. There is something sub-
lime in the coincidence that seems likely to bring
the national Italian contest to an issue under the very
mud and straw bastions of that Akssandria della
Foglia which 600 years ago broke the sinews of the
mighty German hosts of FREDERIC BARDAROSSA.
Now, what prodigy is this? What combination of
favourable circumstances has made an Italian pccg
—for, whatever may be said by the French red-tapeist,
whose singular document appeared in our column,
of Thursday, the Piedmontese and the Genoese are
genuine Italian", even though they may not feed PI
macaroni, and do not bask half-naked in the sas—
hes made this eminently Italian people all at
once capable of showing courage in the field, nods-
ration in the council, firmness and unanimity every-
where ? Why, how long is it since the Times,Black-
wood, and the Quarterly thought they could not
better flatter Austria than by sneering about
" Italians who would ever run," about the folly of
"trusting willing slaves with the two-edged tools
of self-government," about the certainty that "a
removal of Austrian pressure from any quarter of
the peninsula would, be rare to open the way
for Gallic ascendancy ? " The wonder-working
agency has been simply freedom. The Piedmontese,
till yesterday mere children, have suddenly come of
age, and have shown themselves equal to the dignity
and responsibility of man's estate. Shall it be fair
to apply to the other Italians theories which have
proved so egregiously false with respect to the Pied-
montese? We were among those few who never
despaired of what LANARTINE called "la terre des
morts :" and we would now fain put the question to
that poet himself, whether there be more life in his
own France or in that only part of the Italian land
of the dead which has been allowed to breathe ?

Tne curious inquirer, who may wade through the
Ministerial speeches at the Mansion-house banquet,
in search of indications of a policy, will find his labour
in vain. All that can be gleaned from them is, that
Lord PALMERSTON is determined, to borrow a feli-
citous expression from our contemporary the Spec-
tator, to " ride to the hustings on the British lion."