Northern Times.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1859-05-25 00:00:00

FRANCE.

PARIS, Monday Evening. People are beginning to
wonder at the continued inaction of the French army, and
to, feel surprised that the evident ambition of the Emperor
Napoleon to follow so closely in the footsteps of his uncle
should be confined to such puerilities as to use the same bed,
the same washhand basin, and to pitch his -tent upon the
same spots. A little of that activity which made Melas
doubt whether he stood on his head or his heels, diove
Beaulieu and Alvinzi out of their senses, and the Austrians
out of Italy, would not be amiss. Here are four days since
both armies have taken an opportunity of showing the
world and their commanders what stuff they were made of,
but neither Marshal Gyulai nor the Emperor seem to take
the hints. This inaction may be good generalship—pru-
dence is always respectable—but it is a virtue the French
do not appreciate, and it is not surprising that there should
be grumbling both in the camp, where the soldiers' spirits
are damped by inaction, while his body is drenched by the
rain, and in the faubourgs here, where the simple-minded
ouvriers won't understand that one Emperor should be
unlike another. The lioniteur to-day also furnishes a topic
for the ill-natured to comment upon. It is gratifying to
know that the Emperor continues well, and that the weather
is improving, but the relatives and friends of the officers
belonging to the regiments engaged, are anxious to know
whether a son, a brother, or a husband may not be among
the killed and wounded. Such details might without any
danger have been sent by telegraph, and would have been

gratefully accepted. The Patric this evening gives a few

details, which I should be very sorry to vouch for. I lay

them before you as I find them :---
The Austrians commenced the attack at eleven a.m., and
fighting continued uninterrupted for six hours. The Austrian
force was the elite of General Gyulai's army—picked Croatian
infantry and Tyrolean Chasseurs: Here is a curious detail :

The Emperor of Austria arrived at Milan on the 19th ; he
was at Pavia on the night which preceded the. battle. The
Emperor Francis Joseph only waited for a success to take
the command of, his army. The official de'spatch . from
Vienna, which we published yesterday, states, by way of
accounting for the tetirement of the Austrian forces behind
the Po, that the French had an overwhelming numerical
superiority. We are in a position to state that only 5,000
French and one regiment of cavalry were engaged.
Prince Napoleon left Genoa last night on hoard the Reine
Hortense, for Leghorn. Before his departure,' the Patrie
.
informs us that on hearing of the combat at Montebello he
immediately detached ten surgeons from his corps and - sent
them on to head-quarters. The Government have sent a

communique to the And de la Religion,- contradicting the
statement of that paper that the Bavarian Minister had
received orders to hold himself in readiness to leave Paris.

BATTLE OF MONTEBELLO.

TURIN, May 21.—At last there has been a fight. You
have, doubtless, already received the bulletins of the affair.
Montebello, which seems to have been the principal scene
of this combat, is a small village, situate about, six miles to
the north-east of Voghera. It was there (and between it
and easteggio) that Launes won his glorious, but gallantly-
contested,. victory over the Austrians, on the 9th of June,
1800

klthough the _bulletin is niggardly in details,
we may infer from it various things which it does not
explicitly state. The combat is described as " furious ;"
but, considering that, besides the Sardinian cavalry, a French
division was-engaged,. and that the: ime the fighting lasted
is stated at six hours, we are hardly justified in believing
the engagement to have been of a very desperate nature
when we find the casualties of the allies limited to about
500 killed and wounded. . The Austrians appear, in the first,
instance, Jo- have taken Montebello from the Sardinians,
and to have been afterwards expelled from the village by
the French, and it was probably among its lanes and houses
that the two hundred prisoners were made by the latter. The
bulletin wisely abStains from guessing at the amount of the '
Austrian loss, and limits itself to stating it as very conside-
rable (notevolissime), au expresSiOn which means nothing
because an army almost invariably. believes • its op-
ponent to have suffered more than itself, and the
bulletin of the trifling skirmish at Frassinetto assured us
that the Austrians had there suffered greatly,, whereas we -
have since learned that their total loss was nine killed and
wounded, or., about one-half, of
.that of the Piedmontese.-
The number of field
.officers killed and wounded yesterday
on the sidenf the Frentlyand Sardinians is 'nine, including
a general killed. This seems a large, proportion out, of a
total of 500 casualties ; but ilsome of the Tyrolean jaspers
were there it,would -easily be accounted' for by the well-
known deadly accuracy of their-fire. I have no knOwledge
of the composition of General Forey's diviSion';' -but the
name of one of the colonels wounded, De Bellefonds, is that
of a lieutenant-colonel, of the Zouaves 'of the Guard, who.
was at Chalons camp in 1857. The object of the Austrians
in throwing forward these 12,000 men and. engaging in
combat, must probably remain matter of conjecture, until
elucidated by your correspondent at their head 'quarters. It
may haVe been intended merely to engage the attention of
the Allies, while certain movements in retreat. were effected
by the bulk of the army. Or it may have been meant to
give a serious check 'tothe corps 'of Marshal .Baraguay
d'lfilliers in its advance towards the Austrian left and in
the direction of Piacenza ; but' for the attainment of this
latter object • the force employed seems rather small. On
these matters you will probably be enlightened sooner than
we'shall be in Tnrin, where no 'reliable: inforrnation can be
obtained respecting the proceedings of the. Austrians.
The report in town this afternoon is that fighting is

going on to-day. •It is said' that an advance of our 'whole
line has taken place. Late to-night, or to-morrow morning:
we shall probably know what_ is really taking place, and
any important events will reach you by,telegraph. I have
laid down a rule against accepting or writing to you rumours
of which I have no authentic confirmation. Yesterday's
affair is mag,nified here into an important battle, and, in
the excitement thus produced, exaggerations and imagina-
tive histories are likely to ,be unusually current. It does
not appear, hoWever, at all improbable that the combat of
Montebello may prove to have been but the prelude to a
serious engagement. Lord Stratford de Redelfffe arrived
here yesterday. This afternoon's Gazette contains the

following notice or proclamation
The Government of :his Majesty the King,of Sardinia has
already publicly declared that, in the conduct of the present
war, it wouldle guided-by those principles of moderation,
and huipanity which do honour to modern -times, although
the violence and rapine of all kinds committed by the
Austrian army in our territory may give it the right to use •
reprisals.
The King's Government, which contributed fo the decla-
ration of maritime right, made by the Congress of Paris, the
16th of April, 1856, has also manifested its intention of
scrupulously observing its prescriptions.
Desiring now, in the interest of nations and of trade, to
renew those- aasurances in a more explicit manner, it declares
that
Austrian:subjects now in the Royal States may continue
their residence there as long as their conduct gives no grounds
for • offence.
2. The entrance into the Royal States shall be conceded to
those Austrian subjects who shall obtain special and previous
authorisation from-the Kint,r's Government.
• 3. Privateering is interdicted.
4. The neutral flag covers the enemy's merchandise, except
contraband of war. •
5. The merchandise of neutrals shall.not be captured under
the enemy's flag, except contraband of war.
6. Blockades must be effective. •
Finally, the King's Government, having intelligence that
the. Austrian frigate Novara has undertaken a voyage of
. circumnavigation in the interests of science, declares that
she shall be exempted from the law of capture during her
voyage, and that the proper instructions to this effect have
already been given to the royal navy.
As to the capture of the Austrian ships on which an
embargo was laid; his Majesty's c4Mllllllent -has declared