Northern Times.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1859-06-07 00:00:00

THE ALLIED CAMP.

NOVARA, June 2. —Yesterday morning the Austrians
uitted Novara ; in the forenoon the allies entered it, and
to-day I write to you thence, without having the least idea
whether and when you will get the letter. The Austrians
never had a strong force at Novara and the country to the
north and west of it—detachments of a few battalions going
and coming from town to town, and cavalry patrols to scour
the country, the 'Chief object of both being apparently to
make requisitions. The last body of Austrian troops at
Novara was, according to the account of some, 2,000, and
according to others only a few hundred. Coming to the
spot at the moment when the recollection of the Austrian
occupation is still fresh in the memory of the people, and
before there is any time for exerting lively imaginations,
there is a very good opportunity for testing the truth of the
widely different accounts which you have read in the news-
papers, Before I even say a word you will guess that, as
usual, the truth lies between the two extremes ; neither are
the Austrians quite so black as some like to paint them, nor
are they quite such angels as they wish to make themselves
out. An occupation is an occupation after all, take it as you
like. Even that of a friendly army brings considerable
inconvenience, and not seldom burdens and sacrifices, with
it ; how much more that of a hostile army But it is only
fair to say that for an army which in its proclamations
styled itself the friend of the Piedmontese people, whom it
came to deliver from the thraldom of Count Cavour, they eat
and threatened rather too much, and they were likewise, in
particular instances, rather too apt to carry their threats into
effect. With every new detachment came new demands, not
at all in proportion to the number of the detachment. In
oxen alone, for instance, the district of Novara (about 500
English square miles) had 2,500 to give in one short
month. It is almost as bad as Albanians and Greeks
with sheep ; if they had remained a few months longer,
and fed at that rate, the Novarese would have had to put
themselves before instead of behind the plough. Yet,
strange to say, in spite of this voracious appetite which the
Austrian army, as a body, displayed, the individual soldier,
at least as far as one can judge from the prisoners brought
in hitherto, look by no means over-fed. I suppose the
reason is their youth, and the shortness of time they have
been living at so unusually high a rate. As with the oxen
it was with everything else —bread, wine, forage, &c.
Every article was demanded as if each detachment had been
charged with the general Commissariat Department of the
army. As the detachments frequently changed the re-
quisitions were likewise rather too often repeated so as to
rouse the people, who, after all, were stupid enough not to
understand the value of friendship which told so strongly
on their pockets. The people to whom I spoke said that
they would certainly not have borne it had they not been
told by their magistrates to do so, and had they not been
assured that their friends would soon have to go, so that it
would have been folly to risk their persons and property ;
and they knew from some cases—for instance, the shooting
of one family at Voghera and another at Trumello, near
Mortara—that the Austrians would have retaliated merci-
lessly had they cut off one or another detachment or patrol,
which they might have done easily otherwise. As far as

one can make

kustrians Ind

[zany did not behav

brutally, on the contrary, it is said that during their
advance they displayed a certain amenity. It was- only
when they took the wrong road to Turin, where some, as
you know, had already had their letters addressed to, that
they became " cross," and were rather ready with their
fists and the flat of their swords; Of cases of vio-
lation, at least, in this part of the country, I have
heard nothing. Nor does the popular voice accuse
them of violating the seventh, or as it is in this Catholic
country, the sixth commandment. I have not heard of a
well-authenticated case of an officer forgetting to pay for
what he took. The soldiers did now and then take a fancy
to one thing or another, but they are always kept together,
encamped, and not quartered on the towns, so that only

very few opportunities occurred for indulging in fancies.
As you may imagine, in passing through Vercelli, I was
rather curious to know something about the famous story
of the silver spoons. The waiter at the hotel where it is
said to hare occurred confirms the account of the great din-
ner given by some General, but since he knew the hotel,
it never possessed other spoons than those dirty yellowish
white ones_ with which he supplies the guests at present.

I can't understand that peoPlerrwill not :eethattheTe;
cause loses by such inventions, for the truth always comes
out in the end; and then it is the cause which suffers by
it. Of burning or devastation, I can see nothing in the
line of country through which I have been. The only
known case of their having burned a place is at Voghera,
when they re-entered it this last time, after the French had
left it. Whatever phrases one may choose to use about the
necessities of war, it is an act of barbarism to punish a
collective body for the offence of an individual, but it has
hitherto remained an isolated case. In these parts you
would scarcely perceive that the country has been under

foreign occupation, all outward traces of it consist in now
and then a bridge broken down, the road cut, or the corn-
fields trodden down at the edge near the road, the remains
of a bivouac with the huts made of branches, or an
earthwork thrown up. For instance, just on the other
side of the stone bridge of Vercelli, they have used
the chaussde and the surrounding high causeways to
make a redoubt, with two embrasures for guns on the main
road ; a little further behind they built this improvised
redoubt, at a farm-house, the court-yard wall of which has
been provided with loop-holes. They threw up likewise
some earthworks in front and in the rear of the large village
of Borgo Vercelli, through which the road to Novara goes,