The Sun.
London, England, 1848-08-02 00:00:00

ITALY.

A flying slip of the Milan Gazette, received this
day, publishes the folloNying:—
" EXTRAORDINARY BULLETIN.

" JULY 27, HALF-PAST THREE, P.M.
" Authentic advices received from parties arrived
from the camp attest the fact that the Italian army
preserves its numerical superiority, and is -assembled
in complete battle array around Goito. Thither has
also repaired the division of General Sonnaz, which left
Peschiera well armed and well supplied with provisions,
&c., so as to be in a position still to sustain a ►ong siege.
" The accounts already given that 2,000 prisoners were
taken in the recent battle, and that the loss of the enemy
in killed and wounded was far greater than on our side,
are confirmed.

" The Provisional Government has destined General
Zuechi to take the command of the available troops con-
centrated in Brescia. General Fanti has already set out
in the direction of that city to take the command of a
corps of upwards of 5,000 men there assembled. Colonel
GritEui will leave to-morrow with the troops now sta-
tioned in Milan, and the mobilized' National Guard.
These prompt subsidies will reinforce the courage of the
inhabitants resident in the vicinity of the theatre of war,
who manifest the best spirit in favour of the national
cause.

" The Government has appointed a Committee of Pub-
lic Defence, which will constitute the central source of
all provisions required by the imperious exigencies of the
circumstances for the defence of the country. The latest
accounts received from the camp advise us that our troops
have attacked the foe at Volta, but the result of this
movement is, as yet, unknown. An almost intact army
of 60,000 combatants, however, ought to inspire a con-
siderable degroe of confidence.
" By order of the Provisional Government,
(Signed) " G. CARCANO, Sec."
The same sheet contains another extraordinary
bulletin, dated a few hours earlier. We annex it at
length :
EXTRAORDINARY BULLETIN.
" MILAN, JULY 27, Two o'CLock,
" We have received official advises of the battle which
has been fought during the last few days.
" The enemy, strengthened by reinforcements, at-
tempted an assault on the whole line, availing them-
selves of the support of the three fortresses of Mantua,
Legnano, and Verona. On Sunday, July 23, the advanced
corps of the army, overcome by a numerical superiority
at Eivoli and Somma Campagna, were compelled to
abandon those strong positions, after an honourable
resistance.
"On Monday, 24th instant, King Charles Albert,
having proceeded from Marmirolo to Villa Franca, our
troops regained the positions of Somma,e loss of the Campagna.
The battle was long and sanguinary. The
enemy was greater than our own, and the day closed with

the prospect of a complete victory for the following day.
But on Tuesdny, whilst our artillery was fulminat-
ing from the heights of Somma Campagna, afresh corps
of the enemy, headed by Radetzky, having sallied from
Verona, where it had been concentrated, after leaving
Legnano and Vicenza, arrived at the scene of
action and attacked the Italian army. The King,
perceiving the danger of maintaining positions
so exposed and extensive, gave orders to the
Piedmontese army to fall back on Villa Franca.
During the night it continued its retreat, conducting
2,500 prisoners, without being molested by the enemy, as
far as Goito, where it intended to rest from the extraor-
dinary fatigues of the three preceding days, and unite
with the corps of reserve on the line of the Mincio.
Peschiera is bravely defended by the left wing of the
army, commanded by General Sonnaz.

- "By order of the Provisional Government,
(Signed) "G. CARCANO, Secretary."
The Milan Gazette of the 26th ult. quotes the fol-
lowing letter from Venice of the 21st :—" A person
has just arrived from Padua, to demand prompt
assistance from the commander of the city,
the inhabitants of Padua having revolted, dis-
armed the Croatians, and shut the gates of the
town. This popular movement was occasioned
by the execution of three persons by order of the
Austrian General D'ASPRE. At Treviso the popula-
tion has torn down all the proclamations, declaring
the place in a state of siege. The small Austrian
garrison was in imminent danger."
The Avennire d'ltalia, of the 27th ult., announces
that General PEPS had left Venice and occupied
Padua.
COMMERCIAL DISTRESS•

Among other circumstances which invest the Lords'
"Report on Commercial Distress" with unusual in-
terest and importance, must be reckoned the fact that it
is clearly the work of a half-awakened bullionist. had

it been drawn by such men as Lord Stanhope or Mr.
Spooner, the public would only have said, " Oh! we
knew what Lord Stanhope would be sure to say; but
how came he to be allowed to draw the report?" It is
quite otherwise when we receive such a document from
the pen of a Whig, a Whig financier, nay,te. Chancellor
of the Exchequer of the Grey and Melbourne times!
It amounts, then, to a confession, to an admission of
former errors, made by a man who, relieved from the
entanglements of office, and left at liberty to follow the
truth wherever it may lead him, frankly acknowledges
I that, in several important particulars, 2the legisla-
tion of the last ten or twenty years has
been egregiously mistaken. The three points
more particularly pointed out, in this report,
as requiring immediate amendment, are, as iwe
have already stated;-1. The mischievous opera-
tion of the limit fixed, by the Act of 1844, to the
Bank issues. 2. The objectionable principle of thus
taking away the responsibility of the Bank, and then
leaving it, with all its enormous power, and public cha-
racter, to speculate unreservedly for profit, by any means
and all means, like any private adventurer. And 3. The
enormous and wholly inexcusable folly of still further
fettering the Bank by refusing it the liberty to increase
its silver bullion beyond a certain amount; that bullion
being just the cheapest, easiest, and safest commodity
with which it could commonly deal. On these three
points the Lord's Report leaves the Act of 1844,
to use a common phrase, " not a leg to stand upon."
Will the men of indomitable conceit, the Peels,
Jones Loyds, Charles Woods, &e., own their error,
and consent to amend their ways? We much
doubt it. We fear that their vanity and amour
propre is too strong to permit them the exercise of can-
dour and frank surrender. They will probably stand
upon possession. They will say, "We have made the
Act of 1844, and we will not undo our own work. It is
for you to repeal that Act, if you can. You have beaten
us in the Lords, we have beaten you in the Commons;
it is a drawn game; but we aro in possession; and you
cannot get us out." If this is their language, then the
country will probably have to undergo one more " great
tribulation," before it is sufficiently excited to break the
yoke of the bullionists up for ever. For our own part,
greeting this report of the Lords with the greatest plea-
sure, as a clear, frank, able exposition of some of the
chief blunders of Sir Robert Peel's last measure, we re-
main of the opinion which we have often before expressed
that a sound and effectual reform of our monetary
system would go much further than these first and
most needed reforms. True, common sense demands,
as an honest bullionist has, in this report, admitted, that
the Bank should not be prevented from buying silver to
any extent it chose, or from issuing notes for that silver ;
inasmuch as the simplest and easiest of all transactions
would be, whenever a necessity appeared, to sell the
silver—the general currency of the continent—and so to
reduce its outstanding notes. Similarly, does experience
show, that the iron law, of just 14,000,0001. issue,:in good
times and in bad times, in days when money is abundant,
and in days when it is scarce, is a preposterous enact-
ment, and cannot be maintained in such days as those of
October last. If these things are not at once rectified,
it will clearly be because Sir Robert Peel loves Sir Robt.
Peel's infallibility better than he loves the prosperity of
England. But these amendments would only render the
present' system tolerable—they would not make it a
wise or good system. The grand questions would still
remain to be asked :—ls it right or fitting that any one,
or any body of men, save the Sovereign and her re-
sponsible servants, should be permitted to coin money in
this realm of England? Is it decorous or safe, that the
whole power of making the paper money of the realm
should be given to a company of merchants and trades-
men of London, whose first object avowedly is, not the
good of the community, but their own trading profits?
Is it consistent with common sense, that the
mercantile interests of the country being wholly
dependent upon a proper supply of money the
care of that supply should be entrusted, not to a respon-
sible Minister of Commerce, but to this private, trading
company of merchants and traders ? We feel assured
that to these questions there can be but one answer
given. Future ages will hardly credit the fact, that in
these days of boasted enlightenment, the English Go-
vernment and Legislature should have left its monetary
system wholly in the hands of a trading company ;
which company, having regard to its own profits when
money was cheap, made it cheaper ; and when it was
dear, made it dearer ; and thus contrived to augment its
gains at a moment when every other trading community
in England was suffering loss, in many cases, even to the
extent of ruin !—Herald.