The Sun.
London, England, 1859-06-14 00:00:00

SUMMARY OF THE AUSTRIAN
DESPATCHES.

(From the Times.)
After the lapse of nearly six months the public
is about to learn the details of Lord Malmesbury's
foreign policy. A blue book has been published
of great interest, inasmuch as it discloses the trans-
actions on which the Government seeks to found
its justification. For the present, however, we
must confine ourselves to the despatches which
were written at the very beginning of the dispute.
To learn how the events of the first days of January
appeared to the Government and to politicians in
general is not without importance, since from the
impressions then produced the whole policy of her
Majesty's Ministers is plainly derivable. In the
first place, the correspondence to which we now
have access dissipates one illusion. It is now per-
fectly clear that the war which France is waging
against Austria is no sudden and unforeseen
struggle precipitated by imprudence or wounded
pride on either side. That Louis Napoleon looks
to the promotion of Italian prosperity and the
removal of Italian discontent as means for the
accomplishment of his object may be true enough ;
he has seen the faults of Austria, and may profit
by them ; but it cannot be doubted by any one who
reads these papers that the extension of French
influence by the expulsion of the Austrians from
Italy is a settled policy of the Second Empire, and
was resolved upon prior to and independent of any
recent demonstrations in Italy.
Yet at the close of last year it had become
evident that a disturbance was at hand. The King
of Sardinia in his addresses to his troops hinted
broadly at a coming quarrel with Austria. The
Austrian Minister at Paris had been ostentatiously.
omitted from the invitations to Compiegne, and it
was understood throughout Europe that the rela-
tions between the two great Catholic Powers were
most unsatisfactory. At the same time the state of
Lombardy became every day more uneasy. A re-
cent French pamphleteer has compared the Sar-
dinians who talked of interfering to redress the
grievances of the Austrian provincials to glaziers
who broke the windows of the Parisians by night
and then called next day to mend tnem. How far
the parallel holds we cannot tell. But whether
discontent was stirred up by the agents of Victor
I „Emmanuel, or was the natural effect of the spec-
tacle of superior freedom across the frontier, certain
it is that at the close of last year the state of Lom-
bardy was such as to demand the serious attention
even of the English Government. It appears that
before the Ist of January the Government of Lord
Derby had felt it necessary to remonstrate with
Sardinia on the warlike spirit which King and
Ministers were fostering, and which could have
but one end—a rupture with Austria. Sir
James Hudson, after his return to Turin, did
not fail to express these opinions of the
Britisn Cabinet in interviews with Count Cavour ;
and, as he was probably desired to report
on the general state of Italy, he wrote a
despatch dated the 3d of January, which enters
into the question both of Lombard discontent and
Piedmontese provocation. The temper of the
people east of the Ticino seems bythis time to have
been roused to the last extreme by hatred of their
masters and a hope of speedy deliverance. It may
be alleged that Sir James took his notions of the
state of feeling in Lombardy from the conversa-
tion of his Turin friends, but the account he gives
is most discouraging. " I regret to have to report
to your lordship that during the last three weeks
the posture of affairs in Lombardy has not im-
proved." The Minister then goes on to speak
of the insults offered to Austrian officers, and he
states a fact which hardly tallies with the accounts
received from other quarters—that the lower orders
were more bitter against the Austrians than the
gentry or the middle class. It had always been
thought that the educated and wealthy were the
chief malcontents towards Austrian domination,
and that the men who would not attend the Arch-
duke Max's receptions, and the ladies who quitted
their opera-boxes on his entrance into the house,
were the leaders in the anti-Imperial crusade.
"But," says Sir James Hudson, "if a revolution
does take place at Milan, it will begin at the
bottom, and not at the top of the body politic."
The nobility, according to him, were almost
neutral, placed as they were between the Aus-
trian authorities and the mob, and enter-
taining an equal fear of each. The Legations
are described as ripe for revolt; Parma and Modena
were quiet, but only because Lombardy did not
move, and the Papal States generally were in a
condition which might well alarm his Holiness and
the Sacred College.
The British Minister does not consider the
machinations of Sardinia to be principally respon-
sible for these things ; they are, in his opinion, the
natural result of the repression exercised in the
Austrian provinces and in the other Italian States
under the protectorate of Vienna. " The mere
existence of a system of government as free as that
of Sardinia is excitement enough to people in the
condition of the Lombards, Venetians, and the
Pope's subjects." But, as it appeared to her Ma-
jesty's Ministers—and, indeed, to the world gene-
rally—that Victor Emmanuel was disposed to make
the discontent of his neighbours a pretext for ex-
tending his own possessions, Sir J. Hudson, under
the directions of Lord Malmesbury, remonstrated
strongly with the Sardinian Government. "To
this both Count Cavour and the King replied that
no cause of offence had been or would be given by
Sardinia to her neighbours. His Majesty added
that the political horizon was threatening, but, as
far as he was concerned, the House of Savoy would
pursue its old course of loyalty to its engage-
ments ; and, while he regretted certain matters
in a neighbouring State, he haul no hesitation
in saying that neither intrigue nor revolution
would ever be countenanced by his country."
Count Cavour said that if people expected that
Sardinia was going to declare war they were
likely to be disappointed. So much for Royal and
Ministerial assurances. While the King was
declaring that he would countenance neither intrigue
nor revolution, the marriage of his daughter had
been arranged, and the enrolment of refugees from
every State of the Peninsula was about to begin.
The events which were in the meantime occurring
in France were even more important. There the
first days of January were passed in great alarm.
It was computed that during the month the public
securities throughout Europe were diminished to
the amount of £60,000,000 sterling. The speech of
the Emperor on New Year's-day had produced so
bad an effect that the Moniteur was ordered to
publish a paragraph calculated to remove the public
uneasiness. This was done, but in so awkward a
manner and in such ambiguous language as only
made matters worse. The British Government
were among those who shared in the general alarm.
Under these circumstances, Lord Malmesbury
addressed to Lord Cowley a despatch dated January
10. In this the Foreign Secretary boldly states his
conviction that it is the French Emperor's desire
to press Austria into a war for the sake of his
own reputation and aggrandisement. For such
an anticipation there were, unfortunately, good
reasons. Lord Clarendon had set Lord Malmesbury
on his guard by detailing to him particulars of the
conversations with which Napoleon 111. had favoured
him at Compiegne. " I am aware," writes the
Foreign Secretary, "from a conversatiohwhich Lord
Clarendon held lately at Compiegne with the Em-
peror, and which his lordship repeated to me, that
his Imperial Majesty has long looked at the internal
state of Italy with interest and anxiety. It may be
that in a war with Austria, and having Sardinia
for an ally, he may play the important part of the
regenerator of Italy. If so, the Treaties of 1816
must be effaced, for such a redistribution of terri-
tory could not be effected without the consent o. f
the parties to those Treaties." The despatch a
throughout a strong protest against the
scheme ; but what we wish chiefly to point ou
of
the evidence of long deliberation on the
partand which
Napoleon, which is here made manifest, an
extraordinary rapidity
may help to explain the lmperialtis
with which the French army wtransported to
the scene of action whenfalse step on the part
arms
t France
rt ah no cs
those
oaft-k lastus tar ia
good— t hgerionavoa invasion i of
on r o
joiningat Piedmont—gavehe
the course of victories
which has already carried the Emperor and his
tfoh r
ofall ySatrodlmniiala, andn. entering n

THIS DAY'S MARKETS.

HAY MARKETS,

SMITTIFIELD..—MeAdOW hay, £2 10s to L 4 108 ; clover,
do., £4 6s to £5 8s; and straw, £1 4s to £1 8a per load.
Both hay and straw moved off slowly, at barely late rates.
CIIMBERLAND.—Meadow hay, £2 15s to £4 12s ; clover
dTor.ad,
£4dun 5s
.to £5 108; and straw, Ll 5s to £l9s per load.
WnnEcuArEL.—Meadow hay, £2 158 to £4 12s ; clover
do., £4 5s to £5 lOs ; and straw, 41 4s to £l7s per teat.
A slow inquiry.
e

COLONIAL.
TEA.—The public sales of this article were concluded
yesterday, without any material alteration in prices.
SUGAR.—The 'public market is now closed for the Whit-
sun holidays, and privately few sales b ave been effected;
prices, however, continue firm.
CoFFEE.—Some arrivals of plantation Ceylon have been
announced, but there is very little busis less, at about pre-
vious rates.

RICE.---The market is very quiet, previous rates being
barely supported.
SALTPETRE.--There has been a very moderate inquirY•
A rather large quantity is announced for public competition
to-day, and prices are generally expo, ~ted to rale a shade
higher.
TALLOW.—The market has shown more steadiness, but
as several cargoes of St. Petersburg al ad South American
are daily expected, prices are easier. 1 P.Y.C. on the spot
is quoted 555, and lastfithree months, 5( is pqc cwt.