The Sun.
London, England, 1859-05-24 00:00:00

THE FRENCH IN SARDINIA.

The following letter, says the 2 imes, from a
gentleman who has just traversed the Mont Cenis,
seems deserving of attention :
" SusA, MAY 17.—Here I am, on the eastern
side of the Graian Alps, almost on the very track
of the last French invaders. The road of Mont
Cenis, hardened by the night frost, was all cut up
with the tread of men's feet, horses' hoofs, and
chariot wheels. It was a hard and deep road, yet
our lumbering conveyance performed its 12 hours'
task from St. Jean de Maurienne to this place at
its ordinary pace. Notwithstanding every variety
of rumour to the contrary, it may be freely asserted
that the French army had to deal with none of the
greatest horrors of an Alpine journey, and, above all
things, that deep snows never obstructed their
way. They were soaked through and through by
very heavy showers of rain, and had to walk for
miles up to their knees in deep mire and slush ; but
the road was kept clear before them, and they were
detained, not on the mountain, but at the foot of it,
here at Susa, by the inadequate means afforded by
the one line of rails between thi..4 place and Turin.
Here they had to lie, some of them for days, shel-
terless from the pitiless scourge of the flooding rain,
without either accommodation or means of further
progress--a cold and damp reception, owing to the
mismanagement, not to the want of good will, of
their southern allies. I believe an exaggeration of
the difficulties of this passage of the Alps, and of the
delay arising from it, entered into the strategic
plans of the Emperor Napoleon, who thereby
hoped to inspire the Austrians with rash confi-
dence, and wished to lure_them on to Turin. For
the rest, I met nowhere with the traces of very
grievous sufferings on the part of the French. The
hospitals of St. Jean and Modane are said to be full
of their sick, but we know such hospitals cannot
harbour even a few hundreds of men; for the rest,
the separate pickets we came up with, men of all
arms, were late arrivals from the depots and not
stragglers. We saw a few squadrons of Hussars
and other cavalry at the several Maurienne villages,
and a fine regiment of foot, the 73d, is even now
being stowed away in a long railway train on its
way direct to Alessandria. But the great mass of
French forces which is still on the move is journey-
ing rapidly down the great southern line to Mar-
seilles, there to embark for Genoa or other destina-
tion. What struck me much more forcibly than
the march of troops, which, on this side at least,
may be said to be at an end, was the rush of French
volunteers to the scene of action. I had them in
my company, men of all ranks and conditions, in
ever), class of railway waggons in every train,
Parisians many of them. St. Antoine and St.
Honore equally emptied themselves of their inmates.
A few of them were my constant companions all
the way from Macon—men who had the inevitable
• De' to their names on their cards, and were cer-
tainly not without the manners and cultivation of
French gentlemen. They were free and easy in
their talk, full of love of glory and adventure, with
golden visions of epaulettes and smiling Italian
beauties, but, above all things, of inextinguishable
rancour against—not Austria, but England and
the English. One of them, the best of the lot, a
viscount, was joining the Piedmontese army,
and intended to enter the military school at
Ivrea. There was also a band of 100 rather noisy
ragamuffians, without either the size, age, or
strength for military service, half French, half
Italians, under the orders of a Tuscan, who came
to embarrass the Sardinian war ministry, to what
purpose it is not easy to make out. So it goes on
daily. lam told all France is going southward.
After the regular army, we have a second host in
the rough to fill up the ranks as soon as they are
thinned by the casualties of war. Were it not for
the contingency of meeting Germany, no less than
Austria, on the field, Italy might be said to be over-
whelmed by the help she was under necessity to
invoke. But it seems very plain that every one is
preparing for an exterminating war of races, and
there is every probability that the Lombard plain
was never enriched with so many Gallic and
Teutonic corpses as it will be at this terrible junc-
ture. I can speak for the whole French race having
at once become possessed with the evil spirit of
destruction ; and I hear corresponding feelings
spring up everywhere between the Rhine and the
Vistula. Both hereditary foes are at their place in
the old battle-field, and the only new phenomenon
is an Italian army, and a nation, with a King at
their head, resolved to be up and doing, and very
firmly hoping that destiny has better things in
store for them than that of allotting them a helpless
prey to the conqueror.
" Military operations are at a perfect standstill,
as we hear, on the plain, for, on the one hand, the
French are still gathering their forces and waiting
for their heavy materiel, and the Austrians only
endeavour to withdraw in safety from their bung-
ling, blundering, marauding onset. Political
intrigue, however, is more than ever astir. I saw
very ominous faces moving about me at the various
stations. Poor Italy is now the field for all kinds
of enterprise, and it is difficult to know whether
she ought to pray for deliverance from enemies or
from mis•named friends. There is a thick plot afoot
for disorganising the Hungarian army in the
Austrian service. The whole of Piedmont, and
especially Genoa, swarms with Magyar and Polish
adventurers, and they tell portentous things of the
inroad made by their proclamations and private
communications into the allegiance of the troops
under Gyulai. Doubtless, if Austria can reckon on
the sympathies of the German States she must also
expect to see the alien races of her empire arrayed
against her. Any appeal to Teutonic nationality
loosens that bond of discipline by which her empire
holds. The bravest and noblest character among
the Hungarians, Klapka, is now at Genoa, as I
have been informed, and he has frequent interviews
with Prince Napoleon—a man who, like all the
Bonapartes, has more talent for intrigue than for
any other kind of work. The result we shall see
by and by.
"In the meanwhile revolutions, or rather pro-
nunciamientos, as the Spaniards have it, are no
less at a standstill in Italy for the present than
warlike movements. What must have struck all
lookers-on in all these recent Italian matters is the
perfect method and discipline under which the
people of the various parts of the peninsula are pro-
ceeding. No leaf stirs without God's will' (A'on
si move foglia the Iddio non roglia') is the Italian
proverb ; and the Italians, who have now taken the
Emperor Napoleon and Cavour to their gods, keep
within the line of operation traced out for them
with a submission and confidence -which gives them
all the compactness of an army. We may look for
great results from all this. Romagna is no less
ripe for a change than Tuscany, but fate has de-
creed that no revolt is to take place in the Papal
States, and not a leaf stirs.' The Tuscan move-
ment itself has been paralysed, and all but snubbed.
The Tuscans are brought to a standstill, army and
people wondering what is to become, or what is
expected of them. They made a move for Victorste
Emmanuel 11. ; they -wished to become on
with Piedmont, under one dictator, at leastedurin
the main poli-
tical whole extent of the war, leaving
with the
se
question to be settled at its close ; but the
King of Sardinia declines the dictatorship,w charges
re•
his diplomatic agent, Buoncompagni,
duties of -a, Royal commissiouer ; sends a Neapolitan
officer, Ulloa, not a Piedmontese, to take the com-
mand of the Tuscan troops; and recommends that
the Tuscans should keep up their separate admini-
stration. In the meantime Prince Napoleon is

preparing his ! detached' corps for action. What
all this portends time will show.
" Setting aside my private opinion, which would
be of no worth whatever, I must assure you that
nothing more grieves and offends honest and ear-
nest Italian patriots, whom I everywhere meet,
than the slightest hint of a doubt as to the purity
and sincerity of
.Napoleon's intentions. No reference
to past transactions or present appearances avails
with them. Napoleon, they think, is perfectly
honourable, utterly disinterested in his views. He
wishes to drive the Austrians out of all Italy, and
join Lombardy and Venice with Piedmont in one
great northern kingdom. He has no designs on
Central Italy for his cousin, no afterthought as to
Naples in behalf of the heirs of Murat. - He wishes
for no land for himself, no crowns for his dynasty.
The liberation of Italy is too noble a task to be
sullied by sordid, selfish considerations.
" Such perfect faith, you will allow, is beautiful
to witneis, and may work wonders."

" Turin, May 19.
" At a moment in which almost total suspension
of hostilities causes the greatest fever of expecta-
tion among the Italian population, I deem it expe-
dient to give some idea of the disposition of men's
minds in this country with respect to the probable
results of the present crisis.
" Although the mere ileterval of 10 or 12 days
seems to have given a somewhat new turn to the
general current of fears and hopes, still I should say
that the sanguine expectation of the Italians has
suffered as yet hardly any material abatement.
Faith, to a great extent, depends on a man's own
will, and if you express any doubt as to the Em-
peror Napoleon's intention, or indeed power, to be
as good as his word, the answer of the Italian
sounds very much like that of a religious enthusiast.
Credo quiet zniPosebile No doubt arises as to the
issue of the war ; none as to the uses to which the
French may put their certain victory. The aim of
the Emperor is the emancipation of Italy, and its
re•organwation on some scheme of union which may
give the country all the strength and compactness
of unity. Such is the conviction of the great mass
of the Italians. A man of little faith is hardly safe
among such stanch believers.
" NeYertheles, I have frequent occasion to sound