The Sun.
London, England, 1866-07-06 00:00:00

reverses.

There is certainly no doubt that this war on the
Continent is invested with the peculiarities of
novelty, and that; most sudden and startling changes
occur. In a very brief space we appear to have read
of the beginning and the end of the war, and almost
before we could realise that it had fairly commenced
we find that the end is in view. The end, that is
to say, of actual fighting ; but we now enter upon
another act of the drama, and a mighty actor will
shortly appear upon the stage. The French Em-
PEROR has bided his time, and as usual he has proved
himself a master politician. In all probability he
will be the deus ex machina who will convert
war into peace, and create order out of chaos.
The Austrian EMPEROR, we must admit, has done
the wisest thing he could under the circumstances,
and has adopted the only means of retrieving his
position, which is one of great peril and uncertainty.
Of course it would have been much better if he had
made up his mind to this at an earlier period of the
affair, but " better late than never" is a time-
honoured adage, worthy of all acceptation. FRANCIS
JOSEPH gives up Venetia in a moment of great
anxiety and at a period of great misfortune, but he
will find himself better off without the possession
' of a province which has always been a most
troublesome appanage. We have the satisfaction
besides of learning that an act of justice will be done,
because under no circumstances could it have been
right that a part of Italy should belong to Austria,
notwithstanding the power conferred by treaties.
It will be a source of great gratification to many in
this country that such should be the result of this
war, for the Austrian rule in Venetia has been one
of great oppression, and militated against the mu-

fort and freedom of the people.
Another advantage that will accrue from the
affair is that the Prussians will not be allowed to
take the game into their own hands so completely
as they expected to have done. It is one thing to

lord it over the prostrate Austrians, and another to
act contrary to the wishes of the magnate of Paris.
We do not put implicit faith in the good-will or
generosity of Louis NAPOLEON ; but we do know
that he will not be trifled with, and that he is not
independent of the good opinion of Europe, which
King WILLIAM certainly is. Such acts of duplicity,
and such a course of treachery and falsehoods as
those which accompanied the whole of the proceed-

ings in the Schleswig-Holstein affair, would never
have been tolerated by the French, whereas they
were appreciated and applauded by the Prussians.
Neither would the EMPEROR have thought of such
a thing. All that he has done has been
bold and decisive, and since his accession to
power he has not stooped to such contrivances
as those which find favour in Berlin. At any rate
we are glad that the EMPEROR has an opportunity
of coming forward, because we know that nothing
has been done by our Government to check the
cruel and mischievous course of the Prussians. It
will never do for the authorities of Berlin to be in
the ascendant in the councils of Europe, and we
think that Louis NAPOLEON is quite aware of this.
If the Prussian Monarch were to take-the Duchies
of Schleswig and Holstein, and to appropriate the
whole of the north of Germany, in process of time
he would monopolise an extraordinary degree of
power. It is in the interest of France to check this,
and we shall be much mistaken if Count BISMARCK
comes out of this affair quite so rich in territory as
he had expected it to be.
It would have been better for the Prussians to
have made some compromise with Austria, and to
have contented themselves with exercising a sort of
superyisioaiu tho Duelice, zather than: to daie all,