The Sun.
London, England, 1866-07-19 00:00:00

SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS

TIMES.--The order of the day published on Satur-
day last by the Archduke Albert, on his taking leave
of the army of the South, explains to us the present
military position of Austria in Venetia. " Sufficient
forces," we are told, " are left behind to guard the
fortresses of the country, and protect, in concert
with the faithful and brave population, the strong-
holds of the Tyrol, of Inner Austria, and the coast."
From this moment it is evident that what is called
" la grande guerre" is at an end in Italy, and that
room is only left for sieges and for the desultory
operations :of petty warfare. Indeed, it may be
questioned whether there ever was or could be any-
thing like actual war in that country. Had the
Austrians listened to the real exigencies of their
position, and not insisted on satisfying a false point
of honour, the bloodshed of Custozza might
have been spared, and they could have mus-
tered half-a-dozen more of their best divi-
sions on the disastrous field of Sadowa. The
encounter at Custozza does not deserve the name
of a battle. That the Italians could lose it
is very clear, and we require no better evidence
than the fact itself, but no one can say how they
could by any chance have won it, for their enemy
fought almost within reach of the guns of his for-
tresses, and had he been at all overpowered he had
at hand in his rear the means of a safe retreat which
need never degenerate into rout and disorder. That
attempt of the Italians upon the lines between
Peschiera and Verona was a stroke of sheer madness
at the best. Had it even attained the fullest suc-
cess, had it put them in possession of the assailed
positions, it would not have advanced them in the
least. Charles Albert, in 1848, gained all those
heights at the outset of his campaign. He had his
head-quarters at Somma Campagna for weeks and
months ; he occupied Pastrengo, Rivoli, and at last
Peschiera itself ; but he was no less doomed to a
long inaction before Verona, which wore out the
Piedmontese army, and gave Radetzky leisure to
mature those plans which led to its final overthrow
on that very same battlefield of Custozza. Knowing
how fatal it is to the morale of an army to be led
into a blind alley where advance is impossible, we
had given credit to La Marmora for a more plausible
scheme of campaign ; we expected the Italian in-
vasion of Venetia to be made from the south across
the Po, precisely on the line of attack now pursued
by Cialdini.
,The Italian Government, owing
chiefly, as we are told, to La Marmora's influence,
have deemed it expedient to follow, with respect
to the press, a policy different altogether from that
adopted by Austria and Prussia, so that the
operations of the belligerents on the Po and the
Mincio have been from the outset, and are still,
involved in impenetrable mystery ; and we are
unable to present our readers with such accounts
of the campaign on the south of the Alps as our
correspondents serving with both of the Northern
belligerents have laid before them. All we know
is that Cialdini, at the head of 15 Divisions, fol-
lowed by La Marmora with six more Divisions, has
advanced unresisted across the Po, byway of Rovigo
and Monselice' has gained possession of Padua and.
Vicenza, and driven the Austrians before him up
to the outworks of the fortress of Verona on his
left, and of Mestre on his right. However admir-
able his order of march may have been, and however
satisfactory his progress thus far, it is obvious that
the Italians are no nearer the attainment of their
great object, which was to come up with a visible
and tangible enemy. They must have known from
the opening of the campaign that against the stone
walls of Verona or the water-girt bastions of
Mantua and Venice mere numbers could make no
impression. Venetia is no more to be won by hard
fighting now that it has only garrisons to rely on
than it was when it had an army in the open field.
When it was thought that Cialdini was bent on un-
dertaking the siege of Mestre and Malghera, so as
to enable him to strike a blow for Venice, it was
expected that he could always rely on the co-opera-
tion of the fleet under Persano; but, strange to say,
we have no news of Persano and his fleet. That
fleet, with so many thousand men and so many
thousand guns, with so goodly an array of ironclads,
rams, and monitors, under the orders of as dashing
a commander as ever trod a quarter-deck, with such
high-spirited officers as Albini, Galli della Mantica,
Vacca, and others—that fleet, after weeks of in-
glorious leisure at Ancona, has now been cruising
between Venice and Trieste for eleven days, as
helpless, to all appearance, on the waters as it was
when at anchor: The disgust and discouragement
of the Italians at this inexplicable conduct of their
admiral exceed all bounds. We have no doubt
Persano will have the means eventually of giving
the most satisfactory explanations ; but, in the
meanwhile, the fleet is not before Venice, and while
nothing is done by sea Cialdini is not likely to
venture on any unsustained attack on the land side.
As to Venetia itself, indeed, the question seems
to have been satisfactorily settled by Prussia's
victories and Austria's necessity ; but it is
otherwise with the Italian Tyrol, which the
Italians will never obtain by treaty, we will not say
from the Austrians, but not even from the Prussians,
unless they establish upon it the right of possession
before an armistice put an end to further progress.
The claims of the Italians on Trento and Roveredo
rest on the same ground as those on Mantua, Ve-
rona, or Venice ; their eagerness to extend their
sway over the valley of the Adige is easily explained
on the score of their nationality and of their anxiety
as to the future boundaries of their States. Southern
Tyrol, unlike the Quadrilateral or the Lagunes, is
to be won by fighting; but it can only be won by
hard fighting, and the efforts of the Volunteers to
force their way across the Tonale or the Stelvio, or
up the valley of the Chiese, above Rocco d'Anfo,
have not only attained no permanent success, but
have led to frequent disasters. As late as Tuesday
last the Garibaldians suffered a double repulse at
Condino, and left several dead and wounded, with
several hundred prisoners, in the enemy's hands.
The struggle, indeed, is hardly equal, even in that
mountain warfare ; for Austria, apprehensive of an
attack, has prepared all the necessary means for a
strenuous defence. These mountain fastnesses, al-
ready so strong by nature, are bristling with lofty
fortresses. The mountaineers of the German Tyrol,
of Styria and Carinthia, have been plied with all the
arguments that never fail to tell on their loyalty and
bigotry. The whole Alpine region is up in arms,
and with the exception of his few Genoese and Lom-
bard carabineers, his veterans of Rome or Varese,
and the mountaineers of Valtellina, Garibaldi has
none to oppose to these sturdy Jagers and their un-
erring rifles but the puny youth from the Italian
towns, accustomed to the enervating habits of their
cafe life, and for the most part utterly unacquainted
with the use of their weapons, That war on the
Alps is the most sublime game in which men of
spirit would wish to engage—a war waged in
the midst of magnificent scenery, under the influ-
ence of keen, exhilarating air, giving rise to all the
stirring incidents of deer stalking and chamois hunt-
ing, with the additional excitement that your game
is man, that you are chased no less than chasing, and
that you must rely for very life on the keenness of
your eyesight and the steadiness of your hand. But
precisely because it is work for heroes it is most to be
deplored that Garibaldi should have any other fol-
lowers than men of his own physical and moral tem-
per. The campaign of the Tyrol, which has become
too difficult for mere Volunteers, should be followed
up by the regular army, and it is our conviction that
50,000 chosen troops would not be too many for au
attack on Tyrol, both on the western passes of the
Stelvio, the Tonale, and the Caffaro, and on the
eastern side at Val Sugana.l Of such an enterprise,
however, we have as yet no account.
HERALD.—The last hope of an armistice has come
to an end. The intervention of the Emperor of the
French seems to have been mainly confined to a re-
commendation to Austria that she should accept the
demands of Prussia as preliminaries of peace. While
wishing to do all justice to the " lofty motives" for
which the Constitutionnel and the Moniteur claim
credit as having uniformly actuated the diplomatic
movements of their Government, we cannot ascribe
to them the merit of having effected much in the in-
terests of peace. Prussia and Austria might as well
have been left to deal with each other independently
if all that the neutral Powers can do is to recommend
abject submission to the Power which has hitherto
certainly been worsted in the strife, but which has
not yet lost all hope of turning the tables against its
adversary. It is pretty clear now that the Emperor
of the French will do nothing to prevent the utter
humiliation and ruin of the Austrian empire. We
are now informed that the French Minister at Ber-
lin, M. Benedetti, has been sent to Vienna with a
pass through the Austrian lines, to urge upon the
Government of the Emperor Francis Joseph, the
expediency of admitting " in principle" the demand
of Prussia that Austria should be excluded from the
German Confederation, in the hope that such com-
pliance would clear the way to the conclusion of an
armistice. The Austrian Government has declined
to commit this act of suicide, and the battle for
German supremacy has still to be fought in front of
Vienna. France has tacitly recognised the obliga-
tion which binds Italy to follow out the provisions
of the treaty which she concluded with Prussia be-
fore the war began, has allowed the cession of Ve-
netia by Austria to remain a dead letter, and for-
borne to protest against the advance of ialdiui on
the rear of the Quadrilateral through Padua and
Vicenza. France, too, if we may believe the official
Provincial Correspondent of Berlin, has admitted
the moderation and justice of the claims preferred
by Prussia. The German belligerents are left to
tight it out together. As far as the Italian war is
concerned, it is obvious that if Italy is to be allowed
to regard Venetia as still Austrian territory, it is
open to Austria to look upon it in the same light

for all pnrposes ofjwar. The great fortresses will
still hold General Cialdini in check. The Austrians
who were in front of Verona have retired within
that citadel. The Garibaldian Volunteers have been
repulsed on the Stelvio Pass, and near the head
waters of the Chiese, and the advance into the Ita-
lian Tyrol makes no progress. The eyes of Europe
are fixed on another battle-field, from which the
Italians are still far removed, and where there in-
dignant remonstrances and fiery patriotism are little
heeded. The Austrians have removed a whole arms
from Venetia, and left enough men there to hold all
Italy at bay for the moment. The moment is all-
important ; it is so momentous that the issue of
everything may depend upon this march northwards
of 150,000 men with a man at their head in whose
veins flows the blood of the great archduke who
vanquished the French at Aspern. The Archduke
Albert, the son of the Archduke Charles, is the
new commander of the Austrian army of the north,
in which the ill-fated Benedek remains a general of
division. It is curious that the conqueror of Cus-
tozza will to all appearance have to meet the
Prussians on that very plain by the Danube
where his father won his laurels. There never was
a Power in difficulties so bankrupt of allies as the
Austrian Government is at this present crisis. After
the defeat of the Bavarians and Hessians at Aschaf-
fenburg the Federal army is reported to have been
utterly demoralised. Bavaria is said to be making
terms with Prussia. The Prussians have entered
Frankfort, and the shadow of a German Parliament
which sat there has removed to Augsburg. The
Prussians are in Darmstadt, and the inheritance of
the Princess Alice lies at their mercy. The Prussian
forces in the west of Germany will, however, scarcely
be able to converge in time on the field of strife in
the Archduchy of Austria. Here the first Prussian
army has advanced to Lundenberg, the railway
junction of the line from Braun and Olmutz to
Vienna. The second army has fought a battle with
the Austrians near Olmutz, in which it claims the
advantage. It has not, however, invested that
fortress, but has taken its way south to join the first
army at Lundenberg. The Austrian garrison remains
at Olmutz, and by the occupation of the railroad it
is cut off from direct access to Vienna. The third
Prussian army, called the army of the Elbe, has
made its way south through Iglau and Znaym as
far as Jetzelsdorf. There seems to be no opposition
as yet to the junction of the three armies, one of
which has advanced to the south bank of the River
Taya, within 40 miles of the Austrian capital. The
plain, about 40 miles wide, which stretches from
Znaym and Lundenberg on the north to Vienna in
the south, is intersected by numerous branches of
the Taya and March rivers, and other tributaries of
the Danube, and it is well suited by nature for de-
fensive purposes, and for the strategical dispositions
of the commanders who have such confidence in their
strength that they are willing to risk all on the event
of a battle. For either side a defeat in such a count**
would be disastrous—a victory conclusive. It is not
only the fate of the Austrian Empire, it is the des-
tiny of Prussia, which is staked on this final combat.
'We will presume that the Austrian Archduke in
command and his able advisers have had reasons of
their own for making no attempt to prevent the
junction of the Prussian armies and the advance
upon Lundenberg. The Emperor of Austria has
no intention as yet of falling back upon HunerY•
But whether the battle is on the banks of the Taya
or in front of Florisdorf, on the Danube, or on the
historic field of Aspern or Wagram, its issue will
decide for the moment the fate of Vienna, and do,
something towards settling the vexed question 01
supremacy in Germany and the exclusion of Austria.
from a country in which Prussia claims the chid
place.