The Sun.
London, England, 1859-05-30 00:00:00

GARIBALDI IN ITALY.

The Emperor of Austria has at length followed
the example set him by his Imperial and Royal
enemies, and has taken the field in person. He
goes to Italy as the Persian invader went to Greece,
with an exiled Sovereign in his train. The Grand
Duke of Tuscany is the Hippias of this modern
crusade of despotism, and the Sardinians, who have
already speculated upon the possible presence of
the Emperor when some decisive operation was
supposed to be threatened, may now with more
certainty count the chances of some immediate
effort. General Hess attends his Sovereign to
direct with more immediate action the plan of
operations; and Count Grunne, who is now the
responsible adviser of Austrian policy, is another of
the able heads added to the Council of the Camp.
For policy and for action, for strategy, and for
diplomacy, the power of Austria in Italy is now
complete, and we must look no longer to Vienna
for symptoms of the course of the war or the dawn-
ins of peace.

It is not the first time that the EMperor Franics
Joseph has visited Lombardy ; and he has not now
to learn what is the disposition of his subjects in
his Italian Provinces. It is within our recent memory
that the Imperial Family have lavished all the
blandishments which an Austrian Court can pro•
duce upon the un willing nobilityand people of Milan.
Francis Joseph himself, and his cousin, and his cou-
sin's wife, then sought to conciliate the Milanese
by state progresses and by strong professions of
affection and confidence, but they were met only
by a moody silence. The people maintained an
attitude of constrained respect, and the nobility
stood aloof. The Austrian Emperor then went
to conciliate; he now goes to coerce. He then saw
the elements of a slumbering disaffection all around
him ; he will now find the fires blazing, and
150,000 foreign soldiers ready to spread the con-
flagration. If we may trust the last accounts be
will meet his army retiring upon a position where,
with the Ticino in their front, he may either fall
back upon the line of the great Austrian fortresses
or may fight a battle for the protection of Pavia
and Piacenza. He will find an unseen and unnum-
bered enemy concealed behind the Montferrat hills,
and waiting only until their equipments shall be
sufficiently complete to enable them to advance.
On his right flank, threatening his rear, disturbing
his communications, and perhaps able to destroy
those railway lines which are essential to the sup-
port of an army encamped in a wasted country, is
the energetic Garibaldi. With small resources,
without cannon or commissariat, with a mere
guerilla party, this desperate, but not unskilful
leader, is ever doing some dashing deed
among the Alpine slopes upon the Austrian
right. Wherever he has yet come he has raised
the country in his favour. He has in two
days gained three victories, or at any rate
three advantages over the troops opposed to him ;
he has been joyfully received at Como, and while
capturing the city has cleared the lake of its
Austrian war craft by means of the insurgent allies
whom his presence had called into existence. With
unresting energy he passed through Como, and,
pursuing his enemy on the road to Milan, was,
when the last accounts left, within 20 miles of that
splendid city, where every inhabitant is a stanch
hater of the German, and where there are no forti-
fications behind which a small body of soldiery can
hold their own. The presence of General Niel
seems to argue that the French Emperor has formed
some serious expectations from Garibaldi's opera-
tions, and that his movements are looked upon as an
important part of the plan of the campaign—that
there is some real hope of raising the population of
.o'Urbanthe
-,
Lombardy, and organising an insurrection
rear of the Austrian position. General
light-footed
".‘s lost some of the
we are told, is in pursuit of th
enemy ; but, unless Garibaldi h
skill and activity he disple:fed in 1849, when he
evaded and outmarche'l two Austrian armies who
were in pursuit of him, he is not likely to be found
even by the flying corps of General D'Urban, unless
he should conceive himself able to give a good ac-
count of this special antagonist who has been sent
out against him. Whether the insurrection will
spread, and the revolution in Parma will hold, or
whether the French are justified in exciting the
Italian populace.while the great Austrian army is
still between them and the French and Sardinian
forces, must be determined by circumstances of
which we have at present no information ; but
these operations upon the right flank and rear are
at least.a new fact which gives a fresh aspect to the
position of the hostile armies. The Emperor of
Austria will not' reasonably be astonished to find
sullen resistance changed into open rebellion, or to
hear that the sympathies of his Italian subjects are
with his enemies; but the aspect of Tuscany will
be a novel disquietude. Prince Napoleon there
hoists a standard of revolt for all the Italian Penin-
sula, and that sea, over which so large an instal-
ment of French soldiers has passed, is still open to
as continual a stream as France can supply. Tus-
cany has revolted, and has offered herself to Sar-
dinia. France has already pushed aside, or rather
has forced Sardinia to resign the offer, and has
herself taken possession. This is an earnest of
what will happen hereafter. If Louis Napoleon is
really prepared with sufficient force to maintain
his evident policy we may expect to see his little
army at Leghorn constantly reinforced until it be-
comes large enough to move from Tuscany to ope-
rate in conjunction with the army now in Piedmont,
and perhaps to turn that line of fortresses which.
Austria has hitherto looked upon as her im-
pregnable retreat; and her secure refuge after
any disaster.
This is the position which the young Emperor
of Austria and his military councillors will have
to consider. We do not say that it is specially
disadvantageous or critical, but it certainly is in-
tricate, and is by no means of that plain end easy
kind that the course to be pursued is obvious, and
the plan may be foretold because indicated by the
position of the parties. Among the few facts,
however, that can' be gleaned among the contra-
dictory statements that come from the seat of
war one stands forth unchallenged ;it is this—that
hitherto the Italians have carried off all the honours
of the actual conflicts. At Montebello it was the
Piedmontese cavalry who met the first shock of the
Austrian assault, and, closing up their thinned
ranks, charged three times upon the Austrian
masses thereb as some of our
later accounts assert,,n.
, y,
saving the French division from utter
Again, it is Garibaldi' i who, with his Italian Irre-
gulars, has obtained the only patent advantage that
destructio
has yet been gained'? While the French have been
preparing for the play, keeping their green curtain
always
down, Garibaldi has actually come out
without waiting for the stage properties. He has
returned invasion for invasion, and dashed into the
enemy's country, holding his position in arms close
to the capital of Lombard and hi the rear of the
Austrian lines. Wfy,
this gallantry of
were fighting Italians fighting in Italy, though
we cannot help wishing h
thany
n of masters.—
for We cans
lre,eslaanndd z.neoatlomuesrlyelaydfmorirae
0
Timetelsaest,men who fight so well