The Sun.
London, England, 1859-08-15 00:00:00

left of the Ministry of Justice were conspicuous
tribunes occupied by the Empress, the Prince Im-
perial, the Princess Mathilde, the Princess Clotilde,
and the immediate Court circle. Circling round
the square were seats calculated to accommodate
20,000 persons, and forming a vast amphitheatre.
The windows of the houses of the Place Vendome
were all hung with crimson velvet, and from the
cornice of the roofs of the buildings festoons of green
and gold laurel wreath, hung with graceful ease,
being caught up at intervals and attached to shields,
from which issued a cluster of flags. At each end
of the entrance of the Place were eight magnificently
gilt columns, each supporting a golden figure of
Victory. It was here the great military fete found
its centre of interest. The Empress, the Prince Im-
perial, and all the members of the Imperial family
were in the elevated tribune, and surrounded on
either aide, and circling all round the square, were
seen a cluster of elegantly-dressed ladies and mili-
tary uniforms, presenting altogether a most glitter-
ing and animated scene. The Emperor on horse-
back placed himself before the Imperial Tribune,
and there witnessed the troops file off before him
amid the most deafening cheering. It was at this
point that the great officers of state, the diplomatic
corps, and, in fact, the aristocratic and fashionable
members of Parisian society, were collected. These
who witnessed this wide amphitheatre, containing
20,000 persons, as the troops, in an endless moving
stream, passed through the seated crowds, will
never forget the picture. It was the event of an
age. _ _

'The soldiers who, after so brief and yet so bril-
liant a campaign, have returned to Paris, fought
under all the advantages of the facilities and
science of Modern warfare. Some 150,000 men
were placed within shot of their enemies, probably
without a dozen having died before reaching the
fields of battle. In the First Napoleon's time, an
army of 80,000 men only would have lost at least
one or two thousand on their march from Paris to
Milan. The railway and the steam-vessel placed
this immense army, with all its incaculable amount
of commissariat and war materiel, in a healthy
and vigorous condition, on the plains of Lombardy,
within a month or six weeks. One of the most
remarkable features of the late campaign, viz.,
the rapidity with which the war was conducted,
is best illustrated by dates. On the 10th of May
the Emperor left Paris for his army in Italy, a
portion of which only "had then crossed the Alps
or reached Genoa by steam ; and yet, on the 20th
of May, the French took part in the first impor-
tant action—the battle of Montebello. On the Ist
of June the French crossed the Ticino, and on the
3d the combat of Turbigo was fought. On the 4th
the great victory of Magenta discovered to the
world that the Austrian army was no match for the
Franco-Sardinian hosts. No less than a month
the French, assisted by the brave army of King
Victor Emmanuel, had obliged some 250,000 Aus-
trian to retreat before an allied army of some
120,000, for it was not until the battle of Solferino
that France had 200,000 men on Italian ground.
On the 6th of June the Emperor Napoleon entered
the city of Milan. The army, confident of victory,
expected within three months to have completed
the Emperor's programme, and freed Italy from
Austrian occupation and oppression up to the
Adriatic. The Emperor of the French and the
soldier King of Sardinia lost no time in pushing
onwards. On the Bth of June the combat of Marig-
nan let the Austrians know that the allies were
again moving towards Venetia; by the 18th the
Emperor was at Brescia ; and on the 24th June the
great victory of Solferino completed the defeat
of the best troops of the largest army in Europe,
and under the eye of Francis Joseph. Wonderful
rapidity of events. The passage of the Mincio was
effected on the 29th. Thus, within two months,
the invading Austrian army had been driven out
of Piedmont, through Lombardy, and up to the
walls of the strong fortified places which were
about to be attacked with a new siege materiel,
which French engineers believed would accom-
plish great and unknown marvels. A suspen-
sion of arms took place on the Bth of July, and
on the 12th the two Emperors concluded a
peace which up to this day no one in
a military point of view is able to account for.
We were told by the enemies of Italian independ-
ence in England, that when Napoleon went to Italy
it was the beginning ofyears of European warfare.
The present campaign has proved that modern
science in civilised countries has made. all wars of
necessity, brief, bloody, rapidly decisive. Another
month or six weeks siege operations, in all human
probability, would have made Italy free. Such is
the opinion of most French officers. Within 100
days the two largest military empires of the world
would have fully, tried their strength, and been
compelled to make peace.
The French army, for the first time during the
late campaign, employed modern warlike inventions
vith singular success. By means of a balloon, and
photographic machinery attached, the numbers and
position of the enemy were ascertained. By means
of the electric light the army corps communicated
with each other during the night. By employing the
electric telegraph, the Emperor could talk night
and day with the Empress and the Minister of War.
Wherever the head-quarters were established the
wires were brought. There was not less than 100
persons attached to the telegraphic service of the
French army, and they worked their magic medium
with wonderful success. The Emperor, so to speak,
was never out of France, so far as communication
was concerned. He was often at the council table
at Paris, although hundreds of miles away ! It is
generaltunderstood that the Emperor will cause
to be puished a full history of the campaign.
It is but just to pay a great tribute to the
"army of Italy" for their humane conduct and
orderly behaviour during the campaign. Whilst
the Austrians were plundering the town's people
and peasants of Piedmont and Lombardy by war,
contributions proclaimed by their generals, and in
one instance shooting down a whole family, the
soldiers of France, according to the testimony of
dozens of witnesses, paid for everything they con-
sumed, and treated the Italians with the utmost
kindness and consideration. From—
" The death-shot hissing from afar,
The shock, the shout, the groan of war."
Those brave fellows after each battle assisted not
only their wounded comrades, but those of the Aus-
trian army who were disabled, with kindness and
attention worthy of their heroic character.