The Sun.
London, England, 1859-07-11 00:00:00

THE WEATHER.-SUN OFFICZ, JULY 10.

THERMOMETER, IN THE SHADE.
78—highest since noon yesterday.
72—lowest this morning and during the night.
74—this day at noon.
BAROMETER-30•28.
WIND, S.W. ; light, with fine weather.
JULY 11.
THERMOMETER, IN THE SHADE.
78—highest since noon yesterday.
75—lowest this morning and during the night.
83—this day at noon.
__ __

_
BAROMETER-30.32.
WIND; S.W. ; light, with very fine weather.

A friendly meeting this morning between the
Emperors NAPOLEON and FRANCIS JOSEPH has
been the first result of the five weeks' armistice.
It took place at nine o'clock on this henceforth
memorable Monday, the 11th of July, 1859, at Villa-
franca. The incident is to be followed forthwith
by the return of the French Emperor to his capital
—an occasion doubtless to be celebrated by his

triumphal entry into Paris as the conqueror of
Solferino. Afterwards will come a tempting op-

portunity for the diplomatists of Christendom—an
opportunity by duly availing themselves of which
they may, if their councils be but wisely directed,
transform a few weeks' truce into a permanent pacifi-
cation. There may now be mooted once more the

project of an European Congress for the settlement
of the Italian difficulty, by arbitration. And this

time it is just within the limits of possibility thw

the project of such a Congress may at length
he actually realised. If so--Sardinia must

this time be admitted to the conference. She has

won her right to the privilege at the point of the
sword and the bayonet, the mouth of the rifle and
the cannon. She can no longer be superciliously
contemned by the German Princelings as a power

in no respect upon a footing of equality with the
major, or, even for that matter, with some of the
minor divisions of Fatherland. At Montebello, at

Magenta, at Malegnane, at Solferino the arms of
Piedmont vindicated the right of VICTOR EM-
MANUEL to take his place upon a footing of equality;

At any rate, in heroism, among the contracting

Sovereigns.
And the conditions upon which this suppositious
Congress can alone be brought about with
any hope of its leading to a satisfactory
settlement of the Italian Question, and

thereby to a secure and permanent Euro-
pean pacification? Those conditions we know
by this time, we should imagine, far and wide
throughout the States of Christendom. They have
been again and again explicitly stated by the very
Potentate whose generalship and valour have swept
back the invading armies of Austria from within
the boundaries of Sardinia, back across the whole
width of Lombardy, back beyond the line of the
Mincio, until brought at last desperately to bay in
the covert of the Quadrilateral ! Before the war
had been commenced by the lawless invasion of the
Austrian troops into Piedmont, the preliminary
conditions for the solution of the great political
problem of Italian independence had been indicated
plainly and unmistakeably by the Ruler of the
French—now apparently destined also to be the
liberator of the Italians. Those essential conditions
have, since the war was thus begun, been
reiterated, in clear and trump .r:t tones, in the Em-

peror NAPOLEON'S Milan Proclamation. The very
dating of that proclamation from "Milan" was an in-
timation that the liberation of Northern Italy was
already more than half accomplished. Subsequently
to which period. every step taken by the Allies has
been a step taken in advance, until, as we have
seen, and as we have said, the German foe, slimes-
martialled by GYULAI, and SCIILICK, and.
Ess, and eventually by the KAISER himself, were
d riven back at a rush across the Mincio, and
sought to bay (we repeat it), were literally
brought to bay at last, in a position of absolvitc
desperation, in the Quadrilateral ! Then, and
then only, when Peschiera was • beleagured
by the Piedmontese, when Verona was threat-
oiled with assault, whet 1 Mantua was being

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THE SUN.
MONDAY, JULY 11, 1859.