The Sun.
London, England, 1859-05-24 00:00:00

THE FRENCH IN SARDINIA.

The following letter, says the times, from a
gentleman who has just traversed the Mont Cenis,
seems deserving of attention :
S USA, MAY 17.—Here I am, on the eastern
aide of the Graian Alps, almost on the very track
of the last French invaders. The road of Mont
Cenis, hardened by the night frost, was all cut up
with the tread of men's feet, horses' hoofs, and
chariot wheels. It was a hard and deep road, yet
our lumbering conveyance performed its 12 hours'
task from St. Jean de Maurienne to this place at
its ordinary pace. Notwithstanding every variety
of rumour to the contrary, it may be freely asserted
that the French army had to deal with none of the
greatest horrors of an Alpine journey, and, above all
things, that deep snows never obstructed their
way. They were soaked through and through by
very heavy showers of rain, and had to walk for
miles up to their knees in deep mire and slush ; but
the road was kept clear before them, and they were
detained, not on the mountain, but at the foot of it,
here at Susa, by the inadequate means afforded by
the one line of rails between this place and Turin.
Here they had to lie, some of them for days, shel-
terless from the pitiless scourge of the flooding rain,
without either accommodation or means of further
progress—a cold and damp reception, owing to the
mismanagement, not to the want of good will, of
their southern allies. I believe an exaggeration of
the difficulties of this passage of the Alps, and of the
delay arising from it, entered into the strategic
plans of the Emperor Napoleon, who thereby
hoped to inspire the Austrians with rash confi-
dence, and wished to lure them on to Turin. For
the rest, I met nowhere with the traces of very
grievous sufferings on the part of the French. The
hospitals of St. Jean and Modane are said to be full
of their sick, but we know such hospitals cannot
harbour even a few hundreds of men ; for the rest,
the separate pickets we came up with, men of all
arms, were late arrivals from the depots and not
stragglers. We saw a few squadrons of linssars
and other cavalry at the several Maurienne villages,
and a fine regiment of foot, the 73d, is even ilow
belly, stowed away in a long railway train on ;is
way direct to Alessandria. But the great mass of
French forces which is still on the move is journey-
ing rapidly down the great southern line to Mar-
seilles, there to embark for Genoa or other destina-
tion. What struck me much more forcibly than
the march of troops, which, on this side at least,
may be said to be at an end, was the rush of French
volunteers to the scene Or action. I had them in
my company, men of all ranks and conditions, in
, every- class of railway waggons in every train,
Parisians many of them. St. Antoine and St.
Honore equally emptied themselves of their inmates.
A few of them were my constant companions all
the way from Macon—men who had the inevitable
' De' to their names on their cards, and were cer-
tainly not without the manners and cultivation of
French gentlemen. They were free and easy in
their talk, full of love of glory and adventure, with
golden visions of epaulettes and smiling Italian
beauties, but, above all things, of inextinguishable
rancour against—not Austria, but England and
the English. One of them, the best of the lot, a
viscount, was joining the Piedmontese army,
and intended to enter the military school at
Ivrea. There was also a band of 100 rather noisy
ragamuffians, without either the size, age, or
strength for military service, half French, half
Italians, under the orders of a Tuscan, who came

to embarrass the Sardinian war ministry, to what

purpose it is not easy to make out. So it goes on
daily. lam told all France is going southward. ,
After the regular army, we have a second host in
the rough to fill up the ranks as soon as they are
thinned by the casualties of war. Were it not for
the contingency of meeting Germany, no less than
Austria, on the field, Italy might be said to be over-
whelmed by the help she was under necessity to
invoke. But it seems very plain that every one is
preparing for an exterminating war of races, and
there is every probability that the Lombard plain
was never enriched with so many Gallic and
Teutonic corpses as it will be at this terrible junc-
ture. I can speak for the whole French race having
at once become possessed with the evil spirit of
destruction ; and I hear corresponding feelings
spring up everywhere between the Rhine and the-
Vistula. Both hereditary foes are at their place in
the old battle-field, and the only new phenomenon
is an Italian army, and a nation, with a King at
their head, resolved to be up and doing, and very
firmly hoping that destiny has better things in
store for them than that of allotting themla helpless
prey to the conqueror.
" Military operations are at a perfect standstill,
as we hear, on the plain, for, on the one hand, the
French are still gathering their forces and waiting
for their heavy materiel, and the Austrians only
endeavour to withdraw in safety from their bung-
ling, blundering, marauding onset. Political
intrigue, however, iS more than ever astir. I saw
very ominous faces moving about me at the various
stations. Poor Italy is now the field for all kinds
of enterprise, and it is difficult to know whether

she ought to pray for deliverance from enemies or
from mis•named friends. There is a thick plot afoot
for discrganising the Hungarian army in •the

Austrian -service. The whOle of Piedmont, and
especially Genoa, swarms with Magyar and Polish
adventurers, and they tell portentous things of the
inroad made by their proclamations and private
communications into the allegiance of the troops
under Gyulai. Doubtless, if Austria can reckon on
the sympathies of the German States she must also
expect to see the alien races of her empire arrayed
against her. Any appeal to Teutonic nationality
loosens that bond of discipline by which her empire
holds. The bravest and noblest character among
the Hungarians, Klapka, is now at Genoa, as I
have been informed, and he has frequent interviews
with Prince Napoleon—a man who, like all the
Bonapartes, has more talent for intrigue than for
any other kind of work. The result we shall see
by and by.
"In the meanwhile revolutions, or rather pro-
nunciamientos, as the Spaniards have it, are no
less at a standstill in Italy for the present than
warlike movements. What must have struck all
lookers-on in all these recent Italian matters is the
perfect method and discipline under which the
people of the various parts of the peninsula are pro-
ceeding. No leaf stirs without God's will' (Non
si muove foglia the Iddio non voglia') is the Italian
proverb ; and the Italians, who have now taken the
Emperor Napoleon and Cavour to their gods, keep
within the line of operation traced out for them
with a submission and confidence which gives them
all the compactness of an army. We may look for
great results from all this. Romagna is no less
ripe for a change than Tuscany, but fate has de-
creed that no revolt is to take place in the Papal
States, and not a leaf stirs.' The Tuscan move-
ment itself has been paralysed, and all but snubbed.
The Tuscans are brought to a standstill, army and
people wondering what is to become, or what is
expected of them. They made a move for Victor
Emmanuel II.; they wished to become one State
with Piedmont, under one dictator, at least during
the whole extent of the war, leaving the main poli-
tical question to be settled at its close ; but the
King of Sardinia declines the dictatorship, charges
his diplomatic agent, Buoncompagni, with the
duties of a Royal commissioner ; sends a Neapolitan
officer, Ulloa, not a Piedmontese, to take the com-
mand of the Tuscan troops ; and recommends that
the Tuscans should keep up their separate admini-
stration. In the meantime Prince Napoleon is
preparing his ' detached' corps for action. What
all this portends time will show.
" Setting aside my private opinion, which would
be of no worth whatever, I must. assure you that
nothing more grieves and offends honest and ear-
nest Italian patriots, whom I everywhere meet,
than the slightest hint of a doubt as to the purity
and sincerity of Napoleon's intentions. No reference
to past transactions or present appearances avails
with them. Napoleon, they think, is perfectly
honourable, utterly disinterested in his views. He
wishes to drive the Austrians out of all Italy, and
join Lombardy and Venice with Piedmont in one
great northern kingdom. Ile has no designs on
Central Italy for his cousin, no afterthought as to
Naples in behalf of the heirs of Murat. He wishes
for no land for himself, no crowns for his dynasty.
The liberation of Italy is too noble a task to be
sullied by sordid, selfish considerations.
" Such perfect faith, you will allow, is beautiful
to witnec..s. and may work wonders."

" Turin, May 19.
" Ata moment in which almost total suspension
of hostilities causes the greatest fever of expecta-
tion among the Italian population, I deem it expe-
dient
i to give some idea of the disposition of men's
minds in this country with respect to the probable
results of the present crisis.
"Although the mere interval of 10 or 12 days
seems to have given a somewhat new turn to the
general current of fears and. hopes, still I should. say
that the sanguine expectation of the Italians has
suffered as yet
extent,
any material abatement.
Faith, to aifgyroeaut depends on a man's own
will,
cypressintention, or
doubt. as to the Em-
peror Napoleon's
th or indeed power, to be
as good as his word,
that of
answer. .of the Italian
sounds very much like'tha_ofda religious enthusiast.
Credo quia impossbni/oe
none
e asN No doubt
the
arises as
.to the
issue of the war ;
jeans es to which. the
French may put their certain v
the Emperor is the emancipationoWital The aim of
Italy, and its
re-organisation on some scheme of union which may
give the country all the strength aria compactness
of unity. Such is the conviction of -the great mass
of the Italians. A man of little faitl i is hardly safe
among such stanch believers.
" Nevertiieless, I have frequent oo .::asion to sound

deeper and cooler heads, and from these I make out
that this sublime moment is not altogether free
from anxiety. Unless aided by defection among
the Hungarian and other Austrian soldiery, or by
disorganisation in the Austrian empire itself, there
is no doubt that the struggle for which the French
are now making ready is of such magnitude as may
well baffle all calculation, grounded on mere his-
torical precedents. The people here think the
mere tidings of the 'first battle' will make every-
thing smooth ; but it is very difficult to ascertain
when there will be—and, indeed, whether there
ever will be a battle. Unless the Austrians have
a harum-scarum leader at their head, 'they will, I
think, do all in their power to avoid an engage-
ment, and the Franco- Sardinians will no sooner
have crossed the Ticino than they will find them-
selves reduced to that slow, tedious, spirit-quelling
siege-work which is precisely the least suited to
their impetuous and mercurial temperament.
" I have no pretension to strategical knowledge,
but I anticipate no very If the 2,000 or 3,000
brilliant deeds for the
forthcoming campaign-
French who are now gathering about Alessandria
are to eat their own hearts in the weary siege of
seven all but impregnable fortresses, I very much
doubt whether they will not look for some other
solid reward and emolument in a soil in which so
ittle glory is to be reaped. The present expecta-
ltion is that a three months' strife is to decide
the fate of Italy, and for my part I should be loth
to put French patience and generosity to a longer
test. Should, on the other hand, Napoleon 111.,
dreading the unwholesomeness of that weary siege-
work, venture on a bold dash across the Alps and
an attempt to dictate his own terms at Vienna,
then we should have that general European war
the final settlement of which would be put beyond
control of the parties at present engaged.
" Hence, I believe, there are some, though few
thinking Italians who would not be sorry to see
the present lull in the belligerents' movements
taken advantage of by neutral Powers to bring
Austria to terms. Such terms should, of course,
begin and end with her renunciation of her sove-
reign rights over all Italy ; for her abrupt declara-
tion of war, the slackness of her military opera-
tions, and her brutal treatment of the invaded
country, have damaged her in the estimation of
her stanchest friends, and her retreat, as every one
r,weats, is more than equal to a lost campaign.
Now, it is thought, it were the time for England,
pres.sia, and Russia to apply the screw to Austria ;
the last fortnight has dose more towards rendering
her , impossible' in Italy than 10 or 20 years of her
worst previous misrule. She must now be fain to
give in, ant? if the mediating Powers could obtain
so much front her as an avowal of this necessity,
they might see that Italy alone, and not France,
should profit by the change, and they might find
the means of gilding the pill which the vanquished
must needs swallow. Very vague, and, perhaps,
very vain rumours are circulating here to-day
about some such diplomatic negotiation being now
pending. I know Cavour is absent from Turin on
some mysterious errand, , and it will require no
great stretch of imagination to guess that he is
now at head-quarters discussing with the Emperor
the chances of peace almost before the outbreak of
real, serious hostilities. The Duke de Grammont

is here.
" Thoughts of peace, however, even if they flash
across the mind of some of the far-seeing people,
are nohindranco to the universal mustering of war.
If the Italians trust the French and their leader,
there is no doubt but they also rely on themselves.
The whole Italian youth is rushing to arms, and if
Sardinia do not within three months number
200,000 of her own combatants it will rather be
from-her want of means or capacity for organiza-
tion than from any lack of materials to work upon.
The volunteers are found among the people above
rather than below the middle rank, as the abstract
idea of nationality has of course struck deeper roots
among the thinking and feeling part of the
community. The army finds its recruits among the
scions of the Lombard and other Italian nobility.
Nothing can well be more touching than to see the
young and almost boyish, fine-featured, delicately
framed riflemen or lancers, clad in the coarse cloth
of mere privates, walking arm-in-arm with their
richly dressed mothers, or driving by their sidet in
their coronetod chariots, longing for the day which
is to rid them cf the tedious routine duties of the
drilling depot, and send them forth as full-grown
soldiers ready for .I.ctive service.
" So far as they itiv able, and sa far as they may
be taught, it would seem the Italians are willing to
fight for national existence ; but the most anxious
minds among them are veatly in doubt whether
they will have a chance for' much display of their
goodwill, for the Fredch bfing so vast a force of
trained troops into the field that the regular army
itself of the Piedmontese, to say nothing of their
volunteers, will be utterly absorb .'d and lost by the
juxtaposition. There are some who already com-
plain that both their King and Government, their
army and people, sink into insignificance by the
crushing weight of importance naturallyy, and, per-
haps unwittingly assumed by their mighty French
auxiliary. The Frenchman comes down as' a mere
second in Piedmont's death-duel with Austria,. but
it is impossible not to see that the force of eircuna-
stances compels him to take upon himself the part
of principal.
".The King's Government, and Cavonr especially,
are not unmindful of their dignity, and some of
their measures show consummate tact and ability.
The King's order of the day, dated May 17, from
Occimiano, awarding medals to those who dis-
tinguished themselves in the outpost encounters and
skirmishes of the last three weeks, has given
universal satisfaction. It would be difficult to know
upon what considerations the bulletins (of which
we have read the 38th) have been almost purposely
vague and meagre, designedly making light of such
actions as have been fought, and carefully avoiding
all mention of such officers or soldiers as have had
opportunities to distinguish themselves. The bul-
letins, indeed, were rather enigmatic, empty, and
silly than otherwise, and we know both by private
rumour, by French and Belgian papers, and by the
Austrian bulletins themselves, that some of those
partial fights were severe ones, and that the Pied-
montese have, in every instance, given evidence of
dashing gallantry. The King's proclamation con-
firms all this beyond dispute and it is now to be
hoped that the Government will for the future put
aside all reserve, and give free publicity to the
events of the :war, both without any vain-glorious
ostentation and without any mincing modesty and
prudery. The order of the day enacts that the
medals awarded to some of the dead heroes should
be given to their families, together with the pen-
sion annexed to the distinction. The persons thus
honoured, alive or dead, are 46.
" The arrest of Austrian spies in various parts of
the Sardinian camp is one of the most melancholy
episodes of this great national drama. One of them,
a nobleman of Casale, by name Visconti di Prasca,
has been detected by the vigilance of Gen. Cialdini,
convicted of privy intelligence with the enemy, and
shot, as he richly deserved. Papers were found
about his person, which are said to criminate several
of the wealthiest citizens of Casale. That town is
said to have always been the head-quarters of the
black, or Clerical and Itetrogradist party. Visconti
had been a military man, a major ; he seems to have
been actuated either by pique at some professional
slight, or by a vindictive feeling against the Libe-
rals, who may, perhaps, have pushed too far their
advantage at the time of the Parliamentary
struggles against clerical privileges and ecclesias-
tical abuses. His family, men of note and influence,
have obtained from Government that the fame of the
wretched man should be spared as far as practicable
btuyeoima omitting h
bulletins.i
A mentionno t
a of r
y of his
the
execution
noble
family
ythe
f
Provana, the owner of the castle of Verrua, some-
timerd the head-quarters of Garibaldi,
his Idl'b tb wasu t atrhree st ed
under grave suspicion ; but heinnocence
and was set free. There is nop
Ita-
lians are rather too rash and eager in their mad-
dog cry and hunt after spies. Two or three persons,
not only of the greatest respectability, but enthu-
siastically attached to the Italian cause—some of
them foreign volunteers of distinction—have
and subjectednction—haveb toeen
pointed out to the mob as spies,
h theve
s
arrest, insult, and the risk of ill-treatment. Such
glaring facts as that of Visconti would certainly
seem to afford groundfor
susp
race,iciou and it suspiciousness. Butbehoves
their are a quick, impulsive
their rulers and leaders to prevent their pushing
their zeal beyond the limits of discretion.

(From the Correspondent of the Daily News)
PIEDMONTESE HEAD-QUARTERS, May 19.
The first rewards have been distributed. King
Victor Emmanuel, who since Tuesday last has had
his head-quarters in this place, has issued an order.
of the day in which he grants the silver medal of
military valour to 14 officers and soldiers, and
honourable mention (mensione onorevole) to 30
others. These brave men have distinguished them-
selves in the actions and reconnaissances of
Frassinetto, Valenza, Vercelli, Casale, Cascine Stra,
and San Germano. The prodigious activity of the
King and General La Marmora may easily be ima-
gined when I tell you that before daybreak they
arc both on horseback inspecting our lines and
:riving orders as circumstances require. His
Majesty (who yesterday received a visit from the
Emperor Napoleon in this place) is deeply affected
by the reports of Austrian cruelties which every
day reach us from the invaded country. Whatever
may be written from the Austrian headquarters,
there is no doubt that the behaviour of the Austrian
soldiers has been and still is of the most shameful
character. Many poor fellows have been dragged to
the Austrian staff pinioned, and lashes have been
administerad to them with that generosity which
distinguishes the officials of the Aulic military