The Sun.
London, England, 1866-07-20 00:00:00

SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS

TIMES.—Once more Austria and Prussia are in
presence, and their difference, after baffling all the
efforts of well-meaning mediators, is left to be set-
tled by the shock of half a million combatants. The
confidence of Austria is unshaken. A battle on the
Danube may yet reverse the sentence pronounced
by the battle on the Elbe. Floridsdorf may avenge
Koniggratz. By a decisive trial of strength, it will
be shown whether a dynasty which has given the
German people so long a series of Sovereigns can
henceforth consent to become a stranger in Ger-
many. All the ardour of the belligerents, however,
can hardly keep pace with the impatience of the
lookers-on. An encounter under the walls of Vienna
is inevitable; it is imminent ; but it is not to-day,
nor perhaps to-morrow, that we are to hear the
roar of the cannon. The hostile armies have,
doubtless, come in sight of each other, but their re-
spective forces can hafdly yetbe thoroughly massed
together. Their concentration and deployment
may be the work of days. Time may be taken up
in marches and counter-marches, in the choice of
ground, and in the efforts of each party to have
the other at a vantage. The forces gathered to-
gether by Austria for this decisive contest are esti-
mated at something like 400,000 men and 600 field
guns. 100,000 of her chosen troops are, it is said,
crowded together within the intrenched camp of
Floridsdorf. By far the larger part of the Northern
Army has found its way from Olmutz to the capital,
and no fewer than 60,000 to 80,000 of the choicest
soldiers of the Army of the South had.a few days
ago reached Salzburg, and are no doubt by this time
with the Archduke Albert at Vienna. The spirit of
this vast army, if we believe the testimony of all
correspondents, leaves nothing to desire. The dread
of the needle-gun, we are told, has greatly subsided,
even among those who have witnessed its deadly
effects. Those who have never had to withstand
it laugh its terrors to scorn. "It is a
weapon that wounds, but kills not," the Austrian
officers repeat with complacency, as if the
purpose of a battle were rather to kill than
to disable an enemy, and as if the multi-
tude of the wounded bad not the effect of creating
greater discouragement and confusion in an army
than ever so high a heap of slain. Were it, indeed,
proved that the fire of the Prussian breech-loader
is more fatal to limb than to life, its value would be
increased, not merely because hamanity would re-
joice at anything which rendered war less murder-
ous, but also because the loss in wounded cripples
the energies and embarrasses the movements of a
commanding officer far more than the actual havoc
of death. The dead are but too easily tended and
provided for, while the necessity of removing the
wounded from the melee has a tendency to demoralize
their comrades. The particulars we daily receive
from eye-witnesses of the late battle-fields of Bohe-
mia, however, force upon us the conviction that it
was not only to their breech-loader that the Prus-
sians were indebted for their signal victories. In
the opinion of many competent judges, all the ad-
vantages of thorough training, discipline, and high
powers of endurance were thought to be on the side
of the Austrians, and the Prussians would, it
was supposed, have no chance against their ad-
versaries, unless the " specialty of their infantry
weapon" made up for their deficiencies and short-
comings. These predictions, however, as we all
know, were hardly borne out by the event. The
Prussians proved to be fully equal to the Austrians
at all weapons, and even in those frequent charges
of cavalry on which the final issue of more than
one combat depended the Prussian dragoon or
Ulan almost invariably came off the conqueror
over those Bohemian cuirassiers and Hungarian
hussars who were hitherto thought to bear the palm among the most dashing and fearless horsemen on
the Continent. The hopes of the Imperial army
are now resting upon the Archduke Albert, a
Commander who brings back with him from Italy
the prestige of victory, and who may be pre-
sumed to inherit that genius by which his father,
the Archduke Charles, was enabled to cope with
the First Napoleon, meeting him on those very
banks of the Danube on which the destinies of
the Austrian Monarchy were then as now at issue,
and turning against him for two days at Aspern and
Essling that tide of victory which had so invariably
set in in his favour. Without in the least intend-
ing any disparagement to the Archduke Albert, we
must, however, be allowed to remark that his talents
will now have to be displayed on another field than
the plain of Lombardy, and against another enemy
than the brave but unfortunate La Marmora. The
battle-fields of the Quadrilateral are s 9 limited in
extent and so familiar to all Austrian officers, and
especially to the pupils of old Radetzky, that a
campaign on that ground is to them little more than
a game of chess or billiards. Had Benedek been
left in command at Verona, the same or even more
splendid successes would have attended the Austrian
armies ; but when intrusted with a plan of opera-
tions on so complicated a field as the mountain fron-
tier of Bohemia, he seemed to feel his own incom-
petence ; and, as he took leave of the Emperor, he '
reminded him, it is said, that "he was no stra-
tegist," and all he could promise was to " fight the
Prussians hard whenever he met them." The neigh-
bourhood of Vienna, the line of the Danube, the
Marchfeld, the isle of Lobau, and all those spots
now classical in military art, are certainly no less
difficult ground than the defiles of Nachod or Trau-
tenau. Napoleon himself seemed to be at his wits'
end before Vienna, and if the Prussians attempt
any manoeuvre beyond a front attack on the tete-
de-pont at Floridsdorf, the son and heir of Archduke
Charles will have occasion for all the resources of his
father's tactics. The Austrians stand on ground of
their own—on fields which they know span by span,
on positions which their art has for some time
striven to turn to the best advantage ; but all these
circumstances militated equally in their favour at
Sadowa and Koniggratz as they did at Solferino ;
yet those and many other fields were lost by them,
through no want of skill possibly, through no
lack of valour certainly, but owing, perhaps, to
that ill-luck which warned them of old against seek-
ing their advantage in war, and advised them to pro-
mote their interests by matrimonial alliances. Not-
withstanding these drawbacks, and notwithstanding
the gloomy anticipations of even the best friends of
Austria as to the results of the battle now impending,
it would be irrational to feel an absolute confidence
that fortune will continue faithful to those Prussian
standards which it has hitherto so constantly be-
friended. The Prussians have been playing a high
game ; they are running a desperate venture ; they
have marched 500 miles into an enemy's territory ;
they are separated by three large kingdoms from
their basis of operations ; they have left hostile for-
tresses in their rear and on either flank. Success, un-
interrupted success, is for them a necessity, a con-
dition of life. The consequences of a reverse would
be beyond calculation. They have in front an enemy
in all probability superior in numbers, by no means
inferior in strength or courage, unappalled even in
defeat, and partly also not only unbroken, but
flushed with recent victory. They have before them
a broad and deep river, a long line of ramparts, a
formidable array of heavy artillery. The Prussians
seem aware of their danger, and are straining
every nerve to bring up all the forces at their dis-
posal. The communications between their various
corps are kept up with the utmost diligence, and all
their movements tend to a general concentration
towards those lines of Floridsdorf which will in all
probability be the first scene of the approaching
struggle. The possession of all the Saxon and Bo-
hemian railway lines, and their late victories against
the Federals on the Main, enable them to summon
up large bodies of troops which were either engaged
or intended for engagement in Bavaria. On the
other hand, the Austrians also have been and are
collecting all their troops for a decisive effort. It
will be difficult for the Prussians to match their
enemies in mere numerical force, and if, as seems
most probable, they are inferior in numbers, they
will require all energy they displayed at Nachod
and Koniggratz, not only to get the better of the
odds that may be mustered against them, but to
overcome the obstacles of the enemy's position,
and that dogged, desperate resolution with
which a noble, warlike race, like the Austrian,
is sure to turn at bay and stand its ground under
the eye of its Emperor and for the defence of the
capital.

DAILY NEWS.—The military news from south-
eastern Germany becomes more vague and meagre
as the great armies respectively effect their concen-
tration and take up their critical positions. That of
the Crown Prince, without the co-operation of
which no decisive operations are likely to be
attempted, is still, however, several days' march
from Vienna, Prerau and Prossnitz, which it occu-
pied on Monday and Tuesday, being fifty miles
north-east of Lundenburg. The first army, the
main body of the Prussian force, is again in motion,
after the inaction of the last three days, marching
upon the Austrian capital. According to a despatch

from the Prussian heedquarters, as many Austrian
troops as filled forty trains were sent from 01111 u tz
to Vienna before Sunday last. The railway line
by which they travelled is now entirely in the hands
of the Prussians from Prerau to Lundenburg, and
connects the army of the Crown Prince with that of
Prince Frederick Charles. The Prussians, now that
political reasons for delay are again at an end, wag
be expected to push forward. Their own army
in fine condition, and their reserves, largely aug-
mented, are at hand, while delay would be only
favourable to the enemy. The Austrian army of the
Danube will be in some respects superior to that
lately styled of the North, as containing a larger
proportion of purely German regiments. An official
statement has been published at Berlin respecting
the negotiations for a three days' truce which were
recently conducted through the mediation of the
French Government. The proposal was made at 3
time when the Emperor of the French was exerting
himself to bring about a peace, and was made pro-
fessedly in order to enable the King of Prussia. to
ascertain the resolution which the Italian Govern-
ment had formed in the extraordinary circumstances
in which it was placed. The negotiations We'
because the Emperor of Austria, who, as we knoff
from the Vienna Gazette, was at the time 0:
pecting powerful aid, insisted on reserving perfee!
freedom of movement for his armies within their
lines—in other words, insisted on liberty to remove
any number of regiments from the Army of tue
South to Vienna, a transfer which the Emperor has
been resolved to effect at any price since the 3d lest'
In Western Germany the political state of affairs
has been somewhat modified. The Bavarian Go-
vernment has not so completely separated itself from
its allies as seemed reason to believe a few days ago'
The Prussian terms of accommodation, which, ate,:
what has happened, could not but be hard, seemed
too severe for acceptance, and the negotiations are
accordingly at an end. The Bavarian army 11'
made a retrograde movement, and will effect a junc-
tion with the Bth Federal Corps behind the Neckar'
when the forces of the Bund will form one consoli-
dated, army. The announcement, not unexpected
is made that the Prussians are laying siege to the
ta:
le
gs
for fortress of Mayence. Extensive prepara
for its defence have been made during the last viee'
but should the impending battle before Vien7
prove as decisive as is generally expected, it vi
not be necessary to prolong the siege.