The Sun.
London, England, 1859-06-16 00:00:00

GENOA.

(From a Correspondent of the Times.)•
GENOA, JUNE 12.
Since the day of Napoleon's arrival, when the
artillery made a fair show, we have had, as I have
repeatedly mentioned, an extraordinary dearth of
cannon, as compared with the number of troops
passing through the town, and more especially with
the quantities of ammunition waggons and appur-
tenances that have been collected here and for-
warded from time to time. The few that I have
seen in the streets have been invariably field-pieces
of light calibre, but yesterday arrived a park of
siege artillery, quite apropos to the allied advance
towards " the four fortresses," of which I am afraid
we shall bear more than enough during the summer.
They are long, heavy looking 12-pounders, probably,
however, carrying a ball of nearly double that
weight, having been lately rifled, no doubt for the
oblong ball. They were cast chiefly in 1841, 1848,
and 1852, so that Louis Philippe, Liberte Egalite,
and the dawning Emperor will batter Mantua side
by side. Four horses dragged them pretty easily
from the landing place up a sharp slope to the road ;
but then the avant train box, on which the Artil-
lerymen sit, was empty, and that must make some
difference, for I saw four men with levers working
at one the other day. Wonders are prophesied of
them. The especial use of rifled-cannon is against
walls, not in open fighting ; people say " They
will carry 4,000 metres, and breach at 3,000 ;" and,
indeed, if this be true, many a point may be found
to command a bastion or fort safe against all attack
from guns carrying but half as far. At all events,
last night they started for the scene of action, and
by the time these lines reach you may be thunder-
ing at the gate of Pizzighettone, which the French
must mask or take.

On the 9th a good many Austrian and French
wounded were brought down to the quay in carts,
and put on board great flatbottomed boats for
transport to the ship's side. In spite of the dis-
graceful falsehoods circulated among the Austrians
as to the treatment to be expected from the Allies
to those who might fall into their hands, I can
assure you that, as is but natural in a civilised
people, the prisoners were treated with the greatest
kindness. .I saw one strong little Frenchman of the
train carry to the boat pick-a-back, or in his arms,
five or six of his wounded enemies, one after another,
with sympathetic, soldierly care, avoiding pressing
on their injured legs or shoulders. For those who
were badly hurt of both nations alike stretchers
were brought, into and from which they were
gently lifted, and they stood or lay without distinc-
tion in the same barge, where a young Alsatian, a
medical attendant, I suppose, rattled away in Ger-
man to them, cheering, consoling, and exhorting ;
foraging for oranges and cigars for those who could
only lie still and watch his bright face as he danced
about like a spirit of fun without touching one,
poor wounded limb. He'll be worth his weight
in gold to them when the ship rolls and tosses and
fever parches their lips during their weary 24
hours' passage. Not a cry nor a groan was heard
among them, though every now and then, when
one was forced to move, he would turn white and
clench his teeth. An Austrian, shot through
both his legs, would not submit to be carried
like a baby in arms, and called for a litter, into
which he shifted himself slowly, not letting any
one touch him, and using his hands as means of
progression as a child does who cannot walk ; then,
finding it beneath his dignity to lie back, he sat
up and stared round haughtily, like some Eastern.
King in his palanquin. The sentries let any one
pass who wished to give their charges money or
cigars ; the latter especially were very acceptable.
I doubt whether. any old snuff-taker would sneer at
the more modern vice of smoking who had seen the
joy with which a young Frenchman of the 74th
bit off the end of his cigar. He was a smooth-
faced, woman-featured boy, desperately wounded
in the chest—" doomed," said a surgeon standing
by—who had dragged himself painfully to the side
to get fresher air than reached him in the centre of
.
his comrades, and face fairly beamed with joy
at the prospect of his consoling " weed." His was
one of the few bad cases ; broken and woundedlegs
formed the mass—l imagine, because a broken arm
is considered too slight a hurt to be sent home, and
when the body is touched a low; journey often be-
comes impossible. As it is, a poor fellow who came
down by train was unfit for the trial of a rough sea,
and died in the streets before reaching the hospital.
The whole scene was very sad, and suggested the
thought that if, as I see some think even now in
England, one man's ambition has caused this war,
no punishment would be too great for him.
But here we are more firm than ever in our
faith in Napoleon's truth and honesty, especially
since the proclamation from Milan, which, acknow-
ledging the Emperor's wish for moral influence in
Italy, rubs off some of the philanthropic varnish
usually spread on such documents, and exposes a
more natural, human motive, for his exertions.
In the Bisagno valley, besides some 200 ammuni-
tion waggons, are a body of 250 men belonging to
the French F9reign. Legion, who are going up to
the front as reinforcements, and are meanwhile kept
very uncomfortably under canvas, idle and rained
upon regularly every night, and, sometimes during
the day, in the fickle season from which the summer
should have freed us long ago. The corps was
formed about 1830, I fancy, and includes foreign
workmen living in France who have imbibed mili-
tary tastes, sons of old soldiers of the Grande Armee,
Bavarians, Prussians, Spaniards, a few negroes, and
a good many vauriens who have found their re-
spective countries too hot for them. They engage
_for five years, and last year, for the first time, none
were enrolled—a proof, perhaps, that Napoleon at
least did not foresee the war, and that Cavour is the
original motive power; but now they are to be
brought up to their former strength. At the
practising-ground further on were about 50 ma-
rines firing at a mark 200 yards distant with
rifled muskets and fixed bayonets. The prac-
tice was decidedly good, particularly at first,
when the guns were clean, not more than one
out of seven or eight shots missing altogether,
including those which did. not take the groove,
and many being well placed. A register of
each man's shooting is kept, the markers at the
butts giving one note on a trumpet for a hit and
two for a shot within the ring, answered from the
stand by the same number. Striking the bull's
eye produces quite a ceremony ; three trumpet
notes and a flourish are given and answered, and
the lucky marksman runs over to receive the bull's
eye itself, which has become his property, and en-
titles him to a small reward in money.
To-day aTe Deum will be chanted at the Cathe-
dral San Lorenzo in honour of the victory of Ma-
genta, and the ceremony will be attended in State
by the municipality, and by the superior officers of
both arms in the town ; but the Syndic does not
stop there, but gives a grand dinner, to which he
has asked the Corps Consulaire—a most unfortu-
nate idea, for no such invations were issued on the
occasion of Princess Clothilde's marriage, when
every one might be supposed to rejoice, and the
representatives of neutral powers are now placed
in the disagreeable :dilemma of showing joy at
Austrian defeat or being indifferent to Allied suc-
cess. Hungarian deserters wearing the national
rosette, which was at first taken for the Italian
tricolor, and differs from it only in the larger size
of its green centre, have been seen free in the town,
and will no doubt become part of the legion form-
ing under General Klapka, whose proclamation
annonnces that they are to " fight in Lombardy
before liberating their own country," which they
will hardly attempt without French help, "and
that he has had audiences from the Emperor and
the King on the subject ;" so that we may banish
all hope of localising the war, unless, indeed, Aus-
tria accepts peace on the terms of giving freedom
to Hungary and Lombardy.

An Exhibition of fine arts, manufactures, &c.,
was opened at St. Leonard's new Schools, Bilston, on
Monday, by the Right Hon. the Earl of Dartmouth. There
was a numerous attendance; and among those who took
part in the proceedings were the Right Hon. C. P. Vil-
liers, M.P., the Mayor of Wolverhampton, and several
clergymen and other influential gentlemen. The exhibi-
tion is for the benefit of St, Leonard's schools.