The Sun.
London, England, 1868-09-01 00:00:00

RIVALRY OF ITALIAN GENERALS.

It is not often that great crimes expose the
perpetrator to ridicule as well as to disgrace.
Revolutionary Italy has not only made itself
infamous by its breach of international laws,
by its perfidy, by its spoliation of Church
property, by its irreligious laws and proscrip-
tions ; but it has made itself the laughing-
stock of Europe. General La Marmora, whose
name for Italy's sake ought never to be men
tioned by Italians, is fighting over again in
pamphlets and in the newspapers the disgrace-
ful campaign of 1866. The secret history of
that war is now by the rival factions, into
which revolutionary Italy is torn, being made
public. Anythinc, more simply discreditable
to the Italian Governmentr and army can
scarcely be conceived than their conduct dur-
ing, and their dissensions and trickery after,
Napoleon had made them a present of Venice.
The disputes between La Marmora and
Cialdini show how utterly the Italian army
was disorganized ; but not content with being
defeated, for the sake of keeping up appear-
ances in Italy La Marmora incurred the addi-
tional disgrace, of enacting a public farce by
ordering Cialdini, after the terrible rout which
the Italian army, under La Marmora, had
suffered at Custozza, to cross the Po after the
Austrians had left, and Venice had been ceded
by the intervention of France. Cialdini, un-
willing to take part in such a rediculous farce,
demurred to such a proceeding, but was over-
ruled, and so the play of pursuing the Aus-
trians was played out for the avowed purpose
of keeping up appearances in Italy. Austria
at the time complained of this act. " Italy," it
says, " took advantage of the absence of the
Austrian army to enter South Tyrol, in opposi-
tion to the terms of the cession, one of the
principal conditions of which was that the Aus-
trian troops should not be pursued beyond the
Venetian territory, or in order to obtain pos-
session of that of Gorizia."

From the disclosures made in this dispute
between rival and jealous generals, it further-
more appears that Napoleon showed himself a
hard taskmaster, and insisted that revolu-
tionary Italy should suspend hostilities, and
leave its Prussian ally in the lurch. La
Marmora supplicated in vain. He protested
that while he could well understand that Napo-
leon should desire to stay the victorious pro-
gress of Prussia, he saw no reason why France
should inflict upon Italy the public humiliation
of deserting an ally. All that was permitted
to La Marmora, it appears, was to keep up
appearances—to act a farce at which he seems
to be so apt a hand. Italy, therefore, was
allowed to gasconade to its heart's content ;
to pursue an enemy who was already beyond
their reach ; but the part of the buffoon is
sometimes liable to misadventures, beyond even
the ridicule incurred. And so it happened with
Italy. Austria, on making peace with Prussia
after Sadowa, had an army again at its disposal,
and the boastful Italian generals had again
to seek safety by falling back from Austrian
ground. The worst misadventure, however,
which has befallen revolutionary Italy, is not
the battle of Custozza, is not the terrible defeat
of Lissa, but the contempt and ridicule which
it has brought down upon itself by its empty
gasconading, by the buffoonery of its leaders,
and by its military disorganization, as exhi-
bited by its generals and commanders in chief.

It was thought that after the ridiculous col-
lapse of Garibaldi and his volunteers at the
battle of Mentana, and the rapid dispersion
and flight of the gasconading general and
his followers from Roman territory, that revo-
lutionary Italy would have sought in silence
to obliterate from the memory of its friends
and enemies, the disgrace which it had so
deservedly incurred. But the fierce rivalry
of its miserable factions, the old disputes and
jealousies of its generals, have ripped up again
the old sore,. and have exposed the new king-
dom to fresh contempt and ridicule. Italian
journals addicted to the Revolution csnnot
forbear from deploring the imprudence of the
publication of despatches and telegrams by La
Marmora, which, while they do not remove
the disgrace from his own shoulders, put Italy
and its Government in a contemptible light
before the world. Italy, for its own advantage,
has sought to make and keep friends with
Prussia and with France, and has been treated
by both as a catspaw, and all the while it
gave itself the airs of a great Power ; but now
the disputes of La Marmora and Cialdini have
withdrawn the veil to a great extent, and
shown to the Italians themselves, as well as to
the world at large, how petty and farcical was
the part their country played when Prussia and
Austria were fighting, and their Government
was receiving in fear and trembling its orders
from Paris.

From its present state of disorganization,
from the rivalry of its factions, and the jealousy
of its generals, anarchy and Mazzini have
everything to expect from Italy.—Westminster
Gazette.