Kenosha tribune & telegraph. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1856-1859, 1859-05-26
War in Eurone.

possibilities of the future -
"Never, for the last sixty years, have the af
fairs of Europe drawn toward so perious Il cri
sis as at this moment. We can hnd parallels O
singular completeness for the relative position,
OF France and Austria, for the first incidents o
an Italian campaign, and for downward rusI
OF tren ch army into the plains of Lombardy
or Piedmont. But these, which are but the nat
hfal features of such war as IL apparently i'm
pehulng, do not comprise the most alarming
symptoms Of the present hour. We CAN mattel
All the probable points OF Strategy and antlci
, pate the scenes of conflict, but i'll none of The
great historical precedents are there such omn
Gus characters as we may decipher now.
:; 1t was at just such season as the present. OF
towards the middle of the spring, that in the
year 1876 an army of French soulders looked
down upon Italy from the dreary submits o.
the Apenines. They were about 40, 0J0 in mum
oer and they had about sixty guns, but they had
neither magazines clothing, neither bag
gage, animals nor tents. The cavalry had no
horses, and even the staff did duty on foot Sc
destitute was the French Government of pecu-
mary resources, that when the Generals of this
army received gratuity of E3 apiece, it was
thought considerable remittance as for the
soldiers, they mad neither shoes to their feet
nor coats to their backs. and if war could be
prevented by penury, as some economists have
imagined, stronger securities for peace could
the troops of the Republic
i but these men were capable of great deeds
Il "hen well commanded, aud they had just recelV-
ca new commander in the persen OF General
/ Napoleon Bonaparte. Beneath them, in the
4 territories OF Sardinia, ranged their antag-
ohlstsathe Austrians, with about $4,000 men
1 anu 2OO guns; the Piedmontese then, as now,
the best souldiers in Italy, with about half that
Strength At the beginning of April the strug-
gle commenced, and its events could be designa-
i teo ny succession of names carrying their I'M
port to the readers mind without explanation or
| comment. Montenotte, Millesino Mendovi,
Lodi, Milan and Verona denotes but so many
stages OF a triumphant advance In fifteen days,
as Boaaparte exultingly proclaimed, his soul
dieis mad gained six victories, had killed or
wounded lU.00O of the enemy ,and had captured
u standards. 90 pieces of cannsn, ana lo,ouO
prisoners. On the Both of March he mad been
sun standing on the Apprentices, and by the Sd
OF June &c was at Verona, Before that day III
the year following he had traVersed LemOardy
IN us whole length, and entered Venice, until at
ength,on the 18th Of October eighteen mouths
after the opening the campaign-the AuStrl-
ais were fam to make peace.
ABOUT TWO years afterwards these scenes were
re-enacted, In the interval Napoleon had gone
| 10 Egypt, and had ventured hts fortunes i'll the
Desert but affairs had gone i'll i'll his absence.
ahd "heh ne suddenly returned from the East,
me fehch had much to retrieve Once more.
therefore, dld be concert decisive campaign =
oH thiS occasion new army was collected with
extraordinary secrecy on the French side of the
APPS, and conducted BY the passes OF the Great
OF bernard into the Italian plains before the
austrian Commander was well aware of the ex
petition. He turned TO tight, but the battles of
MonSebello and Marengo DESTROYED his hopes,
ana again the French We're masters OF the field.
Inc second campaign, in fact as brief and
as conclusive AS the first. 1t was only in July
mat the victory OF Marengo had been achieved,
o"t oy the February following Austria had made
| peace over again
IN the circumstances of these famous conflicts
we may discern many points of coincidence but
many also OF contrast, with the condition of the
struggle now impending. week ago it might
nave been said that on very important point
Inc POSITIONS OF the bellgerents at these peri
eds were entirely reversed Buth in 1896 and
loo5 Sardinia was in the hands of the Austri-
ans, and served, indeed as the first and strong
! est barrIer between France and Lombardy. The
pflhclPai OBJECT OF Bonaparte in the first CAM
palgn was 10 separate the Austrians from the
Sard!nlans, and oyerwhelm the two armies sep
| aiately. In 1890 again. while the French Gen
eial was collecting his army at Dion for the
| passage Of the Alps, Meias, The Austrian Com
mander; was on the very frontier of France, d.
reciIng all his strength against the line of the
! ar ana Mt e dreaming of the surprise prepar-
! ed for him. in his rear The great French VIC
torres, III fact, were gained, not in Lombardy
but IN Piedmont itself, where's, until the other
! day, 1t appeared as if France would not take
the teld with IIedmont already her own, and
that the shock of battle would occur, not at the
! foot OF the mountains but on the eastern side of
/ the 1lclno. IT, however, the recent menaces of
Austria should be fully executed, and her forces
should overrun the Sandman territory before
he French can arrive to protect it, the battle
field may be found in Piedmont once more.
| Of the relative powers Of the combatants at
the two periods, it is perhaps, hazardous to
| speak. All the States of Europe, since the be,
! ginning OF the century have developed their re-
sources, and, unhappily. in the direction ofwar
as much as i'll other directions. Sardinia alone,
could now produce more powerful army than
! that brought by either France or Austria to the
campaign OF 1895, AT this moment the Aus
| trians can throw 900 men across the Ticino
and il France canno5 encounter them with an
equal array, 1t is for lack of preparations only.
General Hess, the Chief of the Austrian Staff is
7l-just about the age Of Beaulieu, Napoleon's
first antagonist so that the old practice OF Aus
tria iii this respect seems to be unchanged But
i'll the face of Radetezky's exploits we cannot
eontound old age with superannuaton and, be-
sides, there is no youthful Bonaparte III the op-
posite ranks. The French army, save for the
one great loss of a transcendant genius at its
| head, is probably as we'll organized and as well
| otfcered as at any former time, and if the Aus
| TRANS have made greater relative progress in
military science, II is cnl because their ancient
defects of system left them greater room for inn
provement' Judging from the valor and expe~
! ditiOn which have characterized their recent
! movements we need nDG anticipate any Tepetl-
| ton of the errors of Meas and Wurmser.
On the whole they have perhaps done more
! than the French, because they had more to DO t;
they have passed within the last ten years, thro
| CT md tha h.
victorious campaign on the very fields to W hich
| they are now advancing. The French army is
probably AS gond as it was in 1866, and no high
er credit could be given to it; but the Austrian
army is undoubtedly better than it was at that
period so that the struggle will not be so easy.
And even when we revert to the rapidity Of Ma
! poeon's compassionate once, nor twice, but
| four times achieved-wnen we discern that Aus
tra signed treaties of peace, one after another,
at Campo FOrmio, at Lunesyille, at Presburg,
and finally at Vienna itself, must not over
look the fact that this very sue, ession Of trans
actions showed the vitality and tenacity of her
lower. She was only four times beaten, be-
| cause four times, with unconquerable resoiu>
ton, she had returned to the ife
/ All these speculations, however, are but
superficial. There is no real analogy be-
tween the periods we have been describing
and that at which we have now arrived. The
great the Unreasonable difference, between
them is that 90 years ago these Italian campaign
were but incidents of strife already establish
ed. whereas now, if France does indeed encoun-
ter Austria on the plains of Piedmont, it will be
the signal of new war, the duration and char
acter of which no man can tell. The destinies
of Europe were, after ALL but partially and tran
silently influenced by the battles of Memenetto
and Marengo for nations were already then in
arms, and it was but a campaign in Loinbardy
. instead of campaign elsewhere Rut the Ital-
ian war now impending will, fit actually breaks
out, terminate the long peace of Europe, and
lead us through years eft conflict which nobody
can number to new state of things which no.
: BODY can divine. We seem to be approaching
one of those great epochs by which the course