Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1859-05-21

The following article from the London Times
of April 2sth, contains much of interest at the
present time;-
"Never for the last sixty years, have the
affairs of Europe drawn towards so perilous
crisis as at this moment. We can find parallels
of singular completeness for the relative positi-
ons of France and Austria, for the first incidents
of an Italian campaign and for the downward
rush of a French army into the plains Of Lom-
hardy or Piedmont. But these, which are but
the natural features of sNh war as is appar-
emily impending, do not comprise the most
alarming symptoms of the present hour. We
can match all the probable points of strategy
and anticipate the scenes of conflict, but in none
of the great historical presidents are there such
ominous characters as we may decypher now.
| IL was at Just such season as the present. or
towards the middle Of the spring, that in the
year 1896 an army of French soldiers looked
down upon Italy from the dreary SUBMITS of
the Apennines. They were about 10000 in
number, and they had about sixty guns but
they had neither magazines nor clothing neither
baggage animals nor tents. The cavalry had
no horses, and even the Staff did duty on foot.
So destitute was the French Government Of pc
cuniary resources, that when the Generals of
this army received a gratuty of e apiece it
/ WIS lllbhpll u CbuAlutTuDlc JtlnltdIlCci us lot
the soldiers, they had neither shoes to their feet
nor coats to their backs, and if war could be
prevented by perjury, as some economists have
imagined, stronger guarantees for peace could
never be desired than such as then pressed upon
the troops of the Republic.
But these men were capable of great deeds
when well commanded, and they had Just re-
ccived a new commander in the person of Cen
era Napoleon Bonaparte. Beneath them, in the
territories of Sardinia, were ranged their antag-
onsts--the Austrians, with about 10000 men
and 200 guns; the Piedmontes then, as now, the
best soldiers in Italy, with about half that
strength. AT the beginning of April the strug-
gle commenced, and its events could be design
aed by a succession of names carving their
import to the readers mind without explanation
or comment. Montcnottc, Milesimo, Mondoyi,
Lodi, Milan, Verona denote but so many stages
OF triumphant advance. In fifteen days as
Bonaparte exultingly proclaimed his soldiers
had gained six Victories, had killed or wounded
10000 of the enemy, and had captured 81 stand.
ards. 30 pieces of cannon, and $4,000 prisoners.
On the Goth of March he had been still stand
ing on the Apennines and by the Sd of June he
was in Verona. Before that day in the year
following he had traycrsed Lombardy in its
whole length and entered Venice, until at length
on the 18th of Octoher-lS months after the
opening Of the campaign-the Austrians were
fam to make peace
About two years afterwards these scenes were
reenacted. In the interval Napoleon had gon to
Egypt, and had ~tntured his fortune in the Des-
sert; but affairs had gon i'll in his abseucc, and
when he suddenly returned from the East the
Austrians were once more in Piedmont, and the
French had much TO retrieve Once more, there
fore, did he concert q decisive campaign. On
this sim n N, W m N collpcf pi ith
traordinary secrecy on the French side Of the
Alps, and conducted by the passes of the Great
ST. Barnard into the Italian plains before the
Austrian Commander was well aware of the
expedition. lie turned to fight, but the battles
of Monticello and Marengo DESTROYED his hopes
and again the French were masters of the
field. The second campaign, in fact, was as
bret and as conclusive as the first. Ii was only
in June that the victory Of Marengo had been
achieved. but by 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 conditions OF
the struggle now impending. week ago il
might have been said that on one very mpor-
tant point the positions of the belligcrents at
these periods were entirely reversed Both in
196 and 1900 Sardinia was in the hands OF
the Austrians, and served, indeed, as the first
and strongest barrier between France and Lom-
hardy. The principal object of Bonaparte in
the first campaign was to separate the Austrians
from the Sardinians and overwhem the two ar.
mics separately. In 1900, again, while the
French General was collecting his army at Dion
for the passage of the Alps, Melas the Austrian
Commander, was on the very frontier of France
directing all his strength against the line Of
the Var, and little dreaming Of the surprise pre-
pared for him in his rear. The great French
victories, in fact, were gained, not in Lombardy
but in Piedmont itself, whereas, until the other
day, it appeared as if France would now take
the field with Piedmont 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 Ticno. II, however, the recent menaces
of Austria should be fully executed, and her
forces should overrun the Sandman territory
before the French can arrive to protect it the
battlefield may be found in Piedmont once
more.
| UNPLEAsANT-The Claremont E11le after