, 1866-06-19

order,'' are visible facts, which an agent
of Mr.. Reuter- can see as well as anybody
else, and has a great interest in seeing.
But a compressed statement about a ne
goliation for compromise is not a visible
fact, but only q condensation OF certain
guesses made by certain editors at the
contents of certain notes which those
who write and those who receive them
have equally an interest in keeping pro-
foundly secret. Affairs like the arrange
ment of a Congress are not transacted
through dispatches, but through notes
and verbal communications, the nature
of which is guarded with extreme iealou-
sy, first, lest the Sovereigns should change
their minds, and secondly, lest the truth
should become known'on Change, and so
render c0ncUsSj0n impossible. The utter
WOrthlesSness of most statements of the
kind is proved by the fact that, last Sa-
turday, Friday was fixed for the first sit
ting of Conference, while to-day it is
postponed for three weeks, that Austria
was seven distinct times said to have &C.
cepted or refused the proposal, and is
now assumed officially not to have an
sWered il, and that every Power is by
turns reported to demand some impossi-
bic "preIiminary basis" Substantially
all the information that has been poured
into London this week amounts only to
what Lord Clarendon said on Friday
se'nnight, that "negotiations-no, COM
muuiCations"-had passed among the
Governments, with a view to a Confer
ence upon the serious difficulties now
pending and to the preservation of peace.
That. in itself is doubtless true, but
amounts to nothing at all. Thcfe al
ways are communications previous to
every great war, and they are always
supposed to tend to the preservation Of
peace. A Conferences was on the Y Of
sitting before the Cfimean war, and the
Italian war, and did actually sit before
the Danish war, but the effort came TO
nothing. How should it come to any
thing? The Powers know quite wen
what they want and what they intend to
resist, they maintain representatives in
each others capitals, they receive re-
ports from agents who know nearly as
much as Cabinet Ministers, and thew are
rather embarrassed than assisted by the
comparative publicity of a Conference,
at which every Envoy feels that he must
not make concessions. Time, it NAV be
said, is gained, but time when a nation
IS fully armed only adds to the strain, to
the terrible expense, and the still more
terrible interruption of the ordinary work
of life, while it makes sacrifice no plea
santer' Iooth-drawing does not look
easier while one waits at the dentists.
In the present instance, for example,
Prussia cannot keep all her workmen
away from labour in inaction, or Italy
keep up her grand armament 10 no end.
OF Austria maintain an army of 700, 900
men in contented quiescence. Of course
If Prussia is willing to yield the Duchies
or Austria to cede Venetia peace may be
arranged, but either of those extreme re-
solves could be SIGHTED without the in
tervehtion of a machinery which every
power in Europe breads. OF course.
also, If Napoleon is prepared to say that
he will have a Congress as a justification
of his own policy under penalty of an
attack upon the recusants, the doubtful
Powers may give way, and q Congress
may even be as useful before a war as
after it. 1t will have the French army
as its sherif's officer. But it is perfect