The Express. — 1859-01-03 (London, England)

LATEST INTELLIGENCE.  AUSTRIAN ITALY.  A Turin letter of Friday says : " The belief in war gains ground every day, bat no one can gnesa how it will break out. Prince Constantine was talking the other day with a military man who played a considerable part in 1848, and asked his opinion uto the rumours of war. 'As a military man,' was the answer, ' I wish for war, but I do not know if we shall have it." At all events,' said the Prince, ' I wish you better luck than in 1848." Then we were alone,' replied the officer ; ' and Austria was staunchly misted. To-day I hope that the contrary would be the came.' ' Amongst us,' said the Grand Duke, 'the Austrians are looked upon as my father's murderers, on account of their ingratitude, but we are too much occupied in our country just at this moment; nevertheless, so far as I am concerned, I am always ready to follow the orders of the Emperor, my brother.' I report this conversation in the moat faithful manner possible." The indipasdents says : " Letters from Parma state that demonstrations  occurred at Modena on the 24th and 25th of December. The government made a great display of force. Modena may, perhaps, give the signal for the general explosion."  (runt A cozazspoxozre.)  MILAN, Dim 24.  At Venice and Milan, as also in the provinces, the agitation is great, with a strong mixture of prudence and common sense in it notwithstanding. They are willing enough to have the affair of 1448 over again, but no more puerilities, hectoring, and swaggering ; no more silly braggadocio. They are organising themselves quietly and steadily, but solidly and with a will. The Austrians seem bewildered, and are taking meuures never heard of before, and which some think perfectly absurd. I need not instance their law on conscription,  or their monetary transactions, but here is one of their strange acts : the government is compelling the various municipalities of Lombardy and Venetia to purchase all the public official edifices in the cities and towns, such as the palaces of the Archducal Princes, the guildhalls, barracks, and the like. By this forced sale it is realising millions ; and, should the Austrian authorities be ever forced to make a run for it, they would leave nothing behind them the loss of which might occasion them regret. The government has arranged to continue the use of the buildings at a certain rent. Now, every one here knows what " paghera" means in the Austrian month ; it is a promise to pay, as the wolf said to the stork, when he had a bone in his gullet. The Archduke has caused his palace at Mantua to be re-furnished, evidently for the purpose of taking refuge there in case of disturbances breaking out at Milan. The antieigar agitation has recommenced ;  people smoke no longer. Some superior Austrian officers wanted to set the veto at defiance, but were immediately accosted by some of the Barabbas—a cant term for what they call "gamins" at Paris— with the short but now well-known cry, " Chi, abbasao it sigaro !" One or two resisted, when their cigars were taken out of their mouths,. politely enough, it is true, but still by main force. Others obeyed in silence, and flung their cigars away. The Archduke wished to give a ball the other day. Fifteen attended, being officials, and because they could not help themselves. The Dukes Merl and Sootti, both of them devoted to Austria, have left Milan from prudential motives; Count Nara, another devotee of Austria's, speaks openly and loudly against the imbecility and harshness of the government The fact is that; in 1848 you would meet with scores of people that upheld Austria's good right and her virtuous intentions, but you would not find now half a dozen in the whole LombardoVenetian kingdom. Every one is now convinced that if the Austrians were only once out of Italy, the King of Naples, the Pope, and all the petty princes of the Peninsula would soon change their tone, and that a lasting peace might then become a possibility. No cue dreams of a republic, no one hints at socialism. What Italians desire is, to have Italy governed rationally by native princes and native laws.