GENERAL SUMMARY.

Otago Witness, Issue 400, 30 July 1859, Page 3

GENERAL SUMMARY.

The crises to which we have been looking forward, through a thousand fluctuations, for the last two or three months has come at last.

On Monday, April 18, the date of our last number, Ministers entered into a statement in both Houses of the negotiations which had taken place with a view to a pacific settlement up to that time. [The Ministerial statement we published a feyf weeks- since]. The facts were already known in detail, and the chief point of interest in the ministerial explanations was

the declaration of that policy of neutrality which it is the desire and interest of this country to maintain.

The next step in the history of these events was tie publication of the proposal made to the Four Powers by England, in which France, Russia, and Prussia had already acquiesced. All that was wanted was the answer of Austria. This did not come to the evening of April 21 ; and when it did come it extinguished the last gleam of hope. Austria not only declined the proposed arrangement, but resolved upon opening a direct communication with Piedmont for the undisguised purpose of dictating her own terms. General Gyulai was ordered to present an ultimatum — immediate dismemberment, and the dismissal of ths volunteers to their several homes. Three days' grace were allowed for the final determination of the Piedniontese government : a refusal, or an " evasive reply," to be considered equivalent to a declaration of war. Simultaneously with these demands, Austiia continued to move her troops upon the frontier ; and the usual trains of the Lombard railway were suspended on the 22nd, to admit of the more rapid transmission of soldiers to the Ticino.

As soon as this intelligence reached London, a Cabinet Council was called together. Another Cabinet Council, afc which Prince Jerome and Prince Napoleon were present, was held at the same time in Paris. The French government immediately put their troops into motion, and the English ministers protested against the conduct of Austria, and on the 25th despatched a second proposition to Vienna. Thick and fast from the Continent for seven days came telegrams laden with momentous intelligence, sometimes positive, sometimes conjectural, and sometimes contradictory. Seldom has so much important news crowded upon us so rapidly, or in such confusion. Nobody who carefully peruses the startling particulars will be at a loss to understand the agitation that convulsed the Stock Exchange, and in three days produced fortyseven failures. At last, after an interval of suspense, we learned the fate of our second proposition. Austria consented to it ; but France requiring as a condition that Piedmont should be admitted to the Congress, the negotiation came to nothing. Contemporaneously with the receipt of this proposition, the French government applied to the Chambers for powers to augment the army, and to raise a loan of £20,000,000, at the same time hurrying forward, with all practicable speed, large masses of troops .to Italy, while Austria, on the other hand, advanced her forces along the banks of the Ticino. Now was the harvest-time of flying reports from Prussia, Austria, Switzerland, Piedmont, and France. On the 2Gth of April Count Cavour dismissed the Austrian envoy with the answer of Sardinia, rejecting the demand of Austria.

In the midst of these incidents arrived the most astounding piece of news of ailthat France and Russia had entered into an alliance, defensive and offensive. This statement was corroborated in several quarters, and the ' Times ' published the substance of the treaties, which, it asserted, bad been signed by the two Powers on Good Friday. An agitation little short of a panic seized upon the money-market, and it was not until a subsequent telegram assured the world that it was not an alliance, but a simple convention which had been entered into, that anything like confidence was restored. The Russian Government has since officially denied the existence even of an understanding with France, that could disturb the peace of Europe.

Returning to the scene of hostilities, we come to the first incident upon which all the telegrams from all quarters were agreed, and which placed beyond controversy the fact that war had actually commenced. Immediately upon receiving the answer of Sardinia, the Austrian troops collected along the eastern bank oE the Ticino in great force, and on the 30th of April crossed simultaneously at various points, the most northerly being Intra, above Palanza on the shore of Lago Maggiore, and the most southerly Piacenza, in the Duchy of Parma. Pushing on from Novara, which lies as nearly as possible mid-way between these extreme points, and is connected with Turin by a railroad, they advanced on the same day towards Vercelli, which is within a day's march of the capital. The whole line of country commanded by these operations is about 120 miles in extent, and may bo said to form two sides of an irregular triangle, with the river running at its base.

The interest felt by Italy in the struggle was instantly shown in the sympathy exhibited everywhere in favour of Sardinia, and the hatred evinced against Austria. Insurrections broke out simultaneously in Sicily and other places. The Grand Duke of Tuscany was compelled to abandon his dominions, and Provisional governments were established at Florence, Massa, and Carrara.

Formal declarations of war were now issued by France and Austria, after the peace had been broken by both. Diplomatic relations formally ceased, and the courts of Paris and Vienna mutually withdrew their representatives. The manifestoes of the two emperors indicate with sufficient clearness the ground they have taken up ; that of Louis Napoleon, however, being apparently much more frank, and, so far as professions go, much more satisfactory than that of Francis Joseph. The French manifesto sets forth that Austria has forced things to this extremity — that either her dominion must be extended to the Alps, or Italy must be freed to the Adriatic. This passage is distinct enough, and may be con- ! sidered tantamount to a declaration that the object of the war is to wrest Lombardy and Venice from Austria. By no less decisive result can Italy be made free from the Alps to the Adriatic. Upon the other hand, the French emperor disclaims for France any idea of conquests, of aggressions against neutral State.?, or any disturbance of the existing statu quo beyond that of the liberation of Italy.

The Austrian proclamation, subsequently expanded into an elaborate circular by Count Buol, consists mainly of a disingenuous attempt to shift upon the other Powers the responsibility of Austria's own act. It would appear from this manifesto that the other Powers were insincere in their proposals of a Congress, and that war became inevitable ir. self-defence ; whereas, it is notorious to the whole world that afcthe eleventh-hour "it was Austria who, by dealing with Sardinia separately, ren-

dered a Congress impossible. One point of importance, amidst many questionable assertions, is made palpable in Count Bud's circular — it is that Austria stands on the treaties of Vienna, and that her policy is emphatically conservative, while she denounces that of Sardinia as being revolutionary.

We cannot see how the war is to end otherwise than by a re-partition of the Italian States, if these declarations are to be honestly acted upon. Italy, now awakened to a chance of regaining her liberty, is not likely to be set at rest until her independence shall have been restored; an issue which the army of Austiia, powerful though it be, is hardly able to avert against the united forces of France and Italy, with Russia hovering on the confines of Germany. The part which Russia means to play in this drama is not yet quite obvious. She, too, has issued her manifesto, in which she positively denies that she has entered into any treaty, offensive or defensive, with France — a denial of which our Ministers have been making the most at the elections — claiming at the sametime the right to retain and exercise perfect liberty of action, with a view to the maintenance of the imperial dignity and the national interests. These phrases are not very lucid, nor have they inspired much confidence in any quarter. It may be strictly true that Russia has not formally entered into a defensive or offensive alliance with France ; yet for all that she may be prepared, when the oppportunity arises, to adopt such a line of action, to use the significant language of the * Dresden Journal,' as shall " prevent Austria from coming victorious out of the present conflict." At what time, or under what conditions, she may take an active part in the war, cannot be predicated from present circumstances ; but that she will come upon the stage at some juncture when her appearance will be likely to decide the fate of the House of Hapsburg, so far as Italy is concerned, hardly admits, we think, of any reasonable doubt.

The movement in the Italian States goes on with unabated eagerness and enthusiasm. Volunteer regiments are in course of organisation over the whole peninsula, and everything is prepared for an outburst, when the fitting moment arrives. There has been a military re-action in favour of the Court in Parma, and the Duchess has returned ; but it may be taken for granted that she will find it necessary to espouse the popular cause. The Tuscan revolution is complete, and the Duke is already housed in Vienna. Austria is well aware of her danger ; Trieste, Venice, and Verona have been declared in a state of siege, and the people of Milan have been called upon to give up their arms.

In the meanwhile the progress of the Austrians has disappointed the expectation their menaces excited. They threatened energetically, but their action is languid. Delay seems to have been occasioned partly by heavy falls of rain which inundated the flat basin over which their operations lay, and partly by the speed with which the French troops had anticipated their march, and, probably, frustrated their plans. French troops had landed at Genoa, and were gathering at Susa, and some had even entered Turin, by the time the Austrians had crossed the Ticino. The want of full and authentic intelligence renders it extremely difficult to trace the movements of the troops at either side with accuracy ; but, although the details are obscure and sometimes contradictory, it seems pretty certain that the French and Sardinians have had am pip time to strengthen their line of defence along the right bank of the Po, and that the Austrians have not yet been able to cross that river in force, or to shake the position of the allies. They succeeded in making the passage of the Po in one place, having vainly attempted it in others, and they opened a cannonade which is said to have lusted fifteen hours ; but from these incidents they derived no final advantage, suffering, on the contrary, a heavy loss, and being compelled, either by the nature of the ground, or by the necessity of altering their mode of attack, lo re-cross to the left bank. The sum of the whole seems to be this ; that while the Austiians are manoeuvring, apparently to no purpose, on the left bank of the Po, which may be loosely described as marking the line of the allies from the capital to the sea, the French and Sardinians are collecting their strength by reinforcements both from Genoa and the Alps, and throwing up defences aionothe entire route. There is some reason* however, to suspect that the Austrians have entirely altered their plans, and that in retiring from the lines of operation which they originally seemed to have marked out, first across the valley of the Po straight towards Turin, and afterwards diverging in the direction of Alessandria, they luve relinquished these designs only to secure a stronger position on the line of the Sesia. This supposition is founded on the inexplicable disappearance of the troops that landed at Intra and Palanza in the north, and who are supposed to have collected in the passes of the Alps for the purpose of commanding the head of the Sesia on the right wing of their position, which would obviously give them a vast strategic advantage in their movements upon the Dora. Such, as far as « c can gather from very imperfect information, is the present position of the two armies. Our readers must not look for such full details concerning this war as we have been enabled to give them throughout the campaigns in India and the Crimea ; for the governments on both sides have strictly prohibited newspaper correspondence in the camps. We shall, nevertheless, have it frequently in our power through private channels to supply authentic particulars.