BATTLE OF MAGENTA.

Colonist, Volume II, Issue 191, 19 August 1859, Page 3

BATTLE OF MAGENTA.

(From the Times, June 8.) The Battle 'of. Magenta is a great battle and a great victor}'. -Austerlitz can scarcely compete with, it in the numbers slain and captured, and must pale before it if we cotnpire the numbers engaged. Waterloo was not more lavish of slaughter. Lodi is not more terrible in storiel^of fierce conflict. The great distinction batween Magenta and-other victories is, that we know who won Lodi, and we know who won Austerlitz, and we know who won Waterloo, but we do not yet know who won-Magenta* Perhaps it may hereafter turn out that Aspern, where three days slaughter produced only an undecided event, is a more exact parallel to Magenta than any of those better remembered names which we have cited. We closed our observations yesterday by saying that we could not assert whether this great fight; was even then terminated, and, it it were terminated, we were at a loss to tell whether it would be known to history as an Austrian or French victory. We can only repeat to-day that the same mystery which hung over this conflict on Tuesday envelops it on this morning of WcdnercUy. In the first place, we have no telegrams by way of Paris. The Emperor of the French is silent. The Empress, like a good wife and a true spirited woman, puts the best possible face upon the matter; she drives in a sort of qua3i4riumphal progress through Paris, and encourages the populace to rejoica.r '. The fireworks are forthcoming, the flags'aw hung forth from the windows, the cafe 3 are all duly illuminated, and the public buildings are resplendent; but amid all this out of door demonstration there is a " horrid sound of silence "in the bureau of the Minister. The Emperor of the French has paused suddenly in his 'communications. His recent messages had been dated from doubtful places; but now we have no more despatches of any kind. On Monday he dated from that very transitory place, the French " Head-quar-ters. When the question discussed by all Europe was —" Where now are the French? Have they entered Milan? Are they wheeling round to destroy the Austrian force concentrated at Pavia andPiacenza? Js there any foundation for the current rumour that the second, day's fight went against them, and that they had been driven baclcacross the Ticino ?'*—while such was tho general inquiry, we got despatches containing only vague phrases, and dated from " Headquarters." These heacl-qunrters might have been on the east or on the west of the Ticino ; at Allessandria or Verona. The whole point was, where was the French Emperor on Monday last; —and that he does not tell us.' He gives us liberal guesses at the loss of the Austrians, and vague estimates of his own casualties ; but he does not tell us in what position the French army is now to be found, nor what steps he has taken to follow up his victory. We know that Milan is only 12 miles from. Magenta, and that Milan is boiling with enthusiasm to welcome him. But, unhuppily, we do not yet know that Napoleon has advanced to the occupation of that capital, and to enjoy the triumph that awaits him there. Instead of occupying the capital of Lombardy, he has been satisfied i with receiving seven gentlemen, who, according to their own account, stole away from the city while " the artillery of the enemy could have thundered against them, and while the Austrian battalions were -still in their public places," and who went into the allied camp to offer the homage of the town of Milan, aud to declare the state of their patriotic hearts. Now, this happened on Monday. The victory of Magenta tx>k place on Saturday, and a mysterious fighting endured all day Sunday. The place where these seven deputies found the Emperor of the French and the i king of Sardinia is not stated. We may perhaps conchide that if the French had been actually beaten and driven across the Ticino on Sunday night th',se deputies would not have sought to compromise themselves by rendering homage to their liberator; but on the other hand, if the Emperor were really a victor, it "should have been in ths Castle of Milan, and not in some anonymous encampment, that he received these congratulations. We cannot but fear that the silence of the French tele -raph is eloquent. The Austrian wires, on the other haivl, continue to give fo!'th their cautions and oraculir sentence.*. They c'aim no victory, hpt they confess no defeat. Our 'experience tip'to t'his'tnrie of the Austrian official accounts has been, that, if they have not bern prodigal of information, they have, at least, been sober mid tolerably truthful, '['hey tell us that on Sunday :two now Austrian corps were engaged ; that the Allies were still attacking, but made no progress; that the loss on both sides had been very great; that they had four Generals and five Staff Officers wounded and a Major k'Hed ; and that Milan is evacuated. Thoy add also that the Austrians have taken many prisoners .jutta^the Emperor informed the Empress that .he ww encumbered by his captives. All this js probably true, and, if true, it seems to indicate a series of conflicts on a still hotly disputed ground, with alternate vicissitudes of success and defeat, the battle being probably fed on bjth sides by fresh troops as fist as they could be pushed up to the point of contest It is at best but a hard straggle onwards, fighting inch by inch and winning every yard of Lombardy's soil at a terrible price paid in French and Sardinian lives. If there were anything better than this to tell, we should not be called upon at such a moment to lilteiS t) the patriotic platitudes of seven Common ■Councilmen of Milan. All through this long-drawn and continuous battle we have had five'telegrams from Franc j to one from Austria. The French count their slain and wounded Tight off at a good round number, told in thousands; and they at first claimed so easy a victory at Magenta :that we could only expect they would wheel round upon Pavia, and impress upon that city a different memento from that which has hung over it since Francis I lost, there "all except his honor." The Austrians have claimed no victory, and speculated «pon no arithmetical details as to the losses they have inflicted or sustained. Every hour will Ir'.ng us atems of intelligence which, in their aggregate, will at length make all this clear; but up to a late hour last night it was confidently believed that the victory of v Magenta was a victory in which the French were defeated. As we write, the changing Complexion of this alternating event has taken another tint, it now seems probable that this hard fight is yet undecided, but that, upon the whole, the French have the best of ifc. We cannot, of course, estimate with any exactness the forces of the two armies. Hitherto the French Emperor has not been sparing of his best troops. Thopo Sardinian soldiers who were trained in the campaign of the Crimea made sanguinary onsets at Montebello, and the Zouaves have been somewhat lavishly thrown at the Austrian lines at Palestro. The Austrians, on the other hand, scesi to have ■brought their new levies first into action, and to have exposed their least valuable and least reliable troops to the onset of the allies. It tn\y be that all the French and Sardinian soldiers are as good as thos; ■wlio have already fought, and that the Austrian's had no better troops than those- who have already recoiled before the French and Sardinians, This, however, the event must shew. If the conflict is.of that indecisive character which our advices nppeir to shew, the victory, will 'ultimately be of that side which has the best and strongest reserves, and can go on for the longest period continually sending good soldiers to the front. .-,'... *€►-<& ■—