PROGRESS OF THE WAR.

Colonist, Volume II, Issue 193, 26 August 1859, Page 3

PROGRESS OF THE WAR.

(From the London Examiner.) Though while we write the details are still wanting of the battle of Magenta, we know enough of the results to assure us that the allied armies have had a great, although not a conclusive, victory* The tide is turned; the French and Sardinians are now the invaders; the last Austrian soldier has been driven back across the Ticino, and Louis Napoleon and Victor Emanuel dictate their despatches from Milan. Indeed, the civic authorities of that city have taken the • decided step of proclaiming Lombardy annexed to Piedmont—a resolution which there is every reason to believe will be ratified by the unanimous popular voice of the province. To make this expression of the national will the more significant, the Milanese address announcing it was delivered in the presence of Louis Napoleon, who may therif »re be considered as having sanctioned the prospective annexation in the, face of Europe. To return to Magenta: let the Austrians have made ever so good a stand, and let the losses sustained by their assailauts have been ever so serious, nothing-can be idler than to represent it as a drawn battle, in the face of such great facts as the falling back of the whole Austrian line, and the abandonment of the Lombard capital. Milan may be of no value in a strategic point of view, but its occupation, tells in military glory notwithstanding, and prestige was never of more importance than- in such a war as the present. With the appalling accounts we have of the carnage, no matter which of the conflicting esti-. mates we adopt, or to what fair subtractions we may submit them, we have only to regret that the action was not as decisive as it was bloody. It is painful to think that news of another engagement, perhaps not less sanguinary, may reach us at any moment. There is good reason for believing that the Allied loss was by no means so much inferior to the Austrian, as the first imperial telegrams to Paris indicated. The correspondent of the Daily Neios, writing on the evening of Sunday, from Novara, states that a Crimean officer informed him that the assault of the Malakoff was a less terrible affair, particularly af cr General MacMahon's force came; up, previous to which the advantage was On the* Austrian side. "Our losses," lie says, "must have been tremendous^ but the French suffered most," by which the writer means, we presume, more in proportion than the Sardinians. The Zouaves had several hundred men put hors de combat, and, according to the same authority, a detachment of Marshal Canrobert's corps was almost cut to pieces in.the last charge. On both sides the loss in supeiiir officers appears to have been heavy; the French must again have suffered greatly from the Tyrolese iifles; it was, however, a cannon-shot that killed General Espinasse. It almost cut him in two, after carrying away his horse's head. It.how appears that the Austrians lost not much under forty guns, instead of three,.as the first accounts had it, that number being said at Paris to have been a mistake for thirty-six. • The writer in the Daily News says that he saw twenty captured guns brought in:o Novara. A late telegram

moreover asserts that numerous flags were also taken by the Allies. These circumstances combined tend to prove that the Austrian defeat was greater than originally wo had reason to think, although unquestionably not a rout, which ia sufficiently shewn by the cautious advance of the French subsequently. * The Emperor of the French had an opportunity on this occasion of rivalling the personal, gallantry of his royal ally; and all reports agree that he availed himself of it intrepidly. "I am assured,'; says one letter, " that the Emperor and the King are always in the thick ofthe fight;" and the correspondent of the Morning Post states:—" The: Emperor rode out at eleven to see what progress they were making in passing- When he .heard the'firing he galloped forward; he exposed' himself so much that his aides-de-camp were obliged to expostulate with him. He remained for some time precisely iv the place where the fire was the. hottest." The personal gallantry of the Emperor was not a point, however, which required confirmation. The public were much more curious to ascertain whether he possessed tbe more important qualities to which he laid claim, in taking the command of the allied armies in person; And this higher repute Louis Napoleon is clearly establishing ; he is evincing a capacity for large-strategic combinations, he has shewn that he can organise and direct the movements of great masses of men with skill and success, and ?he is now turning to legitimate use his consummate- power of masking his designs from his opponents. In point .of bravery, the armies confronting - one another .may justly be said to be well matched,.biit the superiority in generalship seems beyond [a. doubt to be with the French. The Austrian1 commander seems to have allowed the e"hemy'to.'pass the Ticino uninterruptedly, merely to force them to recross it. He waited until the French left had reached Magenta, and commenced the battle by • attacking them there. He appears' to have again mistaken the amout of force he had to deal with, and to have been still deceived as to the real intentions of the Allies, concluding from the concentration of their troops on the Po, that they designed to cross that river. The last telegrams from Vienna state that Count Gyulai has been removed, and replaced by Field Marshal Hess. It is also reported from Turin and Milan that the Allies were again successful in an affair on the Bth inst. at a place called Malegnarto, within a few miles of Milan, from which the Austrian were dislodged by Marshal' Baraguay d'liilliers. #Mie Adda is therefore their next river line of defence. We shall soon see whether they will turn it to better account thau they .have done the Ticino; but as things look at present, it is more likely that Lodi, wheh is on the Adda, not far to the east of Malegnano, will soon be memorable again for a French victory. ■■-'■'. I Since the abot c ;emarks were,written,we have seen the detailed bulletin in the : Moniteur of yestrday (Friday), in which it is stated that in the beginning of the action of Magenta the grenadier division of the French Imperial Guard were opposed to an Austrian force 120,000 strong. Marshal MacMahon is said to have only lost 1,500 men, a wonderfully small loss compared with what he is alleged to have inflicted, taking 5,000 prisoners, and putting 10,000 men hors-de-combat In this account all the Austrian guns taken since tlie affair' of Montebello are stated to be only seventeen, which is a falling off from the. estimates giveU above. Iv revenge, however, the Moniteur tells us that the French picked up on the battlefield 30,000 Austrian knapsacks.. In the north of Lombardy, tbe allied cause is reported to be equally successful. The small Austrian garrison has evacuated Laveno, and effected its retreat into Switzerland, leaving Garibaldi absolute master of the country north of Milan between the Ticino and Adda.