TOPICS OF THE DAY.
TER WAR AUCTION.
NAPoinosr is on the ground. Every day's delay in the beginning of the contest only proves the magnitude of the labour which Austria has drawn upon herself and perhaps upon Europe. While some hasty writers are anticipating the terms upon which peace must be concluded, the most prudent are anticipating so long a duration for the contest, that their anxieties turn less upon the precise arrangement of the peace than upon the limitation of the war to its proper ground. And although it is true that few of us could put any bounds to the duration of the conflict, while the disengaged powers of Europe suffer it to proceed in the fear of involving themselves, those who are anticipating the peace by considering its principles are not altogether wrong. The path of the Emperor Napoleon is clear enough. The grounds for his confidence in increased success as he advances are solid and plain. He is supported by France. He ascertained before leaving his post in the capital that the united feeling of the country will maintain domestic tranquillity for him. Our own correspondent, who, we can attest, is thoroughly. impartial on the point, shows the state of feeling in Paris. It is unmistakeable. Some of our contemporaries remarked on Thursday, "it is given out " that 1,001,000,000 francs have been subscribed to the loan." Now, we know that 735,000,000 had been subscribed on Tues- day, and the amount has since gone up to 1,500,000,000. It is clear from these facts, which are well explained by our own cor- respondent, that the Emperor Napoleon can have, not only from great capitalists, but the hands of the French people,—from the very heart of the people, three or four times as much as he needs for the work now in hand.
We see the welcome with which he has been received in Genoa : we may compare it with the welcomes given to the representative of Austria, Count Gyulai —welcomes which he earns by the pecu- liar kindnesses of the two-beaked eagle towards the Italians. Gyulai and his troops are making their presence in Italy a horror wherever they are seen, and the outrages are literally committed on authority. By placing Ancona in a state of siege, even the Pope has been roused to protest. Loyal Austrian subjects who are at this moment contributing by their taxes to the war see their means out off by the arbitrary suspension of business ; as in the ease of the Austrian Lloyd's, whose dealings with Asia are suspended,. and whose steamers are confiscated for the purposes of the war; in which they will be of as much use as the passen- ger steamers between London and Edinburgh. In Gallicia, where the Austrian empire is threatened by a possible invader, the feel- ings of the people are irritated, and will be more irritated, by an influx of troops. Under her convulsive exertions to confront the enemy, Austria is making herself intolerable to her own subjects. All this while certain combinations are observed, between Danilo of Montenegro, Milosch of Servia, and Couza of Moldo-Wallachia, which are likely enough to involve certain Solavonic provinces of Austria. Whatever may be the energy and ability of Gyulai, in a purely military sense, every day is a cause of increasing weak- ness to Austria, and the impolitic violence which she is using in Italy shows that she knows her display of power to be all front. One of the newest canards, which shows the anxiety that exists in certain quarters lest the conflagration should not be kept from s reading, is the report of a complete understanding between land, Prussia, and Russia." That there have been inquiries an explanations everybody knows. That on certain points Eng- land and Prussia practically agree, and have told each other so, is equally notorious ; Lord Malmesbury has avowed it. That Russia agrees more with the neutral Powers than with one of the belligerents is, our readers know, counter to fact. But the report arises from the pervading anxiety to save Europe the miseries and penalties of war. Now, as we said last week, this can be done. The only way through which the war can be spread is by an appeal on the part of Austria for help to protect her non- Italian provinces. We do not see that Germany would be called upon to interpose for any but the protection of her German pro- vinces. For example, should her Polish or Hungarian provinces take advantage of her extremity —should they derive that kind of support from Russia which Italy has derived from France,— still there would be no German land at stake. And the same licence of separate war which has been accorded to France in the South might naturally be claimed by Russia in the North-East. Should the danger to Austria, however, extend from her circum- ference to her centre, or to any of those provinces which she has so ill requited for their fidelity, such as Bohemia, federal obliga- tions might call upon Prussia to interpose. Either way, po- licy or treaty may draw Germany into the war because Aus- tria is a German power. Now, this extension it is the very object of all the great Powers of Europe, including Prussia, England, the City, and the Times to prevent. The contest has gone too far to prevent it by a Congress, gone too far to prevent it by a mere revision of Italian treaties, for, in fact, one of the main objects of the war has already been virtually attained. Austria must extend her empire to the Alps, or Italy must be free to the Adriatic. Which of these alternatives would our own English nation deliberately adopt? There cannot be the slightest doubt that the immediate object of the war is one that England would deliberately sanction—the freeing of Italy to the Adriatic. That must be the one essential condition of peace. Should the war
continue, other conditions will undoubtedly arise ; but at present that would do. The neutral Powers, therefore, might prevent all fresh calamities and penalties, all confusion of property, all fur- ther depreciation of stook, all chance of interrupting oommeree, by declaring that they will exact from Austria that one essential condition now. Peace may be bought, as yet, at the price of Italian independence ; and peace is cheaper at that price than it will be a little while hence.
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