ISlest €mt Warn. TUESDAY, AUGUST 21, 1866.

West Coast Times, Issue 284, 21 August 1866, Page 2

West Coast Times. TUESDAY, AUGUST 21, 1866.

We are now in a better position to understand the significance of the European news, the telegram received from our Christchurch correspondent, yesterday, being comprehensive and explicit. A rapid and sanguinary campaign had been waged during the month of June, and at the date of the latest telegram, 16th July, hostilities had not been suspended. The doubtful telegram received by the last mail, announcing the actual outbreak of war, is confirmed by this intelligence in all particulars but the reported flight of the Pope from Rome. We receive not an item of news from the Papal States, the interest of the Italian campaign centering in Venetia. It appears that the forces Ital was capable of bringing into the field would have been wholly inadequate to the task of wresting Venetia from Austria, if the latter power had been free to maintain its own without distraction from other quarters. It is the simultaneous attack of Prussia upon various points of the Austrian territory, that gives Italy the only chance of success against an enemy that would have been irresistible if left at liberty to bring to bear its undivided strength upon a single issue. The necessity of encountering the vast armies of Prussia, has greatly limited the resources left at the disposal of Austria for prosecuting the campaign in Italy. Even under these circumstances of disadvantage, however, the armies of the empire have proved more than a match for the forces, including both regular and volunteer troops, which Italy has been able to throw into the field. The great battle of the 24th June, which resulted in the complete defeat of the Italians, followed by the failure of Garibaldi's attack, must have proved both a material and a moral loss, irreparable to Italy but for the strength lent to her by the alliance of Prussia. Our latest dates tell us that the Austrians have commenced the evacuation of Venetia, after a succession of " repulses" by the Italian troops, and that General Cialdini had effected the passage of the Po — the enemy retreating before him. But the evacuation of Venetia must be taken, not as a military necessity, but as the consequence of the formal cession of that province to France ; and the news tells us nothing of a single success on the field of battle gained by Italy beyond the "repulses" referred to, and the victory said to be gained by the volunteers — which latter seems to be irrcconcileabie with the general tenor of the intelligence.

No doubt the advantage rests with Italy ; but only because Prussia has thrown • her legions into the field. Whilst more than showing her power to maintain her ground in her Italian provinces, Austria has been unable, with divided forces, to cope at the same time with the concentrated armies of Prussia, and has sought to airingo

terms of peace through the intervention of the French Emperor. By the cession of Venetia to France, she has virtually handed over that rich province to the Italy to which it belongs, with* out unnecessarily compromising her dignity by its direct surrender to a power tvhieh has proved its inCompetency to conquer it. It is not to bo supposed that Louis Napoleoii would dream of holding Venetia as a French possession. The raoVe of Austria may be, however, a politic one. It constitutes the French Emperor to a great extent the arbiter of the situation, and may be exp"ec ted to secure fdtr Austria more substantial and favorable fe* sulis iroiri His mediation than might otherwise have been possible. Such, at least, was probably the assumption on which the Cabinet of Vienna acted. How far it is likely to be checkmated by the combined determination of Prussia and Italy to listen for the present to no terms of peace, can only be a matter of conjecture. The French neet has proceeded to Venetia to take possession of it ; and the sanguinary war is still going on , Tfyree great niilitarjr {lowers — England, France", aha Russia — are, ao far as anything approaching armed intervention is concerned, passive spectators of the strife. Lord Derby, on behalf of Great Britain, has announced a policy of strict neutrality, which will doubtless be persevered in until the last practicable moment. The Emperor f)f Russia haß engaged Himself to a coiictitional neutrality — the condition being the abstinence of France from all intervention. Louis Napoleon professes peace ; but by undertaking the office of mediator, and especially by accepting the cession of Venetia, he is approaching perilousl}' near to what Russia may interpret as a departure from absolute neutrality. Here we must stop. Events crowd too fast upon the heels of each other, and their raiuificationß are too complicated; to justify further speculation with our preseut amount of knowledge.