PROSPECT IN EUROPE

Publishing Committee · Battle Creek, Mich. · May 5, 1859

PROSPECT IN EUROPE.

That a great war is impending over the Continent, is no longer doubted. The march of Austrian battalions to Italy and the preparations of arms and munitions by France are accelerated. There has been a further and serious decline in the French stocks. We believe Piedmont is in imminent danger of a crushing invasion from Lombardy—that Austria will but act with ordinary prudence in thus averting the blow which else is sure to fall. An army of 200,000 Austrians, resolutely led, might drive the Piedmontese forces over the Alps in a week, investing Alessandria and capturing Turin and Genoa before the French could interpose in force. The seat of war thus transferred to the Alps and Savoy, with Piedmont practically extinguished, Louis Napoleon and Cavour would find the entertainment quite other than that to which they are self-invited. True, Austria is not famed for quickness of apprehension or of movement; were her Emperor a Napoleon I., he would manifestly thus confront the imminent peril. Italy behind a great and triumphant Austrian army is not formidable; with the French on the Mincio or Adige and the

Austrian on the defensive, it may be quite otherwise.

—We say to our farmers—Plant and sow freely, persistently; for Grain and Meat are likely to be in demand next Fall. The war which now threatens is unlikely to be a short and cannot be a little one. It is likely to array a Million of men in arms against each other, subtracting many times that number from productive industry, to employ them in casting cannon, making powder, charging shells, &c., &c. All these must eat, and battle-fields are not well adapted to the growth of food. We shall be disappointed if Europe does not afford us a large market for Breadstuffs before the end of the current year.—Tribune.