The London Times on the War.
THE London Times of the 11th has the following interesting estimate of the magnitude of the impending struggle in Italy. "The brilliant campaigns of Napoleon's youth were made at the head of a few thousand men. Marengo itself was gained by 28,000, but the war of 1805 actively employed about 150,000 French, while in the campaigns of Wagram, Moscow and Leipzig we have incomparably larger armies brought into the field on both sides.—Now the war of 1859 begins on the colossal scale of the latter Empire, and the armies employed may attain dimensions such as no single state has hitherto been capable of producing. Presuming the struggle to be confined to France and Austria, and to the field of northern Italy, we shall have the spectacle of a combat in closed lists such as the world has never before witnessed. If both the antagonists fight well and stubbornly the conflict will be as interesting to the military critic as grievous to the philanthropist. "Both France and Austria will be able to march almost all their enormous forces to the seat of war. Germany will, while the war is confined to Italy, be sufficiently the ally of Austria to guaranty her from any attack in the rear from Russia, but not sufficiently to disturb France by any demonstrations on the Rhine. It may be said that for some time to come at least, the influence of Germany will have the effect of leaving both sides free to use all their strength against each other. That they will use it there is no doubt." "The seat of war adjoins the territory of each; railways and steamers transport their troops easily, and most of the long marches which enfeebled and diminished armies in the days of Napoleon will be avoided. Enormous masses of armed men can be taken to the country they are to fight in as comfortably as if they were merely making a change of quarters. With this facility of transport, and this power of using the whole of their great standing armies, we must expect to see two hosts gathered together on the plains of Italy such as no two single States ever yet opposed to each other. The numbers we do not pretend even to guess at. The French are pushing troops over the Alps and loading their ships of war with soldiers for Genoa. The supply of food will be the only limit to the number which can thus be brought into the field. "The French probably have their information about the Austrian army, as the court of Vienna has its own about French proceedings. But Englishmen are allowed to know little about the matter. There is however, no doubt that the power which sent a quarter of a million of men to Sebastopol within eighteen months will be able to send that number into northern Italy. Considering that the whole of Italy, with 27,000,000 people may shortly be in insurrection, and that Sardinia has some 80,000 troops of her own already, it may be reckoned without exaggeration that more than 300,000 men may in the next two months, be put in a line to drive the Austrians from their carefully chosen and now famous positions in Lombardy. On the other hand Austria can and will no doubt, bring an equal force to the field. She does not want men, for the empire contains 33,000,000 souls, without counting the Italian Provinces. If the Finance Minister can find money to keep 300,000 men on foot in Italy, Gyulai will find work for them all. They will not be men to fight with the spirit and dash of Frenchmen, but they will be fine steady troops, superior in physique to their enemies; they will have all that science has achieved in the way of perfect weapons of destruction, and they will be commanded by officers who know that the eyes of Europe are upon them, and that they must fight now for the very existence of their Empire."