Italy. No. 69, August 8, 1848 Neue Rheinische Zeitung.
* Milan, July 30. Young and old are occupied with the fortification works, and all men in any way fit for field service are hastening to arms and away to the most threatened points. The route from Brescia to here is still open; Peschiera is well provisioned and defended. The government of Lombardy has just issued a decree, Article I of which reads: The Fatherland adopts all the children of the victims fallen in the glorious days of the revolution. The boys are to be educated at public expense, and the state reserves to itself, moreover, the right to assign them to a civil or military career. The girls receive a pension of 600 lire in equal shares. Article III. The wounded who have become incapable of work are to receive, as long as no special invalids’ institution has been established, a life pension of 600 lire. – The engagement at Cremona, in which, as already reported, the Piedmontese remained victorious, leads us to suppose that Radetzky has crossed the Oglio near Macaria and has closely followed the Piedmontese army in its retreat. Fanti, who had assumed supreme command in Brescia, has returned on account of his appointment as president of the defence committee, and General Griffini has been sent there by the committee.

Milan, July 30. The defence committee, considering that the defence of the fatherland is a duty from which no one may withdraw, and that emigration weakens not only the means of defence of the country, but also its prosperity, has resolved: No native may leave the territory of Lombardy, except with special permission of the defence committee, which in such case issues a passport. Anyone who emigrates without such a passport is publicly declared a traitor to the fatherland and his property confiscated.

The republican organ “l’Italia del Popolo”, published by Mazzini, remarks: “The crisis is alarming and unexpected. A people that for four months has been fed with deceptions by its government, and which, from the enumeration in the bulletins of the Austrians killed, wounded and captured, was bound to believe the enemy army long since annihilated, has suddenly awoken to the cry: ‘The enemy is at the gates!’ It had been prophesied wonders of good fortune, if it would only decide at once, without discussion, on monarchical incorporation; and since then a series of uninterrupted mishaps has taken from it the Venetian territory and led the enemy straight through the scattered ranks of the army into the heart of Lombardy, so that he now threatens the capital. And they demand that this people should not ‘be alarmed’? That it should not seize with eagerness and avidity all the rumours that come to its ears about enemy movements and threatening dangers? Let the people, even with exaggeration, be vigilant against the dangers threatening it; it will perhaps be all the better prepared to overcome them.”

Milan, August 1. God help us to get through this trial too! The Austrians are approaching; the Piedmontese army is falling back on the strong, but last line of the Adda, if possible to save the city, which is arming itself for defence. Now at last the energetic measures are being taken which should have been taken long ago.

August 2. Charles Albert’s headquarters is in Lodi, five hours from here. (Schweizerische National-Z.)

Cremona, July 29. I am not going to headquarters; headquarters is coming to me. Yesterday Charles Albert was at Bozzolo, and today he has decided to proceed here. From all I hear, of the 80,000 men of the Italian army, at most 20,000 remain at the moment who are capable of actual service and combat. The army is, as it were, dissolved, and cannot be reunited, however hard one strives to assemble all those who have fallen back on Brescia and Cremona with the division still under the king’s command. The king tries in vain to make a stand before the victorious army. The sooner he returns to Piedmont, the better for him. There he can expect a peace that is still very favourable for him ... No one is to blame but Charles Albert.

He always gave preference to such generals as neither deserved nor enjoyed the soldiers’ confidence ... We were victorious in every engagement; we killed and wounded 15,000 of the enemy, took 3,000 prisoners from him. And yet we had to yield, because we had no reserve, and no arrangements had been made to strengthen the exhausted. Indeed, the troops were left almost 3 days practically without any provisions. The enemy’s victory is solely and exclusively due to the fact that he possessed a reserve of fresh troops, which he threw on our flank after we had defeated him in front. Is it not heart-breaking that, after Somma Campagna was taken and retaken, the Austrians twice driven out of Sona, and the steep slope of Custozza stormed at the point of the bayonet, we still saw ourselves compelled to fall back on Villafranca, because the men collapsed from hunger, because fresh enemy troops from Verona advanced at the opportune moment, because we were left without rations and at many points without ammunition? I believe that bread and wine were sent to the soldiers from time to time. But the drivers cut the traces, fled, and left the wagons standing on the road; it was the same with the ammunition wagons. Such things are not accidents but crimes, because the wagon drivers had no sufficient escort. (Private correspondence of the Times.)

Genoa, July 29. The far from cheering news from the theatre of war has by no means discouraged the people, but spurred them on to still greater energy. Priests are inciting to a crusade for liberty. Yesterday almost the whole population assembled in a great demonstration amid the thundering cry: To arms! Away to the battlefield! An energetic address against the whole previous weak, senseless or treasonable conduct of the ministers and the useless debates of the deputies was covered within a few hours with many thousands of signatures and sent to Turin.

* Turin, July 31. The law investing the king with unlimited full powers for the duration of the struggle for independence was adopted by the deputies by 95 votes to 3. On the other hand, 43 deputies placed on record their protest against this illegal measure. “La Concordia” says in today’s issue on the present state of Europe: “After the victory of moral force in Europe during the memorable month of March, the realm of brutal force, of the superior number, of the mass is now pressing forward. The mighty outbreak of the word is followed by the eloquence of cannons; behind the sublime ideas of independence and freedom resounds the hoofbeat of the war-horses. And not for Italy alone, but also for you, of the new Germany, who would make a monopoly of freedom and independence. While in Italy a desperate struggle is being fought between barbarism and civilisation: mark well what is being prepared for you! The King of Prussia, through his envoy Pfuel, whispered softly into the Czar’s ear: the Czar nodded approvingly, to express: ‘We understand each other!’ Austria has posed as German, in order to have the help of other German-speaking peoples against those who speak Italian ... But if Russia and the Croats stand together on the one side, then Germany, Hungary and Italy should stand together on the other.”