The War in Italy and Hungary

["Neue Rheinische Zeitung"  
No. 257 of 28 March 1849]

* Cologne, 27 March. The war in Italy has begun. With it the Habsburg monarchy has taken upon itself a burden under which it will probably succumb.

As long as Hungary was not in open war with the monarchy as a whole, but merely in a wavering state of war against the South Slavs, it was no art for Austria to deal with the only half-revolutionised, fragmented Italians, paralysed by threefold princely treason. And yet, what trouble it has cost! First the Pope, the Grand Duke of Tuscany had to withdraw their troops — directly or indirectly — from the Venetian territory, first Charles Albert and his partly incapable, partly sold generals had to commit direct treason against the cause of Italy, first of all, now the Magyars, now the South Slavs had to be brought to send troops to Italy through shoulder-shrugging policy and apparent concessions, before Radetzky could win his victories on the Mincio. It is known that it was the en masse deployment of South Slav border regiments to Italy that made the disorganised Austrian army capable of fighting again.

So long, furthermore, as the armistice with Piedmont lasted, so long as Austria was merely obliged to maintain its Italian army at its previous strength, without having to reinforce it extraordinarily, so long could it direct the main body of its 600,000 soldiers against Hungary, could push the Magyars back from one position to another, and finally even, through daily reinforcements arriving, succeed in bringing the Hungarian