_July 13th._--We had scarcely had time to begin discussing and speculating on the probable results of the armistice, before the news of peace being actually concluded burst upon us. As yet we have only the great fact itself and the skeleton of the arrangement, and we shall probably be for some time without materials for judging as to the merits of the Treaty of Peace and its probable consequences, but the first impressions and the first ideas that present themselves may be worth recording. There is no denying that the Emperor Napoleon has played a magnificent part, and whatever we may think of his conduct, and the springs of his actions, he appears before the world as a very great character.[1] Though he can lay no claim to the genius and intellectual powers of the first Napoleon, he is a wiser and a soberer man, with a command over himself and a power of self-restraint, and consequently of moderation in pursuit of objects, which the other did not possess, and therefore while the towering genius of the uncle led him on through magnificent achievements and stupendous vicissitudes to his ruin, it appears highly probable that the better regulated mind and the habitual prudence of the nephew will preserve him from the commission of similar errors, and render his career somewhat less splendid, but more durable and infinitely more beneficial to his country. With regard to the present affair, the first thing we must be struck with is the way in which the King of Sardinia has been treated. Napoleon, indeed, tosses him a large share of the spoils, but not only was he not admitted to the Conference which led to peace, but he does not appear to have been consulted upon it any more than any of the French generals; the only notice that was taken of the King (so far as we know) being that he was ordered, upon the conclusion of the armistice, to desist from the siege of Peschiera. I had heard before that the Emperor was extremely disgusted with his ally and Cavour, and at all that the latter had said and done, at the proclamations and other documents he had put forth, and at the audacious manner in which that Government had annexed every scrap of territory they could lay their hands on, and assumed the government of every State that they could manage to revolutionise, and all without the sanction and concurrence of the Emperor. Nothing is more likely than that the Italian War will not be closed without much bickering and heartburning between the two allies, and that the King and his Cavour will find, in spite of all they are to obtain, that they will have no bed of roses to repose upon after their fatigues and labours.[2]