The Press. — London, England, 1856-05-17 00:00:00

470 It is impossible to acknowledge the mass of letters we receive Their insertion is often delayed owing to a press of matter, mid when omitted, it is frequently from reasons quite inde pendent of the merits of the communication. We cannot undertake to return communications of which we do not avail ourselves. Cemmunications should always be legibly written, and on one side of the paper only. If long it increases the difficulty of finding space for them. Whatever is intended for insertion must be authenticated by the name and address of the writer, not necessarily for publica tion, but as a guarantee of his good faith. Advertisements sent from the country must be accompanied by a remittance or a reference for payment in town. TERMS OF ebe Vrezz: (STAMPED.) Per Annnm ~. - £1 _6 0 Half-Yearly .., Quarterly .. 0 18 0 „. 0 6 6 Payable in advance. Subscribers are requested to send their Orders throughtheir News Agent; tf direct to the Office. accompanied by a remit tance. Advertisements also must have a reference or remittance Money Orders to be made payable to Mr. AEYEEn I vE, 110 Strand London. ins iritglzi+ LONDON, SATURDAY, MAY 17, 1856. POSTSCRIPT. The Indipendance Beige, received yesterday, makes the following statement with reference to tho peace : It is certain that no one can any longer doubt the existence of a secret treaty between France, Austria, and England, as a corollary of the treaty of April 15. But what is the Mar, or rather the object of that treaty ? On this point there is room for a host of suppositions. That some are strange and ridiculous it is unnecessary to say; but we cannot class amongst those the supposition that the treaty provides for the contingency of Turkey being seriously weakened by what she has suffered during the war, and by the attempts to introduce reforms into the Turkish empire. In saying that this supposition is not the moat impossible, we guard ourselves from asserting that this alone is the special or only object of the secret league supposed to be established between Austria and the two great maritime powers. The IndeTendance states, on the faith of letters from Paris, that the Grand Duke of Tuscany has positively refused to conclude the Concordat so eagerly desired by the Holy See. The satisfaction at ihie news was so great in Florence that the? are preparing a grand ovation against the return of the Grand Duke to the capital. Intelligence from Paris, Friday, one p.m., states : The Archduke Maximilian of Austria arrived here yes terday evening. He proceeded with his suite in the court carriages to St. Cloud. A despatch from Berlin announcer the Princess Paskiewitch on the 14tb. the death of The Brazilian mail, with dates from Buenos Ayres to April 3rd, Rio April 15th, arrived at Southampton yesterday. Letters from Buenos Ayres state that General Urquiza was gaining ground, but an aggressive war was not expected. News from Monte Video is discouraging, and mat ters are reported as very unsatisfactory. Oribe was in the ascendant. A serious question had arisen between the Go• vernment of Paraguay and the French Consul, re specting the treatment of a colony of French settlers, and it was feared that some trouble would ensue with the Italian colony at Patagonas. A Cabinet Council was held on Saturday at the Foreign•oflice, Downing-street. All the Ministers were present. The Council sat two hours. A Cabinet Council will be held at the Foreign office this day, at two p.m. The Duke of Somerset, Lord Stanley, Mr. Sidney Herbert, Mr. Edward Ellice, Lieut. General Wyn• yard, Sir de Lacy Evans, Sir Harry Jopes, Sir Henry Bentinck, Carr Glynn, Esq., and Colonel Wetherall, have been appointed by special commission to in• quire into the system of purchase in the army and the sale of commiseions. The review at Windsor, stated as fixed to be held on the 20th inst., will not iake plane, 111111111&,. THE PRESS. The banquet proposed to be given by the Lord Mayor and the Lady Mayoress on Tuesday, the 27th inst., to her Majesty's judges and the members of the bar, is unavoidably postponed to the following day. Dr. Hassan was presented, by a number of noble men and gentlemen, on Thursday evening, at a public dinner at the Freemasons' Tavern, with a v.iry handsome testimonial for his Tabours in detect ing the adulteration of food. From the number of placards put up in the metro polis inviting the working classes to attend in the Parks on Sunday next, and to bring their own music, it is much to be feared that the assemblage will not be so orderly as for some Sundays past. General Lord Gough has left town on Wednes day evening, with a numerous staff, to present to the officers and soldiers of the French army the medals sent by the Quen as a recognition of their brilliant services in the Crimean campaigns. THE CONGRESS AND THE ITALIAN QUESTION. Two important notes, presented by Sardinia to the late Paris Congress, have been published this week. The one is upon the position of the Pontifical States, the other on the general position of Italy, and both with respect to foreign occupation. A memorandum upon the state of Italy of great State importance is believed to exist in defence of these notes. The note verbale presented on the 27th March gives a sketch of the state of the French Revolution of '93, pointing out that at the general peace of 1815 the Pope returned to Rome without perceiving the pro gress of ideas and the profound changes which the French regime had introduced,—the struggle between the Government and people, and the three interferences of Austria to re-establish the authority of the Pope repudiated by his subjects. The present 'deplorable position of the Legations is then briefly touched upon as " occupied by Austrian troops, and kept without cessation under a state of siege and martial law since 1845." " The PAtifical Government exists only in name," observes the note, "since over its legates an Austrian general takes the title and exercises the functions of civil and military governor." - The question than is put how to get rid of this in tolerable burden, and answered in the words of the Emperor of the French, " by secularisation and by the Code Napoleon ": But it is evident (continues the note) that the Court of Rome will resist to the last moment and with all the means at its command the realisation of those two pro jects. It is evident that Rome may, in appearance, consent to accept civil reforms, and even political, while rendering them illusory in practice. But Rome under stands too well that secularisation and the Code Napoleon introduced into Rome itself, where rests the edifice of her temporal power, would undermine that power at its basis, and bring it to the ground, by depriving it of its principal supports—clerical privileges and canonic law. Therefore, to secure the temporal power of the Holy See without the necessity of foreign occupation, the note proposes : 1. The provinces of the Roman States, situate between the Po, the Adriatic, and the Apennines, from the province of Cremona to that of Ferrara, remaining always subject to the high domination of the Holy See, would be corn pletely secularised and organised in regard to the adminis- trative, judicial, military, a•id financial affairs, in a manner quite separate and independent from the remainder of the Papal States. Nevertheless the religious and diplomatic relations would remain exclusively under the control of the Court of Rome. `2. The territorial and administrative organisation of this apostolic principality would he established in conformity with what existed under the reign of Napoleon 1., until the year 1814. The Code Napoleon would be promulgated, with the requisite modifications of all that refers to the relation of Church and State. 3. The lay Pontifical Viceroy ( vicario ) to govern the provinoes with the assistance of Ministers and a Council of State. The proposition of the Viceroy—nominated by the Pope—would be guaranteed as to the duration of his functions—which should be at least for ten years. 4. The Ministers, Councillors of State, and all officials indiscriminately, would be named by the Pontifical Vice roy. Their legislative power would not extend to religious and other affairs, to mixed affairs which would be previously determined upon, or, finally, to anything connected with political international relations. These provinces ought to contribute in a just proportion to the support of the Court of Rome, and the reduction of the existing public debt. 5. A native army would be immediately organised by means of military conscription. Besides the provincial and communal councils, a general council would be estab• lished for the audit and regulation of the budget. This note was followed by another upon " The State of Italy," presented on the 16th of April, 1856, the day after the signature of the treaty of the 15th by England, France, and Austria. The note opens with an expression of disappointment at nothing having been done by the Congress ik ameliorate the iAs pf an 4 attributes that unfortunate result SATURDAY, to the refusal of Austria to discuss any matter beyond the limits of the Eastern ques.ion. It then briefly touches upon the state of Italy :-- It would be superfluous to trace here an exact picture o Italy. What has taken place in those countries is too no torious. The system of repression and violent reaction commenced in 1848 and IB49—justified in its origin, perhaps, by the revolutionary disturbances which had just been suppressed—continues without the smallest reins. tion. It may even be said, with few exceptions, it is exer. cised with redoubled rigour. Never were the prisons and dungeons more full of persona condemned for political causes; never has the number of exiles been greater; never has tho police been more vexatious, nor martial law more severely applied. What is taking ph►oe at karma only proves this too clearly. The hope that the great Western powers would not separate without remedying these. evils is declared to have kept the people of late " calm and resigned," but the negative results of the Congress would awaken the dormant irritation more violently then ever : Convinced that they have nothing to expect from diplo macy and the efforts of the powers which take an interest in their fate, they will throw themselves with Southern ardour into the ranks of the revolutionary and subversive party, and Italy will again become a hotbed of contzpirs cies and tumults, which may perhaps be suppressed by redoubled rigour, but which the least European comma lion will make burst forth in the most violent manner. So lamentable a state of things, it is declared, ex pose the kingdom of Piedmont to the most gray dangers, which may compromise her hitherto firm and moderate policy. But this is not Piedmont's only danger. The Austrian occupation of Italy is a far greater evil : Called by the sovereigns of the small States of Italy who are powerless to repress the discontent of their subjects, this power occupies militarily the greater part of the valley of the Po and of Central Italy, and makes its influence felt in an irresistible manner even in the countries where she has no soldiers. Resting on one side on Ferrara and bologna, her troops extend themselves to Ancona, the length of the Adriatic, which has become in a manner an Austrian lake ; on the other, mistress of Piacenza, which, contrary to the spirit, if not to the letter, of the treaties of Vienna, she labours to transform into a first-class fortress, she has a garrison at Parma, and makes dispositions to deploy her forces all along the Sardinian frontier, from the Po to the summit of the Apennines. These permanent occupations by Austria of terri tories which do not belong to her render her absolute mistress of nearly all Italy, destroy the equilibrium established by the treaty of Vienna, and are a con tinual menace .for Piedmont : Surrounded, in some degree, on all aides, by the Aus trians—seeing developed on her eastern frontier, com•• pletely open, the forces of a power which she knows not to be animated by friendly feelings towards her—this country is held in a state of cor.stant apprehension, which obliges her to remain armed, and to take defensive mea sures which are excessively burdensome for her finances, already tasked by the events of 1848 and 1849, and by the war in which she has just participated. That England and France will not permit this state of affairs to continue longer without remedy, the Sar dinian Plenipotentiaries, at the conclusion, express themselves convinced, because it constitutes a seat of danger to Europe. "If Sardinia," says the note, " were obliged to submit to Austrian domination, then the conquest of Italy by this power would be achieved ; and Austria, after having obtained, with out it costing her the least sacrifice, the immense benefit of the free navigation of the Danube and the neutralisation of the Black Sea, would acquire a pre ponderating influence in the West." COUNT ORLOFF, it ;s declared in Paris, was most seriously disturbed by the publication of the tri partite treaty of the 15th April, and is reported to have had a special audience of the Emperor of the French, to ask for explanation. The Russian Pleni potentiary, ssys a letter from Paris, represented to his Majesty that this treaty, unexplained, was con strued by his Government as a symptom of want of confidence in the good faith of Russia. The Emperor Napoleon protested against any such interpretation, and assured Count Orloff that he had only signed the treaty in compliance with the wishes of England Austria, who desired to have a pledge of his good feeling towards them. Count Orloff replied, with as much vivacity as it was possible for a diplo matist to exhibit in presence of a reigning monarch, that the treaty of peace of March 30th effectually secured the independence and integrity of the Ottc man empire, that the Emperor Napoleon had, before the signing of that treaty, given strong assurances of his desire to cultivate intimate relations with Russia, and that the unexpected step which had been taken was calculated to sow doubt mid distrust in the mind of his Imperial master. During this remarkable interview the Emperor Napoleon 111. preserved that calm and impenetrable demeanour for which he is remarkable, while Count Orloff scarcely concealed the excitement and surprise whic.h the new situation had produced in bis wind,