The Express.
London, England, 1864-09-30 00:00:00

LONDON, FRIDAY - XIVIININGI# SEPTEMBER 80, 1884.

ITALY.

Ova OWN 0013.1111PONDIMIT.)
TURIN, Serr. 25.
The new cabinet is formed. La Marmora,
Foreign Affairs ; LIUZZI4 Interior ; Sella, Finances ;
Pettiti, War ; M Public Works ; Conforti,
Justine • Longo, Navy; teucci, Public Instrao-
tion ; Natoli, Commerce. The first four ministers
are Piedmontese ; the fifth is a Tuscan engineer and
the director of the Livornese Railway ; Signora
Conforti and Longo are Neapolitans ; "fattened,
Tuscan, and Natoli, Sicilian.
The Piedmontese element is wamount, as you
see, in this combination, and perhaps it is better in
a certain point of view, because the Turineee will
be led to swallow the bitter pill with leas grimace.
But political parties, especially the extreme ones,
will no doubt takeadvantage of this critical political
situation.

TURIN, Sm. 27.
The situation is still the same. Deputy Asa, one of
the municipal councillors, was called upon to report
the result of the inquiries he had been ordered to
I make by the municipal council, and yesterday he did
so amidst a large crowd of spectators. Although
his report was not ready, Signor Am said that its
result. would be the following :—L That the
authors of the sad events of the 21st were the
of public safety, or policemen:-' That • notPrity
did the Carabiniere begin the firing in Piazza
Castello, but that they actually continued to fire
upon the retiring population, and pursued it, still
discharging their muskets iu the midst of the retreat-
I ing crowd. 3. That the first cause of the massacre
of the evening of the 22nd in Piazza San Carlo
was again • the Carabiniers, who indiscriminately
opened fire upon the population, and the troops
standing at the sides of the square. T
according to Signor Aza's report, they did withouthis,
the three conditions required by the law. " All
these facts," concludes the report, " have been
proved by written and rise nice evidence not only
of Italian witnesses but also of English, Polish, and
Prussian gentlemen." If not from the report of
Deputy Am, at least from the declaration made at
the sitting of the municipal council of yesterday by
Deputy Tecchio, it is proved that, superseding the
Questore, or Director of the Police, Signor Spaventa
had placed the police-office under the personal
direction of three of his more devoted employis of
the Home-office. The semi-official press of the
dismissed cabinet was also denounced in that meet-
ing by Councillor Roeetti, who said it was still
paid to publish the most iniquitous calumnies
against the mayor, Marquis Bora, and his muni-
cipal colleagues. It is also generally asserted
in the lobby of the Chamber of Deputies, and in
other places, that letters and newspapers had been
stopped by Signor Spaventa's orders. Of course,
this accusation,' if true, will be substantiated
by legal proofs, when an inquiry is ordered by
both houses of parliament All these on dits, as
you may imagine, cannot fail to increase the excite-
ment of people here. They may be groundless,
but unhappily they are considered as true even by
the most serious people, no matter whether they
are senators, deputies, newspaper writers, noble-
men, or merchants. This morning, for instance, a
young man who was wounded on the 72nd, and
who subsequently died from his wounds, was
buried with great pomp. The epitaph, which it
is customary to have printed in capital
letters at the foot of the coffin, stated
that the young man had been murdered
by fratricidal bullets on the terrible evening of the
72nd. I myself followed the sad procession in
Dora Groesa-street, and all the way I heard only
vows of revenge against Signors Spaventa and
Peruzzi. If not apparent the excitement is there-
fore still the same within the minds of this exaspe-
rated population.
It seems that General Lamannora has not yet
succeeded, as was announced, in forming his cabinet.

SPAIN.

(nox oua owx onantoxotn.)
MADRID, Sm. 24.

Three Cabinet Councils have been held during
the present week. At the first it was resolved to
relieve the press from all the penalties which bad
been imposed upon it under the rule of the late
administration • at the second, it was determined
to dissolve the Cortes, and a decree to that effect
appeared in the Official Gazette of yesterday.
In the first of these measures the new govern-
ment has taken upon itself the performance of a
task eminently required by public opinion. The
press was gagged by the Mon administration in
order to conceal its own weakness and unpopularity,
and the fines and penalties to which it was sub-
jected under the most paltry pretences, had become
quite unbearable. General ISlervaez, in remitting
all these tines and penalties, at once throws himself
on public opinion and expresses his dissent from the
policy of his predecessors in office.
The dissolution of the Cortes was inevitable. The
last Cortes was an assemblage elected under the
auspices of Senor Mon, in a wanner so unsatisfac-
tory to the Progressista party that they refused
to allow themselves to be put in nomination
for any of the constituencies. The deputies
were, therefore, all partisans and creatures of the
minister of the day ; and General Narvaez, if
be desired to govern upon principles satisfactory to
the nation, could do no less than send this body
about its business. He has accordingly taken the
earliest opportunity of doing so.
Very much, however, will depend upon the mode
in which the elections to the new Cortes are con-
ducted. They are fixed to take place on the 22nd
of November, an interval cf two months. This
interval gives the government time to change the
governors of the provinces, and to appoint through-
out all the districts of pain officers in their own
interests, who will be able to influence the electoral
bo lies, and, if needful, even the elections themselves.
Already, as long lists of new appointments
testify, they are setting about this work. But, in
order to satisfy the nation, the electoral bodies must
be left, to a great extent, to their own free action.
If there is too much appearance of the exercise of
influence, the Progressistas will again refuse to
take any part in the elections ; and if they con-
tinue iu that policy, it is doubtful whethermuch will
be gained to the government by the new elections.
What is needed in Spain, and what the friends of
the new administration contend that it desires, is a
free expression of public opinion. A Cortes is wanted
for the calm and fair consideration of the condi-
tion of the country ; nut in a spirit of party, but
with a view substantially to the public weal. For
this object it is, however, obvious that all sections
and classes of politicians must be represented ; and
another such a Cortes as the last, which was only
intruded to register the decrees of the minister,
would sink into the same contempt, and be equally
useless in influencing, advantageously, the interests
of the nation.

The true policy of the new administration is,
therefore, to endeavour to popularize themselves
with the country pending the elections ; and to
allow the public voice to be freely and fairly repre-
sented when those elections come to pass. It is
not to be supposed that they are to take no part in
the elections ; of course, a government which
charges itself with the affairs of a nation must feel
great anxiety as to the results, and most take no in-
considerable share in the conduct, of the electoral
contests. But a fair stage must be given to op-
ponents ; and if this is wisely and discreetly dove
by the present government, there may be hope that
the next Cortes will really be of a useful body.
The new Cortes, I should add, is summoned to
meet one month from the date of its election,
namely, on the 22nd of December. This, how-
ever, is only pro /ovoid, to enable the deputies to
take the oaths before Christmas, sod perhaps M.

afford the government an opportunity of meeting
with them, and influencing them, pending the com-
mencement of the real work of the session. That
real work will not, I understand, begin until the
6th of January.

HOLIDAY-MAKING ABROAD.

(DIJON /.

FLORENCE, Sm. 24.
Congratulations, hand-sbakings, and delighted
approval, have commingled with expressions of
sympathy for the King, regret for the Turinese, and
profound sorrow for the unhappy incident, news of
which reached us almost concurrently with that of
the projected change of capital. The contrast be-
tween the free, open, and somewhat vehement
flow of public opinion here, and the sad, crushed,
and habil-down condition of Venice, is the more
striking when the traveller is present at such a time
as this. For the last three days and nights the
streets have been alive with men, women, and
children eagerly discussing the news. The visitor
had only to seat himself at the Caffd Donny two
evenings ago to gain an insight into the state of
Florentine public feeling, and to appreciate its
mode of expression and its influence on events.
The mom is full. Not • small marble table, nor a
velvaliapvered conch, bat has !Wen its
.fiantnei of well-dreesed, refined, In at men,
who canvass the latest rumours, and express confi-
dence or forebodings with greater or lees vivacity.
With the exception of those belonging than English
party, who are noisily comparing their recently pur-
chased inlaid marble brooches, pipes, rings, and
gew-gaws, in the centre of the room, and who seem
frivolous enough when compared with the earnest
talkers around, there are no ladies present. Inde-
pendently of its not being the custom here for
Italian wives and daughters to accompany their
lords to the cafts, political interest at this crisis
supersedes all thoughts of gallantry, and from the
hackney carriage drivers outside to the waiters
monotonously crying out within, there is but one
feeling, intense surprise that the proverbially
quiet, orderly, and patient Turinese should have
been guilty of insubordination, and profound sym-
pathyfor Victor Emmanuel, who, it is insis:ed, must
have sacrificed ilia own inclinations when he con-
sented to the coming change. To the King, indeed,
the transfer of the seat of government from Turin
to Florence must be personally a sore trial. It will
separate him from a place sod a people with whom
he reciprocates the most ardent affection, will place
distance and other obstacles between him and his
beloved mountains, and will offer little in exchange
save salons and such mild and inferior sport
as is to be obtained near Piss, and other places
within easy reach of here. Having willingly given
up all this, it is felt to be hard indeed that he
should be exposed to the misery and pain of find-
ing that his countrymen are inconsiderate enough
to rebel, and the effect of this sad incident upon
the poor King is one of the most fiequent specula-
lions you bear. On the other side of the street is
the Jockey Club, and the liveried Jeanie* outside is
descanting eloquently upon the future of Florence
to a circle of intimates • a few yards to the left is •
hackney-carriage stand, and here the supplement
to the Zensoro (the organ of the extreme red party)
is being eagerly listened to and read. It contains
little more than the news already known, and a
highly fervid extract from the Diritto of Turin, but
is rapidly bought up, the hawkers coming freely
into caffd and hotel, end frequently having to return
to the office for a fresh stock of supplements, which
are of the size of half • sheet of letter paper.
and sparsely printed on one side. No fancy price
is charged, however, and the " five centeeimi," in
large characters, at its foot, sufficiently satisfies the
'ellen. The tone and temper of the extract sold,
its appeals to Heaves, and its denunciations of the
government, are convincing proofs that the freedom
of the press in Italy is no empty phrase, but
that, through it, public men and public
measures are exposed to the most sweep-
ing censure and the most searching criti-
cism. This young free press is like • miser's
heir, who has suddenly leapt from repression and
poverty to independence and wealth, and if it occa-
sionally indulges in extravagance it is but develop-
ing a phase of character which English journalism
has survived. The readers before us do not seem
greatly impressed with the " word-painting" in
their hands, and by many a shiug of the shoul-
ders, elevation of the eyebrows, and uplifting of the
hands, express dissatisfaction with the opinion ex-
pressed. The bad despatch of a bad paper,"
remarks an old gentleman. " The black party is
at the bottom of the whole affair," replies another.
"We shall have perfectly quiet news in
the morning," says • third ; while the whis-
pers, and in one case the conversation
carried on in writing at the same table,
all denote the deep and absorbing interest taken
in the change. Land and houses in eligible situa-
tions have greatly risen in value. Speculators from
Milan, Turin, and other parts of Italy, are busily
treating for sites. Theatres, squares,andpiazzas are
contemplated, and many a private gentleman is
being tempted to part with mansion and garden
by the high price to which he finds his property
suddenly risen. There are, it is said, thirty-seven
monasteries in and about Florence which can easily
be converted into public offices and devoted to the
use of government, and no section of the city
seems too remote to be affected by the coming
events, which are casting so brilliant a local shadow
before. The attack of brigands on the family of an
English gentleman outside the gates of Florence,
nod the detention of his son, sounds very differently
when talked over in society here, to the impres-
sion conveyed in the grandiloquent letter which
appeared in the Times. How much was fact and
how much fiction in that highly-coloured and dra-
matic production I will not undertake to say, but if
unanimity of public opinion be worth aught, a
highly ornate superstructure has been raised upon
the very slenderest foundation. The gentleman
in question* it is said, employing labourers at
"starvation prices," and the grandiloquent attack
of brigands resolves itself, as I hear, into the
strike of a few ground-down hungry men engaged
in building or enlarging a country house. Their
alleged conduct is, of course, indefensible, but the
story, when pruned of fancy-work, is scarcely of
dimensions to justify reference to Italy's obligations
to England, or to exalt its narrator into a hero,
whose wrongs demand national expiation or excep-
tional redress.

MIDLAND COUNTI6II ANTI-MALT-TAX. AERIOCIA-
mos.—A meeting of the *emaciation was held at Birosing,
hem yesterday, and wee &needed by delegates from various
districts. The choir wee lint takes by Mr. Osborne, of
Stafford ; and subsequently by Mr. G. Storer, of Nankeen).
tonsliire. The speeches delivered were chiefly urging the
necessity of every effort being made to obtain the repeal of
the " obnoxious tax." Mr. limners suggested as • substi-
tute for logs of revenue that fret lied sewed clam palliatives '
should be taxed • penny each ; coal to be taxed ls. per toe
at the pit's mouth ; also a tax of 3d. in the pound on all
property assigned to the relief of the poor. the last-aimed
taxes to be removed as sabstitutes were provided. Ulti-
mately a resolution wee mend to the effect that "the
members of the Midland Uoaatiee Anti-Malt-Tax Awn-
elation hereby pledge themselves to vote oaly for Wes
members of perinment who are in favour of • repeal
the malt-tax, and to nse all influence to induce others to
do the same." A committee was appointed to obtain
finds for offering prises of 261. and 101.. fee the fist end
mooed best emays "showing the material benefit that will
arise from • repeal of the malt-tax.
Tin Corrals Mermen. —The evidence of the
increasing disbar in three district* is accumulating almost
daily. It wee stated at the meeting of the Oldham guerdiame
on Wedseeday, that the number of ponces relieved lee
week was 1,579, being an increase of 879 over the week pre-
ceding ; while 1,766 additional applications ohms before the
local relief committee, making the total number upon their
books 3,f17. The fileekhurs relief committee, miter seems&
leg operatioas for three mottle, have resolved to remise
applleatioue for the relief et the unemployed mina
lives. It appears that at the pretest ties there well;
operatives out of work is Bleachers, and Omit 3,000 work- I
short thee.