The Express.
London, England, 1851-03-25 00:00:00

ITALY.

ROME, 144 amt 14.
It would be difficult to describe the feeling of dis-
appointment and mortification, with which the intel-
ligence of the Russell ministry's re-instatement has
been received in the ecclesiastical circles generally,
and amongst the partisans of the papal government.
I have already stated that a tory ministry, in spite
of its determined hostility to the see of Rome's pre-
tensions in a religious point of view, would have
been hailed with joy by the greater part of the
sacred college and the Roman prelacy, on account of
its line of policy being considered, to a certain de-
gree, homogeneous with that of his holiness, espe-
cially as regards foreign affairs, and it may therefore
be readily imagined with what a revulsion of feeling
Lord Palmerston's return to the Foreign-office has
been rewarded at the Vatican, after the flattering,
although momentary, prospect of such an ally in that
important branch of the ministry as Mr. Disraeli.
Such, however, is the fate of human expectations and
hopes - nor is even infallibility exempt from the
general rule—
Ncmo tam divas habuit faventes,
Crastinum ut posit sits pollieeri.
It appears certain that a consistory will be held at
the end of the present month, wherein thu creation
lof several cardinals will be announced, amongst
others that of Monsignor Savelli, the present Minis-
'ter of the Interior, who, upon receiving the hat, will
give up his portfolio, and be sent into the provinces
as Cardinal Legate, according to the new system of
territorial division and government. Monsignor
Viale, now nuncio at Vienna, is also mentioned as likely
to bo promoted to the purple. Cardinal Altieri has
been offered the portfolio of the Interior, when left
vacant by Monsignor Savelli's appointment, but it is
as vet doubtful whether he will accept of the charge.
Ca;dinal Fornari will be appointed to the responsible
I office of Secretary of State for Extraordinary Eccle-
siastical Affairs ; a very important nomination,
Iwhen it is considered that most of the tran-
sactions of the papal court with foreign powers
may be comprised under that head. The most
eminent Lambruschini,who preceded Cardinal Fornari,
as papal nuncio at Paris, preceded him also in the
above-named secretaryship, and was generally con-
sidered to have discharged the spiritual part of his
duty with zeal and discretion. Cardinal Antonelli
will not, it is understood, give up his position as
pro-Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs; on the
contrary, he will advance in rank by dropping the
pro before his title. Other weighty matters will be
treated of in the Consistory ; such as the carrying'
into effect of the long threatened taxes upon trades-
men and commercial men of every description, agri-
culturists, and professional men; in fact, upon the
whole industrious part of the population. This will
be the bitterest pill of all the consistorial delibera-
tions, especially as some such measure is absolutely
necessary for the restoration of the dilapidated
finances of the state. Hitherto the chief resource
of the Minister of Finance has been the coining ci
Icopper money, of which 200,000 dollars' worth were
in circulation under the republican government, and
to which Signor Galli added in the course of lag
year 675,000 dollars more, and his plan for the pre-
sent year amounts to no less a sum than 1,100,000
Idollars, which, in copper, forms an enormous masa
of metal, but as the gain to the treasury is about 46
or 50 per cent., the advantage of the speculation h
very evident. The consequence of this copper deluge
is that continual disputes are arising between com-
mercial men with respect to the payment of bills,
wherein metal is specified as a condition in the re-
imbursement, meaning, of course, silver. Some edict
is soon expected on the subject.