The Express.
London, England, 1861-02-19 00:00:00

AUSTRIA.

The declaration of the state of siege at Fiume,
announced by telegraph, is variously explained.
The Austrian, Gaut& endeavours to depreciate the
political significance of the disturbances, attribut-
ing them mainly to the appointment of an unpopu-
lar "Judge of the Capitanate." The following
letter from Vienna, dated Feb. 13, published in the
Currenpolulance Bullier gives then) a more serious
aspect :
Fiume has been declared in • state of siege. This is •
purely defensive measure adopted through fear of a dis-
embarkation of Italians or Hungarians. The population of
the town and district of Fiume is hostile to Croatia, who
seized on it in 1848, and treated it badly enough, and it
stretches out its hands on the one side to the Italians, and
on the other to the Hungarians, begging the favour of being
re:incorporated with Hungary, to which it was united for
so many centuries. It appears that the government, dis-
trusting the temper of the population, fears lest the Hun-
garians and Italian. should choose this district as a secret
place of rendezvous and as the basis of operations fur a
Garibaldian expedition. It is supposed that the precautions
taken by the military authorities are only the commence-
ment of a series of ordinances which will be applied with
the greatest rigour to the whole of Hungary.
There is • merlons split in the ministry on this subject,
sad the rumour of the retirement of the Hungarian Chan-
cellor, Baron Vey, is widely believed. It is explained by
the Schmerling-Plener party's having voted in favour of
these measures for putting an end to the Hungarian agitation,
and its having prevailed over the opposition of the Hun-
garian ministers. The latter will refuse to lend their sanc-
tion to acts of violence ; they will prefer to resign and keep
their popularity, already somewhat compromised. This
ticklish situation has produced • 'sort of panic on the Bourse,
and I fancy one that will Let some time.

The following is the note from the Austria,'
Oczette, announced by telegraph, on the statute of
the empire :

The provincial statutes u well as the statute concerning
the Council of the Empire, have been sent to the imperial
print.ing.offiuo, with a report from the Minister of State that
serves as an introduction to them. The provincial statutes
will be sanctioned at the same time for all the provinces of
the empire. The provincial Diets will have some rather
extensive attributes, and will consist of • rather large num-
ber of members. The Diets of Galicia and Bohemia, for in-
stance, will have nearly 210 members. The smallest coun-
try of the crown, like Salzburg, will have • Diet consisting
of 20 member,, that of Lower Austria will count nearly 70
member,. The captain of the country will be elected from
among the members of the Diet, but be nominated by the
Emperor.
The elections will be made by categories representing the
interests—that is to say, large property, small property,
and the towns. In the large property only noble estates
will appear, paying • certain taxation, which for Lower
Austria will be 200 florins as land tax. The only persons
who will enjoy votes by virtue of their status will be the
bishops, rectors of universities, and the president of the
Academy of Sciences at Vienna. Artisans nod tradesmen
will be represented, moreover, by deputise to be appointed
by the chambers of commerce.
The Council of the Empire will consist of about 350 mem.
bars of the second curia, to be elected by the diets, circles.
and districts. The first curia consists of holden of estates
through primogeniture, of high personages in the church
and date, in dunces and art. They are all appointed by
the Emperor for life. These er?jecta have been adopted in
principle by the council of minister,, but the details are
still under discussion.

The Council of the Empire in its totality has to deliberate
on every subject assigned to it by the second article in the
letters patent of October 20. The subjects relative to the
general laws, that were hitherto only common to the non-
Hungarian countries, will be discussed by the Council of
the Empire without the participation of the Hungarian
members. The sittings of the Council of the Empire and
of the provincial diets will be public, and these bodies will
have the right of initiative.

THE NEW PARLIAMENT HOUSE AT TURIN.

In a space between three and four mouths (writes
a Turin correspondent), and at an outlay of half • million of
frame, the Engineer Peymn has built a wooden shed or
barracooe, which, all things considered, must be looked
upon as a masterpiece of art. Imagine a semicircle, cor-
responding in size and shape to oue half of the Roman
Pantheon, only oue metre and a half less in diameter, and
full as lofty, with two most elegant rows of old Lom-
bard or Bymntine porticos supporting galleries, and
with the high vault sloping up to the broad skylight
with • graoeful verve, enclosing an amphitheatre with
500 or 600 of the roomiest and easiest seats the most
refined luxury could delight to 101 l in. The walls all round
are bung with the shields of all the towns in Italy,—all
those that figured in the old oval chamber of last year,
plus all those of the Marches, Umbria, Naples, and
Sicily, and miens, alas! those of Chambery and Annecy,
Nice and Mentone. Nothing could be lighter and more
airy, m thing purer and chaster, nothing lovelier than the
design. The eye rests pleased on every side; the faults of
the edifice are not faults of the architect, but the
locality. The dimensions, as people conversant with
the proportions of Agrippa's Rotunda must be aware,
are decidedly too gigantic for ao assembly of other
men than !Renters. There is something appalling in the
look even of the empty building ; and a man need have no
trifling faith in his lungs if he venture to demander In
payola when all those seats are tenanted, and those galleries
thronged. Moreover, the semicircular form is by no moans
so well adapted for sound as the oval ; and members ad.
dressing each other from the two opposite ends of the mon.
streets diameter can hardly hope to make themselves
heard, or distinctly see one another. The archi-
tect, however, had no choice ' • for the limit was
traced before him, beyond which he could not go, and
had he adopted the oval form he would have been cramped
for apace. On the other hand, had he reared his vault less
ambitiously, the building would have lost its charming
proportions, and, as the semicircle has been from necessity
abruptly cut short at the diameter, the wall that terminates
the building on that side not only cannot fail to look blank
and heavy, but leaves no depth—no alourlo—for the
president's chair and those of his offim.'s, for the
ministerial beeches, for the shorthand writers, and, oa the
occurrence of the royal sitting, for the threes, which are to
be placed on the side facing the assembly, and which must,
therefore, come ton far forward into the centre of the
building. However, neither chairs, nor benches. nor
throne are yet in their plaees, soil it would not be just to
judge of the effect from mere anticipation. On the some.
what blank wall forming, as it were, the apaceato of the
building, besides the King's ecileeed portrait, are two in-
scriptions merely bearing the dates of the 4th of March,
1548, and the 15th of February, Iffilt.—the opening of the
first Sardinian and of the first Italian National Parlia-
ment/.