The Sun.
London, England, 1853-03-25 00:00:00

ITALY.

The Patria of Turin of the 20th publishes a cir-
cular, dated Milan, the 12th, and signed by Count
Strassoldo, but which has not yet appeared in the
Milan Gazette. In this circular, the authenticity
of which may be doubted, as it has, not been pub-
lished officially at Milan, the Imperial Lieutenant
of Lombardy instructs the authorities to whom it
is addressed, to examine all contracts of sale, mort-
gage, or any other disposal of lands or property,
which may have been made by refugees, as far
back as 1847 ; the Imperial Government having
strong reasons to suspect that many refugees,
whose property would be now under sequestration,
have had the foresight to attempt to save their
property from such a measure at that period, by
signing fictitious agreements, purporting to transfer
their property under various shapes to other hands..
In such cases, the circular says, and on the slight-
est suspicion of such agreements being fictitious,
the said authorities must consider them as mill and
void, and segues' :ate the property described therein
in the name of the State. If necessary, such
stringent inquiries fire to be extended even to con-
tracts- previous to 1847. No question of dispute as
to the validity of an old agreement is to be sub-
mitted to the Fiscal-office, because all doubts of the
kind, the circular says, are to be decided by the
respective supreme authority of the province,
" there being no need of consulting the Fiscal-
office in matters expressly withdrawn from the ju-
risdiction of the judicial authorities."
The Milan Gazette, of the 17th, publishes a sen-
tence pronounced by the Court-martial of that
city, condemning three persons to death for having
taken a part in the movement of Feb. 6. It adds
that the sentence has been executed upon them.
The Maga of Genoa was seized on the 17th, at
its offices, at the Post-office, and other places, -for
publishing offensive articles against princes and
heads of foreign Governments.
Letters have been received from Rome to the
14th. The late nominations of Cardinals have
led to some changes in the persons employed in
the Pontifical administration. Only one change,
however, up to the present time, is of any im-
portance—namely, that of M. Mertel, who is to
unite in his own person the two Ministries of
the Interior and of Justice. This last depart-
ment had been since the return from Gaeta, under
the direction of a laic the advocate Giansanti, so
that there are at present but two lairs in the cabinet,
M. Galli, pro-Minister of Finance, and M. Jaco-
bini, Minister of Public Works. The war depart-
ment is without any official head. M. Mertel
passes for being one of the ablest prelates at the
Pontifical court. His entry into the Cabinet was
long expected, and has given general satisfaction.
The present nuncio at Vienna, M. Vialle, a Cor-
sican by birth, and lately named Cardinal, is to
remain for some time longer ,at the Court of
Austria. It appears that a concordat is in con-
templation between the two powers, the prelimi-
varies of which are already, it is said agreed to,
and which, his Eminence is to bring to a con-
clusion.

" In the last Consistory," says the Moniteur,
" the Holy Father congratulated himself on the
result of the negotiations entered into with Hol-
land and the Republic of Costa Ricca for the
regulation of the religious affairs of those countries.
The kingdom of the Netherlands was not long since
administered, like England and some other States
of mixed creeds,- by apostolic vicars sent by the
Holy Father, revocable by him, and receiving their
instructions from the Congregation of the Propa-
ganda. The King of Holland asked that for that
order of things should be substituted a regular
hierarchy, as has, been effected in England. There
has never been with-blie-Ci(binet of the Hague that
absolute interruption of official relations which
still subsists with the Cabinet of London, and an