The Sun.
London, England, 1860-04-07 00:00:00

RUSSIA.

The Abeille du Nord, of St. Petersburg, expresses
itself as follows on the present situation of Italian
affairs :

" Central Italy having been called on to decide its own
fate by means of universal suffrage, has pronounced. The
populations of Romagna, Parma, Modena, and Tuscany
have almost unanimously declared for annexation to the
constitutional kingdom of Vietor Emmanuel. Thus, ties
fate of Central Italy is decided. All that remains to Europe
is to respect the will of the people, freely expressed, or to
send a numerous army into Italy to dictate the law of the
strongest. But that fatal law has so long weighed on Italy,
and has caused her so much suffering, that she will no
longer submit to such a yoke, and will no doubt prefer all
the horrors of a desperate conflict, though knowing that
she could not resist coalesced Europe. But the time of
armed interventions has passed away, and in the present
case none would be justifiable in Italy."
The Invalide .Russe, of the same city, has the
following on the Swiss affair :
" This question may, no doubt, occasion some embar-
rassment, but we do not think that it can lead to a conflict.
The protest of Switzerland would have been grave, if the
Great Powers which had signed the treaties of 1815 had
supported ilk But did the Federal Council come to an um
derstanding with them before deciding on that demonstra-
tion ? This point is still a diplomatic mystery. Never..
theless, we doubt greatly that an understanding has been
come to. A protest is worth nothing except it be supported
by force of arms ; otherwise it is a dead letter. In quarrel-
ling with France, Switzerland does no good to any
one. It appears to us that it would have been better
for her to have addressed herself in an amicable way
t• the Cabinet of the Tuileries before taking such
a decisive step, and before forgetting that not very long ago
the mediation of Napoleon 111. saved her from a disastrous
conflict with Prussia about the affair of Neufchatel. In-
gratitude rarely produces good fruit."

A letter from Rome, in the Independance, says t_
—" General de Lamoriciere has inspected the troops
at Ancona and ether places, and is now expected
here. According to letters received from him, he
has seen from 14,000 to 16,000 Papal troops, which
are composed of good soldiers, but have indifferent
officers. It is said that an attempt is to be mad*
to engage competent officers in the Catholic cantons
of Switzerland, and that a person has been sent to
Spain to endeavour to enrol there sonic officers of
superior grade.

A Vienna letter states that in the provincial
statutes about to be published the old distinction of
four classes is maintained---nobles, clergy, bur-
gesses, and peasants—against which the Tyrolese
have so often protested. The attributions of the
provincial States will be purely local, and willonly
extend to ameliorations of secondary importance.
Consequently little good is expected from the
change.

A letter from Athens of the 30th ult. says :--61
have to announce a partial change in the Ministry
said to be the result of a Court intrigue. M. Rallis,
the Minister of Justice, has been replaced by M,
Potlis, who held the office three years ago.

The Madrid journals of the 2d state that a tele-
graphic despatch received by the Government an-
nounce that a band of 30 horsemen had raised the
standard of insurrection on behalf of Count de Mon-
temolin, at Arenda de Duero, in the province of
Burgos, and that the Captain-General of the pro-
vince had arrested, "by way of precaution," two
noted Carlist chiefs, brothers of the name of
Hierros, who had long been resident in the city.
Aranda de Duero is in the north of Spain, at a con-
siderable distance from the place in which General
Ortega attempted a rising.

A letter dated Vienna, April 4, says :—" The
object of the Emperor Napoleon in wishing to have
a Ministerial Conference for the settlement of the
question relative to Chablais and Faucigny is
very obvious. If a Conference should meet, the
French Monarch will play Jupiter, and magnani-
mously give Chablais and Faucigny to Switzerland
—if the Powers will recognise his right to the other
parts of the Savoy. At Berno it is affirmed that
all the Powers have promised to let Switzerland
have the benefit of their good offices ; but those
of Austria and Russia will hardly be worth much.
This Government must recently have tried to per-
suade Prussia to guarantee to it the possession ol
Venetia, for during the last week more than one ol
the Berlin papers has declared it would be suici.
dal' should Prussia engage to do battle in defence of
Venice. It is related that France is endeavouring
to bring about a reconciliation between Russia
and Austria, in order that she may be able to
come to an understanding with them in re-
gard to the dismemberment of Turkey, but I
am not inclined to attach any great importance to
the report. About six weeks ago Prince Dolgo-
rouki was agitating in Servia, but he was recalled
by the Emperor Alexander, at the request of tke
Porte. Not long since it was proposed to hold a
conference at Constantinople for the regulation 01
Servian matters, but, for some reason or other, the
Russian Government did not approve the project.