The Sun.
London, England, 1869-04-19 00:00:00

ITALIAN DIFFICULTIES.

(FROM OUR OWN coßntsroNnrusT.)
FLORENCE, APRIL 13.
The reopening of the Chambers yesterday has been
marked by fresh postponement and renewed disappoint-
ment. The financial statement has been put off for the
third time, and is now announced for next week. In the
meantime the House is to occupy itself with the Budgets
which remain to be passed. I mentioned in a former
letter how distasteful this course would prove to the Left,
and how anxious that section of the Chamber would be
to get the financial statement of Ministers before laying
down their arms and allowing the Budgets to pass.
Accordingly the dissatisfaction expressed is great.
Already, before the termination of the recess, the prin-
cipal leaders cf the Opposition had issued a circular to
their friends, which was, in fact, a kind of bill of indict-
ment against the Government for domestic extravagance
and the alleged subserviency of their foreign policy. Had
the Republican movement, which has been just crushed
in the bud, broken out next week, as it was intended to
do, the position of the Government, attacked in and out of
Parliament, might have become very critical, although
the probabilities of a serious revolutionary outbreak were
less than some journals would have us believe. As matters
stand now, the Opposition, however eager for the fray,
must perforce wait for the financial statement before
making any attack, as the Minister of Finance has still
the same pretext for delay that he had before, viz., the
impossibility of presenting the arrangements with regard
to the Church property in a complete state. I have kept
you au courant from time to time as regards the shifting
phases of this affair, and your readers will think that
there is no end to the forms which it assumes. No one
can of course as yet be absolutely certain of the details of
the proposed scheme, but this is what is confidently
stated as to its nature. In the first place, the rote of
financial deliverer is now to be entrusted to
the National Bank instead of to the Association
of French capitalists. It is alleged that it is not in con-
templation to make over to it any of the unsold property.
You will remember that I stated on a former occasion
that although about 200 millions of the ecclesiastical pro-
perty had been sold on paper, a very large proportion, more
than half, in fact, of this amount remains to be liquidated
over a term of eighteen years. It is with these and
similar future arrears that it is said that the operation is
to be effected. The Bank would thus make these pay-
ments in anticipation, charging a small discount. The
sum thus obtained is to be applied, as originally intended,
to the abolition of the forced currency, so as to procure its
extinction by the end of 1871. As, however, the pay-
ments which could now be thus discounted do not amount
to much more than 110 millions, it is difficult to see, if no
other operation is contemplated, how the 300 millions,
which all agree is the sum which the present convention
is to realise, can be prudently advanced by the National
Bank, unless the sales between this time and the end of
1871 can be counted upon as certain to be brisker than
they have been hitherto. It is understood that the Bank
exacts as a condition of the agreement that it shall be
entrusted with the administration and service of the
various provincial treasuries ; in other words, be consti-
tuted the tax-collector and paymaster-general. It is also
believed that the bill will contain a clause placing the
property of the "fabrics" on the same footing with the
rest, and thus putting at the disposal of Government the
180 millions which have been exempted from seizure by
the recent decree of the Court of Cassation. Supposing
this to be a correct statement of the Ministerial project
with regard to the Church property, there still remains,
as I wrote last week, a terrible amount of public debt to
be dealt with. To bring this within reasonable proportions,
it is believed that we shall have a forced loan, the
terms of which are to be made as little burdensome as
possible. Incomes under22,ooo or £1,500 are to be exempted
from contributing, and the loan is to be paid up in six
instalments spread over three years. At what total amount
it may be in contemplation to fix it, we shall not know
until next week brings us the authoritative utterances of
Count Cambray-Digny ; in the meanwhile we must con-
tent ourselves with the gossip of the parliamentary salons.
The commissioners sent over to report on the wants of
the island of Sardinia have collected a good deal of informa-
tion, and have, it is believed, arrived at the conclusion
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