The Sun.
London, England, 1858-10-27 00:00:00

ITALY.

The St. Petersburg Gazette gives the following
list of the military forces of Italy :—" Sardinia, it
says, has an army of 50,000 men, but in time of
war she can double that number. In 1848, she
opposed 80,000 men to Austria, and at Novarra she
had 135,000 men on the field. It is true she was
beaten, notwithstanding. The Neapolitan army is
70,000 strong, and in case of war it can be readily
increased to 100,000. Rome, Tuscany, Parma, and
Modena reckon 30,000 men among them, and
Austria raises in Lombardy 40,000 conscripts, who
are in permanent service, not in their own country,
but in the German_provinces of the empire. This
amount of 190,000 men in time of peace allows the
calculation to be made without exaggeration, that
Italy might easily raise 300,000."
It is not easy to say what can be the motive of
this enumeration, but such persons as desire to
make themselves thoroughly acquainted with Italian
military organisation will find full details in a
pamphlet on Italy published about 15 or 20 years
ago by General the Duke de Reggio.

PRUSSIA.
BERLIN, Ocr. 25.

The report of the joint committee of the amalga-
mated Houses has been printed. It recommends
the adoption of a resolution recognising " the ne-
cessity of the Regency." This recommendation is
preceded by a lengthy statement of the evidence,
the motives, and the legal points on which it is
based. It recites :--

" 1. The appointment by the King, October 13, 1857, of
the Prince of Prussia as his representative or locum tenons,
for three months, with the renewals of the same appoint-
ment at intervals of three months, to wit, January 6, April
9, June 26, 1858.
"2. The ordinance of the 7th of October, 1858, by which
the King calls on the Prince to assume the Regency.
" The ordinance of the 9th of October, 1858, by which
the Prince of Prussia declares that he assumes the Regency.
"4. The ordinance of same date, convoking the Diet,
with the speech of the Prince Regent to the two Houses at
the opening of the Diet on the 20th. Medical certificates,
it proceeds to state, were laid before the committee, as well
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at the same time declare it impossible to fix, even approxi-
mately, the time of his Majesty's probable recovery."
It cites next the Art. sec. 56 of the Charter, which
enacts that " when the King is a minor, or labours
under any other prolonged disability (datterend ver-
hindert) of exercising his authority himself," the
nearest agnate of full age shall assume the Re-

gency.
It declares the assumption of the Regency by the
Prince of Prussia to have been in conformity with
the constitutional situation thus created, by the
ordinance of the King on the one side, and the
enactment of the charter on the other.

Then follows this noticeable paragraph :
" Upon the exact bearing of these two legal rights thus
called into being, upon each other, and upon the Regency, a
diversity of view arose in the committee. This diversity of
opinion, however, yielded to a general conviction that to
enter upon any attempt to define exactly the respective
claims of these opposite interpretations was no part of the
duty of the committee. To have followed out the mutual
bearing of these constitutional rights would lead into the
most delicate and difficult questions of public law. A solu-
tion of these questions is not incumbent upon us, since the
committee appears fully united on that point, which is the
only one submitted to the House by the Prince's message."

It will be observed that the foregoing paragraph
places the King's ordinance side by side with
sec. 56 of the Charter, and speaks of the latter as
well as the former as concurring to constitute the
Regency. It abstains from pronouncing them as
co-ordinate, or equipollent forces, a declaration
which could not have been unanimously obtained
in the committee. This attitude exactly measures
the extent to which the views of the Constitutional
party are likely, at present, to find favour and re-
ception.

The house is at this moment sitting as a Plenum,

but I shall not be able to send you by this post
any account of the reception which the above report
of the committee meets there.
There is no doubt of the truth of the rumour
spoken of in the papers, that a circular has been or
will be issued from the Home-office, restraining the
officials from interference, such as they have hitherto
practised, with the elections to the Chamber of
Deputies. This order, which is certainly well-
meant, is attributed to the Prince Regent's own
unbiassed sense of right. The provinces, even the
eastern, are beginning to stir in preparation for the
elections. The Liberal party speak very hopefully
of their prospects.
The vote by which the Chamber of Nobles
in Prussia rejected the proposition of present-
ing addresses to the King and to the Prince-
Regent, on the occasion of the establishment
of the Regency, has caused considerable sur-
prise at Berlin. The Neu; Prussian Gazette ex-
presses an apprehension that this attitude of the
Chamber may lead to erroneous comments: Ac-
cording to that journal, which is in a position to be
well informed, two reasons appear to have guided
the majority of the. Upper Chamber in its decision.
First, it wished to set aside all pretext for giving
rise to political discussions, which might also have
taken plate in the other Chamber; and next, the

decree of convocation did not appear to assign to
the Diet in the present session any other mission
than that of receiving the communication of the
institution of the Regency.