The Sun.
London, England, 1866-05-12 00:00:00

LA TEST INTELLIGENCE

(REUTER'S TELEGRAM.)

ITALY.

FLORENCE, MAY 12.

In yesterday's sitting of the Chamber of Deputies
the first article of the financial laws was agreed to.
A Royal decree has been issued announcing the
regulations under which officers will be admitted to
the command of Volunteer Corps.
IVIUNICII, MAY 12.

Cantonments are to be erected at Lechfelde, and
near Nurnberg, for two divisions of the Bavarian

army.

PRUSSIA.

BERLIN, MAY 12.

Hopes are still entertained in some quarters for
the maintenance of peace, probably on the ground
that Austria will make some concessions.

It is believed that no formal treaty has yet been
concluded between Prussia and Italy.

WURTEMBERG.

STUTTGARD, MAY 12.
The Diet of Wurtemberg has been convoked for
the 13th of May.
The Bth Federal Army Corps will be concentrated
at Muhlacker.

DARMSTADT, MAY 12.
The army of. Hesse Daimstadt has been placed
upon a war footing.

FRANKFORT, MAY 12.
The first sitting of the Committee of nine in the
Federal Diet was held yesterday.

The majority of the members will report in
favour of the principle of reform, but will demand
that Prussia shall make known the details of her
proposals and particularly the electoral law for the
Constitution of a German Parliament.

THE BOMBARDMENT OF VALPARAISO.
NEW YORK, May 2.

Advices received here from the Pacific announce
that the Spanish fleet bombarded Valparaiso for six
hours on the 31st of March.

Non-combatants received four days' notice to
withdraw.

The Custom-house stores, containing a large
amount of property belonging to British, French,
and American merchants, and other property, was
destroyed. The damage done is variously estimated
at from $9,000,000 to $20,000,000.
Few lives were lost.

Mr. Fitzpatrick, the American Minister, sent a
protest to Admiral Nunez against the bombardment.
It is reported that he also proposed, without suc-
cess, that the British, French, and American fleets
should forcibly prevent the bombardment.

It was understood that the Spaniards will now
bombard Coquimbo, Callao, and other ports of
Chili and Peru.

TURKEY.

Constantinople letters and journals to the 2d
have reached us. The Duke of Norfolk had arrived
by the Marseilles steamer on a visit to his uncle
Lord Lyon. The ambassador and his grace purpose
making a tour to Broussa. The Levant Herald pub-
lishes the following :—" A Vienna journal an-
nounces that the 3d Corps d'Armee commanded by
Omer Pasha, and the head-quarters of which are at
Monastir, has been placed upon a war footing, with
a view to enventualities on the Danube. The state-
mentis inexact, but the Schumla division is to be
further reinforced by a couple of batteries of artil-
lery, and two regiments of Zouaves." Subjoined
are some items of general intelligence :—" Mehemet
Ali Pasha has presented to the Sultan a splendid set
of writing materials, worth 1,000,000 p., and to the
young Prince Yussufeddin a ring valued at 750,000 p.
Prince Frederick of Hohenzollern, the brother of
the elect.. of Moldo-Wallachia, who has been in
Pera for some days past on a tour from the
south, has been received by the Sultan. A recent
letter from St. Petersburg states that Conemenos
Bey, the Ottoman Chargé d'Affaires at the Russian
court, has had a special audience of the Czarewitch,
at which he presented to his Imperial Highness, on
the part of the Sultan, the insignia of the Osmanie
of the first class set in diamonds.—lt is due to the
new Capitan Pasha, Mehemet Ali Pacha, to say
that his return to the Admiralty has been hailed
with very general satisfaction. During the week
he has received congratulatory visits from most of
the members of the diplomatic body, and from the
leading foreign merchants and residents of the capi-
tal. The merchants especially regard his reappoint-
ment as a boon, contract-transactions with his pre-
decessor having become almost impossible from
failure of payment for the goods delivered to the
department. A host of arrear accounts accord-
ingly stand for settlement, and these the new func-
tionary is rapidly marshalling, with a view to exa-
mination and payment. He has also restored
to their places a number of English and other
employes whom Halil Pasha had dismissed.—
The Greek Patriarch, attended by the members
of the Holy Synod, officiated at a high mass and
Te Deum in the Greek church, Pera, in thanks-
giving for the Emperor Alexander ll.'s recent
escape from assassination. General Iguatieff
and the whole of the Russian legation and the
Consulate-General, as also all the leading Rus-
sian residents of the capital, were present. A tele-
gram received from Florence recalls the Italian gun-
boats in the Bosphorus and at Sulina, with a view
to active service. The Gulnare will leave the Horn
at once, and the Sirene will follow without delay
from the Black Sea. Similar orders of recall have,
it•is said, been addressed to all ships of the Italian
navy now absent from the national waters. A feat
of juvenile courage and perseverance has just been
accomplished by a French boy of thirteen. Three
months ago, dissatisfied with his treatment by an
uncle in Paris, he started from the lattei capital
with 60fr. in his pockets, to go to his mother, who
is married to a second husband, a French workman,
in the employ of the Shah of Persia, at Teheran.
With the aid of a map and guide-book, the little
adventurer tramped right across Europe, receiving
such hospitality by the way that, on reaching Con-
stantinople last week, he had still nearly half his
francs remaining. After a short rest in Pera, he
crossed the Bosphorus, en route for Persia, but a
little beyond Scutari was stopped by some Turkish
policemen, and brought back till an interpreter was
found. His story being thus learned, he was sent to
Pera and placed in charge of the French Consul, in
whose custody he now is, unable to understand why
he should be interfered with, and angrily impatient
to pursue his journey. A measure which, if cir-
cumstances permit its being carried into effect, will
be of considerable economic importance, has just
been decided on by the Porte. It is—to grant fur-
loughs, to the extent of a sixth of the whole army,
to those of the troops who have completed four
years' service. The men so to be released will of
course receive neither pay nor rations whilst absent
from their regiments, whilst they will be available,
if required, within 20 days after recall to the depots
by telegraph. Ti►e application of the new provin-
cial property tax, on the basis of Subhi Bey's cada-
stral surveys, has just extended to the pashalios of
Trebizond, Erzeroum, Angora, and Sivas. The
amount of the tax is 7 per 1,000 in the case of pro-
perty occupied by others than the owner, 4 of which
is to be reckoned on the actual value of the house or
land, and 3 upon the rent. Where owner and occu-
pier are the same person, only the 4 per 1,000 will
be taken. The tax is also to be applied to the
Archipelago, for which a surveying commission will
shortly leave the capital. To complete the mea-
sure, it remains only to extend it to the provinces
of Kharpout, Kurdistan, and Bagdad."