The Sun.
London, England, 1861-08-17 00:00:00

ITALY.

The Temps makes the following announcement :
—" We have reason to believe that the Belgian
Government is about to recognize the new Kingdom
of Italy. Baron de Vriers, Ministers of Foreign
Affairs, has already unofficially notified that deci-
sion to Count Lupi di Montalto, Minister Plenipo-
tentiary of King Victor Emmanuel at Brussels."
The following appears in the Italie of Turin :
" The Perseveranza of Wednesday commences
its Bulletin by the following very unlooked for piece
of news :—' Rumours of an autumn campaign are
current beyond the Mincio. It is said that the
force in Venetia is to be carried up to 200,000 men,
and that a number of bridges are to be constructed.
The Perseveranza does not attach any credit to those
reports in consequence of the internal state of Aus-
tria, but that is not a reason for disbelieving them.
An external diversion is often a means of putting
an end to internal difficulties. The Roman Senate
declared war against the King of Macedonia while
Hannibal was encamped at the gates of Rome. It
is probable that Austria spreads these reports in
order to cause uneasiness to our Government, and
compel it to recal the troops which are in Naples."
A letter from Rome mentions the following
curious report:—" It is rumoured here among the
clergy and the Neapolitans that the Emperor of
the French has only allowed the expedition of
Cialdini as a last attempt on the part of the Pied-
montese to establish order in the Neapolitan States,
and that if it does not succeed he has resolved to
send French troops to the Abbruzzi. The officers
of the French army of occupation also allude to
the report as not improbable."
A letter frem Rome of the 10th in the Temps
has the following:—
" The Holy Father continues in good health,
notwithstanding the swelling in his legs. Almost
every afternoon after his sieste, which lasts from
three to five o'clock, he drives out. The other
lay he visited the Convent of St. Bonaventura ;
and the day before yesterday he went to the
church of Saint Magdalen to adore the Holy
Sacrament, and take part in the nine days' prayers
which have been ordered to turn aside the wrath of
Heaven for the numerous robberies committed
in churches. These prayers, strange to say, have
been the principal subject of town talk at Rome
for the last ten or twelve days, and the Cardinal
Vicar has published a pastoral letter respecting
them, in which he speaks of Heliodorus driven
from the temple—an allusion apparently to Victor
Emmanuel. Since the pastoral appeared, there
have been prayers in all the churches (300 and
more), with wax candles lighted, the Sacrament
exposed—in a word, with all the fantastic cere-
monies of the Roman Church. The Holy Father,
as I have said, went to the Magdalen in one of his
afternoon promenades, and a small demonstration
was got up in his honour ; it was, however, made
exclusively by public functionaries and their
sons, and consisted in vivats for the Pope.
In a large town such demonstrations may be
made without their authors being recognised,
but in Rome everybody knows everybody. The
nine days' prayers against robberies in churches
have not produced much effect ; for in the very day
they commenced the little church of St. Matthew
was robbed of all its sacred vessels, the consecrated
wafers themselves being carried away. The autho-
rities at the Vatican pretend that those robberies
and also certain fires which have lately taken place
must be ascribed to the violence of political passions,
and must be regarded as a proof of the wrath of
God. As to politics, the Court of Rome, absorbed
in the prayers referred to, has apparently not occu-
pied itself actively with worldly affairs since the
Merode squabble, Pius IX, continues to indulge in