The Sun.
London, England, 1857-04-10 00:00:00

PRUSSIA.

Accounts from Berlin state that immediately
after the holidays, the -Upper Chamber will discuss
the bill on the increase of the salt tax, which mea-
sure, it is anticipated, will encounter serious oppo-
sition.
A letter from Berlin, in the Constitutionnel,
says :—"ln consequence of the great amount of
foreign bank notes which appeared at the late fair
at Frankfort, the Minister of Commerce has re-
quested the elders of the Corporation of Commerce
of Berlin to give their opinion on the measure pro-
posed by the Government for interdicting the cir-
culation of all foreign bank notes in Prussia. This
news has produced considerable sensation at the
Bourse."
A letter from Frankfort, in the Zeit of Berlin,
says :—" An arrangement had been concluded on
the 22d March, 1856, by the Wurtemburg govern-
ment, with the representative of the old non-me-
diatised lords of Wurtemburg relative to the claims
made by the latter, but no definitive result was
come to on the subject, in consequence of the op-
position of the Prince of Thurn and Taxis, ono of
the persons principally interested. The Prince has
at length adhered, and the affair was submitted to
the Germanic Diet. At the last sitting of that body

the arrangement was approved of, the Wurtem-
burg government being requested to carry it into
execution, It is therefore probable that a bill on
the subject will be shortly presented to the Wur-
temburg Chambers."

THE PRINCIPALITIES.
A letter from Vienna of the 4th, in the Bourse
Gazette of Berlin, says :—" Accounts from the
Principalities state that the elections for the divans
have commenced. When the divans shall have
been instituted the European plenipoteptiaries will
begin their labours. Political schemers have at-
tempted to influence the elections, but the two
caimacans have taken measures for counteracting
such designs, and for causing the elections to take
place with the strictest impartiality. M. Vogo-
rides, the caimacan of Moldavia, though person-
ally opposed to the union, displays remarkable
fairness."

ITALY.
The Chamber of Deputies at Turin, in its sitting
of the 6th, passed a bill to empower the govern.
ment to lend the ecclesiastical fund a sum of
751,000 fr. in order to enable it to pay the pensions
and subsidies due to the clergy of the kingdom. The
ecclesias ical fund was created in consequence of the
suppression of the monasteries of the kingdom ; it
entered into the possession of all the property
belonging to those establishments, to the net
amount of 1,470,734 fr. per annum, out of which
it had to pay pensions to the monks, &c. The
administrators of the land have in the count) of
three years introduced considerable improvements
into the management of the lands entrusted to their
care, and increased the annual income by 167,000 f. ;
notwithstanding which the budget of •1857 still
showed a deficit of 748,500 fr., the net income being
2,508,t960fr., and the expenditure 3,267,508 fr. It
was to supply this deficit that the bill in question
was brought in ; and it is further in contemplation
to unite the ecclesiastical fund administered with
the so-called Economato Regio, or royal fund, for
ecclesiastical purposes.