ENGLISH EXTRACTS.

Southland Times, Issue 660, 22 April 1867, Page 3

ENGLISH EXTRACTS.

Scialoja, the Italian Minister of Finance, has just made an exposition of the obligations and revenues of the nation, which is full of interest to every one concerned in the growth of the new kingdom, and its ability to. manage itself. He states candidly that the expenditure for the past year has outrun, the income, and that a large deficit will have to be encountered. In going to war with Austria the kingdom was obliged to plunge into debt ; and this embarrassment was materially, increase_d .by.jan honorable observance of the conditions of the peace. In yielding Yenetia to Italy, Austria bargained for the value of the transfer, and the Florence Cabinet, rather than raise difficulties which might have led to painful and unprofitable procrastination, accepted the terms offered, and abided by whatever loss they involved. Like all new States, Italy is at present weighed down by responsibilities which have accumulated through a revolution, and the after cost ot reconstruction. For some time these are sure to be found painful and inconvenient, but if her people will learn to practise the virtue of sober economy they will be gradually, got rid of: Indeed Scialoja thinks that he already sees a way of escape from the. monetary troubles that perplex and hamper the Government. * Count ßisinarck having setthe example, Russia is proceeding with a high hand in the work of " aggregating " her "de'ijen- ' dencies. A few years since Poland enjoyed a distinct "national status, which was indirectly and sullenly recognised b.y the Imperial ' Government at St. Petersburg. The revolt may be said to have stamped out its separate existence, and to have delivered the nation, bound hand and foot, over to the mercies of the Czar. At all events, it has supplied him with a visible pretext for rendering the country incapable of becoming a source of trouble in any future emergency whichinay befal the State, liussia and Poland are henceforth to be one — one in name, in administration, and, if possible, in religion. Such is the purport" of the decrees that have been lately issued ; and _a.ny > ..-one ac-quainted;with.-the bureaucratic spirit of Muscovite officialism can readily understand how such an idea will be carried out. Just now the Poles have no alternative but to patiently submit to whatever measures the Government may decide upon^ Stephens, the Fenian, is unearthed at last. The invasion of Ireland which he pledged himself to accomplish before Christmas was a mere trick to raise money. Having got the money, he suddenly disappeared. Then followed all kinds of conjectures. He was assuredly on his way to Ireland, although he was too clever to let anbody know by what route he travelled. The most .romantic surmises were dropped to heighten the mystery, Now he was in the South of Franco ; now he was in Jersey ; but wherever he was, he w.is on his way to Ireland. Air this time he was lurking in New York, and living, as was his wont, on the fat of the land. ; In the nature of things this was a fraud that must come to a speedy end. Even Fenians have a limit to their forbearance And so the gigantic bubble has burst Stephens, finding himself suspected, accused, and finally denounced on all aides, has made a virtue of necessity, an I, resolved to fall wiUi dujnihY ha.^ withdrawn from the office of iiWd Ueutre, tuni -'abandoned Fesiauism, haying extra,cte<i froia. it aa

much as lie could. The story is not without- a. moral on both sides; but from the rapidity with which the Fenians in America have proceeded to reconstruct their organisation, we fear it will be found to be thrown away on those whom it most concerns. The situation of Spain begins to attract much attention, a compliment which enlightened Europe rarely pays to that " kingdom. But the spectacle of a country benighted in. the midst of surrounding civilisation, is a curiosity in its way. Spain ! >is to this d>y perfectly mediaeval. It is steeped in barbaric fanaticism, and realises the worst features of a superstitious tyranny. . The President of the Cortes and some of the deputies went peaceably to the palace, in the exercise of a strictly constitutional right, to present a petition to the Queen, and were immediately arrested by the order of Narvaez, and deported to a convict settlement. The consternation consequent upon a proceeding which even in Madrid, outstripped all the ordinary precedents of a despotic government, may be easily conceived. .No man considered himselt safe, and all the deputies and senators who could get away prepared to leave the country. This is only the commencement of a reign of terror, to be quenched in a succession of revolutions.