A correspondence between Spain and Austria on the recognition of
Italy has been published,—it is said at the instance of Napoleon. Count Mensdorff, it appears, remonstrated against that step as a breach of a tacit agreement, as a concession to revolutionary ideas, which "appear to be too prevalent in Spain," and as dan- gerous to the throne of the Bourbon Queen. The Spanish Minister replies in a strain of polished sarcasm, telling the Austrian Minister that his country had interests in Italy which Spain had not, that his own Sovereign's throne was quite safe in the attachment of her people, that in 1848 the monarchy passed unhurt through a crisis which "brought ancient monarchies which thought them- selves not to be shaken to the brink of the abyss," and that Austria herself "has finished by adopting Spanish institutions." Intel- lectually Senor Bermudez de Castro has gained a complete vic- tory, but practically he has only annoyed a Court which pro- bably remonstrated only because the Kaiser, who is sick of his last Concordat, wishes to stand well with Rome.
