The Continent is gossiping loudly about a visit paid, on
October 13th, by M. de Giers to the King of Italy at Monza. As M. de Giers is the Czar's Foreign Minister, and enjoys all the confidence his Majesty gives to any one—which is not a great deal—as the King summoned the Italian Ambassadors at Vienna and Paris to meet him, and as the two talked earnestly for an hour, it is naturally imagined that M. de Giers had serious words to utter. According to one account, they took the form of fresh assurances of peace. According to another, they referred to the King of Roumania, who is in Italy, and who has, it is affirmed, formally joined the Triple Alliance ; and according to a third, M. de Giers wished to remove Italian opposition to the freedom of the Bosphorus and Dardanelles. We must add that, according to the sus- picious in Germany and the hopeful in France, the object of the visit was to detach King Humbert from the League of Peace. There is something to be said for the Roumanian theory, for St. Petersburg is excited about the conduct of King Charles ; but we have elsewhere stated reasons for thinking the third explanation by much the least improbable. The only impossible one is that the visit was one of mere ceremony.
