King Humbert opened the Italian Parliament on 17th instant, in
a long speech of a curiously mixed kind. He stated, on the one band, in the most absolute way, that the Grist-tax must be abolished, so as to relieve the classes "not favoured by fortune, but ennobled by labour," and that the suffrage must be reduced, the two points on which the Senate is resisting the Government; and on the other, that the allowances to the Army must be increased, though the most rigid economy would be preserved. His Majesty promised also large undertakings of public utility, some of which would be designed to afford relief to public distress by offering work -to the poor, while others would be commenced to increase the beauty and salubrity of Rome. The speech was, in fact, in tone a CEesarist speech, designed to attract the democracy, who are troubled by the failure of several crops, by the Republican agitation, and by the uneasy sense, displayed in the cry for the redemption of "Unredeemed Italy," that the State is not making quite noise enough in the world. It was received by the Right for the most part in profound silence, but the Left was enthusiastic, and there seems no doubt that the Government will ultimately carry its two great propositions.
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