NEWS OF THE WEEK.
THERE has been a grand parliamentary struggle in Turin. The 1 new Italian Parliament, after declaring Victor Emmanuel by the grace of God and the choice of the people King of Italy, gradually separated into three parties. The first, or Royalist, headed by Count Cavour, possesses a large majority in the Chambers, and is supported by the whole of the educated classes and the army. The second, or Moderate, is strictly a Parliamentary party in the English sense, looks to no section of' the people for support, but wider its leader, Ratazzi, the present. President of the Assembly, strives to hold the balance of power in the Lower House. The third, or Mazzinian faction, is weak in the Chamber, but rules a large section of the city populations, and enjoys, through its alliance with Garibaldi, a high influence over all Italians. The quarrel between the Royalists and Mazzinians, long festering, broke out on the 19th of April. Ricasoli, at once a Royalist and a personal friend of Garibaldi, had promised to bring up the question of the Southern army, and Garibaldi himself attended the session. His entrance, attired in the historic red shirt surmounted by a Scotch plaid, was the signal for a burst of enthusiasm which shook the building, and suspended the sitting for some minutes. Ricasoli then asked his question as to the course the Government intended to pursue with the Southern army and the national armament. General Fanti, the Minister for War, replied, and both he and Count Cavour made some remarkable statements on the military strength of Italy. The army, which when Fanti accepted its control consisted of only five perfect and three incomplete divisions, had been increased to seventeen. Fifty thousand conscripts had been added to its strength from the _Emilia and Tuscany, and twenty thousand more from the Neapolitan provinces. He had built and armed four new for- tresses, had a hundred batteries of artillery ready for action, was amply provided with materiel, and could, with the assistance of a friendly Power, provide a very large army even with muskets, the most difficult materiel to obtain. As the Minister sat down, Garibaldi rose, and commenced reading a speech, said to have been drawn up by a Sicilian Member named Zuppetta, in which, after declaring that when division threatened Italy he had always yielded, and always should yield, he proceeded to speak of the " fratricidal " war levied against him by Count Cavour. The Assembly was instantly in an uproar, the Premier lost his temper, and the sitting was sus- pended by the President. After a few minutes, General Garibaldi re- sumed more calmly, arguing that the Southern army might have been treated like the army of Central Italy, and incorporated with the national force. They ought to have received three months' furlough instead of the six months' pay, which proved an irresistible tempta- tion to depart. "I command," said the General, "one-half of this divided armament." General Bixio rose to conciliate. "He was," he said, " Garibaldi's soldier, and should obey his orders," but he strongly advocated concord ; he would give his own family and him- self to join the hands of Cavour and Garibaldi. The Assembly was profoundly affected, and Count Cavour rose to take advantage of his opportunity. So far from opposing volunteers, he, and not Gari- baldi, had been the man to call them out, and he had himself sum- moned his opponent from Caprera. (This was admitted.) He did not quarrel with the volunteer want of discipline, for "the spell and
magnetism of the leader supplied its place." The volunteers de- parted of their own free will, but the difficulty was not to Fecal them but to utilize them when recalled. To this end he had organized the cadres of three divisions, composed wholly of officers who would command the volunteers when called out. He objected only to call them out at once, because that would be a declaration of war. The sitting terminated with a general feeling of conciliation. The debate was, however, resumed on the following day, when Garibaldi once more proclaimed himself unsatisfied. He would, he said, vote only for an order of the day which should include the " immediate" reorga- nization of the volunteers. Ricasoli's order, which omits this word, was, however, put and carried by 194 to 77, five members, including Garibaldi, declining to vote at all. This terminated the discussion, but on the 22nd, General Cialdini published a letter renouncing the friendship of Garibaldi. "You affect," he said, "to treat the King as a good comrade ; it is your intention to place yourself above social customs, by presenting yourself to the Chamber in a strange dress ; above the Government, by treating the Ministers as traitors because they have not given themselves up to you ; above Parliament, by load- ing with reproaches the deputies who do not think after your fashion ; above the country, by wishing to drive it where and how you choose." He accused Garibaldi of desiring civil war, and of ordering Colonel Trepoti to fire on the royal troops, and asserted that the position of the volunteers on the Volturno was exceedingly bad. Garibaldi replied by a denial of the facts; but his letter, simple all through, is injured by a promise of " personal satisfaction" at the end. The quarrel seemed irreconcilable, and part of the garrison at Mondavi at once pronounced for Garibaldi as against-the army. The danger, however, recalled the noble leader to himself, and the telegraph announces that on the 24th instant a thorough reconciliation was effected between Cavour, Gari- baldi, and Cialdini ; Garibaldi left Turin, and the Southern army is to be part.* reconstituted. All the reports which reach England have a slight bias in favour of Cavour, but it seems certain that Italy, while deeply regretting the struggle, was prepared to side de- cisively with the statesman, who is never so successful as when all seems lost. There is something marvellous in the way in which these. Italians, supposed to be the most vindictive race in Europe, suppress every personal feud if it stands in the way of the unity of Italy. Some further details have been published of the plot which trait-_ spired at Naples during Easter week. It was organized at Rome in the interest of the Bourbons, and included all the priests, one or two - of the old noblesse and former employes, and great numbers of the dismissed Bourbonist army. The plan appears to have been to raise the villages simultaneously, and commence an armed emeute in Naples. The plot was betrayed, and some hundreds of conspirators arrested, with the applause of the population, but Naples is still in a wretched condition. Assassinations take place daily, and the Go- - vernment appears unwilling to adopt those measures of severity which can alone restrain a populace so poor and so reckless of life as that of the Neapolitan capital.
In Rome intrigue only is active, but it is stated that a plan for the partial settlement of the question has at length been devised. Negotiations will proceed, but, meanwhile, the French proteeting
garrison will be replaced by Italians. This statement requires con- firmation, but Count Cavour presses solutions upon the Emperor of the French. We must, we suppose, mention also a plan said to have been prepared by the Camarilla to provide for the death or abdication of the Pope. The Conclave will be instantly summoned by Cardinal Alfieri, and the Papacy be entrusted to no less a personage than Car. dinal Wiseman. The statement, as it stands, is an absurdity, four Powers having a veto upon the choice of the Conclave, and one of them, France, would certainly not consent to the nomination. It is just possible, however, that the Pope, looking forward to the day when the entrance of the Italians will enable him to declare himself in durance, may have arranged, not for abdication, but for a vicariat to be exercised by the only Cardinal hopelessly beyond the reach alike of Italy and France. The blow to Louis Napoleon in particular would be so severe that the plan may have presented itself to a Pape whose second passion is abhorrence to the "barbarians." The Pope is believed to be in very feeble health, and the distress in Rome is reported very serious. The professional classes suffer from the loss of the provinces, and the peer freer the absence of foreigstd
