furrigu nut

ra UM—The most important announcement from Paris is an extract from the Handcar. On Wednesday, the Emperor held a combined meeting of the Council of Ministers and the Council of State, and on Thursday the Mondeur declared that the Emperor had resolved, with the least possible delay, to place the land and sea forces on a peace footing.

The Mon hear of Wednesday publishes the following remarkable article, on the military expenditure of England and France. "An attempt is made in England to attribute to France the cause of the burdens imposed upon the English people for 'national defences.' It is the pretended exaggeration of our armaments which is made to serve as a justification for the considerable augmentation of the army and navy esti- mates of Great Britain.

"A comparison between our estimates and those of England will show the fallacy of the assertion.

"Since 1853 the English budget shows an increase of 13,480,000/. (or 336,000,000 francs), and of this sum 200,000,000 francs are for the army and navy estimates. In the year which is commencing those two budgets will i

cost n England more than 650,000,000 francs, 332,500,000 francs for the army and 320,000,000 for the navy.

"In France the army budget, as voted for 1860, only amounts te 339,458,744 francs, and that of the navy to 123,503,143 francs *—altogether a total of about 463,000,000, consequently far below the estimates of Great Britain for the same services.

"For the army budget the amount fluctuates according to the price of commodities. It is chiefly owing to the high price of -food that in 1859 the army budget rose to 361,917,500 francs, including the amount originally voted as well as the supplementary credits provided for. For the navy, the estimates amounted to 122,963,883 francs. In 1858, the Ministry of War expended 376,822,535 franca, and the Ministry of Marine 137,980,260 francs. Now, if we refer to 1853, to see how we stood before the preparations for the Crimean war, we find that the army estimates were 322,740,809 francs, and the navy estimates 99,195,965 francs. Finally, if we take a still more retrospective glance, and take the last years of the last Government, we find that, as regards the army, we are below the expenses of 1847, which amounted to 373,365,981 franes,t and 128,637,509 francs for the navy.I Doubtless, the figures for 1859 and 1860 do not include the expenses of the war in Italy and those of the expedition to Cochin China, of which it is im- possible as yet to form a correct estimate ; but it is probable that the loan of 500,000,000 francs will leave a considerable sum in hand after the settle- ment of those expenses, and that as soon as the events which gave rise to them shall have been accomplished they will return to their normal state. "It may then be asked whether the enormous burdens imposed upon the English people are to be attributed to France and her extraordinary arma- ments, or whether those enormous outlays, and the taxes consequent thereon, must not be attributed to other causes.'

In an article on this note in the Handcar, the Pays said- " France has done everything to free England from the nightmare of in- vasion in order to restore her to calmness and repose. If we do not succeed, England can only lay the blame on herself for the fears which agitate her, and which, if prolonged, would become an affront to our sincerity, feelings, and actions."

It is stated that the Emperor will make his public entry into Paris on Sunday, the 14th of August, at the head of a part of the Army of Italy- 60,000 men, says rumour. The troops will halt on the following day, the 15th, for the Fete Napoleon. The Emperor is expected to remain at St. Cloud on the 16th and 17th, when he will proceed with the Em- press to St. Sauveur, in the Pyrenees. Their Majesties will afterwards go to Plombieres.

The Marquis Bonneville has left Paris on a mission to Vienna. France still solicits Austria to revise the Treaty of Villafranca, and on this depends a conference of the great Powers.—Poet.

The Emperor has received Signor Pallavicino, envoy from Parma ; Signor Peruzzi and Signor Leducio, envoys from Tuscany; and Signor Fontanelli from Modena. All these envoys put in pleas for their late sovereigns, with no success.

It is stated that M. Walewski has already draughted a plan for an Italian Confederation to consist of seven States.

By the Villafranca Treaty the nominal or honorary Presidency was given to the Pope ; that high office will be filled in reality by the Kings of Sardinia and Naples, each taking turn about. The Federal Council it is proposed to organize thus—Parma and Modena are to have one vote each the Pope two ; Tuscany two ; Austria, for Venetia, two ; and Piedmont and Naples three each. There is to be a federal army and the Italian fortresses are to be garrisoned by federal troops. A large number of addresses of congratulation on the peace have been presented to the Emperor by the authorities of the great provincial towns in France.

Sillli•—Very copious letters arrive daily from Italy, but they con- tain only a moderate basis of fact.

The Pope has accepted the honoriiry Presidency of the proposed Con- federation. The Grand Duke of Tuscany has abdicated in favour of his son, Archduke Ferdinand, born on the 10th June, 1835. This prince married a daughter of the King of Saxony, who has left him a widower with one child (a daughter), born on the 10th January, 1858.

• "It must be observed that the budgets of the army and navy include, in addi- tion to the pay and maintenance of the effective forces and materiel of war, all sums yearly granted for extraordinary works of the engineers (fortifications, &A.) and of the sea ports.

"The expenses for Algeria are included in this amount, now carried to a special budget for 16,500,000 francs.

"In these calculations the budgets for 1854, 1855, 1858, and 1857 are not in- cluded, as they were affected by the expenses of the Crimean war." The Municipality of Florence has declared in favour of annexation with Piedmont, or, as an alternative, a Prince of Savoy. A vast majority of the townships of Tuscany have come to a similar resolve. A special assembly will shortly sit to pronounce an opinion on the question. Pro- fessor Maleucci has carried the views of the Tuscan Government at Turin. In Parma the Judges of the Supreme Court have taken an oath of fidelity to Victor Emmanuel. The powers enjoyed by Signor FarMi as Ex- traordinary Commissioner, have been withdrawn, and the Parmesans have elected him Regent of the Duchy. He will convoke the assembly, which will express the wishes of the country. In Modena a similar course has been pursued. From Bologna we learn that "a great number of addresses are being signed in the Romagna against the return of the clerical Government and in favour of union with Sardinia. The country has resolved upon maintaining public order and on repulsing any attack of the Swiss troops in the service of the Pope ; also that a regular voting should take place to express the wishes of the country." A General Mezzocapa has 10,000 men on the Romagna ready to act against the Pope; and it is said that when they are joined by Garibaldi's men, there will be 60,000 men in arms.

The Piedmontese Government has announced that there will be no change in its policy: it will continue to favour, as largely as possible, the great principles at the basis of public right.

As to the Conference little progress has been made. It is reported that Sardinia has named Signor des Ambrois, as her Commissioner, and also that Austria declines to enter a Conference with Sardinia.

A more reasonable tone prevails generally in rhe correspondence from Italy, "matters are not so bad as we at first believed."

The Pope issued a proclamation on the 18th July, in the shape of a letter to the Cardinal Vicar, laying his commands on the faithful to con- tinue prayers fcr peace, and giving the following reason for this course. "To thank God for the peace obtained between the two great Catholic belligerent Powers is our duty, but to continue prayer is a veritable ne- cessity, since several provinces of the States of the Church are still a prey to the overthrowers of established order. And it is in these same pro- vinces that a usurping foreign authority new announces that God made man free in his opinions, whether political or religious,' forgetting thus the authorities established by God upon earth, to whom respect and obedience are owing—forgetting likewise the immortality of the soul, which, when it passes from a transitory to an eternal state, will have to render a special account of its religious opinions likewise to the Omni- potent, Inexorable Judge, learning then, but too late, that God is one, faith is one, and that whoever goes out of the ark of unity, will be plunged into the deluge of eternal penalties." The foreign authority re- ferred to by the Pope is the Marquis Massimo d'Azeglio, who used the language denounced in an address to the Bolognese during his short period of office as Commissioner Extraordinary. The spirit that animates the Roman Court cannot be better exemplified than by the following eireuhir from Cardinal Antonelli to the agents of the Papal Gotirte algoad •

" Tras ttis (timbers of the Vatican, July 12, 1859. " Amidst the fears and anxieties arising from the present deplorable war, the- Holy Bee appeared to have grounds for tranquillity in the many assurances received, to which was added that the King of Piedmont, by the • advice of the Emperor of the French, his ally, had refused the offer of the dictatorship of the revolted provinces of the Pontifical States. But it is grievous to observe that events turn out otherwise' and that facts occur every day under the eyes of the Holy Father and his Government which render more and more unjustifiable the conduct of the Sardinian Government towards the Holy See, a conduct which clearly shows an in- tention of usurping a considerable part of its temporal dominions. After the rebellion of Bologna' which his Holiness already had to deplore in his allocution of the 20th June last, that city became a harbour for many Piedmontese officers, who came from the neighbouring Tuscany and Modena, also with the intention of preparing quarters for Piedmoutese troops. Thousands of muskets were brought in from those foreign States to arm the revolters and the volunteers, and cannons were brought to increase the commotion of the rebellious provinces, and to embolden the disturbers of order. These open violations of neutrality, joined to an active co- operation in maintaining the outbreak in the States of the Church, have been crowned by a more important violation, which renders quite illusory the refusal of the dictatorship—the nomination of the Marquis Massimo d'Azeglio as Commissary-Extraordinary in Romagna, as results from the decree of his Royal Highness the Prince Eugene of Savoy, lieutenant of his Sardinian Majesty, dated dune 28, and from the letter of Count Covenr of the same date, to direct the concurrence of those provinces in the war, under the specious pretext that the so-called national movement should not degenerate into disorder, attributing to him by that means an office en- croaching upon the territorial rights of the Sovereign. And things proceed with such rapidity that the Piedmontese troops have already entered in the Pontifical territory, having occupied Forte Urbane and Castel Franco, where Piedmontese riflemen and part of the R. Novi brigade have arrived. And all this either to oppose a valid resistance to the Pontifical troops which might be sent to resume the usurped power in the rebel provinces, or to create new obstacles to the execution of this just design. "In fine, to complete the usurpation of legitimate authority, two engineer officers, one of whom is a Piedmontese, were sent to Ferrara to mine and de- stroy the fortress. Such abominable attempts, manifesting a flagrant violation of the rights of nations, under man) regards, can but fill with bitternessthe mind of his Holiness, and cause him an indignation as strong as it is just, not without surprise at seeing such enormities committed by the Government of a Catholic sovereign, who nevertheless followed the advice of his august ally in not accepting the offered dictatorship. Every attempt, as yet, to prevent or remove the series of evils buying proved vain, the Holy Father, mindful of his duty to preserve his States and the integrity of the temporal dominion of the Holy See, essentially connected with the independence and free action of the Supreme Pontificate, reclaims and protests against the violations and usurpations committed even in spite of the accepted neutrality, and desires that such protest be communicated to all European Powers, trusting that they, in the justice which distinguishes them, will support him and not allow to go on such an open ievolution of the right of nations and of the sovereignty of the Holy Father; and that they will not hesitate to cooperate in vindicating the rights of this sove- reignty, for which purpose he invokes their assistance and protection. The undersigned Cardinal Secretary of State, executing the Pontifical com- mands, sends the present note to your Excellency, with the prayer to trans- mit it to your Royal Court."

-The Papal troops have been ordered to enter the Legations, but at present they have made no progress. errmant1.—A meeting of men of the Democratic party from all parts of Germany has been held at Eisenach. The following resolutions were agreed to

1. We see in the present condition of affairs great dangers to the inde- pendence of our German fatherland, and these dangers have been increased rather than diminished by the peace just concluded between France and Austria. 2. These dangers have their ultimate cause in the faults of the federal constitution of Germany, and they can only be averted by a speedy modification of that constitution. 3. With that object, it is necessary that - the Germanic Diet should be replaced by a central government of Germany, firm, strong, and permanent:, and that a National Assembly should be con- voked. 4. Under present circumstances, the proper steps for attaining that object can only emanate from Prussia, and it is therefore necessary to use every effort to induce Prussia to take the initiative. 5. With that object, and to preserve more effectually the foreign interests of Germany, it is ex- pedient provisionally, and until the definitive constitution of the central German Government, to confer on Prussia the direction of the German military forces, and the diplomatic representation of Germany abroad. 6. It is the duty of every German to support with all his might the Prussian - Government as far as it tends to this object, and assuredly the German people will not shrink from any sacrifice required by the independence, unity, and happiness of the German fatherland."

Similar resolutions have been adopted by meetings held in several great German towns, and even the Austrian journals are very strong in favour of a real German Parliament. In Hanover the Prussian Govern- ment is asked to convoke such a body, to such lengths has the German mind gone.

11155 lg.—Letter writers at St. Petersburg claim for Russia a hand in the peace. In a letter from that city, dated July 16, occur the fol- lowing curious statements.

"Although the war in Italy was approved by us, in many respects, on account of the unfriendly feeling which prevails here against the Austrian Government, our Emperor has always entertained a friendly feeling to- wards each belligerent. The Russian army eagerly desired war with Aus- tria, and the Guard had been apprised that in place of forming the reserve, as usual, it should be the first engaged. One corps d'armee had been con- centrated in Podolia, and another in Bessarabia. These demonstrations, however, were more apparent than real, and I have reason to know that the Russian Government has contributed to the peace just concluded. Our Minister for Foreign Affairs had his plan of mediation, which would have shortly been brought forward. Several versions are current relative to the mission of Count Paul Schouvaloff to the French head-quarters. The one ' best founded is that this person was commissioned by the Emperor Alex- ander to warn the Emperor of the French that the English and Prussian Governments, alarmed at his success, were taking measures to oppose its continuance, and that the Russian Government, in that ease, thought it- self, in an honourable point of view, equally obliged to apprise the Emperor of the French that it could not engage in a general war. This explanation is generally accepted as correct in the highest political circles."