The Italians are about, according to the Times, to try
the ex- periment we have abandoned, and form a penal colony beyond -seas. They thought at first of Abyssinia, but are now in treaty for a district in Borneo, and for some reason we do not compre- hend, think English consent indispensable. We should refuse it, escape from Borneo to Australia being far too easy, and offer the Italians our own unused possession, the island of Socotra ; or sup- pose they occupy a point on the African coast opposite 'Linz ibar, and gradually spread inwards ? If the Italian Government, however, is seeking for a punishment which shall strike the imagination as much as the penalty of death, which it cannot inflict, owing to the strong feeling in Italy against exe- cutions, it should purchase Iceland, and make the guardianship and tuition of prisoners the Icelanders' means of livelihood. Nothing would strike such terror into Italians, more especially if the sentence were reserved strictly for assassination and brigandage.
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