vernrnent has officially declared that it will await attack, but
it seems clear that it also expects it. The force in Venetia has been greatly strengthened, and General Benedek is collecting large commissariat stores. An order also has been received from sienna commanding all married officers in Venetia to send their-wives into Germany, a precaution only taken in time of war. At the same time large bodies of Croats have arrived in Venetia, and their presence is supposed to indicate a certainty of war. The district round Mantua also was evacuated for a few days, apparently to tempt an inroad from the Italian side. At the same time, the fourth corps d'armee has been posted round Ferrara, so. as to defend the road by which the Austrians would enter, their policy being to march not on Lombardy but Bologna, so as to avoid infringing the letter of the peace of Villa- franca. Above all, the Garibaldians are in a state of extreme ex- citement. Garibaldi himself is in Turin, conferring with the King, and will, it is said, take his place in the Chamber of Representatives, but his followers are enlisting men from Turin to Sicily. The Hun- garian Legion at Naples is also rapidly increasing, and will in a few weeks become one of the finest regiments in Europe. The agitation in favour of Garibaldi -extends to the ranks of the Piedmontese army, and the agents of this party are very freely sup- plied with money wherever it may be obtained. Some eight thousand men are said to have been thus engaged, and an able writer points to the Tyrol as the possible object of Garibaldi. His name would raise the Tyrol from end to end. It is more probable, however, that all these movements point to an understanding with Hungary, and that the meeting of the Diet will be the signal for overt action. It is difficult to believe that the movements in Hungary, Poland, Turkey, and Italy should all intensify at the same time without some agree- ment among the different leaders, and some branch of the French Court.
In Rome nothing has occurred during the week, which has been occupied with the festivals of Easter. They have gone off as well as usual, being attended by crowds of strangers, but the Pope fainted away during one of the services. He is reported not really ill, but his death is one of the many events which would change the whole aspect of affairs. The fate of Europe is hanging on half a dozen lives, and the death either of Louis Napoleon, Victor Emmanuel, the Pope, Garibaldi, or the Emperor of Austria might change the whole current of history.
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