with the beauty of his person, and sent for him confined to great matters and rare occasions; to the palace. When he grew up, he received it is not the result of a communication with in marriage his master's daughter, the sister of Governments at home, still less of consultation the present Sultan, a lady who is said to have and concurrence between the Embassies themused her influence in her husband's favor on selves. The diplomatic potentate is, above all more than one occasion. He has held high dig- things, anxious to gain for himself power or nities, and enjoyed in an especial degree the the semblance of it, and to increase his own favor of his Imperial brother-in-law. He held importance among his Levantine adulators. the post of Seraskier when Menschikoff ar- The representations which should carry with rived on his arrogant mission. His conduct in them a dignity worthy of a great nation take the ensuing contest endeared him to the Turks, the form of intrigue, and by intrigue they are and must receive the praise even of Europeans. met. It is the highest praise of an AmbassaUnterrified by the threats of the Russian, he dor and his dragoman to have foiled the inroused the courage of others who were inclined mates of some other palace about a patch of to yield, spoke openly with contempt of the ground in Pera or a priestly quarrel in DaAmbassador, declared that the country could mascus. To eject a Grand Vizer is an exbe defended, and immediately commenced the ploit to which a new representative with a levying of troops and the preparations for a proper ambition will immediately devote himconflict. Since then he has equally distin- self; the Envoys and Ministers of the smaller guished himself among those who have in- States have, of course, to content themselves veighed against the increasing interference of with persecuting minor Pashas and Beys, while the Western Powers in domestic concerns, and a Chargé d'affaires of Hesse Homburg could is accordingly regarded by the orthodox among only aspire to influence the destinies of cavashis countrymen as the only man who has ses. But the great triumph is to supplant a equally opposed all their enemies. In the rival. A diplomatist of 40 years' standing respring he was summarily banished to Asia members the Ambassadors whose recall he has through the influence of the opposite party; obtained with the same complacency that a but during the absence of the British Ambassa- Cherokee counts his scalps. What all this has dor in the Crimea, he was as suddenly recalled; led to we know. The fact is evident, that as and, though the Sultan is said to have declared soon as the pressure of the foreigner is withhis intention not to employ him, there can be drawn the Sultan's councils are likely to be no doubt that he was received with even more directed by men chosen for their attachment than former favor. Lord Stratford de Red- to the old Mussulman policy. How little the cliffe visited the Crimea a second time to con- system which has been practised for so many duct an important ceremony; and within a few years has changed the hereditary spirit of days of his departure Mehemet Ali was raised to Turkish rule we shall learn if ever the State the high dignity of Capudan Pasha, or Chief Ad- be again abandoned to its own guidance. The miral, and is now in rank the First Minister of power of Mehemet Ali may be of short durathe Porte after the Grand Vizier. The immedi- tion-the news of his appointment may even ate incidents of his elevation are hidden in the be premature-but if he has gained power recesses of the palace; but the personal favor and can keep it, he is likely to be more troubof the Sovereign, the popularity of the Pasha lesome to the busy palaces of Pera than really among the Turks, especially among that class hostile to the just and friendly intentions of of dependents with whom Aboul Medjid is in the Western Governments. constant intercourse, and the ties of relationship, were no doubt among the causes of so sudden a reinstatement. The public need have no fear of evil consequences from the presence of this proud and stubborn Turk in the Sultan's council. The time is past when the influence of a Pasha could change the policy of the Ottoman State; nor do we believe that the dislike of Mehemet Ali and his followers is directed against the Western Governments so much as against the system of diplomatic interference, which every one feels to be an evil. The quick succession of Turkish Ministers, the rise or fall, the pensioning or banishment of every high official, is spoken of, and generally with truth, as connected with the representations of some European Embassy. Of this the Turk is heartily, and with reason, tired. Interference is not It is for those Governments now, with earnestness and with a common accord, to devote themselves to the improvement of the institutions which, in spite of speeches and despatches, we find to remain unchanged. Till lately Turkey, though much spoken about, was really unknown. Its destinies were the theme of many a pamphlet and many a discussion. The statesman's sleep might well be disturbed by the contemplation of the dangers that would follow its downfall. All this time the interests of England, and of the world so far as depended on her, were committed to one man. The British Ambassador held a position which might fairly be called irresponsible; the authorities at home trusted him because their ignorance of the East precluded their interference; no Opposition inquired into his intentions, distorted his motives, or made his schemes abortive. Great energy and more than aver- great questions of future policy will be decided age talents were united in him to an intimate in a purer and less heated atmosphere; but knowledge of the country, and of the individ- the internal affairs of the empire must be reguals who ruled it. It was in the power of such ulated in its own capital, and it is for this that a man, in such a position, to do much for Tur- the long and abiding alliance of the Western key; how little has been accomplished, there Powers is to be hoped for, even after the triare now hundreds who can say. From the umphs of war are at an end. No longer trusting lowness of view and the littleness of purpose an individual, the Governments must seek inforwhich we have described the Dean of Orien- mation wherever it is to be found, and those tal diplomacy has been no exception. In fact, who are able to teach them are daily increasfew men can withstand for a lifetime such in- ing. United and earnest, with high resolves fluences as prevail in Pera and at the Porte. and clear views, they may see with indifferThe allies have wisely taken away almost all ence the domestic intrigues of the State political power from Constantinople, and the From The Spectator, 15 Sept. tically, but has lately asserted it with a roundness and explicitness which derive new political force and effect from being communicated A MISTAKE which might induce the reader to the great bulk of the town population of the daily journals totally to misconceive through a press. Sardinia has not only bravthe actual state of Italy would be to con- ed excommunication, but has opened her press sider the present period of time separately to a discussion on the rights of the Church, from the past. That error would make which is even more fatal to the authority of him either exaggerate the appearance of the Pope than a direct hostility would be. movements, and anticipate some happy coup- The comparative merits of clerical and civil de-théatre, converting" the oppressed nation- jurisdiction in temporal matters is discussed alities" into happy peoples, and turning with a freedom and an analytical vigor, and "King Bomba" into Pantaloon, the Czar Alex- defended by an indiscretion and rancorous ander into the Clown of the European panto- bigotry, that must place the hundreds of thoumime; or it would make the reader who takes sands of the reading population in a very fair repose in an easy scepticism disbelieve that position to be judges, and that in an Italian there can be "anything in it," and dismiss the state where a political constitution, with selfoutward signs of the time as superficial changes government, is in actual working. Under the that signify nothing. The fact is, that the impulse o Pontifical Government, the same principal movement at Naples, the appearance discussion has begun to show itsel in a fantasof some war-ship French or English to awake tical and alarming manner before the very eyes the placid echoes of the Bay and to shake of the Pope. King Ferdinand's diaphragm with an unes- On Monday week, the Pope had resolved capeable tremor, has little to do in working the to take a walk outside the Porta del Popolo; change that unquestionably goes forward in and he had descended from his carriage, when Italy; but the real progress belongs to abid- suddenly a crowd of skin-dressers, who had asing causes long resident in the peninsula and sembled in joyous bands to celebrate in a faninherent in the genius of the people. The tastical manner the day of their Saint, Barvery letter of Lucien Murat, which has been tholomew, came along the road in full career. published in the London papers only in a mu- The attendants of the Pope endeavored to artilated form, belongs to 1854. It is an effusion rest the career of the carriages in which some of confidences" to a relation," intended pro- of the skin-dressers were; but the servants bably for a rather extensive "private" circu- were jostled out of the way, and the holiday lation; and it simply points out Prince Lucien makers galloped on with utter disregard of the as a person who considers himself "the only solution of the Neapolitan question, but decidedly disposed to await an invitation before he takes any step. Prince Lucien is not a leading agitator, but only pretends to be an historical personage, transmitted from the past, and available for the future if occasion should arise. He is decidedly not an active element in the Vesuvian commotion. The wrongs of the exMinister Saliceti, "spretaque injuria forma," were equally perennial, and were only brought into activity by the exciting causes of King Ferdinand's own restless, cowardly cruelty. It is the Bourbon crown that is the blister; but it is a blister upon the mildest and most inert people on earth, and the Neapolitans themselves will only be an adjective in any larger and more energetic movement that may arise elsewhere. Those signs which point to the most positive, and perhaps even speediest results, belong to the perennial movements. We have oftener A pamphlet that has been put forward as than once pointed to the quasi-Protestantism the organ of the Muratist party in Naples which is arising in Italy, not by a severance of looks anxiously for a union between Piedmont the people from the Roman Catholic commu-and Naples. This is natural. Prince Lucien nion, but by a practical independence in tem- declares himself in favor of constitutional govporal matters from the jurisdiction of the Pope, ernment; constitutional government is estabwhose authority in such matters is gradually lished in the Sardinian states, but the position placed under that of the civil powers. Spain of the Sardinian states, even in reference to has always adhered to that theory dogma- their international relations, belongs to a series Holy Father; who showed some alarm on the occasion. A coachman was afterwards arrested; but no punishment of the driver can efface the disclosure of popular disregard for the Pontiff. Nor was that the only adventure which he met on the same day. Passing along the Via di Ripetta, he found a number of people assembled, who began to cry for "Bread! and when he gave them his benediction, cries were heard of "Anything beside benediction -we want bread!" Not the "super-substantial bread" of which the Douay Testament speaks, but the plain bread which the baker prepares, and which in Rome is officially sold under price to the poorest. This is drawing the comparison between spiritual and temporal jurisdiction in a manner to bring it painfully close to the Sovereign Pontiff'; particularly as he has more blessings than pence or bread. of causes infinitely more extended than the temporaries, both daily and weekly, with enpresent day, going far beyond 1848. A cor-couraging the Italian patriots to insurrection respondence has just been published which by holding out to them hopes of English astook place in 1783-4 between the Government sistance. We need not tell the readers of the of the King of Sardinia and its representa- ECONOMIST that never was charge made with tives in Paris and Berlin. Whether the mo- less shadow of foundation. On the contrary, tive of the correspondence originated with the we have on several occasions, expressly and King, Victor Amadeus the Third, or with his parenthetically, deprecated any revolutionary Minister, Count Peronne, does not appear movements in the Peninsula, for this reason from the passages that have come before us; among many others that we saw little ground but it would seem that the King had the larger for supposing either that the policy of the Britshare in suggesting it. His attention was ish Government was sufficiently fixed and dedrawn to the state of the Crimea, where the cisive to insure their interfering at all or Khan Gueray appeared to be re-established, interfering on the right side or that the symbut where he was menaced by the military pathies of the British nation were sufficiently preparations of Austria and Russia in a man- vivid and enduring to ensure their untiring ner unmistakable. The King sees in these interest in the popular cause after they had preparations a decided intention to make ap- once embarked in it. A few months ago, proaches upon Turkey; he points out that Spain and the Western Powers, in common with Italy, have an interest in defending the independence of Turkey and preventing Russia from establishing herself on the Mediterranean; he tells his ministers at the French and Prussian courts to explain his sentiments, and if they can to bring about a league for the protection of Turkey by stopping the progress of Russia and Austria in the Crimea. "It would not be wonderful," writes the King, on the 8th of April, 1783, "if Austria were not to act hostilely in the first instance, but were to limit herself to the prudent precautions of watching over her own frontier, ready in the sequel to take her part according to events so that in that guise she might have the air of conceding to the insinuations made to her by the powers interested for the Porte, and at the same time would make a true diversion favorable to Russia." King Victor Amadeus sees only one difficulty in the league that he recommends, that of securing the naval assistance of England, who could scarcely be brought to act concurrently with France. The parallel with the present day is remarkable; the differences are equally striking. England and France act as one; the league is complete by the naval assistance of England,- -a grand compensation for that defection of Prussia which has made her forfeit her place in Europe. But by whom is this correspondence published? By Signor Castelli, the Director of the National Archives of Sardinia; the publication being therefore a quasiofficial act sanctioned by Count Peronne's successor, Count Cavour. Thus it is not only a parallel, but a continuance of those causes which have elevated the noble house of Savoy to take a lead amongst the statesmen and powers of Europe. From The Economist, 15 Sept. when the question of "evoking the nationalities," as it is termed, was much discussed, we did violence to our own feelings and aspirations out of regard to the maintenance of the English character for justice and consistency, and argued at some length that no one who knew our people's tendencies would trust their continued and unflagging sympathies with any struggle for liberty in foreign lands, and that no one who had our people's reputation sincerely at heart would urge them to encourage or engage in a struggle of which they were likely to grow sick and weary before victory had crowned it. We are of this opinion still. But we cannot on that account abstain from holding up to execration follies, brutalities, and oppressions which would provoke any patience and justify any retaliation; nor do we feel ourselves called upon, by any apprehension of the consequences, to shrink from depicting in the plainest language what are the obvious inferences to be drawn from the events passing under our eyes, and what must be the inevitable result of the blind and stupid barbarity with which Ferdinand of Naples is afflicting his people, outraging his kind, filling the measure of his crimes, and storing up wrath against the day of wrath. We say, therefore, again, and we say it with alarm and grief, that in the South of Italy affairs seem to have reached a crisis which warrants the belief that a convulsion may every moment take place. The wretched King of Naples and his brutal and absurd Minister of Police, not content with manifesting their Russian sympathies as plainly as they dare, appear bent upon trying an experimentum crucis upon the patience and long-suffering of the people. There are few extremes of steady tyranny that would not be endured there in silence; the upper ranks are not as a body either very energetic or very liberal; the middle classes have long been broken into slavery and silence; the army has till lately been a sort of a spoilt child of the Sovereign; and the populace, content with sunshine and a sudden insurrection would do little for the macaroni, feel no sense of oppression and no cause of freedom. It would be simply a hurdesire for freedom, and are always ready to ricane of wild retributive justice which might shout and sometimes to fight for a Monarch clear the air and destroy much evil, but would who cajoles them and a Government which leave a chaos of ruins out of which it would spares them. The land is so beautiful, the not be easy to construct better and more abidclimate so delicious, the soil so fertile in the ing arrangements. And for any more delibkingdom of the two Sicilies, that life is very erate and more general re-construction, neither easy, and, unless laboriously and viciously the Italians nor the Western Powers are yet made otherwise, very sweet; men are satisfied prepared-though it is time to think of prepwith little and obtain that little readily; a shed aration. The affairs and prospects of the to sleep in, a slice of water melon, and a cigar Peninsula are, indeed, fearfully complicated. of villanous tobacco, constitute the only neces- There is Russia, willing to support Ferdinand saries of life to the mass. Everything, there- in any atrocities and to approve his insanest fore, that can be borne will be borne; and the follies. There is Austria, as oppressive but oppression which drives the Neapolitans to less foolish, cursing his untimely crimes as men desperation must be general, barbarous, and stupid beyond all ordinary measure. curse the blunders of an accomplice who brings them into difficulties, but certain to aid The limits of possible endurance on one him, if she is permitted, in crushing any atside and of conceivable folly and brutality on tempt at insurrection. There is Mazzini-sick the other seem, however, to have been nearly of hope deferred, and growing short-sighted and reached. If no actual and cognizable insults unscrupulous in his despair-prepared to take have been offered to the Western Powers, the advantage of any popular movement, and even disposition to insult has been plainly shown. to accept the assistance of Russia to create one The military, who used to be the special ob--if Russia, out of spite to Austria, should be jects of the King's favor, appear to have fallen willing to use him as an agent of discord and into suspicion and disgrace. The police au- confusion. There is Murat, or the partisans thorities do not hesitate to affront and arrest of Murat, circulating pamphlets through the them on the most trivial pretexts; and a bad Neapolitan dominions, reminding the people feeling is growing up between these two in- that a son of their once popular King yet surstruments of tyranny out of which may spring vives, and is ready to come forward and resmuch hope for freedom. Men of rank and cue them as soon as they think the Bourbon loyalty, never suspected of liberalism and dynasty has filled up the measure of its crimes. grievously suspected by the patriots of the There is France, jealous of Austrian influence strongest conservative leanings, are snubbed, in Italy, and sore indignant at Austrian vaciloutraged, and bullied by wretched police agents who, in better times, would cringe and tremble before their very looks;-while gentlemen of spotless character and barristers of reputation and eminence are actually flogged on suspicion of disaffection, or to extort confessions of supposed accomplices. Society is beset with spies, and in a state of utter disorganization, terror, and suppressed fury. Meantime the Monarch, conscious of the detestation in which he is held, and aware that all these proceedings, authorized and unauthorized, of his tools must increase this universal abhorrence, lives in dread of assassination and sees daggers in the air;-he shuns his capital, flies from one country house to another, shuts himself up from every eye, and as far as possible creates desolation and solitude around him. lation and double-dealing; supposed to be in secret not hostile to the pretensions of Murat; disgusted with the misgovernment and cruelties at Naples, but hampered by its guilty connection with misgovernment nearly as infamous at Rome; and, by its alliances and antecedents, tied out almost equally from enbracing in the Peninsula the cause of freedom or the cause of tyranny. And, finally, there is England, sick and sad at the barbarities of Bourbon despotism, but dreading more the probable excesses of insurgent patriots; unable to connive at Muratist plots, yet feeling that any dynasty would be preferable to the effete and wicked one which now reigns at Naples; and with its fundamental principles of foreign policy still so unsettled and transitional that, if a general Italian rising should take place, it What will be the upshot of all this, whether would be sorely puzzled what countenance to an outbreak can be long delayed, and what assume or what part to play,-whether to let form and dimensions it will assume, it would popular sympathies or governmental traditions be rash to prophesy. If it be a quick volcanic guide its action,-whether to encourage the eruption, a second Sicilian vespers, in which struggles of the sufferers, or with shame and the Sovereign and his guilty accomplices shall reluctance to stand by the side of the pres meet with prompt and sweeping retribution,and his many victims be liberated from their loathsome dungeons and their rusty fetters, none can feel surprise,and few will affect regret. But such sors. Truly the perplexities of the situation are embarrassing enough to statesmen of the clearest vision and the most fixed principles of ac |