said, given excellent reate, ment with having wished

A

would be calculated, in the eve of b tation of the vessel. He

the unfavourable issue of the kerrytoma

announced, was borne out of fate, y ma

Party.... The nation na a

construction was to be followed up, and wise, a tak tuk IN BUZIO could or could not defend the "o the base isvA.

He

replied that the techal Commision 1 PInet that "Duilio" would be damaged geezit heter experiments, 6 1 that he himself had deter set on ure funtser experauenir, because be deemed it necesary to verify the capabilities of the vessel under any circumstance : key to wise in titue of war. added that he was ready to lay of the tobe all the doc.queme desired concerning these trials. The discussion of the butjent, both in and out of the House, soL assumed an angry character. A fortnight later (March 23, on the occasion of another interpellation, a violent attack was made of Actor by the extreme Left, aided by Signor Sella and the ois Right, enged only by Signor Cairoli's acceptance of Nicotera's motion to adjourn the debate for two months. Admiral Acton was taxed with having been led-through his dislike to the system of giant ships-into imposing the impossible on the Duilio and her crew, so that he might be able to point to a disaster in proof of the correctness of his own previsions. Many went even further in their accusations, and declared that his dislike to the system was based on no technical grounds, but on purely personal, political, and parliamentary calculations. The truth seems to have been that Admiral Acton by no means considers the mouster ships, constructed by his predecessors Brin and Saint-Bon, to be good for nothing and unserviceable, but rather he is of opinion that having regard to the means and necessities of Italy-it is undesirable to build these

gigantic vessels and nothing else; he believes that the four at present built or in course of building are sufficient, and that what is now wanted is a number of lighter, less costly, and less unwieldy ships of war. From the remarks which he made, in reply to General Ricotti, when the Navy Estimates were taken in the Chamber of Deputies, it would seem that Admiral Acton has, to some extent, given his own sanction to the plans on which the "Duilio" was constructed. He had "preferred," he said, "the "Duilio' as the type of the new ironclad (then in the dockyard) because her seagoing qualities had already been tested, whereas no experiments had as yet been made with the Italia."" As regards the question of thickness of the armour-plating, Admiral Acton maintained that an armour of 45 centimètres in thickness could not be pierced by either 43, 76, or even 100-ton guns." France and England, he added, although they had no such formidable guns as Italy, nevertheless adopted a thickness of 45 centimètres for the armour of their ships; and he asserted, in conclusion, that, in the point of size and armament of her ironclads, Italy still remained ahead of the other European Powers.

66

The principal measures proposed by the Minister of War, General Ferrero, for completing the organization of the Italian army, have not yet been laid before the House, and on November 20 Signor Depretis stated, before the Budget Committee, that the Cabinet had not yet discussed the proposals made by the Minister of War on the subject. At the same time, he added, the Government were in a position to provide gradually for an increase of the active army and for the indispensable works of territorial defence out of the ordinary Estimates. Three small Bills dealing with points in connection with General Ferrero's main scheme were, however, laid before the House when the Military Estimates were taken at a later date; in the course of the discussion which followed he was strongly urged to provide for the defence of the southern provinces by a strong system of fortifications. But, to this General Ferrero replied whilst admitting that certain works were indispensable-that their proper defence could alone be secured by the existence of a powerful fleet.

On the Foreign Office Estimates (December 7), Signor Mancini made an important statement: he avowed the political object of the journey to Vienna undertaken "in accord with Germany," and referred to Prince Bismarck's recent statement in the Reichstag, "that liberalism in Italy was tending to a Republic," in terms which so gratified the German Chancellor that he instantly telegraphed his satisfaction. On the 22nd Signor Mancini again assured the House that, in making representations at Paris relative to affairs in Tunis, he had carefully avoided all recognition of the Treaty of the Bardo. The bitter feeling on this question, and on the situation of Italy in Egypt, found expression in the course of the debate in an interpellation taxing the Government with neglecting to defend and protect the interests of Italian commerce and ad

against the capitalists, but by men of education and position; and among those who showed the most rancorous antipathy towards the Jews were the students of the University of Berlin. Liberal politicians, on the other hand, loudly expressed their indignation at these barbarous acts of violence and disorder, and on January 12 several Liberal meetings were held in the Prussian capital to protest against them. While thus protesting against one form of intolerance, however, the Prussian Liberals did not scruple to support the oppressive policy of the Government with regard to the Roman Catholics. On January 26 Herr Windthorst, whose small stature, together with his position as an ex-Minister of the kingdom of Hanover and chief of the Particularists and Ultramontanes, had procured him the nickname of "his little Excellency," introduced a Bill in the Prussian Parliament for exempting the dispensation of the sacraments and the reading of the mass from the penal operation of the Falk laws. He showed that in consequence of those laws making it penal for any priest whose appointment had not been sanctioned by the Government to perform the offices of religion, 601 Roman Catholic parishes were entirely without curates, and 584 with only half the number requisite for the wants of their inhabitants; and, referring to the Constitution, which promises civil and religious freedom to all Prussian citizens, he urged that it was monstrous that so many of them should be deprived of the right of baptism, marriage, and burial according to the rites of their church merely because they were Catholics. The governments of China and Japan, he said, were, in things ecclesiastical, much more liberal than that of Prussia. The only reply vouchsafed by the Government and the leading National Liberals to this argument was that if the Roman Catholic authorities did not choose to conform to the regulations of the State for the appointment of clergymen to parishes, the parishes must go without clergymen; and after a hot debate, which extended over two days, Herr Windthorst's Bill was rejected by 254 to 115, the Centre, the Poles, and a few Progressists voting for it, while the Conservatives, the National Liberals, and the remainder of the Progressists sided with the Government.

Prince Bismarck made his first speech of the year (February 4) during the debate on the Verwendungsgesetz, or Bill for applying surpluses on the budgets of the German Empire towards the abatement of certain direct taxes, chiefly on incomes. The Radical deputy, Herr Richter, having delivered one of his usual philippics on the financial policy of the Chancellor, saying that he was striving to curry favour with the lower classes in view of the approaching Imperial elections, and that the new tariff had raised the price of food without increasing wages, the Prince made an elaborate defence of his financial schemes, speaking with unaccustomed calmness and at great length. As to the rise in prices, he argued that this was due, not to the protectionist tariff, but to the failure of the harvest in Southern Russia, which, he said, ought to teach Prussian econo

the workomen in Festion are a te melds treni ment office is waitan paiting a tam r nai limo wert. Half of the premium vold be tee of women vi salaries of more than 70 narice or the Thee, mi ne fie by the workmen hemenes: vers le due 12 r. Te Tus as world pay two-thirds of the premim. ni de remander vouli fall on the poor-ares. de notanes five crainet vinid, with ail from the State, primite la ir vidwy pensions. Levines for orphan thilden måer fren pens of we, mi netimi im-ndance for workmen vio e mjet

socialistie in shazieter, vis to terme the ran rulls of the middle ages with a view to improving the modimon of the working

men.

These plans, firent ther became known, endised great 1000sition all over Germany. The smaller German States strongly chjected to much wide-reaching meamtes being undertaken by the central government; and the Liberis regarded them as calculated both to weaken Parliament and make the poorer classes personally dependent upon the Imperial authorities, while the wealthier and more elitinted, besides being mulated in heavier taxes, would be deprived of all independent indence on the conduct of publie afairs. Prince Bismarck, however, was not a man to be daunted by opposition, and his financial policy occupied a prominent place in the speech from the throne read by Count Stolberg Wernigerode, the Vice-Chancellor, at the opening of the fourth and last session