fable of the giant and the dwarf. On the 13th of December, Herr von Bismarck addressed a note to the Prussian Ambassador at Munich, in which he did not disguise his contempt for any Resolution which the Federal Diet might pass, in opposition to the alleged rights and interests of Prussia. He said:"By the acceptance of the Austro-Prussian motion of the 1st of December, the Federal Diet has admitted that it also considers the Execution in the Duchies of Holstein and Lauenburg as terminated, and has thereby confirmed the circumstance upon which the King's Government based its demands to the Cabinets of Dresden and Hanover. By its simultaneous request to the two Governments for the withdrawal of their troops, the Diet has drawn the conclusion necessarily resulting from this fact, and has enabled the Government of the King to await the decision that might be come to in Dresden.

"We determined upon this course in a friendly frame of mind, in order to avert the danger of a more serious complication, which could not fail to have arisen out of a continued refusal of Saxony to execute the prescriptions of the order for execution; and we hail with satisfaction this result of the moderation and conciliatory spirit we preserved to the last moment.

"But we are also unable to conceal from ourselves, that even in the sittings of the Federal Diet alluded to, this result was accompanied by circumstances calculated to call forth justifiable and serious doubts-doubts to which we feel it our duty to direct the attention of the other Governments.

"We could not indeed refrain from feeling surprise, that upon a subject in which the notorious facts and the plain letter as well as the spirit of Federal right so unequivocally pointed out what the decision ought to be, the votes of the minority could display a marked difference in the views of the members of the Confederation.

"In the attempt to set the occupation and sequestration of the Duchies in the place of execution, and to justify their occupation and administration by the Diet until the moment of definitive decision upon their future, there lies a tendency to extend the competence of the Diet which finds no basis in treaties, and which we cannot, therefore, avoid characterizing as dangerous to the existence of the Diet itself. The existence of the Diet is founded upon the respect of all its members for the very carefully drawn. limits of this competence; every attempt at their arbitrary enlargement touches and shakes the foundations of the Diet itself. A rule of majorities which would substitute an arbitrary principle for the aforesaid respect, and claim to exercise a guiding influence upon our policy beyond the stipulation of Federal treaties, could not be endured by us. We are only members of that Confederation whose fundamental laws are laid down in Federal treaties. The measure of the attributes inherent in the general body with regard to the individual member is apportioned by these treaties, and the excess of the competence thereby conferred would be

coincident with the dissolution of the Confederation. Every Government which attaches value to the advantages and security afforded it by the continuance of the Confederation should therefore be carefully upon its guard against violations of competence by which the common bond may be torn asunder. We have no intention of allowing our political independence to be shackled beyond the measure of our evident Federal duties, but the endeavour to do so would have become a fact, if only two other votes had joined the six votes of the minority on the 5th. In face of the wrongly passed Resolution, we should then have been placed in the necessity of making full use, for the protection of our rights, of the increased freedom of action afforded us by the violation of the treaties."

In December, a deputation from the inhabitants of Schleswig presented a farewell address to the King of Denmark, in which they said:

.

"Sire, we have felt the necessity of once more greeting our old Sovereign for the last time. Ancient ties are broken, and new ones have not yet been established. We are isolated, not knowing what the future will bring us. We shall long cherish the recollections of the past as of the long series of years during which we lived under the mild rule of the Danish Kings. Fortune has given place to disaster, but in joy as in sorrow we have kept our eyes steadily fixed upon the throne. We shall preserve our remembrance of bygone days, and the Danish people on this side of the Königsau will never forget its brothers beyond, for all our recollections are in common. But the times compel us to direct our gaze toward the future. In your Majesty's farewell address we were recommended to seek consolation at the throne of Him who holds the happiness of nations and the fate of kingdoms in His Almighty hand. And we place our hopes on none other than on Him. Should it happen that the wishes of the population are allowed to exercise any influence upon the final settlement of our future, we pray your Majesty to retain the firm conviction that we shall show how deeply love to our ancient country is rooted in the hearts of the population of Schleswig. May God guard your Majesty! May He protect Denmark, our ancient fatherland!"

His Majesty replied:

:

"You have told me how bitterly you grieve to be separated from Denmark and the Danish Royal House, and I pray you to believe that it has also been most painful to me to be placed under the necessity of relinquishing the ancient Danish Crown-land of Schleswig, united for centuries with Denmark. Of all the cares and sorrows which have been heaped upon me during my brief rule, nothing has more depressed my mind, nothing weighed more deeply upon my heart, than the separation from the brave, faithful, and loyal Schleswigers, who have, upon so many difficult occasions, constantly given the most brilliant proofs of fidelity and devotion to Denmark and the Danish Royal House, who have

cherished no dearer or more zealous wish than to remain united with the kingdom under my sceptre. But, my friends, we must all bow to the will of Providence, and I will pray to the Almighty that He may give both to you and to me the requisite strength and endurance to bear the bitter pangs of separation. I thank you heartily for your presence at this place, and will consider it as an additional proof of your devotion to me and the Danish Royal House. My best wishes for your future welfare will always be with you. May God preserve and bless you all!"

R

CHAPTER IV.

ITALY SPAIN.

ITALY.-Important Convention with France on the subject of the withdrawal of French troops from Rome-Bill introduced into the Italian Chambers for transferring the capital from Turin to Florence-Remarkable speech of General Cialdini on the question-The Bill carried.

SPAIN.-Ministerial crisis-Successive attempts to form a Ministry-Señor Narvaez and his former Cabinet reinstalled in office-Speech of the Queen at the opening of the Cortes-Quarrel with Peru.

ITALY.

On the 15th of September a very important Convention was concluded between the Kingdom of Italy and the French Empire, for the purpose of defining the period within which the Papal States are to be evacuated by French troops. The following are the articles of the Convention :

Art. 1. Italy engages not to attack the present territory of the Holy Father, and to prevent, even by force, every attack upon the said territory coming from without.

Art. 2. France will withdraw her troops from the Pontifical States gradually and in proportion as the army of the Holy Father shall be organized. The evacuation shall, nevertheless, be accomplished within the space of two years.

Art. 3. The Italian Government engages to raise no protest against the organization of a Papal army, even if composed of foreign Catholic volunteers, sufficing to maintain the authority of the Holy Father, and tranquillity as well in the interior as upon the frontier of his States, provided that this force should not degenerate into a means of attack against the Italian Government.

Art. 4. Italy declares herself ready to enter into an arrangement to take under her charge a proportionate part of the debt of the former States of the Church.

At the same time it was determined to remove the capital of the Kingdom of Italy from Turin to Florence. Several reasons conspired to make this a desirable change, but the chief was the exposed situation of Turin to attack either by France or Austria, in case of war. Florence is beneath the shelter of the Apennines; and, except Rome, which at present is unattainable, it is, amongst the principal towns of Italy, the one that lies nearest the centre of the kingdom. But the population of Turin were naturally op

posed to a measure which would reduce their fair city from a capital to a provincial town, and the demeanour of the crowd assembled in the square or place opposite the palace was so turbulent, that the soldiers fired upon it and several lives were lost.

A Bill was brought into the Chamber to authorize the transfer of the capital, and it gave rise to a long debate at the end of November, in the course of which General Cialdini delivered a speech which made a great sensation. It was remarkable for its spirit and eloquence, and we will give a few extracts to show what was the opinion of one of the best soldiers of Italy as to the relative advantages of Turin and Florence in a millitary point of view:

"I do not pretend to turn the Senate into a conference of Generals, or a council of war, nor to submit to its examination and judgment a general system of defence of the State, such as I see and feel ought to exist. But I would fain demonstrate, and make the Senate comprehend, how and why a good general system of defence of the State exacts by implication, in my opinion, the removal of the capital beyond the Apennines. As the ideas and considerations on which this system rests are of the greatest clearness and simplicity, as they do not require special knowledge nor technical language to be understood, as every senator, doubtless, has the general structure and configuration of our country impressed on his mind, as love for it and its interests are engraved on his heart, I hope to be easily followed in my reasoning. Italy, gentlemen, has two-thirds and more of her frontier washed by the sea. The other third is joined to the continent by the circle of the Alps. In a sublime contrast at the foot of these gigantic and snowy Alps stretch out the vast and fertile plains of Lombardy and Piedmont. The Apennines, as if weary of the Mediterranean, bend back and cross over to the Adriatic, forming a great curtain, an immense towering curtain between the two seas, from Genoa to La Cattolica. After this rapid glance, let us reflect. In front of the Apennines you have the vast and beautiful valley of the Po, in which you find the Austrian encamped in his strong quadrilateral, and of which-I mean the valley of the Po-we can neither fortify nor defend the principal outlets, because they are not in our hands. The valley of the Po, therefore, shows us an enemy solidly established in a house which has its door open to whoever chooses to enter. Can it be pretended or desired that the capital of the kingdom should be in this valley of the Po? On this point I remember that the honourable Farina said that he desired to conserve the capital at Turin, that it might perpetually remain under the protection of the French empire. I have a great regard and esteem for the honourable Farina, and was therefore deeply grieved to hear from his lips a thought, an idea, so wounding to my sentiments as a soldier and a citizen. I see with regret that there is an abyss between me and the honourable Farina: I see that we are at the antipodes. He desires the capital of the Italian kingdom under the perpetual protection of the French empire;