The state of Italy is more unsettled than ever. The
Republi- cans appear for the moment to have it all their own way in Tus- cany and Rome. Austrian troops threaten, but do not stir. Pied- mont resumes the war; on what mission does not appear. The Grand Duke joins the Pope in his exile at Gaeta, but declines to share the damaging hospitality of King Ferdinand. And abso- lute King Ferdinand, who harbours the crowned exiles of Tuscany and Rome, is in hot water. The position of the " Lazzarone infermo " is singular. In Naples, he seems to be abetting his arbitrary and inefficient Min- istry in dissolving the Chambers just elected ; a step that might be taken by a new Ministry, but hardly by one that has already been indulged in two dissolutions. In Sicily, the King is offer- ing, as the price of a return to allegiance, the concession of what was originally the whole matter in dispute. When the European revolution reached Southern Italy, Kin„e• Ferdinand offered to the Sicilians a constitution, but it was that of 1821, and was accompanied by continued union with Naples. They demanded separate administration and the constitution of 1812—their own ancient constitution revised in that year under English auspices. After a twelvemonth's warfare the King offers to grant a con- stitution on the basis of 1812, with a separate administration, a separate budget, a pure Sicilian staff of functionaries and some- thmg like an amnesty. The offer is either a trick, midi as is per- mitted only to thimbleriggers at Epsom and kings at Naples or it is the most amazing premium on rebellion vouchsafed by a monarch of the Neapolitan house. Good qualities may be brought out even in a Neapolitan Bourbon, if his subjects will only rebel enough.
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