18 MARCH 1848, Page 1

From Italy too the news is cheering. Short of doing

all that is needed, it is better that Austria should do nothing : hence it is satisfactory to note in Lombardy the sullen status quo that awaits the tardy course of deliberations at Vienna ; the bitter facetiousness that converts the eating of ma caroni into a political manifesto ; the stern nonintercourse that prefers Genoa velvet to Austrian cloth; the domestic nationality that lisps hatred of Austria in childhood. Every week of this mood curtails the Aus- trian tenure in Italy by whole cycles. But the startling burst of light reflected on the Austrian mind from Germany may illumine the Imperial councils before it is too late.. Austria is now invited by a German League as well as an Italian League ; and Hun- gary is unchanged. Naples cannot settle the quarrel with her transmarine sister; and King Ferdinand, the "Second" of " the two Sicilies," is re-

viving the old contests in which his immediate ancestors cut so bad a figure. But at Rome, the anxieties respecting the position of the Pope are allayed by the issue of a definitive declaration that a consti- tution will shortly be promulgated. Pius is deliberating in order to grant as much as he may without derogating from that spi- ritual authority which he has never yielded, and which it is not his vocation to yield. In estimating his concessions, it would be black ingratitude to forget that he it was who led the movement that has extended throughout Europe.