26 DECEMBER 1846, Page 9

The Times of this morning has an interesting paper on

the bearing of railways in respeet to the political relations of Austria and Italy. A rail- road is in progress, which, starting from Ostend, is to pass into Italy by means of a tunnel through the Alps. At Lugano it will Join the Pied- montese lines, and so communicate with Genoa and other parts of Italy. Of this railway Austria is said to be exceedingly jealous, both as a com- mercial competitor with her own peculiar line from Hamburg to Trieste, and as tending to give political strength to the kingdom of Sardinia; and accordingly, the Austrian Government has resolved that, if it can be pre-

vented, Northern Italy shall not be opened by a line of traffic passing on the Western side of Lego Maggiore and through the cantons of Tessin and the Grisons. An effort is to be made to break the chain at the weakest link—the Canton of Grisons in Switzerland, by means of a special mission. Meanwhile, the open hostility of Austria to the scheme, and the various intrigues she has resorted to in order to defeat it, have irritated the Court of Turin, and roused the indignation of that portion of the Italian people who are not Austrian subjects. King Charles Albert has already refused to comply with the request of the Austrian Government, that he would expel from Turin two literary Italian Liberals; and has also given other evidences of a determination to persevere in a vigorous and independent line of policy : this railway contest will probably pro- voke him to further resistance. "Vogue la galere!" "Every little helps" towards the emancipation of Italy. The Roman correspondent of the Daily News, writing on the 12th instant, describes a disastrous overflow of the Tiber; flooding two-thirds of the in- habited streets, and destroying property, both in town and country, to a melancholy extent. The Ghetto, or quarter to which the residence of Jews is confined, suffered severely; but a spirit worthy of the new Pope seems to have animated the whole Christian population, and supplies were carried from all quarters to the poor in Ghetto.