i furtigu nub Cuinntal.
Fitaxez.—Another week has passed without the assured formation of a permanent Ministry : each day has produced its new combinations and lists, and every day it has been stated that the Transition Ministers stood at the doors of their departments, with furniture removed, hat in hand, end with portfolio ready for instant transfer to their successors. M. Odilon Barrot has been the pivot round which the loose Ministerial elements re- volved; and M. Thiers is said to be the person who, "at the last mo- ment" of every seeming solution, interposed some element of discord and renewed the crisis of distrust and disagreement. The latest rumour, how- ever, said that M. Barrot had relinquished all attempts; and that M. Ba- roche, M. Fould, and M. Leon Faucher, would recombine in a Ministry.
Sranc—The Ultra-Moderado Cortes, which assembled some months since, has been growing restive under the less vigorous hands which suc- ceeded to the power resigned by Narvaez. An opposition sprang up, which has at last actually acquired the name of Progressista. In face of this increasing party, the Ministry of Bravo Murillo has taken the at- titude of our own Ministry at home ; and has kept in power, chiefly by threats of a resignation, and of the return of Narvaez from France. An electric message through Paris, from Madrid on the 7th instant, states that the crisis had arrived ; that the Cortes was that day dissolved; and that M. Beltran de Lys had succeeded to the Presidency of the Ministry.
GERMANY. —The point of the German news of the week is the concur- rent statement in all the journals, that Prussia has at last resolved to re- establish the Diet "pure and simple " ; and that Austria, equally with Prussia reversing her policy, is resolved to oppose the reestablishment of the Diet. Amidst such gyrations it is vain to look for certain motives; but as the immediate cause of the conversion of Prussia to this view is said to have been the object of conclusively opposing the introduction of the non-German provinces of Austria into the Confederation, it is very likely that Austria's original demand of that admission wws a ruse to bring Prussia to her present acknowledgment of what has hitherto been a cardinal point of the Austrian diplomacy.
Grisscr.—A letter from Athens, of the 244h March, states that the Greek Ministry had been defeated in the Chamber of Deputies, after discussion on the late elections; and that the Queen Regent had there- upon dissolved the Chambers.
Crass OF GOOD HOPS. —A few days' later intelligence from Cape Town communicates no important event. Colonel Mackinnon had, however, thrown supplies into Fort Cox and Fort White, and left the defenders of those posts in good spirits. Sir Harry Smith was further concentrating
his forces, and was not without prospect of crushing the insurrection by his first great efforts.
Previous page
