We have almost no progress to report in the two
Sidles. At Naples the Sbirri, or private soldiers of the constabulary, have been detected in violent attacks and in plots, said, with great probability, to be instigated by the reactionary party. The King, to all outward appearances, is acting in good faith. A new Government has been appointed, a constitution has been pro- claimed, thecublic looking on in absolute indifference.
No authentic information has recently been issued; but from the public reports we can easily gather that the preliminary com- munications between Naples and Turin have approached their close, and that Signor Manna and his colleague, who had left the Southern for the Northern capital, are empowered to nego- ciate on the bases supposed to have been originally suggested by the French Emperor, but modified advantageously by the Go- vernment of Turin.
Garibaldi continues organizing the local Government of Sicily, and augmenting his forces. He has not yet made any move towards the mainland, but appears to be concentrating his en- deavours upon Messina. The friends of Italy, wherever they are, look to him for making his work so secure in Sicily that it shall not be undone after his departure. Better delay his de- parture until any future date than run a risk like that.
From Vienna we continue to witness a constant effusion of reports favourable to the intentions and progress of the Govern- ment. The best comment on this labour at the pavement of good intentions is the police instructions lately given to editors of certain Vienna journals. The editors are told that they must not *discuss the authority of the Council of the Empire ; they must not so much as hint at legislative functions for the pro- visional assemblies, for the Government will not heir of such powers ; they must not call in question the absolute unity of the empire, particularly with regard to the separate interests of Hungary ; and they must not so much as speak of a constitu- tion. The Vienna police acts as the best commentator upon the Liberal measures so sedulously reported to be under the con- sideration of the Emperor and the friends around him. It is considered leze-majeste to attribute to him any intentions so genuinely Liberal as those which we have indicated!
The war between Maronites and Druses was at first regarded by the public as opening the whole question which Russia has mooted in Turkey ; but the official treatment of the subject, especially by the Western Powers, has kept the question within much stricter limits. The Maronites are a fantastical tribe in- habiting the Lebanon, who have for ages in some way acknow- ledged a species of spiritual suzerainty in the Pope ; but, not- withstanding that vassalage and the name of " Christian," they are still barbarians. In the same region are the Druse.s, whose tribe is the depositary of a mongrel faith derived from very ancient sources, but in latter ages informed by Mahometanism. The two fight as the Russians and the Turks have been cele- brated for doing in song ; recently, the Christians have been beaten and have been hunted to death,—massacred to the amount of hundreds ; which is, perhaps, less than might have been expected under the circumstances. The brutality, how- ever is too great for the endurance of a genuine Christian sym- pathY. It was supposed that the Western Powers would now admit the validity of the appeal made by Russia ; and we ob- serve that at a very late day in the week a contemporary ha- zarded the opinion that the Emperor of the French would seize the fresh occasion offered to him for some movement towards the Holy Places. No attempt of the kind has been made. The Western Powers have sent ships to Beyront, simply to protect fugitives ; and in the meanwhile the poor Sultan is doing what- he can to fulfil the just expectation of Russia and her European allies, especially in sending Fuad Pasha to Syria, with full powers and 16,000 men. The Eastern question generally re- mains where it did before the outbreak of this Syrian episode.
