THE WEEK ABROAD.
Paescs.—The Emperor has been compelled to read the episcopate a severe lesson. The Pope had invited the bishops of the Catholic world to Rome : nominally, to assist in the canonization of certain martyrs who died in Japan ; really, to discuss the possibility of inclu- ding the temporal .power among ecclesiastical dogmas. The letter inviting them had been published in France without the Emperor's consent, and the French Government demanded an explanation. Car- dinal Antonelli replied that the letter conveyed no command, and was merely a private document; but the Emperor is not to be deceived. He has accordingly prohibited the Bishops from even asking for leave to quit France while the Council is going on,—a deadly blow to its weight as an ecclesiastical representative body. The controversy will lend fresh vigour to the debate on the conduct of the Pope, which Prince Jerome will, it is now again affirmed, introduce in the Senate. The form of the debate will he of course a discussion on the Address to the Emperor, which has been read to the Senate, and which at present is little more than an expansion of the imperial Speech, containing only one original suggestion, that the allowances of the cures ought to be increased. This suggestion—a bold effort to secure the aid of the inferior clergy against their bishops, was re- ceived with great approbation. On Italian affairs the Address praises the moderation of the Emperor, but expresses a keen regret "at still encountering immoderate pretensions, and sometimes resistance and immobility." This stroke at the Non posnimus is considered too mild, and will be the turning-point of the debate. The Paris correspondent of the Times affirms that the idea of cre- ating a throne in Mexico for the Archduke Maximilian has been en- tertained by the Emperor for some time, and that eighteen months ago the Archduke was sounded upon the subject. His reply then was, that he could neither accept nor decline a throne not then in existence, but he did not appear hostile to the plan, which is thus traced to the dreamy brain of the Emperor himself. The selection of Admiral jurien de is Graviere to command the expedition will, it is said, greatly facilitate arrangements; for he is a diplomatist of very great tact and energy. The Parisian journals publish accounts of achievements in Cochin China which must be received with great distrust. According to them, Rear-Admiral Bonard, with 3000 men and a division of gun- boats, attacked Bien Iloa on the 10th of December. The gun-boats
opened a fire, which was replied to so smartly that one of them, the Alarme, became a wreck, and then the citadel and Outworks were carried by storm. The Annamites displayed great bravery, but "the French loss was insignificant." We presume the truth is, that the gun-boats opened fire, that one battery responded, that the troops then landed and occupied the place without opposition. The French do not understand the first principle of Oriental warfare, and are at present simply wasting money and lives. The day they take Hue, Anam is theirs, but until then they are masters only of the ground they stand on. The real strength of these empires is not in the coast, but the capital and its northern dependencies, and until the capital falls, the mass of the people will obey the dynasty-probably remain ignorant that it is even menaced. There can be no real military strength in Hue any more than in Pekin, for it cannot be defended by the only efficient Oriental arm-cavalry, employed in incessant harassing attacks.
Iraxv.-We have discussed in another column the intrigues and counter-intrigues which just now distract the administration of Italy. It remains only to add here that a negotiation of some kind appears to be going on between Paris and Turin for the evacuation of the re- xnainder of the Roman States, excepting the city itself. The French forces will, it is said, be withdrawn if the Italian Government will guarantee external order and quiet. Francis II. may also be com- pelled to quit Rome, and the occupation reduced at once to the per- sonal guardianship of the Pope. His Holiness, it is said, resists this plan, and a council has been held to discuss the expediency of resisting the Italians by force. Mgr. Merode is, as usual, quite confident that his troops will be sufficient to defend the Patrimony, but the less fanatical ecclesiastics counsel resignation till the times have changed.
Arma/L.-The inundations in the valley of the Danube appear to have been most terrible. Six Hungarian counties have been greatly injured, and all along the course of the river the peasants in the low lands seem only to have escaped with their lives. Their cattle are drowned, their houses rendered uninhabitable, and their seed corn all spoiled. Near Vienna the water has risen over one of the outer suburbs, and some 7000 people have had to be provided for. The inundation commenced with a thaw ; and when it began to subside, the waters disappeared so rapidly that the big fishwere taken by sur- prise, and picked up by the peasants in the fields. The weather all the while has been severe, and the snow, by the latest accounts, was falling so heavily, that the inhabitants expected another inundation after the first thaw. A. State commission is about to devise measures for the relief of the sufferers.
The Prince of Wales was visited by the Emperor as he passed through Vienna, but lived generally an exceedingly quiet life.
LanaL.-The new Councils have been organized. In Bombay the unofficial members comprise five natives and one European, and in Madras four Europeans and one native. The Bengal list has not been published, but it is probable that the number of non-officiaf Europeans and of natives will be equal, or three of each. Gold has really been discovered in Dhurwar by Mr. Le Souef, an Australian, who is about to proceed from Bombay with pumps and machinery, to work a quartz reef at a place called Dlionee. He thinks the place as rich as Australia.
Panssis..-The great debate in the Prussian Chamber on the affairs of Hesse ended on the 16th February. A resolution binding the Government to. re-establish the constitution of 1831 in Hesse was adopted by a vote of 241 to 58. This constitution, it will be remem- bered, was suppressed by Austrian bayonets in 1852, and to re-esta- blish it is therefore a defiance to Austria. Nevertheless, Count Bernstorff, the Minister of Foreign Affairs, declared that a legal state of things must be restored in the Electorate, thongh he could not then discuss the means. "I can appeal," said he, "to the confidence of the Chamber. The Government will not neglect anything to attain the object in view,"-words received with loud applause. The posi- tion of Hess; which is becoming a European question, will be found detailed in another column. On the 15th February the Prussian Go- vernment and its allies in the Federation forwarded to Vienna an "identical" note, concluding with this grave menace : "Sliould the views, on a reform of the Federal constitution, hinted at in the latter part of the Austrian note, in favour of the establishment of a, consti- tution for the whole Confederacy, with an efficient executive power at its head, and aiming at a political consolidation of a wider extent, comprising non-German territories, as already stated in the Austrian note of the 8th November, be realized, the Prussian Government would he compelled to see in such realization a far greater peril to the continuance of the Confederacy than in the reforms indicated in the Prussian despatch of the 20th December."
ATISTEALIA.-The O'Shaunassy Ministry have produced their land scheme, which, it. is said, contents the country. It throws open ten millions of acres, leaving some twenty-five millions more in reserve, to be sold at a pounclan acre. The poorer settlers aced, however, pay only half in cash, and keep the remainder at a rental of half-a-crown an acre till they can afford to- pay for it. The money will be expended by local boards in muificipal improvements. The squatters do not oppose this bill, which will probably pass. In New South Wales the Government has succeeded in carrying a bill enabling them- to re- organize the police on the plan of the Irish constabulary, a measure rendered necessary by- the lawless character of some of the digej,rs, but which. was resisted by some of the ultra-Radicals-. In New Zea- land the gold-fields of Otago are turning out well, and the amount
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brought down by escort has risen to 50,0001. a week. Sir G. Grey has produced his plan for settling the native difficulty, but the details have not arrrived. It seems, however, to be based on t-he Indian scheme, the natives being managed by a Minister, who will be a member of the responsible Government, and kept in order by a police selected irons the natives themselves.
Anne/ca.-The New Yorkers are congratulating themselves over another victory. On February the 6th, Fort Henry, on the eastern bank of the Tennessee River, and commanding the river for two miles, was attacked by a body of Union troops, supported by four gun-boats. The firing lasted an hour and a half, and was sharply answered from the Confederate batteries, till General Tilghman surrendered. The Federals lost only 37 men, and most of them from the bursting of a boiler, struck by the enemy's shot. The affair in itself was tnfling, but the position is an important one. The Confederates had 5000 men collected near the fort, who fled on its capture, with the Union General in pursuit. An expedition has sailed from Port Royal to attack Savannah, and the Burnside expedition has quitted Hatteras Inlet for Roanoke, its ultimate destination. There are signs of move- ment everywhere, and it is reported that General Al`Clellan has been directed to attend to the army of the Potomac, Mr. Stanton issuing all orders to the generals in the west. On the other hand, the House of Representatives has passed a bill authorizing the issue of thirty millions sterling of State notes, and making them legal tender. Moreover, it appears, from a dis- cussion in the Senate, that the project of paying the interest on the bonds into which these notes are convertible in gold will be dropped, and as the Tribune puts it, the earth will rest on the elephant, without the elephant resting on the turtle. The Chamber of Commerce of New York earnestly advised the Government to make the notes legal tender.
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