The Minghetti Ministry in Italy has been very nearly thrown
out. There was a deficit as usual, and the Premier endeavoured to fill it up by a tax on legal documents. To make this draw, he proposed that no nnstamped deed should be valid, and when this
• clause was defeated, resigned. The King, however, refused to accept his resignation, which was not strongly desired by the Chamber, and he is to introduce some new tax. The root of the -opposition, it is stated, is the reluctance of the landed proprietors to pay the full tax on their revenues, a reluctance for which there is this justification, that the tax is unendurably high. Being so high, it is met by falsifications of the oadaatre, which would have been revealed by the new tax. The radical defect .of Italian taxation seems to be, that where it falls, it falls so heavily as to make evasion seem almost a necessity..
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