The Italians had expected a surplus Budget, and with it
some reduction of taxation ; but the accounts show only what is described as an "equilibrium." This has weakened the Government, and the Radicals attack it both for financial mismanagement and for promising to renew the Triple Alliance without having previously obtained commercial concessions both from Germany and Austria. The Govern- ment, however, has obtained both from France and Great Britain an acknowledgment of its reversionary claims to Tripoli, and as trade with France will be brisk, and there are no new taxes, there will probably be no very striking political changes. The condition of the labourers in Southern Italy, however, still remains deplorable, and the artisans of the cities are still sullen and discontented. The pressing need of Italy is thorough reform in the incidence of the local rates rather than of general taxation ; but no financier seems able to grapple with the question, which in Naples and Sicily is emu-
plicated with that of the tenure. The class which we call day labourers huddle at night in the little towns and feel the full pressure of the rates, which more prosperous citizens evade. It is not a Bismarck but a Peel that Italy wants, and she does not find him.
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