present Government in Hungary, gave it the importance of a political event. An animated debate on the Army Estimates took place on the 9th and 10th of October. In the Estimates proposed by the Minister of War, an increase of 37,000l. sterling was required on the demand of the previous year, for the purpose of maintaining 28,000 additional infantry on the peace effective. This gave rise to hot discussions in the delegations, and the measure was very nearly lost, owing to the position taken up by the German Liberal party, usually the supporters of the Government. At last, however, through the exertions of Prince Carlos Auersperg, who was an influential member of that party, backing up the personal intervention of his brother, the Minister-President, the increased Estimates were passed by 32 against 24 votes. Some cases of official corruption which came before the civil courts at this time, caused almost more excitement than the political contest on the Army Estimates. Some time previously the Government had discovered bribes to have been taken by the Conscription Commissioners in Galicia from Jews who might prefer that mode of answering their military obligations to the inconvenience of personal service. The matter was privately investigated, but no conclusive evidence was then found. It was judged, however, that the abuse must be stopped by setting a deterrent example; consequently-so the charge set forth-the means was resorted to of employing an agent provocateur, by name Nuchim Karmelin, to induce young Jews to offer bribes to the conscription officers, who were instructed to accept them, in order subsequently to appear as evidence against the bribers. The case became complicated by the orders of the Civil Conscription Commission to re-examine fourteen Jews who had been declared unqualified. This compelled Karmelin to obtain possession of the conscription-lists, which he was enabled to do by aid of the commanding officer. The fraud was, however, discovered; and Karmelin was placed in the dock accordingly. Another case of corruption was brought forward affecting Dr. George Schmidt, a magistrate of the Common Council in Vienna, who was asserted to have pledged for 200,000 francs his own vote and those of seven other members of the Council in favour of certain projects advanced by M. Pontonnier, the agent of the French Market Company (Markthallen Consortium). And, thirdly, Government, acting on a complaint laid before the Emperor by the Archduke Albert, took the resolution of sequestrating the LembergCzernowitz Railway, in consequence of its mismanagement by Baron Ofenheim, one of the directors, who had largely enriched himself at the expense of the public interest. Before the year closed, Count Lonyay was forced to retire from the Presidentship of the Hungarian Ministry, in which he had succeeded Count Andrassy when that statesman was made AustroHungarian Minister for Foreign Affairs, on Count Beust's resignation. He had never worked well with the members of his Cabinet, who were not friends of his own choosing; and their relations amounted to a sort of armed neutrality, very detrimental to the public service. An insinuation brought against the integrity of the Minister by M. Csernatony, a member of the Extreme Left, on the 18th of November, brought matters to a crisis. M. Csernatony had indeed to apologize, but Count Lonyay received such feeble support from his colleagues that on a visit which he soon after had occasion to pay at Vienna, the Ministry there requested him to resign. A successor to his post was found in M. Szlavy, late Minister of Commerce in the Hungarian Cabinet. In Austria Proper the course of history this year had been singularly uneventful. The Auersperg Ministry held on its way, and did not until near the close of the year lift the veil from its promised scheme of electoral reform. On the 16th of December Prince Auersperg summoned a conference of certain deputies of the Reichsrath, and laid before them the outline of his project. Its leading features were announced to be as follows:-The members of the Lower House to be henceforth elected by all persons entitled to the suffrage. The number of members of the Lower House to be increased to 120. Each electoral district to elect one deputy. Every one entitled to vote for a member of the Diet also to be entitled to vote for a member of the Reichsrath. The votes to be given in writing. An absolute majority to be necessary for the election of a candidate. Those entitled to vote in any one province to be eligible in all the provinces. The duration of the period for which a member is elected to be six years. On the 14th the Austrian Minister of Finance, Baron de Pretis, laid the final accounts of the year 1871 and the Estimates for 1873 before the Reichsrath. It appeared that the estimated expenditure for 1873 exceeded that of last year by 25,500,000 florins, and that the estimated revenue for 1873 exceeded that of the past year by nearly 19,000,000 florins. No use had been made during the current year of the sums voted by the Reichsrath for extraordinary purposes. After reserving the cash balance of 1872, amounting to 18,000,000 florins, for the support of the money market, and 25,000,000 florins for meeting the heavy requirements of the first quarter of 1873, there would still be available cash balances amounting to 21,000,000 florins to cover requirements for 1873, so that the financial year of 1873 would close with a surplus of 3,500,000 florins. The Minister attributed this favourable financial result principally to the increase in revenue from taxes, and expressed a belief that there was, at last, a prospect of the Budget being balanced. This financial statement was received with great satisfaction. Soon afterwards the social and political circles of Vienna were much agitated by the Duc de Gramont's intimation to the French Committee of Inquiry at Versailles that he was about to make public certain documents in his possession proving the previous concurrence of Austria with France in the project of war with Germany in 1870. One of these documents was even said to be the authentic draught of a treaty of alliance between the two Empires. Immediately a war of explanations, contradictions, and recriminations set in: and when the year came to an end, the public mind was looking forward to either an interesting series of revelations, or, as seemed more probable, to the detection of a baffled statesman's mare's nest. CHAPTER IV. ITALY.-Vatican and Quirinal-Relation to French Politics-Cardinal HohenloheOld Catholics in France and at Rome-Abbé Michaud-Père Hyacinthe—Russia, Turkey, and the Vatican-Italian Parliament-Death of Mazzini-Municipal Elections at Rome and Naples-Eruption of Vesuvius-Autumn Floods-Financial Statement-Religious Corporations Bill-Pope's Allocution-Retirement of M. de Bourgoing. SPAIN. Sagasta Ministry-Dissolution of Cortes-New Elections-Carlist Insurrection Battle of Oroquieta - Convention of Amorevieta-Ministry of Serrano-Ministry of Zorrilla-Dissolution of the Cortes-Attempted Assassination of the King-Fire at the Escurial-Revolt at Ferrol-Impeachment of Sagasta Ministry -Financial Measure of Gomez-Bill for Abolition of Slavery in Porto RicoDisordered Condition of the Country. BELGIUM.-Comte de Chambord-Lagrand Dumonceaux-Elections-Strikes. NETHERLANDS.-Tercentenary-Death of M. Thorbecke-International Associa tion Congress at the Hague. SWITZERLAND.-Rejection of Federal Reform-Geneva Arbitration-Bishop Mermillod-New Elections. SWEDEN. Millennial Celebration in Norway-Death of King Charles XV. RUSSIA.-Second Centenary Celebration of Birth of Peter the Great-Condition of TURKEY.- Armenian and Bulgarian Church Questions-Ministerial ChangesQuestion of Succession to the Throne-Egypt and Abyssinia-Jews in Roumanis -Servian Principality. GREECE.-Ministerial Changes-Question of the Mines of Laurium. ITALY. THE Nazione, a Florentine journal, published at the beginning of the year an interesting article on the "dualist" representation of foreign Powers at Rome:-"The King is at the Quirinal, the Pope at the Vatican. There are two Courts, two societies, two diplomatic bodies, each with its own tendencies, passions, and interests. The diplomatists accredited to the Vatican are often more Popish than the Pope; they imagine that they alone are the real representatives of their respective Governments, and look upon their colleagues who are accredited to the Italian Government almost in the light of usurpers." The Pope confined himself rigorously to his little kingdom of the Vatican, the last relic of his temporal sovereignty. But he entertained personally, it is said, a not unkindly feeling towards his rival on the other side of the Tiber. "C'est le seul Italien qui a bon cœur-malgré lui," he would remark of him; and, with the indomitably sanguine spirit which always impelled Pius IX. to the more confident self-assertion the more facts seemed against him, he would express his belief that Victor Emanuel would not much longer remain on the Quirinal. The Pope's daily life at this time is thus described: "When it is not a day for audiences, he usually first confers with Cardinal Antonelli on political questions, and then with the Cardinal-Vicar Patrizi on Church matters. The Pope very willingly gives audiences, as it pleases him to see people, and to show himself surrounded by his Court, which is the most ceremonious in the world. The prevailing colour in the costumes is scarlet, and the Pope alone is clothed in white. After the audience Pius IX. goes into the garden, and walks about till two o'clock, with two guards in front, one of his stewards by his side, and two privy chamberlains dressed in medieval Spanish costume behind him. After mass he reads his letters, a great number of which come daily from foreign emperors, kings, and other high personages. At 10 p.m. the Pope dismisses his courtiers for the night." "The number of persons," the writer continues, "now residing at the Vatican, which consists of 50 separate buildings, with 14 courtyards and 12,000 rooms, is 3000. It is a town without streets. None of the officials have been changed. Antonelli is still Secretary of State, Negroni Minister of the Interior, Randi Minister of Police, and General Kanzler Minister of War. Mgr. de Mérode and Cardinal Antonelli detest each other, and each is at the head of a large party. De Mérode, an energetic and apparently earnest man, directs the extreme Opposition party, with the Jesuits and Ultramontanes; while the more sceptical and moderate Antonelli is supported by Cardinals Berardi, De Lucca, Silvestri, Di Pietro, Amyot, and Clarelli. The Pope is equally friendly to both parties." When Easter came there were none of the usual celebrations at St. Peter's. The Pope held service in his private chapel. Once or twice during the year he was said to have been seen driving through the streets of Rome, and gazing at the new shops on the Corso, or at other monuments of the altered régime. His mind was much occupied with thoughts of quitting the Eternal City altogether. The Jesuits and Ultramontanes in his councils strongly urged him to the step. As age advanced upon him, and the choice of a successor could not be far off, they were anxious that the next Conclave should take place in some Romanist land more likely to afford scope for the high ecclesiastical party than the modern kingdom of Italy, with its inveterate Liberalism. It was therefore rather their aim to represent Pius as a watched and oppressed "prisoner" in the Vatican, to work upon the pity of his lieges elsewhere. For such representations, however, the Italian Government took care to give no handle. The freedom of the Vatican, and its master's power to go where and when he would, were in no degree infringed. In answer to an inquiry directed to the Austrian Court, the Pope received from Count Andrassy the reply that in no country would he find so secure a refuge as in the Vatican itself, or be so removed from the danger of political complications. The dispositions of the French President were also sounded by the Papal Court, though it was intimated that in no case would the Pontiff consent to enter a country where Republican institutions were actually in force. Thiers-whose personal politics had always been in favour of the Pope's Temporal Power-expressed his willingness to offer the Holy Father an asylum in France, only with the proviso that he must not bring the Papacy with him. Among the many difficulties of the game which the veteran French statesman had to play at this time, none were more evident than those which concerned his dealings with the Potentates of the Vatican and the Quirinal. To get the Pope on his side was to secure an important interest in those contemporary European forces which were most bitterly antagonistic to Bismarck and the German Empire. But, on the other hand, he could not favour Ultramontanism to any marked extent without giving dire. offence to the Radicals of the Left, whose political programme involved secular education and the suppression of the priestly element generally. Again, to break with the King of Italy would have endangered the formation of a direct alliance between that monarch and the Emperor of Germany: to recognize his rights as against the Pope compromised the French Government with the powerful influences of clericalism. A critical question just now brought the difficulty to the foreground. When M. de Goulard, who had informally represented the French Government at the Court of Victor Emanuel, was appointed to the portfolio of Finance in place of M. Pouyer-Quertier, it became necessary to send a successor. Should he be regularly accredited as Minister? The question had been started before M. de Goulard's removal. He had himself declined to receive formal appointment. The matter involved inevitably offence either to the Pope or to the King. M. Dupanloup, Bishop of Orleans, announced his intention of presenting to the Assembly at Versailles a number of petitions from the French Catholics against accrediting any Minister to the Court of Rome. M. Thiers felt the full awkwardness of his situation should any discussion take place; and he contrived by successive postponements to avoid giving the Bishop the opportunity he desired before the Easter recess. Then, with as little delay as might be, he sent out, with full powers and dignity as his diplomatic agent at Rome, M. Edouard Fournier. It seemed the least evil course of the two, and it rendered nugatory any debate at all on the clerical petitions, with the embarrassing questions such debate would have raised. The Pope was disappointed and angry. "What are certain |