fortunes of the State. Thus relieved of its two great dangers, a National bankruptcy and a Military pronunciamiento, the New Government is to face the endless difficulties of its position with only its legal powers, but, as Zorrilla hopes, with the support, or at all events with the acquiescence, of the representatives of the people.

missing him from his throne, but should not obey a mob outcry; and Victor Emanuel is allowed to govern, because every man in Italy knows that he will never claim the right. Every species of Liberal, even the Republican, can now rally to King Amadeus, certain that in no extremity will he overstep the constitutional law; that if his situation becomes hopeless he will go, but will not strike a coup d'état. His position will be infinitely stronger instead of weaker than heretofore, because it will always be visibly protected by the law, because no act, however strong or unusual, will excite suspicion, and because the body of the people can understand and trust the secret mind of their King. The danger of Continental Constitutions is their tendency to fall into contempt; but no one can despise a Constitution which the King has defended at such hazard, which he has maintained under such temptation, for which he has broken determinately with the very party which placed him upon the throne. An act like his invests the law on behalf of which it is done with a kind of sanctity,

The King's action, whether it succeed or fail, deserves the hearty appreciation of every Liberal in Europe, and in spite of all sinister appearances, it may yet succeed. Nothing evokes loyalty like loyalty, and the Spaniards are just the people to be impressed by courage and fidelity, even though those great qualities have been displayed in defending instead of violating the law. There is no position so strong as that of a man who uses prerogative in order to secure obedience to the law, and no source of strength for a dynasty so fruitful as a certainty that it will keep its engagements with the people. It is distrust of the Royal caste more than any other cause which has driven the masses of Europe towards Republicanism. They do not in the least wish that their King, changes it from a proclamation into a bindif they have one, should be powerless. That is a specially English idea, produced by a great variety of circumstances, the most effective being the mental inferiority of all our recent Kings to their own advisers, and it has no influence beyond the

sea.

ing authority, gives it something of that kind of inevitableness, of silent but irresistible strength which belongs to any visible law of nature. We often smile at Americans for treating their constitution as if it had been delivered on Sinai by an almighty The Constitutionalists of the Conti- power, but that sentiment is the safety of nent are quite contented to let their King the Union, and it can be created only by take a share in active work, guide the for- the kind of conduct Amadeus has pureign policy of the country, as Leopold of sued, by treating it as the law which Belgium did; or command the army, as Princes, soldiers, and circumstances must Victor Emanuel does; or govern the Col- all alike be made to obey. Of course, cononies, as the last King of Holland did; or stitutionalism, like every other method of even be his own Premier, as Oscar of government, requires time; but if the Sweden usually is. Their fear is not that fundamental law is enforced against all he will be active, for they wish him to be alike for a generation, so reverenced even active; but that he will use any power en- by the King that he prefers it visibly to trusted to him to attack the Constitution, his own interest, that he will crush his that the magical influence of the kingship own friends to maintain it intact, loyalover the masses will be employed to abol- ty towards it must develop itself, perhaps ish freedom. The moment this doubt is become as strong as ever Spanish loyalty removed jealousy of the Sovereign seems was toward the Bourbon dynasty. That to disappear, and the King, instead of be- loyalty will incidentally protect the King ing fettered, is allowed to do very much as well as order, and Amadeus by refusas he pleases. The ex-King of Hanover, ing to rebel against the Constitution may for instance, refused to recall in 1819 the have rendered it hopeless to rebel against liberties he had granted in 1818, and up to himself. It is not law but anarchy that the day of Langensalza was master in his Kings have to dread, and Amadeus in disdominions. The King of Sweden has car-missing Serrano has proved to his people ried through what is virtually a revolu- that while he reigns, Spain, whether well tion without exciting for a moment any or ill governed, will be governed by the popular distrust. Leopold was never so law, under which every man who accepts powerful as after 1818, when he publicly it may, if he has the capacity and the indeclared that he should obey a vote dis- clination, rise to power. Nothing more

admirable has been done by a King in our time, and we are tempted to believe, as we most certainly hope, that, despite the hapless experience of Spain, the loyalty of the Sovereign may prove an effective substitute for the extinguished loyalty of the people. At all events, "the Savoyard has shown for the first time that he deserves the throne he has acquired.

From The Pall Mall Gazette. MARSEILLES, BRINDISI, AND VENICE.

and the outer ports and La Joliette, extended in the remote perspective huge piles of bonded warehouses, almost as extensive as Parisian barracks, some of them opening themselves for miscellaneous stowage, others in the private trading quarters of the great companies. Descend again to the quays, and everything about you was life and bustle. Derricks and cranes were creaking in gangways, and planks were groaning; Provençals, Italians, Greeks, and Levantines swearing and singing and gesticulating over their work. Turn up by the broad pavements of the Cannebière and the signs of prosperity were everyNor many years ago Marseilles was be- where visible. The grand cafés, blazing yond all comparison the most flourishing with gold and gorgeous with fre-coes, port on the Mediterranean. Barcelona, were crowded with amphibious men of the Genoa, and Trieste, shut out from interual people, in their jackets or blouses, with commerce by mountain barriers, served their sashes and knives and carmagnoles their own busy neighbourhoods or shipped The quarter of the Bourse was encumthe goods that were painfully dragged bered with clean-shaved commercial arisover awkward passes and down ugly gra- tocrats of sallow olive complexion, quite dients. The traffic of bustling Leghorn, as voluble as their inferiors. Chief sign too, was mainly local. Naples was as in- of business animation, they disposed of dolent as her own lazzaroni, for Campania their affairs quickly, and did not stand was never commercial. Palermo dealt dallying over their bargains. If you drove languidly in wine and oranges. Brindisi out by the magnificent cliffs to the east, was scarcely known, save to some coasting you found yourself among the villas and Austrian Lloyd's. Venice stagnated in gardens of those of the merchants who her lagoons, as she had stagnated for cen- were family men. The city itself had tarturies. As for Constantinople, Smyrna, dily begun to look to the comforts of the Alexandria, they throve and prospered in growing influx of strangers. Once begun, their semi-barbarous fashion, but Mar- the arrangements advanced apace. The seilles had no rival, and dreaded none. infamous old hotels had rouged and Through her flowed naturally the rich enamelled their wrinkled faces. These French trade with the Peninsula and the abominable sepulchres had whitewashed Mediterranean generally, with the more themselves externally, constrained thereto distant East, with Egypt and the great by the multiplicity of magnificent new military colony of Algiers. There was establishments, from the Grand Hotel and the starting-point of the great rival lines of Eastern steam-packets, of the Messageries Impériales and the Peninsular and Oriental Companies, to say nothing of such enterprising private owners as Marc Frassinet et Cie. Go up any day to sweep the horizon to the seaward from the chapel of Notre Dame de la Garde, and you night see in all directions the blue skies clouded with the trailing smoke of steam ships, and the seas dotted with the sails of every rig and nation, from the majestic merchantmen that were being towed out or in past the isles of the Chateau d'If and Pomégue, to the wicked-looking feluccas with their long tapering yards and vast lateen sails, making mysterious way in a complicated succession of tacks. Immediately below you lay kilometre on kilometre of pier stretching far out to sea or sweeping round to lock the close-ranged tiers of shipping in their ample embraces. Beyond the inner

the Hôtel de Noailles downwards. Nay more, one of our enterprising English credit associations had fathered the Grand Imperial Land Company of Marseilles, and, in short, everything was eloquent of the most brilliant promise for the future.

Geographical considerations must count for something in the end. Yet Marseilles might have taken out a fresh lease of prosperity had it not been for two eminent Frenchmen. The Emperor Napoleon went to war with Austria for an idea, inaugurated the unity of Italia, and subsidized the Mont Cenis Tunnel. M. Ferdinand de Lesseps projected the Suez Canal, and by his indomitable perseverance carried his project into execution. It is odd how short-sighted commercial interests are in the very matters that concern them most nearly. Assuredly had the coming events cast their shadows before, Marseilles would neither have acclaimed the Italian war, nor

taken M. de Lesseps by the hand, invested Hurrying along to Egypt and India by the largely in his speculative stock, and accept- shortest way available as yet, grumbling at ed his candidature for the Imperial Assem- the shortcomings of Italian railway officials, bly. When her eyes were opened, she did missing the correspondence of express her best to revenge herself, so far as the trains, and leaving cherished baggage beImperial dynasty was concerned. She re- hind them. Yet all of them follow the new turned extreme Revolutionists and Radi- route, and on certain days sunny Brindisi cals by way of protest; she embarrassed is almost as animated as the Marseilles we the Ministry of War, by compelling the used to know. presence of a great garrison of observa- Doubtless there the animation is local tion. But all was an ebullition of spite mainly about the wharves and the new that hurt the Empire without helping her- hotel. There are no signs of the accumuself. By the time the canal was opened lation and diffusion of the solid success of Italy had a National Government and a centuries. On the contrary, brand-new Parliament which, notwithstanding local breakwaters and buildings, so far as they jealousies, had a certain glimmering of the national interests. The Italians understood that, as trade tends to follow the most direct lines, it might be diverted from Marseilles to the profit of Italy. And certainly they have the stream, although, as they persist in turning it into an artificial channel, it scarcely yet runs so freely as it might.

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go, rather show the promise of some infant American city shooting up from its wooden shanties on the shores of some northern inland sea or great western river. But there is this material difference. The American city has probably a grand future before it, while, so far as we can judge, Brindisi has pretty well reached the climax of its rapid But already Marseilles shows a melan- prosperity. The ancient port and decaycholy contrast to what she once was. The ing old city have wakened up for a moment glory of former days is departing, if not from their slumbers to bask in a passing departed. The most casual glance may gleam of fortune. Now that they have tell you that the shipping is nothing to their railways - and a good deal of public what it used to be. Many of the sailing money has been spent on them it is vessels have been disposed of to foreign likely enough that they will never relapse owners or gone to the breaker's. For a into their former state of stagnation. But new fashion has set in in the Indian and their present prosperity has been created Levantine trades. The goods are carried by circumstances and patronage. As the cheap in steamers of light draught and great Frederick commanded a capital to be marvellous tonnage, whose consumption built on a certain scale, so the Italian of coal has been reduced to a minimum: authorities have decreed that Brindisi shall and these steamers for the most part are become a great commercial port. UnforEnglish and Italian. Walk past the long tunately for it, they cannot control their blank façades of the great white ware- customers as Frederic could his subjects. houses, always dismal enough, and they The inevitable law that is enriching Italy scem more dismal than ever. Many of at the cost of Marseilles must oppose itself them, indeed, are still in use; trucks and to the growth of Brindisi. Why should waggons are loading and unloading at their shippers submit to have their goods carried doors, and the great white horses, in their the whole length of Italy at heavy cost by blue fleece collars, are neighing and stamp-petite vitesse for the benefit of Italian railing and fretting at the flies. But many way shareholders and municipalities? more are deserted, as you may see by the grass that grows between the flags in spite of the southern sun, by the rusting cranes and chains, by the neglected doors and shutters, splitting and blotching in the heat. Saunter out on the quays, and the dismal à louer" boards plaster the tall fronts of the houses, speaking like so many hatchments of the fleeting nature of earthly prosperity. Show yourself as a stranger, and the red-capped boatmen come swarming round you in clouds, like hungry mosquitoes on the Camargue. Where, alas! are the crowds of passengers in transit. for the East that boatmen, porters, and hotelkeepers preyed upon twice in the month?

Why indeed should travellers consent to be cramped up in carriages for a most unnecessary distance, when it would be pleasanter, cheaper, and scarcely slower, to embark at once at the head of the Adriatic? Now that the Eastern trade returns to the route that it followed before the Portuguese maritime discoveries, the old considerations are likely to resume their force, and Venice again become the queen of the Adriatic. She became rich and powerful in obedience to natural laws, and the triumphs of modern civilization are all in her favour. The city is comparatively close to the Mont Cenis, lies absolutely at the foot of the Brenner, and taps each new railway

an

communication that may be opened be- of the effects of forests in promoting raintween Italy and Central Europe. It is the fall is as yet entirely uncertain, notwithactual terminus of the great line that trav- stan ing the peremptory and exaggerated erses the rich plains of Lombardy. It is tone in which it has been and is contintrue that at first sight the intricacies and ually asserted. It is an unsolved problem difficulties of the navigation might seem to treated by superficial observers as oppose themselves to Venice becoming a axiom. In France, where the subject has great centre of modern trade. The long been more closely studied than among ournarrow banks of sand that divide the open selves, opinion is gradually undergoing a gulf from the lagoons are threaded by a change respecting it. Fact and theory are half-dozen of channels that used to be navi- alike disputed. No proof has certainly gable. Some of these are absolutely choked been given that, in temperate climates at up, others have greatly narrowed and shal- all events, a hundred acres of forest attract lowed. But, as we understand, experts more rain than a hundred acres of turnips. have looked to all that, and have pro- And no philosophical reason has been adnounced that the obstacles to navigation, vanced why they should. But, uncertain if they have not been greatly exaggerated, as it is whether forests attract rain, it is can at all events be easily surmounted. beyond all doubt that they store and preThe channel by the Malamocco is quite serve it; they check the evaporation of practicable at present, while the introduc- the surface water; they also regulate and tion of a modern system of dredging should retard its descent down the slopes of the meet the growing necessities of a rising hills; they serve, therefore, as a safeguard port. All things considered, indeed, the both against drought and floods. But, in fact that after the neglect of centuries the order to reproduce fertility on mountain actual condition of Venice should be no sides which have been denuded and devasworse than it is, is a very hopeful augury tated, the replanting of forests, although for the future. At this moment the Penin- the best, is not a necessary expedient. sular and Oriental Company are arranging "Gazonnement," as the French term itwith the Italian Government to make the covering large surfaces with fresh turf, Venice the starting point of their steamers. carefully fenced and tended until it conThe arrangements, if not actually carried solidates - seems to be attended with at out, are a mere question of days, although least an approach to the same beneficial the Italians are loth to give up the claims effec s. There is an interesting paper by M. of their pet protégé Briadisi. We used to II. Blerzy in the Revue des Deux Mondes, lament the degradation and decay of Ven- in which the effect of this experiment ice, when the palaces of her historical sen- in the French department of the High Alps ators had become Austrian barracks, and is detailed. This district has been for her closed windows and empty streets at- some centuries gradually rendered desotested the exodus of her most vigorous late by the wasteful neglect of which we children. We know we ought to rejoice have spoken. It has an extreme climate in her brightening prospects. Yet we can- Mediterranean heat alternating with Alnot help feeling it to be contrary to the pine frosts, persistent drought with violent fitness of things, as we have come to re-storms; all the rain and snow of the year gard them, that the calm of the City of Saint Mark should be disturbed by the rush of merchants and seamen and underwriters and ship chandlers, while the once lively capital of Provence should have to take "Ichabod" for her municipal motto.

From The Pall Mall Gazette. THE REGENERATION OF FOREST LAND.

MUCH has been written and said of late years respecting the deterioration of soil and climate in regions where the neglect of an ignorant and selfish population has allowed vegetation to perish without duly replacing it. A good deal of the discussion has been premature: the whole question

sometimes falling in less than three weeks. Bit by bit its forests have been improvidently destroyed, until only a few patches (comparatively speaking) are left. And their natural recovery is rendered impossible by the pasturing of sheep, and still more of goats, the only industry left to the peasant. Under these circumstances the slopes have become bleak and bare, the valley bottoms mere accumulations of sand and pebbles. Year after year nountain villages are abandoned and the population driven to emigrate. In twenty years only from 1816 to 1866 - the population diminished by 11,000 inhabitants, or about one in fifteen.

Such was the state of things when M. Blerzy terms - we hope not too confident'ly-the "regeneration" of these

moun

.

tains began under the forest Law of 1860: the pasturages, to plant the naked ravines, applicable to the mountain districts of the has become the preoccupation of the counwhole of France, but of special utility only try. Slowly, but surely, the hidon certain portions of their surface. This eous gorges which scored the mountain law rendered "reboisement," replantation, sides disappear under verdure; in the low compulsory only in cases where the denud- grounds, the cones of desertion" (mounds ed condition of the soil rendered it a cause of loose stuff which invariably form at the of damage or danger to the neighbour- point where an uncontrolled torrent hood; it required a careful multiplication reaches the plain) "become covered with of preliminary inquiries and consents; it crops and with groves; the beds of the allowed of the plantation of not more than stream are fixed; the bridges are no one-twentieth of the surface of a commune longer periodically carried away; the in a single year; it respected, in short, brooks which descend to the rivers beever timidly not only the individual vested come limpid instead of being loaded with rights but what may be termed the col- gravel and sediment." But there is much lective prejudices of the peasantry. Mod- more to be achieved. "These austere reest, however, as it was, the measure could gions of the Alps, where man lives close to not fail to excite their selfish feelings and the limits of the habitable world and strugtheir fears, and nowhere more than among gles against the terrors of nature, frost, the old-fashioned and tenacious boors of drought, rain, torrent, are like a dilapidated the Alps." With the exaggeration so house, which must be taken completely in natural in the peasant who fancies his hand if it is not to be suffered completely to property threatened, they compared the perish. Population abandons them, national agents of the forest law to ogres ready to wealth diminishes in them day by day. . . . devour their flocks and their pastures." It is still a land to be reconquered, not from The administration, instead of persisting the enemy, which would be glorious, but with official obstinacy, adapted its pro- from nature, which is more glorious still." ceedings in part to the popular feeling. In 1864 the law was amended by allowing the substitution of "gazonnement " for "reboisement" in cases where the agents did not consider plantation absolutely necessary. In such instances, says M. Blerzy, trees and even shrubs can be dispensed with; turf only is required to reconsolidate the soil, on condition that the sheep are restrained from eating the grass down to the root. "On the slopes which the flow of water has not as yet wholly denuded, the smallest patch of vegetation, a simple tuft of grass, suffices to retard the waste of rain water and to distribute it, preserves the freshness of the soil to the advantage of vegetation itself, and detains the pebbles from rolling down the slope. The result is obtained without restricting the peasant's area of pasturage from which he derives his living."

And it is remarkable and very satisfactory, if our author can be relied on, that not only has the recovery of the soil been aided by this judicious experiment, though as yet only in its infancy, but that it has had a great effect in softening down the prejudices of the people, and thus smoothing the way for greater improvements. The "mise en réserve" of successive portions of the meadow land, at first protested against and even resisted with violence, has begun to be regarded on all hands as the safeguard of the country, except by a few inveterate malcontents. To regulate

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Perhaps the most satisfactory part of this little narrative is not the victory over nature which it celebrates, but the victory over prejudice. We are apt to despair too readily of winning over backward classes of people, such as the peasants of the Higher Alps, to those benevolent efforts on their behalf which they do not fully understand or appreciate at once. GeDerally there is some foundation, though probably an inadequate one, for their opposition to novelties. In the present instance, it is plain that the country people had reason for fearing the immediate consequences of encroachment on their meadow-land by plantations, though to their and the country's ultimate benefit. But when the promoters of the experiment had the good sense to meet them half way

to modify the innovation by substituting in part artificial meadow for plantation they were soon brought to see the whole proceeding in a different light, and to lend their aid to the general improvement, even though part of it would not result in their immediate gain.

From The Saturday Review. THE RIGHT OF VETO IN PAPAL CONCLAVES.

A GOOD deal has been said lately of rumoured negotiations among the great