tion also, "Bâtiments du Commerce," or "Private Ships" on the address, and be prepaid beyond seas by the sender. VII. Newspapers, periodicals, prices-current, and other prints may, by attending to the above legal requisitions, be dispatched to Great Britain and Ireland, as well as to all British possessions beyond seas, in a cross-band (open envelope), through France, for a reasonable charge, regulated by the number of the sheets. For such transmissions the postage here, as far as the German and French boundary, is to be paid at the time of posting; but the receiver in England, &c., has to pay the French and British postage; so, on the other hand, for such transmissions from England, &c., the British postage must be prepaid, while the French and German postage is discharged by the receiver. VIII. Papers and prints also intended for foreign (that is, not British) countries beyond seas, can be dispatched through France and England, on pre-payment of a moderate charge for each sheet. IX. All entirely pre-paid letters and other missives (with reference to a place beyond seas, and vice versû) will be stamped with the impression P.D. at the Post Offices here, and in Great Britain, in order to testify the pre-payment of the postage. All Post Offices here are directed to afford further information, to the public, on enquiry, respecting the commencement of the new reduced postage upon the above-named British, &c., correspondence, the departure of British packets from the respective harbours, &c. Stutgardt, May, 1843. CORRESPONDENCE between Great Britain, Austria, France, Rome, Russia, Sardinia, Sicilies, Switzerland, Tuscany, &c., relative to the Affairs of Italy.-October to December 1848. [Continued from Vol. XLII. Page 587.] No. 427.-Baron Köller to Viscount Palmerston. MY LORD, Chandos House, le 5 Octobre, 1848. J'AI l'honneur de porter à la connaissance de votre Excellence, avec prière de me la restituer le plus tôt possible, la dépêche ci-jointe du 29 Septembre que je viens de recevoir. Je me flatte qu'elle accordera au manifeste Impérial qui s'y trouve annexé, la valeur de devoir faciliter puissamment l'œuvre de la pacification du Nord de l'Italie. En priant votre Excellence de vouloir bien me fixer un rendezvouз dès qu'elle aura des informations à me donner dont je pourrais faire part à mon Gouvernement, je profite, &c. S.E. le Vicomte Palmerston, G.C.B. A. V. KOLLER. M. LE BARON, (Inclosure 1.)-Baron Wessenberg to Baron Köller. Vienne, le 29 Septembre, 1848. SA Majesté, notre auguste maître, n'a pas voulu tarder plus longtemps à faire connaître ses intentions bienveillantes à l'égard de l'organisation politique future de ses provinces Italiennes. Le manifeste ci-joint démentira j'espère tous les faux bruits dont la malveillance d'un certain parti s'est servi pour répandre l'inquiétude parmi les populations du Royaume Lombardo-Vénitien. Une commission composée d'indigènes sera chargée, conjointement avec un Commissaire Impérial, des préparatifs qu'exige la nouvelle organisation qui sera basée sur une réprésentation nationale. L'amnestie accordée sans réserve ne saurait laisser aucun doute sur les sentiments éminemment pacifiques du Gouvernement. L'histoire n'offre point d'examples d'un peuple insurgé qui ait été traité avec plus de ménagement et plus de générosité. Je vous invite à porter le contenu de cette dépêche à la connaissance du Gouvernement auprès duquel vous êtes accrédité. Le Baron Köller. Recevez, &c. WESSENBERG. (Inclosure 2.)-Imperial Manifesto. (Translation.) Vienna, September 20, 1848. In the hope of seeing in a short time peace re-established in all the provinces of the Lombardo-Venetian Kingdom, and animated by the desire of making its inhabitants participate in all the liberty which the other provinces of the Austrian Empire enjoy-we consider it necessary to make known at present our intentions on this head. We have already granted to all the inhabitants of the LombardoVenetian Kingdom indistinctly, full pardon for the part they may have taken in the political occurrences of the present year, commanding that such should not stand against them in any inquisition or punishment except in respect to those considerations necessary to be taken in confirming the public employés. At the same time it is our sovereign will that the inhabitants of the LombardoVenetian Kingdom shall have a constitution corresponding not less to their respective nationality and the wants of the country, than to their union with the Austrian Empire. To this effect, as soon as peace and tranquillity shall have been sufficiently secured, we will call together, in a place to be fixed upon, the representatives of the nation, who shall be elected freely in all the provinces of the Lombardo-Venetian Kingdom. Given in our residence at Vienna, the 20th September, 1848. WESSENBERG, m.p. FERDINANDO, m.p. SIR, No. 435.-Viscount Palmerston to the Hon. R. Abercromby. Foreign Office, October 9, 1848. WITH reference to your despatch of the 26th ultimo, transmitting the copy of a note addressed to you and to your French colleague by the Sardinian Minister for Foreign Affairs, with respect to the inconvenience of delaying the proposed negotiations, together with a copy of your reply, I have to inform you that Her Majesty's Government entirely approve that answer, and I have to instruct you to say that it contains so fully all that Her Majesty's Government could say in reply, that they have nothing to add thereto. I have, however, to observe to you, that if this note of the Sardinian Government was intended only as a diplomatic piece calculated to quicken the negotiation and to assist the 2 Powers in their endeavours to bring Austria to consent to reasonable terms of accommodation, there is no fault to be found with it; but if it were to be taken literally, and to be looked upon as an expression of the real feelings and intentions of the Piedmontese Government, it would be open to much criticism. For that note intimates that if Austria does not agree to the basis of negotiation proposed by the 2 Powers, and accepted by the Government of Piedmont, the consequence will be the renewal of war between the Italians and the Austrians, and possibly a general convulsion and disorganization of Italy, which would involve the whole of Europe in a subversive struggle, and would threaten civilization itself. Now, with regard to the first contingency, it must be evident that, in the present state of military strength and preparation of the Austrian and Italian forces, a renewal of war between them, if both sides were left to their own resourses, might lead to further successes by the Austrians, but could scarcely tend to the advantage of the Italians; and with respect to the second contingency, the state of Europe north of the Alps is such that no amount of anarchy in Italy, even were such to take place, could have any material effect or influence upon the condition of affairs in the rest of Europe, unless it were that it might lead to a degree of foreign interference in the affairs of Italy, which would be by no means favourable to the independence of the Italian people. The Hon. R. Abercromby. MY LORD, No. 436.-Viscount Palmerston to Viscount Ponsonby. Foreign Office, October 9, 1848. I HEREWITH transmit to your Excellency copy of a despatch which has been received from Her Majesty's Vice-Consul at Milan, reporting on the state of affairs in Lombardy, and I have to instruct your Excellency to read this despatch to Baron Wessenberg, and to say that Her Majesty's Government would entreat him seriously and dispassionately to consider whether the state of things therein described as existing at a time when there is an Austrian army of 120,000 men in occupation of Northern Italy, and when all open resistance on the part of the people to Austrian power is impossible, can be looked upon as calculated to inspire the belief that when that army shall have been reduced, as it of course must in due time be, to the ordinary peace amount, there can be any chance that Austria can maintain useful or permanent possession of a country whose inhabitants are so deeply and universally imbued with an unconquerable aversion to Austrian sway. It surely would be far wiser for the Austrian Government, and much more conducive to the real and personal strength of the Austrian Empire to release these people from a dominion which they will ever regard as a yoke, and to take the present favourable opportunity for making a fair and just pecuniary arrangement with them on their separation from the Imperial Crown. There cannot be a reasonable doubt that if the rule of Austria were now again to be re-established in these provinces, discontent would seize the first opportunity to vent itself in renewed outbreak and insurrection: a great exertion of force would again be required, and at a great expense, to put insurrection down. Foreign aid would again be implored to save the provinces from renewed subjugation, and after such an experience of the impossibility of reconciling the people to the dominion of Austria, there can be little doubt that such foreign aid would be granted. The result would be a war between Austria and an antagonist more formidable than the people of Lombardy, and even though that war should become an European conflict by the participation of other Powers who might be drawn into it, there cannot be much reason to think that the result of such a conflict would be to leave Austria in possession of any territory south of the Alps. But Austria should maturely consider that although the general feelings of her friends and allies would lead them to come to her aid if she was threatened in her own possessions and in her natural existence in Germany, yet there might be a general sense of the injustice of her pretensions to impose a yoke upon the Italians; and that feeling might have the effect of leaving her with very scanty support in such a contest as that which I have described. H.E. Viscount Ponsonby. I am, &c. PALMERSTON. No. 437.-Viscount Palmerston to Viscount Ponsonby. MY LORD, . Baron Wessenberg copy of a despatch from Her Majesty's ViceConsul at Milan, inclosing a proclamation which had been issued in that city with respect to individuals found with arms in their possession; and I have to instruct your Excellency to observe that this proclamation, which savours more of the usages of centuries long gone by than of the spirit of the present time, must strike everybody as a proof of the intensity of the fears by which the Austrian commander is inspired. For if he thinks it necessary to threaten summary death to every man, of whatever rank or condition, in whose house a weapon of any kind may be found concealed, he must surely imagine the danger of renewed insurrection to be great and imminent. But if such is the case now, when there are 30,000 Austrian troops at Milan, and when a great portion of the Milanese have left the city, what will the state of things be when the Austrian troops are reduced to a small number, when the inhabitants have returned, and when these violent military measures no longer prevent them from providing themselves with arms and ammunition; and it is worth while for Baron Wessenberg to consider whether the hatred towards Austria, of which this proclamation indirectly acknowledges the bitterness and intensity, is likely to be diminished by the desecration of churches and by the military occupation of private houses, with all its attendant consequences. It must be confessed that the proceedings of the Austrian military authorities in Italy seem to indicate an expectation that they will shortly have to abandon the country, and that they must take advantage of the interval to wreak their vengeance upon it; for if they contemplated a continued occupation, reason would point out, that measures of conciliation would be best adapted to pave the way for permanent possession. H.E. Viscount Ponsonby. I am, &c. PALMERSTON. No. 438.-The Marquis Ridolfi to Visc. Palmerston.-(Rec. Oct. 9.) Londres, le 6 Octobre, 1818. LE Soussigné, Envoyé Extraordinaire et Ministre Plénipotentiaire de Son Altesse Royale Monseigneur le Grand Duc de Toscane, a l'honneur de remettre à son Excellence Lord Palmerston, Ministre des Affaires Etrangères de Sa Majesté la Reine d'Angleterre, cette note, à laquelle il ne doute pas que le Gouvernement Britannique ne veuille répondre aussi favorablement que vient de le faire celui de la République Française, car les ententes verbales le lui font espérer, d'autant plus que d'un côté les affaires d'Italie se compliquent chaque jour davantage et la nécessité d'un prompt développement de la médiation Anglo-Française se fait sentir d'une manière plus impérieuse, et que de l'autre l'agitation de la Toscane |