Italy. 17 September 1848

Italy.

* Messina, according to reports from Paris, has been captured by Ferdinand’s troops after the town was almost entirely reduced to rubble by shelling. The war fleets of France and England look on quietly.

A deputation from Livorno arrived in Florence on the 6th inst. and demands for the pacification of the town: 1) General amnesty; 2) the people occupy the forts jointly with the line troops, dissolution and reorganisation of the civic guard with election of new leaders; 3) the Livornese have the right to elect a government commission of their own, to which all power shall provisionally belong and which shall work towards reconciling Livorno with the rest of the Tuscan family.

The ministry has approved all points.

In Bologna the newly arrived government commissioner, Cardinal Amat, has disarmed all inhabitants of the town who do not belong to the civic guard or the mobilised free corps.

Venice is being endangered more every day. The 6,000 men of the Papal States have received orders to return to Rome; the Sardinian fleet has repeatedly been ordered to sail away with the Sardinian troops, and besides, the enemy has spies in the town who seek to win the people over to Austria by all means. One of these agents, a priest, has been arrested. In his belt were found plans of the fortifications, together with the most precise details of the number and strength of the guards and of all defence measures.

Milan, 7 September

. Field Marshal Radetzky has sent one million guilders to the Ban Jelačić. 
(Grad’aus.)