GENERAL NEWS.

Wellington Independent, Volume XXVI, Issue 3153, 21 March 1871, Page 3

GENERAL NEWS.

Florence, February 11.— Serious disturbances are reported in Nice. The people besieged the Prefecture shouting " Viva Italia !" The troops were obliged to charge the crowd with bayonets before they would disperse. In the budget ab/>ut to be submitted to Parliament the estimates for expenses of the army amount to £15,851,700, an increase of £2,880,700 over those of last year. The force .of the regular army is to be brought up to 133,200 men, an increase of 19,980. Provision is to be made for surveying the defensive positions round London, and between the city and the sea coast. New fortifications are proposed to be built at Dover and Harwich, and on the island of Malta. Florence, February 10. — The newspapers announce that a Catholic league has been formed in Belgium to prepare an expedition against Italy, with branches established in Austria and Spain, and some provinces of France, and a meeting place in some island in the Mediterranean. The Italian Government has received information of the conspiracy. ■ The captains of French men-of-war at Havana have applied, by cable, for permission to watch and pursue German vessels during the armistice. Havre, February 11. — The Prussians have imposed a contribution of four million francs on Rouen, which must be paid to-day, and another two millions payable to-morrow. They have also exacted six millions forty ! thousand francs irom the people at . Fe- ! camps. Brussels.— February 12.—" World " cable. The result of the elections in I fifty-four departments is three hundred and seven Bonapartists and Orleanists ! and eighty Republicans.