336 
 
DIPLOMATIC CORRESPONDENCE. 
 
had any other existence or source of life than as a governmental residence,
and 
all its local institutions, all its social habits, all its industrial life,
have been 
modelled accordingly. Its growth, though slow, had been steady, but it 
receiVed a sudden stimulus in 1848, then an abrupt check from the expectations

of the removal of the court to Rome in 1860, and then a new and strong 
impulse from the rapid increase of the number of its inhabitants, and the
ap- 
parent defeat or indefinite postponement of the realization of those expectations

on the retirement of the Ricasoli ministry in 1862. 
Since that period a very large number of new houses have been built, or 
rather commenced, to accommodate the excessively crowded population of the

city. The mode of construction prescribed by the customs of the country and

by municipal regulations is enormously costly, and a long time elapses between

the laying of the foundations and the actual occupancy of the huge piles
which 
are erected as dwellings. Hence a large capital-often borrowed for specula-

tion in building-has been invested in houses, few of which are yet in a state

to receive tenants. The proposed change of capital threatens these operations

with at least a long suspension, and the enterprising constructors and their

creditors with ruin, and at the same time menaces a town which is the winter

residence of almost every influential family in Piedmont with the utter pros-

tration of all its material interests. 
There has, however, thus far, been no ebullition of popular feeling nor any

violent expiession of public dissatisfaction. All are anxiously waiting the
dis- 
closure of the terms of the treaty and the action of Parliament upon them,

and in the mean time preparing for a strenuous opposition to the proposed
change, 
which will find many powerful adversaries in other provinces as well as in
this. 
Parliament is summoned to meet on the 4th of October, and it is supposed
it 
will be very soon dissolved, and the election of a new chamber ordered to
assem- 
ble soon at Florence. It is also thought probable that the King, the court,
and 
the ministers will spend the winter at that city, but that the secretaries
general 
of the departments and the inferior personnel of the public offices, as well
as 
the archives of the kingdom, will remain at Turin for several months longer,

and that the ordinary routine of public business will go on here until perhaps

another summer. 
If this plan of a divided capital is adopted the diplomatic corps may be

embarrassed in the choice of a residence. It being usually impossible to
hire 
houses here for short terms, most of the foreign ministers, I unhappily among

the rest, have taken apartments and offices on leases which have still at
least a 
year to run, and we shall very probably be obliged to take apartments and
keep 
offices open both at Florence and at Turin. The question of removal of the

capital and of my own principal residence will necessarily be decided before
I 
can hear from the department. I shall endeavor to act solely with reference
to 
the public good; but as I shall in any case be obliged to submit to a heavy

pecuniary sacrifice, I shall hope for the indulgence of the President in
case I 
am thought to have made an erroneous decision. 
I have the honor to be, sir, very respectfully, your obedient servant, 
GEORGE P. MARSH. 
Hon. WILLIAM H. SEWARD, YC., le-., 4-c. 
Mr. Marsh to M. Seward. 
No. 105.]                      LEGATION OF THE UNITED STATES, 
Turin, September 27, 1864. 
Sin: I shall avail myself of the earliest private opportunity to forward
to 
you the journals and other publications recently issued at Turin which contain

the history of the deplorable events of the last week, and of the negotiations