MAPS AND PLANS.
THE French, who can do everything, from making revolutions of different sizes to "getting the Pentateuch up in five nets," send us, this week, a new map of Europe. Lombardy, Venice, Parraa, Modena' and the Legation, given to Piedmont ; Naples losing Sicily ; Roumania made into a state for a Russo-German prince ; and Belgium aggrandized by some Prussian and Dutch cessions— are rather natural ideas; but there is a great deal of fun in giv- ing Tunis to the King of Naples (we hope we shall have another Panic war) and Morocco to Spain, which of old could hardly- keep
out the Moors. Then England is obliged to accept the Euphrates route, (where to keep order for her route of rails or telegraphs, she should make it a kind of Oxford Street in the East, studded with policemen at short intervals,) over that extensive area igno- rant of cooks. The Sultan is driven out of Turkey in Europe ; and, above all men in the world, poor King George of Hanover,
giving up his dominions to Prussia, becomes King of Constanti- nople—a new George trampling a very mild dragon. In all the shifting and changing of this geography in joke the best joke of all is that the Emperor-of the French covets nothing! The map by the by., is dated 1860: a step in the right direc- tion, the future. Mr. Stanford gives us maps showing England as "reformed" by Lord John, Mr. Bright, and the Times; he should also give us England as arranged in constituencies by the New Zealander, who would, we presume, take the oaths and his seat for London Bridge, and disfranchise "the ruins of St. Paul's." It would seem as if, in our day, earth-hunger were epidemic. All round the world sonic one is found wanting something or other. Not long ago England took Perim ; France and Spam at this moment are grasping a bit of Cochin China. Russia has ac- quired new territory on the Amoor • the King of Sweden wants Denmark ; Sardinia covets Lombardy ; Mr. Buchanan is longing for Cuba. A little Spanish paper in New York says, en revanche that Spain will bid for Key West. England, according to the New York Tribune, is to offer a good price for Maine, and if re- fused, take it by force (!) Soulouque has long wished for Hayti; and the Grimaldis of Monaco—turned out as if they were panta- loons—want to jump back into Mantua. We have also some in- stehees of peoples seeking Sovereigns. The Ionians wish to rush into the arms of Greece ; the Feejee islanders look, with loving eyes, to our Queen. Her Majesty ought to know, however, before she accepts the new possession, that the islanders are encumbered with some American citizens, whom they have killed and eaten, and until they can cleanse their foul bosoms of that perilous stuff which weighs upon the heart, we should have nothing to do with them. With such an irremediable American grievance as a genuine Yankee in the bosom of a Feejee family.—his debts un- settled, his claims unfathomed—changed from being a tenant-in- life to an incumbrance on a Feejee simple—we should never want a cause of dispute between Downing Street and Washington. Instead of the cut and dry solutions of the Parisian map-maker, we might humbly put forth a plan. Apply the principle of the Encumbered Estates Court to nations. When Spain, Naples, Austria, east or west, north or south, Mexico, or other en- cumbered countries, cannot pay their debts moral or .pecuniary, let us throw them into the new Court. If Sardinia, France, Austria and the revolution, are about to fight for Lombardy, mortgaged to hopes and fears' encumbered with laces and hoops, let Lombardy be sold, and let the four divide the proceeds or fight for the money—the "land" would be free; the peasant could till, and the artisan construct, while France would win fresh glory in a grand battle for ten million of francs' or in laying siege to five hundred thousand pounds. Then Cuba,brought into court on Mr. Buchanan's petition, would be put up and sold to the highest bidder; while if Florida did not pay its debts (is it a repudiating state by the by?) Key West would also be sold up. Peoples might be considered as creditors having leave to petition for release from encumbrances in the form of heavy taxes, bad laws' and worse justice, and kings as mortgagers should put up with money instead of land. What a loss to the King of Naples ' to have only ducats and doubloons instead of nobles and lazzaroni he might shut them up and torture them, clip them and sweat them to be sure, but a piastre is not as fine a plaything as a Poerio, and sequins are not as fine subjects as souls. There is only one property which would puzzle the new court. The Papal States says the Univers this week, are "not the property of Pius : the Pope has only a life interest in them—they are the patrimony of St. Peter.' How can this high landlord be cited on summons or petition? We might reply, not profanely or jestingly, very sadly indeed as we think of it, that if groans and tears are petitions—petitions that "shall ever pray "—many, very many, have gone up to "Heaven's Chancery,' where the Recording Angel has written down enough to cumber the patri- mony of St. Peter with the mortgages of a thousand trespasses and wrongs.
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