The light thrown upon our Foreign relations by the Queen's
Speech is not rendered more brilliant by the lurid. glare which gradually illumines the dark prospect on the Continent. Belgium. has given way to the coercion put upon her : King Leopold has yielded ; the Liberal Ministry has succumbed ; and a law is an- nounced, not only to restrain the criticisms of the press upon fo- reign sovereigns, but also the strictures of public speakers, or the satire of caricaturists, under pain of two years' imprisonment ; and we gather that the change of the law is to include some further compulsion of juries, lest they should acquit the accused as they have done before. It has been said that England did not support King Leopold against this coercion ; and the more than formal al- lusion to " the Prince President," which our Foreign Secretary has put into the mouth of Queen Victoria, while her uncle is undergoing coercion, strengthens the worst suspicion. In Italy, too, Louis-Napoleonism advances. M. Bonaparte's
protege, the new " Liberal" Cavour, is reinstated in Turin ; and the garrison at Rome is suddenly "relieved."
Thus Louis Napoleap *secured mgainst any interruption to,his unconstitutional career'frospi a ceustitntionalmeighbonr ; and the last preparatives for " the rnpire',;' abroad as well at home, go on capitally. The Senate has,arranged.the said dr.mpire, subject tofthe plebiscitum ; and has left the succession to be settled chiefly by Louis Napoleon himself. The journals are perplexed at an inci- dent which looks a little like a contre-temps. The original draft of the Senatfis-consultum specified the issue of Jerome as first in the collateral succession ; but the draft adopted by the Senate omits that provision. Jerome resigns the Presidency of the Se- nate, and Louis Napoleon is said to share his anger. But as the actual arrangement gives more power to the nephew, it is mot likely to have been adverse to Louis Napoleon's real -wish.
