13 SEPTEMBER 1856, Page 1

NEWS OF THE WEEK.

Lours NArormoN in Spain It is almost impossible to represent any position more equivocal. What is he there for ? Is it for a politieal purpose, or is it only that he has crossed the border to look about him ? If it is only a caprice, the act implies that he considers himself a man released from the ordinary responsibili- ties even to "appearances." If he has gone for a political pur- pose, what is it ? Has he after all undertaken to back up that coup d'etat which we might have expected to alienate hint by not being crowned with lightning success ?

But if he can force an O'Donnell coup d'etat upon Spain, what are his views with regard to other countries ? What can

he possibly intend in Italy ? At the time of Count Walewski's temporary retirement, it was supposed that a liberal and very rising politician was about to take the Count's place in the Em- peror's foreign affairs ; and it was conjectured when the Count returned to office, that he had yielded to his master and had given up his own crotchety preference for a dietatorial style of goVernment in other countries as well as in France. Our Lon- don contemporary the Daily News revives, as if they now chal- lenged credit, stories that certainly have every appearance of throwing light upon the present position of the French Emperor. It is said that at the time of the Paris Conferences the Emperor, in an" off-hand manner, asked Count Cavour what would be thought in Sardinia of a Concordat like that which Rome had Just concluded ? Count Cavour has explicitly declared in the Sardinian Legislature, that no proposal was made to him for a coup d'etat in Piedmont as well as in Spain. It is rather remarkable, that at the present moment the Em- peror should be patronizing O'Donnell, who has attempted a coup d'etat, and should be turning the cold shoulder upon Piedmont, which has proceeded in a straightforward and open manner relying upon the public opinion of Italy. Austria has fortified her boundaries has actually approached Sardinia with the means of a powerful aggressive warfare, has confiscated the property of Sardinian subjects, and permitted her journals ha- bitually to assail the Government at Turin. Signor Mania has proposed a subscription in France towards a fund which would be handed to the Piedmontese Government as a tribute of admiration, and as a help towards the expenses of counter- fortifications at Alessandria. Louis Napoleon has prohibited that subscription. There is therefore indulgence on his part to every licence that Austria may choose to take short of actual warfare ; there is patronage of coup d'etat in Madrid ; there is displeasure at any direct sympathy shown towards the Sardinian Government.

- At the-same time, it is avowed that the French Government and - our own have continually acted together—that there has been no interruption to their close understanding. On the strength of this fidelity, it was supposed that Louis Napoleon could not thoroughly commit himself to the O'Donnell policy in Spain ; and it was to maintain this excellent understanding— such, has been the explanation—that our Government somewhat

'compromised its supposed sympathy with Espartero, and re- strained ite friendship for the Liberals in Italy.

That the whole pciwer of Europe does not reside in the Go- .vernments has been proved by recent events. Some " ne'er-do- tveel " of the Pourtales family, imitating greater men, has at- tempted a coup d'etat in Neufchatel, raising the name of the 1101TEST EDITION.]

King of Prussia as a war-cry, and speculating that the King would reward a nobleman bringing back to him the Swiss Canton which lapsed from his sovereignty in 1848. The coup d'etat was a failure ; so stable is the influence as well as the authority of the Swiss Federation in that once off-lying province.

Again Piedmont, persevering with her moderate reforms had effectually set the authority of the State in temporal reforms, above that of the Church ; and for that act she had been placed by the Papal Government under a species of qualified interdict —a threat of the spiritual terrors that might follow. The ful- minations of the Vatican had no effect in terrifying the Pied- montese population, or in damaging the allegiance to King Vic- tor Emmanuel. The continued endurance of the Papal displea- sure by the officials of Piedmont was practically showing to the people of Northern Italy that the withdrawal of the Pontifical countenance is not a fatal calamity ; and the exhibition therefore was not calculated to strengthen or perpetuate the influence of Rome. The Pope has backed out of the difficulty, by granting, at the instance of the Piedmontese Bishops, various indulgences to those who have bought and sold the sequestrated property of the Church. Without revoking the minor excommunication, he has practically reduced it to nothing.

To imp the series of incomprehensible rumours, is the latest of all—a hint that the Western Powers may soon withdraw their representatives from Naples, in order to permit a revolt of King Ferdinand's outraged subjects ; the withdrawal of Ambassadors to be followed up with the arrival of an armed fleet, to protect French and British subjects, unless King Ferdinand should render the whole process unnecessary by the revival of the con- stitution and the issue of a general amnesty. Surely mystifi- cation,could no further go !