NEWS OF. THE WEEK.
Now that the rumoured danger to the alliance between France and England appears; for the time at least, to have passed, we find that it was really worse than we supposed it to be, and we understand its causes better. We have indeed nothing more au- thoritative on the subject than the declaration in the lifoniteur that the Emperor Napoleon would be found- faithful to the Eng- lish alliance and to contracted engagements ; but the precise shape which the Bolgrad dispute had assumed has been rendered clearer, the extent to which the French Government had placed itself in opposition to ours has been more explicitly avowed, and we have a• probable insight into the motives for that es- trangement. We knew last week that the Count de. Persigny had gone over from London to visit his Sovereign at Compiegne : it is now intimated in very intelligible terms that there was no other motive for the Count's visit but to accomplish a direct communication with the Emperor. This is remarkable. The French Ambassador had, of course, been in constant communica- tion with the Foreign Office at Paris : there is no intimation that the Count de Persigny did not make faithful representations of the views of the English Government, and even of the state of national feeling in this country : there have been unintermitting assurances that the Emperor himself had not cooled in the alliance or abated in his desire to cooperate with this country ; yet he suf- fered his Ministers to act as if his Government had gone off upon a separate course, and the organ of that Government had even as- sumed a tone of hostility towards England. This antagonism had gone so far, that it scarcely created surprise when a journal usually attached to our Government talked this week about a " resump- tion of the war with Russia" in the East, at the very time that it was exposing something like hostility on the part of the officers of the French Government ; and we might certainly infer from these facts, that for some reason or other the infonnation which the Count de Persigny had transmitted for the use of the French Emperor did not reach him. Of bourse no such statement has been made ; it is but a natural inference from the known facts.
In another respect the organs of the French Government had given forth signs of the estrangement. It was reported in Brus- sels before it was well known in London, and the knowledge could only have been transmitted from Paris, that Prince Carini the Neapolitan Ambassador in this country, had received hh: Passports ; and it was intimated that the Marquis Antonini, the Neapolitan Ambassador at Paris, would not be sent away. This would indeed have been a separation between France and Eng- land. But, whatever n14 have been the intention at the time this report was circulated, the fact is that Antonini is dismissed from Paris as well as Carini from London.
While the controversy on these signs of the day is going on, the Emperor himself appears upon the scene, giving courtly welcome to the new Russian Ambassador ; and in doing so Na- poleon uses a cordiality of language that might beseem Wa- lewski or De Meru, but that contrasts remarkably with the more than distant, the inimical tone, of our ruler Palmerston, in speaking of the same Power. Is France really at one with us, or are there two powers called " France "—one represented by De Persigny, one by Walewski ?
,Remote and not very powerful Persia has been rendered a con- spicuous if not an alarming subject this week, by a remarkable paper which appeared in the Morning Post on Wednesday. It was an article very unlike the composition of ordinary journal- ism from such information as is usually attainable. It was like a manifesto—an expose des motifs, but without any statement of the authority putting it forward. That the writer had access to authentic information appears in the internal evidence, and the statement has been received as true in the main. According to this account, Russia had not ceased from intrigues in Central Asia, even during the war with this country. She had, per- suaded the Shah of Persia to maintain neutrality with us during the war, because if he had proceeded to hostility, it might have provoked the intrusion of an Anglo-Indian army into Persia, and have threatened the vulnerability of Russia's Georgian frontier. Thus, neutrality, which was the boast of our diplomatists, was really the result of Russian advice. No sooner, however, did Omar Pasha threaten a Georgian campaign, than Russia met the altered circumstances by renewing more active intrigues in Per- sia ; and then began the series of petty provocations which " cul- minated in Mrs. Hashem's imprisonment " and in the withdrawal of Mr. Murray from Teheran. It is now well known, that at the commencement of the present year, Russia had a large force concentrated at Astrachan, no doubt to cross the Caspian and occupy the Persian towns of Amol and Asterabad. Russia has meanwhile succeeded in making the Asiatic tribes and states be- lieve that she came as victorious out of the general war in Eu- rope as she was at Kars.
But that is not the worst. Throughout these proceedings, so inimical to England, the Govermitent of Persia acted on the ad- vice of M. Bouree, the French Ambassador there. It is possible that the hostility of M. Bouree may be nothing more than the traditional rivalry between France and England in Persia. Ad- venturous men, who seek such commissions, whether they are French or English, are apt to regard the question of their suc- cess as a personal matter ; M. de Sartiges has to excel Colonel Sheil, Mr. Murray is to outdo Sartiges, M. Bouree is to beat Murray. There is reason,' however, to suspect that M. Bouree had encouragement from M. Thouvenel ; and it has come out quite distinctly, that during the late intrigues in Constantinople, M. Thouvenel was countenanced in his course by the Walewski party in Paris ; so that a probable chain is established between the Anti-English Pro-Russian party in Paris and the Anti-Eng- lish Pro-Russian agents in Persia. Nor is the Anti-English proceeding in Persia entirely diplomatic. The engineering operations of Herat are said to have been conducted by M. Bidder, a French officer in the Shah's service ; and there are other French officers in the Persian army which has gained a vic- tory over the forces of Dost Mahommed, if the fall of Herat is correctly reported by the Indian newspapers.
The writer in the Morning Post indicates the course which this country must take as the proper counteraction to Russia. A demand, he suggests, must be made for the withdrawal of the French officers from the Persian army ; we may have to take and even keep Bushire, or the island Karrack ; and if that be not enough to compel the Shah's restoration of Herat to Dost Ma- hommed, we must be prepared " to resort to extreme measures in Europe" as well as in Asia, to the extent of " revolutionizing Persia ' or " resuming the war with Russia." The newspapers have announced a reinforcement of Admiral Lyons's squadron in the Black Sea.
