Napoleon the Third, consolidating his power, has permitted the formal
announcement that "the Emperor recognizes and approves all that the President of the Republic recognized and approved"; an affable assurance, which we may take as a sign that France is tranquil at present, and is busied only about the future. Possibly the departure of Abd-el-Kader, now on his way to Broussa, bearing with him solid proof of the new Emperor's favour in san annuity of 100,000 francs, has something to do with that future, as well as the outbreak of revolt against the Sublime Porte in Montenegro. But nearer the Emperor's "home, the elements of ulterior operations are ominously apparent. The autocrat has renewed the commer- cial treaty with Belgium, which was withheld until that comiced province should succumb to his dictation on the law of the press. And Spain, so often the field of French contests, is getting into a state of promising disorder.
The attempt of the Court to surprise the Spanish Parliament into the sudden acceptance of a new and arbitrary constitution has failed; all political parties, except that of the Camarillo, have
hjoined in an opposition which is described as being more compre- ensive and national than Spain has seen for many a year. A com- mittee of this united Opposition, assembled at the house of the Duke of Sotomayor, was dispersed by the Police ; and Narvaez, who was elected to the head of the combined party, has been sud- denly sent to Vienna, " to consult records." The real object of the journey to Vienna is not stated : it may be anything, from the honourable exile which it would appear, to a secret mission in search of Austrian support. One circumstance is remarkable : our Ambassador, Lord Howden, was absent from Madrid during the crisis, and returned just as it was all over. It is scarcely less remarkable, that in Vienna, whither Narvaez is going, and where an English subject, the correspondent of the Morning Chronicle, has been taken into custody, the representative of Eng- land is absent. The English Ambassador at the Sublime Porte— scene of so many embarrassments just now—is also away. If Lord Stratford de Redcliffe were in the Foreign Office, anxious people might be more easy ; but he is neither there nor at his post. England appears to be omitting herself from the councils of Europe.
