The other foreign news of the week, if not momentous,
is wide in its scope and various in its topics.
The Emperor Nicholas of Russia has come to the aid of the Bank of France; offering to take stock to the amount of 2,000,000/. sterling, and conveying his timely offers through the French Ministers. A man has made a great way in friendly in- timacy when he volunteers to advance money ! Queen Christina has just rejoined her friends in Paris; having left Spain to its chronic Ministerial " crisis," its incessant ferment of petty Carlist movements in the provinces, its popular disorders and Court intrigues. In the Cortes, the members of the Opposi- tion, unable to accomplish any distinct act, are contenting them- selves with delivering speeches and expounding views on political subjects, which, to say the least, are in favourable contrast to the political conduct of the de facto rulers. The demeanour of the Progresistas looks as if they were patientl)' but sedulously pre- paring for more active utility at II litter time.
Portugal exhibits the same universal anarchy as usual,—the contending powers inactive from Inherent weakness ; and the prospects of an intervention of some kind-becoming daily more probable. In Italy a double process threatens the authority of the great alien ruler : reforms are incessantly advancing in their new centre, the Eternal City, under the mild and discreet energy of Pius the Ninth ; Austria and her family allies are strengthening their military forces, to keep down the spirit of nationality. A Royal Archduke, popularly mistaken for the ex-Governor of Gal- received a formidable charivari in quiet and scholastic Pisa, on account of the massacres in that Polish province of Austria ; rather a significant act of sympathy. Two strange signs of hidden disorder have broken out in Russia : officers of the army have been degraded for personal abuse of the Emperor, in their cups; and the massacres of Gal- licia have been imitated in a distant Russian province. - The United States have had another nibble at Mexico ; the city of Chihuahua having, quite or almost, fallen into their hands. At Washington new animation has been given to the slavery question. Anticipating the possibility that some Mexican terri- tory may be " annexed," the " Wilmot proviso " against the in- stitution of slavery was inserted in the bill providing funds for carrying on the war. Not only is the South in danger of having its position enclosed by the unslaved States, but this is a sort of repudiation that is felt to convey an offensive stigma ; and ac- cordingly, Mr. Calhoun, the great Nullificator, declares that " the South must now take its stand" : to the Wilmot proviso he has opposed resolutions, declaring in substance, that the Federal con- atitution can recognize no qualification or disqualification in States claiming admission to the Union except the possession or absence of Republican institutions. The combat round this standard was Mill undecided.
We recognize the fearful difficulty in which the slavery question is involved through all its ramifications ; but we must say that the apologists of the slaveholding communities are greatly to blame for the procrastinating indolence or defect of adequatecou- rage which has deterred them from grappling with it. In order to do so, it is not necessary to jump to conclusions of con- demnation or abolition. There might be many preliminary stages. They would render their position much safer by helping to show how the question can be discussed most beneficially to the slaveholders ; and afterwards, by making provision for gradually disposing of the nuisance. By their present course, re- fusing even to entertain the question, they are not only per- petuating and exasperating rancours, but doing their best to pre- vent the ultimate issue from being otherwise than sudden : any sudden issue must be calamitous.
