There are events abroad which demand notice, from a certain
technical importance, though they do not seem of much present moment. The Servian question was said to be settled between Russia and Turkey; but Servia itself asserts a voice in the ar- rangement. Russia says what Turkey may or may not do in de- posing and appointing rulers for the independent province ; Turkey If -resigned; but so is not Servia. It says, we are now told, that it will stick to the Sovereign it chose, without regard to Turkey's delicate position : the Sovereign, whom Lord ABERDEEN called a feeble boy, the Times calls a bold, active man of forty ; and newspapers now-a-days are apt to be as well informed, occa- sionally, as Ministers of State. So the " settlement " is still in the clouds.
Spain at last has a new Ministry ; but composed of men of little mark. They have issued a prospectus of their policy—very pro- mising, and very like the advertisement put forth by a tradesman who purchases the business of a bankrupt rival—full of anticipative self-praise, heightened by retrospective disparagement.
The French Commons are debating, whether they shall substi- tute a colonial sugar monopoly for the closer home monopoly of beet-sugar. Our neighbours discuss these changes in their politi- cal system as lightly as if it were the mere readjustment of a plan on paper, with no existing interests to interfere witti the process. They talk about them, indeed, but all in the most abstract way, as mere elements in the calculation, not with any mistrust of the legis- lators' right to dispose of all things—to build up and pull down, with a simple vote ; playing with provinces and peoples like pawns pushed hither and thither upon a chess-board. Yet daily life goes on in France, and upon the whole not worse than with us : an ex.treme case, which may serve as another lesson to our mere change- dreaders. The colonial monopoly, say the Deputies, favours the enlargement of their marine ; so the home monopoly, founded by NAPOLEON to make the French sugar-basin independent of exter- nal supply in war-time, goes to the wall.
Previous page
