Money must be the root of all evil in the
opinion of despots. The financial danger which has terrified Louis Napoleon menaces Russia, we are told, with an administra- tive collapse. The deficit which has existed for years has been increased by the Crimean war and the recent disorders, until the Government is embarrassed for means to keep tho machine at work. So complete is the exhaustion of im- perial power as a tax-getting machine, that a convocation of notables is openly talked of as the last financial resource. At the same time the troubles in the interior are thickening, the serfs being determined not to surrender their land, and the nobles resolved, if deprived of power in the provinces, to share the power of the State. The army is officered by men among whom Western opinion circulates fast, and behind all stands a class, led by acute and determined chiefs, who are re- solved to obtain a constitution. The recent attack on the church has driven the Polish peasantry into the arms of the Revolution ; the Jesuits are working eagerly to sap the throne; and the Emperor, though kindly and well informed, has neither the will nor the genius which enable men to re- build society.
