NEWS OF THE WEEK.
IN dispersing for the vacation, Parliament seems to carry off with it all subjects for thought and discussion, at least in English po- litical life. But as all seems darkness when some great light is suddenly withdrawn, and yet the eye presently discovers the power of seeing the objects around by more ordinary light, so when the grand repository of debates has departed, the vision usually discovers some event worth note,—some great natural ap- parition, of comet, or cholera ; some social anomaly, claims to great estates in England or America, brutal treatment of women by brutal men, or matrimonial jar in upper life, like the Norton case, which has afflicted our courts and journals ; or new phases
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of standing questions, like that of Turkey. For the Turkish question seems obstinately resolved not to de- part from us,—taking a new shape as fast as we appear to have -conquered it in its old form. Even now, when we have scarcely arrived at the third question, the occupation of the Principalities, a fourth seems to be cropping up. : it concerns the possible disorga- nization of Servia, if not of provinces nearer to the capital, and the policy of the European Powers should Turkey begin more quickly than we anticipate to shake to pieces. The entrance of a third division of the Russian army into the Principalities appears to en- cumber the "occupation" affair with new difficulties of settlement; and it also parades some of the circumstances which will ultimately .contribute to make up that complicated fourth question. The remainder of the Foreign news for the time chiefly resolves itself into a record of the movements of royal personages ; out of whose orbits and conjunctions the observer may make what he can. The Emperor Napoleon, whose visit to the provinces was under- stood to be delayed by the possibility of complications in the East, has now let himself loose for a tour to receive loyal festivities and meet royal personages and friends in country places. He turns his attention more to home affairs, and exercises one of the duties of royalty in august inquiries about local improvements and so forth. The marriage between the Austrian Archduchess and the Crown Prince of Belgium has been completed ; the absence of the French Envoy from the ceremony at St. Gudule in Brussels giving political point to the celebration of the alliance. That marriage was not accomplished before the Emperor of Austria announced his own intention to take a wife—the daughter of Duke Maximilian of Bavaria. The announcement was accompanied by the despatch of a distinguished military deputation, headed by a gentleman closely connected with the Imperial family, to assist at a magnificent mili- tary review in the camp of Helfaut ; a proceeding which diplo- matic acumen discovers to indicate a strong ilisposition to renew friendly relations between Austria and France. Meanwhile, the queen of Sardinia is entertained at a ball on board the American frigate Cumberland ; one of the guests being Captain Ingraham of the corvette St. Louis—the commander whose summary pro- ceedings in the case of Kossta at Smyrna form the subject of a so- lemn note issued by Austria to declare that proceeding to be a .grave infraction of international law.
