The Paris and the London press cannot determin not France
has begun to disarm; and the com' . ? • which our neighbours keep accounts in their aff .4 IC: the mystification. It is first announced that 1‘ reduced the war-estimate of 1842 by twenty- francs, and the army of that year by sixty thousa is denied that Marshal SOULT has done "any sue while, it is carefully announced in the official pa
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74:40 II WI.. that no representations have been made to France by the Four Powers on the subject of her armaments. And it is then explained, that though Marshal SOULT is to have as many men for 1842 as he originally proposed, he will allow a certain number to return home, on leave of absence as it were, after a service of five instead of seven years—that is in 1842—to form part of his intended re- serve. It seems, then, that in point of fact, while the Marshal will have as many men on paper as he at first proposed, the actual number in barracks will be reduced by the amount of sixty thou- sand.
The meaning of all this puzzlement, about what looks like a very plain matter, is perhaps illustrated by a circumstance which has been mentioned in the political circles of London. Of course, when the Moniteur authoritatively denied that the French Govern- ment had received pacific remonstrances from the Four Powers, that assertion was literally true. It does not follow, however, that France did not know that she was about to receive remonstrances ; and such representations, it is thought, have been actually sent from London and received since the Moniteur's formal contradiction. But in the mean time, the French Government had taken the nitiative, by making a small commencement in the reductions to be demanded of it, and was thus enabled to meet the demand by showing it to have been needless. Thus the Foreign Powers were to be satisfied, while the dignity of France was saved. Friendly diplomatists could easily be made to understand that a reduction bad actually been begun, however disguised by cross-accounts between levies and " reserves."
This explanation of a strange puzzle about nothing wears a likely aspect. Was the friendly Morning Chronicle helping the manoeuvre on Wednesday, when it prominently announced that Marshal SOULT had made no reduction ; or is some demand urged on France of humiliation as well as discretion ?
