NEWS OF THE WEEK.
FOREIGN affairs monopolize thepolitical interest of the week, and niest prominenily- the affairs 'o France; for - events which have occurred both-in England and Germany belong to French polities. - The foremost event, though not the most important, is the death of Louis Philippe. Two years ago it might have occasioned some -'stir; but in his exile at Claremont as the Count de Neuilly, the influence once so potent had become so powerless, that his personal demise -counts for no more than . that of the head of a family in private life. With all his opportunities, his talent, and his genial disposition, Louis Philippe had absolutely done nothing to attach the French people to him, either by improving their institutions, their condition, or the national spirit. He had cultivated a good aCquaintance with them, in order tense them; but theyremember his outward bonhomie simply as an instrument for his own uses—his reign, as a continual postponement of national pretensions to per- sonal objects—his influence, as encouraging the vice of the day, especially its corruption, for his own ends. just now they owe him a hearty.griidge for wasting one revolution and occasioning another ; the friends of " order" dislike him for bringing royalty into discredit; the friends of " progress" dislike him for betrays
a cause which he was raised to a throne to carry forward. But apprehension of -his return- had subsided ; his children have kept quiet; and in French polities he simply went for nothing.
It has been said, indeed, that his death, instead of withdrawing a candidate, reintroduces one; that the widowed Dutchess of Or- bans, a sensible and energetic woman, released from her deference to the Ulysses of.l'aris, and not owning any deference for his sons, will seek to promote her own claims to the regency and her son's to the Throne. Of the Dutchess of Orleans the public know very little. The Count of Paris has no claim ; nor is there any candidate Thr.Power who can advance a claim which the French people will be prepared to acknowledge at present. If ,a claim were to be rested on hereditary grounds, the Count de Chambord would have the first. But the French people have no disposition-to receive it; and the Count possesses no advantages in person, tact, or even- in circumstances, to reanimate the worn-out tradition. Had France continued to suffer under her revolutionary leaders, her disgust at Louis Philippe might have made her pass over his house in going back to the elder house of Bourbon ; and then the reappearance of St. Louis in the political sky might have been hailed as a blessing direct from Heaven. At present France has no such preference : the schism in the Legitimist party dis- 'Closes the fact that the Count de Chambord does not rely on the high tradition, but intrusts his interests to the trimming section of the Legitimists; this introduces the question of his personal qualifications for the chief magistracy, and as they are of the most miserable order, he has effectually placed himself out of the field. An under-plot to set him up aia mere instrument for reintroducing an Orleans heir has been imagined ; but the open agitation rather negatives the idea of a hidden intrigue. Even Louis Napoleon, half in possession, is evidently advised not to push himself as a candidate for any special tenure of power. Although the reception in his tour through the provinces has been far better than might have been expected—less diversified by positive hostility, and more generally amicable—the Imperialists do not come out as an imposing body ; the most general expression of friendliness was manifestly withheld from the Prince either in an hereditary or a quasi-royal capacity, and given to the office, or to the occupant of the office personally on the presumption of his good faith. The French people seem to adhere to the Republic. And they do this, we see plainly, without reference to the Repub- lican party in Paris : they wish to have no further change just now, but require each man to work diligently and contentedly in his appointed duty. Thus we construe the general tone of the re- oeption. It implies a degree of sound judgment and firmness for
which the French have not obtained full credit amongst us, and is the best guarantee for peace in the coming year. In Sceswig-Holstem matters remain as they were. A note on the protocol of August 2, at first announced with sound of trumpet from Downing Street, indicates no very firm alliance among the parties to that convention. Austria's limitation of her concession respect to Holstein and Lauenberg is noted; so is Denmark's protest against infringing her rights m Schleswig ; and the other parties content themselves with "'noting" these doubtful ele- ments of future discussion. It , a convention at arm's length, animated by mistrust, and !, ssing little hope of settlement.
Meanwhile Prussia has bee , ed upon to adhere ; but the con- vention hardly looks formidable enough to exact submission. The return of the Chevalier Bunsen to London, if we can interpret it, should imply that the bubble of the protocol is not likely to give him any more real embarrassment ; the departure of Baron Brim- now, that the project has failed and Russia is chagrined ; the hos- tile demonstration of an able Palmerstenian journal against the convention, that it is virtually ahandoned by our Government. The Peace Congress at Frankfort has completed its performance; and has made arrangements for the nett Congress, to be held in London in 1851. The exhibition of 1850 has not tended to ad- vance the plans of the Association. The assembly was composed chiefly of English, with a strong and influential contingent of Americans, and a numerous auxiliary force from France ; but the local adherents were not proportionately numerous or earnest. The arguments were not new, nor such as demanded a meeting from the distant quarters of the globe to expound : all mankind knows that war inflicts misery, that peace is pleasant and fruitful, that -warlike instruments hurt, and so forth, without. waiting to receive the revelation from the self-appoirited deputies of 'Christen- dom. M. Emile de Girardin's dramatic imposingness, Mr.Cobden'a popular tact, the earnestness of some Yankee and Quaker atonaries, the logic of a German member, the appearance of a lira, Red Indian, and the contemplative; presence of General Haynau, looking on and furnishing Mr. Cobden with a telling allusion, con- tributed to make the performance go off with éclat. But in shrinking from any practical application of their theory,—" Here is the Schleswig-Holstein question," said one naïve member, " let us do that,"—they confessed the mistrust of their own influence. They insist on keeping remote from practical matters, as if they feared to expose their impracticability and their nullity of in- fluence.
Across the Atlantic, a new cloud of " nullification" has shown itself, even in the young State Texas : she claims a boundary which would give to her territory at the expense of New Mexico, and proposes to take it by main force, without awaiting the Fede- ral sanction. If that be done, replies President Fillmore, the aggressors shall be driven back by Federal troops. These jars to the Union have often happened, from the first, and in more for- midable shape, and they havepassed off: it does not follow that they will always pass off. The inducements for a young and weak- colony to be joined to the powerful Union, with all its resources, are different from the motives that actuate a full-grown " sove- reign " state to remain in the Union.
