Except the trial of the -prisoners charged with conspiracy to
as- sassinate the Emperor at the Opera Comique, there is nothing in.
the ostensible events 'ofParis -half So important as an expected
movement in the direction of commercial reciprocity with this country. For some time the French railway projectors have felt a severe pressure in the cost of iron, and the iron manufacturers have felt the cost of coal operate very detrimentally upon their interests ; they have therefore awakened to the views already pro- mulgated by the wine-growers of the South, and are willing to be- lieve that it may be for the advantage of French traders and manu- facturers if certain commodities which England can supply at much less cost be admitted for French use. Hence, for some months there has been a claim upon the French Government to re- duce the duty on coal and unwrought iron from England, and it is expected that a decree on the subject will appear in the Ittoniteur within a few days.
Improvements of this kind are the more important, instead of being the less so, because they are not isolated. In the neighbour- ing. kingdom of Belgium there is the same attention to the material improvement of the people by practical measures. Some attention has been attracted to a phrase in the King's speech on opening the Chambers, about the perpetuation of what he calls "my dynasty," 13y,favour of Austrian alliance ; and it is,_perhaps too hastily, assumed that Leopold is to become Austrian in his policy, whereas. Austria might perhaps once more become Leo- poldine in its sentiments. The alliance tells both ways; and there is no denying the fact that the Coburg dynasty in Belgium is strengthened by its association with the crowned system of Europe. It is,' however, infinitely more strengthened by the franknest with :which the King has always addressed himself to his subjects; and by the pains he takes to develop the resources of his coutiti7. " There is,no doubt, that a better feeling on the subject of com- merce i's gaining Iground almost everywhere, excepting in those countries ivhick are under the arbitrary rule typified by Austria and Ritssia. 1 In Sardinia, in Spain itself amongst the people, a more enlightened and 'practical opinion advances. Even in Ame- rica sounder views are succeeding to the wild metaphysical notions whickused to regulate the money-market. Desperate prophecies were made abont-the present " panic " at New York ; but no sooner havettua financiers of • the Union got into the very midst of the panic, than they 'discover that it is by no means so bad as they ex- pected, and that the substantial resources of the Union, its great crops, its gigantib industry, proceed unimpaired by those superficial irregu- larities amongst some of its fast traders. The notions of the hour, —like the last Washington bugbear, of an English conspiracy, with Spain and Franceto 'establish a great Black free community in Cuba, as a nuisance for the Slave States of the Union,—pass away when the threatened season for their accomplishment arrives. And while we find' that neither America is blasted with ruin nor Presi- dent Pierce with universal contumely, commerce continues steadily to gain ground,' and the free nations who pursue it continue to arrive at a better -Understanding with each other. The same rule holds good in -America and in France ; and, we say, the fact that these ,movements are not isolated, but are parts of a great whole, renders each accession only the more valuable.
