NEWS OF THE WEEK.
head, with the fag-end of the 0:CONNELL trial to be settled. Ministers and other officials made the usual rush out of town as soon as they were let loose,—running off to grass, like their horses, after the wasting toils of the season: and yet they are scarcely "gone before the chiefs are called back to a Cabinet Council, held on Tuesday, as if for the special mystification of gossips. Another portent is the arrival of a diplomatic comet in our orbit—Count NESSELRODE, the incarnation of Russian policy. Veteran diplo- matists have their infirmities, their tastes, and their fancies : even MACHIAVELLI dabbled in belles lettres, and had his country-house ; even METTEBNICH has been convicted of having official companions who had literary accomplishments and platonic affections ; and possibly Count NES5ELEODE may like to see the British lions and 'try the air of Brighton: But no ; whenever old gentlemen have belonged to the secret fraternity of diplomatists, all their actions are as significant as Lord Burleigh's shake of the head ; and the Count NESSELRODE'S visits to England, to Brighton, and especially to Prince ALBERT at Windsor Castle, have a political significance : "Thou dost mean something, Iago!" All this while, it is very clear that Trance " means something " very formidable. Her movements are rapid, and perpetually shifted; and the accounts change even faster, so that it is impos- sible to make a summary of her operations, and say, That is what France is doing : the list may be half-abandoned tomorrow-morn- ing, or doubled. But, making every allowance for such oscillation, the sphere of her activity is prodigious. Besides the perennial turmoil of Algiers, that convenient sink for the redundant popula- tion aud love of glory in France—besides the distant arena of Poly- nesia—besides the new quarrel with Morocco, she has fresh piques to gratify : a little feud at Gaboon with some English traders and an African, who was tricked out of a treaty under the influence of rum ; and a very sudden intervention between the Porte and its contumaciously-disposed vassal of Tunis, involving more perils to the peace of Europe. Whether the Prince DE JOINVILLE is bombarding Tangier, or returning to his Princess and to France to be promoted, who can tell ? Certainly not the telegraphic despatches, which box the compass of possibilities — running a circle of the most positive but opposite statements, that neu- tralize each other and come to nothing, as colours on a revolv- ing card make simple white. With all this interesting activity abroad, Paris is in a perfect fever : the despatches from Africa ex- cite exultation ; Count NESSELRODE'S visit to London, uneasiness ; Lord Misro's jeremiade about the British Navy, fierce hopes. It strikes the National, borrowing the Prince DE JOINVILLE'S idea, that as we are so defenceless, and France can muster forty sail of the line, it would be a delicate stratagem to steal upon us in the -night and reduce us to the grade of a third-rate power ! With these unceasing provocatives over the water, it is not sur- prising that there should be some indiscreet response on this side. Newspaper-writers are getting more and more to speak in the " Come if you dare" style of defiance ; quiet people, the mastiff class of commonplace, unobtrusive Englishmen, that will be trifled with a good while, but not for ever, are beginning to think that this kind of brave talk all on one side cannot go on much longer. And the Missionaries of London have come forth vigorously as the priests of war. The irregular clergy of the Missionary world have strong vested interests in Polynesia ; where they can point for their most marked successes, and where religious influence has procured them political power and social rank. He who is only a tradesman and It spiritual protege in England may be a very Thomas-A-Becket in Polynesia ; and the intrusion of France on the Missionary territory bas roused the parent hive in the British capital. War, of course, they deprecate—it was incumbent upon them to do so, at least pro forma; but in far less equivocal language they blame the deficient naval protection at Tahiti, sneer at French reparation as impos- sible or worthless, and bluster about the national " honour." One incitement to this strange tone is, no doubt, hatred of the rival Popish missionaries ; whose forcible exclusion began the disputes at Tahiti, and whose failure is matter of sectarian exultation. This is all very indecorous and unbecoming to " the cloth," if Dis- senting ministers are to be considered a " cloth"; but it is a symptom of the growing ill-temper here, and really helps to em- broil the fray. Missionaries have a wide connexion among the middle classes of England. We have often reproached France with her rash and unscrupulous War party, while in this country the War party was represented almost in the single person of Lord PAL-. MERSTON ; but now the Missionaries have supplied our want, and " redressed the balance." How difficult it is for Governments to deal with these sallies! Should France and England go to war, it will not be the wish of either Government—certainly not of the English people ; but undoubtedly, the epidemic mania in France, acted upon by the designing and turbulent in both countries, me- naces the peace of Europe even more than it did in 1840.
