• The Emperor Napoleon is making his progress in the
newly- acquired provinces of Savoy and Nice. His reception at Chem- bary was a fate; and it seems obvious that popular feeling is very generally aroused, perhaps in some degree by the novelty of the occasion, still more by the prospect of new advantages to local ambition or local enterprise through identification with the rising fortunes of France.
In the meanwhile, the Count de Persigny has been making a speech to Europe through his immediate audience, the Council General of the Loire. The Count is universally known as one of the most faithful—perhaps we ought to say the most faithful, —of the Emperor Napoleon's supporters. He shared his ad- versity, and he has done something more than share his pros- perity. The Count himself alludes to an occasion on which he differed in opinion from his master ; and it is scarcely a secret, that the public declarations of the Emperor, if not his opinions, have been materially modified by the earnest counsels of his ser- vant. The Count was Minister here at a very critical period for the relations of the countries ; and at that time he won the es- teem of English statesmen by the good faith of his conduct to- wards them, and the manifest eagerness of his devotion to his own Government. With manners so frank as to have something "English" in their appearance, he has also won for himself the liking and confidence of English society. Thus the address which he has made, explaining the general position of France in Europe, the motives of the Emperor, his desire to maintain peace, his fidelity in vindicating public law in the only two wars which he has undertaken—is all delivered under circumstances calculated to obtain for it the friendly acceptance of the English people. It has unquestionably been read with very great in- terest in all circles ; it has been freely canvassed ; and, after all, people like the Count the better for what he has said, and be- lieve "there is a great deal in it." For our own readers, there is nothing in his review which is strictly novel ; but it is useful as authoritative confirmation of the position which we have assigned to France, by inference from the public actions of its Government.
