The progress of foreign affairs has continued to be of
the higheit importance, although the indications thereof are prin- cipally conveyed in formal speeches, official documents, and editorial writings. The Emperor Napoleon received Addresses from the public bodies of the Empire on the 20th, and replied in a speech remarkable for a tone the very reverse of vaunting. If he had stopped short in his mission to accomplish the immediate freedom of Italy, it had been only where the cost and risk ap- peared greater than the advantage to be gained, and where the destinies of France appeared to be imperiled.
If the speech of the French Emperor is in a tone of striking moderation, that of the Austrian Emperor is at once in a mingled strain of boast as to what Austria would have done under more propitious circumstances, and a confession as to what
Austria has been compelled to do since Prussia would not go with her. The Emperor Francis Joseph intimates that he her sacrificed much in Italy, and is prepared to surrender " ame- liorations " in his other Austrian provinces, because hie ancient ally has left him alone—an instructive avowal.
