A REAL CARTS BELLI. M. GUMS has resisted the War
party in France with wonderful perseverance; but he will be more or less than Frenchman if he refuse the opportunity of being eloquently brave, that has just pre- sented itself. The little republic of Geneva has thrown a. bold de- fiance in the teeth of France ; and a little republic, the territory of which would round the boundaries of the larger conntry, is Just the kind of enemy the modern French fire-eaters wish.
The insult offered to France is almost as flagrant as that which gave rise to the war between two Italian republics immortalized in the Secchia Rapita. Geneva holds the right to fish in the Rhone and ditches of Rive, on the condition of presenting annually three tribute- trouts—one to the King of Piedmont, one to the King of France, and one to the Bishop of Friburg. It is extremely doubtful whe- ther the trouts have for many years reached the regal and episcopal tables. But the Municipal Council of Geneva, in leasing their ditch-fishing, have continued to stipulate that the contractors shall furnish the three tribute-trouts as of old. The stern Republican spirit of M. FAZY PASTEUR has revolted at this brand of vassalage ; and on his motion, the Council has resolved unanimously, to ex- punge the clause from the lease just renewed. " The Board of Administrators," exclaimed M. FAZY PASTEUR, in the spirit of an ancient Roman, "may reserve to itself three trouts; that body may eat them, if it pleases ; but the lease should not mention by whom they are to be eaten." Let the author of Philip Van Artevelde rub his hands! Here is a new plot for his tragic muse, unspinning itself under his eyes in real life. The descendant of St. Louis, the descendant of Quatre, cannot submit to be robbed of his trout from the ditch of Rive, or to allow the burghers of Geneva to smuggle it without acknowledgment into the royal kitchen. It is perhaps the last remnant of feudal suzerainete that the Revolution has left tagged to his crown : he cannot allow it to be rent away. On the other hand, in this enlightened age—more than half a century after the publication of the Rights of Man—how can the Genevan Re- publicans submit to carry this last link of their feudal fetters ? Ye gods and little fishes ! how the French Chambers will ring with the feudal imagery of its literary and political resurrection-men ! Spirits of CALVIN and JEREMY BENTHAM what bursts of demo- cratic eloquence are about to reverberate from Geneva! France will adjure the legitimate monarchs of Europe, as they value the permanence of the throne and altar, to permit her to put a stop to the outre-euidance of the burghers of Geneva. From every part of Europe, the Philhellenes, the Spanish Legionists, the Voyageurs pour la Maison de Lafayette, will throng around the Republican standard of Geneva. The Czar will send secret subsidies to the Republicans of the West of Europe, and URQUHART will arise in his might to uncloak and baffle him. The eloquence of the tri- bune will be but the overture to a tangled plot of diplomatic in- trigue, ending, as usual, in the grand crash of an European war. From a grain of mustard will grow a mighty tree : the squabble about a tribute-trout from the ditch of Rives will set a world in arms : and stern citizen FAZY PASTEUR will stand unmoved as Cato or Mount Atlas, " amid the war of elements, the wreck of matter, and the crash of worlds." Queeu POMARE may rest in peace—such peace as Missionary discipline will allow her—on her far ocean isle ; for now, in the words of a great English poet, has
" France got mightier aims in view, And other fish to fry."
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