It is a pity that untoward events will occur when
they are pecu- liarly mischievous. Just now it is most desirable to keep on a friendly footing with France ; yet some French sailors—pigheaded men perhaps, blundering mariners, or only unlucky in the1jr winds and tides—brave British authority by trespassing in the Newfound- land fishing-grounds. An English officer fires a gun to frighten them; and, as ill-luck will have it, a man is killed. A French martinet all but brings on an action between war-ships of the two nations at Tahiti, by some priggish punctilios about flags and salutes; Queen POMARE not understanding the arcane of bunting or the etiquettes of gunpowder. Some French smuggler, it is re- ported, has been seized on the coast, bound with arms for Ireland. French and English Ministers may regret the insensate foolery or mischances of distant subordinates and subjects, but tit se misad- ventures are troublesome things to explain away ; though some remarks in the French papers show that the real merits of such cases are felt there as well as here. People congratulate themselves, too, that the visit of the French Princes to our Court promotes neighbourly feelings and right understanding—when, behold, the Princes have bolted ; almost as if frightened by the embarrassment of encountering the Spanish Regent, who appears in the Thames I ,
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