NEWS OF THE WEEK.
TIE Count de Montalembe-rt ha a undergone the 'form of a trial before the sixth chamber of the • Correctional Tribunal, and has been sentenced. to six months' imprisonment with a fine of 3000 francs, for his paper in' the Carrespondant ; the manager of that journal being tried at the same time, and. sentenced to one month's imprisonment with a fine of 1000 francs.
The chamber is a sort of , tribunal for the adjudication of of- fences under what may be called the police law. The sentence is not so severe as other penalties which the Government might have exacted, such as the exile of the accused, or his " interne- ment" in some town of France, or Algeria, or Cayenne ; but it is not in the amount of the sentence, or even in the simple prosecution, that the excessive blunder of the French Government is displayed ; it is in the manner of conducting the whole proceedings..• . It was resolved that M. de Mon- talembert should not have the opportunity of speaking a second pamphlet to the French public, and in order to prevent such a contingency, or to prevent the disclosure of the speech which his coadjutor, M..-Berryer, would deliver with greater legal weight, the police tribunal served, for the nonce, as a sort of Star Chamber, all reports being suppressed, and "the public" being represented only by such a modicum as would scarcely have done for a chorus at a minor theatre. The reader will remember that the Count was accused of having excited public hatred and contempt against the Government of the Emperor, having attacked the respect true to laws, having attacked the rights and authority of the Em- peror under the constitution, and having sought to disturb the public peace by exciting the contempt or hatred of the citizens against each other ; while the body of the offences thus charged eonsisted mainly, if not exclusively, in certain passages applaud- ing England, her Parliamentary system, and the manner of con- ducting public business. There were indeed many passages in the Count's pamphlet which comprised strictures on the English, more or less correct ; but no doubt the main drift of his composition was to applaud our Parliamentary system, especially for afford- ing the people the means of governing their own affairs, for se- curing a complete disclosure of all conflicting sentiments, and. for Producing by the exhaustion of differences a general concord in society, with a strollg convergence of public opinion and action in support of the actuarGovernment. The Count has, by turn, been fo favour of Jesuitism, of the Emperor, in fact of any cause which at the moment bore a romantic aspect and was not exactly accepted by the constituted authorities ; his lucubration there- fore was eminently calculated to piss without more notice than any other clever essay. The effect of the threatened. prosecution Was, to give his paper a greatly stimulated. circulation in France, and to procure it, in four several forms, a universal circulation Ill England. The spoken pamphlet in the Count's defence by nerrYer, with that of M. Dufaure for M. Donniol, are sup- Pressed ; but already we have had an outline, and perhaps shall .bave a full account of what these remarkable speakers have said ; and meanwhile the suppressed reports are not less eloquent than /nose circulated. For a time the plan of preventing the French People from knowing what has happened may succeed ; but a success of that kind -is obviously impossible in Paris. The pro- a'ed, lags, whichrgot to the public through the magnifying medium
gossip, have already begun to tell in Paris as well as in Lon- don ; and ere the report of the trial reaches us, we see evident signs of a settled gloom which means mischief. The English in Paris neither hold their tongues nor ‘disguise the exprrasion of then' countenances; before them, the intelligent classes of the French feel abashed ; the Imperial Government is identified with the degradation of the French, who can neither speak, talk, nor think, except by leave and licence.
The proceedings of the Goi-criireent at Berlin have rather 'dis- appointed those who looked. for a sudden liberal development
under the Prince Regent. The Minister of the Interior, de Flottwell, has addressed a letter to a public functionary, remark- ing that " at preparatory liberal electoral meetings,. wishes, expectations, and hopes" have been expressed. which ""overstep the limit of an exact appreciation of requirements and circum- stances"; the Government "has no intention of renouncing those traditions which form the basis of Prussia's greatness and power " ; wherefore it will " repress all these tendencies and pretensions, and will not permit any sort of trespass beyond the fixed limits." These instructions for the elections are conveyed by the Prussian Home Secretary to the Minister of Police. Imagine Mr. Secretary Walpole addressing such a document tie Sir Richard Mayne! • In Prussia, indeed, they are accustomed to this kind of Chinese pa- ternally ;_but even there they seem to have been rather shocked ; and de Flottwell has endeavoured to counteract the circular which damns popular hopes and expectations by another address, at the Kreuz party ; instructing the employes of Government "to abstain entirely from all encouiagement of extreme or exclusive political tendencies."- The electors appear to have been returning a decided prepon- derance of Libeials, elected. " for' the Government" ; lint It is probable that, should the Government exchange the ground which it has taken up for other-ground of a less liberal character, the majority may cease to serve the purposes of the Government.
The state of Italy is the memento of certain imperial and royal frauds, and of our laches. North and south present the standing contrast ; the Sardinian Government conducting a strict inquiry into the charitable institutions at Genoa, improving the steam-navigation in the Mediterranean, and facilitating railway projects ; while the Neapolitan Government, Poerio still in pri- son, has been mocking justice by a pretended inquiry into the state of the prisoners at Montesarchio ; the Intendant, Mirabelli, bursting into a highflown rage because the prisoners refused the concession of making complaints or requests. The Duke of Modena has been travelling in the south, to get up some kind of alliance of states against constitutional Piedmont ; while his own underlings cannot abstain from border quarrels with the Pied- montese ; whereupon the Government of Turin has lodged a sharp note with the paltry Modenese Government. And while the Pope cannot keep secret the disturbances at Ancona, M. Bas- tide has brought forward. the long-promised reply to Count Cavour's speech on the relations of Italy and France ; the apo- logy for the false action of France involving the open admission that the postulate with which French intervention started was to keep Italy split into small states, republican or otherwise, but to prevent the creation of a strong Italian kingdom. France was not thinking of the support of Italy, but of its repression ; and Lord Normanby's endorsement of the French intervention re-
mains uncancelled. • Lord Napier has been removed from the British Legation at Washington, and is to be succeeded by Mr. Bickerton Lyons, our Minister at Florence, who has jest succeeded to the paternal title of the popular Admiral Lord Lyons. The naval hero died, full of honours, at the ,house of his son-in-law, the Duke of Norfolk;' fate seeming to have resolved that the Americans shall be gratified by having a Peer for the British Minister at their headquarters. Attempts have been made to explain away the change of Ministers. It is said. that Lord Napier is not with- drawn because there is any disapproval of his conduct, but in order that he may be promoted ; the prevalent idea being, that he will go to Berlin. Undoubtedly, he may be very useful in the capital of Prussia while the new Prince Regent is so strangely inaugurating a Liberal regime. On the other hand, it is well known that Loa _Napier is isneh lilted ira America ; and it is a striking fact flit he is removed at a sine *Len Nesident Buchanan is publicly denennoing the adventurer TAralker, while France and England are supposed to be in some compact al- liance on the subject of Central America, where France is said to back the projects of the adventurous Belly. All this has too much the appearance of a step taken with a specific purpose, to be passed over by the public as a mere act of "promotion," at least until we have some more distinct explanation.
The subject of " Reform " continues to figure conspicuously before the public, although there never was a jack-'o-lantern which was more intangible and evanescent than it is at the pre- sent moment. A Whig statesman has just appeared before his constituents at Taunton, Mr. Labouchere, and he has of course alluded to the topic, but in those general terms which seem to indicate a dislike to the whole subject—no sign that Mr. Labou- e,here's colleagues are ready with any plan, or desirous of pro- moting any enactment. Mr. Bouverie has touched upon it before his Kilmarnock constituents with more freedom, partly because a gentleman who has had pretensions to be Deputy Speaker of the House of Commons, is necessarily somewhat more independ- ent, and Lord Radnor's son is "something more" rather than Whig. He expresses no faith in the Derby promises, but says, that if Lord Derby's bill should enfranchise certain " masses " which he does not specify, he would give to that Government his " hearty support." For the time Mr. Bright remains in posses- sion of the field, as Leader of the Reform movement ; and it is in that capacity that he has been invited by Edinburgh. to an- other demonstration, which would assist him in showing that Great Britain at least takes up the movement initiated at Bir- mingham. Mr. Bright accepts, though at first he was compelled to throw doubt upon the acceptance on account of his health. Another serious exception to the popular adhesion is indicated by the Smithfield meeting, where the working classes frankly and all but unanimously declared that they would not be content with less than "manhood suffrage." Other speakers, pad public' writers generally, have kept the question alive ; but nothing has yet been settled in any quarter. The latest rumours of the Government scheme foreshadow a truly " Conservative " kind of Reform ; and Mr. Newdegate's speech at Rugby indicates some grand shifting of franchise and representation from towns to counties. Only probably Mr. Newdegate is more of in the con- fidence of the Tories than of Ministers.
The shipowners of the Tyne have taken up the song which was begun by the shipowners of Dundee ; but while they complain that the Navigation laws have been abolished, and while they imitate the Dundee men in abstaining from any attempt to ask the reimposition of those exclusive laws, they hint a desire that in some way reciprocity should be extorted from foreign countries, and they more specifically demand the abolition of passing tolls, Trinity dues, pilotage, and other payments for which the ship re- ceives no equivalent. The letter which Lord Malmesbury ad- dressed to the Scotch shipowners, sympathising with their loss of the Navigation-laws, seems to have excited the hopes of the trade ; and yet they have sufficient evidence to teach them that from this Government they are not likely to obtain more than from any other. Their great authority, Mr. Greenhow, warns them against attempting " a policy of reprisals on non-reciprocating foreign countries." Mr. Fenwick, the Liberal Member for Sunderland, says that the maintenance of town dues, with the privileges of freemen belonging to particular ports, has operated as a pretext on the strength of which foreign countries have withheld their reciprocity ; and even Mr. H. G. Liddell, the Conservative Mem- ber for South Northumberland, definitively accepts free-trade as a ,fait accompli, while he tries to get over the difficulty involved in the fact he and others of his party have heretofore opposed the abolition of town dues. In this instance, therefore, some gentle- men who wish to conciliate the support of the northern ship- owners for the present Government must reverse their own antecedents.
The judgment of the Irish Lord Chancellor in the O'Malley case exactly fulfils public expectation. He has decided that in conformity with the wishes of the Romanist father as well as the Protestant mother, as shown in every act of his, from his marriage to his death, the children should be allowed to follow the faith of their mother, and be surrendered to the care of their mother's sister. The decision is one that attempts no judgment between Romanism and Protestantism, equally protecting the members of either sect against clerical encroachment. Yet it cannot fail to be seen, by reflecting members of the Roman Church, that in this country they obtain a protection for natural affection against priestly dictation, denied to them only in that petty state which happens to be the metropolis of their hierarchy.
