NEWS OF THE WEEK.
THE French Government is gradually defining its position be- fore the world, by the course of its action ; but we have not yet obtained any decisive light as to its relations with other coun- tries, still less as to its ulterior intentions : the intelligence of this week does little more than strengthen the alliance by which the political map of last week might have been marked out. Prince Napoleon has publicly claimed the hand of the Princess Clotilda, has been accepted, and, it is said, will not return to Paris without his bride. The marriage is said to be regarded coldly by the Italians, except insofar as they heartily sympathize with all that happens to their King. No doubt is entertained that the mar- riage is so to speak, an act of political strategy. A Belgian pa- per has asserted that the condition precedent exacted by the King, was an offensive and defensive treaty between France and Sardinia. The Miesiteur undertakes to give this statement a direct contradiction. It does so in terms, however, which leave the subject in considerable obscurity. Meanwhile, the press in Vienna, which speaks either by authority or permission, makes something like an appeal to the public opinion of Europe against the interference of France in Italy, with. the plea, that if Aus- tria is a foreign ruler in the Lombardo-Venetian provinces, the House of Savoy is equally of alien origin.
The latest report is that, on the part of our own Government, Lord Malmesbury has revived the proposition brought forward in 1848, that Austria should be content to set up a separate go- vernment in Italy—a proposition, it is said, which Austria has shown some signs of entertaining. We have here, indeed, come into the region of unattested reports.
In the meanwhile, the French Government has taken a step which tends to relieve it from many embarrassing annoyances. A decree appears in the 3foniteur, under the hand of Prince Napoleon, as Minister of Algeria and of the Colonies, henoefor- ward prohibiting a recruitment of labour in the island of Re- union by means of emigrants drawn from the eastern or southern coasts of Africa ; a certain licence, however, being allowed to the completion of those operations which are already going on. Refusing all compromise with o in the special case of th_e Charles-et-Georges, which had indeed been vitiated by the pro- ceedings of the local Government of Mozambique in giving a tacit licence on the traffic, the French Government has now con- ceded to the remonstrances of England, and, at the cost of stop- ping a free trade in Negro labour which was of very doubtful success, it has relieved itself of at least one " question" with its important ally the British Government.
But we may note that the general tendency of events is aiding the manifest aim of the French Government to obtain a Congress in Paris, as the alternative of war ; with the obvious advantage for France, that the combinations at the meeting of Plenipoten- tiaries would be more favourable for her now than they were in the Conferences of '56. There are difficulties in the way ; and we agree with an able weekly contemporary, that at least the venue should be changed ; France now being the chief litigant in the cross action with Austria.
