NEWS OF THE WEEK.
IN 1848 closes one of the most wonderful years in the annals of the world—to be followed by no ordinary year in 1849: 1848 was not a year of conclusions ; everything has been let loose in Eu- rope, nothing settled ; and to 1849 is handed over the labour of settling—what it can.
Paris, the capital of revolution, began the year with Louis Philippe and M. Guizot : in February, the Napoleon of Peace underwent a politic metempsychosis into " Mr. Smith "—fled from the national questions that he could not solve ; " no son of his succeeding." In February, from the meat-covers of a sup- pressed seditious dinner exploded the great revolution, unforeseen even by its instruments ; and the reign of the poet-" gent " Go- vernment under Lamartine and Ledru-Rollin possessed its brief authority. The bloody supplement of June called the soldier Cavaignac to power: but France wanted a more imposing chief than he would consent to be, and a Napoleon Bonaparte, the se- cond of that name, is installed as President of the Republic by the suffrages of the people. As " President "—so says the Con- stitution—President of most Imperial stamp. His Ministers ad- dress him with sycophantic allusions to his Napoleonic extraction, and dwell with iteration on the memories of the Empire : their official language glows with the purple light of those regretted days. He appoints his uncle, once a King of Westphalia, to be Go- vernor of the Invalides, and his cousin Ambassador to England. His Ministers assume the attitude and tone of a "strong Govern- ment "—Odilon Barrot makes that his chief profession. The President appoints General Changarnier to the sole command of the immense garrison of Paris and its National Guards. Louis- Napoleon reviews the troops of Paris, and wins all-ltearts-by the royal grace of his demeanour—by bowing to the statue of his il- lustrious relative defunct, by bowing to the captains of the Na- tional Guard : the whole multitude is in a ferment of loyalty, some positively shedding tears as if he had been a genuine king! —for kings, like onions, much excite the lachrymal gland. Such is the bearing of the President of the Republic, fourth in the se- ries-of French rulers for 1848, and author of a pamphlet on the organization of industrial colonies. In the decree appointing King Jerome to his new post at the Invalides, allusion is made to "the cruel day of Waterloo ": what does that signify? Is President Bonaparte going to make the attempt to regain that battle? " Waterloo," "organization of labour," " Prince-Citizen- President," " vive PEmpereur," "reestablishment of order," "a strong Government," "the Army of the Alps,"—how many ques- tions are handed over to the councils of 1849 ! The Prince-Pre- sident, " ce beau garcon !" is a bachelor.
Prussia began with the little constitution that had been twenty years brewing : she ends 1848 with Frederick William's last exer- cise in constitution-writing,—showing vast progress in that promising (though not always performing) scholar. But the praise- worthy student of clinical statemanship has not yet learned how to live at ease in his own capital : his Constituent Assembly is dissolved, and its duties are transferred to a quasi-Constituent Diet in 1849, which is to revise the transactions of 1848.
To 1848 belongs that anomalous and not geographical ex- pression " Germany." The infant year knew nothing of that " Federal State" ; one summer reigned the Regent John and his Ministers in Frankfort ; by Christmas his court has sunk to the estate of a Twelfth-day sport, and the universal question is, what is to be the " Germany " of 1849 ? who its ruler ? what his title ?—a Prussianized Germany, with Emperor Frederick Wil- liam ; or a twin Gkermany, under Frederick William and Maxi- milian, Austria holding aloof ; or no Germany at all? And then what is to become of Schleswig-Holstein ? of the Rhine Pro- vinces 1 of Polish Posen ? of the minor German States, revo- lutionized but not consolidated ? Austria began 1848 with Ferdinand and Metternich : she ends it—after many a revolution, now here now there, in Prague, in Pesth, in Vienna—with Francis Joseph and Stadion. The old Empire was nearly finished : but it has turned over a new leaf, talks of constitution and consolidation, and has some projects of regeneration, to be developed in 1849; that is, when Hungary, which defies its " King " a Poutrance, shall have been effectively conquered, and merged in the Empire. The Austrian question le transferred for the nonce to Hungary; and this week, after long delays, we see Windischgriitz concentrating an army of 100,000 men on Buda. According to the present appearance, the king- dom, which has maintained its individuality through trouble and danger from all quarters for something like a thousand years, is now completing the last year of its separate existence ; its national history is to cease, and in the next year it is to be degraded to the rank of a province. That done (no small enterprise !) the Aus- trian Empire is to be settled generally. Jellachich, the new crea- tion of 1848, has done his service this year ; next year Austria will have to pay him and his Sclaves,—a bargain as yet unde- fined. Then the Prague question must be solved, and the Lom- bardo-Venetian question. Another also will press for settlement : the young Emperor is a bachelor. What an opportunity for our matchmaking Viscount! Caesar Ccelebs !
" Pursue him, P., pursue him with a bride."
Italy began the year with the status quo as regards Austria, and a pleasing excitement in Rome caused by the Liberalism of its popular Pope : Austria has since been all but driven out, and has all but resumed her position ; the popular Pope is a fugitive in the dominions of anti-popular Naples. The question of 1848 was the expulsion of Austria and the formation of an " Italian League" between the Princes : the League has come to nothing, and Aus- tria is not yet expelled nor bought off; and this week comes in- telligence of a new movement for 1849—the convening of an Ita- lianrConstituent Assembly.
Other countries pass the change of year with leas strikingly
critical circumstances. Spain, indeed, does not yet know whether Isabella is a political and final necessity—whether the balance of virtue lies with Louis Philippe, Christina, or Palmerston—the balance of prowess with Eipartero, Narvaez, or Cabrera—the suc- cession with the Carlist branch or the Orleansline. The news of the week announces a formidable :sternational question between the Spanish Government and the Morning Post, in which our sad but spirited contemporary has claimed the support of Lord Palmer- ston. However' there is nothing very urgent in the state of Spain.. Portugal is not more anarchical than it is wont to be. Switzer- land has had no revolution in 1848 ! To the North, Belgium is stable, Holland reforming, Sweden patient, Denmark loyal; and Russia continues to wait.
Turning Westward, we see Mexico shrinking in power and size, while the great Anglo-American Union swells.. :Folk, the home-keeping war President of 1848, gives, place eisTi4jor,. the conqueror of Mexico and peace President for 1849. • flut• the . novelty, of which every week brings fresh and more wonderful stories—this week like the others—is the great gold-bed of Cali- fornia. The province wrung from Mexico is a veritable. Eldorado' —formidably rich in its auriferous soil, formidably attractive for the shoals that flock to it. Already we see fears expressed that • the new acquisition may not increase either the virtue or the wel- • fare of the Republic. Nay, a hostile prophet might at once ven- ture to pronounce the gift a judgment on the Model Republicans,- for their arrogance, their money-grasping, and their bad faith. Our dependencies : a world of little wars and Colonial Office. squabbles for 1848—a dubious but eventful sequel for 1849. This week we see that Sir Harry Smith, who had just been finishing one of the little Border wars of the Cape colony, has been cajol- ing the Aborigines by talking down to their understanding, in the childish dialect which untutored minds adopt towards babies, foreigners, and savages ; and he thinks that the exchange of puerilities has consolidated the Border relations of the two races! Scarcely a week, down to the very last of the year, but contri- butes its official buffoonery to the facetite of our Colonial history. At home, after this trying year for Europe and Lord John, we are rubbing on quietly enough. The year began with Queen Victoria, and ends with the same Most Excellent Majesty : our Sovereign lady surveys the portents of 1849 with no anxiety, and does not think it necessary to keep on calculating the chances for and against the succession of her Prince Edward. Prince Albert continues to transact business at Somerset House, to register charming little candidates for the succession of the throne, to preside at the Commission of the Fine Arts, to inspect the " pro- gress" of the Houses of Parliament, and pursue other perennial avocations, with the placid perseverance of a man who sees a long and tranquil life before him. The year ends with less ferment than it opened with; though there is quite enough of stir to quiet all apprehension that 1849 will be a dull year. In January last, " the People's Charter " was a living thing, the " Monster Peti- tion " an unborn giant : the Monster Petition proved a mon- strous abortion, diligently to be forgotten by its parents ; the Charter was imprudently exposed on the 10th of April, trampled under foot by its friends, and made a cripple. The year is out, and Widow M'Cormack's garden is still the sole battle-field of the great Irish Confederation : the utter disruption of that ma- lignant and paltry conspiracy furnishes one of the few instances of effectual settlement in this year : if the Confederation is not settled, nothing is. Perhaps you will, reply, " The far larger humbug Repeal?" True ; we had forgotton that ancient non- sense. It was continued, if we remember rightly, by one John O'Connell, a relative of the deceased Daniel ; but we have a faint impression that the man was made an exciseman, or expected to be made an exciseman but wasn't ; for we have quite lost sight of him.
Ireland does not benefit either from organized agitation or from poor-relief: she can feed neither patriots nor paupers, nor landlords, nor anything but discontent and misery. As Christ- mas drew near, instances multiplied where the whole rental of the land was absorbed by poor-rates or " arrears" of rent; with others in which the land was actually deserted, from the want of power to fulfil its liabilities. The question of the Poor-law, its applicability and practicability, revives, with this peculiarity for the future—that the available resources of Ireland are in a state of manifest exhaustion. A great movement is getting up to re- Vise the Poor-law with reference to the area of rating ; the object being to engage the interest of each proprietor to keep down pau- perism on his own estate: what with? Others talk of providing for the paupers who invade any township from without by a general rate : who to pay it ? The question for 1849 is, shall the redundant Irish be helped to emigrate, or shall all Ireland's paupers be maintained by England ?
We have already mentioned other materials for the next an- nual volume of our history,—the "Financial Reform " move- ment, devised to occupy the skeleton " Association" which esta- blished itself on Corn-law repeal, the Colonization movement, &c. &c. If any body in this country must needs view the coming year with dread of trouble and change, it is the Ministry. The last year was rubbed through, but it was a work of difficulty, and has left its mark on delicate constitutions.
