oppression, to the very moment when the writer stops, not from having exhausted what he had to say, but because his patience failed him, and because he felt in himself the same disgust that he had just inspired his readers with, for all the wretched matters stripped of their solemn coverings, their pompous masks, their imposing mystery! Ah! we pity MM. de Tocqueville and de Falloux, now that they see themselves dragged before the supreme tribunal of public opinion, and when they have a foretaste of the just chastisement which awaits them at the tribune." While the "National" thus lauds the letter to the skies, the "Constitutionnel" denounces it for the grossness of its insults, exclaiming, "Each phrase is an insult, each expression an affront. It is, however, the style of the demagogical faction of which he is one of the leaders. Who can fail to recognize through this violence the brutality of its manners, respecting as little the laws of language as of nations?" From the London Times, of 4th Oct. FRENCH FOREIGN POLICY. THE mail for Brazil and Buenos Ayres, which leaves London this day, will take out a distinct intimation that the intentions of the French government with reference to a fresh expedition into the River Plate had been overstated; that no military armament is now contemplated at Brest; and that the superior officer who succeeds Admiral Léprédour in the River Plate will sail in command of a squadron of fresh vessels merely to relieve the ships and crews which have already served their full time on that station, and are recalled. We rejoice to find that this expedition is disavowed or abandoned, not from any unworthy or misplaced jealousy of its results, but from a conviction that, as in the case of the expedition projected some years ago against Madagascar, such an enterprise would lead to no result at all, unless it were undertaken on a scale far exceeding that of the forces which the French government might be disposed to despatch to South America in the present state of Europe. We should, moreover, have deplored any decided difference between the policy to be pursued by France and by England towards Monte Video and Buenos Ayres, for any such difference would not only have increased the jealousy and animosity which have occasionally broken out between French and English interests in that quarter, but it might be regarded as a triumph for Rosas to have succeeded in dissolving the formidable combination of the two leading maritime powers against himself. The opinions of M. Thiers on the Monte Videan question are known to be extremely decided, and extremely hostile to the pretensions of Rosas. His influence is undoubtedly continually exercised against the species of compromise which had been proposed, and it must be borne in mind that by the present constitution of the French republic it is not so much with the executive government as with the national assembly that the ratification of treaties rests. M. Thiers possesses sufficient credit with a large portion of the conservative majority, who admire his practical talents and obey his occult influence, to induce them to reject the treaty negotiated by Admiral Léprédour and Mr. Southern in its present shape. To the other perplexities of this embarrassing question, a ministerial defeat might thus be added; and the greater probability is that the French government will resume and continue its negotiations at Buenos Ayres without giving any great activity to its naval operations. The obvious inconvenience of this course is, that it affords a pretext to Rosas for the prolongation of hostilities, and that the commercial community may still long be excluded from the advantages to be anticipated from the pacification of the River Plate and the independence of Monte Video. Another unpleasant and inopportune circumstance has just occurred in the relations of France with another portion of the American continent, which threatens to kindle a diplomatic quarrel with the United States. One of the strangest and most perilous consequences of the revolution of February was that the duties of representing the French republic in foreign countries were suddenly thrust upon men utterly unqualified for such functions by education, station, or experience. The post of minister at Washington had been intended for M. de Circourt, a gentleman who united all these qualities in the highest degree, and who had consented, from personal friendship for M. de Lamartine, and from patriotic motives, to proceed to Berlin in the first stormy days of the provisional government. Instead, however, of rewarding M. de Circourt's great services in Germany by the legation to the United States, M. de Lamartine allowed that position to be carried by some republican intrigue in favor of a man utterly unknown to fame, but who rejoices in the significant and captivating name of William Tell Poussin. It seems, however, that M. Poussin has contrived to leave a trace in diplomatic history before he could be superseded by a more suitable representative of the French nation. He was instructed to obtain from the American government some reparation or indemnity for losses sustained by French subjects in the course of the Mexican war; but he appears to have couched his demand in terms so unusual, or unbecoming, that the American cabinet immediately answered it by sending him his passports. This correspondence has not yet reached us, and we know little of the merits of the case, or of the effect it may produce in Paris; but in New York it had occasioned a sudden and remarkable depression of the public securities, and apprehensions had been excited as to the consequences of such a blow aimed at a sister republic, which amounts to an interruption of diplomatic intercourse. The probability is that as the affront seems to have consisted in form rather than in substance, and as it is impossible to impute to France and the United States a serious intention of hostility, mutual explanations and the sacrifice of the diplomatist with the patriotic name will appease the wrath of these democracies. But the more experience we acquire of this form of popular government, especially as applied to the foreign relations of great nations, the more apparent is it that they do not possess the art of keeping politicians out of hot water, or of guiding the course of empires by the strict laws of forbearance and the public interest. Any dispassionate and intelligent government, really master of its own resources and responsible for its decisions, would acknowledge the expediency of withdrawing in such times as these from such petty and sterile questions as those of the River Plate, and of avoiding every unnecessary rub in other parts of the globe; for the chief secret of strength, in politics as in war, lies in concentration. But the passion for display and the appeals which will be made to the vanity of the national assembly will probably prevent the adjustment of affairs in the River Plate, and possibly impart considerable acrimony to this fresh dispute with the cabinet at Washington. To such questions, extreme publicity and popular debates on pending negotiations are what a current of air is to a fire; the spark which smoulders under the ashes, and might expire by a little neglect, is fanned into a flame which may reach every part of the edifice. For these purposes, the French constitution is infinitely below that of the United States, which has retained in the senate a body acting in the spirit of a privy council, yet endowed with the authority of a branch of the legislature. That institution has saved the honor and the policy of the United States in all its foreign relations, from the ratification of Mr. Jay's treaty in 1794 down to the convention for the partition of the Oregon territory; and it may be affirmed that many of the transactions most essential to the peace and real interests of the nation would have been frustrated by the factious divisions or the unreflecting temper of more popular assemblies. In France no such institution exists, and the more delicate and arduous the foreign relations of the republic may chance to become, the more impracticable will it be to maintain the due authority of sound policy, justice, and wisdom. The executive government ceases to have power to act up to its own convictions; the most far-sighted statesman finds his horizon circumscribed by the prejudices or passions of the multitude; and the exercise of power is clogged with such restraints that its duties are lowered and its responsibilities weakened. The history of the treaty for the pacification of the River Plate will probably illustrate on a small scale this tendency of the present institutions of France; but we shall see the same difficulties recur on every occasion on which the course of the government is liable to be counteracted by personal opposition or popular clamor. Under such conditions it is more than doubtful whether any complete and effective system of foreign policy can be founded or pursued. [We do not believe that any free form of government would suit the French nation. That people needs an apprenticeship. But in the beginning it was evident to Americans that the single legislativé hody was a very dangerous and hopeless experiment. Mr. Walsh exerted himself to the utmost to lay before the constituent body, or influential members of it, the arguments in favor of a separate senate like ours. The foregoing article shows how ill the single body works in foreign affairs. -Liv. AGE.] From the London Times DESTINY OF CUBA. WHOEVER has glanced at a map of the West Indies, must have noticed an island conspicuous above the rest for its size and its position. Commanding the entrance to the Gulf of Mexico, and possessing one of the noblest harbors in the world, Cuba crowns by her political importance the commercial advantages of a rich soil, a varied and teeming productiveness, and a climate which enjoys the genial warmth but escapes the fiercer heats of the tropics. The occupation of such an island must give strength and wealth to any nation. Cuba is the strength and wealth of Spain. She is the last fragment of the vast empire of "Spain and the Indies." Of all those splendid provinces which attested the genius of Columbus and the fortunes of the Escurial, Cuba alone is left, the earliest and the latest memorial of a brittle glory. When Cuba is wrenched from Spain, then will Spain be poor indeed. And, if our transatlantic reports prove true, this consummation is not distant. There are but two powers in the world who could occupy the island with profit; but there is none which could occupy it without dishonesty. The two to whom the occupation of Cuba would be profitable are Great Britain and the United States of America. The former has a sort of equitable lien upon it for the money she has lent to Spain. The latter has not even this right to it. Both are equally able to make themselves masters of it by force. In the hands of either, perhaps, its eventual fortunes might be the same. The possession of it by Great Britain would crush slavery and the slave-trade in the western seas. In the hands of the American republic it would aggravate the causes of dissension between the abolitionists and their opponents; and by the menace of a rupture insure a compromise in favor of the slaves. But to neither can it be annexed without treachery or injustice, or the combination of both. It is true that the President has officially and authoritatively discouraged the project of Cuban annexation. It is true that he has warned the free corps of armed adventurers, with which the eastern ports were rife, that the occupation or invasion of territory belonging to a friendly power is a violation, not only of international, but of American law. It is also true, we believe, that these dissuasives and prohibitions are not merely formal and illusory. We are inclined to believe that General Taylor has scanned with correct eye the Sparta, and in the Dorian colonies parties friendly prospective dangers of enlarging the territory of to Athens. It would be visionary to suggest the the states beyond the legitimate boundary of the motives which inspire the American faction in ocean, and that his apprehensions are shared by the Cuba. Whether the Cuban planters think that most sagacious of the American statesmen. But this, unfortunately, gives no assurance to the world that the central government at Washington will continue to maintain a pacific tone, and repudiate the prize of conquest. The government of the United States is a weak government. It is often forced to follow where it wished to lead; to obey where it ought to command. Wherever the ministry are not the willing and avowed servants of popular passions and popular ignorance, they ultimately become their reluctant instruments. The policy of the cabinet is oftener decided by the rapid movements of a resolute faction, and the clever they would get more slaves, and thus cultivate their soil more cheaply; or that the African slavetrade would be suppressed, and that thus they would sell their slaves more dearly under the government of the States, it is idle to ask. Suffice it to say, that there does exist in the Spanish colony a party friendly to American rule; and that American patriotism is not likely to reject the advantages of such an alliance. How far the desire of such aggrandizement has spread through the republic we know not; but the history of recent invasions tells us that when the idea of conquest has once been bruited about by rumor schemes of unprincipled adventurers, than by the when it has been seconded by the public press of counsels of statesmen and the advice of legislators. America-and when the politics of the obnoxious There is always in the states a large body of loose, state are favorable to interference that the period reckless, and daring men, to whom all peaceful of aggression is not remote. Any or no pretext occupation is dull, the amusement of home politics for a rupture will suffice; and the abduction of vapid, and the wide plains of the Missouri and Juan Rey, together with the subsequent trial of Michigan narrow and confined. They cast their the Spanish consul at New Orleans, supplies ameyes about the surrounding regions for novelty ple materials for discord, which American cupidand excitement. Texas, Mexico, California, Mos- ity will clutch, and American diplomacy may quito, or Cuba-it is all the same to them. Nei- recognize. ther land nor ocean bounds their desires or their curiosity. They are troubled with no unnecessary scruples; they have a philosophical indifference to treaties; they have a comprehensive ardor of acquisitiveness. If an opportunity offer itself for How far the interests of civilization would be promoted by the substitution of American for Spanish rule, is hard to determine. It would replace the despotism of a monarchy by more than the usual laxity of a republic; and it would introduce extending their travels and improving their fortunes a new energy into the political and industrial con in another land, they willingly seize it. They care little for proclamations from Washington and notifications from the White House. They have a shorter and readier way of solving state problems than is known to diplomatists and jurists. They put themselves into communication with the democratic or constitutional or some other party of a neighboring or friendly state-they send over detachments of sympathizers-they organize a conspiracy among such troops as the degenerate colonies of Spain or the unsettled republics of the New World boast of then, when all is ripe, a ditions of Cuba. It would weaken if not destroy the influence of its present religion, and perhaps engraft no other upon it. It would, however, sooner or later, strike a fatal blow at slavery, because it would at once destroy the slave-trade with Africa. This is a good which would countervail many evils. But no excuse can justify the contemplated annexation. Whatever might be its fruits, it would still be a foul and monstrous wrong. It would be a violation of the law and equity of nations. It would be a bold and insolent triumph fresh detachment of invaders, open and avowed, of might over right. It would involve the whole bursts across the border, unites itself to the former American people in the same general condemna tion which the spirit of repudiation drew upon individual states. It would, however, be a seasonable comment upon the very confident orations and essays of the peace propagandists, who have been kindly informing us for the last twelve months bands of sympathizers, corrupts, divides, or masters the native soldiery; and, taking one of the native commanders for its head, proclaims a new constitution, or, at once, annexation. The cabinet at Washington has no option but to acquiesce in this abrupt policy, or else to endure a "Young that wars and aggressions are the amusements only America" on its frontiers, with all the insolence of kings and emperors the loathing and abomand all the licentiousness of youth. Having objected, discouraged, and forbidden, as long as it could, it is obliged, at the last hour, to sanction by its authority, and solemnize by its ceremonies, the victory which it denounced, and the acquisitions which it deprecated. Such bids fair to be the course of action in Cuba. For some time past there has been in Cuba a party friendly to America, as there used to be in the Ionian colonies parties friendly to ination of the people. From the Independent. CANADA. WHAT is now taking place in Canada may turn out to be the most remarkable revolution of the age. The change in the colonial and commercial system of the British empire has led the people of Canada to the discovery that they have little to gain, and may have much to suffer, by a con- begin to utter itself in our newspapers, and in tinuance of their political dependence on Great the harangues of our political party orators-let Britain. The people of Great Britain, on the other hand, are beginning to understand that the possession of Canada is of no advantage to them, while the expense of governing and defending it our "western orientalism" of rhetoric begin to expatiate about the "star-spangled banner" floating in hyperborean skies, and our republic stretching from the tropic to the arctic circle-let meet adds greatly to the burthen of their taxes. In ings begin to be held, committees appointed, and these circumstances, the Canadians are beginning, funds raised, for promoting the annexation of very seriously, to agitate the question of the an- Canada-above all, let there begin to be any, nexation of "their country"-for so they have even the least, demonstration of that sort of " symlearned to call it to the United States. Persons pathy" which wrought so much mischief in 1837 of the most opposite political opinions heretofore, - let there be any appearance of that piratical, find themselves strangely united in the desire to crusading propagandism which lately made such be rid of their provincial or colonial dependence, a figure at Round Island, and the revolution will and to be placed on a footing of complete self- be at an end. Neither the just self-respect of the government. Tory and whig, Roman Catholic Canadians, nor the imperial pride of Great Britain, and Protestant, Church-of-England-man and Dissenter, seem to be coming to an unaffected agreement on this point. Even that old antipathy of languages and of blood-the hereditary feud between the conquering race and the conqueredwhich at times has been ready to break forth into will tolerate any interference in this matter on our part. Happily, there are, as yet, no indications of a disposition, on this side of the line, to hasten the progress of events. The calmness-we had almost said the indifference-with which the people ing to see the result, is not the least remarkable among the phenomena of this revolution. a war of races-British against French seems of the United States are observing the great change to be overcome by a new and common passion for of opinion amongst their neighbors, and are waitthe transfer of their allegiance from the imperial crown of Great Britain to the government of the American Union. The proposal-which was origiTaken altogether, this is a new thing under the nally made, if we mistake not, by a disappointed sun. The people of one of the greatest and most faction, for a temporary party purpose, without British of all the British colonial provinces are any honest expectation or desire of its being deliberately discussing and planning-what? Noth realized-has been taken up in earnest; and views and arguments have been presented which the people of Canada will never be able to forget, and which, in the end, will work out great results. In other words, a revolution is in progress-a peaceful revolution. We need not inquire whether the end of it will certainly be the absorption of Canada into our Federal Union; we need not say whether such a result, if it come to pass, will be ing less than an entire political revolution, the separation of that province from the empire, the dissolution of their allegiance to their sovereign. They are doing this not in secret clubs, and in midnight meetings of conspirators, but openly, in the use of free speech and a free press, and of an unlimited right of consultation on public affairs. They do this, not as if they were planning treason -not with any fear of the scaffold, or even of beneficial, either to that country or to this. In- confiscation and exile, but as safely and calmly as deed, the time has not yet come for Americans to the inhabitants of Minnesota might discuss the meddle with the movement. It is enough for us, question of establishing a state government. Surely at present, to observe the significant fact, that a there is such a thing as progress. Could such prorevolution is in progress to which no parallel can ceedings have taken place two centuries ago? Was be found in history-a revolution without war, such a method of adjusting great political changes without insurrection, without violence-a revolution working only by discussion, and proposing to work only by peaceful negotiation for the separation of Canada, and virtually of all the other provinces of what is called British America, from the British empire. possible to our fathers, in 1775? There is more significance in the opening and progress of this Canadian revolution, than there could be in half a dozen peace congresses. Conventions for the promotion of universal peace are well enough. Far be it from us to speak of them otherwise than with respect and gratitude. But in the peaceful dis There is one way in which this advancing revolution may be, and perhaps will be, suddenly cussion of so great a question as the dismemberturned back, and the result postponed indefinitely. ment of the world's greatest empire-in the fact Let the people on this side of the St. Lawrence that men can plan so great a revolution, and labor and the lakes attempt to aid the agitation in any to achieve it, and not seem to feel the pressure of way-let the American people, or any considerable the halter on their throats, there is more hope for party or portion of them, begin to act as if the the world than in the speeches of Monsieur Hugo business in hand were some of their business- and Mr. Cobden. Facts are greater than speeches let the vain-glorious spirit of universal annexation or conventions. From the Examiner. RUSSIA AND TURKEY. THERE is, there can be, but one opinion as to the demands of the Russian Autocrat upon the Porte, and the conduct of the sultan in refusing compliance. The czar insolently and domineeringly requires the Turkish government to give up Hungarian and Polish refugees, that he may wreak his vengeance upon them; the Mahometan prince vice a cloak for something worse. In the insolence of the proceedings with the Porte, and all the circumstances, may be traced the settled plan to pick a quarrel. The demands appear to have been so conveyed as to make submission as difficult as possible. The mouth-piece of the emperor intimated that the fate of the refugees delivered up would be death, as if to pin the Porte to the duty of humanity, forcing upon its conscience a foreknowledge of the worst for which concession would make it answers that it is a duty of his religion to grant answerable. What the autocrat wants is clear hospitality to strangers and fugitives, and that he enough. It is a quarrel by hook or by crook with cannot refuse them an asylum. The Russian envoy intimated that the refusal would draw down on the Porte the immediate hostility of his master; but the sultan, notwithstanding the vast disproportion of forces between the two empires, took his stand calmly on the duties of his religion and the rights of humanity, and diplomatic relations were forthwith broken off, the Russian ambassador quitting Constantinople. A quarrel more unrighteous than this on the one hand, and more righteous on the other, has not occurred in the long history of Europe. In the days of barbarism, the czar's demand would have been accounted barbarous; in an age of ad vanced civilization, it is the rudest and most jarring outrage against the established customs of comity and humanity. The czar's demands for vengeance surpass even the papal amnesty in vindictiveness; but the ruthless spirit, common to many a butcher, is not the matter of marvel and alarm, but the endeavor to give effect to it by rudely trampling on the customs of Europe, which have long ceased to league state with state against political offenders; but, on the contrary, have opened asylums in foreign lands to those who have forfeited the shelter of their own by acts against their governments, not against the common laws of society, such as the blacker crimes of felony, for which extradition is usual. Knowing the great power the czar holds in his hands, it is an ugly question what can be in his head, when he thinks thus to trample at will and pleasure on established usages of Europe. Is he so infatuated as to suppose that he can kick the world as his football before him? Has his Hungarian campaign so turned his head as to make him believe himself irresistible, and that the breath of his nostrils is to be the new law of Europe? What can be his notion of the feelings of the European family, and of their resources against the example of aggression, if he can affront and dare both, as he must do, to carry his point against the Porte? The ignorance of opinion, and powers in support of opinion, which such conduct argues, would stamp the Emperor Nicholas as not less dangerous than a madman, whose conduct does not allow of calculation. It is impossible to believe that the mere thirst Turkey, just as he has got his hand in, in Hungary; but never before was an unjust quarrel sought in so flagrantly wrongful a way. The indignation of the whole world must rise against it. That Turkey will be defended against aggression it is impossible to doubt. Common prudence as well as justice enlists France and England in support of her against the arms of Russia, if to arms the czar should dare to have recourse for the ostensible punishment of humanity, for the real perpetration of robbery. We have always deprecated war; we have been reproached with being the pusillanimous advocates of peace at any price; but great as, in our view, would be the calamity of a general war in Europe, it would be preferable to the infamy and the long train of perilous consequences which would follow the abandonment of Turkey to the gripe of Russia, in this most iniquitous quarrel. That France and England combined would so far overmatch the power of Russia as to bring a war to a successful close, there can be no reasonable doubt. Austria would probably be the unwilling ally of Russia, but Austria would have enough to do, and more than she could do, with Hungary again in arms, and Italy again in revolt. Russia, too, would have work on her hands at home; and her nobles, already malcontent, would have their discontents bitterly aggravated by the injury their estates would suffer from the loss of the English markets for their produce. Still, though the inability of Russia to cope with such a combination as justice and European policy would form against her may be considered as certain, yet no one can pretend to assign distinct and definite bounds to war once rekindled in the present state of Europe. Fervently do we trust to be spared the experiment. And the prevalent opinion is that the emperor will give way, or enter into some compromise, when he finds that France and England will not permit of any violence to Turkey. It may be so; but the posture in which he has placed himself, and forced the Porte, will not allow of a retreat on either side without sore shame and humiliation. The sultan is avowedly committed to resistance, not only as a point of honor, but paramountly as a religious obligation. The autocrat, for blood can have led the czar to the proceeding on the other hand, must either act in fulfilment of to which he has committed himself. He has con- his insolent threats, or virtually confess those sented to play the part of the sanguinary, that second thoughts to be best which spring from first under and through it he may play another. To fears. He has, it is affirmed, estopped one solution borrow the words of Burke, he makes his abhorred of the difficulty, by proclaiming that he would |