66 and tissue-paper, and flowers and fruits of she would entice our "golden youth" (or the earth imitated in green and gold. Then our golden age, for the matter of that)? the "dressing" began, and the spectator What manner of woman, then, would set saw with awe and amazement what art can the fashion in hairdressing? And we do for hair, then one repented of ever hav- know what has been the consequence in ing doubted the truth of ladies who at balls France (if we are not nearly as bad here) say, with a significant glance at head-dresses, of following in small matters the lead of the Why, how do you do, dear? I really did demi-monde. On the other hand, two connot know you.” Some people may think victions at all events we acquired from the that hair, however plenteous or however spectacle. One is that modern hairdressing scanty, looks better in its natural state than in its highest form is a branch of jewelling, when it is made into a flower garden; and the real art being shown not in the arrangeothers may hold that no kind of hair is im- ment of the hair, but in the addition of proved by being interwoven with tape- things which are not hair-combs, ribworms or bell-ropes, or even the cord off bons, flowers, dewdrops, and gilt insectswindow-curtains. But it is certain that by the last a taste essentially inartistic and dethe use of muslin and other materials already praved. The other was that it is not safe spoken of a result may be obtained which for any man to make a proposal in the would justify a man in cutting his mother evening. So utterly were some of the (on the score of non-recognition, if on no "subjects" changed by the act of the opeother), and which would lead one to believe rators, that the possibility of not knowing that so long as a lady has a couple of hand- in the morning the betrothed of the evenfuls of hair left she may, with the help of ing seemed very real indeed, and the misart, hold her own against Berenice. When take would be an awkward one for both all the ladies were "dressed" one of the parties. "dressers" made an unexceptionable little speech in unexceptionable English (for which our experience of hairdressing had not prepared us), concluding by saying that the ladies in their "dressed" state would walk round the table each leaning on the arm of her "dresser," so that the spectators might all have a full view. As THE ANALOGY BETWEEN THE FRENCH From the Economist, 27 January. AND AMERICAN CONSTITUTIONS. he said, so did they; nay, they went further, and walked round twice, amidst the applause of the assembled witnesses. We THE Emperor of the French has said were disappointed that no prize beyond many remarkable things, but few more applause was given; we had thought that remarkable than the short sentence in at least a small-tooth, comb, after the fash- which he hints that there is some analogy ion of those said by Miss Emmeline Lott to between the Constitution of France and be used in the Turkish harems, would have that of the United States. The statement been bestowed. But perhaps it would have has been received in England with an been dangerous to have given so decided a impatience which is a little unjust, and preference to the hair of one lady over that is caused by too exclusive an attention of another, for after all it must be with some to surface differences. Those differences difficulty that the subjects of the exhibition are of course patent to every one; but the are collected. After the "swarry came a analogy is not the less real and striking. ball, at which whosoever danced with the The key-note of the American Constitution ladies who had their heads powdered was, is the existence of an Executive which durif he disliked dust, to be pitied. The coming its term of office is irresponsible to the pany seemed to be, for the most part, or at any rate to a considerable extent, connected with the hairdressing interest, and that they should do all they could to bring their craft to perfection is not only pardonable, but commendable. Would it, however, be well if society in general should patronize such exhibitions? Opinions happily differ, but we cannot help thinking evil would come of it. What manner of woman, is it that must study such matters as hairdressing, if people, which acts by its own volition, which can pursue if necessary a policy diametrically opposed to the wishes of those who elected it. That also is the key-note of the system established by the Second Empire. The President does as he pleases in all matters within his province just as the Emperor does, and like him is irresponsible to the Legislature need not, indeed, explain to the representatives of the people his own official acts. His ministers are his ministers or clerks, bound to obey his or- French can do things infinitely more highders; not bound to pay any heed, and fre- handed than the President could attempt, quently not paying any heed, to votes but that is not by virtue of the idea of passed by the popular body. Of course, the French Constitution, but by reason in America as in France this absolute of his control over a system essentially and disunion between the Executive and the radically despotic, which he did not make, body which controls the purse is very and which his predecessors also used, the inconvenient, and it has in each country French police. Mr. Johnson has no such been met in the same way. In France the organisation at his disposal, but when it exMinister without a portfolio explains to isted during the first two years of the war it the Corps Legislatif the plans of depart- was used without much regard to anything ments which he does not control, and in but the safety of the Federation. Without America a friend or connection or political the police aud the immense army, and with ally of the President performs the same a hostile majority in the Chamber, the Em-, function, Mr. Raymond for example occupy-peror would be almost precisely in the poing as nearly as possible that position in sition of the President. Congress, which M. Rouher occupies in the French Chamber. It is true the French spokesman is a recognised official, and the American spokesman is not, but the recognition does not diminish "responsibility" in the English parliamentary sense, but rather increases it. It is true Mr. Johnson cannot effect through Congress what the Emperor can effect through his Legislature, but that is because he has not a majority and the Emperor has. In theory the French Chamber has as much right to reject a bill proposed by the Imperial Government as Congress has, and were the Emperor less dreaded it would frequently do so. At the present moment Mr. Johnson is trying to "make a majority" to support his policy by means quite as strong as those used in French elections. He has ordered that no radical recommendation for office shall be listened to, and has it is said threatened that unless his opponents give way he will dismiss every official throughout the Union who owes his election to the recommendation of an opponent, a measure which has daunted his stoutest adversaries as fatal to their re-election. They will be in fact, as in France, struck out of the Government list. Indeed the prerogative of the President is in many ways greater than that of the Emperor. Each is commander-inchief, but the President can deprive any officer of his commission by decree, and the Emperor cannot. A French officer's grade is his "property," and though the law has once or twice been violated, it could not be broken through except for a State necessity. Emperor and President are alike masters of the Civil Service, but the President can and does dismiss at will, and the bureaucracy of France is permanent. An order, such as Mr. Johnson is said to have threatened to give, would in France have aroused an unconquerable resistance. No doubt the Emperor of the But the latter is subject to removal at the expiration of his term? No doubt Mr.. Johnson is, and has therefore a great temptation to make his policy accord with the policy approved by the electors, and so has the Emperor Napoleon, who follows opinion quite as anxiously; but that deference is no part of the Constitution, which provides for change in the individual, but not for change in the absolute independence of the office. In changing our Premier, we ensure a change of policy, because if the new man disobeys, he also can be dismissed next day; but in changing the President, America merely places one independent and irremovable official in place of another. The theories of the Imperial and Republican systems are identical, except in the illogical peculiarity of the French Constitution, that it introduces the hereditary element into the Executive, whereas the right of election logically includes a right of dismissal at periods fixed by mutual agreement. But the freedom of the Press, of speech, of association? Well, these things exist in America and do not exist in France; but it is not in consequence of the Constitution, but of the popular will. Nothing prevents an American President, with Congress at his back, from subverting the freedom of the Press, by means, for example, of remissible taxes, if they think that policy sound. The Emperor and his first Chamber did think it sound, and so freedom in France ended, a fact greatly no doubt to be regretted, but in no way proving that the principles of the American and French Constitutions are not analogous. One very remarkable power indeed is possessed by the American Legislature which is not possessed by the French, and that is the right of passing a law by a two-third vote, in defiance of the President. But the French Chamber is theoretically just as strong, for it could insist on a certain law being passed, under penalty of a rejec tion of the Budget, and the Emperor must | by which alone a constitutional monarch either yield, or appeal to a plebiscitum, that can acquire great individual power. At all is, strike a coup d'etat upsetting the Consti- events, should circumstances ever compel tution, which gives the Chamber such a the Emperor to relax the overstrictness right of control. That the two sets of insti- of his regime, it is to the American rather tutions are worked in a different way, and than to the British form of freedom that with a different spirit, is too obvious for re- he appears likely to feel his way. mark; but that does not destroy the theoretic analogy to which the Emperor points. The truth is that apart from the operation of the State system, which with many faults still organises popular_resistance, the President of the United States is, during his term of office, an excessively powerful monarch, and the fact, revealed only by the war, has evidently struck forcibly on the imagination of the Emperor of the French. As he acknowleges in his speech he still dislikes Parliamentary Government, for which he is himself singularly unfitted, and he glances at the Union with a passing thought that if he ever grants "liberty," it will be in the American and not in the English form. Should the thought ever become active, it is astonishing how little he will have to do to restore liberty" after the American model as it would appear were the Union a republic one and indivisible. He would have to introduce laws establishing the freedom of the press, and the right of association, and the liability of all officials to prosecution for illegal acts done in their official capacities; and the exemption of all citizens from arrest except on criminal charges, and the constitutional change would be theoretically almost complete. The remaining changes which would be necessary such as abstinence from interference in the elections, recognition of the right of debate, and restoration of the legislative initiative to individual members- -are scarcely constitutional. These changes once accomplished, France would be in possession of a great amount of practical liberty, of the control of her own Legislature, and of an Executive terribly strong indeed, but not stronger than that of the American Union; rather less strong, because hampered by the legal rights of the army, and the customary rights of the civil bureaucracy. That is not a form of Government we admire, because it lacks the one strength of the Parliamentary system, the absolute identity of the Legislature and the Executive power; but it is one which might suit France for a time, and would have the immense advantage of permitting free thought and its expression, and some activity of Parliamentary life without the previous dismissal of the Napoleonic dynasty, which will never, we fear, consent to that incessant intellectual conflict From the Saturday Review, Jan. 27. THE position which the Government of the United States is prepared to take up with regard to Mexico is at last clearly and finally established, and it is one that is calculated to excite some apprehension for the future peace of the world. During the autumn months of last year, Mr. SEWARD was continually urging on the Federal Government the expediency of the speedy withdrawal of the French troops; and, with many sincere protestations of the most frien ly feeling towards France, he gave the EMPEROR to understand that, if his troops were to stay much longer where they were, a rupture between the two countries was inevitable. The EMPEROR would be only too glad to get his troops away if he could do so without compromising his own honour, and that of France; and it seemed to him that the best way of arranging the matter would be that the French troops should go, and that the United States should recognise the Emperor MAXIMILIAN. The Mexican Empire, being thus placed on a friendly footing with the only Power it has to dread, might hope to establish itself and prosper, if prosperity in Mexico is possible for it. France would have succeeded, or, at least, would not have openly and conspicuously failed; and all jealousy between Washington and Paris would have been at an end. But Mr. SEWARD has distinctly and decisively rejected this proposal. The United States will not recognise the Emperor MAXIMILIAN, nor treat him on any but a hostile footing. In the eyes of the Americans, he is an intruder, and an enemy of an injured and friendly Republic, and they can never be content until his enterprise has wholly failed. Congress, as Mr. SEWARD remarks, must exercise its legitimate influence on the Government of the PRESIDENT; and the PRESIDENT has not only to announce his own decision, but that of the American people and its representatives; and the opinion of the American people is violently against the Mexican Empire. Of this there can be no doubt; for even if the accusations continually brought up in Congress against the Emperor MAXIMILIAN were true, instead of being, as for the most part they are, gross misrepresentations, still the vehemence and pertinacity with which they are urged show clearly enough how deep is the animosity that prompts them. If the whole question were simply one of the continuance of the Mexican Empire, it might be worth while to discuss these accusations, and to show how very slight is the basis on which they have been reared; but all matters of detail are swallowed up in the gravity of the declaration which the United States have now issued. The view of the Government of the United States is, that the French have violated the MONROE doctrine in its proper and original sense. There was a Republic established in Mexico, holding its territory unopposed, in harmony with the country, dear to the inhabitants, and in the most friendly relations with the United States. The French came to pull down this Republic, and to set up a Monarchy, and they persist in remaining in Mexico to force this alien Empire on an unwilling Republican people. This is the mode in which the United States have determined, after full deliberation, to regard the recent history of Mexico; and they will not allow any compromise by which their adherence to this view might seem to be weakened. So long as France stays in Mexico, forcing an Empire on the Republicans of a contiguous State, America will treat France exactly as she would expect France to treat her if she sent a fleet, and landed troops, to set up a Republic in Belgium. Much, it is acknowledged, is to be borne from France, which would not be borne from any other country. It will be only in the last resort that the language of America would become hostile to a country endeared to her by so many traditions, and bound to her by so many ties. The tone of Mr. SEWARD'S letter is very conciliatory, and the Government of President JOHNSON has been resolute in preventing any indirect breaches of amity. The export of arms from California has been prevented, and still more recently a considerable portion of the troops in Texas has been disbanded. France has nothing to complain of in small things; there is only the one great point of difference between her and the United States, that she has violated a doctrine to which the United States attach the greatest importance, and which they are resolved to uphold. They now merely ask that the French troops shall be withdrawn; but if this is not done, the time must come when they will insist on having their wishes fulfilled." This uncompromising language of the American Government has placed the Emperor of the FRENCH in a very difficult position. He cannot seem to yield to threats; but still he knows that, if any way of withdrawing his troops with honour can be found, he must use it. He has, therefore, set earnestly to work to disprove the view which the American Government has adopted. He denies altogether that he ever wished to set up a Monarchy in Mexico, or to crush a Republic. But the Republican Government had insulted and offended him, plundered and murdered his subjects, gave no compensation, and perhaps was too weak, poor, and anarchical to give any. He interfered merely to get redress, but he did not see how it was possible to hope for redress from such a Government as then existed in Mexico. Several leading Mexicans proposed to establish a Monarchy, and he concurred in the idea because he thought a Monarchy, which had long been a favourite notion of many Mexicans, offered the best chance of getting a Government strong, durable, and enlightened enough to pay him what he was owed. This is all. He no more wishes to put down a Republic in Mexico than he does to put down a Republic at Washington; he merely wished, and wishes, to have an instrument ready to provide him with the redress he asked. The Emperor MAXIMILIAN and his Court, and his Orders of the Eagle and Gaudalupe, are only pretty bits of machinery for the recovery of money owing to Frenchmen; and it must be owned that, if this is all, they are about as expensive a piece of machinery, in comparison with the object to be effected, as was ever invented. But then, as the EMPEROR said in his speech, this machinery has answered, or very nearly answered. There is now in Mexico an enlightened Government triumphant overall opposition, with a French commerce trebled in an incredibly short space of time, plentifully supplied with troops, and quite ready to pay off all that is due to France. A few more arrangements have still to be made with the Emperor MAXIMILIAN, so that the stipulat ed payments may be fully secured, and then the French troops will be finally and honourably withdrawn. The ecstatic visions of M. CHEVALIER, and the ardent proclamations of Marshal FOREY, are forgotten, or utterly neglected. We hear no more of the spread of French influence over the Western hemisphere, of the necessity of enabling the Latin race to confront the Anglo-Saxon | his own resources. If the Emperor MAXIrace in the New World. The Americans MILIAN would but announce that he was are told that all that has been done in Mexi- now quite sure of his throne, and that co has been done simply to redress the French aid was no longer necessary to him, wrongs and support the claims of French- the French might undoubtedly retire with men; the French themselves are told that out dishonour. They could not retire at this most desirable end has been accom- once, but it may be presumed that the plished, and that the troops who have ren- Americans would be quite satisfied if a Condered its accomplishment possible may soon vention like the September Convention be expected home. But it is scarcely neces- with Italy were agreed on, and if it were sary to say that neither the Americans nor arranged that all French troops should have the French will be satisfied. The Ameri- quitted Mexico by the end of the present cans think, and think with perfect truth, year. If the French went, the Austrians that the experiment of recovering French and Belgians must go too- not necessarily debts by shooting Republicans until the at the very same time, but before very long; Austrian Archduke was made Emperor as it is obvious that, if the French have been would never have been tried unless it had guilty of coming to American soil to trambeen supposed that it could be tried with- ple down a Republic and set up a Monarchy, out the United States being able to inter- so have they. The Emperor MAXIMILIAN fere with it. The French know that at least would therefore have to decide whether he twenty millions of French money have been could possibly hold his own with native sunk in the experiment, and that if their troops against his domestic enemies; and troops were withdrawn it would be a great secondly, whether, if he thought it possible deal more difficult to recover the new debt to succeed, he would also think it worth than it was to recover the old one. The while to try. It may be assumed, perhaps, that EMPEROR, by adopting the view that he is the Emperor of the FRENCH would be able merely trying to get his just dues from Mexi- to provide that Mexico should be left alone, co, has done something to conciliate the and that, if he did not go there, neither Americans; yet he has made it even harder would the Americans. But if all foreign than before to justify to France the with- troops were withdrawn, the EMPEROR drawal of the troops. To throw away twen- would have to fight Mexicans with Mexity millions in the attempt to get back a cans. His Mexicans would feel no enthusitenth of that sum is as deplorable an invest- asm for him, would regard him as a foreignment, and as conspicuous a failure, as he er, and would with difficulty be induced to could well make. The last Mexican loan of believe that his cause was the winning one. about six millions sterling was almost entire- His adversaries would be ardent, stimulated ly subscribed by the French poor, on the by the encouragement of the Americans, direct solicitation of the local officials of the panting for revenge, and able to take adGovernment, and it would most seriously vantage of that general disposition to go impair the confidence of the lower classes in against the existing Government, whatever the EMPEROR's policy if it ended in a loss it may be, which pervades all nations of to them of money which they only sub- Spanish descent. But even if the EMPERscribed because he seemed to ask for it him- OR thought that, after a very long and proself. tracted fight, he might possibly hold his own, and retain a precarious possession of some of the richer parts of the Mexican territory, he might very probably hesitate before he embarked on so dangerous an adventure, and might begin to examine whether it could possibly answer to him to take the risk. If he stayed as long as the French stayed, and found that the pressure of the Americans was depriving him even of his Austrians and Belgians, he would incur no disgrace by resigning a position that he might fairly consider untenable. But the French could scarcely withdraw altogether if he went. They could not acknowledge that their attempt to obtain redress had been entirely in vain, and all their money wasted; and they would naturally seek to make some arrange The EMPEROR must, therefore, risk something. He might risk either a war with America, or a blow to his prestige in France. His speech was very judiciously worded, and he seemed to be preserving a firm attitude, and consulting the dignity of his country, while he prepared a mode of escape from his embarrassment by asserting that his work was done in Mexico, and that the Emperor MAXIMILIAN was firmly established there. It will now naturally be his first object to get the Emperor MAXIMILIAN to share this opinion; and the story may be true that he has sent over a special envoy to represent to the Emperor of MEXICO that he must consent to the withdrawal of the French troops, and try his chance of empire from |