The OelAit . of the French Government betrays an increasing sense
of its own danger, and tends more and more to place the " Republican " rulers in a position identical with that of Charles the Tenth and Louis Philippe. It is prosecuting journals right and left; it is forbidding plays at the theatres and provokes emeute thereby ; it has induced the Committees of the Assembly to defer the discussion on the oppressive law intended to put down clubs and troublesome newspapers until after the Paris election,— lest it should strike the people of Paris, during that critical busi- ness, what a remarkably tyrannical and retrograde Government it has. Meanwhile, the Government puts forth a budget which does not grapple effectually with any financial difficulty, nor hold out any hope of relief from taxes. The Erfurt humbug seems to have exploded : it is averred, not improbably, that King Frederick William has agreed to place the union in subordination to the treaties of 1815—which, by de- stroying any initiative or overriding power in the "federal state" as distinguished from the states confederated, would be a virtual surrender of any real German unity, and a return to sepa- rate political existence with no more than a common council for discussion of collective plans. Frederick William therefore on the present showing, has abandoned the great enterprise of " therefore, unity" which he proclaimed with such unction to his beloved Berhners, and yields for the nonce to the obstructive policy of Austria. It does not appear whether he has abandoned some mag- nified project of Prussian unity ; and his absorption of the armies of the little states of Mecklenberg into his own favours the idea that he has fallen back upon the old project of making Prussia grow by encroachment. Prussia thus arrested, we shall probably hear no more from Austria of her willingness to revise the treaties of 1815.
On the contrary, the gloomy colour of the horizon in Italy sug- gests suspicions of some plots of reaction more extensive than ever. The Pope is still only " about to return to Rome " ; but actual pre- parations seem to be made for that event, and among them is a steady augmentation of Austrian troops in the Italian peninsula. • Lord Palmerston is in the conciliatory and retracting vein. Di- plomatic relations are to be renewed with Spain; and according to rumour, the amusing Viscount has appointed in Lord Howden an Ambassador selected by Narvaez himself. So that the Spanish General is not only permitted to kick out the representative of Britain at pleasure, but also to kick a successor in when the good- humoured fit is on him.
The Greek affair also is said to be "settled," by French inter- vention; and if so, it must be at the expense of retractation, more or less, on the part of Lord Palmerston. We notice attempts to provide a loophole for his backing out, in the discovery of some new documents, which show the claims of Mr. Finlay and Don David Pacifico to have been grossly exaggerated: Lord Palmerston is suddenly enabled to see the am at noonday. Well, better late than never. _ -
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