Abroad, attention is engaged by certain episodes to the great
histories of the day. In France, the opening of the court to try the Versailles pri- soners has brought to light some curious facts. Documents are forthcoming which supply damning proof of complicity, by Le- dru-Rollin and many others, in a plot to overturn the Government; and they supply more damning proof of the utter incapacity to lead. a movement of the kind. The very indiscretion of suffering such documents to remain for evidence attests the want of com- mon discretion. It also comes out very plainly, that the con- spirators had no settled purpose, aim, or plan ; their sally was merely a revolution for the sake-of revolving, to see whether some- thing more agreeable to the conspirators might not turn up.
A letter from Kossuth to Lord .Palmeiston has occasioned some misgivings. It complains that Turkey, at the dictation of Rus- sia, has put to the Hungarian refugees the alternative of extra- dition or becoming renegades to their religion. Is the letter genuine? There is no conclusive reason to doubt it. Is it cor- rect? Probably, so far as the writer speaks from knowledge— that is, so far as it reports the invitation to embrace the faith of Islam; but beyond that the statements are inferential, and may involve considerable error. It is most unlikely that the Emperor of the Greek Church can have dictated the requirement to enter the Turkish Church. It is not likely that Turkey. would go back from her resolve to refuse the extradition. But it is very likely that Mussulmane would deem it, quite proper to invite an abjura- tion- of " infidelity," and scarcely less probable that the Turkish Goiernment might have expressed a desire for such conversion, as cutting the ,k-not of many difficulties. Until something more intelligible and authentic be known, we are lift to guess at the probabilities of the case. Rightly read, the diplomatic correspondence on, the squabble between the French and American Governments illustrates the practical evils that ensue when the servants of a country are, not inspired by alit sense of national dignity,—meaning_ by national dignity, conscious power and the exalted aspiration to use it moat worthily for the benefit of mankind. - The two great Republics, models to civilized Europe and America, are betrayed by vulgar- hearted agents into a paltry squabble about money and their offensive expressions. This is the consequence of resorting. tol-a low elan of men for the public. service...
