ABATEMENT OF THE WAR-FEVER IN FRANCE. M. THIESS'S speech on
the Regency Bill is the event of the day in Paris. It was known that he was to support the Ministerial mea- sure, but not expected that he was to take such a stride towards an approximation to the Conservative party. "In three months," says the Debuts, "some light will be thrown upon all this."
To us the most significant part of M. TRIERS'S speech appears to be a passage in the preliminary flourish with which he approached the immediate subject of debate. "It was no longer opportune to awaken old party quarrels, or to demand why he was upon the Opposition benches. He might have misunderstood the interests of
his country, but his convictions were sincere." M. Tunas is upon the Opposition benches solely because he advocated a warlike policy : it is no longer opportune to awaken this old party quarrel— he may have misunderstood the interests of his country. M. THIESS finds that a majority of the electors of France are not to be gained by a war Minister—he finds that no member of the Royal Family will become the catspaw of a war Minister—he finds that the crisis of the war-fever has passed in France, and the national pulse begins to beat more healthfully : declamation on that subject can no longer promote his views, and he drops it. To give his speech time to work, he has since set out on a tour of Europe.
M. THIESS'S speech is of good augury, inasmuch as it affords ground to believe, that notwithstanding the warlike mouthing of journalists and Parliamentary candidates, there is a body of sound sense in France averse to war, and that there are institutions which enable it to check the more noisy and headlong talkers until the people come to their senses again. The style in which England is too often spoken of in France, is doubtless mischievous and offensive ; but how long have Englishmen become polite and guarded in their expressions about France ?—and yet, though suffi- ciently pugnacious, we do not consider ourselves incapable of re- maining at peace.
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