The events in France are not nearly so interesting as
certain portents which make people guess at future events, but without supplying any trustworthy clue to their solution. M. Thiers's re- port on the Roman credits has been follewed up by a succession of scenes in the Legislative Assembly. General Cavaignac stead- fastly condemned the expedition, while he applauded the Presi- dent's letter to M. Edgar Ney; a distinction perfectly' sena, since the professions of the President and the acts of his Ministers are altogether inconsistent. M. Victor Hugo uttered an eloquent tirade against the report, and was vehemently applauded, but found small support in the mildest mode of recording his opinion. The Count de Montalembert made a vehement speech, • in which he declared that the peoples of Europe have been disabused of their illusions in favour ofliberty ; and the Legitimist was more ardently applauded than the Republican. The position of the Ministry is very remarkable. M. de Falloux, who is still retained in the Cabinet, has signed a letter most emphatically applauding the report of M. Thiers and the speech of M. de Montalembert, and subscribing towards a fund for distributing those compositions, wholly adverse as they are to the views professed by the President. Whether sharing in M. de Falloux's Legitimist enthusiasm or not, the Cabinet as a body is forced to trim : it will not directly oppose M. Thiers's re- port; must have the credits ; and hence it endeavours to keep togeter the support of the majority, that it may finger the cash and postpone its own disruption. Nor is the position of the two great divisions of the Legislature less singular : the Republicans exhibit all the will in the world to enforce their decrees, but they are wholly unable ; the majority, although ready to bully and professing to despise the minority, is so alarmed at the danger of being broken to pieces by intrigues, that the bulk of its members- have met and undertaken-to hold together as a majority, what- ever may be the consequences ! A rumour has been current in Paris, that three members of the Orleans family have declared for the Count de Chambord as their natural head : a policy in itself less improbable than the particular report. But all these rumours, these precautions, and these cross-purposes, prove that some ele- ment is fermenting beneath the surface which does not appear ; and although it seems to be difficult to command a prospect of the future, every movement betrays the apprehension that something is going to happen, for which the constituted Government in Paris is confessedly unprepared.
