• The ' Sultan Ann-ur,-Mtono has dismissed RIFAAT Pacha from the
Foreign Office of the Porte, and IDA CHEKIB Effendi in his place. • Well, that does not seem to Concern us very closely ? Oh yes, it does: the Naming Chivnicle,'eliIiihteue4 by some gossip in the Frankfort Journal, points to it as an instance of that wane of British influence, and growth of French ascendancy, which the Whig journal discerns also in Greece, Egypt, Spain, and Tahiti ; and ascribes to Lord ABEBDEEN'S presence in Downing Street— which, being interpreted, means Lord PALMERSTON'S absence, for "there's nae luck" about the world while the Foreign editor is out of office. The Standard, taking the assumption of diminished British ascendancy in some countries to be well founded, gravely accounts for it by conceiving that it arises in part from the natural jealousy of exceeding power, which makes Foreign countries at present incline to France precisely because she is not quite so potent as England. We suspect the reason of the appearance (for we question the reality) to be, that it is the temper of the French— of every individual Frenchman—to meddle in theoretical and cere- monial affairs of government and diplomacy ; while the Englishman only stirs for some distinct and definite purpose. It is the con- sciousness of that temper in themselves, and the common process of judging others with a self-reference, that make the French always suspect Englishmen of an active desire to circumvent and mortify France. We commit the converse of that very mistake, if we impute to some settled plot what is the constitutional restless- ness of our neighbours ; that is, we suppose them actuated by the same motives that could alone spur ourselves to such overt acts. But the grossest blunder is, to imagine that the English newspaper public can be induced to take any interest in these ex-official Cassandrades.
