The Dorset County Express and Agricultural Gazette.
Dorchester, Dorset, England, 1861-04-09 00:00:00

NOTES Or THE WEEK.

CONSIDNUABLE sensation was caused in Paris
on Wednesday by the publication of an article
in the Journal drsDcbals which was regarded
as rather menacing to England on the snbject
of Lord Palmerston's Tiverton Speech. It
ascribes to his lordship a desire of obtaining
large votes of money from the House of
Commons by parading the monslrum hor-
readmit of invasion, and charges him with not
following, but leading, in the creation of
large naval armaments, with which France is
compelled to keep pace. Quoting the decla-
ration of Lord Palmerston, that "nations
everywhere, under the • direction of their
Governments, are arming by land and sea,"
it says "This assertion, though utterly in-
correct as regards France, is, when pro-
nounced with boldness, infallible in obtaining
the vote of enormous budfrts." The article,
however, afterwards admits, that the present
uncertain state of Europe obliges all Powers
to be on their guard, but denies that the
warlike preparations of England are justified
by anything France is doing. It then asks,
with seeming innocence, if France must also
arm although it is well known that the
French troops are being drilled and exercised
in a manner they have never been before.
The French Government, it says, not wish-
ing for war, and not foreseeing any proxi-
mate cause for one with England, considered
it impolitic to load the country with burdens
which inevitably create alarm and
dangerous forebedinFs. " Never" the article
concludes, has England received from
any Government more important and
manifest proofs of good will and true
cordiality than from the present one of
France." How comes it, then, that the
whole policy of England is at this moment
based on mistrust, not to say jealousy, of
France. We cannot allow any one to believe
that we arc overruled or cajoled. There is
something stronger and cleverer than the
strongest and cleverest policy—and that is,
Truth." As it was believed that the article
emanated from the French Government, that
fact—coupled with an announcement in the
ifonilcur dr in Polk, that the workmen in
the dockyards are actively employed; that
the repairs necessary to enable the fleet to
put to sea sire being rapidly executed; and
that the Invincible, another steel-plated
frigate, was launched on Friday
created so great an impression on the Bourse
that the lientes fell in consequence. It
probably is quite correct that France does
not at the present moment contemplate war
with England, but when we remember that
our neighbour on the other side of the
Channel has a corps &armee at Lyons, a
splendid fleet at Toulon, and that she stands
prepared for immediate war—that Europe
really seems to creak and stagger like a
foundering ship in a heavy sea, it behoves
our own Government to be on the alert.
Count Cavour, when he made his famous
speech in the Sardinian Chambers, arming
that Rome belonged to the Italians, and that
it must be the capital of the New Kingdom,
spoke as though the event was certain
shortly to take place. The speech has
created a feeling of distrust in the public
mind of Europe. Its meaning is regarded
as having a more extended significance than
the mere resumption of Rome as the metro-
polis of the Italian peninsula. If the Pope
is to give up his temporal authority over one
small portion of Italy, may it not be that
Austria should be called on to resign
Venetia ? It would, of course, be prema-
ture to speculate on the events of the next
three months; nevertheless, it is impossible