The Press.
London, England, 1858-10-09 00:00:00

THE PRES S, OCTOBER 9, 1858.

like a simple general in the field : his Majesty,
moreover, goes unattended amongst the men, listen-
ing with evident pleasure to their songs and jokes ;
and he lets them speak to him freely if they have
anything to say. This sort of conduct is exactly
what French troopers like, and it increases amaz-
ingly the popularity which his Majesty has always
enjoyed amongst them.
Sotre interest has been oxcitel in the course of
the last few days by the announcement that the
French Government has sent two ships of the line,
the Donawerth and the Austerlitz, to the Tagus, to
make a demonstration against the Portuguese Go-
vernment, owing to its refusal, in spite of repeated
applications, to give up a French merchant ship, the
Charles George, which a Portuguese cruiser seized
on the western coast of Africa, as a slaver, but which
the French Government maintains was " no slaver
at all," only an " immigrant" ship. There is, how-
ever, every prospect, we believe, that the affair will
be amicably arranged.
There is reason to believe that the Emperor will
shortly create what the French call majorats, or
entails, in Algeria, in order to recompense certain
distinguished military officers and high civil func-
tionaries ; also that ho will grant titles of nobility to
individuals who may undertake to colonize a certain
extent of land in that colony. The object of his
Majesty is to surround his throne with a territorial
aristocracy possessing the right of hereditary succes-
sion ; and a grander, wiser, nobler, and more states-
manlike object could not be conceived. To borrow
a striking expression of the celebrated Count de
Maistre, France without such an aristocracy is un-
honed. Nevertheless, considering that the French are
infatuated with "equality," it is to be feared that his
Majesty's sagacious project will encounter serious op-
position. And apropos of " equality," though the
French are constantly bragging of it, as something
which advantageously distinguishes them from all
other people, they do not understand the legal sig-
nification of it, even in their own codes. It means
not, as most of them suppose, the negation of all
superiority, whether of birth, social position, or
wealth, which is an impossible thing ; but only
equality before the law, such as exists, and always
has existed, in England.

If matrimony makes a man happy—and it gene-
rally
does for a few days at all events—the Duke de
Malakoff will be in felicity on and after the 12th,
that being the day at present fixed for his " leading
to the hymeneal altar," as novelists say, the beautiful
Mlle. Paniega. It was reported lately that the
Puke would make his marriage a pretext for resigning
the Embassy at London ; but I can state on good
authority that not only has he no intention of re-
signing, but that he will, after a very few days
passed in this country, most likely at Dieppe,
hasten to London to present his bride to the Queen
and to society. Utterly unfounded are all the state-
ments that have been made at various times, both
in this country and in other parts of the Continent,
that the Duke is ill at ease at London, and would
be glad to be away ; on the contrary, he tells every-
body here that he is delighted with England and
the English. I am told that the expression with
which the gruff old soldier says " Its m'adorent—ces
Anglais !" is indescribably naive, and has made even
the Emperor smile.
Of my Lord Normanhy's "Year of Revolution," a
French translation has been brought out in this
city; and it is just now one of the topics of
the day. The work is exactly such a one as
people who knew anything of the noble lord when
he was Ambassador here expected on the subject of
which it treats—that is to say, full of spiteful things
against individuals, and of bitter animosity to M.
Guizot and Louis Philippe, who outwitted him so
completely in the Spanish marriage affair; displaying
a woeful lack of political sagacity in his manner of
viewing the tremendous events which made the year
1848 for ever famous; proving that though it was
his duty to know everything that passed in political
circles, he knew even less than the ordinary reader
of newspapers. Remembering that the book
was a sorry failure in England, some persons here
express surprise that a translation of it should have
been attempted. Thu fact, however, is that the Whig
marquis fancied that the publication of it in Paris
would make people at home think that both it and he
are of far greater political importance than has lately
been supposed ; and that it would be gall and worm-
wood to certain French politicians whom, notwith-
standing the lapse of years, he cordially dislikes.