The Press.
London, England, 1858-12-25 00:00:00

trians are made almost daily. Puerile, perhaps, they
are; since they appear to consist for the most part
in not allowing anybody to smoke cigars in the streets,
in order not to swell the Austrian revenue, and in
mischievous little boys ridiculing Austrian officers
and soldiers, and running away to escape the merited
cuff: but puerilities show the popular sentiment., as
the flying straw the direction of the wiud,—and it
was by puerilities of the like kind that the fierce
insurrection of '4B was preceded. Naples, all letters
concur in stating, is as a gunpowder magazine which
a spark can cause to explode. And as to Rome and
the Papal States the situation is really deplorable.
Out of Rome it is said the people refuse to pay
taxes, and drive away by sticks and stones the func-
tionaries sent to collect them. It is said, too, that the
Papal Government a few days hack requested General
de Goyon, Commander of the French Army of Occu-
pation, to assist it in getting in its money; but that
he replied in one of those grand phrases which
Frenchmen like, that "The French troops were at
Borne to protect order, not to levy taxes !"—a reply
which has made the Cardinals regard the French
with more evil eyes than ever. In Rome, the situation
is such, that if the French troops were taken away
to-day, there would be a revolution to-morrow; and
from this fact you will see that the population must
needs entertain bitter animosity to those troops. On
the whole, Italy is a seething and tossing volcano ;
and every one here seems to dread an early eruption.
In these dull times, people who take concern in
politics make the most of every event that occurs, in
order to carve out occupation for themselves. Ac-
cordingly, a flying visit which the Grand Duke Con-
stantine of Russia is making to this city has bad
assigned to it the most formidable political propor-
tions,—nothing less, for example, than the settle-
ment with the Emperor of the preliminaries of a war
which France and Russia jointly are to make on Aus-
tria, and cm England also, if she ventures to raise a
voice in Austria's behalf. But the fact is, that the
Grand Duke having received a summons to leave the
Mediterranean (where he commands a Russian
squadron) for St. Petersburg, on account of the
serious illness of the Dowager Empress his mother,
arranged to come through this► city, which is directly
in his route. Owing, however, to the recovery of
the Empress, his return to St. Petersburg has
become unnecessary. Having, however, given the
Emperor the promise of what simple people would
designate " a call," he has run up to Paris to
keep his promise. But he is here perfectly incognito;
was not received with any honours at the railway sta-
tion on arriving; has been residing, not at the Tuile•
ries, but at the Russian Embassy; and has had no
other communication with the Emperor than what
could take place in the course of a grand dinner at
the Tuileries, and of a visit which the Emperor paid
him. He leaves to-night.
Now and then I have the opportunity of hearing a
little of what takes place in the sanctum sanctorum
of the Imperial palace, and I have just heard this :
After the abominable attempt of Orsini to assassi-
nate the Emperor, his Majesty, as all the world
knows, decreed that in the event of his death the
Empress should be Regent, and appointed a Council
of Regency, of which the Count de Morny, the Duke
de Malakoff, and other great personages are mem-
bers, to assist her. Since then a marked change in
the manner of the Empress has been noted by those
who have the privilege of approaching her daily.
Her Majesty, though not less kindhearted, has
assumed a somewhat more stately bearing and lan-
guage—no longer displays the timidity which marked
the early part of her career as sovereign—in a word,
labours to be "every inch" an Empress. Her
Majesty evidently is determined, if unfortunately she
should ever be left a widow, to defend energetically
the crown of her sun, an 1 is anxious to impress on
the people about her that to all the touching graces
of the woman, with which she is pre-eminently
endowed, she adds some of the qualities of the ruler.
In so acting her Majesty is politic. The Emperor, I
am informed, approves highly of what a diplomatist
would call the " new attitude " of the Empress ; in-
deed, ever since the attempted assassination his
Majesty has sanctioned and admired all that the
Empress has done and said, the astonishing heroism
she displayed in that sanguinary affair having made a
profound impression on his mind, and having, if pos-
sible, increased his love and veneration of her.
The Parisians take lively interest, not only in their
literary men, but even in their journalists ; and they
have, accordingly, been very painfully affected by
learning that M. Rigault, a young and spirited writer
of the Journal des Dibats, whilst plying the pen a
few days back sustained the awful visitation of losing
instantaneously and inexplicably his mental faculties
—a visitation of which be has since died. A calamity
ao fearful and sudden, falling on one so young, was
certainly calculated to make a profound impression,
but deeper and wider sympatby has been manifested
for him as a journalist than would have been shown
if he had belonged to any other profession. The
truth is that the Parisians admire journalism, and
think that journalists who exorcise their calling with