The Press.
London, England, 1858-06-05 00:00:00

THE P &S-S, JUNE 5, 1958

fortign 6orrtspontenct.

PARIS, Thursday.
LORD PALMERSTON says, in contradiction to Mr.
Disraeli, that war between England and France was
not a question '• of hours " at the time he was ez•
pelled from office; and Lord John Russell says the
same thing; and the Tines says "ditto to Mr.
Burke !" But if either of the three bad been in
Paris at the epoch referred to, you may be certain
that no such assertion would have been made. War
was a question of hours. Men who are high in
office—men who are connec'ed with the Court—men
who write in the governmental journals—men who,
in ordinary parlance, are "well informed," all, in
interviews I had with them at that time, spoke of
war as imminent. There was scarcely a newspaper
in France which did not, more or less, plainly re-
present it as a likely contingency ; not an officer's
table in any garrison which did not ring with bounce
loud and long against perfidious Albion. And that
the speculators of the Bourse and the commercial
classes thought war close at hand, was proved by the
fact that all sorts of Securities underwent a heavy
decline, and that all branches of trade were plunged
into stagnation. More than this, it is notorious
that many of the English families resident in this
city and its neighbourhood sold oil' their furniture
and departed, and that the hotels generally occupied
by the English became suddenly emptied. Trifling
circumstances are sometimes an excellent indication
of public feeling, especially in a country in which
there are no free Parliament, no public meetings,
and no outspeaking press ; and you may judge of
the state of feeling here with regard to England
when I tell you, that just before the change of
Ministry took place, bets were freely made between
English and French friends, not as to whether there
would be war or not—for that was almost taken for

granted—but as to the precise epoch at which it
would break out.

The Conference is trA to meat again before Satur-
day; perhaps not even than. At the last meeting
the Pleniptentiaries found that their views about
the Danubian principalities were so very divergent
that it would become necessary for them to ',due to
their respective Governments for new instructions.
The Conference will molt decidedly not meddle with
the M mtenegro question, Turkey having very
peremptorily declared that it shall he settled at Con•
strintinople—nowhere else.

It is with regrA that mention that, tticoAin.:
a rumour, which is pretty generally crelited, a new
plot for the assassination of the Emperor has just
been diseoverel rite conspirators are Italians, and
they conternplsui perpetrating the atrocious deed
at Fontainebleau, where the Cmrt now is. The
wretches are in custoly, and the police have seized
arms and ammunition. Observe, that I only men•
tion these things as a rumour, the press being, and
no doubt obe bent to or.lers, silent on the subject.
It is aided, but much more vaguely, that another
conspiracy for attempting to mur ler the Emperor
in the course of a visit he is to make to Cherbourg
in the summer has also been discoverel, and that
one or more bombs, similar to those used by Orsini,
have been seized.

I hear that the French Government has resolved
on making Algiers a regular naval station—that is
to say, to have ships of war constantly hover* on
the Algerian coast. The reason assigned for this
" creation " (to use a French phrase) is, that it will
add to the eclat of tho Prince Napoleon, as Lieutenant
of the Emperor, to have a fleet protecting his vice.
royalty : the real reason, it is hinted, is, that it is
thought desirable to enable Algeria to protect her.
self against any sudden molestation of the English
Mediterranean fleet, in the event of the two countries
going to war.
The Emperor has given a new proof of that sound
common sense, and that deep political sagacity, for
which he is pre-eminently distinguished. Finding
that public opinion decidedly disapproves the pro-
jected sale of the real property held by hospitals, and
the investment in three-per-cent. stock of the
20,000,0001. capital that property represents, his
Majesty has given orders to the Minister of the
Interior to let the measure quietly drop. This is
not the first time by many that the Emperor, absolute
as he is, has yielde l to public opinion.
It seems that every sovereign in Europe is destined
in turn to honour the Emperor and Empress with
his presence at Paris. To the already long list of
those who have done so will, I understand, be added
before the end of the summer the name of the King
of Greece—perhaps, also, that of his gay and hand-
some and intelligent Queen. Nor do their Imperial
Majesties despair of persuading the Emperor add
Empress of Russia to come—if not this yesr,
at all events next. Some persons sneer at these
royal and imperial visits as nothing more than
a puerile desire on the part of the Emperor Napoleon
to show himself the intimate and the equal of the
greatest of the earth ; others—but they are flatterers
—regard this as a solemn acknow!edgrnent of his
Majesty's personal and political pre-eminence in
Europe ; but perhaps the only right way of regard-
ing them is as an excellent means of smoothing
down political difficulties, and coasequently of pre-
serving peace.
The Queen of Holland has departed—sot to her
own land of cheese, but to Wurtemburg, the realm
over which her royal father rules. In courtly circles
it is whispered that in coming here, and in stopping
here so long, her most sacred Majesty was not
actuated solely by the wish to show friendship to her
illustrious relatives at the Tuileries, but had a great
political object in view, and that that object was to
aid in what so many great personages have, at
heart—the breaking up of the Angle-French alliance
and the establishment of one between France and
Russia, with which latter country she not only, like
most continental sovereigns, strongly sympathises,
but has close family ties. On the other hand, souse
people say that as her Dutch Majesty professes great
friendship for England, aspires to a matrimonial
union between a member of her family and;
member of the Royal Family of England, and whilst
here did honour to England which► she did to no
other country—that is, dined twice at the English
Embassy and attended Divine service at the English
church—she cannot have any such wicked design is
her heart as to set France and Russia against Frig.
land. Unable to decide between these two contra-
dictory versions, I communicate them both to you,
and leave to time to show which is the trite one.
Now that her Majesty has gone, the gossip as to
why she committed such a breach of matrimonial
etiquette as to come without her royal husband,
which gossip accompanied her arrival, has been re-
vived. The truth is that !he royal couple are not on
good terms ; and if what is given out by courtiers in
this city can be believed, they are so from no fault of
the Queen's, but from certain eccentric conduct on
the part of the King.