The Express.
London, England, 1854-01-12 00:00:00

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ZIOR WATU AT LONDON DPIDOI.
Tins PAT —llllenta& 11.
Pirstrains —Monis& 3ba Altair" Ai. 66a.

LONDON, THURSDAY, JANUARY 12.

Tin sodden appearance of the Prince de Cimi 1T
in an extraordinary diplomatic character at Paris—
his immediate—we might sbacet say, his instants-
seens—viait to the Tuileries, and his presentation
de letter, whereof rumour alleges all sorts of things,
from Sing LLOPOLD to the Emperor of the Fano',
°institute the latest of the many evidences Europe has
lately had oldie tendency there is in certain quarters to
substitute a personal for a constitutional and national
policy in the present disturbed sod ember eased
relations of {is Continent. No Sovereign can less
and to play such a game then the Bing of the
Hardman& Hie Hum?' only title to the move-

safety el Belgium is the free choice of the Bel-
gians; they selected him to be Chief Magis-
trate of the free monarchy they fouuded;
England and France recognised and supported
him, not to form • new royalty in Europe,
bat to throw up the barrier of freedom in what
wee thought en important situation of the Conti-
nent. King LEOPOLD is not, therefore, the represen-
tative of or at the head of any great European
Hopes; he is not the mouthpiece of any separate
system or interest; he has no pretensions to interfere
eat of the strict sphere of his limited duties—and
these simply are to preside over the constitutional
government of • very plodding, industrious, and in-
teresting, but a minor and comparatively unimportant
state. Whatever, then, may be the KING'S large
experience of the world and of political affairs,
there is ample field for its employment in
Belgium; and for him to interfere in the
general concerns of Europe, to assume any
pert is the greater concerns of the leading
European monarchies, to try and form alliances
and connexions for the purpose of aggrandising the
power and influence either of his own family or of
his Hones generally, is for his Kum! to repeat
that fatal mistake which, is the person of his father-
in-law, PHILIPPE, suss so signally and, we
had hoped, so instructively punished.
It will not do for King LEOPOLD to allow his
public thoughts or his acts to trespass out of Bel-
gium ; or to be constitutional in his domestic policy,
in order that he may give license to himself in
his foreign policy. He, like other monarchs subject
to constitutional and Parliamentary influences, has
Ministers to advise him; and the Belgian Cabinet,
however able and competent to direct the interests
asd promote the welfare of Belgium, has no mission
to interfere in the general concerns of Europe.
Neither, then, has its Sovereign. His relationship
to, and his intimacy with, other Courts confer on him
no attributes, clothe him with no authority to speak,
or act, or write in their name. And it would be
intolerable to see a Monarch, whose kingdom may
disappear ere the first campaign of a geasr•l weir
closes, trying to settle for his own interests a
question he has no right to touch. The British
public cannot therefore admit of the slightest
interference of his Belgian Majesty on their behalf
in the Russo-Turkish dispute—it is a question
and a matter that does not concern Belgium
directly—it is a subject that must be dealt
with, se far as they are concerned on British
interests alone. England has a Government to
express its views and determination; and however
earnest and sincere his Belgian Majesty's desires
may be, the English people cannot submit to his in
any way, or in any degree, or to any extent, acting
for them; and the less he interferes in any way the
better for Europe, himself, and his family.
It is, dowse, quite possible that King LEOPOLD
may have committed no such indiscretion, and been
guilty of no such impertinence ; and that the mission
of the Prince de CHDIAT to Paris may refer simply
to the very awkward situation of the commercial
relations between France and Belgium, or to the
even more delicate and sensitive relations between
their courts. All attempts to conclude a new
commercial treaty between the two countries
have as yet failed, and alter a lapse of
more than two years the trading relations of the
two countries have become more uncertain and em-
barrassed that they were when they first
differed as to the terms on which they should renew

the treaty. This state of things wait naturally, at
a time like the present, be a source of great anxiety
to the Belgian Government; and it would, perhaps,
only be an act of prudence on its part to make, at
this juncture, a very serious effort to come to a good
•aderstandiog with the French Cabinet. Bat ob-
viously the Prince de CuIMAT is not the person
who could be advantageously selected for that pur-
pose; and his mission, it can hardly fail to be ob-
served, is mach Mlle directed to the EMPEROR him-
self than to the French Government. It is, there-
fore, no great stretch of imagination to suppose it may
relate to the personal situation of King LEOPOLD.
On the downf all of Orleaniem and the revival of
the Empire in France, the true interests of Wig
Lzoroin lay in strict neutrality, in rigid &badness*
from all °HMOS and BOURBON intrigues, in 'par-
swing towards France a loyal and towards the rest of
Europe a modest course of policy; and in relying,
for the continued existence of the Belgian Monarchy,
on its usefulness to the existing balance of peWalet sad
an its domestic strength. Probably his Mum=
has done all that lay within his power to moderate
and repress the flagrant intrigues of the Ouman
family, and there is as yet no very great trilliums
before the public to show that he wu directly
concerned in the Fusion that has lately given such
serious annoyance to the Emperor of the ERENCA,
--against whom it was of coarse directed as an
act of hostility. Two remarks, indeed, lay on the
very surface of those transactions; first, that love
of intrigue is irrepressible in the Oamers family ;
secondly, that the objects of LEOPOLD aim rather
more at the advancement of COBURG than of Oanr.k• s
interests. And it is in the latter direction the King
of the BELGIANS has committed his most serious
error. It was, no doubt, very proper in the KING at
his age to lose no time in marrying the Duke Dl
BRABANT; but as that Prince had never 1114.110
Princess to whom he has lately been allied, his naa►
riage with an Austrian Archduchess was olearly mg
affair of State policy, however happy it may prove to
individuals. Now, situated as Belgium is as a scarcely
settled kingdom, with the empire restored in France
and attacked by the Fusionist policy, an alliance be-
tween the Royal Family of Belgium springing from a
Revolution, and having no foundation but popular
choice, with a Monarchy that still clings to divine
right, with the most despotic and yet the weakest of
the great European Powers, with the State that had
given just cause of offence to every people enjoying
free institutions, and to England especially, with
tool of Russia, at a time when the
bad become only too apparent—
is scarcely one that Europe can
ranee, there is no onasehocat,

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