The Sun.
London, England, 1863-11-09 00:00:00

Supposed Murder in a Cab,

A cabman named James Parker was plying for hire near
the Great Eastern Railway Station at Shoreditch on Satur-
day evening about half-past 8, when he was hailed by a re•
spectably dressed man, who got into his cab in company
with a women between 30 and 40 years old, and two little
girls of the ages of seven and four respectively. The man
directed the cabman to drive to the Royal Oak,Westbourne-
grove, Bayswater, taking the City on his way. When they
reached the middle of Bishopsgate-street the man got out
and procured a pint of half-and-half from a publichouse, of
which the occupants of the cab partook. Then then drove
on as far as Furnival's Inn, Holborn, where the man got
out once more, paid the cabman his fare, and walked away.
The cabman drove on to Westbouine-grove, as he had been
directed by the man, and stopped at the Royal Oak tavern.
On opening the door of the cab he was horrified to find the
woman and the two children lying apparently dead on the
straw. A surgeon was sent for immediately, who pronounced
life to be extinct in all three cases. Ile cabman then drove
with his terrible load to St. Mary's Hospital, Paddington,
where the bodies now lie. A post mortem examination will
bo made this morning, and the inquest will be opened in the
course of the day.
From a cursory examination made at the hospital the
poor victims seem to have been poisoned by prussic acid.
This possibly was administered to them in the beer which
they drank in Bishopsgate-street. The woman appears from
her dress to be a respectable shopkeeper's or mechanic's
wife. She is fair complexioned, has light brown hair, is of
medium height and somewhat stout, and apparently about
35 years of age. She was dressed in a black alpaca dress,
black woollen shawl, fastened with a small plated brooch, a
red striped petticoat and a black straw bonnet. The two
two children are also fair, with light brown hair, and
were dressed in black. In the cab was a brown leather
hatbox containing a few figs and biscuits and a black
bundle of ordinary clothing. In the woman's pocket was
found a brown leather portemonnaio, in which was ss. in
silver and a few halfpence. The cabman describes the man
as being dressed in black, slightly built, about 35 years of
age, sft. Sin. in height, of a dark complexion, with black
hair, beard, whiskers, and moustache. He says he could
identify him again if he saw him, The bodies were not
identified at a late hour last night. The linen worn by the
woman and the children were unmarked ; a handkerchief,
however, belonging apparently to the eldest little girl, was
marked with the letters "E. M. M."
The following descriptions of the woman and children
were circulated by the police throughout the metropolis yes-
terday :—" Description of a female and two children found
dead in a cab at Westbourne-grove, Bayswater, on Satur-
day, Nov. 7, at 9.20 p.m., and now lying at St. Mary's Hos-
pital, Paddington. The female is apparently about 34 years
of age ; complexion, fair ; hair, light brown; dress, black
alpaca, black woollen shawl, red-stripped petticoat-, brown
crinoline, two flannel petticoats (now), calico chemise, white
stockings, cashmere side-laced boots, with patent leather
toes, black straw bonnet ; wore a small (plated) gold brooch.
Ist child—A girl, about 7 years old, fair complexion, light
brown hair, black frock, black sealskin jacket, two flannel
petticoats, two calico chemises (one new), white stockings,
leather boots with bright buttons, white straw hat trimmed
with black ribbon, wore hair in a net; on her person was
found a white comforter and a white cambric handkerchief,
`E. M. M.' 2d child—A girl, aged 5; fair complexion,
light brown hair, wore a black frock, a grey cloth jacket,
with pearl battens in front, a black silk cape, two flannel
petticoats, two calico chemises (one new), white socks,
leather laced boots, light comforter, and a speckled straw
hat, trimmed with black velvet and ribbon."
With so few facts it would, of course, be idle to speculate
on the circumstances of this horrible affair. As the
matter stands at present the suspicion falls very strongly
upon the man. However, the woman may possibly have
administered the poison, first to the children and then to
herself. As is always the case in such matters, the neigh-
bourhood of the Royal Oak was visited by thousands dur-
ing the whole of yesterday, all anxious to obtain informa-
tion about this mysterious and horrible affair.

The bodies have been stripped, and in the breast of the
woman was found a box of ointment, for the healing of sores
and wounds. It was labelled " William Hunt, Camberwell :
zinc ointment," the words "zinc ointment" being written.
The police have waited upon Mr. Hunt, and he at once said
that the ointment had been purchased at his shop, and that
the writing was his own, but he could not remember to
whom he sold it, as it was an article that was frequently
asked for. From the clean appearance of the box Mr. Hunt
informed the police that he had not the slightest doubt but
that it had come from his house within the past few days.
The cabman has made a statement to the police to the
effect that he did not think the parties had arrived from the
country, for although he was engaged in the station-yard
yet the woman first came from the " departure" side, and
not from the " arrival" side. His impression from the
hurried way in which he was addressed was that the woman
had missed the train and was anxious to hasten home. The
police have had four pots handed to them by Mr. Parsons,
of the Green Dragon wine and spirit stores, Bishopsgate
street Without, one of which, it was stated, was the one
taken out by the cabman. They have been examined, but
nothing poisonous has been found in them; but this may
be accounted for by the fact which the cabman states that
when the man handed him the pot from the cab window
he hold it upside down, so that the dregs went on to the
pavement. No notice was taken of the pot by the landlord
when it was taken inside.

The cabman, in answer to inquiries as to whether he saw
who drunk from the pot, replied that he could not say, as
ho had a small quantity of gin, for which the man paid, and
while his passengers had the pot inside ho was standing at
his horse's head. To account for his not seeing whether
the woman and children were alive when the man got out
at Furnival's • inn, he states that the man, when he got out
shut the door, and went and spoke to him on the box.
There was nothing particular in the man's appearance to
excite his suspicion, and when he handed him the additional
sixpence he did so in a joking manner, and told him to be
sure and drive fast, In the inside of the cab a small cork
was found, but no bottle ()out.' be discovered.
Last evening, about 7 o'clock, a person from the railway
attended at the dead-house, but failed in identifying the de-
ceased, and the police are as far as ever from getting any
clue to the murder.

In addition to the description of the deceased woman
given by the police, it may be stated that she wore false
curls, had a scar on the right side of the head just behind
the ear, as if from a scald or a burn, and had very dark
eyebrows and eyelashes. The woman and the children
were stout, and were apparently in perfect bodily health.
While the police were engaged endeavouring to appre-
hend the man who was in the cab, information was received
at the police-station that a man answering the description
given by the cab-driver had been found dead in bed at a
coffee-house in Southwark, and that he had committed
suicide by taking laudanum. The cabman was as soon as
possible taken to the coffeehouse, but he at once said that
the deceased was not the man who rode in his cab.

THE MERSEY IRONCLADS.—We believe that in
accordance with instructions from the Government
the steam rams El Toussin and El Monnassir have been
valued. The valuer was Air. C. W. Kellock (Curry,
lock, and Co., of Liverpool), assisted by Mr. Jorean, sur-
veyor to the Liverpool underwriters, and Messrs Luke and
Hobbs, of the Admiralty. We hear that El Toussin was
valued at £106,000, and the unfinished El Monnassir at
ABO,OOO. The builders' measurement of each vessel is 1,800
tons. Messrs, Laird refused to disclose the contract price,
It is stated that the British floVernment Wish to purchase
the vessels from the French owners, Messrs. Brevey, El
Monnassir will probably be taken into the river today.
ANECDOTE or KING OEORGE'S nANISH
MENTOR, M. SPONNECK, indicative of that gentle-
man's promptness of decioien when thwarted by minute re-
gulations. On his late passage by packet from Copenha-
gen to Hamburg his Jog was dashed overboard. Stoppage
ofthesh
and claimed
ipwasrefusedf,,ornisoir and dog
the ground that mere animals
were not entitled to rescue, the by-laws only applying to
passengers or crew. In a twinkling M. Sponneck jumped
overboard,
the benefit of the
launeh-boat.

SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS.

The Emperor's Speech.

SPECTATOR.—The Emperor of the French has
this year realised the expectation of Europe by one
of the weightiest speeches ever delivered from a
throne. He hats not declared specifically his inten-
tion to free Poland, but he has announced that the
"fundamental pact" of the Continent--the treaties
of 1815—has ceased to exist, and proposed, as the
only alternative to war, a Congress of all the Powers
to settle all questions now in dispute in Europe.
They are to " reconstruct the edifice" which is
crumbling away, and to prepare for universal dis-
armament. We have commented on this magnifi-
cent, if impracticable, proposal at some length else-
where, and have only here to notice the paragraphs
devoted to France. They are all of a sanguine
kind. The trade of the Empire has increased by
nine and a half millions sterling, a thousand kilo-
meters of new railway have been opened, only
600,000 children remain to be drawn into the pri-
mary schools, and the expeditions beyond sea,
" commenced to defend French honour, will end in
the triumph of French interests." Above all, the
revenue has been continually rising,and the expenses
is Mexico have been met without fresh credits.
The speech was exceedingly well received, and the
Momteur was probably right, though vain-glorious,
when it prophesied on Friday that the speech
" could not fail to re-echo loudly through Europe."
The rumble of cannon in movement may be heazd
all through. * The hush of strained expecta-
tion with which Europe listens for the annual
speech of the Emperor of the French has this year
been amply rewarded. There is no living Sovereign,
there is perhaps but one in history, who may com-
pete as an orator with Napoleon 111., and he has
delivered no speech to be compared with this.
Coached in that tone of apparent frankness
which is the specialty of Bonaparte oratory,
which was as marked on the 18th Brumaire
as in the apology for Villafranca, or Prince Jerome's
plea for evacuating Rome, almost colloquial in its
references to the living facts of the hour, and studded
with the epigrammatic sentences which royalty al-
ways avoids, it is full to repletion of the Imperial
force which belongs only to great ideas uttered from
a throne. Acknowledging with the faintest suspi-
cion of a mental shrug the result of the elections,
sketching slightly, but ably, the pleasanter features
of his own regime for the year,—the budget which
provides for conquest without a deficit, the immense
additions to trade, the five millions of children pre-
sent in the primary schools, the expansion of French
influence on the American and Asiatic continents,
—the Emperor proceeds to develop his plan for the
re-organization of Europe. And what a plan !
Affairs like the insurrection in Poland, which may
replace an old nationality, questions like that of
Schleswig Holstein, which may cover Central Eu-
rope with blood, even difficulties like the occupation
of Rome, the settlement of which may evolve a new
era of religious organisation, shrink for the moment
into insignificance before this Imperial dream. It
is difficult, as we read, not to forget that the speaker
directs the most warlike nation in Europe, not to
imagine that we are listening to some politician of
the study instead of the master of fifty legions. It
is all real, however, and it is an Emperor of the
French, whose words are themselves events, who
declares that Europe is "'everywhere agitated by
the elements of dissolution," that " the jealousies of
the Great Powers hinder the march of civilisation,"
and that the" day has arrived to reconstruct on a new
basis the edifice ruined by time and destroyed piece
by piece by revolutions;" who asks whether we shall
eternally maintain a state which is neither peace
with its security, nor war with its happy chances,
and who, then speaking " in the name of France,"
that is, of almost irresistible military power, sum-
mons all Europe to Congress to furnish the solution
which "at the North as well as at tae South"---in
Scandinavia as in Rome and Turkey—" powerful
interests" demand. It is not the status of Poland,
or Italy, or Servia, or Schleswig, or even of Ger-
many, but of Europe, which a new Congress of
Vienna is summoned to Paris to decide. One im-
mense but peaceable re-arrangement, to be based
on the wishes of the nations, and to disarm the
"subversive parties" by surrendering " narrow cal-
culations" to be enforced by irresistible power,
and therefore without the sabre, and fol-
lowed by a general disarmament,—this is the splen-
did dream with which the Emperor of the French
summons the world to council. It is a dream, too,
deep in his heart, for under his counsel may be
heard an under-tone of menace. " Those who refuse
he will suspect of secret projects which shun the
light of day." There " are but two paths open, the
one conducts to progress by civilisation and peace,
the other, sooner or later, leads fatally to war by
the obstinate maintenance of a past which is crumb-
ling away." There is something so spiking in such
a proposal coming from such a Sovereign,—some-
thing so utterly unlike anything which ordinary
diplomatists, or Emperors, or Premiers say, or even
think, that the mind, bewildered by its magnitude,
refuses at first to arrive at any defined conclusion.
The facts, too, are, at first sight, in favour of the
Imperial plan. Every man who knows Europe
knows also that Napoleon speaks the truth when ha
says that the questions afoot must be solved, and
solved finally, or Europe will, sooner or later,—and
suoner:rather than later,—be involved in a general
war. All diplomatists know that he is stating the
simplest fact in the tersest language, when he says
" the treaties of 1815 have ceased to exist. Ger-
many agitates to change them, England has
generously modified them by the cession of the
lonian Islands, Russia tramples them under
foot at Warsaw," and France, we may
add, in Prince Jerome's words, " tore them
up at the point of the sword" at Magenta and Sole
ferino. They lease ceased to exist. Europe does
want a new "fundamental pact." There is the
gravest reason to fear that we shall establish one
after a war to which all modern wars will be trifles,
which will change from a war of boundaries into
one of principles, and be, therefore, without end
save exhaustion, and it is a noble effort to make one
last appeal to the reason of mankind, end strive to
arrange in what would really be "a Parliament of
Man," if not the federation of the world," at least
that of Europe. Since the days of Alberoni, no
dream more brilliant has been put forward by a
statesman of the first class ; but amidst, all our ad-
miration we cannot conceal from ourselves that it is
but a dream, a last effort honest or unreal to stay
the European world on a course along which the
new aspirations of nations and the old foolishness of
kings, the uprising of new ideas like those of na-
tionality, and the crumbling of dominions like that
of the Turks in Europe, the want of statesmen in
England, and the existence of a Napoleon in France,
alike combine to urge it.
SATURDAY REVIEW.—The speech for which
Europa has so long been listening has been spoken,
and the world now knows what solution of the dif-
culties that press on him has been accepted by the
Emperor. He returns again to that favourite pro-
ject of a Congress to which he has so often turned
as the readiest escape from his embarrassments. A
Congress is, in fact, a war without expense or blood-
shed, and one in which France expects to play as
great a part as if cannon were really sounding and
regiments were being hurried to the frontier.
That which the leaders in a Congress bring to bear
upon their rivals and subordinates is the influence
of definite lines of policy and the tacit menace of
force. The end of a Congress is to arrive at that
settlement of affairs to which the nations that fought
would be led if war broke out. In this great dis-
counting of the chances of a possible war, France
would have the opportunity, of establishing even a
greater supremacy than she could hope for through
an actual conflict. She would come on the stage
with a sort of recognised right of interference in
every direction. She is the friend of Italy And of
Poland, she is the benefactress of Austria, and she is
the terror of Prussia. She alone of the Great Powers
hes with her the strength of the revolutionary party,
and yet, apart from the Polish difficulty, she is the
most intimate ally of Russia. No one dreams for a
moment of dismembering France, and France can
bring into the field the largest and best army in
Europe. All the questions, therefore, that a Euro-
pean Congress would have to discuss would be those
which France chose to start; they would assume
the shape which France pleased to give them; and
the Powers that brought them to a conclusion dis-
tasteful to France would each have to reckon the
cost of incurring such displeasure as France might
treasure up. Above all, in a Congress, England
sinks, if not into a secondary Power, at any rate
into a Power that is scarcely the equal of France.
So long as the open and informal discussion is going
on which, in ordinary times, precedes political
action in Europe, England has all the vast import-
ance and influence that is attached to the only centre
of free discussion. France is obliged to wait until
either argument and reason have determined the
policy o' England, or until a burst of popular passion
shows that England will go to war at all hazards.
During the whole course of the frightful and
tedious struggle in America, England has deter-
mined the action of Prance. England has upheld,
or altered, or created the rules of international
law that suit her. England has restrained France
from recognising the Southern Confederacy.
England has first imagined for herself, and has
then imposed on the rest of the world, the neu-
trality that she thought reasonable and prudent.
—w ,
In the diplomatic struggles for r which,
as
as the Emperor honestly coqesses,ihenvs as yet done
England has
Poland so little good, and in h
occupied a very unsatisfectori
yaiosition—it has still
h
d that has averted
been the hesitation
war, and the influen::?..Ef_!nregsrmdetehtsa,t has guided
the Powers
Austria. But when a Congress
bear the voice of the English
of Europe no longer

nation ; they have merely to do with an English
nobleman, generally a man of moderate abilities,
timidly anxious to please his superiors, very proud
of his temporary importance, and very willing to
think as Emperors and Kings wish he should think.
As it is known that England will engage in no Con-
tinental war, except in the last extremity, this amia-
ble diplomatist has next to nothing to do except to
distribute his moral support as nearly in accordance
with his instructions as he can; and he and his
gentle distribution of moral support play a very
secondary part when France and Russia are bar-
gaining foi Italy. Therefore, it cannot be wondered
at that the Emperor should like European Con-
gresses, and turn to them with the greatest satis-
faction in his hours of anxiety. He feels that he is
even more supreme there than he is when addressing
his own Legislative Assembly, elected mainly by his
prefects, and liable to be dismissed into the streets
any moment if he nods to his soldiery; for in his
Assembly he dictates to a people whom he has con-
quered with grape-shot and bayonet, but in the
Congress he dictates to Europe without having had
the trouble of conquest. But although England has
no reason to love these Congresses, it will not be
from England that any opposition will come. It will
not be for us to hesitate, who are always preaching
the doctrine of moral influence, who want peace to
reign, and the anomalies of the European system to be
quietly and quickly redressed. Nor have we any right
to be moved by any mean jealousy of France or
any petty disinclination to recognise the position
which the Emperor has achieved. It is a great
thing for him and for France that he should be able
to say openly before the world that the treaties of
1815, framed to restrain and depress France, are at
an end. It is also a great thing for him and for
France that he should hold in his hands the issues
of peace and war, and should be able so largely to
determine the fate of Europe. But we know that
he is able to tear up the Treaties of Vienna, and to
dictate the policy of Europe, simply because all the
other great European Powers spent the precious
interval of peace which was purchased by the Trea-
ties of Vienna in one long, stupid, sullen abuse of
physical force ; because Austria ground Italy into
the dust; because Prussia deadened the soul of Ger-
many ; and because Russia fascinated herself and
her neighbours with the spectacle of her 'magnifi-
cent but barbarous despotism. It is impossible for
Englishmen to refuse to see that the present im-
portance of France in Continental Europe is not
only a fact that refuses to be hid, but is in many
respects salutary and deserved. It is France that
has broken the sway of that dismal reign of order
in Europe under which the life of the European
nations was gradually rotting away. But whether
the great nations of the Continent will accede to
the proposal of a Congress is a vex), different matter.
Russia might possibly agree if all the rest of Europe
were unanimous, and all the rest of Europe will
follow the lead of France if Austria consents. But a
Congress raises great difficulties for Austria. The
Emperor says significantly that there are impor-
tant questions to be settled in the South of Europe
as well as in the North; that is, in plain language,
that Austria, if she goes into the Congress, must
submit to hear all the arguments, peaceful and
warlike, that could induce her to cede
Venetia to Italy and take something else
instead. Russia also will know that, if she
agrees to a Congress, it can have no practical and
peaceful result, unless she agrees either to cede
Western Poland to some other Power, or to hold it
on the condition of administering her internal
affairs under the supervision of foreign Powers.
Unless a Congress gave hope to Poland and gave
Venetia to Italy, it could not possibly lay the
foundations of peace. To persuade Austria and
Russia to enter it requires all the influence which
alternate threats and blandishments can give the
Emperor. He certainly is riot sparing of the former,
for he proclaims that he insists on a Congress, and
that France speaks through him ; and he certainly
is not sparing of the latter, for he announces that he
has just presented the House of Hapsburg with a
new Empire, and he tells the world that Russia is
so intimate and dear an ally of his, that it was
Russia who supported him through the trying hour
when he annexed Nice and Savoy. But if Russia
refuses to enter a Congress, to enter which must be
a virtual avowal of defeat, it is difficult to see what
remains but war. The Emperor's speech is so con-
structed that everything leads up to the final issue
in which Russia is asked to choose whether war or
peace shall be the lot of Europe.
LONDON REVIEW.--The Emperor Napoleon has
just l opened a session of the French Chambers which
promises to be one of unusual interest. In spite of
all the efforts of the Government and the prefect;
the third legislative body of the Second Empire is
likely to be far more independent than either of its
predecessors. At the same time, as ill-luck would
have it, his Majesty's recent policy has been
singularly unfortunate in conciliating the approba-
tion of the French people. He has done
nothing in Poland where much was expected,
and he has done much in Mexico where nothing
was desired. A consciousness that he must
run the fire of severe adverse criticism is
visible through the whole of the Imperial
address. Its tone is obtrusively deprecatory and
apologetic. The deputies are reminded of their
oaths in a manner which betrays an undignified
sensitiveness to the possible frailty of such obliga-
tions. The operations in Mexico and Cochin China
are excused as inevitable rather than vaunted es
glorious. And in dealing with the Polish question
the Emperor is obviously far more anxious to ex-
plain why he could effect little than to insist on the
necessity of attemptins, much. In spite of the in-
genious way in which he seeks to conceal or palliate
diplomatic defeat under cover of magnificent pro-
jects for the reconstitution of Europe, it is scarcely
likely that he will deceive any one by a repetition
of devices which he has exhausted on previous occa-
sions. The proposition of a European Congress has
been resorted to on more than one occasion when
French diplomacy has come to a standstill. Nor
can any one seriously suppose that the great Powers
will accept an invitation to confer together on some
mysterious plan for " reconstructing on new bases
the edifice shaken bit by bit by revolutions." If
anything could increase their indisposition to assist
at such deliberations it would be the peremptory
declaration of the Emperor that " the treaties of
1815 have ceased to exist." Nervous persons will
perhaps find in this latter sentence a hint of French
designs against the peace of Europe; but when it
is taken in connection with the highly rhetorical
passages amongst which it occurs, we do not think
it will bear any very serious interpretation. When
Emperors feel compelled to argue with a popular
assembly, they must submit to the necessity of talk-
ing very much like speakers of less distinguished
rank. Notwithstanding the elevation of its tone,
the latter part of the Emperor's speech is substan-
tially a piece of stump oratory. It is probably in-
tended for the purpose which it will certainly serve,
as a text for the vague declamation under which it
will be the duty of the talking Ministers to
conceal their master's failure to hurry England and
Austria into a European war. At the same time,
it bears the least possible resemblance to a serious
programme of practical policy. Upon the whole,
the tone of this document may be considered as
eminently pacific, especially when we recollect that
its author was almost compelled to gratify a national
vanity, which is most easily fed by the promise or
the prospect of some kind of foreign influence, how-
ever shadowy.

COURT JOURNAL,—Ever since the Emperor of
the French announced to the Ambassadors of the
Great Powers his intention of going to war with
Austria, in conjunction with Victor Emmanuel,
Europe has waited with intense anxiety and interest
for every speech which he has had to make on an
official occasion. It is not often, however, that so
much feverish excitement has been witnessed in
Loglish diplomatic circles, and, indeed, among the
intelligent classes generally, as was caused by the
anticipation of the Emperor's address to the French
Chambers. A word of his might have put Europe
in flames, or have produced a startling alteration in
the position w;tich we occupy towards the bellige-
rent Powers in America. That word has not been
spoken, and Engh:nd, as well as France, owes the
Emperor a deep debk of gratitude for preserving
Europe from a general war which would:have caused
an infinite amount of misery, desolation, and de-
struction ,withoat doing ,a
I:lroportionate amount of
good to those for venom we s:h
arms, and for whom all libera
I!ld_umindheadve
mtaekriemn up
We have
feel the deepest sympathy and pity. the farmer
so often had t 3 censure and deplore
career and policy of the Emperor Napoleon that
it is with the greatest pleasure we Are able to
express our approbation of his wore recent acts,
and the wise and moderate course which he is pur-
suing towards so many nations of the world. With
all the faults of his Government, and in spite of the
manner in which it treats the liberty of the press
and the freedom of elections, there can, be no doubt
that it has done much for France, and, While care-
fully attending to the selfish interests of the Napo-
leon dynasty, it has still not failealdtdy liberality, but,e
appearance
make France
th
more important, and more greatly feared and bowed
down to,
than any other state in themay
world—not
have
evenppe aerxacnecPe o t 11l
gE
greaterng l alad
generosity Our Poinc
for all that, we have earned the unenviable prestige
of being far more pusillanimous an
Englishmen were in the time of d cringing than
Cromwell, Marl-
borough,or Pitt, or than those
imagined in their wildest d great men cauld have
reams and fears of the
future. There is a Family
history who must, in
both y connected with French
its branches, command
our respect and admiration, and whom many would
gladly see restored to the homes of their ancestors ;
but, at the same time, it must be admitted that
neither Charles X. nor L
Philippe did half as
much for the grciatja ,
ew4 of the French nation as Na-

poleon 111. has effected during the last few years of
his rule. The speech which he delivered on Thurs-
day, and which has, undoubtedly, had a pacifying
influence on the minds of most persons interested is
politics, was not without its weak points, but, ne-
vertheless, was unimpeachable in its general tons
and import. His Majesty was particularly anxious
to remind his senators and deputies that they had
sworn to maintain his dynasty in power. He was
also ready enough to take credit for the Mexican
and Cochin China campaigns, in lien of greater
achievements, and his promises of reform were not
too profuse or comprehensive, though certainly'
more so than most persons had been led to expect.
America was carefully slurred over, and no hopes
were held out to either party ; and we can scarcely
blame his Majesty, as it is notorious that he would
willingly and most readily acknowledge the brave
people of the South if England were not too sub-
servient to Mr. Adams and the wild " statesmen"
(if they may be called) who employ him. But
when the Emperor touched upon the subject of
Polani he spoke words of truth and good, honest,
praiseworthy sense, and though he did not give
much satisfaction to those who would immediately
plunge into hostilities with the Emperor Alexander,
he has satisfied every man of moderation that be is
determined to confer lasting benefits and freedom
upon the Poles. That freedom will not spring from
the establishment of a Polish independent kingdom,
but from the observance of good faith and consti-
tutional doctrines by the Emperor of Russia as well
as his Ministers towards his Polish subjects. The
Emperor Alexander is too sensible and too just-
minded to object to the proposal of a Conference
which could not compromise his dignity or that of
his Empire, at the same time that it would put an
end to the horrible and barbarous war, which must
be almost as hateful to the Russians as it is to the
Poles. Assuming, what there can be little doubt
of, that Russia will give her consent to this Con-
ference, the question arises—Who are to take part
in its deliberations ? England, Austria, France,
and Russia, of course, and Prussia cannot be fairly
excluded, as she has a large interest in the future
of Poland. Russia will naturally object to the ad-
mission of Sweden and Turkey ; and Italy can have
no possible right to intrude in a matter which con-
cerns her no more than it does the King of the
Sandwich Islands. With her usual insolence, how-
ever, she will no doubt make an attempt to obtain
the entrée to the Congress, and Russia probably
may make no resistance to her doing so, remember-
ing the remarkable fact that Victor Emmanuel and
his " Liberal" Ministers have been anything but
friendly to the Poles, most probably because Austria,
in a really true and honest spirit of liberality, has
warmly taken up their cause.
EXAMINER.—The passage in the Emperor's
speech which deserves most reflection, and may be
recalled to mind before long, is this :—" Distant
expeditions, the objects of so many criticisms, have
not been the execution of a premeditated plan ; the
force of circumstances has brought them about, and
yet, nevertheless, they are not to be regretted." So
what is said here of war in Mexico and elsewhere,
may a twelvemonth hence be said of war with,
Russia, " not premeditated," " brought about by the
force of circumstances," " yet, notwithstanding, not
to be regretted." The force which the Emperor thus
admits to be superior to his own will is the force of
circumstances, which fills the place in pagan times
occupied by the Fates, to whose behests Jove bowed,
and in middle ages by the stars. If France should
obstinately insist on the war of her choice which tha
Emperor hesitates to grant, perhaps " letting I dare
not wait upon I would," instead of the wars not of
her choice in which he compels her to wast 3 her
blood and treasure, the force of circumstances will
be pleaded for the compliance. Here is the hinge
of the Temple of Janus ready to turn either wet,
and smoothly oiled.