The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1855-10-23


shadows, perhaps the action of their eleventh
hour State convention. The call says it is
"to take such measures as may be deemed
advisable to maintain our integrity and
honor" That cannot mean fusion with
either Seward or the softs. Perhaps it means
separate whig State ticket, or peradventure
fusion with the Know Nethings or the hard
shells We await the results.
As for the election, there is plenty of time
yet to speculate upon its probabilities, the
results of which, in any event, will require
regular and definite reconstruction of parties in
1885, We have never had SO many parties and
factions and mixed principles and politicians
at work, and never smaller promise Of any
great achievement, than in this forthcoming
November election. Let US console ourselves
as with quack panacea-that if it does not
cure the patient, it won't kill him.
The Chevalier WtkoH-His Enlarged Field
OF Labors-ais Forthcoming Book OH Anglo
French Dlplomacy-Hls Present Mission to
Russia.
We received the important information, in
letter from Paris by the Atlantic, that the in
domitable Chevalier Wikoff was in that city on
the 4th instant en- route on volunteer anna
teur diplomatic mission to st. Petersburg. We
are also informed, from the same reliable
source, that the industrious Chevalier, mean
time, is busy at every available interval of re-
lief from other duties, upon his great book on
the mysteries Of English and French diplomacy
under Lord Palmerston and Louis Napoleon,
in reference to American affairs and that the
said book will loom and bloom upon the world
simultaneously with, and as welcome as, the
flowers of May. These lofty landmarks give
us such wide sweep of the political and social
horizon Of the civilized area Of the globe, that
we are constrained to pause for few passing
observations.
1t is one Of the distinguishing characteristics
of true genius that, under all circumstances,
propitious or adverse, up or down, it always
finds something useful to do. Thus Napoleon
at st. Helena gave the world his invaluable
commentaries on the great events of his won
derful career; thus "tne nephew of his uncle"
in the prison at Ham, studied out his " mani
fest destiny" in the restoration Of the Empire
thus, wnen all the lights of the Roman revou-
ton OF 4S were put out, Garibaldi, in exile,
established a candle factory at Staten Island
and thus The Chevalier Wikoh, through all the
vicissitudes of his active lfe ON both sides of
the Atlantic, has found some field of useful
employment advantageous to himself, and be-
nefcial more or less, to the great family of
mankin9, As newspaper editor, as tea
merchant, as the successful empresario of the
American campaign of Fanny Essler, as the
American diplomat OF Louis Napoleon and
Lord Palmerston, when France was in a tran
sition state from social anarchy to imperial or
der; as the persevering and romantic lover of
Miss Gamble; as the victim of the British Consul,
Brown, at Genoa; as the author of my Court
ship and its Consequences" as the Talleyrand
Of the Opera in New Gork,-in fact, from the
outset of his public career to the present day,
he has proved himself one of those remarkable
men who can turn bad lnck into active capital,
and gather from defeat and disaster the ee-
ments of success.
We have given our readers heretofore some
inklings of this forthcoming book of the
Chevaler touching the inside pecularities of
the highly important diplomacy between Louis
Napoleon and Lord Palmcrston, when Napo-
leon was in the unnatural position of the chief
of French republic. We have shown that
the great object of Wikolf. as the amateur
American mediator between France and
England, was universal peace upon the
most solid basis. We have shown that
while to this end the Chevalicr projected
an alliance between himself and Miss Gamble
as between John Bull and Brother Jonathan
he undertook the beautiful diplomacy of a
match between the Prince Napoleon and the
daughter Of Mr. Lawrence, then our Minister u,
London, as between France and the United
States and we have also shown that, had
these splendid schemes succeeded, the next step
of the gallant Chevalier would have been to
Russia, in reference to some binding inter
national matrimonial alliance with the family
of the Gar Thus the diplomatic programme
of Wikoii, If carried out would have bound the
three ruling Powers OF the Eastern hemisphere
in the golden bonds Of u lasting peace with the
great republic of the West But this golden
chain was broken of at the first link ut Genoa
through the mysterious enmity to Wikoff of the
British Consul, Brown, and through the in.
iractabIe Miss Gamble and the consequences
are before us in this horrible Russian war, and
all its dire calamities-social, political and
financial.
All this aud much more, curious, interest
ing and important, will, doubtless, be dis
closed in the forthcoming book Of the Cheva-
lier, explanatory of the aforesaid inside, occult
and astounding diplomatic movements be-
tween Louis Napoleon and Lord Palmerston
and Wikoh, in reference to European aud
American affairs, and the balance of power"
in both hemspheres.
In relation to the exact drift of the present
dipl, matte mission Of the Chevaler to st
Petersburg we are not enlightened We ven
ture, however, to say that, from all his diplo-
matte peacc-making antecedents, his mission