The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1860-03-21

w ANVIL Alt lCOU.-ihtt
course that duty and patriotism prompted.
We care not whether their instructions war.
ranted that course or not the heart of every
American will sustain them, and tho whole
country will support them in 1t.
There now remains but one course for
our government to pursue Inquiry should
be Immediately made as to the character
in which the corsair ships Miramon and
Marquez-named thus after the rebel Next
can leader, and the assassin of Tacubaya
and robber Of the conducta at Guadala-
jara--left Havana, and became armed ships
under the Mexican flag so near to our
own shores. If the Spanish authorities Of
Cuba can be shown to have in any way con-
nived at the iniquity, an energetic remonstrance
should be sent to Spain; and If she will not, we
should, abate the nuisance. On the rejection
or passage of the Mexican treaty by the Senate
will now depend whether Houston shall be
urged by the popular voice to carry his pro.
tectorate at once into Mexico, and return to 0c-
cupy the Presidential chair at Washington, or
whether we will secure the pacihcation of that
republic and the safety Of our citizens there
by pacific and legitimate means.
The Annexation Of savoy-Ths Destiny
OF tho French Empire.
By reference to the debates in the British
Parliament, which we publish to-day, among
our European news received by the Fulton, 1t
will be seen that the Savoy question continues
to agitate and alarm the English oligarchy. If
neither Sardinia nor Savoy-the only parties
directly concerned-have any objection, we
cannot see what right,any other parties have
to interfere. The annexation is not unjust to
Sardinia; it ia for the benefit Of Savoy, which
would be saved from becoming the future bat
tie field of Europe, besides the advantage of
being consolidated with powerful empire ad
joining her territory. Sardinia has already re-
ceived far more than an equivalent by the ces.
sion of Lombardy, conquered by French arms,
and by seeing Austria, her foe, who weuld have
swallowed her up, driven behind the Mincio,
powerless and crippled. Besides, Savoy is no
part Of Italy, and is separated from Piedmont
by the Alps. 1t belongs, naturally and geo.
graphically, to France, Of which it formed a
department under the former French empire.
When the First Napoleon fell, the object of
Austria in having Savoy ceded to Sardinia by
the treaty of Vienna was to establish fortresses
on the western side of the Alps, by means of
which an army from the italian side could in
wade France, while France would be prevented
from making descent on Italy. But as the
treaty of Vienna is now waste paper, and as
Sardinia has no desire to invade France nor to
see it invaded by Austria, she cannot object to
cede Savoy to France as some compensation for
the blood and treasure expended in her cause.
The tories of England, who sympathize with the
Hapsburgs and despotism, grudge this small
piece of territory to France, though annexa-
ton has been ever the result of British con-
quest in India and elsewhere, and the island
Of Malta has been retained by England under
precisely the same circumstances as those I'M
der which Napoleon now claims Savoy. It is
necessary to France for the defence Of her
eastern frontier; and, at the commencement of
the Italian war, before the question was
preached at all, we suggested the probability
Of the cession Of Savoy to France in exchange
for Sardinias acquisition of Italian territory by
the aid Of French arms.
But II is just because it is advantageous to
France that the English tories, who hate and
fear her, are opposed to the annexation. Nor
is the feeling confined to Great Britain.
The announcement of Napoleons intention
to annex Savoy to the French empire has
created great excitement among the crowned
heads and feudal aristocracy Of all Europe.
They were seized with the same vague, underlined
terror at the commencement of the Italian war.
The German princes became alarmed lest their
kingdoms and principalities should be annexed.
and 1t is suggested that the French Emperor
intends to make the Alps and the Rhine his
boundary as the hand of nature has made
them, and that he will annex the Rhenish
provinces on the western bank Of the river
No doubt this and much more is true, to GER
tain extent. Napoleon will, if he can, make
the Rhine the boundary Of France, even to the
ocean, taking in Rhenish Prussia, Belgium, and
part of Holland But he will not do 30 at the
risk Of a general war and the peril Of his
dynasty. He will bide his time, and avail
himself of opportunities as they arise, to ex-
tend his democratic empire founded on popu-
lar rights
"The man of destiny desires to imperialize
the whole of Western and Central Europe, and
to abolish every vestge of feudalism. This
was the policy Of the elder Napoleon, and 1t is
the mission Of "the nephew of his uncle"
Hence the fears Of the surrounding govern
ments. And this will be always SO with Eu-
rope while the Napoleon dynasty exists.
France is Its terror, as Rome was of old Like
the Roman empire, France, from its central po-
sition, its warlike character and its high civil