The New York herald., 1862-02-24


But even these are weakly held, and the Union
troops have footholds in South Carolina, Geor-
gia, Texas, Mississippi, Louisiana, Florida and
Arkansas, as they will soon have in Ala
bama-the only State where the Stars and
Stripes do not yet actually wave. There
| is no safety therefore, for the Southern
people but to overthrow their leaders
| by counter revolution, and return to tho
Union under the @gis Of the constitution, BY
whose operation, without any law of Congress
| or proclamation of tho President, they will DO
entitled to all the rights and immunities they
ever enjoyed, and will recover their old posi-
ton in the Union, in despite of any abolition
| traitors in or out of Congress.
The Mexican Question and the Policy ~
Napoleon. 4.
After reading the recent intelligence ef0a
| Europe, published IN our columns, no re6eceine
person can doubt that the Emperor Of che
French meditates the destruction Of the inde-
pendence of Mexico and the erection upon the
ruins of the republic of throne, which he pro-
poses to trade Off with Austria for the cession
of Venice and its surrounding territory, Quad
rilateral and all, to the King of Italy. Such
curious mode Of settling the Italian question
could only occur to the astute genius of Napo-
leon, and the proposition must have startled
the slow, plodding minds of the Hapsburgs
But it may be asked what benefit is France to
derive from the arrangement. Victor Emanuel
will gladly cede to her the island Of Sardinia.
which would be of great consequence to Napo-,
leon, to strengthen bis position in the Mediter-
rean, with view to ulterior designs upon the
East, and also to the maintenance of French
preponderance in Africa; while on the other
hand the island is not absolutely necessary to
the Italian King, and is of small Importance to
him compared with the value of VeDetia, the
acquisition Of which will almost complete the
unity and consolidation of Italy from the Alps
to the Adriatic, and thus fulfil the better part
of the promise Napoleon made in one Of
his oracular announcements during the
Italian war. 1t is true there will still be
the exception of Rome and the Pope's
contracted temporal dominions; but Napoleon's
mode of fixing that is equally sagacious with
his plan of wheedling Austria out Of Venetia.
He will not disturb the present poor old Pope,
but will protect him in possession of what he
holds as long as he lives At his death tho EN-
peror will have the making of the new Pope.
who will receive his appointment on condition
of his relinquishing all temporal dominion, and
| limiting his sway exclusively to things spirit
ual-a change for which Napoleon has recently
prepared all Italy and the Catholic world, by
reminding the Pope that hereafter the sovereign
pontiff must render to Caesar the things which
are C@sar's, while Napoleon is willing to rem
der to Goods vicegerent" the things which are
Gods. No doubt, when Rome Is at last oeded
to Victor Emanuel, Napoleon will claim some
other territorial compensation. In 1860, In re-
quital for his services to Victor Emanuel in the
Italian war, he claimed and obtained the duchy
of Savoy, on the French side Of the Alps, and
the county of Nice, bordering on tho Mediter-
ranean and the French department. of Var, in
Guiding the port of Marseilles, on the ground
that, geographically, it belonged more to
France than to Italy, being separated from the
latter by the Maritime Alps. Probably he
will now claim the old republic Of Genoa,
including its fine port, a territory adjacent.
still further east, and conquered by France
in the Revolution, when there was assigned
to it the name of the Ligurian Republic, and
afterwards it was incorporated with the
French empire, till, by the treaty Of Vienna, in
1916, it was transferred by the aid of England
to the King of Sardinia, against the indignant
protest of the inhabitants. Napoleon Ill. re-
members this 1t was at the city of Genoa he
landed when he drove Francis Joseph out Of
Lombardy, and he saw that the possession OF
this port, well fortified, would, from its close
proximity to Marseilles, afford him the key to
the conquest Of Italy at any time that its King
should become refractory or form alliances
against the interests of France Geographically
Genoa is divided from the rest Of Italy by the
Apennines, just as Savoy and Nice ars
separated from it by the Alps, and belonged to
the French empire till stripped of them by the
royal robbers of Europe at the fall of the First
Napoleon. To Napoleon I'LL this, and the pre-
scriptiye possession by France for the eighteen
years from 1897 to 1915, would afford rs good
arguments for the transfer of Genoa as any he
was able to urge for the cession of Nice, or OF
Savoy, the original nucleus of the kingdom Of
Sardinia.
Such is the programme Of Napoleon; and,
though he knows very well when our civil
war is terminated we will have something to
say to the Mexican part Of the arrangement, he
cares nothing, as by that time he will have
gained his point in Europe, and will let Maximil
ian then whistle for the throne of Montezuma.
That will then become Austria's affair, and
France will have nothing further to do with it.
But is this the only advantage Napoleon pro-
poses to himself by his Mexican scheme. BY
no means He saw from the commencement Of
our war that it would greatly affect France
financially, and he determined he would not
only make something good out of it politically
and territorially, but at the same time effect