Year: 1859




In making their commercial or political
arrangements for the future, our citizens
would do well to take into their calculations
the war agitation which is now shaking
Europe, and which ere long viii be sue
ceeded by the dread reality itself, destined
to convulse the continent and its islands to
such an extent and such degree as the
world has not witnessed since Bonaparte,
nearly half century ago, played his sub
lime part and made his exit from the stage.
The premonitory tremblings and rumblings
of the earthquake are already felt and heard.
The combustible materials beneath the sur
face are beginning to come into collision,
and soon the terrible upheaving and the
grand explosion will astonish the age.
! The present Emperor. of the French viii
follow the role of his uncle under altered
Circumstances, with new generation, but
with almost the same enthusiasm which
had before conquered nearly all Europe
Popular liberty has made great progress
since then among the nations of Europe,
including England, whose old decayed ar
istoeoacy, enlisted in the cause of the Co.
burgs, is every day retiring before the as
saults of the fresh and vigorous democracy;
and the doctrine of Legitimacy" or the
kingly right of hereditary descent, by which
the crowned conspirators of the Congress
of Vienna got rid Of Napoleon L., who was
the choice of the people, is no longer avail
able to dethrone and Danish into exile the
nephew, who holds his throne by the same
title as the uncle. F..a


The first act of the drama has been per-
formed in the Crimea, by which Napoleon
6o1 ,f IL, of
Europe-Russia and England the Sec
ond place in the scale of nations. His next
move-and it is bold one-is to bring
down to the same level the only remaining
frs-rate power, Austria The second act
of the drama will open in Italy, the scene
of the first brilliant triumphs of the elder
Napoleon. Other fields, in rapid success
sion, will receive ''the red rain which makes
the harvest grow" Already the parvenu
is the first potentate. in Europe. He will
soon be something less or something more.
If he has less of genius and of the highest
order of talents for a great general which
distinguished the hero of Austerlitz. he ex
cells him in fact and the art of diplomacy.
In the coming struggle he has secured the
neutrality of Russia, and probably the ac-
tive sympathy of England, even to the re-
moval of her present Prime Minister from
office. The tread of his battalions will soon
shake the plains of Lombardy and Venice,
the fair garden of Italy, and the opening
roar of the new cannon which he is now
casting in Vinciennes will speedily reverbe-
rate from the Alps and the Apprentices in
the awakened ear of Europe. His position,
which he so clearly defines, is the very
same as that of Napoleon I. He stands
midway between revolution and anarchy,
and leyeling proletarian sans-culottism on
the one side, and exclusive class privileges
of hereditary nobility and the divine right
of kings on the other. He is the great
champion and exemplar of national inde-
pendence and of democracy suited to the
times and to the. atmosphere of Europe
He, contends for the right of every nation
to choose its own rulers and adopt its own
form of government. And this grand es-
sential of human freedom is denied to a
large portion of the Italian people. Aus
trian oppression is driving them to revolu
ton, and to extremes beyond thePrinciples
of moderate democracy. To prevent this
sweeping revolution and the anarchy con-
sequent upon it, is the avowed design of
Napoleon He will anticipate the stroke by
striking the first blow. himself He %ill
therefore appear in highly favorable light
to the nations of Europe-the friend alike
of freedom and order. This is a grand
stroke, worthy of the actor of the coup
d'et0t


Every steamer now, therefore, that comes
from Europe, will henceforth be looked for
with great anxiety; and those who are en-
gagged in commercial or political affairs, or
who contemplate such transactions in the
future, will act unwisely if they do not, in
making their arrangements, take into ae-
count the tempest of war which is about to
sweep the Italian peninsula and the whole
continent of Europe.-Nea0 York paper.