"Oh, my poor mother!" sobbed Marie, as she gave up the key, "this visit has, indeed, brought us misfortune."

Messieurs Bosc and Campiche now made way for the commissary, who himself performed "the office of Saint Peter."

He was on the point of entering the room, when Madame Lalouette appeared in the doorway.

"You cannot come in," she said, firmly.

"How, Madame !" exclaimed the commissary, "is it you who venture to resist authority?"

"There is a sick person here," she replied, "on whom I am attending."

"The law," said the commissary, "knows nothing of individual sickness. The health of the state is its sole concern. In the name of the Republic, I demand immediate admission." Then, turning to Nicolas Fâcheux, he said: "Insert that the wife of the Sieur Lalouette has offered opposition."

"I have already done so," answered the notary's clerk, without looking up.

"Bigre!" muttered the host of the Coq d'Or, "you shall pay for this, my fine fellow!"

"Once more, and for the last time," said the commissary, sternly, "I order you to obey. Monsieur Lalouette, invite your wife to withdraw, or I shall be compelled to employ force"

"There will be no necessity, sir, for doing so," said the object of the commissary's search, coming suddenly forward. "I thank you sincerely, Madame, for your kindness towards a stranger, but I cannot suffer that your compassion should involve you in troubles that ought to be mine only. I presume, sir," she continued, addressing the commissary, "that your visit is intended for me. May I ask to know with what motive?"

There was so much dignity in the lady's gestures, her air was so noble, and her tones so full of command, that the commissary and his assistants involuntarily drew back and took off their hats as she spoke even Nicolas Fâcheux forbore his occupation, and started to his feet.

But the commissary soon recovered his official aplomb. He took out Mr. Gurney's passport.

"Your name, Madame," he said, "is the same as that which appears on this paper?"

The lady's colour mounted, but she did not reply, and the commissary

went on:

"The manner of your arrival in Amiens, an evasion, to all appearance premeditated, and the existing state of affairs, require your presence, madame, before the authorities of the city. It is my duty to inform you that you will be confronted with your husband, who is now in the Conciergerie."

"Mon Dieu!" exclaimed the lady, forgetting to whom the commissary referred, "is the duke in your power also! Tell me, sir, are my children with him!"

The commissary smiled. "You are not, then, the wife of the English prisoner. I supposed as much."

"No, sir!" said the lady, proudly, "that gentleman is my faithful friend. My husband is the Duke de Nemours."

IS THE PEACE PEACEFUL?

THE Peace of Villafranca very much resembles the last chapter of the History of Rasselas : it is "a conclusion in which nothing is concluded." Perhaps, by this time, the Plenipotentiaries assembled in M. Bauer's hotel-by the margin of Zurich's fair waters"-have formed the same opinion of the results of the imperial interview on the 11th of last July; for, to judge by that which is not declared but which readily transpires, the only progress made at the Conference on the subject of the settlement of the Italian question, is the progress of disagreement.

It was easy enough for the Emperor of Austria to cede the territory of Lombardy to the Emperor of the French, and easier still for the latter to hand over that province to the King of Sardinia: but Lombardy was like an Irish estate, encumbered with a heavy debt, and with "the dirty acres" went the obligation to clear off the mortgages upon them-a process which Count Colloredo very naturally insists upon, and the Chevalier Desambrois greatly objects to. Apart, too, from the mere geographical distinction, where a frontier is formed by the course of a river, there remained to be settled the relative civil rights of those who, with the soil, were transferred from one government to another, whether it suited their views to remain peacefully conservative or become intensely radical. These hitches, it is said-by the favourers of the Conferential proceedings-are neither dissidences nor differences, but whatever any one chooses not to call them,—and the fact that the Austrian and Sardinian ministers are not-officially-on speaking terms, looks little like agreement, they appear, at all events, to have stopped the way; and before the still more important points decided on at Villafranca are approached at Zurich, events have already anticipated and subverted the prepared issue. "The Tuscan and Modenese governments," said the telegram which announced the peace, "return to their states;" but the Legislative Assemblies of Florence and Modena, in solemn conclave met, declare the exact contrary. By their decrees the House of Hapsburg-Lorraine has not only ceased to reign over the several duchies, not only are all its members banished from them for ever, but the annexation of the duchies" to the monarchical, constitutional, and glorious kingdom of the dynasty of Savoy, under the magnanimous sceptre of King Victor Emmanuel," is formally pronounced. "L'idée d'une nationalité Italienne," said Louis Napoleon at St. Cloud, after his return from the two months' campaign-"l'idée d'une nationalité Italienne est admise par ceux qui la combattaient le plus." Yes! This idea of Italian nationality is, indeed, admitted, but not precisely in the sense of the Villafranca programme. Whether the proprietor of "the magnanimous sceptre" will be able to protect his new subjects against the friendly interference of his armed ally-for fifty thousand French bayonets still remain in Italy, though, according to Lord John Russell, speaking Iago-fashion, they mean no harm"-is a question for some future Conference, or Congress, to determine: it will never be settled at Zurich.

VOL. XLVI.

Q

We have adverted to the possibility of a Congress, and if we may rely upon the opinions expressed in a recently published pamphlet by M. Félix Germain-an eloquent and earnest partisan of the Anglo-French alliance -without a Congress the reorganisation of Italy on any solid basis is utterly impossible. The Patrie also, making the groundwork of its arguments the opposite views of Italian independence entertained by France and Austria, strongly urges the necessity of a European Congress.

Leaving the peacefulness of this peace to resolve its own meaning, we turn to the pacific attitude of our immediate neighbours in relation to ourselves.

Let it not be thought that, mere alarmists, we harp incessantly on one string, in continuing to advocate the necessity for putting our house in order, by prosecuting without remission the efforts already begun for placing the kingdom in a perfect state of defence. We are quite ready to admit that the present views of the Emperor of the French are pacific: that is to say, that he has no immediate-perhaps no prospective-intention of waging war with England. Neither are we stirred by the rhapsodies of obscure French journalists writing in a hostile spirit, if not by order, at least without check. Were such the case, we might found our text on the following lively passages from the pen of M. Amédée de Cesena, in whom the Anglophobia seems to have reached its height:

France (he says) will never forget Waterloo: she will remember it always, eolouring with anger and weeping in despair. The name will never fade from her memory. This idea will possess her in the midst of her triumphs and her fétes, unless it be vouchsafed to her to tear the bloody page (written by treason and fate) from her history, with her victorious sword. They who think that France has forgotten, that she can forget Waterloo, know nothing of her soul and her genius. They cannot understand her. She works her way calmly, but she remembers. Let her be made richer than any nation on the face of the earth has ever been, she will still remember. Let everything be given to her-glory, power, liberty-she will always remember. But let her be sent, for one day only, to take a last, a real revenge for Waterloo-then she might, she would forget.

We might ask this Gallic Bobadil whether "one day only" would suffice for doing all that France so earnestly desires, or whether she might not have another recollection to add to what she so retentively remembers, but it would be waste of words to bestow them on such a rhapsodist. The best way to serve M. Amédée de Cesena would be to carry out Hotspur's design, and have a starling

Nevertheless, as "out of the mouth of fools cometh wisdom," so from these boute-feux may be learnt the propriety of being prepared for every contingency. Imperial sagacity-let us even say personal predilectionmay seek to avoid, or, at any rate, to postpone a war with England; those decrees may be sincerely meant which lay up fleets at Toulon and dismiss to their homes the threatening excess of " those heroic battalions who, in the name of France, have shed their blood without reserve;" but the reader of history will bear in mind that of all the "good intentions," which pave a certain place, those are the least to be relied on that depend

upon the perpetual amity of nations. There never yet was a Minister whose policy was more essentially peace than that of Mr. Pitt, none who argued with greater earnestness than he in favour of extended commercial relations-the firmest basis on which peace can rest-but Pitt, notwithstanding, was compelled by circumstances to enter into the longest, the most expensive, and the bloodiest war in which England has ever been engaged with France, too, the country whose friendship he declared was a political necessity for maintaining the welfare of the world, and whose enmity was the sure signal for general disorder. What happened to Mr. Pitt may happen, from a different cause, to the Emperor Louis Napoleon. And if it should happen, what then? We must be prepared to meet the event, and this can only be done by that virtual "reconstruction" of the navy which Sir John Pakington, who employed the phrase, so strenuously endeavoured to accomplish.

Amongst the numerous works which have lately been written on the all-engrossing topic of the national defences, none are more valuable than Mr. Hans Busk's "Navies of the World." With no timorous eagerness to press into his service the arguments, however plausible, of the pessimists who look upon England's naval reputation as a phantom of the past, nor disposed, on the other hand, in the slightest degree to underrate the progress made by her rivals, Mr. Busk calmly and carefully discusses, with the most authentic data before him, the probabilities whereby we may be placed at a disadvantage in the event of a rupture with France. It is not in our power to adduce the numerous proofs in support of his statements which are set forth in Mr. Busk's volume; but the following extracts will show on what grounds reliance is placed in France, on the success which is anticipated by Frenchmen, should the much-deprecated struggle begin:

The French Commission of 1851, on the state of the navy, before determining the actual strength to be given to it, agreed that it was necessary, first to establish the number of ships that France ought to be able to put to sea the moment that war should be declared. "On this head," said M. Collas, the secretary, "we have a certain basis. Our adversary is known-it can only be England!" Thiş shows, pretty intelligibly, with what view all the augmentations of the French fleet have since been made. At the sitting of the Commissioners, on the 12th of February, 1851, they came unanimously to the resolution that twenty firstclass full-power steam-frigates should be constructed with as little delay as possible, and that all other available sailing frigates should be provided with auxiliary propellers; fifty corvettes, with screws, were also to be furnished; twenty large-sized steam transports were to be constantly held in readiness, to meet any exigencies that might occur. An examination of the dates of the French vessels, built and commenced since that period, shows that these resolutions have been more than complied with. From the report of the Com, mission itself-a very few copies of which have been allowed to escape from official hands, and probably not more than one or two have found their way to this country-it would seem that the intention is to keep a tolerably strong squadron of reserve at each of the ports of Dunkirk, Havre, Cherbourg, St. Malo, Brest, Lorient, and St. Nazaire; to maintain constant communication between all these by means of fast steam cruisers constantly threatening the British shores, and thus blockading to a certain extent all our southern and western ports. The reserves are to be sufficiently formidable, to enable a sudden descent to be made upon England, should a favourable opportunity occur, when France shall have resolved to make the spring.

It may be urged, in opposition to those who apprehend danger from France, that the recommendations of the French commissioners, and the preparations which ensued, belong to a period dating eight years ago— that since that time France and England have been allied in arms against a common enemy-that the late war in Italy had a special purpose only, which is now accomplished-and that, consequently, our apprehensions are groundless. Let us hear, however, what a well-informed writer in the Daily News observed only ten days ago:

Notwithstanding all that has been said about an alleged disarmament, the efficiency of every branch of the French marine is daily increasing, and we have reason to know that the construction of every man-of-war and transport, now upon the stocks is, while we write, proceeding with the same alacrity and energy that characterised its progress two months ago.

Of the animus by which the French are stimulated, hear also what Mr. Hans Busk says:

"Our great aim, for years back," said a French naval officer, conversing, not long since, somewhat unreservedly with the author upon this topic, "has been gradually to increase our Marine, so as to enable us at any time to be fully on a par with your country in any contest for maritime supremacy. A resolution formed in the year 1846 determined what our naval policy should be; and although we have had, as you know, many changes since then in our government, still nothing has occurred to alter the line of action prescribed in the ordonnance passed twelve years ago. On the contrary, celui que nous avons maintenant is as fully bent as any man in this empire can be upon the humiliation of your country. He considers it his destiny to accomplish that work, and he knows full well that the first blow to be struck is one which must crush once and for ever your naval power. Be assured that he will not attempt to hurry on matters till he finds himself in a position to fully execute this cherished design with every prospect of prompt success; so as, in fact, to be able to dictate, in a few days after striking the blow, such a peace from St. James's Palace as shall best suit the interests and pretensions of France."

And the belief in this foreshadowed catastrophe, Mr. Busk adds, "may be regarded as the main article in the creed of the great body of French officers;" and to show that it is so, he adduces many pertinent examples.

Menaced, then, we are; and whether the peril of invasion be immediate or remote, is little to the purpose. We have ourselves admitted-it has been the theme of every debate in parliament, of every discussion out of doors-that the state of our defences, naval and military, is inadequate to the exigencies of our position. We may or may not be capable of dealing with a foe like France on a footing of physical equality, if all her forces were mustered for the purpose of invasion-into that argument we do not enter; but this much is certain-the possibility of our being unequal to the great occasion should never for one instant be made a question.