GENERAL SUMMARY.

Otago Witness, Issue 643, 26 March 1864, Page 17

GENERAL SUMMARY.

EUROPEAN NEWS.

(From the " Home News.")

Few years ever went out with a worse reputation than 1863. A great number of public calamities marked its progress, and few benefits of any kind. Everybody is looking forward hopefully to the new year, on the principle that when things come to the worst they must change. But we are sorry to say appeal ances are by no means in favor of this cheering anticipation. The complications in Europe grow thicker and thicker, nnd the aspects which not long since justified the belief that war might be averted, now deepen into a gloom which looks as if peace were no longer possible. The speck, at first no bigger than a man's hand, is expanding into a cloud in Schleswig-llolstein.

The first incident in the narrative is the resignation of the Danish ministry, •who unanimously refused to take any step towards the abrogation of the common constitution by which Schleswig was to be incorporated in the kingdom of Denmark. In consequence of this measure, his Majesty was obliged to fall back upon the people, and to abandon all intention of yielding that point, notwithstanding that he was counselled to do so by France and England. Prussia and Austria immediately advised the Diet to demand the withdrawal of the constitution, and, in tho event of a refusal, to occupy Schleswig. The answer of the Diet was to outvote the proposition of the tsvo great German Powers, who at once declared their determination to take the matter into their own hands.

During this interplay of menaces, active Federal execution went forward in Holstein, accompanied by circumstances that imparted to it the colour of a design which the Diet affected to disclaim, but which it really promoted. On the last day but one of the old year, the Duke of Angusttnburg entered Kiel in an open carriage, and was immediately proclaimed King in the presence of a tumultuous and enthusiastic assemblage of the people. It is clear that the Duke of Augustenburg, without funds or forces, would never have ventured to present himself at Kiel, if the Federal troops were not already in possession ; and it is no less obvious that, although the Federal troops did not. take part in any of these proceedings, they created the opportunity for them, and morally sanctioned them. Federal execution, therefore, was made to cover a dynastic revolution ; and without waiting for any further development of the movement, King Christina would have been legally justified in regarding it as a declaration of war, and in marching troops at once into Holstcin. But he still maintained the attitude which he was in some sort pledged to his allies to observe. What course he will adopt depends upon certain eventualities which may be loosely gathered from the following isolated facts and rumors.

Prussia and Austria lost no tim-2 in putting their intentions into operation. They transmitted an ultimatum to the Danish government through their Ministers at Copenhagen, demanding within 48 hours the revocation of the offending constitution, the alternative being the termination of diplomatic intercourse. Acting on the immediate advice of England, the Danish government requested a delay of six "weeks to enable them to submit the ultimatum to the Risgraad; but this very moderate request was refused, the German Ministers at the same time leaving Copenhagen. This result had been foreseen and provided for ; the German troops were put into motion on the following day, and an army of about 50,000 men will be collected on the Eider on the 6th of February. in two or three days after which the pasv sage of the river will be attempted. In the interval France and England will again remonstrate, and should their remonstrances fail, a war involving, probably, all the great States of Europe will be the inevitable consequence. That Austria and Prussia should provoke such war is hardly credible, since the occupation of the Rhine Provinces, and revolutions in Galicia,Hungary and Venetia, must be amongst its earliest fruits. But when a madness of this kind has set in, we suppose it must have Us fit out. The usual congratulations of New Year's Day were nardly over, when an Orsini plot, as it is described, was discovered in Paris. The alleged culprits are three Italians and another foreigner, who had recently come from Italy. A great quantity of gunpowder (asserted to be English), revolvers, poniard?, air-guns, and hand grenades of the Orsini pattern, were discovered in theii lodgings ; and a letter from Lugano of a compromising nature was found in the pocket of oue of them. These men have been duly committed for trial, and we shall doubtless, have another sensational conspiracy case to add to the dramatic annals of French political jurisprudence. The Parisians were shrewd enough from

the first to suspect thet the circumstances | were greatly exaggerated by the police, and it turns Out that they were right. The whole plot was described as having been got up by Mazzini, with whom the intended assassins were in correspondence, and from whom a compromising letter was stated to have been seized at the post-office. M. Mazzini has publicly disclaimed all knowledge of the four Italians, with the exception of one of them, Greco, whom he knew as he has known some hundreds of impassioned Italian youths, but with whom he has had no intercourse for eight or nine months. Every important particular implicating Mazzini is absolutely false: Mazzini never employed anyone to kill the Emperor ; never gave anybody money or weapons for such a purpose ; and the whole story about the organisation of the plot, and the correspondence connected with it, is a naked fabrication. What then becomes of the extremely minute assertions Greco is declared to have made? of the writing, supposed to be Mazzini's, which was found stitched 'up in the lining of his trousers? and of the letter from Mazzini, enclosing 500 francs seiz d at the Post Office? The police, if this ingenious romance be of their concoction, have overshot the mark. Nobody will attend to the alarm hereafter, even should a veritable wolf threaten the innocent fold at the Tuilleries. The four Italians, notwithstanding, appear to be desperadoes of an infamous stamp ; nor is their case mended by the falsehoods they have uttered, if it be they who have charged Mazzini with complicity in their abominable design. They will be tried early next month.

A grave problem is undergoing gradual solution in France. It lies, as usual, between the people and the Emperor, or as some journals less accurately express it, between the people and the Government. The experiment, of a representative Chamber based upon universal suffrage, although little better than a fiction in reality, has produced a result that has been sensibly ftlt. It has let a few men into the Legislature who have made themselves heard, and the echo of their speeches all over Europe has considerably discomfited his MajeUy and his advisers. His Majesty did not hesitate upon the recent inauguration of a French cardinal to warn M. Thiers and his friends of the tempests they were invoking 5 but the threat has fallen like a spent thunderbolt. The opposition to the government, within and without the Chamber, proceeds with even greater vigour than before, and it is clear that the struggle is assuming a magnitude which cannot much longer be confined to the narrow limits of mere Parliamentary discussion. The Government candidates have been signally defeated in two out of the three elections which have just taken place in the provinces. These are signs which cannot be mistaken for mere local ebullitions of popular sentiment. They spring from a deeply seated and universal feeling, which rolled back the tide of despotism and corruption in the capital, and defeated the Emperor's nominees at the very gates of the Tuilleries. The ministers affect to regard the elections of Paris witi indifference, as if they did not bear any particular signification. Paris, they say, is no lonzer France, and when it was lately de- | scribed by a member of the Opposition as the brain of France, the Count de Morny answered that if it were, France had a good heart and a bad head. These are dangerous epigrams. Sport of this kind resembles playing with edged tools, and it is not unlikely to cut the fingers of the players. The Ministers are already beginning to discern the peril in which they are placed,andto devise the means of averting it. Alarmed at the sounds which they have themselves produced by sweeping the strings, they cannot see any remedy short of destroying the instrument. Having created a desire for perfect libert)' t by granting a temporary instalment, they are so frightened by its natural consequences that, instead of completing their work, they are now said to be intent upon its total destruction. The Emperor, it appears, has had enough of liberal " ideas" in his programmes, and it is currently believed that he means to return to thp good old system of absolutism. A free press and a free Parliament are fit only for nations in their nonage. France is too matured to be agitated by every wind of doctrine. Accordingly all sorts of rumours are afloat as to the advice which his Majesty's ministers have tendered upon this occasion, The sum of all the schemes for breaking down the opposition in and out of the Legislature is, that his Majesty should resume the whole power of the State into his own hands. M. de Persigny is said to have urged him to have recourse to a coup d'etat, by which Paris should be at once declared hostile to his Majesty's dynasty, as a justification for taking into his own hands the nomination of its representatives, or, it may be, the suppression of its representation. Such advice as this would, bring a minister in some

countries into imminent risk of losing not only his office, but his head ; in France, they order these things differently, and we are not much surprised, therefore, to hear that such a recommendation was submitted to his Majesty's consideration, nor should we be very much astonished to find that his Majesty had really attempted to put it iuto execution.

One of the symptoms of the political season, close upon the opening of Parliament, is the preyalence of speech-making, and the interchange of confidences between members and their constituents. The most prominent amongst recent displaye of this nature was a speech addressed by Mr Milner Gibson to his constituents at Ashton. The speaker touched upon almost every topic now before the world, but it was singularly curious and not uninstructive, how very little light he threw upon any of them. The purpose of the speech was to maintain generally the reputation of the speaker as a liberal politician, without committing him to a single practical pledge, or even to a definite one. The Cabinet Minister overshadowed the popular member, and whoever desires to see how opposite themes may be apparently reconciled by words, and how a man may deliver a long oration and say nothing all the time, may study that speech at Ashton with advantage. Reform was passed over with a smile. It was for the people to indicate their wishes, and make j them felt— which means, if it means anything, that the function of Government is | not to originate such measures, but to wait I until they are forced to yield to them by i pressure from without. As to the ballot Mr Gibson was nowhere. He, of coarse, was always an advocate for the ballot, but then it was for ballot to be optional with the voter, which amounts exactly to no ballot a' all, since the class for whose protection it is said to be necessary i 3 the J very class which, under auch circumstaces, would be practically excluded from the benefits of of it. Upon America alone Mr Gibson spoke out. He denounced the Southern movement as "a revolt against democracy, free labor, and the rights of nature." These phrases betray so much of the windbag, that the character of the whole argument in favor of the North may be inferred from them. Of a different scope and bearing was a speech delivered by Mr. E. Baines before the local Chamber of Commerce at Leeds It referred almost entirely to the present condition and prospects of British commerce, and abounded in facts and sound commentaries upon them. One of the main points dwelt upon by Mr Baines was the necessity that existed for the appointment of a minister who should be specifically entrusted with the care of our commercial relations. The suggestion is obviously one of great importance, and not unlikely to be followed up to its accomplishment at no very distant day. Mr. Baines also suggested the advantage that might be derived from the registration of partnerships, and warned Leeds of the inevitable reaction in the wool manufacture, reproving the country at large for the tendency to extravagant expenditure which was apparent in all directions. Not the least valuable warning, thrown out in this excellent speech referred to the present mania for joint stock companies, which, he trusted, a high rate of discount would ultimately check.

The resignation by Garibaldi of his seat in the Italian Parliament, has, as might have been expected, startled the Chamber out of its propriety. Some members proposed that the House should decline to receive the resignation, a foolish proposal, which was, of course, rejected. This was no sooner settled than nine members of the Left followed Garbaldi's example, and resigned their places. The attempt to enforce the conscription in Sicily is at the bottom of this movement, which cannot rest here, and must lead to consequences the most important that have happened since Piedmout swelled into Italy. Garibaldi's party are of opinion" that the measures taken in Sicily were severe ; but they are supported by the House, who approve of the conduct of the government. Garibaldi is of opinion that the time has come when other steps than those which are competent to deliberative assemblies should be taken ; he thinks that the Parliament should be dissolved, that Victor Emmanuel should be declared Dictator, and that the troops should first march to the rescue of Venetia, and then " seize" Rome. Victor Emmanuel, although he is not prepared to adopt Garibaldi's programme, is evidently of much the same way of thinking. At the reception on New Year's Day, he expressed a hope that Italy in 1864 "would achieve the ends which she had failed to secure in 18G3. If Urn does not mean Venetia and Rome, what does it mean?

There is no news from America. The war is standing still in the presence of Father Frost, and gold in New York is at a premium of 5'U per cent. The Confederates have gone into winter ■ quar-

ters in Tennessee, which shows that there are no great apprehensions entertained of hostilities in that quarter. The siege of Charleston proceeds with its usual characteristic inefficiency. But although a general inaction pervades the armies on both sides, the governments relax nothing of their indomitable determination. They fulminate anathemas with uudiminished liveliness on both sides, and we may fairly calculate oit the continuance of the war as long as there is a shot in the locker.

Parliament is really to meet for business on the 4th of next month. The interval is being busily filled up by addresses of members to their constituents and public meetings on a diversity of questions. It is the old story of six year 3of sin and one of repentance ; and just before the reassembling of the national representatives, every man who feels that he has, or has not, quite adequately discharged his trust, is eager to make his peace. It will be a busy and important session, and the weighty political matters to be brought forward will be interspersed by others of a more lively interest. Amongst the latter will be the Crawley court-martial, which will be the subject of a motion, or, at least, of a discussion, early in the session Sherard Osborn's Chinese expedition is also expected to be early brought under the notice of Parliament, There is an, energetic party in England that always condemned the enterprise, and looked upon it, even in the utmost immediate success, as being inevitably fraught with future disasters to England. What will they say now that it has suddenly collapsed, and that all the commercial advantages we were to have derived from it, and for which our merchants were already making speculative preparations, have come to nought ?

But the session is looked forward to with interest, chiefly on account of the great European topics that are waiting for exposition. The leaders of the Commons are earnestly summoning their adherents to their posts on the opening day, when " business of importance" is to be introduced. The Conservatives are visibly preparing for an onslaught on the Treasury benches ; but the country is not prepared to look with favour on a party manoeuvre at the present momentous crisis. It is expected that on the day of the opening, Lord Palmerston will lay the whole question affecting the state of Europe before the House.

In the midst of fog and frost, surrounded by all the signs of a severe winter and manaced from more points of the compass than one of. symptoms of war, England has to be congratulated on the birth of a Prince; Her Royal Highness the Princess of Wales was delivered of a " fine boy" (we use the language of the telegram), on the morning of the Bth January at Frogmore, and botfa mother and child have "done perfectly well" ever since. Such incidents are always regarded as auspicious events in England, the loyalty of the people leading them instinctively to rejoice in the increase of the royal family. On this occasion there wag additionl reason for congratulation. It came at a moment, when, from many causes, the national horizon was overcast,and it came, too, at a season whea such a gift was welcomed by the country amongst the blessings and happy auguries of the New Year.

At home herein England, people for the most part were so glad to have quite done with 1863, that they have been looking more to Christmas trees, New Year's gifts, and Twelfth Cakes for current occupation than to the course of political events. A stray member of Parliament finds audience for a string of platitudes ia the country ; but it you want to know how 'the population at large is employed you must peep into the theatres and- musichalls, and regale your eyes by glimpses of home life, cottage hearths, and bright holiday interiors. The revenue shows a deficiency on the quarter and year just ended. But who cares for that? We j know it is not from weakness or failure of I resources. We know that the wealth of England was never greater or more elastic, and that this deficit is in reality an evidence of our strength, since it arises mainly from the reduction of the tea duty and the income tax. So long as we caa aftord to 'diminish our taxation without feeling the consequences of a diminished income, we may sit down to our Christm&s pudding and our solid roast beef with an. easy mind and a hearty appetite.