years to Japan? At thirty years of age they might be famous, and never would the Temple of Fame have been approached by a more flowery path.
An event of some importance in the last days of this month, which has just expired, has been the return of Sir James Brooke to Borneo. The illness which for a time had paralysed the exertions of this great Englishman has passed away, and he has now returned to the seat of his government with energies renewed, and, as it is to be hoped, with a better understanding with the authorities at home, than at any previous period of his career. Now that the importance and real significance of the exertions of this noble life are better understood in our Government offices, English statesmen are coming round to the opinion, that the judgment of the country with regard to Sir James Brooke has been wiser than their own.
The Indian Archipelago will soon be the theatre of great events, for the Dutch even now are engaged in a conflict with their native subjects, which, for intensity, and sanguinary incidents, may well be compared with the mutiny of our own Indian troops. The turn which affairs may take is quite problematical, and the greatest apprehensions as to the event exist at Amsterdam and the Hague.
The results and intelligence of the Last Week warrant an especial notice of recent occurrences in those distant eastern regions, which, but a few years back, were known to us in so imperfect a manner that any one who from his own personal experience could tell us something about the British Factory at Canton, or the custom of merchants at Batavia, was looked upon as a very remarkable man. Still we must not forget what is passing nearer home. By the continental mails of Last Week we hear that the political agony of the young King of Gaëta is still prolonged, and that Pio Nono—Priam-like—is still brandishing his now headless spear in the face of his many foes. The news from Hungary and Austria is, perhaps, of the highest significance.
The Austrian Empire is in extremities, and the government of the country, and the chief authority upon all propositions for change, are practically vested in a few old gentlemen, a few old ladies, and the Court confessors. These strange representatives of statesmanship are just now suggesting concessions which are indeed no concessions at all, but rather aggravations of the old misrule. The strongest discontent—discontent so strong that it bids fair to produce fruit in action—is felt even in the Tyrol, and the Tyrolese mountaineers have hitherto been the most staunch, the most unswerving, and the most bigoted partisans of the Hapsburghs. In Styria, Carinthia, Salzburg, it is the same thing, and whilst the Empire is really in danger of dissolution, the effete advisers of the young Emperor are engaged in defining with curious precision who shall, and who shall not, be admitted to the ecstatic privilege of wearing a red coat with gold lace. Bad as all this is, it is nothing to what is occurring in Hungary, where, in very truth, Francis Joseph must conquer in the field if his resolution is taken on the side of despotism. But the very soldiers on whose fidelity he must place his reliance would, to all appearance, be the first to rejoice at his defeat.
Three hundred thousand men in arms constitute the force which has been arrayed for the defence of Venetia should the Austrians be attacked there i in the forthcoming spring. It is a mighty army if the troops were but faithful and well fed; but neither of these conditions are fulfilled. The i Austrian officers are engaged in executing their own soldiers for insubordination and mutiny, and it seems more than doubtful what their conduct would be if they were led into the field. Judicial blindness has struck the Austrian Emperor and his advisers, and they will not see the writing on the wall, although to all eyes but their own it is written in a reasonably firm text-hand. Politicians in London tell you that before the conflict is actually commenced, the Austrian court will not refuse to part with Venetia, as old Trapbois would have said, for a consideration—but as they are called upon to sell not only Venetia, but their revenge upon that Italian race which they have so bitterly scorned, it seems questionable if they will be brought to terms before another sharp lesson has been administered to them at the bayonet’s point. It may well be that the best thing which could happen to the Italians would be to be called upon to join in a common enterprise, which would cause them to forget for a while their sectional antipathies, and break them into those habits of discipline and self-control, without which a nation never yet was great.
Meanwhile the French Emperor is playing fast and loose with the Italians, as always since the peace of Villa-Franca. But for the orders issued to his naval commanders the Sardinians would now be in Gaëta. But for the presence of his troops in Rome, the Pope would now be far enough away from the Eternal City. It seems to be his policy to allow the Holy Father to drift down into a condition of insolvency, although what his next step will be, when the bankruptcy of the Vatican has been declared, is not so clear. The French regiments are steadily reinforced within the limits of the Patrimony, and there is nothing in the military movements to show that the French have the remotest idea of giving up the capital of this country to the Italians. As long as foreign troops remain in any portion of the Italian Peninsula the spirit of the people can never be what it should be amongst a nation of free men. The French drum, as it rolls whilst the regiments of the French Emperor pass in and out of Rome by the Porta del Popolo, marks that Italy has not yet attained her independence. To use the old form of expression—if the heart of an Italian patriot could now be opened, the word “Rome” should be found marked upon its core.
But whilst Louis Napoleon is so busy in Italy, he is not forgetting to keep the attention of his own subjects alive. He, too, has promulgated his phantom of a constitution, which just seems to amount to this, that in the French Chambers—elected as they are known to be—a certain amount of discussion upon the measures introduced by the Imperial Ministers may be allowed.