his dependence on land forces, and requires such an | from London could not be shipped on board the augmentation of the regular army as could be had packet in waiting for it. How would it have fared at the cost of 400,000l., together with a militia with an invading fleet in such weather. But it force of 150,000 men. The total expense (sup- may be answered, the enemy would choose his posing the militia to be out all the year, as they time; so he might, but the duke's assertion is, were during the former apprehension of invasion) that there are no circumstances of tide, wind, or would be little short of the amount of the in-weather, that could prevent a landing. Have we come tax! He would also have a considerable not a reasonable right to discredit conclusions drawn increase of stores, so as to put us altogether on the war footing of 1804. "I would recommend to have an alphabetical list of the stores examined by a committee, and made out in form, as upon the enclosed half sheet of paper, by ascertaining what there was in 1804, and what there is in store now, of each article, and the difference between the two accounts. from premises so notoriously untrue, though put forth with fully as much parade of authority as recklessness of all but the effect of idle alarm? We should defer to the duke's opinions more if they were formed on a sober view of the realities of our position, and our neighbor's powers of molestation. "I have taken the year 1804 as the standard, as difference he has treated as so slight between the Let his grace also reflect a little more on the that was the year in which the invasion was threatened. It was previous to the employment of the state of war in 1804 and the state of France in armies in the Peninsula or North America; in 1848; at the former period there having been a short, as nearly as possible similar to the political Napoleon on the throne of France, with an unincircumstances in which we stand at this moment, ex-terrupted career of success; and on our side many cepting that we are now at peace with France-we military reverses, political divisions of great virulence, and no small amount of dangerous discon were then at war. The political circumstances, forsooth, were then as nearly as possible similar, excepting only the small fact of the grand and essential difference of war instead of peace! But that little dissimilarity may be removed by the menacing armament suited to the state of war. The physiognomist says that in simulating the features we catch the disposition expressed by them, and nations in assuming the features of war put themselves in the mood for it. As it is with individuals, so it is with communities. When swords were worn, quarrels were quick and deadly; as arms ceased to be carried in precaution, the peace of society became less subject to disturbance. Great, deservedly great, is the authority of the Duke of Wellington on military questions; but this question of defences is not necessarily nor wholly military-it involves naval considerations and political probabilities. And the Duke of Wellington, though the first of soldiers, is not the most infallible of prophets. tent. Yet, we repeat, we dispute not the prudence of augmenting our establishments wherever there is proved insufficiency. We are adverse to a war expenditure in profound peace; but we are for maintaining our establishments on such a scale, that in the event of need they can be expanded to meet the emergency. Soldiers are soon made; not so seamen practised in marine gunnery. Our There was a time when he could not see how steam navy wants further development, as we have the sovereign's government could be carried on before admitted; and we believe the same to be without rotten boroughs, as indispensable then, in the case with the artillery, which, though a model his view, to the existence of the crown, as 150,000 of excellence to its extent, is on a scanty, if not a militiamen and 400,000l. worth of additional reg-miniature scale. Both these improvements could ulars now are to the safety of the country. But be made at no serious cost, supposing it to be done the invasion of democracy he then foretold has not taken place, and the invasion of the French may be as much a dream of the ducal mind. And the duke has comforted us by showing the fallacious grounds on which his fears have sprung up. Let him ask the first pilot he falls in with at Walmer, whether a landing can be effected in any weather and wind at any part of the southern coast? The answer will dissipate his worst apprehensions, and wonderfully assure him. In the very news of the day lying before us, we find a paragraph stating that the Onyx mail-packet from Ostend was unable to land her passengers at Dover on Wednesday last, and that the day-mail not on the enormous scale to prepare the forces to meet invasion which may never happen, but to put them on such a footing as to be equal to bearing the first brunt of hostilities, and to be susceptible of the further expansion that might be necessary. -Examiner, 8 Jan. THE FRENCH AT BRIGHTON. "JOLLY MR. PUNCH,-As a lone woman, sir, I been reading the Sussex Advertiser, and Brighton. write to you about our Natural Defences. I've it seems, is in a pretty state of déshabille, and may be surprised any morning-as one may say-with its hair in papers, afore the town knows where it is. "The place is ruined, Mr. Punch; lodgers not coming here, as thinking themselves double hazardous. For is it to be believed, sir, that married men with families will let their wives and children come down when at no notice at all-the town may be boarded by the French fleet, and screaming women and children be carried off in gigs and jolly-boats; to say nothing of the property? about soldiers; when they're not useful, they're very nice to look at. Once I used to think there was a sort of protection about the royal liveries, that now and then flamed in and out of the Pavilion. To be surepoor things!—they rather looked like the ghosts of footmen or board wages, than the stout rosy fellows that, when George the Fourth used to bathe here, made the place so gay and handsome. Well, sir, now they are gone. It was a sad sight, but only yesterday the last footman (with a carpet-bag marked faded worsted, 'G. R.') took his long leave of Brighton by the second train. "And yet, Mr. Punch-as my poor dear Gerkins used to ask, and 'specially when he'd had a glassand yet, we are called upon every day, I may say, to pay taxes. Yes, sir, we are made to pay win-in dow-lights, when, at any minute, our sashes may be blown to mince-meat by the cannon-balls of the French? As Gerkins would have said, is this honest of her majesty's ministers? "And there's the Pavilion, as empty and goodfor-nothing as a shell that's held an addled egg! What should be done with that, sir? Why, I'll tell you. It should be worked with loop-holes over and over, and be filled from top to bottom with brass cannons. If brass can't be got, let 'em, without owning it, try wood, as better matching the build. ing. "If ever there was a town that had its weakness -and that weakness known to the French-it is this precious Brighton. Of course. Why, I myselfnever minding what I thought the nonsense of natʼral enemies, so as they paid their way-I have let my first and second floor to French families, that now, I'm "And moreover, sir, as it's the dull season, 1 sure of it, only took 'em for spies. Yes, sir; I've do think-especially as the court's left us-that no doubt that Periwinkle Villa, Marine Parade-government might take all the lodging-houses (the that's my house, sir, and painted from top to toe barracks not holding 'em) for the soldiers. First only last May-is known to all the French. There and second floor for officers-third, for men. is n't a French soldier (I'll be bound) that does n't know where to put his hand upon the plate-basket —not a man among 'em but would n't, in the dark, find his way to the beer-cellar. (Not but what I shall take precious good care to disappoint 'em.) "And this is the case with every other house in the place. We are known inside and out. We have n't a garret hid from 'em. They may cut us up, and share us out like cakes. "Struck by this happy thought, I send you my card of terms. Ten guineas first floor, seven the second. Plate and linen found. (Boots not included.) Address post-paid, and believe me, "Your obedient servant, "MARY GERKINS. "P. S. As at such a time England-as poor Gerkins used to say-expects every woman to do her duty, I shall have no objection (for an extra "Thinking of this, I put on my bonnet and vic-three pounds) to mount two cannons at my attic wintorine, and went out to take a good look of the town. dows, if warranted not to be fired." When I saw that we 'd only a handful of guns at West street, and not so much as a pocket-pistol at Seaford Bay, I said to myself—What's to prevent the French coming here whenever they like? Why -I'm certain of it-when the moon did n't shine, they might come over, and let themselves into all the town with latch-keys; for it is n't likely-so many lodgers as there have been here-that they went away without taking false ones. "I am not a timid woman, Mr. Punch-poor Gerkins would always allow that much of me ;-but upon my word and honor I do assure you, when I saw myself standing on the Marine Parade with not a gun-no, not a single piece of cold iron, as the words go-between me and France, I did tremble for Brighton; I did tremble for my queen, (though her majesty has left us for the Isle of Wight;) and I did tremble for Prince Albert and the rest of the royal family. "I do hope, Mr. Punch, that you will write directly to Rear-Admiral Lord John Russell-(who, I have somewhere heard, once did such wonders when he commanded the channel fleet)-and beg of him to send two or three hundred ships always to lie between us and the French. The wooden walls, sir-as poor Gerkins used to say-the true hearts of oak that grow the laurel! And, moreover, I do think, if government would only send down Mr. T. P. Cooke to dance twice a-night the sailor's college hornpipe, it would do a great deal of good to public spirit. We 1848. It is manifestly impossible that the year upon which we are entering should exhibit anything like the combination of notable events and visitations which marked the year just gone. shall not again have, in one year, an Irish famine, a commercial crisis, and total absence of agricultural distress; a general election, returning an unwonted number of new members; an extraordinary session of some five weeks, with its Irish coercion bill, its talk and select committee on the money-laws, and its Jew bill; a disputed election of a bishop; a season of uncommon mortality with influenza, and a new sanatory commission-precursor, it is to be hoped, of some board of health with more extensive powers. Such a combination can happen but once in the annals of a country. But though we can pronounce that negative with some confidence, positive assurances of the future are not so easy. It will be safe to anticipate a chequered future. In respect of agriculture, the anticipations are of the most cheerful kind; a vigorous demand seems to be met by unusual plenty ; and practical improvements are making rapid progress. In trade the prospect is more equivocal and dark; panic is over, but not pressure; the "However, at least, I do trust that you will insist upon the heads and branches of families all going banking difficulty has nearly ceased, yet a tightinto the militia. Not that I hope we shall have any ness of money continues; and the only path to use for them-'specially with the hearts of oak renewed prosperity is still through industry and beating in the sea-but there is always this beauty parsimony. In politics additional obscurity is 5th January, 1846-£47,656,161, and on the 5th January, 1848-£47,616,878; the decrease of the last year, as compared with the prosperous year 1845, being only £39,283. thrown on the future by the absence of party or of any great cause. Those who used to count on some faction, stout in virtue while out of office, have to regret the want of those distinct party alliances which might usually be employed to attack There is some truth in these representations; or press the government. This signifies, on the but the fact still remains, that there is a formidable one hand, that public measures have to depend decrease on the quarter and on the year-that our more on their own merits, or on the zeal of pro- revenue, in short, is not producing so much as it moters, than on corrupt alliances; and, on the did in 1846, or even as it did in 1845, when the other hand, that if officials cannot be moved with-deduction occasioned by repealed and lowered out the less worthy motives of party interest, the public will have to seek them, through the representative chamber, from other classes besides those now privileged to present candidates for office. There will probably be an anti-Jew bill agitation -though we see no present signs of anything very alarming of that kind. Possibly there may be a sequel to the Hampden controversy, which has already put the church in danger. On the whole, the year just begun presents some darkness of horizon, but ample room for hopeful exertion, large promise of important events.-Spectator, 1 Jan. BRITISH REVENUE AND EXPENDITURE.-Increased expenditure with a declining revenue is the untoward financial process proclaimed by documents which we reprint this week. duties was most recent. The still more formida ble fact also stands prominently forth, that the surplus of the consolidated fund at the end of the quarter is only £852,000. One Yet, in the publication of the Duke of Wellington's letter on national defence, we see the inevitable necessity of an increased expenditure. Such a combination of straitened exchequer and enlarged demands for money will make Sir Charles Wood's post next session no sinecure. It will be impossible to stave off the difficulty with new loans, and the only resort must be to increased taxes; a step troublesome and unpopular, but not to be postponed. It has been deferred long enough. consequence of delaying to make the taxation adequate to the demands on the country is, that the actual state of our finances is disguised, and that The revenue-tables, both for the year and quarwith straitened means we continue a style of exter, present a formidable array of figures under the penditure, private as well as public, not suited to head of "decrease." On the quarter, there is a a really straitened state of finance. With dimindecrease in customs, (£400,000,) excise, (£360,-ished means in 1848 we shall have to make good 000,) and stamps, (£175,000 ;) the whole decrease the shortcomings of 1847. Of course the estimates on the quarter amounts to £1,155,000. On the year, the principal decrease occurs in customs, (£295,000,) excise, (£790,000,) miscellaneous, (£130,000,) China money, (£667,000,) and repayinent of advances, (£500,000 ;) the whole decrease on the year amounting to £2,217,000. will pass with less than the usual facility. A more rigid economy will be enforced; and parliament will demur to sanctioning expenditure on any object which is not worth its cost. For instance, everybody will ask what we get for our expenditure on the African squadron ? The state of the finances will sharpen inquiries of that sort.-Spec LOUIS PHILIPPE AND JAMES K. POLK. HOWEVER opposed to each other in the obvious characteristics of length and style, the two official addresses which come to us this week from the South and the West-Louis Philippe's speech to his Chambers, and James K. Polk's message to Congress—have one trait in common, that they are both conceived in a spirit of courting popularity. Some ministerial writers have endeavored to throw so rose-colored a light on these unpleasant tator, 8 Jan. tables, as to make out that in fact we are almost as prosperous as if there had been no decrease. Of such optimists the Chronicle is the most successful. The quarter is compared with the last previous quarter, ending on the 10th October, 1847, in which the decrease was £1,500,000. Again, the ordinary revenue for the year is compared with that for the previous year. The extraordinary items are very properly thrown out of the account, as not having much to do with the condition of the country; the "repayment of advances," for instance, is not really revenue; and China money is a casual windfall, which has no relation with national prosperity or adversity. The ordinary revenue for the year ending on the 5th January, 1847, showed an increase, over the previous year, of £1,028,000; the decrease on the ordinary revenue for the year just ended being £1,067,000; so that we have not much more than fallen back in the standing items of revenue to the extent of the increase during the year ending on the 5th January, 1847. The same fact is shown by the total ordinary revenue for the years ending on the A besetting weakness of the Anglo-American race is an arrogant pride, which prompts the citizens to look down upon every other nation, even in matters where they themselves are inferior, and deem it a favor if they condescend to conquer. Of late years this spirit has assumed the military form, which is its most appropriate and imposing avatar; and under that inspiration the republicans are breaking through the injunctions of their great fathers, the Washingtons and Jeffersons, not to meddle in foreign affairs, nor be betrayed into the delusive dangers of conquest. Mr. James Polk, having had greatness thrust upon him, is naturally ambitious both of deserving and of re- to incur, he raises his expiring voice in vain denial. taining it; but he can devise no more exalted plan He has used up his resources; in his craft he has than that of truckling to the popular passions-to used up his own repute for an Ulysses-like disthe lowest passion which a nation can own col-creetness; he has used up all the humbugs of the lectively, that of national robbery-the one most day in France-the glory of the "three days," perilous to his beloved country, that of territorial extension by military conquest. His message is an apology for such courses, couched in language so barefaced that it can pass current only among the rude and vulgar. He is either a pander to those classes, or a type of them; perhaps both. of which Lafayette so naïvely made him a present; the military ardor of his people; the reputation, nay, the personal honor of his minister, who has permitted the aged chief to send him down to posterity with a tarnished name. The king has tried to reconcile Austrian support with English support, Spanish encroachment with betrayal of French traditions in Italy. To one thing he has stuck throughout-the establishment of his dynasty, as a settlement for his children. His absorption in that scheme has betrayed him, and endangered its success, to such a degree that he, on his throne, is obliged to defend himself against after-dinner speeches to counteract their effect on the nation with hollow professions. Can much better be said of Louis Philippe? His speech has the brevity, the polish, the neutral tone of indifference, which constitute the trick of royal dignity; but it is as manifest a homage to the people as the President's long message. It is, indeed, a more genuine submission: Louis Philippe has been reminded of what he owes to the people, and makes his acknowledgments. For some years, while his whole efforts seemed to be concentrated on preserving the peace of Europe, he Both the American President and the European won, from the peaceable, respect and praise; his monarch are truckling to the people for selfish neglect to fulfil the requirements of the charter purposes-Polk to retain his seat for four years were overlooked in his presumed zeal to develop more; Louis Philippe to fix his family on the the material welfare of France. In the heedless-throne. ness of success, or the diminished sense of re- not devoid of consolatory suggestion. Time was sponsibility which characterizes old age, he at last when rulers could play their pranks without conallowed it to be perceived that all this love of sulting the nation, which was helplessly dragged quiet was not for the sake of France, but for the after them to costly victory or degraded captivity; sake of his own family projects. His naked self- the compulsion to take counsel with the people ishness estranged the people who placed him on now, is some guarantee against abuse. In France, the throne; their alienation becomes dangerously we see that it brings back the king to a far wiser apparent; he is arraigned at the tribunal of pub-tone; and in that respect the monarchy seems to lic dinners—and before that tribunal he deigns to be better off than the republic. Polk follows his plead! 66 Both present an ugly spectacle; yet one people for evil, Louis Philippe for good. The reason is to be sought in the intellectual difference between the two peoples. France is a metropolitan country, high in mental culture and civilization. The United States retain much of the rudeness of a colonial country, full culture extending only to a minority so small as to possess comparatively slight influence. The result is, that the monarchy, with its limited suffrage and its undeveloped liberties, more thoroughly possesses itself, and controls its ruler to more useful purpose, than the model republic; whose ruder passions place it at the mercy of lower influences. Hence we learn, that the dignity and safety of nations resides less in the formal structure of in The fact that the king on his throne engages in controversy with the reformists, betrays a serious extent of weakness. Not a weakness of France, for France was never stronger than she is now in material resources, and her tranquillity is a new symptom of increasing moral strength. It is a weakness of the government which the king betrays. He feels it necessary to say something against those who refuse the homage of drinking his health after dinner; or who, without going to that revolutionary extent of special teetotalism, presume to criticise the position of the government. The king uses words which imply that his monarchy is" constitutional;" that a union of all powers in the state" will " satisfy all inter-stitutions than in the intelligence and moral elevaests ;" and that to maintain his government is to guarantee, according to the charter, the public liberties and all their developments;" the fact being, that he has very much forgot the charter, the public liberties, and the pledges under which he SPEECH OF THE FRENCH KING. took the crown. Absorbed in the business of his THE French are accustomed to have an annual life, the settlement of his family in the trade of dose of glory administered to them in a royal royalty, he has so far forgotten those things, as to speech. And they could no more set about the resort to that stifling of the press which deprived parliamentary business of the session without this his predecessor of the very crown he wears. fillip, than a dyspeptic could attack his dinner withSinking towards the tomb, before the sense has out his usual preparatory tonic. The chief busileft his ears, he hears the reproaches which pur-ness of a French minister was indeed to prepare sue his memory for a forfeited word; and, unable the vain-glorious cordial, to give it a new smack, to endure the reproach which he does not scruple a bright color, and a fresh name. It was the sub tion of the men themselves. It is not the Louis Philippes or the James K. Polks that mete out human advancement.-Spectator, 1 Jan. jugation of Africa one year, of Oceania another. | it is past, and the only aim in raising a discussion Lebanon and the Pyramids were favorite phrases. would be to inflict a stigma upon M. Guizot. But So was the immortality of Poland. Queen Pomare the policy pursued and to be pursued by the French was a fine name to attach to the triumphal car of a bulletin. The Queen of the Ovas in Madagascar was sought to be utilized in the same way. But sa Majesté Madecasse was not to be had. government towards Italy, is something of far greater importance. Is France to play second fiddle to Austria in Italian politics? Is she to support the conservative views of that power which has just sent a new army to the banks of the Po, as a perpetual menace to the liberal sovereign and people of that peninsula. In the debates of former years in the French chambers, there were champions of the English alliance, and champions of the Russian alliance. But never till now has any French politician come This year, however, M. Guizot overbrewed his cordial. He had something most " tremendous and splendacious" in preparation, something that was to astonish the conservatives with exuberant delight, fling radicals and liberals down to the dust, and place the names of Guizot and Louis Philippe close to Scipio and Alexander. M. Guizot's bright idea was to conquer Switzerland with one hand, forward to propose an Austrian alliance. We and present it to the Jesuits with the other. The Swiss, however, were as reluctant to figure as captives behind M. Guizot's car, as the Queen of the Ovas; and the promised triumphs of the French minister proved so signal a defeat, that he has been actually obliged to open the French chambers with several phrases of modesty, and not one of glorification. We cannot but congratulate the French ministers on such a decided improvement in official phraseology. For although the chief business of the French chambers has always been the arrangement of domestic matters, the discussion of centimes additionnels and of the rights of vaine pâture, still the programme which opened the session was too often astounding and alarming, and set the world of diplomacy and politics in perturbation for what in reality was but a strong phrase or a pointed paragraph. need not say that the alliance of France and Austria implies a sacrifice of Italy by the former to the latter power; probably in exchange, for Austria gives its voice and adherence in Spanish arrangements to France. What is this harmony but the sacrifice of the liberties of the two peninsulas to the family interests of the House of Orleans? Can M. Guizot have the hardihood to uphold such a line of policy before the French chambers? We should utterly doubt and disbelieve it, did we entertain our old idea of M. Guizot's prudence. But since his conduct in Switzerland, we fear that he has lost this precious quality of statesmanship. The consequence threatens to prove more fatal to himself personally, than to the countries in question, too strong and too wilful to be permanently overpowered by intrigue.—Examiner, 1 Jan. THE past week has been an eventful chapter in But this year the king of the French, instead French history; the king's sister, Madame Adeof brandishing his sceptre or his sword in the eyes laide, has suddenly fallen a victim to the prevailof Europe, actually condescends to think and speaking epidemic; her brother, aged, enfeebled by the of the condition of the poorer classes. This is a same malady, is bowed down by grief; and while happy descent from the majestic impertinence of sorrows dim the splendors of the throne at the new Louis the Fourteenth to the philanthropic simplic- year, intelligence arrives that Abd-el-Kader, so ity of Henry the Fourth. "I am the state," long the successful antagonist of France in Algeria, quoth the one. "May every Frenchman have a has surrendered to the Duc d'Aumale. chicken to boil," ejaculated the other. The political tendencies of these events are too obvious to need amplified notice. The death of the princess not only foretokens that of her elder brother, but may help to hasten it. It is lamentable to think how much less sympathy will attend the mourning monarch for this domestic calamity, than might have supported him before his family selfishness was so transparently betrayed as it has been in his later years. There is no lower class which feels taxation so m.uch as the French. For a very small proportion of them live by wages. They mostly exist on small bits of land of their own. They have thus no means of replacing what the tax-man takes from them. And the cruellest imposition is the salt-tax; the only provision which they use being, in fact, what they can save and cure with salt. It is a tax upon the cottier, and as such, the wonder The surrender of the Arab chief is not, as it is how it could have lasted for seventeen years ought to be, matter of unmixed gratulation; a after a popular revolution, and in a country where party use is made of it; the opposition journals the product of the usual taxes is yearly increasing, call for an instant reduction of the army. Probaand in which, with common prudence, no financial bly they expect no compliance, scarcely wish it, difficulties ought to be felt. However, the salt and only make the demand in order to register a duty is now to be reduced, and some modification standing grievance. It is for us in England to of Rowland Hill's plan of postage is to be intro- observe, that until the army be reduced, this duced, so as to allow the inhabitants of that vast removal of a dangerous foe virtually increases the empire to communicate with each other more French forces, by releasing a large portion from freely. We should not think that Switzerland would prove the chief subject of debate. The interest of active service. There is something at once amusing and painful in the announcement, that the Duc de Nemours is |