With regard to these Loans, however, it is necessary to observe that the total is not so serious as it appears. Not merely was the 46,236,3637. of nominal stock issued at prices that would greatly reduce the amount, but some of the most formidable loans in the list, such as the Austrian, for 14,600,0007, and the Ottoman, for 6,000,000l., were almost exclusively subscribed in Paris, while the Peruvian, of 9,000,0007., represented chiefly a proposed conversion of pre-existing bonds.

success.

With regard to future monetary prospects, much will depend upon the prudence exercised by the financial and commercial community in discouraging the efforts of speculative promoters to launch projects which possess no elements of legitimate The flood of delusive schemes recently palmed upon the public, with the sole design of enriching their originators, at the cost of the unwary persons who are tempted to embark in them, has induced an outcry in some quarters for the intervention of the Legislature. But the protection of investors against the consequences of their own rashness is certainly no part of the duty of a Government-the evil must be left to work its own cure. It should be observed also, in reference to the policy on which some persons are disposed to father all the disasters that have occurred, that it is not the principle of limited liability which is really at fault. A great portion of the evils now witnessed have arisen from the previous interference of the Legislature with individual freedom by prohibiting Companies and the public from making voluntary bargains with each other upon such terms as they mutually think fit; the sudden removal of the artificial obstruction thus so long maintained having been followed by a rush of undertakings that would otherwise have been in course of gradual and rational development for years past.

FOREIGN HISTORY.

CHAPTER I.

FRANCE.

Reception of the Diplomatic Body by the Emperor-The Encyclical Letter of the Pope-Conduct of the French Bishops with respect to its publication-The Finance Budget-Opening of the French Chambers, and Speech of the Emperor-Foreign Policy of the French Government-Report in the Blue Book of the internal condition of France-Report on the subject of Public Instruction-Debate in the Senate on the Address-Speeches of the Marquis de Boissy and others-Reply of the Emperor to the Address of the Senate-Death of the Duke de Morny, President of the Corps Législatif-Debate on the Address in the Corps Législatif-Speeches of MM. Ollivier, Rouher, and Thiers-Reply of the Emperor to the Address of the Corps Législatif - Reception of the news of the Assassination of President Lincoln -Bill for the Military Contingent for 1865-Visit of the Emperor to AlgeriaHis "Memorandum" in Algeria published on his return-Prince Napoleon's speech at Ajaccio on the policy of the Emperor-Letter of rebuke addressed to him by the Emperor in consequence-Speech of M. Thiers on the Budget-Reply of M. O'Quin, the Reporter on the Budget-Close of the Session of the Chambers-Municipal Elections in France-Circular of the Minister of the Interior on the subject-Interchange of courtesies between the French and English Fleets.

THE state of France throughout the whole of this year was one of profound peace and material prosperity. Whatever may be thought of her form of government by those who are accustomed to the blessings of constitutional liberty, there can be no doubt that commerce and manufactures flourish, and wealth increases under the Imperial régime. Confidence is the soul of credit, and credit is indispensable to trade. Revolutions and insurrections destroy all confidence, and conduct the merchant and the shopkeeper to bankruptcy. The French nation seems at present to prefer order and tranquillity under a species of military despotism, to the chances of disturbance under free institutions; and however much the more educated and intellectual part of the people may view with disgust a system which reduces political liberty within the narrowest limits, and checks the free utterance of opinion, we believe that the great mass of the nation is content to purchase quiet and prosperity even at the price of constitutional liberty.

On the 1st of January, the Emperor received, as usual, the Diplomatic Body at the Tuilleries; and in answer to their congratulations, expressed by the Papal Nuncio, replied :-"The congratulations of the Diplomatic Body, of which you are good

enough to be the mouthpiece, touch me sensibly. I trust that concord may continue to reign among us, of which your presence around me is a sure guarantee. Be convinced that I will make every effort that my relations with foreign Powers may be ever animated by respect for right and love of peace and justice."

The Emperor, in reply to the Archbishop of Paris, said:-"I thank you for the sentiments which you express in the name of the clergy of Paris, and for the prayers which you address to Heaven for me. I am very glad to see my efforts to maintain religious interests appreciated by the Prelate who governs the diocese of Paris, and I request your prayers for me, for the Empress, and for the Imperial Prince."

A good deal of trouble was caused in France by the issue of an Encyclical Letter by the Pope, on the 8th of December last year, which was full of the usual extravagant pretensions of the Holy See; and asserted its antiquated claims to decide on every thing ex cathedrá in the most unqualified terms.

It is contrary to the French law to publish a document of this kind from Rome without the leave of the Government. Even in the reign of Charles X., who was more than any French monarch in modern times under the influence of the priests, the Bishop of Beauvais, Monseigneur Feutrier, who was at the time Minister of Ecclesiastical Affairs, addressed, in 1829, on the occasion of an Encyclical Letter of Pope Pius VIII., a letter to his brother Bishops, in which he said:"As for the Encyclical, which may have come to your knowledge, the Pope not having demanded, and the King not having accorded permission to publish, it cannot be printed in the instructions which you may deem it your duty to address to the faithful of your diocese on the occasion of the jubilee, nor published in any other form."

A circular from the Minister of Justice, addressed to each of the Bishops, dated the 1st of January in the present year, informed him, that "As regards the first part of the Letter and the Appendix, your Eminence will understand that the reception and publication of these documents, which contain propositions contrary to the principles on which is based the Constitution of the Empire, could not be authorized."

And on the 5th of January, a decree appeared in the " Moniteur," which enacted as follows:-" Art. 1. The last part of the Encyclical Letter issued at Rome on the 8th of December, 1864, commencing by the words, Hisce-litteris auctoritate nostrá,' and announcing a universal jubilee for 1865, is received, and will be published in the Empire in the ordinary form.

"Art. 2. The above-mentioned part of the said Encyclical Letter is received without any approbation of the clauses, formulæ, or expressions which it contains, and which are or may be contrary to the laws of the Empire, as well as to the liberties, franchises, and maxims of the Gallican Church."

But the Archbishops and Bishops of the Ultramontane School

were little disposed to yield obedience to such a mandate; and no less than thirty-four Prelates, if not more, protested with more or less vehemence against the prohibition.

In a letter addressed by the Archbishop of Cambrai to the Minister of Justice and Public Worship, he said: "The restrictive measure signified to me by your Excellency astonishes and saddens me, all the more that the diffusion of the most antiChristian doctrines meets in our time with less obstacle. In our day every body is at liberty, as much and as often as he pleases, to deny the existence of God Himself, and to propagate atheism in writings to which he may give all the publicity he desires. Is it too much to ask for the same latitude for Catholic teaching? The prohibition imposed by your Excellency with regard to the Encyclical and its annex is characterized by a gravity of an exceptional character, which escapes no one. It applies not merely to a matter of discipline, but to doctrinal instruction proceeding from the Supreme Pontiff. No doubt, in certain circumstances and in certain countries, impediments may be offered to the communications of the Vicar of Jesus Christ with the faithful whom he has the mission to instruct and direct throughout the world; but nowhere, and in no case, should human Governments deprive his words of the power to bind the conscience, or release the Bishops from the obligation of transmitting, as much as in them lies, his instructions to the faithful of their dioceses."

The Bishops of Moulins and Besançon, having read the Encyclical Letter from their pulpits, were reprimanded by an Imperial decree, dated the 8th of February, which stated:

"Art. 1. There is an abuse in the fact of having read from the pulpit a portion of the Encyclical Letter, the reception and publication of which were not authorized by us throughout the French Empire.

"Art. 2. Our Minister of State, &c., is ordered to see this decree carried out, which will be inserted in the Bulletin des Lois.'"

But the boldest and most contumacious Prelate was the Bishop of Orleans, who published a pamphlet addressed to the Papal Nuncio, the doctrines of which were utterly subversive of the liberties of the Gallican Church. And the Bishop of Poitiers, in a pastoral letter, gave utterance to similar sentiments. These drew forth two letters from the Papal Nuncio to the two Bishops, of which the Minister of Foreign Affairs, M. Drouyn de Lhuys complained to Count Sartiges, the French Minister at Rome. He said in his despatch :-"In writing to French Bishops to express an opinion on their conduct and to direct their course with respect to the Imperial Government, his Excellency has exceeded his functions, which, according to French public law, can only be those of an ambassador. But an ambassador fails in his most essential duty when he encourages, by his approbation, resistance

to the laws of the country in which he resides, and criticism of the acts of the Government to which he is accredited. It is true that his Excellency, in the explanations which he has given me on the subject, has disavowed the publication of those letters, which he attributes to a culpable indiscretion. But it is of the fact itself that the Emperor's Government has a just right to complain. It hopes consequently that the Court of Rome, in its wisdom, will not permit a recurrence of such irregularities, which, besides, the French Government is determined not to tolerate."

The Archbishop of Paris did not read the Encyclical Letter from his pulpit, but contented himself with publishing a pastoral, in which he said :

"The Concordat between Pope Pius VII. and the First Consul is in the form of an international treaty. The two Powers meet each other as possessing a proper and independent existence. They stipulate in favour of mutual interests; they settle amicably how certain rights and certain obligations which they recognize in each other reciprocally shall be exercised and fulfilled. The Church is not, then, in the State as a particular society, borrowing from it all its life, and all its strength, and of which it may at pleasure, and in virtue of a one-sided right, modify the conditions of its existence,-it is rather a State which, geographically at least, should be in the Church, inasmuch as it extends throughout the whole world. The best thing to say is, that the Church is every where at home, and that the State is at home only within its own frontiers. Be that as it may, the Church, divinely instituted to procure salvation for men through the doctrine which it teaches, the sacraments which it administers, and the discipline which it fixes and maintains, cannot fulfil that mission without at the same time animating with its breath civil and public life, and without making of the social body a Christian State which honours and protects it. There are, then, established between Church and State relations which, without doubt, should be regulated and observed according to the spirit of Christianity."

Early in January M. Achille Fould, the Minister of Finance, published his Budget, from which we will quote the summary with which it ends, observing merely that the figures, of course, refer to francs.

"The year 1863 will leave a deficit less by 15,000,000 than had been anticipated; the Budget of the year 1864 will probably balance itself; in 1865 our military expenditure will be reduced -for the Army, by 21,000,000; for the Navy, by 23,000,000; together 44,000,000-and lastly, we shall carry forward to the Budget of 1866 the sum of 18,000,000 arising from the surplus of the resources of 1865. This sum may be notably increased at an early future, if, as is permitted to hope, the extraordinary expenses for the Army and Navy, which still figure in the Anticipatory Budget for 1865 to the amount of 65,000,000, shall successively decrease and at last disappear. There will then be con