GLANCE AT THE GREAT POWERS. 669 



at the frontier by his timid policy, threatens every moment, by its 

 recoil, to hurl him from his throne. Like Louis the XVth, he may, 

 on looking around him, exclaim, " Je plains mon successeur :" and 

 who is bold enough to point out his successor ? 



Europe may be likened to a slumbering volcano. On the absolute 

 soil of Spain we behold the curious spectacle of the exercise of the 

 elective franchise, such as it is. But when convoked, the Cortes will 

 be but the shadow of those that, with the energy of the better periods 

 of Spanish history, used thus to address their king : Nos que valemos 

 tanto que vosNos, que podemos mas que vos (We who are as good as 

 you we who have more power than you) : for the members of this 

 legislative assembly will be solely composed of the noblesse, the dig- 

 nitaries of the church, and the deputies of the towns that still retain 

 the " voto en Cortes :" these last are elected by the Ayuntamientos 

 (corporations), the members of which have either become hereditary, 

 or are nominated by the king. In this body, therefore, there will 

 not be even the simulacrum of popular representation ; it will be a 

 mere lit de justice to register the act of recognition of the infant 

 queen ; after which it will be thrown aside as a piece of useles lum- 

 ber : while Ferdinand, having attained his object, will relapse into 

 the arms of the Camarilla. 



In the south-western section of the Peninsula, the aspect of affairs 

 is not more cheering. Don Pedro still remains shut up in Oporto, at 

 the head of an army in which every state of Europe is represented 

 but that of his daughter, viz. Portugal itself. Instead of acting 

 boldly in the field like the pretender Charles Edward, he has wasted 

 his time in pitiful intrigues that have rendered him the contempt 

 both of friend and foe ; and should he ultimately prove successful, 

 such is the rancorous animosity that subsists between the two parties, 

 that it will require at least a quarter of a century to heal the wounds 

 of civil war ; and double that time, to re-organize the finances of the 

 kingdom, and to cultivate upon her soil the seeds of freedom, for 

 among the present race of Lusetanians, the materials of free in- 

 stitutions are slender indeed. 



Having travelled from the Scheldt to the Tagus, let us now take 

 wing to the banks of the mighty Danube ; there we find the arch- 

 Metternich, the framer of Holy Alliances, the soul of anti-liberal 

 crusades Metternich, at whose name freedom grows pale, and 

 who is held in universal execration from one end of the continent to 

 the other. In spite, however, of those ancient and tenaciously pre- 

 served traditions of the policy of Austria accustomed to wear out 

 her enemies rather conquer them we certainly did not consider her 

 so blinded to her own interest, as to be prepared for her besotted 

 neutrality in the affairs of the East. We ask Prince Metternich's 

 pardon, but we thought him sufficiently well informed on what the 

 merest tyro in diplomacy looks upon as his a, b, c ; namely, that it is 

 the vital interest of Austria, to preserve Turkey as a stay against the 

 encroachments of Russia. Will the policy of principles prevail again 

 at Vienna over that of interests? Will Austria, allured by the 

 charm of some miserable portions of territory, that may be thrown 

 to her in the caree of the Turkish empire will she close her 



