( 577 ) 



NOTES ON CABINET AFFAIRS. 



WITH the exception of the Guerillada, in the mountains of Na- 

 varre, such is the political quietism of our European continent, that 

 were the Abbe St. Pierre to rise from the dead, he would imagine 

 that his impracticable chimera, la paix perpetuelle, was at last realized. 

 Louis Philippe retiring from the scene of his roueries telegra- 

 phiques, and his jacqueries politiques, and surrounded by his recently 

 organized guard ofdandi mouchards* has been entertaining a select few 

 at Fontainbleau. The entertainments of the monarch were on a scale 

 of economy that would have delighted even Joseph Hume himself; 

 at the end of three days it was politely intimated to each visiter that his 

 apartment is required. Frederick William of Prussia has been pass- 

 ing his time in a way that cannot fail to accelerate the march of civili- 

 zation and philosophy in his states. Sometimes reviewing his guards, 

 at others corresponding with the Ecole de I'Etat Major at St. Peters- 

 burg, on the subject of the new uniform recently introduced into the 

 army of the autocrat. The critical acumen of the successor to the 

 great Frederick still exhibits that consummate knowledge of the tai- 

 loring art, which so elicited the admiration of George the Fourth, and 

 the contempt of Napoleon. Francis of Austria is fast verging on 

 dotage, and leaves the sole direction of the affairs of his empire to the 

 arch-chancellor, Metternich. In Old England political gastronomy 

 has been so much the order of the day, and ministers of every hue, 

 past, present, and future, have been gormandizing to such a degree, 

 that poor Namick Pacha, the Turkish ambassador, could scarcely re- 

 cognize some of his former friends in the well-fed and portly host of 

 embroidered coated gentlemen at the last levee. Namick is quite a 

 dandy Turk, sports a well-padded and richly embroidered coat, a la 

 Prussienne, and fixed spurs of the most approved pattern. It was 

 Namick's glowing description of oriental life that first raised in the 

 mind of our accomplished Foreign Secretary certain cravings for the 

 governor-generalship of our Indian empire. We understand that the 

 chief object of this Ottoman plenipo's mission relates to the possession 

 of the port of Anapa. " Baccallah ! massallah !" exclaimed Namick, 

 at his first conference in Downing-street, " since the Muscovite dogs 

 have taken Anapa from us, the black-eyed houris of Georgia and Cir- 

 cassia no longer gladden the hearts of the faithful !" 



Nothing, they say, has more completely opened the eyes of our Fo- 

 reign Secretary to the gigantic strides with which the Russian auto, 

 crat is pushing forward the consummation of his ambitious designs, 

 than the falling off in the supply of the harems of Constantinople. 

 Whether it will lead to a more decided course of policy on the part 

 of this government in the affairs of the East, time alone will show ; 



* The joke (we suppose it can only be considered as such) is at Paris, that 

 the king employs many young men, dressed in the extreme of fashion, to fre- 

 quent public places, and bring him private intelligence. The Parisians call 

 them " Dandi Mouchards." 



