1828.) A ffairs.in General. 651 
intercourse is the true peacemaker. | National mtercourse of ali kinds is 
good; and there can be no doubt that in any question of quarrel, at 
present, the French Cabinet would very seriously consider the loss that 
must result to France from the sudden retreat of the English, and the 
deprivation of the money which they expend. But the intercourse of 
trade is still more powerful. If our merchants could establish a close 
connexion with those of France, even in the purchase of wines, the whole 
of the south, a great portion of the east of France, and many other districts 
in the north and centre, would shrink from the thoughts of war, as the 
extinction of their incomes. ‘“ La Gloire,” has been the absurd cry of 
the Frenchman only when hehad nothing better to lose than a life of 
beggary. But let him once feel that La Gloire means the stoppage of 
five thousand a year in London bills, the plucking up of the vines on 
his new purchase of five hundred arpens from the seigneur, the dismissal 
of his footmen, the sale of his carriage, and the melting down of his 
service of plate, and he will wish “ La Gloire” stuck in the throat of the 
first ministerial madman that ventures to set up that cry of desolation. 
But it is to the merchant and the opulent dealer that the minister must, 
in the first and last instance, apply for the very means of war; and what 
answer may we suppose him to receive from a man who knows that the 
first shot fired might as well be fired into his own bosom? What would 
be the result of a million of wine-dressers, with all the millions connect- 
ed with the trade, suddenly thrown out of employment? The sudden 
_ falling off of a great branch of finance, the sudden excitement to riot and 
civil convulsion: and all for the purpose of shooting, robbing, burning, 
and drowning the men with whom they had been in the habit of weekly 
correspondence for the last half century, whom they visited once a year 
by the Bordeaux steam-boat, and after feasting at their villas in every 
hill and dale, from Thames to Avon, and falling in love with their daugh- 
ters, repayed the hospitality by a summer’s invitation to the bastides 
of Marseilles, or the chateaux that look out from peach trees, myrtles, 
and thickets of the grape, on the purple waters of the Garonne. 
We pledge our reputation as discoverers, that, if this policy were 
adopted, we should soon have no more quarrelling between France and 
England than we have between Bath and Buttermere. 
Pastorini’s prophecies are undergoing a new version in Ireland, and 
putting their promises of bloodshed in order for 1830. Great hopes are 
entertained by the “ Emancipated” of some illustrious change by that 
time, and we have no doubt that Lords Curtis and Doyle long to hear 
the bells that toll out the year 1829. The time will assuredly come, 
and the mitres of those gracious persons will of course glitter in Cathe- 
drals ; but we do not think the next twelve months quite broad enough 
for the march of popish triumph. In the mean time, holy water and 
missives from Rome keep up the hearts of the faithful. A massacre is 
promised, and between prophecy and whiskey-drinking, the Lady of 
Babylon possesses the full fidelity of the most “inspired and magnifi- 
cent” race of burglars under the moon. One of those predictions 
which has been spread for the comfort of the holy people, is as 
follows : — 
PROPHECIES. 
Eig hteen hundred and twenty-one, 
Great events will be begun ; 
Eighteen hundred and twenty-three, 
Dreadful war by land and sea ; 
1 
