ENGLISH EXTRACTS.

New Zealand Spectator and Cook's Strait Guardian, Volume VI, Issue 475, 20 February 1850, Page 3

ENGLISH EXTRACTS.

" In the number of the Conseiller dv. Pea* pie which has just appeared M. Laraartine continues the good work he commenced soon after the election of the President. The present number of the Conaeiller dv Peuple is addressed to the majority! and the subject is the change of Ministiy* Mi Lamartine is of opinion, in common with all reflecting men, tbat in the present circumstances any such change, no matter what may have been the errors of the Cabinet, would be fatal to the interests of France — no matter whether that change be in a Monarchical or an extreme Republican sense. But he puts forth the whole strength of his powerful style iff com* bating the accusation of reaction brought constantly against the Government by the violent Republican press* After quoting a passage from one of his speeches in 1847 on the same subject, be thus continues, — " ' And now I ask you; have you ever con* templated the ocean after a tempest which had heaved up its billows, and when the fury of this tempest had died away f What was it that struck you in that astonishing and most sublime spectacle ? Was it not those enor* mous waves crested with foam, which rolled along in thunder, but yet far beyond the ordinary bed and level of the ocean, as if it had been torn from its abyss to swallow up tbe beach, the rocks, tbe coast ; but which retired again, as if driven back by a counter stroke from the earth, beyond its natural limits, and leaving an immense space, which it ought naturally to occupy, for a moment dry and exposed. Such is reaction, In the ma-* terial as well as in the political world such has always been the case. After a tempest the excited waters seem to .be .diminished, and to abandon the spot they bad submerged. After a revolution, which is but the tempest of man, ideas seem also to dwindle away as if they had repented of having gone so far. Ideas of an opposing nature seem to be uppermost, to re-occupy much more space, and with much more power and violence then they bad before the change, eveu until the struggle between revolutionary and stationary ideas become appeased, and tbe flow and ebb become less turbulent, until practical conciliation and a natural level be established on the brink of a revolution, as on the border oi the ocean, which retires to its natural limits.' "To illustrate in less poetical language his meaning, be recounts rapidly and strikingly the principal events that have occurred since the moral tempest of February, 1848, and shows tbat they were all neither more nor less the results of that necessary reaction always occurring after a convulsion. ' The only reactionary act he censures and deplores is that connected with the Roman question. 'There has been,' he says, ( bat one false measure of the Government which canooaerit tbe name of reaction p in i:s bad setree/and that is, the expedition, or rather tbe French crusade, against Rome, to crush the will, evil or good, of an independent people, and to repeat, in the 19th century, the Pontifical policy of Charlemagne by the hand of the French Republic. Here are two contradictions — two counter revolutions in one — a profanation of the principle of the libeity of a people — an apostacy from the principle of tbe liberty of conscience !! — two reactions, for are they not

tfcifcounter revolutions ? France has keenly tl\t ii ; " she feels a double remorse, but she will yet retrace her steps. 1 He defends •the Government. from the charge of being reactionary, on the part of the ultra- Republicans, and from that of not being sufficiently so, on the part of the Legitimists, He then addresses the majority of the Assembly thus : "'Defend yourselves from your "own ambition ; defend yourselves from your own imlpatience ; permit the actual Government to stand for a long time. Retire, men of the Right, men of the counter-revolution ! Act as we have done — we men of the Left, and of the revolution ; desist from your opposition as we have desisted '! Make of the Republic a common ground if you really wish that every one may occupy a part of it. The revolution is at an end. The Republic is commencing ; the -real and true Republic ought to be impartial as the nation itself. An impartial Republic requires a neutral and impartial Government. You have been fortunate in seeking such a Government ; have been fortunate in finding it. Be wise 'enough to keep it. Such is my disinterested and deliberate advice to the majority, and to all Republicans. It is for giving this advice that the Red press calls me a renegade and apostate — it i s f or giving this advice that the National speaks of ray claims to public pity — it is for this that 'he Si&cle gave the name of poetry to my familiar conversations with the people. History, however, will decide if I have not tried- to elevate the people by means of simple common sense to the height of statesmen — because common sense is nothing else than the current coin of genius. 1 "—" — Times, Oct. 1.

An Awkward Situation. — An awkward accident happened at Lyons lately. A young artist, named Pinel, was returning with a canoe, with seme friends, from a pleasure trip to Mootluel. It was daik, and the water party rowed themselves towards a small luminous point, with the intention of asking shelter for the night. But, alas ! the light proceeded from a water* mill, and in a few seconds the canoe was dragged under the wheels, then rapidly revolving. Three of the crew were disposed of instanter ; they were torn and submerged. A third young man saved himself by his presence of mind. At the moment of the wreck he seized the wheel of the mill, clambered into the interior, and there remained, turning round with the wheel, until rescued from his exceedingly unpleasant situation.

The Pope and the Standard of Castile.?— It is related that when the Pope reviewed the Spanish troops at Gaeta, the standard of Castile, according to an old Spanish custom in the Spanish army, was laid open at the feet of his Holiness, who, ignorant of what was required of him in return, asked the Bishop of Cuenca what he was 10 do. That Prelate replied, that the Sovereign Pontiff being considered God's Vicar on earth, or as King of Kings, the banner had been so placed in order that he might tread upon it with his sacred feet.' After going through this ceremony, and blessing the troops, the Bishop of Cuenca knelt, and made the following petition : — * Most Holy Father, let me hope I am worthy of receiving a boon from you, which is, that you will give me the shoes you wear, because, after treading upon the standard of Castile, they cannot touch any but Spanish ground.' Another pair of shoes — provided by the Bishop — were then brought, and Pius presented his to that dignitary, who doubtless has thus secured to himself a Cardinal's bat.