PREDICTIONS BY A FRENCH STATESMAN.
The Marquis de Larochejaquelein has published in pamphlet form, in Paris, what would have been pronounced in the form of a speech in the French Legislature but for his ill health. The substance of his argument is, that Europe is on the verge of a general war. He says: “There is no use in concealing the fact. France has played too great a part in recent time, to have any alliances on which she can count. Modern Germany does not love us, and rivalry will soon be aggravated into hatred. Italy is out of the question. The manner in which the French are received there, and the Government judged and treated, does not allow any allusion. Russia suffered too much from her wars in the Crimea and in Poland, and from the treaty of Paris, to trust to our alliance. England, having to choose between the Empire of Germany and France, cannot hesitate. We are feared; and all great nations are jealous of us; and two of these great nations are created by our arms or by our assent. We have revived old and created new grievances against us, and it will be long before they are effaced. Soon, in a European conflict, we shall be alone. This is beyond dispute, and the policy we have to follow is obvious.” He adds that, if France awaits the Constitution of the new German Empire, she will have all Germany upon her, and continues thus: “Without fixing any precise period for the general war which is certain, and which all political persons believe in, even the most inveterate optimists concur in declaring that from this moment the duty of France, and of other great nations—their most imperative duty—is to prepare on the largest scale for the greatest events of this century, which, however, has witnessed some of the most extraordinary.” The immediate alliance of France with Austria, and with the nations now subjugated by Prussia, he thinks, may save all; and would, moreover, keep back those who, without that alliance, are sure to become provinces of Prussia.