em.

There can be no doubt, that the news of a famine here would be
received in France with more joy than the tidings of a second Marengo.
The mere expectation of it has already intoxicated the press; and,
accordingly, they have begun to speculate upon the probable conduct of
other foreign powers, in the event of our ports being opened. Belgium,
they are delighted to find, is in so bad a situation, in so far as
regards its crop, that the august King Leopold has thought proper to
issue a public declaration, that his own royal mouth shall for the
next year remain innocent of the flavour of a single potato. This
looks well. Belgium, it is hoped, is not overabundant in wheat; but,
even if she were, Belgium owes much to France, and--a meaning asterisk
covers and conveys the remaining part of the inuendo. Swampy Holland,
they say, can do Britain no good--nay, have not the cautious Dutch
been beforehand with Britain, and forestalled, by previous purchase,
the calculated supply of rice? Well done, Batavian merchant! In this
instance, at least, you are playing the game for France.

Then they have high hopes from the ZOLLVEREIN. That combination has
evidently to dread the rivalry of British manufacture, and its
managers are too shrewd to lose this glorious opportunity of
barricado. There are, therefore, hopes that Germany, utterly
forgetting the days of subsidies, will shut her ports for export, and
also prevent the descent of Polish corn. If not, winter is near at
hand, and the mouths of the rivers may be frozen before a supply can
be sent to the starving British. Another delightful prospect for young
and regenerated France!

Also, mysterious rumours are afloat with regard to the policy of the
Autocrat. It is said, he too is going to shut up--whether from hatred
to Britain, or paternal anxiety for the welfare of his subjects, does
not appear. Yet there is not a Parisian scribe of them all but derives
his information direct from the secret cabinet of Nicholas. Then there
is America--have we not rumours of war there? How much depends upon
the result of the speech which President Polk shall deliver! _He_
knows well by this time that England is threatened with famine--and
will he be fool enough to submit to a compromise, when by simple
embargo he might enforce his country's claims? So that altogether, in
the opinion of the French, we are like to have the worst of it, and
may be sheerly starved into any kind of submission.

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