"Is the Prussian whom we have helped to humble to be our only ally? Then must we write ourselves down asses in Constantinople. "If we had some other head besides weather-cock expediency. France has an Emperor, Prussia a King to lead them; we have a Queen who takes walks in the Isle of Wight; and her son--bah! a _roué_ about town. Their marriage alliances are drag-chains, not bonds of love. Denmark does not forget our treachery in '65. Holland is afraid of France. We are safe from America yet. They are too much afraid of the German vote, thank Heaven, to side with France, but "Alabama" is her watchword, and she only waits to strangle us. LAFAYETTE and the Hessians are only memories, they have no votes. Ah! it was a mistake to sympathize with the South. "Our statesmen--Heaven save the mark!--are our worst enemies. D'ISRAELI, the Jew, doubles our difficulty by showing our weakness. He would play the part of PITT without his brains or his chances. Then we led, now we are dragged at the tail. We may sign treaties, but we cannot write them. BRIGHT would be friendly with both; GRANVILLE with neither, and thus each is offended. It is ridiculous, and the only course left is to bluster about Belgium. "It must be the late dinner. There are all sorts of threatening shadows around, and but one light; that is a war flame. Let me sleep. To-morrow the gaping thousands will ask a sign. It may come, but it shall be hoisted on the Rhine, and, helpless tide waiters, we cannot tell from which side it shall come. Ah! 'Uneasy sits the man on the ministerial bench,' as SHAKESPEARE would say to-day, for the crown that he spoke of is an ornament in the tower." REPORTER * * * * * Magnetic Polish soldiers should choose the needle gun. The needle is always true to the Pole. * * * * * [Illustration: A CAPITAL HINT FOR OUR STATIONARY STREET MUSICIANS, IF THEY WANT TO MAKE MONEY. ] * * * * * THE LEAVEN OF LEAVENWORTH. The great West has long been famous for the loose, untrammelled freedom with which its inhabitants treat everything and everybody. Breadth, no less than length, is a striking feature of Western settlements, and that this element is conspicuous in the journalism of those singular abodes, no less than in the social life of their inhabitants, generally, is evidenced in the following advertisement cut from "_The Times_"--a paper published at Leavenworth, Kansas: "NOTICE TO DRIVERS OF FAST STOCK.--Hold your horses and do not drive so fast. All gay and festive cusses caught driving faster than ordinary gait in the city, will be brought before Judge Vaughan, for instance--the fine is $20. H. A. ROBERTSON, City Marshal."