In the Spanish business Louis Philippe has been intriguing up to the chin, without the participation, but not at least without the knowledge of Guizot. Everybody knows this, and our press has let loose against him without reserve; but we must screen his delinquency as well as we can, and pretend not to see it. It is a marvellous thing that so wise a man can't be a little honest, and, as has been remarked, a striking fact that, notwithstanding his great reputation for sagacity, he is constantly engaged in underhand schemes, in which he is generally both baffled and detected; and it is also remarkable that, though a humane and good-natured man, and both brave and politic, and felt to be necessary to France and Europe, he is both disliked and despised. His history and his character afford materials for a fine moral essay. The Exchequer Bill business is very disagreeable, coming in the midst of our other embarrassments, and the depth of it is not yet fathomed. The Government were very much dissatisfied with Monteagle,[12] who, they thought, did not evince a disposition to act cordially and effectually with them: not that they suspected him of any improper motive or culpable conduct, but he made difficulties, and stood on absurd punctilios, which provoked and annoyed them; but latterly they have been better satisfied. [Sidenote: BIRTH OF THE PRINCE OF WALES.] The Tower will cost money,[13] but there is no great loss sustained except that of some new percussion muskets, about 11,000. The old arms were useless and unsaleable, so that they are rather glad to have got rid of them. [Footnote 11: [Captain, afterwards Sir Charles Elliot, had been the diplomatic agent of the Government in the ports of China at the time of the seizure of opium by the Chinese Government. He was blamed at the time, but subsequent events showed him to have been right.]] [Footnote 12: [Lord Monteagle was Comptroller of the Exchequer when this great forgery of Exchequer Bills took place, to a very large amount, which the Treasury lost. These bills were put into circulation by a man named Rapallo, the same who advanced money to Louis Napoleon for his Boulogne expedition in 1840. It is probable, therefore, that there was some connexion between the two events.]] [Footnote 13: [A fire broke out in the Tower of London, Oct. 31, which consumed the grand storehouse and small armoury. The total loss in stores and buildings was estimated at 200,000_l._]]