_January 14th_,1859.--I purposed at the close of the last year to say a few words about a year which might well be called _annus mirabilis_ and _annus mæstissimus_ besides, for I do not remember any year marked by a greater number and variety of remarkable events and occurrences, and certainly none which has been so fatal to the happiness of so many of our friends. One calamity has succeeded another with frightful rapidity, till it is difficult to point to any one who has not sustained some terrible bereavement in the persons of near and dear relations or intimate friends. A severe fit of gout which attacked me on Christmas Day, and has kept hold of me ever since, prevented my executing my purpose, and now I have forgotten all I intended to say, and can only take up the present condition of affairs as they present themselves at the beginning of this year, and this is dark and unpromising enough. All Europe has been thrown into alarm by the speech which the Emperor Napoleon made to the Austrian Ambassador Hübner on New Year's Day, and by the announcement which followed it that Prince Napoleon was going to Turin to marry the King of Sardinia's daughter. The language of the King of Sardinia in his speech to his Parliament shortly afterwards confirmed the general apprehensions. The menacing manifestations having produced their effect, the Emperor seems to have thought it adviseable to draw in his horns, and to try and calm the effervescence he had produced. This, however, was not so easy, and in spite of certain tranquillising articles which the French Press was instructed to put forth, the impression that mischief is brewing cannot be effaced, and though many think that there will be no immediate outbreak, and the money dealers and speculators comfort themselves with thinking that want of money will prevent the great military Powers from going to war, the best informed persons, and those who are most accustomed to watch the signs of the times, are convinced that the time is near at hand when the peace of the world will be broken, that the Emperor is determined upon an aggression on Austria, and that he is only undecided as to the time when the operation shall be begun. It is now evident that when our Ex-Ministers were at Compiègne, and when the Emperor pretended that he wanted to consult Clarendon confidentially, he only made a half-confidence of his views and his position, and that he concealed from Clarendon the important fact of the marriage of Prince Napoleon, which was arranged at the time.