18th Aug. (FERENEZ J6IseF), Emperor of Aus-trio and King of Hungary, is sixty-nine years old to-day, and fifty-one of these years he has passed on the throne. "He is probably the most respected of all the' continental sovereigns, for the consummate ability with which he has governed his heterogeneous empire and the dignity with which he has borne a succession of sorrows that would have crushed alesser man. He is the keystone of European peace, for with his death, which all Europe hopes may be long delayed, the long armed truce on the Continent may easily come crashing down. A report of his illness in June last produced' a heavy fall on the Bourse of Vienna and agitation in all the financial centres, for they all now hang on each other. It is felt that no-one but Francis Joseph could have kept the Austro-Hungarian Empire together so long, and prevented its constituents from flying at each other's throats—though Austria proper and Hungary know how necessary each is to the other, From all civilised nations heartfelt congratulations will go to-day to the grand pacificator of south-eastern Europe, who has never allowed political or private troubles unnerve him or divert him from the course of action that he saw was for his empire's real advantage; and with these congratulations will' go the truest wishes that he may still have health and length of years, to carry onas he has done the heavy task that was thrust upon him onthe 2nd of gon wishes of Englishmen go out to December 1848. Especially do the him, for he has been the consistent friend of England,
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.