CXII. Le départ
CXII. Departure
President Polk's Message to Congress dominates this issue, covering the Texas annexation, the Oregon dispute with Britain, and strained relations with Mexico.
- President Polk's Message to Congress declares the whole of Oregon territory belongs to the United States, proposes denouncing the joint-occupation convention of 1827, and warns Europe against interfering in American affairs — prompting a sharp editorial rebuke from the Journal des Débats.
- Mexico owes American citizens an acknowledged but unpaid indemnity: of 20 quarterly instalments due under the 1843 treaty, 17 remain unpaid and 7 are currently in arrears, totalling over 2 million dollars.
- Sir Robert Peel reconstitutes his cabinet at Windsor — all colleagues return except Lord Stanley, who resigns over Corn Law repeal; William Gladstone takes the oath as Minister for the Colonies.
- General Yusuf disguised ten Spahis as Abd el-Kader's own soldiers, seized a prisoner who revealed the emir's camp location, then force-marched eight leagues through snow — only to find campfires still burning and the camp abandoned one hour earlier.
- A new royal ordinance slashes French customs duties on dozens of imported goods: duties on cabinet-making timbers fall from 25 fr. to 7 fr. 50 c. per 100 kg, on emery from 3 fr. to 50 c., and on sulphur from 75 c. to 50 c., with annual sulphur imports from the Two Sicilies alone amounting to 28 million kilogrammes.
- At the Ottoman court, two provincial governors were dismissed at Austria's insistence — one for banning grain exports for personal profit, another for attempting to forcibly convert two young Jewish girls to Islam in Novi Sad.
- Morocco's ambassador, passing through Marseille en route to Paris, handed the mayor 2,500 francs for the poor of all religions, asking their prayers for his 'mission of peace'; the Emperor of Morocco's gift of six lions, six ostriches, and six gazelles mostly perished on the road from Fez, leaving only one lioness, two ostriches, three gazelles, and a 'moumou' to reach Marseille.
- In Toulouse, masked thieves beat M. Binos, stole 55,000 francs in gold, and escaped without trace; police returning the next morning broke down his locked door to find him lying with his throat cut — gravely wounded but alive, the carotid arteries intact.