The influence that American example is having on European politics is manifest in many recent events; but especially in the progress so rapidly made by the idea of universal suffrage. A few years ago the Emperor of France acknowledged the potency of this influence. He submitted his claims to the greatest throne in Continental Europe to the decision of the ballot-boxes, and rules now by virtue of the indorsement he thus and then obtained. He liked the principle and its workings, and so did and do the French people who accepted the result that they themselves had accomplished.

And a few months since the idea was revived. When it was difficult for potentates and politicians to decide the fate of Savoy, when Europe was on the brink of a war because of the uncertainty of Savoy's fate, the ballot-box was allowed to determine what protocols and diplomatic notes had in vain discussed, and for the second time was a peaceful result attained. Now, however, a still more important homage is paid to the principle which lies at the basis of American institutions. A king enters a foreign State at the head of an army; VICTOR EMANUEL, descended from a line of kings, a legitimist, not like LOUIS NAPOLEON a splendid upstart, but one of the old stock, offers to refer his claim to the sovereignty of a nation to the vote of the people over whom he aspires to reign. Kings no longer govern by divine right, unless we read anew the proverb which declares that the voice of the people is the voice of God. The proclamation of the Sardinian sovereign is in this one aspect among the most significant circumstances in the history of the century. It is an acknowledgment of the power of the people, of their "divine right;" it is a step taken that cannot be retraced by one party, and will not be forgotten by the other.

Had the proposition come from GARIBALDI or the other revolutionists, one would not have been surprised. GARIBALDI has been in America and knows what the ballot is; and the revolutionists would naturally be inclined to follow the practice of those whose success had been founded in revolution. Had even LOUIS NAPOLEON suggested this appeal, we might have considered it but one more evidence of his wonderful capacity in foreseeing what must be, and accommodating himself to events in advance. But the King of Sardinia only knows of the ballot that by it he lost Savoy. Yet he is willing to abide by its judgment; and while Cabinets and Courts are determining what shall be done with Italy, he marches across another Rubicon, and offers to the people that decision at which monarchs and ministers were so long in arriving. We fear that the King of Sardinia's action will have more weight with the world than the sneers of diplomatists, and the doubts of men who do not understand the age in which they live.