stitutional freedom; namely, Belgium, Switzerland, and Piedmont. The maintenance of those three States in their integrity and independence is of the last importance to the future interests of Europe. If Great Britain stood alone, she ought not to suffer Belgium to fall without an effort to prevent it. But it may be fairly doubted whether her single strength would avail to protect either Switzerland or Piedmont from a despotic coalition.

There is, however, one of the great powers now hanging doubtfully between the two principles of despotism and constitutional liberty, but naturally marked out as the leading constitutional power of central Europe, and able, if it choose, both to stand firmly on a constitutional basis itself, and, in conjunction with England, to protect the freedom and independence of all the minor States. That power is Prussia. If the Government of France became more sympathetic with the constitutional principle, it would be its interest, and ought to be its inclination, to join heartily in such an alliance; and then that fair portion of Italy, which is blighted with the temporal rule of the Papacy, might be allowed to free itself, and to assume a place amongst constitutional nations. But at present there is no object of foreign policy so important as the establishment of a cordial understanding with Prussia, because not only the foreign but the domestic policy of Prussia is capable of being materially affected by the policy of England. The most solid basis of alliance between two countries lies in resemblances of character between their respective populations, and especially between the ideas, feelings, and tastes of their ruling classes. All these sources of sympathy exist between England and the northern or Protestant section of Germany, which Prussia represents. In no other foreign country are the literature, institutions, and character of England appreciated as they are there. Nowhere else does an Englishman find himself so soon or so completely at home, and from no other country, nor, indeed, from all others put together, has so much rich, refreshing, and original thought been poured in the course of a single

generation into the literature, and thereby into the intellectual and moral life, of England.

Now, whatever be the defects of the present government of Prussia, and whatever be the fears of her conservative classes, the spirit of her best statesmen is, and has long been, really constitutional. The ruling idea, at least from the commencement of the present century, has been the people, and not the crown. There might be, and has been, great error in attempting too long to govern for the people, instead of by the people, in the tendency by an overstrained bureaucratic system to keep them in leading strings;-but still, in those primary and prolific reforms which relate to the tenure of land and public education, Prussia has, in the most marked manner, taken the lead in the civilization of Europe. There is no country whatever in which statesmen have appeared so distinguished for moral elevation, largeness of view, and varied political accomplishments. Whether we judge from the public facts of history, or from such works as the letters of Humboldt and the life of Niebuhr, the impression is the same; and it is fully borne out by the testimony of enlightened and dispassionate English observers like Mr. Kay, whose account of Prussian education', and the administrative system connected with it, proves the existence of a habitual regard for the welfare of the most numerous class, which it is by no means so easy to trace in our own selfish party contests. With such elements of sympathy and union, a close and cordial understanding between England and Prussia, of such a nature as to produce a perfect security, on the part of each ally, that the other might be counted upon when required, would be at the same time a guarantee for the peace of Europe, a removal of the temptations otherwise likely to be felt by Prussia to submit to Russian influence, and a great additional safeguard to England herself. To gain these advantages, some risks must be incurred,

"The Social Condition and Education of the People in England and Europe," by Joseph Kay, Esq., M.A.

but they are risks necessarily connected with the duties of her position as one of the greatest of European nations.

Effect of disclaiming Foreign Relations.

If those duties are to be disclaimed, and if the tendency to maintain a position of complete isolation, which has been for some time so strongly felt, shall be completely carried out, then we ought not to shut our eyes to what the nature of the process will be. Prussia, left to herself, will have the most powerful reasons for falling back into those alliances which must confirm whatever retrograde tendency exists in her domestic policy. Meanwhile, the decline in the continental influence of England which has been long in progress will soon reach its final term. Men now living, and not yet old, can remember when the word of an English minister was a word of power wherever it was spoken, and when an injury or an insult to an English subject abroad would have brought punishment sharp and sure upon the wrong-doer; but that state of things has been gradually passing away under the influence of a conviction that England cares more for the extension of her commerce than for all the claims of generosity, freedom, and honour. The opinion has got abroad, that she would not sacrifice a cargo of cotton or sugar to save the liberty of a community which has been free since the days of William Tell, and that her desire for peace at any price will not allow her to press for even the most just reparation wherever she is likely to encounter resistance. The conclusion to which such a state of things leads cannot be doubtful. A nation supposed to be thus wholly absorbed in the enjoyment of the comforts with which prosperity surrounds her, will first lose all the sympathies which, in spite of misunderstanding, are still felt for one who once fought single-handed in the cause of Europe against the greatest power that the world has ever known. That old idea of England as the champion of liberty, long fading, will

become remote and historical, to be recalled only by some poetic mind from the force of contrast.

66

"'T is Greece, but living Greece no more."

They for whom she has ceased to care will in turn be profoundly indifferent to her fate, thinking only that it will point afresh the old moral of the great commercial histories of Tyre, and Carthage, and Venice. From the loss of respect to the infliction of humiliation, the transition is neither long nor difficult. The former has not yet quite gone, but the latter has begun; and why should not humiliation be endured? "This wealthy luxurious nation, which is only resolute on one point, that nothing short of downright attack shall compel her to strike a blow-why should one care for her reclamations, her protests, or her protocols? They mean nothing. There is no reason to dread her resentment, because she is too comfortable to resent anything. Of that old, fierce, yet noble indignation which was once so terrible, not a spark survives. She has grown fat and lethargic-eschews as a bore, and bad for digestion, all strong excitement, except of a commercial kind. Yes, she is harmless. She may be injured, slighted, spat upon. She is no longer to be feared."

A mistake, certainly, according to my view of the matter. A mistake, under existing circumstances, not unlikely to be made, but still a very great mistake, and one which would cause those whom it might tempt too far to pay dearly for their presumption for, at some point in that progressive process of insult, the apparent torpidity which invited it would suddenly disappear. The sensitive nerve would at last feel the sting. Then would it be seen that the might of England was not less than it ever was-that her righteous anger, when once aroused, could still strike awe-that at whatever sacrifice, with disorder perhaps to commerce, disturbance to society, and danger to liberty, which might all have been avoided, but still, at any cost, she could and would vindicate that great law of international justice of which she is an appointed and responsible administrator.

CHAPTER IX.

NATIONAL DEFENCES.

"Narrerò solo quello che T. Livio dice innanzi alla venuta di Francesi in Roma cioé, come uno Marco Cedizio plebeio riferi al Senato avere udito di mezza notte passando per la via nuova, una voce la quale ammoniva che riferisse MACCHIAVELLI.

ai magistrati come i Francesi venivano a Roma."

"Solon said well to Croesus (when in ostentation he showed him his gold); Sir, if any other come that hath better iron than you, he will be master of all this gold." BACON.

Use of Tools.

As long as evil passions are powerful in the world, such a contingency as that of war cannot be considered impossible, and for a nation like England, the cheapest safeguard against the evils of such a contingency, and the best security for peace, are to be found in the maintenance of armaments, adequate in magnitude, and thoroughly efficient. To this subject it is now a matter of great urgency that the common sense of the nation should be applied. The superiority of England to other nations in industry depends greatly on the prevalence of that habit which has given rise to the maxim, that whatever is worth doing at all is worth doing as well as it can be done. If, as we are sometimes told, this old practice of giving the last finish to the work, so that it may wear, and not merely so that it may sell, shall ever disappear, the materials will be all ready for a second GIBBON to surpass the first by a darker and more mournful history. But the maxim has still force, that whatever is to be done should be well done. Let us see how it applies to the present matter. To turn out any piece of