speak of a matter of very inferior importance, the inclusion of Belgium within the tariff of France would by no means improve the commercial relations between England and the former country. In resisting any attempt to annex Belgium to France, England, too, might count upon the firm support of Prussia, whose interest in the matter would be even stronger than her own. The strengthening of that alliance, it may be added, is suggested and recommended by the whole state of European opinion; and England, even if she would, cannot separate herself from the general concerns of Europe.

From the great

A brilliant writer of the present day has happily embodied in a fiction the important truth, that, however favourable circumstances may seem for making the experiment, no man can live long in refined and luxurious isolation. With all possible care and sacrifice to avoid social entanglements, he is quite certain to get entangled at last, and to find upon his shoulders the very responsibilities of which he had the greatest dread. It is exactly the same with nations. England cannot play the part of the "Bachelor of the Albany." movement of society in Europe she cannot stand aloof. As a nation she has duties to perform, and woe to her if she neglect them. She ought to have, therefore, both a foreign policy and foreign alliances. She ought to have a policy so distinct and well-sustained by public opinion, that the minister who represents her should both find the main line of his position marked out for him and feel, in maintaining it, that he has a nation at his back. No minister, however bold, energetic, or sagacious, can speak with effect in diplomatic intercourse if he does not know that in the last resort fleets and armies will be ready at his call. Towards weak nations, indeed, the policy of England should always be mercy and tolerance, even to the verge of laxity; but, whenever the cause of justice requires it, she ought to be both able and resolute to impose her will upon the strong. If the national force cannot be thus wielded under a popular constitution, the result must be the growing ascendancy of despotic governments. Their power, perfectly organized and at

command, will be more than a match for such disjointed and faint resistance as can be opposed to them by nations whose collective will is paralyzed by internal disunion.

Alliance with Prussia.

England, then, should not only have a foreign policy well defined and well supported, but foreign alliances calculated to ensure that support, and should be willing not only to rejoice in the good, but to submit to the evil which may result from such alliances. Europe throughout its whole extent is now divided between two antagonist principles, that of absolutism, upheld solely by armies, and now generally triumphant, on the one hand, and that of anarchical democracy on the other, crushed for the moment, but still full of life, and even in its extravagances representing the eternal and irrepressible rebellion of the human mind against the dominion of brute force. The present ascendancy of military governments cannot be permanent. Sooner or later they will find the ground crack and yawn beneath their feet, as it has so often done before, and the old chaos will again threaten to engulf them; but for the best interests of mankind there seems as little to hope from unqualified democracy as from unqualified despotism. Some constitutional compromise and adjustment is indispensable to give any security for individual freedom and permanent tranquillity. It is to the strengthening of the constitutional principle in Europe that the foreign policy of England ought to be directed. The adverse forces have been so long softened and harmonised amongst ourselves, as to be scarcely distinguishable in the working of our mixed Government, but] any such reconcilement in other countries must assume different forms, and be attended with far greater difficulties. All that can be done by England is, to strengthen constitutional forms abroad where they already exist, and to promote constitutional tendencies where they show themselves. Three countries, all very important from their position, but secondary in influence, may be said to enjoy con

mont.

stitutional freedom; namely, Belgium, Switzerland, and PiedThe 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