was quietly shelved. Hence, then, the volunteer movement was fostered, to form our second line of defence, and we sincerely hope its value may never be tried.

The emperor

How do matters stand on the other side of the Channel? has not only completed Cherbourg, but immense works have been carried out at Brest, Lorient, Rochefort, Indret, and, indeed, at every station of the French navy. These fortresses are prepared for a war with England, and with England only. A fleet leaving Cherbourg in the evening, with a leading wind, could be off Portsmouth next morning, and could bombard any of our towns on the southern coast. The present emperor may be an admirer of peace, but he is obliged to obey the same dread inspiration which his uncle followed, with a mournful presage of the result. "The world believe me the enemy of peace, but I must fulfil my destiny. I am forced to combat and conquer, in order to preserve. You must accomplish something every three months, in order to captivate the French people; with them, whoever ceases to advance is lost." That a change has come over the nation since then, we allow. With the possession of wealth, they desire peace to secure and augment it; but France is now governed by a prætorian guard of six hundred thousand men : slaves in the hour of war, tyrants in the hour of peace. Their passions must be satiated, and the day must come when Louis Napoleon willreluctantly we are glad to believe-find himself compelled to declare war against England. With this certainty, we must not delay our preparations for the dread ordeal. We have no right to quarrel with France as to the preparations she may think proper to make, however shrewdly we may suspect they are directed against ourselves. So long as he chooses to arm, we can but follow his lead. This point Sir Howard Douglas has put so fairly, that we must indulge in a quotation:

Viewing France as she really is, a great power, whose safety depends upon her military force, we have no right to cavil at any measures which the government of that country may adopt for its own security against its powerful continental neighbours. Her military preponderance is as essential to her safety as the maritime preponderance of Great Britain (an insular and colonial power) is indispensable to hers. Neither should be jealous nor distrustful of the other, in any legitimate use which either may make of the powers with which Nature has endowed them respectively, for providing effectually for their own security.

In answer, we may offer two observations. Firstly, there is not a continental power which would like to force France into a war, certain beforehand of what the result would be; and that Napoleon might reduce his military strength to a minimum, as he has the facility of calling it out almost at a moment's notice; secondly, France, the military nation par excellence, has now the next largest fleet to ours in the world; and nothing will persuade Englishmen but that it is intended as a menace to our shores. We consider that such a display of strength does not harmonise with commercial treaties; in a word, that Louis Napoleon is poaching on our manor, and we naturally feel uncomfortable as to what the result of this maritime armament will be. If Louis Napoleon would be kind enough to employ his men-of-war in carrying coal and iron, a great load would be taken off our minds.

But a few months back, and many among us were almost ready to accept a war with France, sooner than endure the incessant turmoil.

This feeling, we are glad to find, has passed away, we hope never to return; the nation has been roused to the consciousness that war may be avoided for a long time by showing a bold front, and by steadfastly keeping the French in the wrong. Our most fortunate escape was that we would not allow ourselves to be mixed up in the Italian war, and did not listen to the voice of the charmer, who whispered the seductive words "Liberty and independence of Italy!" in our ears. If we have to fight, we shall at any rate go into action clean-handed, and that is greatly in our favour.

The last point is to settle in what way we should defend ourselves against any possible insult to our shores. For the moment the volunteers carry the day; for there is something admirably seductive to the popular mind in having a large and effective force without any increased taxation. We are quite prepared to allow the vast superiority of the volunteers of the present day over those of the opening century, for the latter were hurriedly trained, and had no pretensions to be called soldiers. Still, while allowing the excellent qualities of our volunteers, we think the people of England would sleep more comfortably if they possessed some strong places on the coast which would offer an obstacle to an invading foe. In the letter to which we have already referred, the Duke advised that at the moment when war was declared, garrisons of ten thousand men should be stationed at each of the following placesChannel Islands (besides their local militia), Plymouth, Cork, Portsmouth, Dover, and for Sheerness, Chatham, and the Thames. Milford Haven he put down at five thousand, but seeing the growing value of that port, it should not be left behind the others. For such service as this our coast volunteers would be invaluable, and we hope that this arm will undergo a very large extension.

Owing to the enormous expense our modern ships entail, even a country so astoundingly rich as England could not keep afloat at the present day such a fleet as we had in 1805, and yet it was fully required to keep an enemy, whose fleet was destroyed, at bay. One great object must be to possess a fleet raised to the highest pitch of efficiency, and manned by the best crews available. Fortunately for us, our naval system has at last reached a state of transition; hardly 'a week elapses without tidings of a mutiny on board one or the other vessel, and we have received another warning in the disgraceful state of our gun-boat flotilla. Our Houses of Parliament are imbued with too patriotic a spirit to permit such a lamentable state of things to continue, and we sincerely hope that energetic measures of relief will be adopted ere the present session is at an end.

There are warnings enough for every man who does not wilfully blind himself, that the tranquillity of Europe hangs by a thread. The unsettled and menacing aspect of continental affairs should be a warning to us not to dissipate our resources by such improvident gifts to popular clamour as the paper duty. We want sailors, and we can only procure them by paying them well; the million and a quarter about to be thrown away would amply suffice to cover that outlay. Indeed, the present is not the moment to sacrifice one shilling of revenue; we have a deficit already staring us in the face for next year, and we know not what may have happened before the next financial year sets in. As long as a

Napoleon is seated on the throne of France, tranquillity for Europe is an impossibility it is his mission to complete what his uncle was not permitted to carry out, and we know from the pages of history what that means. Where we beat the first Napoleon was in the unlimited command of money, by which we were enabled to rouse the world against him; but the present emperor is nearly as rich as ourselves. Take, for example, the Italian war, which the bourgeoisie detested in their hearts, but, so soon as it was decided on, there was a regular race as to who should be first to subscribe the national loan. Reading Thiers, we find how frequently the First Consul was hampered by the bankers and money-brokers, who charged the most ruinous interest; but the third emperor has only to stretch out his hand, and uncounted sums flow into his treasury. But, even in that contest of giants, the first Napoleon was enabled to defeat us as far as the Continent was concerned, and time was when we had not a friend, though we rode triumphantly on every sea,

Compare then and now. Louis Napoleon has achieved all his uncle desired, and, by moderation, has not alienated those whom he defeated. By graceful concessions he converted the Emperor of Russia into a friend, and diverted all his wrath (perhaps justly) on ourselves. He has imbued the haughty Hapsburgers with a due respect for the prowess of his arms, and he has shown Prussia that his friendship is more to be desired than his enmity. By a three months' campaign he has laid Italy open to his armies, and has bound Sardinia to him by the silken fetters of selfinterest. Looking at results fairly, it must be conceded that Louis Napoleon is a greater man than his uncle; possibly because he has his example ever before him. The present emperor knows where to stop, and spreads his meshes around him with the perseverance and craft of a spider. To such a man everything is possible, and, if he keep his ambition in due restraint, the chances are greatly in his favour.

How does it stand with the hereditary foe of France-with perfidious Albion ? His conduct towards us has been a masterpiece of strategy, which we cannot but admire, though we, in our hearts, bewail the result. He, the parvenu, the visionary, the despised of all men, whose name was a byword and a scorn to every sweet-blooded Englishman-who escaped from Ham only to form an acquaintance with our debtors' prisons-how should we have laughed had any one been bold enough to predict that such a man was yet destined to kiss the cheek of our gracious Lady. We did everything to maintain him in power; we consolidated his throne; and it is but human nature that he should try to requite us by doing us an ill turn. The man is a riddle, we allow; we would gladly credit him with honourable sentiments, but the result would still be the same. It is his mission to try and avenge Waterloo, and with the kindest sentiments towards England, we cannot expect him to resign his throne in order to keep his plighted faith to us.

66

LITTLE GRAND AND THE MARCHIONESS;

OR,

OUR MALTESE PEERAGE.

PART II.

"OLD boy," said Little Grand to me, the next morning, after early parade, come and breakfast in my room, and let's make up some despatches to the governors. You see," he continued, five minutes after, with his fork in one hand and his pen in the other, applying himself alternately to his plate and his paper, assuaging his omnivorous appetite while he exerted his intellectual powers-" you see, we're both of us pretty well cleared out; I've only got half a pony, and you haven't a couple of fivers left. Now you know they evidently play rather high at the Casa di Fiori; do everything en prince, like nobs who've Barclay's at their back; and one mustn't hang fire; horrid shabby that would look. Besides, fancy seeming mean before her! So I've been thinking that, though governors are a dirty, screwy lot generally, if we put it to 'em clearly the sort of set we've got into, and show 'em that we can't help, now that we are at Rome, doing as the Romans do, I should say, though governors are always as pig-headed as mules, and sneak out of doing anything handsomely if they can (it's no fun to 'em, I suppose, to buy wine for other men when they've lost relish for it themselves), I should say they could hardly help bleeding a little-eh? Now, listen how I've put it. My old boy has a weakness for titles; he married my mother on the relationship to Viscount Twaddles (who doesn't know of her existence; but he does to talk about as 'our cousin'), and he'd lick miles of dirt for a chance of coming to a strawberry leaf; so I think this will touch him up beautifully. Listen! ain't I sublimely respectful? I'm sure, my dear father, you will be delighted to learn, that by wonderful luck, or rather I ought to say Providence, I have fallen on my feet in Malta, and got introduced to the very highest' (wait! let me stick a dash under very)—the very highest society here. They are quite tip-top. To show you what style, I need only mention Lord A. Fitzhervey, the Baron Guatamara, and the Marchioness St. Julian, as among my kindest friends. They have been yachting in the Levant, and are now staying in Malta: they are all most kind to me; and I know you will appreciate the intellectual advantages that such contact must afford me; at the same time you will understand that I can hardly enter such circles as a snob, and you will wish your son to comport himself as a gentleman; but gentlemanising comes uncommon dear, I can tell you, with all the care in the world: and if you could let me have another couple of hundred, I should vote you'-a what, Simon?-' an out-and-out brick' is the sensible style, but I suppose the best and kindest of parents' is the filial dodge, eh? There! With fond love to mamma and Florie, ever your affectionate son, COSMO GRANDISON.' Bravo! that's prime; that'll bring the yellows down, I take it. Here, old fellow, copy it to your governor; you couldn't have a more stunning effusion-short, and to June-VOL. CXIX. NO. CCCCLXXIV.

6

L

the purpose, as cabinet councils ought to be, and ain't. Fire away, my juvenile."

I did fire away; only I, of a more impressionable and poetic nature than Little Grand, gave a certain vent to my feelings in expatiating on the beauty, grace, condescension, &c. &c., of the Marchioness to my mother; I did not mention the grivois stories, the brandy, and the hookah I was quite sure they were the sign of that delicious ease and disregard of snobbish etiquette and convenances peculiar to the " "Upper Ten," but I thought the poor people at home, in vicarage seclusion, would be too out of the world to fully appreciate such revelations of our creme de la crême; besides, my governor had James's own detestation of the divine weed, and considered that men who "made chimneys of their mouths" might just as well have the mark of the Beast at once that Dr. Cumming predicts, with such strong faith, to be already implanted on the brows of us nineteenth-century sinners, that I examine the foreheads of all my friends with as curious an eye to business as Lavater hunting for bumps.

Little Grand and I were hard-up for cash, and en attendant the governors' replies and remittances, we had recourse to the tender mercies and leather bags of Napoleons, ducats, florins, and doubloons of a certain Spanish Jew, one Balthazar Miraflores, a shrivelled-skinned, weezing old cove, who was "most happy to lent anytink to his tear young shentlesmen, but, by Got! he was as poor as Job, he was indeed!" Whether Job ever lent money out on interest or not, I can't say; perhaps he did, as in the finish he ends with having quadrupled his cattle and lands, and all his goods-a knack usurers preserve in full force to this day; but all I can say is, that if he was not poorer than Mr. Miraflores, he was not much to be pitied, for he, miserly old shark, lived in his dark, dirty hole, like a crocodile embedded in Nile mud, and crushed the bones of all unwary adventurers who came within range of his great bristling jaws.

Tin, however, Little Grand and I got out of him in plenty, only for a little bit of paper in exchange; and at that time we didn't know that though the paper tax would be repealed at last, there will remain, as long as youths are green and old birds cunning, a heavy and a bitter tax on certain bits of paper to which one's hand is put, which Mr. Gladstone, though he achieve the herculean task of making draymen take kindly to vin ordinaire, and the popping of champagne corks a familiar sound by cottage-hearths, will never be able to include in his budgets, to come among the Taxes that are Repealed!

Well, we had our money from old Balthazar that morning, and we played with it again that night up at the Casa di Fiori. Loo this time, by way of change. Saint Jeu said he always thought it well to change your game as you change your loves: constancy, whether to cards or women, was most fatiguing. We liked Saint Jeu very much, we thought him such a funny fellow. They said they did not care to play much-of course they didn't, when Guatamara had had écarté with the King of Chaffsandlarkstein at half a million a side, and Lord Dolph had broken the bank at Homburg "just for fun-no fun to old Blanc, who farms it, though, you know." But the Marchioness, who was doubly gracious that night, told them they must play, because it amused her chers petits amis. Besides, she said, in her pretty, imperious way, she liked to see it-it