They are still distinguished by identically lishmen can wish. The joint action of these the same qualities and aspirations, and not- influences cannot but have a most powerful ably by, these the faithful love of law, the effect in enlarging the opportunities of both energetic impulse to make opportunity prof- countries, in adding to their wealth, in initable, and the ceaseless desire to do as creasing their united pursuit of knowledge, much good as possible. Terminate the dif- in widening and elevating every form of soferences that have ever separated England cial happiness. and America, and enable them to understand each other up to the very top of society, and From The Examiner, 23 June. how much may they not hereafter do by TEMPTATION OF GERMANY. their united force, under those three sacred impulses! Ever since the close of last cen- THE most upright of men in private life tury, the Americans have been in the habit will sometimes have the misfortune of being of confounding the action and motives of the in bad odor with his neighbors; his conEnglish crown with repudiation of law, for- science is as clear as a saint's, he knows himcible encroachment, antagonism, and jeal- self innocent of all the ugly designs imputed ousy, political and commercial. During the to him, he feels that with a few words of reign of Queen Victoria, every one of these frank explanation he has it in his power to transatlantic prejudices has been softened refute all the charges against him; a good to such an extent, that each one is now ready opportunity for setting himself right is all he for removal, and we see the whole republic wants, and he is miserable until he finds one. eagerly preparing a welcome for Queen Vic- Suddenly he hears that his foremost maligntoria's successor. On the other hand, Eng-ers are collected at a family party, and being lish society, which means persons of great of a genial nature, the happy thought strikes wealth and influence living in the upper re- him to drop in and regain his good name gions of the West-end, remote from the vul- over a glass of wine or a cup of tea. Pregar commonwealth,-have supposed that the cisely and literally, according to the MonAmerican republicans are rough, unlettered, iteur, this was the course which the mucheager to show their independence by repell-injured emperor of the French took with the ing all gracious influences, and anxious to German princes assembled at Baden. The retaliate any of the affronts which royalty honestest of men in public life did exactly may have put upon them. Nor are these what the honestest of men in private life insults entirely ancient; even British colo- would have done in like circumstances; the nies unsevered, have had within very few parallel is perfect even to the blameless bevyears to complain that they suffered from erage which will henceforward be as famous neglect and disparagement. If a leading for the recovery of character as hitherto it colonist visited England, his local honors were unrecognized; the statesmanship which ruled in the Downing Street of Australia, or the West Indies, found itself simply in lodgings in the political suburbs of the imperial metropolis; and many who come full of loyal fervor returned soured by official coldness and repudiation. Nothing has contributed more to remove that untoward feeling, than the genial graciousness with which Queen Victoria has received representatives of the British colonies unsevered, ay, or severed. And now the first gentleman in England is about to learn by personal experience the vigorous cordiality, and the tasteful courtesy, with which the Republic of America can welcome the renewed alliance. has been for the loss of it. The Princess Marie of Baden had the honor not only of assisting to restore the emperor his reputation, but to set up that of the tea-table itself. The quiet five o'clock dinner at the grand duke's no doubt did a great deal, but the duchess' tea crowned all. It would be curious if it was "gunpowder," since we are carefully assured that among its other wonderful effects," it has consolidated the peace of Europe." The grand result, however, was this: "An end was put to the unanimous concert of malevolent reports and false appreciations." And the Moniteur adds :— "In fact, the emperor, by going to explain frankly to the sovereigns who met at Baden how his policy would never swerve from right and justice, must have impressed such distinguished and unprejudiced minds with the conviction which a true sentiment honestly expressed always conveys." Nor is it simply a matter of state ceremony; by this visit an influence will be created, at the very centre of the United Kingdom, most favorable to every good work for which the Americans can ask our co-operation; and while recognizing the most A pleasant moral fiction this, such as we absolute equality in the great Anglo-Saxon are accustomed to in the same imaginative State on the other side, we may say an in- columns, but the truth of the matter, we befluence will be left, in the very centre of the lieve, is that the emperor sought an interrepublic, most favorable to all that we Eng-view with the prince of Prussia only, and ligious reform, commercial progress, constitu"Prussia personifies German nationality, retional liberalism; she is the greatest of really Germanic monarchies; consciences are there more free and enlightenment more widely spread, political rights less exclusive than in most other German states. It is she who, by founding the Zollverein, paved the way for free trade; therefore the people of Germany love Prussia. They behold her progress with sympathizing admiration and filial interest; it is to Prussia they would appeal for succor if any peril were impending. It is to her they would entrust, in preference, the glorious task of national unity. Were she to make up her mind to play the part of Piedmont, the whole of Germany, with the exception of the princes and the squirearchy, would hasten to remove the obstacle in her way." the prince evaded the tête-à-tête by the clever tinctness. Is Prussia to take it, or is device of asking all the small potentates. France? Both together, we presume, as in The emperor went to Baden much more in the previous passage we find Prussia exthe character of a tempter than of an injured horted "to play the part of Piedmont." innocent. M. About's pamphlet tallies per- The Moniteur may well call this "a signififectly with the plan of a private interview cant step." with Prussia, but not quite so well with the general card to the little Crowns, unless, with deliberate cruelty, the emperor invited them as Mrs. Bond invited the ducks to "come and be killed." The pamphlet is an elaborate and fervid appeal to Prussia to head a German union, but the union meant is of the kind that takes place between a shoal of minnows and the shark who devours them. It is to be a union on the Italian model, voted by universal suffrage, and the petty sovereigns are again to disappear like the "stellarum vulgus" at sunrise. The pamphlet describes them in language very different from the oily phrases of the journal. "Ancient feudalism and modern diplomacy, and the selfishness and blindness of a swarm of petty princes, who buy and sell their subjects as they would their flocks, has divided this great the tempter, "if thou wilt fall down and "All these things will I give thee," said nation into a deplorable multitude of governments. It is in vain that the German princes, worship me!" The meaning of "playing leagued together against the people, have formed the part of Piedmont" is so lucid that it a compact for the maintenance of their privileges. would have been tautology to have expressly The German people have learned that it is use- mentioned the Rhenish provinces. It might less, and almost ridiculous, to support thirty- also have been more difficult to dwell on seven different governments, when one alone" the disinterested love of France." would be sufficient." In the Moniteur these same personages "Let Germany be reunited," cries M. About, "France has no more ardent or dearer wish, are the " distinguished and unprejudiced for she loves the German nation with a disminds" on which the emperor's enchanting interested love!" So she loves Sardinia, frankness left such an agreeable impression. witness, ye Alpine slopes and Mediterranean We could pardon these doomed states a tinge shores! It was unnecessary to prove what of prejudice in favor of their own existence, was so notorious, but the demonstration was but M. About, at all events, supposes them too beautiful to be lost. free even from that most venial weakness. He even expects them to enter with enthusi-bition of which its princes accuse us, we should "If we were possessed with that vulgar amasm into the scheme for their own annihila- not induce the Germans to enter on the path of tion. The ducks will fly to be eaten; the unity. States divided among themselves are fry will jump into great fish's jaws, with an more easy to invade than when united, and divappetite equal to his own. iser pour regner will always remain the maxim of conquerors. May Germany be united; may she form a body so compact that the idea of encroaching upon it will never present itself. France, which sees without apprehension an Italy of 26,000,000 constituted in the south, would not fear to see 32,000,000 of Germans form a great nation on her eastern frontier." "We are happy to discover that German unity has found its centre, its rallying point, and nothing could be more agreeable to us than to behold the nation grouping itself around a firm and upright mind. If nothing occurs to put a stop to the progress of this pacific revolution it may be hoped that the princes themselves, carried along by the movement of their people, will bow to the protecting spirit of Prussia, and that the unity of Germany will be effected without the shedding of a single drop of blood." the Italian spectacle you allude to "without Gently, M. About! France did not see apprehension." In asserting it you give your master the lie, for we have it on his Observe the covered menace here, as usual own word that the sight dismayed him, it with French cajolery. There is an unbloody frighted him out of his honesty, if not out road to German unity, if the parties are wise of his wits. The emperor, it is true, does enough to follow it; if not, there is a road not "divide to conquer;" he knows a better colored gules indicated with sufficient dis-trick; he conquers by uniting, exacting a commission on every such transaction in the shape of a handsome clipping for France. The emperor's unions are like a double cherry, affording two bites, of which he must always have one. Will any German, however" much bemused with beer," be duped by M. About's raptures on the theme of union; or not see the well-known slice of his fatherland at the bottom of every paragraph of this ominous and audacious pamphlet ? 'I was provoked by her slanderous tongue, That laid their guilt upon my guiltless shoulders." However, Germany is no sooner cautioned than she is again assured. "No amount of provocation can turn France from the path she has chosen." Abuse me as much as you like, says the magnanimous emperor, I will not revenge myself by robbing you; and Europe will believe him as the cock in the fable believed the fox. Here is something wonderfully daring." So disinterestedly docs France yearn for a united Germany, that history warns her in vain of its ruinous consequences to herself. It was fatal to France before, and might be fatal to her again; but away with all selfish considerations! "Never was this noble nation greater than from 1813 to 1815, for she was never more united. When a Frenchman speaks with admiration of campaigns so terrible to France, his testimony is worthy of credit. The feeling of Germanic honor and independence, revolting at the idea of subjection, effected miracles. Germany had but one passion, but one heart; she rose as one man, and the defeat of our incomparable armies showed of what united Germany was capable." But what of the Rhenish provinces? We need hardly state what the pamphleteer was instructed to declare upon that delicate point, or how implicitly we believe his protestations. M. About's disclaimer, however, is one of the most curious passages in his Nay, then, quod he, I shrewe us bothe two, And first I shrewe myself, bothe blood and bones, If thou begile me oftener than ones." Then We trust Prussia, on her part, will not be abused, or even lectured out of her firniness and independence, for there is an insolent tone of lecturing, mingled with the "soft sawder" of this pamphlet. Prussia has not shown "proper consideration for a governthe Prussian press is often violent, but Louis ment founded on universal suffrage!" Napoleon "will never ask the prince to gag his subjects." Nor will he insist upon putting down freedom of speech in the Prussian chambers, though he observes that Prussian politicians had better keep civil tongues in their heads when they talk of France. The gracious emperor would not even make M. Vincke's speech a casus belli with Prussia. Then the police get a rap over the knuckles, but they have been "rather unskilful than guilty," so they are let off easily this time; but "the Prussian government will do wisely to direct their functionaries not to continue "This ill-founded apprehension is so noisily in such tortuous paths, which are not without manifested and so obstinately repeated that it danger!" It appears there has been a new might have suggested evil thoughts to us, if we edition of the Orsini plot in Prussia. "If were less equitable. It is certain that if you Orsini had prospered," says M. About, "he addressed in the public street the meekest and most harmless individual in the world and would have assassinated the future liberator to him, Sir, you wish to give me a slap in the of Italy," and, in like manner, his German face; don't attempt to deny it. Don't swear, I imitators would have destroyed the redeemer wouldn't believe your oath. You want to give of Germany. The emperor is too modest to me a slap in the face, but I am stronger than use these exact words. He only says that you are; I would crush you like a worm, and I" Prussia would have been deprived of a dare you to give me that slap in the face. The very useful ally, who is, perhaps, called on mcekest and most inoffensive man in the world to render her very great services, provided would in these words find excellent reasons for she lends herself to it," which, if her rulers giving what he is asked for, his hand would spontaneously fall on the check of the fellow are not the most infatuated princes that ever who had provoked him." perished of their own blindness and credulity, they will certainly not do. work. say 66 This is not the parallel, M. About! RobWe need hardly add that we are no adbery is the question, not insult. Accuse an mirers of the mob of little kingdoms into honest man of intending to pick your pocket, which so much of Germany is cut up; but the charge may make him knock you down, great as the evil is, we trust not to see it rebut will it "suggest the evil thoughts" im- formed by French dictation and universal puted to him? Would such a man retort suffrage. And the speech made by the by snatching your watch, and assign your affronting suspicion as "an excellent reason for justifying it?" This is exactly Glo'ster's apology, when charged with a murder. prince of Prussia to the other sovereigns after the emperor's departure indicated no disposition to become either the tool or the proselyte of France. 444 war. THE MORALITY OF RAPINE. From The Saturday Review, 7 July. of" opinion," being, we presume, the imperial straints on burglarious desires. To speak substitutes for the more commonplace replainly, Louis Napoleon is acute enough to see that a repetition of the unmasked rapine of his uncle would bring the world about his ears. that of Sadleir and Pullinger has arrived. France, " not to mince matters,” as the honest The epoch of Dick Turpine is gone Iago of the Opinion Nationale says, not renounce the frontier of the Rhine," but she must have a moral pretext for seizing on "does Europe is "undergoing a process of decompoit. A moral pretext there is likely to be. sition and recomposition," for which, of course, French intrigue is not at all responsible. Nobody knows what may happen in the course of a few years. history which it belongs to nobody to write beforehand." "Nearly the whole of the map of "The future is open; it is a Europe is in question." It certainly is in question in the effusions of French pamphleteers. think of German unity? Can she answer that she will never cast a longing eye on Hanover, "Is Prussia bound by oath never to Saxony, Brunswick, Hesse, Oldenburg, and Mecklenberg? To-day sovereigns embrace each other, and certainly do so in good faith. But who can know what their people will demand of them a few years hence? And if, under the irresistible pressure of public opinion, all Germany should come to form one powerful state, would it be just, would it be reasonable, that France alone should preserve her frontier of 1815, when everybody in Germany would find it expedient to extend WE have never pretended to fathom the precise plans of the emperor of the French. Probably they are not so fixed as it is the fashion to assume, but rather shift as circumstances change and openings present themselves as this or that door in the European house appears to be on the latch, as this or that window seems imperfectly fastened. In answer to those who demand the reasons of our apprehensions, we have pointed simply to patent factsto a throne won by treason, perjury, and masto a life passed in conspiracy; sacre; to Europe kept in perpetual alarm, and twice plunged into war; to the crowd of "unofficial" pamphlets which breathe the spirit of restless aggrandizement; to Savoy, solemnly renounced, and then violently appropriated; and, above all, to those vast and costly armaments which are in a perpetual course of augmentation, and which can have no conceivable object but that of aggressive These are the "data" whereon we ground conclusions which we shall not abandon because somebody, on paying his bill at a French inn, has not found the landlady avowedly disposed for an immediate invasion of England-much less on that still more slender security, the pacific protestations of Napoleon III. Practically, indeed, we come to the same conclusion as our censors; for they, after scoffing at our irrational fears, and denouncing our lack of diplomatic politeness, end by advising us, merely "by way of precaution," to "grasp our arms." The French emperor is the most respectable of mankind; or suppress his own?" Of course, it would but if you have to travel alone with him, carry loaded pistols with you "by way of precaution." Affairs in Europe, we have been informed, "look more pacific at this moment than they have for a long time past." We should hope they did. This was the reward we expected for spending our money in ships and fortifications, and our time and labor in getting up volunteer corps. 46 However, an article which appeared a few days ago in the "unofficial" Opinion Nationale, seems really to afford a glimpse of the scheme which at present occupies the French emperor's mind. the article was to allay the fears of Germany; The ostensible object of but the German mind must be singularly constituted if its fears can be allayed by such chloroform as the article contained. The day of "revendication par la force," it seems, has passed. It would not do at the present time, without pretence or excuse, to pour an army of invasion into the Rhine provinces. The emperor is endowed with "a tact too nice, a sentiment of the tendency of opinion too just," to propose that sort of thing to France "tact" and "sentiment of the tendency be most unjust and unreasonable that the Germans should be allowed to alter their own internal arrangements without extending their territory, and that France should not be allowed at the same time to extend her territory at the expense of her neighbors. Again we are told, "If the Germans should think proper to modify their ancient political confederation a single, strong, centralized govstitution, and substitute for the impotent conernment, we would not answer that France would not think it reasonable to demand of Germany compensations and securities." part of the established rights and vested interests of France; and if Germany ceases to The "impotence" of Germany, then, is a be "impotent," France is to be entitled to seize a certain number of German provinces, by way of "compensation." No nation contiguous to France shall have the audacity to be united, well-organized, and powerful, like France herself, without forfeiting to her a portion of its territory by way of security for her continued preponderance. No country shall presume, without being fined for its presumption, to put itself in such a condition as not to be at the common tyrant's feet. To induce expanse of soulless and lifeless provinces, Prussia to take the step on which, according forming a merc pedestal for the vanity of one to this modest and beneficent doctrine, the overweening metropolis? It is not everybody Rhine provinces would escheat to France, that thinks it the summit of all happiness and was plainly the object of the earnestly desired grandeur to be absorbed and annihilated in interview with the prince regent, and is the the glory of Paris, as a Buddhist hopes to be object of the pamphlets in which M. About absorbed and annihilated in the Divine Es and the rest of the emperor's literary volti-sence. Thoroughly French, too, is the habit geurs impress the advantages of "unity" on of regarding confederacies as necessarily "imthe German nation. Sardinia has been in- potent." They are comparatively "impotent" cited to go to war with Austria and extend for the purposes of internal tyranny and of her own dominions in Italy, in order to fur- external aggression, which, to a Frenchman, nish the pretext which the emperor's "tact" seem the grand objects of national existence. perceives to be required by the "tendency But they are not "impotent" for their proper of opinion" in the present day, for the reven- object, which is that of maintaining peace dication (not by force) of Savoy and Nice. among a group of states without extinguishPrussia is urged to extend her dominions in ing their independence, and securing them Germany that she may furnish a similar pre- all against the attacks of external enemies. text for a like process in regard to the fron- Nothing could be looser, in a political point tier of the Rhine. There is yet another of view, or less respectable in the eyes of a quarter in which the same game may be French worshipper of unity, than the fedplayed. If Spain, in the process of "decom- eral organization of the states of Holland; position and recomposition," should happen, yet, that confederacy overthrew, in defensive "under the irresistible pressure of public war, the two greatest and most centralized opinion," to "cast an eye" upon Portugal, monarchies of Europe. The Swiss Federand thus substitute a single strong monarchy ation can hardly be said even to possess a for the "impotent" duality of the Peninsula, federal executive, so loose is the tie between would it not be "reasonable," would it not be "just," that France, as a "compensation" and a "security," should revendicate (but not by force) Spain up to the Ebro? Could this obvious moral necessity escape the "tact" of the emperor? Has he not already shown that it is present to his mind? French publicists naturally measure the morality of other states by that of their own. They fancy Prussia must be longing to thrust her hand into her neighbors' pockets, just as they are themselves. They take it for granted that German sovereigns must come to a congress with hearts as insincere and designs as perfidious as those which a French diplomatist brings to a conference of nations. But, besides this, they import their own political tastes and aspirations into the minds of people totally different in character from themselves. The "unity" which they fancy so irresistibly tempting to all the world, is, in fact, tempting to themselves alone. It is a peculiarity of their own character and temperament to see the height of greatness in a nation organized like a single huge barrack under one vast and uniform oppression. The Germans belong to the nobler race-the race which inclines not to the "unity" of an enormous herd of men obeying a single driver, but to freedom of self-development and masculine independence. Germany has multiplied centres of political and intellectual life, great in their collective energy, and usefully qualifying each other by their various tendencies. What would she gain by relinquishing all these, and reducing herself to a vast She the different cantons; yet it has held its own, From The Saturday Review, 7 July. RUSSIA. THE foreign policy of France has lately appeared so dangerous, and the emperor has created such profound distrust of the use to which he will put the power he has obtained, that Englishmen have very naturally begun to regret having contributed to place Europe at the mercy of an adventurer. No doubt the Crimean war gave a great lift to Louis Napoleon. It enabled him to reap all the benefits of associating with England and all |