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in which they are engaged. They will not give ear CHAP. to one who is striving to lay down the conclusions which ought, as he says, to follow from other men's principles. He who altogether abjures the juice of the grape cannot usefully criticise the vintage of any particular year; and a man who is the steady adversary of wars in general, upon broad and paramount grounds, will never be regarded as a sound judge of the question whether any particular war is wicked or righteous, nor whether it is foolish or wise.

It must be added that there was another cause which tended to disqualify Mr Bright from taking an effective part in the maintenance of peace. For one who would undertake a task of that kind at a time when warlike ardour is prevailing in the country, it is above all things necessary that he should be a statesman so truly attached to what men mean when they talk of their country, and so jealous of its honour, that no man could ascribe his efforts in the cause of peace to motives which a warlike and high-spirited people would repudiate. Mr Bright sincerely desired the welfare of the traders and workmen in the United Kingdom; and if he desired the welfare of the other classes of the people with less intensity, it may fairly be believed that to all he wished to see justice done so, if this worthy disposition of mind were equivalent to what a man calls his love of his country,' no one could fairly say that Mr Bright was without the passion. But, in another, and certainly the old and the usual sense, a man's love of his country' is understood to represent some

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CHAP. thing more than common benevolence towards the persons living within it. For if he be the citizen of an ancient State blessed with freedom, renowned in arms, and holding wide sway in the world, his love of his country means something of attachment to the institutions which have made her what she is-means something of pride in the long suffering, and the battle, and the strife which have shed glory upon his countrymen in his own time, and upon their fathers in the time before him. It means that he feels his country's honour to be a main term and element of his own content. It means that he is bent upon the upholding of her dominion, and is so tempered as to become the sudden enemy of any man who, even though he be not an invader, still attempts to hack at her power. Now in this the heathen, but accustomed sense of the phrase, Mr Bright would be the last to say that he was a lover of his country. He would rather, perhaps, acknowledge that, taking his country' in that sense, he hated it. Yet at a time when the spirit of the nation was up, no man could usefully strive to moderate or guide it unless his patriotism were believed to be exactly of that heathen sort which Mr Bright disapproved. Thus, by the nature of his patriotism, no less than by the immoderate width of his views on the lawfulness of wars, this powerful orator was so. disabled as to be hindered from applying his strength towards the maintenance of peace.

The country was impassioned, but it was not so mad as to be deaf to precious counsels; and a states

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man who had shown by his past life that he loved his CHAP. country in the ancient way, and that he knew how to contemplate the eventuality of war with a calm and equal mind, might have won attention for views which questioned the necessity of the war then threatened; and if, in good time, he had brought to bear upon his opinions a sufficing power and knowledge, he might have altered the policy of his country. But outside the Cabinet the real tenor of the negotiations of 1853 was still unknown; and Lord Aberdeen and Mr Gladstone consenting to remain members of a war-going Government, and Mr Cobden and Mr Bright being disqualified for useful debate by the nature of their opinions, no stand could be made.

By these steps, then, the English people passed from a seeming approval of the doctrines of the Peace Party to a state of warlike ardour; and it was plain that, if the Queen should send down to the Houses of Parliament a message importing war, the Royal appeal would be joyfully answered by an almost unanimous people.

* This was in print before that curious and interesting confirmation of my statement-my statement of the relations between the Peace Party and their country-which Mr Cobden has since given to the world. Mr Cobden has said that at the time of the war neither he nor Mr Bright could win any attention to their views; and he added that he (Mr Cobden) will never again try to withstand a warlike ardour once kindled, because, when a people are inflamed in that way; they are no better than 'mad dogs.'-Speech in the autumn of 1862. He sees no defect in the principles of a Peace Party which is to suspend its operations in times of warlike excitement.

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Meeting

of Parliament.

The
Queen's
Speech.

CHAPTER XXV.

CHAP. WHEN the English Parliament assembled on the 31st of January, there was still going on in Europe a semblance of negotiation; but amongst men accustomed to the aspect of public affairs, there was hardly more than one who failed to see that France and England had gone too far to be able to recede, and that, by the very weight of their power and its inherent duties, they were now at last drawn into war. This condition of things was fairly enough disclosed by the Queen's Speech, and Parliament was asked to provide for an increase of the military and naval forces, with a view to give weight to the negotiations still pending. But the English Government was not suffered to forget its bond with the French Emperor; and the Prime Minister, whilst still indulging a hope of peace, consented to record and continue the error which had brought him to the verge of war. It seems that for good reasons it was of some moment to the French Emperor to be signally named in the Queen's Speech; and Lord Aberdeen again submitted to a form of words which carefully distinguished the posture of France and England

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from that of the four Powers. The Queen was ad- CHAP. vised to say I have continued to act in cordial co-operation with the Emperor of the French; and

6

6

'my endeavours in conjunction with my Allies to preserve and to restore peace between the contending parties, although hitherto unsuccessful, have 'been unremitting.'

which it

rate un

ing with

difference

England

German

Like the similar paragraph which had marked the The policy Royal Speech at the close of the preceding session, indicated. this phrase, strange as it was, gave a true though somewhat dim glimpse of the policy which was leading England astray. In principle she was marching The sepaalong with all the rest of the four Powers, and yet derstandall the while she was engaged with the French Em- en peror in a separate course of action. If the aims of justified by any Austria and Prussia had been seriously at variance of opinion with those of the Western Powers, this difference between might have been a good reason for separate action and the on the part of France and England. But the con- Powers. trary was true. So deep was the interest of Austria Unswerv in the cause, and so closely were her views approved of Austria by Prussia, that although for several months France sia supand England had been pressing forward in a way to rid the which seemed to endanger the coherence of the ties of quadruple union, still even this dangerous course had hitherto failed to destroy the unanimity of the four Powers. If the French Emperor sought to use his alliance with England as a means of strengthening his hold over France, and if England was beginning to love the thought of war for war's sake, Austria, from motives of a higher and more cogent

ing resolve

(and Prus

ports her)

Principali

Russian

troops.

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