in Lisbon; and since nearly all Ger many has been hermetically sealed against our influence, we have despatched a fresh secretary of legation to Berlin!!! Our diplomacy is, indeed, in face of all these mo mentous events, sui generis unique, from the elegant imbecility of Downing street, to the fret-work in St Petersburgh. In the rue faubourg St Honoré, we have ecarte pour passer le temps, and ecart pour les affaires. The Escurial is graced by a young and widowed queen, said to be lovely, and reputed to be amorous; to mate her we are represented by un buen mozo, un caballero perfecto -an accomplished gentleman, in sooth, but ill suited to cope with the Frenchman, almost the most finished, as he is the most experienced diplomatist of the age. To Brussels we have lately forwarded the hopeful of Bond Street and Mary-le-bone, as secretary of legation, whose first despatch must by this time have communicated, as the interesting fruits of his labours, the important announcement, that Belgian beaux drink bière, and the belles turn out their toes. In Pera we have an offshot of the Greys, whom, if we square his voyages across the straits by that from Naples to Constantinople, it will take a trimestre of preparation to reach the Seraglio, and enquire the movements of Butenieff who, meanwhile, has made the tour of Grand Cairo, the Acropolis, and St Petersburg. To console us for the tortoise step of one branch of the family, we have, however, another more mercurial grafting from the same noble stem, on the banks of the Neva. As a specific for bile and jaundice, Lord Durham was recommended to the Black Sea, while his lady and suite, under the convoy of another Grey, traversed the Baltic to await him at the embassy, and make his house warm. Two of England's glorious men-ofwar have been decorously occupied in forwarding one ambassador, whilst not one could be found or spared to block the Dardanelles against Egyptian and Muscovite. But my

Lord of Lambton will be welcome to the Czar, and none more so; reviews and feasting and court galas there will be as before, and Lord Durham will return in two ships of war as he went-as wise, and none the wiser. Poland he may dare to whisper of-not to Nicholas, but to his own secretary and relative; he may bombast of her wrongs in his despatches to Palmerston, but in his correspondence with Nesselrode as much and no more will he venture than on his last excursionnil. We shall pay the costs, as on the last occasion of these travels, for the benefit of his health and temper, without enquiry or repining. The poor will be stented by poor-law to two ounces of meat, or twopence per day, and the hard savings squandered by thousands upon my lord for a bootless errand, duly to fulfil which neither by nature nor by talent is he gifted. But it matters not, for the privateer has its letters of marque, and the man is a patriot. Mean while, the corner stone and crowning capital of this motley order-these eccentric proportionsof Whig diplomacy presides over his Downing-Street bureau with infinite polish, if little suavity of manners; indites a confidential officio as he would a billet-doux; subscribes his autograph to a treaty in gants de Paris of the newest mode; and guards, with practised hand, from inky contact the exquisitely perfumed kid. The graceful Atlas balances the globe on his head with the same nonchalance as his chapeau de bras; he adjusts his position with as much light-heartedness as he would trim a curl. Of the geographical divisions and territorial demarcations of the world, if little he knows, less he cares; it is a science for clericals, and not fitting to disarrange the mind of his "nobility." True, the Straits of Dover for him have no secrets-the Thames he may have seen too-at Westminster. What boots superfluous knowledge of Black Sea and Dardanelles, or on which side the Tagus stands Lisbon ? * Russia

may usurp provinces, and confiscate Asiatic kingdoms for her own sole profit, with impunity. The map will serve Pozzo di Borgo better than a protocol; the secretary will shrink from the bewilderment of latitudes and longitudes. That a Prusso-Germanic customs league exists, none, doubtless, than he is better evidenced of. But, further, of its developements and bounda. ries, we query comprehension more vast than its origin on the banks of the Spree. How, indeed, should a statesman of taste and fashion have interests and feelings in common with Manchester cotton-weavers, Leeds clothiers, and Birmingham artisans-how, indeed? Commercial fatalities invariably, now-a days, succeed to our political victories; and it is hard to decide which-the shame of the political triumph over antagonists so powerless, or the commercial loss and insult gratefully retorted upon us by the paupers we have forced into power-is the most signal. Miguel we dethroned to make way for Pedro-a monarch without subjects-who had ingloriously abdicated one crown, by compact with rebellious vassals, on the sole condition of free egress for himself, his money, and jewels. His ministers had long fared at free cost and quarters sumptuously here, in Britain, at the charge of a hospitable people. Their first act of requital was -the abolition of the differential duties, some fifteen per cent, in favour of our fabrics over those of all other less rightfully entitled nations. This was the act-not of Miguel, our foe, but-of Pedro, our friend. As with Portugal, so are we about to be rewarded in Belgium. Four millions of Belgians were incompetent-not to annihilate, but-to defend their hearths against two millions of sluggish Hollanders. We manned our fleets; our reluctant tars blockaded the Maese and the Scheldt; the citadel of Antwerp was bombarded, and reduced to ashes; the indomitable Dutchman compelled to succumb. Our remuneration-the Belgian Chambers are discussing, and will pass, a law, imposing prohibitory duties on foreign cotton manufactures. The minister of the interior allowed that it was necessary to mo◄

dify the tariff, in order to prevent the importation of foreign cottons. Such is the report of the Times journal. This law can, of course, be levelled only against this country, since scarcely from any other do cotton fabrics enter the Netherlands. The special question of damage, the infliction of which is thus contemplated, will be treated hereafter in its more appropriate position.

Such is free trade and reciprocity, as invariably construed against us, all on one side; such the kindly feeling of our Belgian allies, through whom we have not realized even yet the economical bonus of the annual fifty thousand so temptingly held out for our consolation. On Holland we heaped insult and oppression in all their most aggravated forms;-nationally, arrogance sharpened the sting of injustice-the vulgar arrogance of might superior;-personally, insult and contumely were superadded towards the representative of a na tion's wrongs and a nation's dignity. Blood is upon our hands, Dutch blood, and a lengthened series of injuries unmerited stored up in heavy account against us. The vengeance that is slow is not least sure; political reckonings are controlled by no statute of limitations. The commencing blow is struck afar off: in Java cottons of British origin are now visited with a penal duty of twenty-five per cent, which before were subject to no more than a friendly fiscal acknowledgment of six. Our merchants remonstrate to a minister that cannot help, as they nobly did against the piracy and blockade of 1833, when he could have helped, but turned a deaf ear. The case is hard, when the sins of the Government must be answered by the nation; but the retribution is no less just and legal-legal, we repeat; for is it not in the bond? Is it not in the strict letter of treaties? We are now waging a doubtful war in Spain-that is, for Spain Christina-blockading the coast against Don Carlos-arraying our paid officers, and risking the lives of our British subjects, against him and one-half of the federate monarchy. Should, through our aid, Christina prevail, who will guaran

tee us from a repetition of the commercial gratitude of Donna Maria? If Don Carlos, who shall assure to our traffic the same friendly consideration of Miguel? We have had the art-a monopoly indisputable of hugging as our best friends the bitterest foes, and of aggravating our once fast allies into enemies no less rancorous. To combat a world in arms is magnificent chivalry. We have undergone the ordeal with Napoleon, and, despite of Whigs and Whig prophecies, triumphantly. Shall we dare another fight with leaders so craven? But we have France for our stay-France who, in five years of alliance, has buried the strife and hatred of centuries. So we hope. But where is the proof? For her we have sacrificed à hecatomb of old friends and profitable connexions-we have lowered our tariffs to welcome her wines and her silks, her passementaries and bonneteries-by which our imports have grown to millions, whilst exports may be measured by thousands. In return, she has remitted some fractional parts of prohibitory duties on iron, cables, coals, and cotton yarns, the differential consideration of which may, in the course of half-a-century, cover the charges of the Bowring job commission. In the mean time, by way of drawback upon this trivial exhibition of courtesy, France undermines our interest in Portugal; and, in Spain, has so taken her position, that whichever party wins, she will not lose. And, lastly, we arrive at the Prusso-Germanic customs league, the crowning point of the conspiracy against our commercial interests, which demands a more special and separate examination. The retrospective glance we have indulged in has cleared the way; it has developed the progress of a silent, a universal coalition against our material prosperity and political greatness, in which the chief agents must be sought-not abroad, but-at home. There is a shallow cunning, which overreaches itself; and whilst a British Ministry has been imagining pitfalls for petty bugbears of its own creation, the British nation is entangled-is in peril of being engulfed in the vortex produced by

the conflicting and contradictory schemes of its own leaders. From the lessons of the past, let us take counsel for the future.

There is no cause for despair; whatever there may be for wholesome fear and iron-hearted energy. We have encountered — we have vanquished-a Continental system. But let no blind confidence mislead us. The Napoleonic was but the flash of unreflecting, irresistible impulse-of headlong passion; that of Prussia has all the coolness of calculation, of combination, and long preparation about it. It was not launched forth into the world in a paroxysm of fury; but, at its full maturity, after years of patient toil —even then only insinuated, suggested, and quietly deposited with its neighbours for deliberation. The system of Bonaparte failed through the vices inherent in its origin; it was compulsory, and therefore arrayed the feelings of all Europe extra French against it; it conciliated no interests-proposed no compensation-exacted every sacrifice. The States which yielded to it from overwhelming necessity, connived at its infraction; it converted every merchant into a contrabandist - it elevated the smuggler to the rank of a fair dealer. More than all; financial embarrassments compelled the great parent to lay suicidal hands on his own offspring. His army he could recruit by conscription-subsist by forced contributions-but how from the same source could he gratify the inordinate cravings of generals and marshals, who could say to him in the words of the Arragonese oath-We who are each of us your equals, and who made you our emperor-on condition! The subject parts of Europe were, therefore, parcelled out into commanderies, and awarded to his chieftains to govern and to plunder in recompense for past, and as a retainer for future loyalty. The tacit understanding was that the marshal for his own profit might dispense with the decrees, Berlin, Milan, and all; and so he did dispense with them for consideration good and precise-by them most extensively for himself. When publishing the most frightful orders to deter lesser offenders, so as to

stifle contraband competition in the market, and secure a higher premium for himself-the prince of smugglers. Such, for example, was the tactic of Marshal Davoust in Hamburgh. We write in the presence of many yet living to gainsay us. The Bartons, the Finlays, the Phillipses, the Gotts, the Simeons, the Rothschilds, of London, Manchester, Glasgow, Leeds, are still, or their representatives, there to disclaim us if we be in error. There was little difficulty in supplying Germany with colonial produce, or cottons, or woollens, to any extent, provided the metaliques accompanied the bill of lading to the satisfaction of the general commandant, or his intermediary agent. Prices in England, whether high or low, had absolutely no relation, in the way of cause or effect, to the failure of the continental system. The spinningjenny, superseded after so completely by the mule-Arkwright's water or throstle frame-Watt's steam engines-all were working their wonders years before Napoleon was heard of, and one a quarter of a century at least before his system was dreamed about. Moreover, during the existence of that system mechanical improvement was absolutely stationary. So much we have thought it useful to say, as a corrective to the crude speculations of some among our contemporaries. The continental system, magnified as the grande pensée of Napoleon, was no more than the law of brute forcethe vulgar caprice of power intoxicated, irrational, irreflective; and the cord, wherever stretched to the utmost point of tension, snapped asunder; it would have felled its maker with a terrible counteraction of moral energy, without the auxiliary horrors of a Moscow winter, had not the impetus of the wheel been ofttimes stayed, and the machine thrown out of geering by the

band that framed it.

Let us not delude ourselves-the system of Prussia reposes not on foundations so hollow and crumbling. It rests on the empire of opinion-it is based on moral power, a tower of strength more durable than the ephemeral action of ball and steel; it has conciliated local antipathies-it is entwined in national

prejudices-it assumes to combine all interests-it has appealed to all sympathies-it has rallied around its standard all the generous sentiments, the ardent feelings, the patriotism undying, the devotion enthusiastic of-FATHERLAND. Yet neither in its origin nor for long after was it invested with any such charmed spell; when first laid before the separate states of the German Federation it was viewed with suspicion by most-it was met with opposition by all. The revolutionary policy of England converted that into a political necessity which previously had been regarded as at best an insidious expedient of commercial monopoly, or hazardous fiscal regulation. The Sovereigns, great and small, of Germany saw England, who in her better days had been the guardian angel of order, now marching onward in the very vanguard of war and revolution. The fate of William of Holland, of Miguel, of Carlos, was in part, or in whole, before their eyes; Belgium virtually annexed to France French army in Ancona-French propagandism, scattering its firebrands every where.

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The contagion had reached their own doors; incipient rebellion was murmuring in the absolute- demagogical insolence or patriotic fervour lording it in the constitutional states. The customary subsidies were asked to be refused-civil lists were in jeopardy -control over receipt and expenditure demanded. They who had shunned now sought the countenance of Prussia; they hastened to take refuge under her system, by which a revenue was secured independent of popular clamour and the denial of unruly chambers. Austria was too isolated, and Russia too far away for help in the hour of tribulation. But although the princes were early gained, the people were not so easily scared out of their ancient predilections-Germany, constitutional above all, still sympathized with England. Without their approval the league was still but a skeleton, whilst the counter league was growing into proportion and taking a position. Again the infatuation of our councils outwith co-operative zeal the efforts of our rivals. The number

ran