st being attributed to her. One or
two of her leaders have suffered themselves to be carried somewhat too
far by the spirit of adventure; the nation has never had, what may be
called, geographical ambition. France does not disdain to conquer the
world by the dispersion of her ideas, but she desires nothing more.
That which constitutes the beauty of our history, to those who take an
elevated view of it, is the twofold object, pursued simultaneously by
the Sovereign and the nation, of concentrating France, and spreading
French ideas.

The old Austrian diplomacy has been, for the last six hundred years,
incessantly occupied in stitching together bits of material, without
ever having been able to make a coat. It does not consider either the
colour or the quality of the cloth, but always keeps the needle going.
The thread it uses is often white, and it not infrequently
breaks--when away goes the new patch! Then another has to be found.

A province is detached--two more are laid hold of. The piece gets rent
down the middle--a rag is caught up, then another, and whatever comes
to hand is sewn together in breathless haste. The effect of this
stitching monomania has been, to keep constantly changing the map of
Europe, to bring together, as chance willed it, races and religions of
every pattern, and to trouble the existence of twenty peoples, without
making the unity of a nation. Certain Machiavellic old gentlemen
sitting round a green cloth at Vienna, direct this work, measure the
material, rub their hands complacently when it stretches, snatch off
their wigs in despair when a piece is torn, and look on all sides for
another wherewith to replace it. In the Middle Ages, the sons of the
house used to be sent to visit foreign princesses: they made love to
their royal and serene highnesses in German, and always brought back
with them some shred of territory. But now that princesses receive
their dowers in hard cash, recourse is had to violent measures in
order to procure pieces of material; they are seized by soldiers; and
there are some large stains of blood upon this harlequin's cloak!

Almost all the states of Italy, the kingdom of Naples, Sardinia,
Sicily, Modena, Parma, Placentia, and Guastalla, have been in turn
stitched to the same piece as Bohemia, Transylvania, and Croatia. Rome
would have shared the same fate, if papal excommunications had not
broken the thread. In 1859 it is Venice and Milan that pay for
everybody, til