f statesmanship. What
did either of these men ever do to uplift the higher phases of
humanity by grappling with the problem that had been brought into
being by the French Revolution?

When we think of responsible ministers having no other vision or plan
of coming to an understanding with the French nation except by their
screams, groans, and odour of blood, it makes one shudder, and we
wish to forget that the people allowed them to carry out their hideous
methods of settling disputes. A galaxy of brilliant writers has sung
their praises in profusion, but while the present writer admires the
literary charm of the penmen's efforts, he does not find their
conclusions so agreeable or so easy to understand. There was never a
time, in our opinion, even during the most embarrassing and darkest
phases of the Napoleonic struggle, in which our differences with
France were insoluble. Napoleon, as I have said, never ceased to avow
his willingness to make vital sacrifices in order that peace between
the two peoples should be consummated. The stereotyped cant of
maintaining the "Balance of Power" is no excuse for plunging a nation
into gruesome, cruel, and horrible wars. It is when our liberties are
threatened that circumstances may arise when it would be a crime not
to defend them. But where and when were any of our interests
threatened by Napoleon until we became the aggressors by interfering
with the policy of what he called his "Continental system"? Even
before Napoleon became Consul, First Consul, and subsequently Emperor
of the French, it was deemed high policy on the part of our statesmen
to take sides against the French Directorate in disputes that were
caused and had arisen on the Continent out of the Revolution, and once
involved in the entanglement which it is hard to believe concerned us
in any degree, the nation was committed to a long and devastating
debauch of crime which men who understood the real art of
statesmanship would have avoided.

Many of the famous statesmen who have lived since their time would
have acted differently. Fox, with a free hand, would have saved us,
and but for the senseless attitude of the Pitt-Castlereagh party, the
Grey, Romilly, Horner, Burdett and Tierny combination would have
prevented the last of Napoleon's campaigns between his return from
Elba and his defeat at Waterloo, which proved to be the bloodiest of
all the Emperor's wars.

Amongst a certain section of the community the belie