missioners of
the military spirit which the Whigs detested, and when the former died
in 1806 the latter became the natural leader.

Pitt was buried peaceably enough in the Abbey, but when his
successor's tragic end came in 1822, the populace avenged themselves
of the wrongs for which they believed he was responsible by throwing
stones at the coffin as it was being solemnly borne to its last
resting place beside William Pitt. Both men made war on Napoleon
because they believed him to be the implacable disturber of peace and
a danger to their country. Pitt, as we have seen, left among his MS.
his opinion of the great soldier, and here is the latter's opinion of
Pitt, expressed to his ministers on the eve of his leaving Paris for
his last campaign against his relentless foes.

"I do not know," he said (to his ministers in speaking to them
of the new constitution he had granted), "how in my absence you
will manage to lead the Chambers. Monsieur Fouche thinks that
popular assemblies are to be controlled by gaining over some old
jobbers, or flattering some young enthusiasts. That is only
intrigue, and intrigue does not carry one far. In England, such
means are not altogether neglected; but there are greater and
nobler ones. Remember Mr. Pitt, and look at Lord Castlereagh!
With a sign from his eyebrows, Mr. Pitt could control the House
of Commons, and so can Lord Castlereagh now! Ah! if I had such
instruments, I should not be afraid of the Chambers. But have I
anything to resemble these?"[22]

This piece of pathetic history is given to us by the French historian,
M. Thiers, the lifelong enemy of his Imperial master, Napoleon III. We
are faced now with the Power that we helped to build up against
ourselves at the expense of the wreck of the First French Empire.

The political situation then and now bears no comparison. We made war
on the French without any real justification, and stained our high
sense of justice by driving them to frenzy. We bought soldiers and
sailors to fight them from impecunious German and Hanoverian princes.
We subsidized Russia, Prussia, Austria, Portugal, Spain, and that foul
cesspool, Naples, at the expense of the starvation of the poorest
classes in our own country. The bellicose portion of the population,
composed mainly of the upper and middle classes, shrieked their
deluded terrors of extinction into the minds of the people and
believed that if w