in an indistinct
utterance of voice--and he did not like to break the conversation into
French, because to have done so would have looked like a condemnation
of their English, of any imperfection of which they did not seem to be
at all conscious.

The King was very guarded in all he said about France; the Prince
spoke with more freedom and with less caution. The result of what
Viscount Palmerston gathered from their conversation, and perhaps for
this purpose they may be put together, because they probably both feel
and think nearly alike, though the Prince lets his thoughts out more
than the King, may be summed up as follows.

They were much pleased and flattered by the kind and friendly
reception given them by the French Emperor, and both he and they seem
to have had present to their minds that the existing Royal Family of
Sweden is descended from General Bernadotte--a General in the Army of
the First Napoleon. They think the French Emperor sincerely desirous
of maintaining his alliance with England, believing it to be for his
interest to do so. But they consider the French Nation essentially
aggressive, and they think that the Emperor is obliged to humour
that national feeling, and to follow, as far as the difference of
circumstances will allow, the policy of his Uncle. They consider the
principle of nationalities to be the deciding principle of the day,
and accordingly Venetia ought to belong to Italy, Poland ought to
be severed from Russia, and Finland ought to be restored to Sweden.
Holstein should be purely German with its own Duke, Schleswig should
be united to Denmark, and when the proper time comes, Denmark, so
constituted, ought to form one Monarchy with Sweden and Norway. But
they see that there are great if not insuperable obstacles to all
these arrangements, and they do not admit that the Emperor of the
French talked to them about these things, or about the map of Europe
revised for 1860. They lamented the dangerous state of the Austrian
Empire by reason of its financial embarrassments, and its differences
between Vienna and Hungary. They admitted the difficulty of
re-establishing a Polish State, seeing that Russia, Prussia, and
Austria are all interested in preventing it; but they thought that
Russia might make herself amends to the Eastward for giving up part of
her Polish possessions.

They said the Swedes would be more adverse than the Danes to a Union
of Denmark with Sweden. They said the Finns ar