on a former occasion had solemnly vouched
its word to the British parliament, that _constitutional independence
of any country, great or small, would never be a matter of indifference
to the English government;_ adding emphatically, that _whoever
might be in office, conducting the affairs of Great Britain, he would
not perform his duty if he were inattentive to the interests of such
States._ Am I to blame for having thought that there is and should be
morality in politics?

And besides, there was republican America, quite in another shape than
she was twenty years before, at the time of the war of independence in
Greece. Then she had not yet extended her sway to the Pacific, and was
not yet exposed to be so much affected by the political issues of Europe
and Asia as she now is: then she had not yet a population of more than
twenty millions, who now are in the necessity to claim the position of a
power on earth: then she was indeed a new world teeming with the
mysteries of the future, but yet was far from being what she is to-day;
nay, even the Erie Canal, the great artery which now acts as a
miraculous link between Europe and the interior of your republic, was
only about to be completed at the time. And still what mighty sympathy!
a sympathy warm in expression, and not barren in facts, thrilled through
all America, much like that which I now meet, and pervaded even your
_national_ councils:--would I were entitled to say, much like as
now! Although the question of Greece was of course worthy of all
interest (as the cause of liberty always and everywhere is), yet it was
only an isolated cause, and by no means of such surpassing influence
upon the condition of the world as the cause of Hungary was, and is.

And yet I was disappointed in the expectation which I derived from your
own history, that a just cause will find supporters and never will be
forsaken by all. Oh, we were forsaken, gentlemen! We were forsaken even
at the crisis, when, single-handed, we had defeated our cruel enemy. And
Russia, that personification of despotism, stepped in with its iron
weight, tearing to pieces the law of nations, and overthrowing upon our
ruins the balance of power on earth.

That Russia, if invited, would snatch at the opportunity to gain
preponderance amongst the powers on earth--of this I entertained not the
slightest doubt; but I must confess, I did not believe either that
Austria would claim, or that the other powers of the ear