th, and chiefly
Great Britain and America, would permit the intervention of Russia. I
could not believe that Austria would resort to this desperate remedy,
because (and it is a remarkable circumstance which I mention now for the
first time) it was Austria which but a few years before, when, in the
transactions with Turkey, the question of foreign interference for the
maintenance of the integrity of the Turkish empire was agitated in the
councils of the world (and from which you of course were excluded, as to
the present day you always yet have been, as if you were nothing but a
patch of earth); yes, it was Austria, which objecting that the guarantee
of interference should be even claimed, pronounced in a solemn
diplomatic note these memorable words:--

_"A State ought never to accept, and still less request, of another
State, a service for which it is unable to offer in return a strict
reciprocity; else by accepting such favour she loses the flower of her
own independence--a State accepting such a favour becomes a mediatized
State: it makes an act of submission to the will of the State which
takes the charge of its defence; this State becomes a protector, and to
be dependent upon a protector is insupportable."_

Thus spoke Austria. How then could I imagine that the same Austria which
thus spoke would accept the degradation of Russian interference? And
should even the house of Austria, ruled by a guilty woman, under the
name of a witless, cruel child, be willing thus to ruin itself; how
could I imagine that England, that America, that the World, would allow
such a preponderance to Russia as makes her almost the mistress over the
world; at least opens the way to become such? No, that indeed I could
not imagine.

And still it was done. We fell, not "unwept, unhonoured, and unsung,"
but still we fell. Well: sad though be our fate, it is but a trial, and
no death. Perhaps it was necessary that the destinies of mankind should
be fulfilled. I have an unbroken faith in Him, the Heavenly Father of
all; the heart of mortal men may break, but what he does, that is well
done.

The ways of Providence are mysterious. The car of destiny goes on
unrestrained, and the weight of its wheels often crushes the happiness
of generations; floods of tears and of blood often mark its track.
Mankind looks up to heaven, and while measuring eternity with the rule
of the passing moment, sometimes despairs of the future, and believes
the sun of