ers were in trepidation, and with good reason. Why should not
France take Belgium, and Prussia take Holland? The Belgian press did not
conceal bad feeling, and Bismarck let fall the ominous observation that if
Belgium persisted in that course, "she might pay dear for it." The Dutch
minister told the British ambassador in Vienna that in 1865 he had a long
conversation with Bismarck, and Bismarck had given him to understand that
without colonies Prussia could never become a great maritime nation; he
coveted Holland less for its own sake, than for her wealthy colonies. When
reminded that Belgium was guaranteed by the European Powers, Bismarck
replied that "a guarantee was in these days of little value." This remark
makes an excellent register of the diplomatic temperature of the hour.

Then for England. The French Emperor observed (1867), not without an
accent of complaint, that she seemed "little disposed to take part in the
affairs of the day." This was the time of the Derby government. When war
seemed inevitable on the affair of Luxemburg, Lord Stanley, then at the
foreign office, phlegmatically remarked (1867) that England had never
thought it her business to guarantee the integrity of Germany. When
pressed from Prussia to say whether in the event of Prussia being forced
into war by France, England would take a part, Lord Stanley replied that
with the causes of that quarrel we had nothing to do, and he felt sure
that neither parliament nor the public would sanction an armed
interference on either side. Belgium, he added, was a different question.
General non-intervention, therefore, was the common doctrine of both our
parties.

(M102) After Mr. Gladstone had been a year in power, the chance of a
useful part for England to perform seemed to rise on the horizon, but to
those who knew the racing currents, the interplay of stern forces, the
chance seemed but dim and faint. Rumour and gossip of a pacific tenor
could not hide the vital fact of incessant military preparation on both
sides--steadfast and scientific in Prussia, loose and ill-concerted in
France. Along with the perfecting of arms, went on a busy search by France
for alliances. In the autumn of 1869 Lord Clarendon had gone abroad and
talked with important personages. Moltke told him that in Prussia they
thought war was near. To Napoleon the secretary of state spoke of the
monster armaments, the intolerable burden imposed upon the people, and the
constant danger o