o wish to go either to Antwerp or anywhere else, he could not be
responsible for sending an expedition abroad, unless the army were fitted
for that object by measures taken now to increase its force.

I entirely agree with you, Mr. Gladstone replied, that _when_ it
is seriously intended to send troops to Antwerp or elsewhere
abroad, "immediate measures must be taken to increase our force."
I feel, however, rather uneasy at what seems to me the extreme
susceptibility on one side of the case of some members of the
cabinet. I hope it will be balanced by considering the effect of
any forward step by appeal to parliament, in compromising the true
and entire neutrality of our position, and in disturbing and
misdirecting the mind of the public and of parliament. I am afraid
I have conveyed to your mind a wrong impression as to the state of
my own. It is only a far outlook which, in my opinion, brings into
view as a possibility the sending a force to Antwerp. Should the
day arrive, we shall then be on the very edge of war, with
scarcely a hope of not passing onward into the abyss.

Cardwell sent him a paper by a high military authority, on which Mr.
Gladstone made two terse ironic comments. "I think the paper," he said,
"if it proves anything proves (1) That generals and not ministers are the
proper judges of those weights in the political scales which express the
likelihood of war and peace; (2) That there is very little difference
between absolute neutrality and actual war. I advise that Granville should
see it."

On July 25 the _Times_ divulged the text of a projected agreement in 1869
(it was in truth 1867) between the French and Prussian governments in five
articles, including one that the incorporation of Belgium by France would
not be objected to by Prussia. The public was shocked and startled, and
many were inclined to put down the document for a forgery and a hoax. As a
matter of fact, in substance it was neither. The Prussian ambassador a few
days before had informed Mr. Gladstone and Lord Granville personally and
in strict secrecy, that the draft of such a project existed in the
handwriting of M. Benedetti. This private communication was taken by Mr.
Gladstone to have been made with the object of prompting him to be the
agent in producing the evil news to the world, and thus to prejudice
France in the judgment of Europe. He thought that no part of his duty,