cable project of a partition of the country. The Bourbons will
then be out of the question, or, more properly speaking, they will be
put in a worse condition; for as the preservation of the Bourbons made
a part of the first object, the extirpation of them makes a part of the
second. Their pretended friends will then become interested in their
destruction, because it is favourable to the purpose of partition that
none of the nominal claimants should be left in existence.

But however the project of a partition may at first blind the eyes of
the confederacy, or however each of them may hope to outwit the other
in the progress or in the end, the embarrassments that will arise are
insurmountable. But even were the object attainable, it would not be of
such general advantage to the parties as the neutrality of France, which
costs them nothing, and to obtain which they would formerly have gone to
war.

OF THE PRESENT STATE OF EUROPE, AND THE CONFEDERACY.

In the first place the confederacy is not of that kind that forms
itself originally by concert and consent. It has been forced together by
chance--a heterogeneous mass, held only by the accident of the moment;
and the instant that accident ceases to operate, the parties will retire
to their former rivalships.

I will now, independently of the impracticability of a partition
project, trace out some of the embarrassments which will arise among the
confederated parties; for it is contrary to the interest of a majority
of them that such a project should succeed.

To understand this part of the subject it is necessary, in the
first place, to cast an eye over the map of Europe, and observe the
geographical situation of the several parts of the confederacy; for
however strongly the passionate politics of the moment may operate, the
politics that arise from geographical situation are the most certain,
and will in all cases finally prevail.

The world has been long amused with what is called the "_balance of
power_." But it is not upon armies only that this balance depends.
Armies have but a small circle of action. Their progress is slow and
limited. But when we take maritime power into the calculation, the scale
extends universally. It comprehends all the interests connected with
commerce.

The two great maritime powers are England and France. Destroy either of
those, and the balance of naval power is destroyed. The whole world of
commerce that passes on the Ocean would