lying restoratives to
him, with scarcely a hope of recovery. It is plain that another night of
such effort would be too much for his frame; and the question on which I
have now come to summon an immediate meeting of our friends, turns on
the means of calming public opinion until he shall be able to appear in
his place once more. His career is unquestionably at an end, but his
name is powerful still; and though another trial of his powers in
Parliament would cost him his life, still, as the head of the cabinet,
he might effect, for a while, all the principal purposes of an
administration."

I doubted the possibility of encountering the present strength of
Opposition, reinforced, as it was, by calamity abroad, and asked,
"Whether any expedient was contemplated, to restore the public fortunes
on the Continent?"

"Every point of that kind has been long since considered," was the
answer. "Our alliances have all failed; and we are now reproached, not
simply with the folly of paying for inefficient help, but with the
cruelty of dragging the states of Europe into a contest, where to be
crushed was inevitable."

I still urged an enquiry into the strength of states which had never
been sharers in the war. "If the minor German powers have been absorbed;
if Prussia has abandoned the cause; if Austria has fought in vain--is
the _world_ included in Germany?" I threw the map of Europe on the
table. "See what a narrow circle comprehends the whole space to which we
have hitherto limited the defence of society against the enemy of all
social order. Our cause is broader than Austria and Prussia; it is
broader than Europe; it is the cause of civilization itself; and why not
summon all civilization to its defence? Russia alone has an army of half
a million, yet she has never fired a shot." Still, I found it difficult
to convince my fellow minister.

"Russia--jealous, ambitious, and Asiatic; Russia, with the Eastern world
for her natural field--what object can she have in relieving the broken
powers of the Continent? Must she not rather rejoice in the defeats and
convulsions which leave them at her mercy?" I still continued to urge
him.

"Rely upon it; it is in the North that we must look for the
reinforcement. If the councils of Catharine were crafty, the councils of
her successor may be sincere. Catharine thought only of the seizure of
Turkey; Paul may think only of the profits of commerce. Yet, is it
altogether justifiable to suppo