T

6

to be every inch a king in his own realm: political infallibility. And he entertained how much more so over its dependencies!' no doubt that all 'honest citizens,' as Cicero We cannot imagine any ground for the called people on his own side, were ready supposition that the King wanted to be to follow him, and that his opponents were more a King in America than in England. only a desperate faction,' whom it was But, in plain truth, to suppose George the justifiable to oppose by all the means which Third a believer in his own divine right, or power placed in his hands. He was only a practical disciple of the high 'prerogative' the representative and champion of the school, is to mistake him altogether. He beauty, excellence, and perfection of the was no stickler for the rights of kings in a British constitution as by law established, general way. Like a plain Englishman as on which he loved to dilate in stereotyped he was, he was quite content to govern un- phrase. der the Revolution settlement.' Only men of imaginative and prejudiced minds. 'I will rather risk my crown than do what I like Horace Walpole's, attributed to him in think personally disgraceful; and whilst I have earnest any Stuart-like notions. Nor have no wish but for the good and prosperity of my we observed any expression of his reliance country, it is impossible that the nation shall on that quasi-divine right of English law-not stand by me; if they will not, they shall have another king!' yers, Prerogative. We do not remember having noticed that he once uses the word in all this correspondence. In careless conversation (if we may believe one of Mr. Massey's MS. authorities) he said that the English Constitution was the finest system in the world, but not fit for a king. He was the only slave.' And though he touchHe never seemed to invoke personal loyes on the subject of the Crown's legal pow-alty to his aid, but British patriotism, as he ers in one rather remarkable passage (with understood it. reference to the City Address and Petition against signing the Quebec Bill, June 29, 1774) he does so with, for him, unusual caution.

I am clear that, though I hope the Crown will ever be able to prevent [sic] a Bill it thinks detrimental to be thrown out in one or other House of Parliament without making use of its right of refusing the assent, yet I shall never consent to using any expression that tends to establish that at no time the making use of that power is necessary.'

เ

His principal motive of action was of quite a different character. He claimed obedience and assistance from all honest people, not because he was every inch a King, but because he was, in his own estimation, thoroughly and always in the right.. He might have addressed his ministers in the Duchess de la Ferté's language to Mademoiselle Delaunay, Tiens, mon enfant, je ne vois que moi qui aie toujours raison.' The story told by Mr. Jesse, how, at the commencement of one of his fits of insanity, he startled the people at prayers in the chapel by putting his head out of the Royal closet, and following the reader with peculiar emphasis, Forty years long was I grieved with this generation, and said, it is a people which do err in their hearts, for they have not known my ways,' expresses grotesquely his simple conviction of his own

Common honesty, and that sense of honour which must reside in the heart of every man born of a noble family, would oblige you at this hour to stand firmly to the aid of him who thinks he deserves the assistance of every honest man.'

"It is attachment to my country that alone actuates my purposes, and Lord North shall see that at least there is one person willing to preserve unspoiled the most beautiful combination that ever was framed.'

Now, to

Such was his every-day language.
misunderstand him in this particular is, in
fact, to misconceive the mainspring of his
power among his subjects, and the key to
all his success. A sovereign in this country
who were to use the Spanish style, 'I, the
king,' would not have a chance. A sover-
eign who terms himself, We, the people,' is
nearly irresistible. It was in that name
honestly used by himself, and honestly ac-
cepted by those for whom he spoke - that
he maintained his predominant share in the
Government. And undoubtedly, during
the greater part of his reign-though with
exceptions
he was the king of the peo-
ple; not of the more far-sighted politicians,
whose following is always small; not of the
Whig families, nor of the City, nor the
populace; but of the great majority of his
middle-class subjects, with their love of
honesty and domestic order, and morality,
and bluntness, their fondness for respecta-
ble platitudes, their few plain instincts
and their few plain rules;' and with minds,
on the whole, wonderfully analogous to his
own.

Such were the qualities which lost us | lar, if that secession threatens the prosperity America. So historical criticism contin- or the security of the whole community. ually repeats, and Mr. Donne only echoes George the Third believed that the prosthe ordinary sentence. And yet, strictly perity of his empire was bound up in the speaking, the reproach is not well-founded. maintenance of the American dominion, The measures which lost us America were just as Abraham Lincoln believed that the the Stamp Act, and the ungracious as well prosperity of his vast republic was bound up as short-sighted policy which made us at in the maintenance of the Union. And each once show weakness by receding from our of them, Prince and President alike, was position, and show ill will by not frankly backed up in that belief by the zeal of his receding from it, but always brandishing in countrymen. And by that belief each stood the sight of her people the emblem of a absolved of blood-guiltiness: or neither. power of which we no longer possessed the Policy may be justified by events; the moreality. But all this series of mistakes was tives which dictate a policy can only be wrought by the Grenville ministry and their pronounced right or wrong in accordance successors, before the King had assumed with a higher criterion. George the Third any decided share in the Government. It was wrong in his judgment, as time has is possible, no doubt, that a sound adherence shown: for the loss of America did not inon his part to the principles of the first jure England. Whether the champions of Rockingham administration might have re- the North' were right or wrong in theirs, paired the breach; but it is scarcely proba- time has not yet revealed, and perhaps ble. But his real and leading share in those never may reveal; for the experiment of great transactions was this; that when the secession was not tried to its ultimate results. breach was once effected and recourse had. Let us therefore take heed lest in repeating been had to arms, he absolutely refused to the ordinary formula of animadversion on give way; that he persisted in vain efforts George the Third's determination to subdue to reconquer America. When France had America, we are not adopting a moral rule turned against us, when Richmond, and which would condemn others. whether Burke, and Fox, were for treating with monarchs or majorities-whose policy dif America on terms of independence, and fered from his only in respect of success. saving only, if possible, the rag of our for- And, farther, we must take the good with mer connection in some project of a federal the evil. The very same qualities of head alliance, it was the king,' in Mr. Bancroft's and heart, in sovereign and people, which words, who persuaded his minister to fore- carried us through our American defeats, go the opportunity which never could recur.' fought out victoriously the struggle of later For four years more, by mere force of will, years with France. Our lot is cast in more he imposed on statesmen, who saw but too tranquil times, and far more indulgent clearly the impossibility of effecting the times; in which (as a noble lord remarked object, a perseverance in hopeless hostilities, in the late Fenian debate) High Treason and carried them on even to the bitter seems to be about the safest amusement end,' until the system absolutely broke down which a man can allow himself. And long under bim. All this is true; but let us may these times continue: for though stern fairly estimate the real amount of the charge. repression may again be more necessary We leave abstract rights' to those who than we have lately found it, it is a coarse love shadowy argument: the 'right' of a and evil method, which raises more fiends dependency to secede, the right' of a State than it lays. Nevertheless, whenever the to prevent such secession. But we are con- time arrives which shall rouse up the old tent to look only at the simplest and most national spirit of self-assertion practical issue. Let us assume that it is the variety of human events, such conjunc wrong for a government to force into sub- tures will assuredly recursome touch of mission an unwilling community, federated the tenacious spirit of George the Third or dependent, from any pride of sovereignty may possibly meet our requirements better or conceit of national honour: but that it is, than the more refined qualities and deeper on the other hand, not only right, but a sagacity which have adorned other leaders bounden duty, for government to repress of men. and stamp out' a secession, however popu

and, in

66

THE CRISIS IN EUROPE.

From the Spectator, 20 April. | principle of the liability of every male citizen to serve, which was the key-note of his project, and has consented to limit Army and Reserve together to 800,000 men THE "situation" in Europe, as it is called, four armies of the largest size with which is not one whit less grave than it was last miltary science can yet deal. This leaves week. Very few incidents have occurred, the peasant one chance in four, instead of incidents, that is, about which there can be none at all. We say nothing of the rumourno question, but those few are all of one ed despatch of the new cannon, light breechkind, rather ominous than reassuring. Per-loaders throwing from eight to fifteen dishaps the most important of them all is that charges of grape per minute, to the North, the French Chambers have risen for the except that the Government, when chalEaster holidays without receiving any mes-lenged, did not deny it, but only threatened sage as to the negotiations "opened" by the to prosecute the Avenir National for "pubEmperor, or any reassurances on the main- lishing false news; that it has not protenance of peace. As it is certain that the secuted, and that the Courrier de Lyons Emperor would not have voluntarily left repeated the same story from a different commerce in doubt for three weeks if he source. The Bourse has not risen, and in could have avoided it, this fact alone suffices France Ministers are speculators, while in to prove that his Majesty has not yet decid- French society the irritated annoyance at ed that there shall be no war. Then the Prussian pretensions seems ever to increase. lithographic correspondence" forwarded On the German side, the signs of the from Paris to the Departments for insertion hour are even less pacific. The Austrian in local papers, which is completely con- semi-official papers keep repeating like partrolled by the Ministry of the Interior and rots that Austria will maintain her freedom revised in his office, is said to be full of of action, while the Bohemian Diet advises complaints of the insolence of Prussia, an alliance with France as the best chance couched in the language of the camp, and for an Empire which has no nationality. intelligible alike to the Army and the peas- In Bavaria, which would suffer first from ants. The Prussians are called "Kaiser- war, the Palatinate lying across the Rhine, lichs". Imperialists—an old camp nick- 115 Deputies have signed an address declarname for Germans, which on the northern ing that South Germany ought to fight for frontier especially will be thoroughly in- Luxemburg. The Wurtemburgers enertelligible, and the Zouaves are said to be getically repudiate a separatist policy; anxious "to be at their throats." The Em- while in Prussia itself, Count von Bismarck peror moreover, has taken the very serious and the King have suddenly thrown up step of raising the price of exemption from their hands accepted the Constitutional conscription nearly 50 per cent. at a blow Amendment limiting the "inviolability - from 841. to 1207. a measure which will of the Military Budget to 1st January, 1872, be felt as a cruelty in every department of and declared the Constitution as amended France, where families have toiled and pinch- law. The object of that strange demi-volte ed, often for twenty years, to raise the 841. is not, we imagine to conciliate the German necessary to keep a son at home, and now Parliament, but the Prussian, which will find their efforts frustrated by a stroke of now endorse the Constitution almost without the pen. No such change would have been debate. The nation and the King cannot made with the new Military Bill still on the quarrel just before a campaign. The King anvil, unless the Government wanted con- himself, in his final speech, tells Germany scripts, and also wanted means to tempt old that national "self-consciousness" is fully soldiers to re-enlistment. The price of ex- aroused, and that "the regained power of emption regulates the bounty, and to a the nation has, above all, to uphold its sigFrench private who has served his term nificance, by rendering secure the blessings 3,000 francs seems almost a fortune in itself. of peace," that is, as we understand it, on The abolition of exemptions altogether the Roman plan si vis pacem, para bellum. would have been borne without annoyance, The project for neutralizing Luxemburg, the peasants complaining of an inequality which favours the rich; but the Government wanted its old soldiers. More ominous still is the report, should it be confirmed, that the Emperor, to secure the rapid passage of his Military Bill, has given up the

which alone seems to offer a prospect of peace, is rejected by the German Press, and there is little chance that King William, before all things a soldier, will evacuate a fortress which he garrisons under a treaty never cancelled, and which his engineers,

specially ordered to report, have declared | whose interest we fear, it is to accomplish "essential to the safety of the Rhine provinces.

The most ominous news of all, however, comes from Florence. Rattazzi has formed a Ministry, with Count Campello, who married one of the Napoleonidæ, a daughter of the Canino branch, as Foreign Secretary, and has formally refused to divulge the reasons for the Ministerial change. Ricasoli was "struck by a thunderbolt from a clear sky," and it is difficult to doubt that it was levelled by the Emperor, whose first object in any war upon the Rhine must be to neutralize Italy, and who in this war hopes for the ultimate alliance of the Hapsburgs. He may not secure the aid of Italy, though the price he could offer is great, Rome and an Austrian guarantee; but he can secure her neutrality, which was imperilled so long as Ricasoli, who ordered Cialdini to invade Venetia after the French flag had been hoisted, remained in power. If this explanation is correct, Napoleon must have either used menaces or made offers of the most serious character, and either would indicate that he not only expected, but in his secret heart meant war. It must be remembered that Italy, though apparently distant from the scene, is really very near it. She would not attack France, and could not attack Prussia, but she could and would, without ingratitude or serious political danger, draw off one-half the Austrian Army to guard the southern frontier. Assured of Italian neutrality, Baron von Beust, as an ally of Napoleon, has only one danger to meet, the German sympathies of the German provinces of the Empire, and may use all force save theirs to aid in humiliating the foe who destroyed his policy, drove him from his own State, and expelled from Germany the power to which he has always looked for support. If the fall of Ricasoli means the neutrality of Italy as against Austria, it is intelligible and most ominous, while that solution, and that alone, explains why Rattazzi cannot state the truth to Parliament, yet talks of military reductions and internal reorganization as his sole cares.

If any combination as vast as this is in progress, and it is to this that the few known facts point, the matter has passed in part out of the hands of the Emperor Napoleon,

one of two things-to obtain from Prussia
an open confession that she is unwilling to
fight France, thus allaying at
once all
French susceptibilities, or to strike a blow
for the Rhine. The hope of peace lies in
the former alternative, which, it is rumoured
England, always anxious for peace, is press-
ing at Berlin. The confession is to be made
as easy for Prussia as possible, she being
asked only to accede to the neutralization
of Luxemburg, and the consequent evacua-
tion of the fortress, but even to this it is
improbable that Prussia will consent. All
Germany is furious, so furious that German
papers are seized on the French frontier,
and is eagerly watching Prussia to see, not
whether this or that fortress is to be made
useless, but whether Germany has really
been made a mighty nation, one which will
henceforth never be menaced except as a
preliminary to war. The young giant wants
to feel whether he is indeed giant or no,
whether, above all, the world realizes his
stature to itself. German opinion,
whether justly or unjustly matters nothing
for the moment, but, as we should say,
neither justly or unjustly, but only natural-
ly, is clearly in favour of war, the King,
though honestly desirous of peace, is not
ready to evacuate anything, or take any
man's order even to do as he wishes, and
Count von Bismarck believes that as war
must come, better it should come now, be-
fore Austria has regained her force. Un-
less the Emperor retreats, or turns on
Belgium, or finally decides, as he often does,
that he can come to no decision, there is,
we fear, little hope that we shall long be
spared the greatest of political calamities -
a great European war, which once begun,
can end only in one of two ways -a reso-
lution of Germany once more into many
States, the destruction, that is, of a Eu-
ropean guarantee for peace and civilization,
or a revolution in France.

Meanwhile, M. de Calonge has most adroitly extricated us and Spain out of our mutual scrape. The Revenue Board, or Court, or whatever it is, of Cadiz, has received orders to annul the seizure of the Queen Victoria, and consequently Spain, in paying compensation and offering apology, upholds to the full the honour and the independence of her tribunals."