SINCE we last wrote, the horizon of foreign politics has only grown darker. Persia, backed by Russia, has attacked Affghanistan and captured Herat, the outer gate of India; and our Indian Government, after declaring war against the Russianised court of Teheran, has despatched an expedition to secure a point d'appui for future operations in the Persian Gulf. Meanwhile a Russian army of 40,000 men, which has been slowly concentrating in that quarter since the war closed in Europe, is cantoned on the shores of the Caspian, ready to advance to the support of the Persians; and at the same time a determined effort is being made by another Russian corps to conquer the Circassians, break down the barrier of the Caucasus, and open a broad path for Muscovite aggression into the region of Anatolia. Nearer home, the Neufchatel question has assumed a grave aspect; and Sicily has given one of those premonitory throes which so frequently prelude more serious commotions. And as to the relations between the great European Powers, what do we find but a rivalry and hostility less disguised than before? The Peace settled nothing. It simply gave Russia the means of getting rid of the Allied armies, and of thereafter acting as fraudulently and defiantly as before. Russia has good reason to believe that the Grand Alliance will not again coalesce to oppose her. France, that fought so gallantly by our side while the war lasted, now anxiously propitiates Russia, and, though refusing to abandon the English alliance, acts rather as a drag than as an auxiliary. The proceedings preliminary to the new Congress expected at Paris, sufficiently indicate the change that has taken place in our relation with the Continental Powers, since the Peace virtually broke up the anti-Russian alliance. When Russia, in August, first proposed to refer the Boundary questions to a new congress, so far from standing alone, it appeared that she had won a clear majority of the Powers to her side! Prussia, who was her covert helper during the war, and her humble slave at

the first Congress, was resolute to vote with Russia again. France was quite willing to take the same course; and her ambassador at Constantinople has acted in concert with the Russian embassy in a vain but violent effort to overthrow Lord de Redcliffe and British influence at the Porte. Sardinia, duped by lying promises of Russian aid against Austria, and duly informed of the course which France meant to take, likewise agreed to favour Russia's non-fulfilment of the treaty. And so the Czar, elated, might have exclaimed in his palace at St Petersburg, like Soult at the battle of Orthes, "At last I have them, those English!" But in both cases the rejoicing was premature. Nowhere does British pluck shine out more strongly than in fighting a lost battle. Russia was triumphant--the_battle was lost; but as Hardinge thought at Albuera, there was time to win another. And the British Government, rapidly taking up a strong position, exerted so firm a pressure upon her recalcitrant allies, that the latter thought it better to resume their old position by her side. Whether the renewed allegiance of France and Sardinia to the British side of the question be genuine or feigned, remains to be seen. After what has happened, we cannot believe it hearty; and we wish we felt assured that the British party in the new Congress will prove sufficiently powerful to foil the onset of Muscovite diplomacy.

There are some who fancy that the present difficulties of our national position are merely factitious. With eyes blind to the deeper springs and grander movements of European politics, they profess to regard the gathering troubles abroad as not the product of natural causes, but as all the work of individual conjuring. They fancy that a soothing breath, a soft word from Downing Street, would blow them all away! Alas, they know not the helplessness of the individual when brought face to face with the movements of a continent. The mistake is a serious one; for it

seeks to put the country on a wrong track, and to lull it into a most baseless dream of security. It bids us regard the overcasting of the political horizon as a matter of no moment, as a danger against which we need make no preparation, seeing that a puff of diplomatic courtesy, a softworded protocol, is capable of turning the gathering storm to sunshine. The idea is absurd, superbly conceited, eminently dangerous. It may be very popular in the salons of the Tuileries, but it will find little acceptance in this country. The French Emperor, surrounded with embarrassments, and bent on peace at any price in order to avoid them, may foster in others views which his own penetration knows to be false, and by professing universal friendship, seek to postpone the evil day. And he does right-for he thereby attends. to his own interests. But the very eagerness with which he acts as a balance, leaning now to one side, now to another-now supporting Russia, now acting as a friendly drag on England-shows his sense of the critical nature of the "situation." He knows the danger, and doubtless is preparing for it as well as he can, but he wrestles against its coming. He has shown himself ready to abandon the terms of the treaty rather than risk a new struggle with Russia. France has assumed, since the Peace, the position which Austria held during the war. It becomes this country to consider these things. Already, since the Peace, there has been a wavering to and fro among the Governments of the Continent. The balance has begun to incline again to the side of Russia. A popular rising, which may happen any day, would probably range all the Absolutist Courts on her side. In these circumstances, what does it become us to do Clearly to stand well with the Continental Governments as long as we can-as long as they will let us. But do not let Britain delude herself with the belief that she can rely upon any of them for aid, or that meekness on our part will suffice to disarm hostility. Our only security for the future lies in our own strength; and it would be only madness to surrender any outwork or post of van

tage in the expectation of the weakened citadel being left in security.

Very few persons indeed, in January last, would have anticipated the change that a twelvemonth has wrought on the political aspect of Europe. A man would have found only incredulous hearers had he then ventured to predict that ere January 1857 Russia, despite her defeats, would have emerged so little damaged from the struggle, her soil freed from the 200,000 soldiers that then encamped around the ruins of Sebastopol, or garrisoned the captured strong points of her Black Sea coasts, and herself, backed by some of her old foes, stronger than ever in the councils of Europe, and ready to re-enter the lists with us in Asia. How this has come about we have explained in former articles : we simply note the circumstance in order that the country may not be unprepared if changes as great or greater take place before the present year reach its close.

The

England is prone to peace. trade-spirit is eminently pacific; it is slow to take offence, and never allows pride to interfere with gain. Commerce is an international communion of self-interest, and therefore the most potent antagonist of all wars. England is the workshop and commercial centre of the world. Hence her sympathies are all in favour of a reign of peace, without which her world-wide trade of buying and selling is cramped and rendered less profitable. Therefore it is that, alone of all the countries in the world, England exhibits a Peace Party--a class of politicians whose supreme and distinctive business it is to oppose all war, and advocate peace "at any price." at any price." The error of these men consists in believing that all nations are as far advanced in, and as peculiarly devoted to trade and commerce as ourselves; whereas the refusal of other nations to adopt our principles of Free Trade, and the fact that no other country has a Peace Party but our own, ought to apprise them of the peculiarity of our position. Moreover, they are so ignorant of human nature that they pay no regard to moral differences. Commerce trades as freely th oppressors as oppressed,

it

makes no difference between slave and free; and the Peace Party cannot understand why slave and free should not be equally friendly with one another. Hence they shut their eyes to the fact that between Great Britain and many of the Continental States there is a great gulf fixed. They hold it to be our duty to allow the despotic courts to extinguish, if they can, every spark of liberty on the Continent; and believe that though the regime of absolutism reigned supreme up to the shores of the Channel, free Britain would be let alone. As if, when two opposites come together, the greater will not seek to destroy the less! As if England, which the late Czar called "a foyer of revolutions," can ever be other than a thorn in the side of Continental absolutism, a sympathiser with the oppressed, a living example of freedom whose very existence is a constant incentive for other nations to throw off the yoke. Holding their peculiar opinions, indeed, the Peace party are consistent enough when they clamour for disbandment of fleet and army, and urge England to go to sleep unarmed in presence of her foes; but their principles, we trust, are alike too sordid and too Utopian, too utterly inconsistent with the great facts that surround us, to find acceptance with the practical good sense of the community at large.

The end of civilisation is Peace. The goal of civilised progress is peace among the nations, even as peace among individuals is its beginning. What history shows us accomplished in single communities, will ultimately, we trust, be established among the States of Europe. Slowly but steadily the work of national development is going on, elevating the units of the masses from the automatic condition of early society into thinking and self-acting beings; so that nations are becoming more and more conscious of their true wants and interests, and more and more powerful to enforce and secure them. Civilisation, that short phrase for many ideas for increase of population, improvement of agriculture, growth of commerce, rise of wealth, development of law and justice, spread of knowledge, and increase of locomotion and international com

munication-ever tends to throw down local barriers, to draw the nations into friendlier bonds, and engage all in a communion of selfinterest. Acting first upon individuals and single communities, its tendency is ever to widen its sphere of influence, and ultimately embrace all States belonging to the same platform of national existence. Look at the transition from England under the Heptarchy to the United Kingdom of the present day. Gradually local prejudice and antagonism have disappeared or become subordinated to higher influences: the Heptarchy has merged into a united England-Scotland and England have coalesced into Great Britain and Ireland, at first welded in by force of arms, has at length voluntarily associated herself with the sister states, forming the United Kingdom, Other countries have experienced similar changes from a similar cause. Burgundy, Normandy, Provence, once separate states, have become merged in a united France; the crowns of Castile, Arragon, and Navarre, are now united on one head in Spain; the Germanic Confederacy and commercial bonds of the Zollverein are the commencement of a corresponding aggregation among the still unconsolidated Teutonic States. As this work of internal consolidation and national development goes on, the civilised energies of a people project themselves beyond the seas or their own frontier, and seek to form commercial union, founded on self-interest, with other countries. For long, English capital has sought and found investment in every country of Europe, thereby increasing our interest in the preservation of tranquillity; and other countries have of late begun to follow in our steps. France, within the last few years, has made an extraordinary start in this direction. Her gigantic Credit Mobilier Company has undertaken to make railways for the whole Continent; and the dread of interrupting and ruining the over-venturous speculations of this enormous financial project, is one of the most potent influences which now bind the French Government to peace at any price. It is easy to see that as this intercommunion of commerce and speculation