of the "Seven Chiefs'' or the " (Edipus Tyi'annrs :''
for they come not to arrest a crime, but to witness
a catastrophe ; not to act the part of citizens, but
of spectators. The mimes and gladiators of old
are replaced by 'Archons and Consuls; the nations
themselves take the place of Antigone or Iphigenia,
and are at once enchanted with the spectacle and
victims of the plot. He who is not under the illusion,
is as one who in a dream beholds a murder but cannot
find breath to utter a cry ; for what does a cry avail
when there remains no indignation for wrong ? The
great realities of a people's life have become illusion,
the drama is admired for its march, and pleases how-
ever it may end.
Where there is mismanagement it is not Institu-
tions that are at fault, but Institutions that are falsi-
fied. The organisation of a People is in its mind ;
and errors are always retrievable where the root is not
in misjudgment. That' ignorance of passing events
for which an excuse is sought in the secrecy in which
they are involved, or in. the form of Government, is
but the result of the loss of the sense of right
and wrong ; when that is possessed by a nation, its
Government is under the necessity of giving a reason
for whatever it does.
The knowledge which is requisite for managing
Ixiv OBJECTS OF THE WOEK.
our business, is so also for protecting our cha-
racter; spendtlirifts are more generally ruined by
tlie dread of looking into neglected accounts than
by tlie temptations wbicb lead them into excess.
England within the last generation ā that is to say,
since the Treaty of July 6, 1827, for the pacification
of the East, has become involved in a multitude of
affairs for which her own history, and indeed the
history of no country and of no age, furnishes no
parallel. In consequence of the influence of her name,
every matter she has touched has become, so to say,
a capital, or revenue, liable to dissipation ; she has
gone on recklessly squandering, and dreading to ex-
amine the accounts. Whenbrought up by a humiliation
she is ready to exclaim, " Oh, we must have no war \'^
Such a frame of mind is not one to overcome diffi-
culties. Even this state might have its countervail-
ing advantages did it proceed from mere cowardice,
for then it would be accompanied with care and
cunning ; but if reason" is prostrated, passion is not
so ; we are as ready to buckle on om^ armour on the
slightest difference with a State really powerful, as
we are to quail before a riddle propounded to us by
one physically weak.
One preservative effect supposed to be realised
by our popular Constitution, is the presence of pre-
eminent men in pre-eminent stations. Such men
are not only held to be capable of fathoming a trans-
action, however complicated, and grasping the leading
features of a case, however foreign in its nature or
OBJECTS OF THE WOEK. 1x7
remote in its field, but also of rising above the
errors of their times ā a condition requisite even for
permanent fame in the management of Domestic con-
cerns. The results, however, do not bear out tlie in-
ference. Since the death of one vi^hose name rises
familiar to the mind and lip when it is a question of
England's power and fame, we have seen no pre-
eminent man, in the station of Foreign Minister.
Such men have filled the posts of Premier and of
Chancellor of the Exchequer. The character of our
government is departmental ; the other ministers pe-
riodicajly sit in council upon foreign matters, but in
reality exercise no independent judgment, far less con-
trol the mode of execution. The hours of office are
laden with too many cares to permit of laborious in-
vestigations in matters not affecting majorities, and
the character of mind superinduced by free Insti-
tutions, disqualifies politicians for seeing a world
beyond the sphere of a debate, or the bourne of a
division. Thus the only portion of England's affairs,
with the exception of the Colonies, which is not so
strictly limited by Act of Parliament that a clerk might
perform the requisite duties, has been surrendered by
common consent into the hands of mediocrity.*
While by such hands is wielded in secret the power
of this Empire, our Antagonist scrutinizes the earth
for talents, and having found them, disciplines them
* An exception may suggest itself to the reader ; but in that case
the powers of the minister were revealed in his office, not displayed
as the means of reaching it.
Ixvi OBJECTS OF llIE WOEK.
to an order wliich never has been matclied, and in-
spires them with the prospect of a triumph never yet
attained. There are united superiority of mind^ unity
of system^, permanency of purpose^ the coercion of an
iron rule, the inspiration of a golden harvest^ 'and the
doubly fortifying sense of confidence in themselves,
and contempt for the rest of mankind.
Dr. Hamel^ in tlie St. Petersburgh Journal^ calls
the attention of the Russian public to the fact that
^^ the current year couapletes three centuries of nearly
uninterrupted amicable relations between Russia and
England. ^^ The fact is also well worthy of the atten-
tion of the British public ; there never har been col-
lision between England and Russitt. Other States are
our friends^ or our foes^ according to the various acci-
dents 'of the times, Russia alone has undeviatingly and
on system been our enemy, ā against her alone of all
the States of the world, have we never drawn the sword.
In all times, under all administrations, England has
been her private property. Flusters of opposition perio-
dically flare out, but they are- commissioned, and inva-
riably end vvdth " entire satisfaction '' on the sacrifice
of the State, or interest, which had given rise to the
discharge of notes, or the parade of ships of the line;*
* In 1801, Denmark J in 1807, Denmark ; in 1823, Spain; in 1827,
Persia ; in 1829, Turkey ; in 1831, Poland ; in 1833, the Dardanelles ;
in 1836, the quarantine on the Danube ; in 1837, the Vixen and Cir-
cassia ; in 1838, Persia ; in 1846, Cracow ; in 1849, Hungary and its
exiles ; in 1850, Grreece ; in 1853, Wallachia and Moldavia ā event
not doubtful.
On May 21, 1853, the representation of the Powers at Constanti-
nople answered the appeal of the Turkish Government, by stating
OBJECTS d"F THE WOEK. Ixvii
a farce^ harmless indeed in itself, but of deadly effect
on the States immediately endangered, who are
thereby led to confide in us; the system marches
with the regularity of machinery, the method of a
drama/ and the facility of a dream.
At no former period has the Commonalty occupied
itself with the respective merits of implements of
war; and that not with a view of achieving con-
quests, but of resisting, purely ideal for the time,
projects of Invasion. While needle guns and long
range are evoked whenever we speak of France,
is it not worth while to consider what the influence
may be of the discoveries in chemistry, mechanics,
and engineering, effected during this peace, on the
designs of Kussia ? The vast extent of her own ter-
ritory ; the distance which is placed between her and
the vulnerable points of Europe and Alia, together
with the obstacles presented to the movement of
troops by her own deficiencies and mal-administration
have hitherto paralysed the operations of her army.
A new era opens for her with railways. With
those already commenced in Poland, linked to Ger-
many ; with that projected from Moscow reaching to
Odessa, and established as she will soon be on the
Isthmus of the Baltic, and the mouths of tlie Elbe
and the Weser, she will be ready to smite Europe
that they "are of opinion that in a question which touches so nearly
the hberty of action and sovereignty of His Majesty the Sultan, liis
Excellency Kedchid Pasha is the best judge of the course to be
adopted, and they do not consider themselves authorised in the
present circumstances to give any advice on tlie subject."
kviii OBJECTS OF THE WORK.
at any point : she will come too as a protector.
Thus have those Arts and Sciences which are the
boast of Civilisation passed into the service of the
Barbarian.
This revolution in the art of war, coinciding with
Eussia^s expansion to the North and South, renders
the contest infinitely more deadly, or would do so if
there were a contest. Nature seems capriciously to
have formed Europe to illustrate these new inventions.
It consists of a peninsula, stretching to the south-west,
from a basis which is Russian territory; at each
angle there is a vast space of sea, enclosed, and having
a narrow entrance, or outlet. By means of galvanic
batteries and submerged floating mines connected
with them, these narrows may be rendered impassable.
Neither is at present in her possession ; they may be
sealed againSt her. In her possession, they will be
sealed against Europe. Then will she command the
materials requisite for war, and hold in her hands
the food of nations.
It has long been the habit to dispose of all warn-
ings by the trite phrase " Russia is a poor country^
she cannot get money, and without money war can-
not be made.^^ All these acquisitions have been
effected in peace. Poor as she is, she has sa
husbanded her means, and you have so mismanaged
your wealth, that she has been able to come forward
to support the tottering credit of the Banks of London
and of Paris. The house of Rothschild may hold
down the head of the Emperor on the grinding stone
OBJECTS OF THE WORK. l^ix
of an artful contract, but Russia commands tlie mo-
netary operations of the two first capitals of the
world, and controls their policy by the Stock Ex-
change.
To the nations of Europe the Currency is a wholly
distinct matter from Metaphysics ; so are both from
Military affairs ; all three are so again from Com-
merce ; Politics is another walk, and another again
is Diplomacy ; Religion is not only distinct, but has
nothing to do with any one of them : the men engaged
in each know nothing of the other. For those who
manage the affairs of Russia every branch of science,
every field of knowledge, and every motive of the
human mind is equally possessed and mastered, and
the combination of the whole is ā Diplomacy.
Knowledge is not Power, but he who is cunning is
powerful. Did we bestow upon the great interests of
the State the care which is given to the construction
of a railway of ten miles, Europe would be at peace
and at rest. Indeed the end might be secured at
less cost; it suffices to withdraw your Embassies.
How can an age, which derives its instruction for
practical life from the history of Greece and Rome,
be afflicted with the illusion that a Foreign Depart-
ment is a necessary portion of a State? That
system cannot work which involves two opposite and
hostile maxims; it is self-condemned either way.
To be rational, not to say prosperous, you must
institute secrecy in your domestic concerns, or submit
your external ones to control. If you will maintaiii
Ixx OBJECTS OF THE WOEK.
your Embassies, then sink your Navy.* Disposing
of tlie " moral " means of tlie Admiralty and Horse
Guards, the Foreign Office wiU put down this Empire,
unless it be itself put down.
* A sailor on board Admiral Duckworth's squadron, being asked
what sort of vessels the Russians had, answered, " Russia wants no
'iiavt/
shs has ambassadors !^'
N. B. I would direct attention to the Chapter on
the "Evacuation of the Principalities,^^ p. 363, where
the present circumstances are not only foreshadowed,
but expressly stated. That Chapter is the resume of
a Memoir drawn up at the end of 1850, showing
that, Y/ith a concurrent Turkish force occupying the
Principalities, Russia could make no impression on
Turkey.
THE WEST.
Part I.ā SPAIN.
Pakt II.ā HUNGARY.
** No man is by nature either an aristocrat or a democrat :
their disputes relate not, then, to system of government, hut to
their own advantage." ā Lycukgus.
These pages were written in Spain in 1846, and were to
have been published under the title of " Account of Spain
with Europe, in Invasions, Interventions, Mediations,
and Mahriages/' as a warning- against the danger of two
nubile Princesses. The manuscript somehow disappeared
on its way to Madrid. A copy, however, having been taken
by the precaution of a friend, and recently discovered, I
have thought it might be of use for the "Europeans"
themselves.
PAUT I.
SPAIN.
CHAPTER I.
Hoio circumstanced for the Developnent
of Ojmiion.
This age is distinguished by extent of knowledge and
contrariety of judgments, ā a misfortune no less tlian a con-
tradiction, and which arises out of the habit of attacliing
importance to News. Things which, if announced before-
hand, would be held too improper to be possible, are, when
done, taken as the data on which maxims are to be formed
for our future guidance. Our morals as nations are what
the morals of individuals would be who took for their
standard facts, that is, the cases brought for trial before
the courts of law. Thus it is that knowledge is divorced
from -wisdom, and that we have much speech and little
profit.
Unless a man knows what, in a given case, ought to be
done, he can never know what has been done ; information
can be of service only to them wdio can class it, be it science,
be it conduct. In the latter case, the difficulty of classing
docs not arise from ignorance. The task is here to unlearn ;
tlie life of the spirit is on the lip ; whoever chooses may
stop on it the garrulity of his fellows, and this is all that is
required to recover from the decrepitude of his times.
1
S SPAIN.
The order of societies does not depend upon the equality
of size and strength of its members, but on the submission
of their difFerenees to that process of investigation which
distinguishes men from animals. The rights of states are
equally independent of numbers and dimensions, and consist
in the human character of reason belonging to all the indi-
viduals composing them. That differences be brought to
adjudicatioi;, not only by the authorities of the nation, but
by each separate man, is the purpose of international law. In
this consists the equality of states, in this the freedom and
virtue of each member of a community, and indeed his
quality as a reasoning being.
Individuals may, and generally do, profit by the wrong
they do; not so eommuiiities, and therefore is a public
crime by nature wholly different from a petty one. It thus
interests no less the powerful than the weak to guard that
public rule of right on which depends alike internal freedom
and general peace. And in truth this is the excellent, the
abiding part of all governments and of all systems : it is the
health common to all, without the variety of the infirmities
of each; it is the "law of nations," because respected
equally by all. It emanates from no human authority, be-
cause it is the source of all laws, and is enforced in every
judgment rendered, for a village or for an empire. Iso
compact violating it can bind ; against it no prescription
hold. It requires no interpreter; it brings its own penal-
ties when infringed, and its recompenses when obeyed;
it lias not to be taught ā it is already known ; it may for
ii season be obscured, but each man can himself* find it
again.
Tins rule is no less simple than authoritative, and consists
in these two commandments: " Tiiou siialt not steal,'*
" Thou shalt do no muudek." There is no possible
injury that a state can inflict, or suffer, not provided for by
these two laws.
It is not less in the conscience of all beliefs, than in the
DEVELOPMENT OF OPINION. 3
theory of all legislations, and stands alike by Divine com-
mand and human ordonance. The petty malefactor sins
only, the malefactor community is degraded and enslaved.
It has denied faith when it has broken law ā lost conscience
when abjuring freedom, and becomes an infidel at the same
time as a robber.
It will not fail to strike, that it is no hypothetical case
which I am here putting. Every reader will understand
that it is the actual condition of the states of Europe that
I intend to describe, and there is no Spaniard who will ques-
tion the accuracy of that description. But, as the individuals
who compose tliose states are singly neither lovers of blood
Jior seekers of prey, it must be by some great and general
mental perversion that they have sunk as nations, to a con-
dition abhorrent to themselves as men. This perversion is
to be found in the representative form of government. Each
man holds himself to be free from guilt, by tliat very absence
of knowledge, which converts it into judicial lUndness.
The law of nations is careful to arrest the beginnings of
evil b/ keeping distinct the concents of indej)endent states.
Any interference, however slight or disguised, is as grave
a crime as slaughter or invasion. One state cannot even
hold intercourse legally witli another, except in the same
manner asi practised by private individuals when they go to
law, and place their concerns in the hands of a lawyer. The
sword of justice is placed in the hands of a king only'for
self-defence. Communications not called forth by such
necessity, coalitions founded thereon, destroy equality be-
tween states, subvert international law, and extinguish the
sense of right amongst mankind. This is what we call
diplornncD*
In the origin of every community, intercourse with foreign
powers has been entirely prohibited, except as the result of
* Tliere may bo treaties to interfere in the affairs of others, but
these arc violations of the laws of nations, and such a treaty adds
merely the guilt of conspiracy to that of violence.
4 SPAIN.
a special and judicial decision. The kings and princes of
our Gotliic races miglit decide upon internal affairs ; inter-
national ones were only treated of in the common council.
The senate and the councils of Ptome dispatched domestic
business ; international affairs were decided and even ma-
naged by a legal and religious body. Spain's last effort
for her liberty, three hundred years ago, was directed against
the assumption of her kings to make peace and war, and to
conclude treaties without the assent of the Cortes,* In
England, no minister of state can lawfully to this day hold
so much as intercourse upon public matters with the minister
of a foreign power, unless specially commissioned by the
competent authority. Por every such transaction, a com-
mission must issue under the great seal, and on the respon-
sibility of the Chancellor of England himself; for this he
requires a warrant of the privy seal, which can be appended
only after a decision of the privy council, signed by the
counsellors who advised the measure. f Such was the
* " "No king shall make war with another king or queen ā peace or
truce, or any important act, without having taken council with
twelve ricohombres and twelve elders of the country." ā Fuero de
INavarra, b. i, tit. 1.
"Whenever the king shall have occasion to make war, he must
assemble the procuradors or Cortes, to explain its causes, that they
may say if the war is just or unjust ; so that, in the first case, the
people, recognising it to be useful, shall furnish the necessary aids,
and that, in the second, that no war may be declared or made." ā
Cortes of ValladoUd, 1520, readdressed by sixty-nine members of
the Cortes to the King on the ]4th of April, 1814.
No wonder that, "up to the commencement of the sixteenth
century, the Cortes were always regarded by the Spaniards as their
most precious institution, and as their port of safety iia unhappy
times." ā Ifirqflores, vol. i, p. 59.
No wonder that the modern Cortes and constitution should be the
source of the evils for which it was the remedy, and of the disease of
Spain for which it was the cure.
t This statute has been repealed.
DEVELOPMENT OF OPINION. 5
elaborate care taken by our forefathers to preserve them-
selves from foreign crimes. Theirs was the wisdom which
exhibits itself in knowing how to keep things in order.
There were few facts in those days because there was judg-
ment, and there being judgment there were no opinions.
"When tlie return to this rule is urged, the answer is, " This
process is incompatible with our present multiplied relations ;
no legal officer could take upon himself the responsibility
of the things daily done by the governments of Europe." The
object of restoring the ancient law is to put an end to the
present practice, which consists in exercising a power in
foreign countries which no minister possesses at home.*
Such acts alone constitute our multiplicity of relations and
their guilty character. This is what goes under the name
of polky.
Eut we have gone a step further. Parliaments and Cortes,
instituted to control the officers of state, have usurped tlieir
functions, and appoint them: thus have been revolutionised
our Gothic kingdoms, and the liberties of their separate com-
munities extinguished by their representatives. The same
change extends itself to nr.tions : kingdoms are now extin-
guished, as formerly boroughs were, by the representatives
they appoint. Hence have ensued those varieties of conditions
between communities which had hitherto been presented only
between their members. Their equality before the law being
lost, their relative position depends upon their respective
strength and weakness. This has introduced the disthiction.
of "FIRST AND SECOND RATE POW'ERS."
Conferences of the first of these take upon themselves to
decide upon what the second shall do, or be made to do, of
their own free will,f by fear of consequences or dread of
* For instance, levying a private war on tlie allies of the Queen of
England, as a minister of England did in respect to Spain ā con-
spii'acies to bring about revolt, &c., as done again in Spain ā changing
the laws, customs, taxes of a province, as was done in Syria, &c.
t " The principle that every nation has a right to manage its owa
internal affairs, so long as it injures not its neighboiu*. To this
6 SPAIX.
censure,* and this process is denominated moral ivfl-uence.
To obtain this " infl-aenee" is the duty of the powerful ; to
endure it, a nccessitj^ of the weak.f
Tills amalg-amation does not require concurrence, or entail
concert : alliances spring up, the counterpart of the factious in
the separate states, such as the " Holy," the " Constitutional,'*
the " Continental," " European," "Western," "Northern/*
"Transatlantic." No single nation can make out what part
it has been made to play, or what share it has had inthe ag-
gregate efforts of " iniluence"on themselves, or on others : losing
power over their acts they mistake their interests, and out of
the chaos a false order has arisen; again relative strength
and weakness lose their places, and the case is resolved
into relative cunning. Law had been displaced in favour of
force, force now yields to sechecy. Events appear the
result of chance, and the hand that wins is that which is
unseen. Every new event is a new perversion. Facts are
as false as maxims, fallacious, and the sources of history are
poisoned for future generations. The sum of these misjudg-
priiiciple I most cordially assent. It i3 sound ā it ought to bo sacred,
and I trust that England will never be found to set the example of
its violation." ā Lord Palmerston's SpeecTi^ of 1st June, 1829. The
cheers of both sides followed this declaration : the speech in which
it was uttered, and of which it is in doctrine the leading feature,
raised to the management of the foreign affairs of England the
minister who has made Europe what she is to-day!
* Sir E. Peel declared, in reference to Don Carlos, that so much as
a recommendation was unj'astifiable from a stronger to a weaker
state, because it would be the overthrow of the independence of the
weaker one.
f '* "VNHien protection was most needed by the Christian popu-
lation of Syria, France Jiad tvttkdraton herself from interference
altogetlier : since she has arjain taken her i^roper place in the con-
ferences of the great powers on JEastern affairs, she evjoys her full
share of influence, but no more. It must unquestionably fall to the
lot of each power to obtain redress for injuries done to its own sub-
jects ā yet the general policy to be pursued in the province (of Turliey)
must be regulated by general considerations" of the great pov/ers.ā -
GidzoU
DEVELOPMENT OF OPINION. 7
ments resulting from the irresponsibility of ministers at liome,
and secrecy in their acts abroad, is called Public Opinion.