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remained. Satisfaction was given. The tricolor flag having fulfilled its usual office of insurrection, disappeared from the towers of Ancona. In fact, there never was such a satisfactory satisfaction; for to complete it fresh troops immediately arrived! If the Gallomaniacs be satisfied with their satisfaction I suppose their facility is attributable to their Protestantism, for I doubt whether the Holy Father will be equally contented.

Folly, although amusing, is often fatal; and the page that commences in mockery too often must terminate in a graver mood. What is the great result of all these petty intrigues, and all this dupery, and shuffling, and imbecility? What is the great result of all these morbid expeditions, and all these inexplicable explanations? The Austrians who, until the Ancona expedition, appeared to be influenced by some lingering respect for the laws of nations, and the representations of their allies, have now boldly thrown off the mask. They take serious advantage of this expedition pour rire. The roads of the Tyrol swarm with their troops and their artillery; and they march not a regiment or two, not a petty division into Southern Italy, but a whole corps d'armée. Italy the Austrians now possess: in Southern Germany they are more active than we imagine. Beware

of Austria! In another year, if the Gallomania do not subside, where will be the famous Balance of Power, which has cost us so much blood and treasure to establish?

236

POLAND.

WHILE I am writing, that which I have long expected with anxiety and apprehension has arrived the Ukase of the Emperor of Russia decreeing the annihilation of Poland. Such is the consequence of Propagandism, which, for the sake of a temporary diversion in favour of the French Government, stimulated the Poles, by delusive promises of aid, into a struggle in which, unassisted, they could have no chance; and which has ended by bringing about the long-desired result of the ultra-Russian party, viz. the absolute extinction of Poland- a measure which the Emperor, in unison with all humane and enlightened men, had, until the revolt, ever opposed. Thus it always is with our fatal neighbours: their first word is Liberty, and their last deed Destruction.

Scarcely seven months have elapsed since LouisPhilippe, in order to maintain his rickety throne, pledged himself to the French Chamber that the nationality of Poland should be preserved; and, not three weeks since, M. Casimir Perier repeated

that pledge. Had it not been for this solemn pledge, which the Chamber required, there would have been a revolt in Paris. Every one must remember the fiery and interminable discussions which Poland occasioned in the Chamber: nine days were dedicated to Poland by that assembly who had made a new Charter, pronounced the abdication of three kings, and nominated a new one, and all in eight-and-forty hours. It was on one of these days that M. Casimir Perier was nearly strangled, because he would not leave the Tribune. M. Jousselin, one of the great firm of Young France, wearied with the Minister's endless and hollow defence of some deceitful word, rushed to the Tribune, and throttled the Prime Ministera dignified assembly this! I should have forgotten this instructive trait, had it not been for the receipt, this morning, of the Ukase, which M. Perier and his master then pledged themselves should never appear.

It is the fashion to abuse the late Lord Londonderry: "he was a Holy Alliance man, a despot, a tool of Metternich," A queer sort of Holy Alliance man, he would never acknowledge that arrangement; and an odd kind of tool in the hands of Metternich, whom France, for ten years, called the tool of Castlereagh. At any rate, he

obtained at the great Congress the nationality of Poland - ay! more, he guaranteed it. And Lord Grey the liberal, the champion of Freedom and the child of Reform, what has he done? He has tamely witnessed the subjugation and extinction of an unhappy and heroic people whose revolt his favourite France occasioned, and whose existence his misgoverned England secured.

"But what could we have done?" piteously exclaim Messrs. Grey and Perier, as they shrug their shoulders over the destruction of their protegé. I thought that England and France allied could do any thing. What could you have done? Why, have abandoned Belgium, which had claims neither upon your sympathy nor your support. The truth is too obvious · Poland has been sacrificed to Belgium.

It should be known, that it was only by the intervention of the Polish Commissioners in London that the Belgians acceded to the condition of accepting a monarchical government. When the English Minister was pressed by these Commissioners, and by the public feeling, to interfere in behalf of Poland, Lord Grey and Lord Palmerston, and their coadjutor or colleague, or guide, M. de Talleyrand, declared that no interference could take place until the unhappy affair of Belgium was settled. This induced the deluded Poles

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