The benefit to France.

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one day to be rolled back the next, until she has come, in this present year of grace, to have pretty nearly the same frontier that she had before she was haunted with the mad idea of dominating over Europe. With the exception of the deadly swamp of Algeria, we know of nothing that France has conquered, beyond her own territories, which she has been able to retain. Even the prize of her last military achievement, Mexico, is about to follow in the wake of all the others which have slipped from her grasp. What human force could do to interfere with the general law of national developement, France has effected; but that general law has baffled all her efforts, which, as if directed against the rock of inexorable destiny, have only recoiled on herself. Even when her military strength was directed by the genius of Napoleon, the empire he constructed was but for a day. The fates again rose up, and persisted in confining France within her old limits. But now, when his nephew is restored to the throne, for the purpose of resuscitating that empire, he is driven by the course of events, even in the zenith of his power, to become an agent in raising up barriers against the encroachments of his country, stronger than those which his uncle's enemies constructed when France lay bleeding at their feet.

If France, therefore, has gained nothing by her military ascendancy, we do not see that she has anything to lose by forfeiting it. But in no other point of view can the recent changes in Italy and Germany cause any diminution. of her powers; while the fresh accessions of wealth which must accrue to these nations from their improved organizations must overflow their boundaries, and pour a new stream of riches into the treasuries of France. There will also be the advantages resulting from mutual rivalries between the three nations, not in the battle-field, but in the fruitful paths of commerce and the arts; where the exchanges will not be in the shape of mutual wounds but of reciprocal profit, and where if any ascendancy be acquired it can be based only upon the general prosperity. There can then be little doubt that the real interests of France will be benefited by the change. For the series of advantages attending the new is still further enhanced by the series of disadvantages attending the old state of things. What France will gain from a united Italy, and a united Germany, may be counted in increased argosies, in overflowing exchequers, in the augmented refinement of her cities, and in the multiplied comforts of her population. But what she has lost from a fractionized Italy and Germany can be computed only by years of energy misapplie l in fruitless struggles for their dislocated territories, by hecatombs of subjects slaughtered to

no purpose, by millions of treasures wasted in equipping armies, either to gain fruitless victories or to be beaten back to their homes.

Whatever disasters France may have to suffer, in the opinion of her Orleanist statesmen, from a united Italy and a united Germany, these can hardly be worse than the wounds she has been led to inflict unwittingly on herself in the fatal enterprises in which the dismembered state of these countries has led her to embark. With the forces of Italy and Germany lying in compact masses upon her frontiers, such enterprises would have been impossible in the past. There is, then, so much gain for France, in being secured against such mad expeditions in future. But there is likewise gain of a very positive character, even so far as herself is concerned; for when an unquiet nation, like France, cannot employ its energies in an evil direction, it is forced by the very restlessness of its nature upon good paths. The mere fact that Italy and Germany possess political organisations as strong and vitalised as her own, is the best gauge which Europe can receive that France will abandon her besetting sin of military glory, and employ her energies, not in constructing magazines and in butchery, and in making periodical forays in quest of plunder among her defenceless neighbours, but upon the peaceful arts, which she is as well qualified to cultivate for the improvement of mankind as she is the warlike, for their destruction.

For ourselves, who have no interests on the continent but those that are in unison with the progress of humanity, we cannot but be satisfied at the results which have been so far realised, notwithstanding our disgust at the chicanery and the coolness employed in bringing them about. With France accepting her Prussian rebuff with patience; eating her leek in humiliation, while the Emperor lectures her upon the advantages of the position as the very state of things which his uncle desired to bring about; with a united Italy; with Austria excluded from Germany; with a population of 29,000,000 directly or indirectly brought under the government of Prussia, and a prospective addition of some 22,000,000 more as a certain result, all these are an index that European State organisations are developing themselves after natural laws of brotherhood and fraternity, that must redound to the general weal. If it were only for the settlement of the Austro-Italian quarrel, there would be much cause for gratulation. But in addition to this, there is the sacrifice of French ascendancy upon the continent, the cooping up of that effervescing people within their own boundaries by barriers far stronger than those erected at Vienna, because they are natural and not factitious; there is the promise of a compact German state, which will give Europe as

The good and evil of Prussia.

535

little cause of uneasines in its external relations, or as little cause for interference in its internal affairs, as Great Britain has done for the last 100 years, or is likely to do for 100 years to come. Now, there is no nation on the continent to whom we would accede more readily the government of such a state than Prussia, because there is no other which has displayed more aptitude for directing the energies of large masses of people to useful ends; more skill in reconciling the greatest liberty of individual action with the loftiest requirements which can be exacted from its subjects by a state; more generosity in sharing with those subjects the sacrifices demanded, or supporting the burdens which are imposed for the good of the community. The welfare of the state is so identified with that of the subject, that a man cannot perform the duties he owes to the Government without advancing his own interests, just as he cannot discharge the duties he owes to himself without advancing those of the common weal. We have no fears at beholding Prussia take her place in the vanguard of political power, because she is already in the vanguard of civilization. She is the only country which has obtained empire without contracting debt, or which can maintain the ascendency of a great military nation at the expenditure of a small one, because she has solved the problem of the maximum of political strength with the minimum of standing armies. Even the men whom she has under arms, she makes the best behaved portion of the community, by turning them into the most industrial. Looking at these results, we are half inclined to endure the infamy with which Prussia has covered herself in rising to her present pitch of greatness. We welcome the advent of Prussia to the front rank, not with unmitigated pæans of gladness, but just as we would welcome the advent of a man who has achieved greatness by means which, if generally followed, would be highly prejudicial to society, but who is content to spend what he has plundered from individuals upon advancing their corporate prosperity.

For it cannot be overlooked, whatever advantages Prussia has bestowed or may be destined to bestow upon Europe, that the example she has more recently set of the wanton infringement of the law of nations, her utter scorn of treaties when they stood in the way of her selfish purposes, her masking of private cupidity under the cloak of patriotic ends, has introduced further lawlessness of action into international statecraft, and inclined each kingdom to its own selfish ends, irrespective of its past engagements or its present obligations.

Russia, seeing that no regard is paid to treaties, that each nation is allowed to follow whatever course is conducive to its

interest, has openly avowed that it also feels itself, in the promotion of its own designs, as unshackled as its neighbour. Now this silence, with the guns of Candia booming in our ears, is a harbinger of future mischief, not less to be attri buted to the success of Prussian spoliation, than to our indiffe rence as to whatever State should turn up the trump card on the Continent. We have openly avowed, or at least the present ministry have done so for us, that we have no concern with the political transformations on the European Continent, but that quite secure in our rock-built isle, we are alone concerned with the guar dianship of our Indo-Colonial dependencies. This appears to us only a general invitation to any European State which harbours mischief, to carry its plans into effect without the slightest prospect of armed intervention on our part, even where we are bound to interfere, not merely by moral obligations, but by the solemn stipulations of treaties. Now, though the English nation may permit evil to be done, when certain good is to result from it, we cannot think it desirable to permit evil to be done where our interests are concerned, when greater mischief is certain to result from it. To act up to the full extent of the doctrine of non-intervention would be as effectually to shut ourselves out from European, as Austria has excluded herself from German confederacies; for our presence therein would not be of the slightest account, if it be trumpeted forth that there is no possible readjustment of European territory, no matter by what means brought about,- which would warrant us in unsheathing the sword. But even apart from our special interests, we have an interest, in company with all well-meaning States, in the general preservation of peace, and in punishing any maurauder who endeavours to interrupt the general harmony for the gratifica tion of his own rapacious purposes. Instead, therefore, of abandoning the field of European politics at this turning-point in a new era of diplomacy, it behoves us to enter into those alliances which will enable us to resist lawless aggression, to build up an equitable system of federative law in Europe, and to assist the development of nationalities upon the basis of representative institutions. We have long since made the advancement of our material interests one of the vital constituents of modern progress. France is also rapidly acquiring the conviction that she can have no prosperity apart from the European common weal. Unity of ends ought to inspire mutual confidence and support. If the newly-constructed nationalities will act in unison with two such powerful nations, a confederacy of European States would no longer be a chimera, but a reality, which would render war only a remote possibility, and disencumber modern communities of those vast armaments which are a disgrace to their civilization.

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CONTEMPORARY LITERATURE.

HISTORY, BIOGRAPHY, AND TRAVELS.

The Oberland and its Glaciers; Explored and Illustrated with IceAxe and Camera. By H. B. GEORGE, M.A., F.R.G.S., Editor of the Alpine Journal.' With Seventy-eight Photographic Illustrations, by ERNEST EDWARDS, D.A.; and a Map of the Oberland. London: Alfred W. Bennett.

It is a primary article of faith with the Alpine Club, that mountains were made to be climbed, and that it would be almost a reflection upon Providence to suppose that any mountain had been created without a path to its summit, a faith which has been wonderfully strengthened since the ascent of the Matterhorn. This granite obelisk successfully scaled, what peak can call itself invincible ?

All the great monarchs of the ice world, Mont Blanc, Monte Rosa, the Matterhorn, the Jung Frau, are now vanquished, and the detailed exploration of their respective territories is all that is left to the enterprise of Alpine heroes; and assuredly they will not rest so long as a snow fortress holds out against them, or an ice cave remains unknown. Judging from the progress of the last quarter of a century, long before our coal fields are exhausted, every district of the Alps will be as familiar and commonplace as Snowdonia. A new Alp will be as rare as an old Dodo; even the Dolomites will have become household words; the salt of the Alpine Club will have lost its savour, and one shudders to think of the ambitious Alpine adventurer, moodily eating his own heart, and weeping at the London Bridge Station because there are no worlds left for him to conquer. Happily, there are the Himalayas and the Andes, which may then be relatively as accessible as Switzerland was half a century ago, and Chimborazo and Dhawalagiri will be to us what Mont Blanc and Monte Rosa are now.

Mr. George selected the Bernese Oberland for his campaign in 1865; a district yielding to none in Switzerland in sublimity, and perhaps, surpassing all others in beauty; and despising the mystery and pretence of great achievement, he organised a party of eight or ten persons,some of them ladies,-half pic-nic, half scientific. They assailed the country with appliances, which achieved for them what the needle-gun achieved for the Prussians. Christian Aylmer was guide, photographic apparatus was provided, and the camera was successfully carried wherever they went. Grindelwald was made head quarters; the Jung Frau was ascended, also the Esmeer, the Lauteraar Joch, the Eschner See, the Bell Alp, and the Nest Horn,-the latter, a virgin peak, perhaps the last in the Oberland of any importance, and the territories which they ruled were explored. The Oberland, therefore, is now used up as far as Alpine adventurers are concerned, and will soon have to be left to Cockneys. The Lauteraar Joch will soon have as many visitors as the Mer de Glace. In the scientific portion of his work, Mr. George gives in his adhesion to Professor Tyndall, and in a pleasant, popular way, reproduces his theories of glacier formation and laws. He skilfully blends scientific information with personal incidents. His book, therefore, is addressed