become a metaphysical expression; the besotted men in power had got the bit in their teeth, and rushed madly to their doom, dragging their aiders and abettors with them. Before long, a collision, provoked by the British troops on the Tripoli frontier, put an end to the French Ministry’s earnest attempt to keep a peace which our constituted authorities had now broken with three of the great Powers of the world, under some infatuation, the source of which was not on the surface of politics, unless that be the place of those deep-seated internal dissensions which, where they have been left uncured, take the backbone out of a nation.
The outlook for England was now very formidable, and a flurried appeal was made by the Cabinet to Berlin and Vienna to throw their great weight into restoring the peace of the world. But the German Powers replied in a joint Note that the quarrel was none of theirs; that it was now their turn to reserve liberty of action, as England did, and had a right to do, in 1866 and 1870; that they had taken their full share of hard knocks at the dates referred to, and needed rest; and that they did not see the logic of keeping peace by plunging into a general war. They accordingly stood in firm neutrality, back to back, and drew a cordon round their frontiers.
