178 TRANSACTIONS time, would not be much trusted again by his fellow - creatures ; but the alliance rested upon ground more firm than the trust which one Prince puts in another. It rested — not, indeed, upon the common interests of France and Eng- land, for France, as we have seen, was suppres- sed — but upon the prospect of personal advantage which was offered to the new French Emperor by an armed and warlike alliance with England. It being clear that the alliance was for his good, and that, for the time, he had really the con- trol of France, the only remaining question was, whether he would pursue what was plainly for his own advantage with steadiness and good sense. Upon the whole, it seemed likely that he would ; for, though he was not a man to be stopped by scruples, he did not discard the use of loyalty and faithfulness, where loyalty and faitli fulness seemed likely to answer his purpose ; and there was a persistency in his nature which gave ground for hoj)ing that, unless he should be induced to change by some really cogent reason, liis stead- fastness would endure. Moreover, as we have seen, he had the faculty — very easy to apply to geometry, but harder to use in politics — the faculty of keeping himself awake to the distinc- tion between the Greater and the Less ; and he did not forget that, for the time, the alliance with England was the greater thing, and that most other objects belonged to the category of the Ixiss. These qualities, supported by good-humour,
