1880.
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x 2

LIF2 “7 goBOSN,

femal

When war broke cat between ihe King of Naples and his sub:
jects in Sicily, Lord Palmeraton’s emissary rode the whirlwind
and éried to guide the storm. The bustling delirium came 10?
climax when the Foreign Secretary told his ambassador ab
Madrid to give a severe lecture to the S panish Goveroment
for failing to respect the opinions and sentiments of their
country. With a laudable sense of their own dignity, the
Spanish Government sent Lord Palmerston’s despatoh back,
and ordered the British Minister to leave the country in eight
and forty hours. Lord Palmerston sincerely belived that
he was carrying out those vague and much disputed object
which go by the name of the Principles of Mr. Canning:
Nor has any one ever denied that in all this untiring rest:
lessness he was moved by an honest interest in good govern
ment, or by a vigorous resolution that his country should
play a prominent and worthy parb in settling the diffeulties
of Europe. The conception had about it a generous and
taking air. It was magnificent, but unluckily there was 10
sense in it. For the unreflecting portion of mankind the
spectacle of energy on a large scals has always irresistible
attractions; vigour becomes an end in itself and an object
of admiration for its own sake, Now that the conbemporary
 mists have cleared away, everybody can see that Jord
Palmerston’s vigour at this epoch was futile in its ulti
mate results to others, and in its immediate circumstance?
full of the gravest dunger fo ourselves. If kept us con”
stantly on the edge of wax, it involved waste of our resourced
end it diverted attention from the long list of improvement?
that were so sorely needed within our own patos.
With what feeling Cobden watched these doings, we m&y
imagine. They roused him to renewed assaults apon the
public opinion which tolerated or abetted them. Through
out the autumn of 1849 he and his friends pursued their
operations with all their usnal zeal and confidense. Ha made