764 LIFE OF COBDEN. [omar

1880. political liberty to his people; that all Belgium, with the
Fo ca exception of Brussels and Antwerp, would willingly annex
itself to France; that the German provinces to the left of
the Rhine, though not speaking French, were Catholic and
therefore inclined towards annexation, and might be bribed
by a promise of an exemption from taxation for a number
of years to become a portion of France; that Prussia might
be indemnified by the absorption of the smaller German
States, and Austria be pacified by a slice of Turkey; that
after this extension of territory to the natural boundaries of
France, the Bonaparte dynasty would be secured, and the
Emperor would enter into an engagement for a complete
system of disarmament; that in no other way can this
dynasty be enabled to grant liberal institutions, and without
these there can be mo security for the peace of Europe ; that
the family of the King of Belgium might be compensated by
a crown at Constantinople, etcetera. I laughed repeatedly
at the naivetd with which he went over this unprincinled
programme of foreign policy.
June 8.—Called on Prince Napoleon, who in the course
of conversation described the state of the relations between
the governments of England and France as being very
unsatisfactory ; ‘les choses vont mal’ He alluded to the
danger of our constantly arming in England, the un
easiness which it gave to the people, and the tendency which
it had by the burden of taxation that it laid on them, to
reconcile the English to a war as the only means of getting
rid of the evil. He complained of the vacillating conduct
of our Government in its foreign rolations ; that it never
seemed to know its own mind, which was constantly liable
to be influenced by the state of opinion in England and bY
the majority of the House of Commons. He alluded to the
question of the annexation of Savoy, and remarked that oor
Government knew that it was inevitable ; that he had him-