Xxx] THE STATE OF EUROPE. 819
“ The state of Germany is very unsatisfactory. Enormous 1860.
Sums are being wasted by a very poor people in preparations Zr. 56.
for war. There is a great uneasiness both with respect to
their internal and external relations. The worst of it is that,
8 I learn, influential politicians in Prussia are beginning to
hold this language: We must have a war with France
Sooner or later, and it is the only way in which we can get
tid of our internal discords, and swamp the small States
under the Rule of Prussia’ These people say: ‘We
should be beaten back by France at the first shock, but we
should recover everything with interest.’ My belief is, that
at this moment Louis Napoleon is about the most peaceable
Person in Europe. Everybody in France is well satisfied
with the Savoy business, and the Emperor was never so
Popular. But he knows that he is mistrusted by all Europe,
and that it would be dangerous to attempt any fresh exten-Sion
 of his boundaries. However, it must not be supposed
that he has any love for the present territorial arrangements
in Europe. There is mo doubt that he would like to give
Mr. Wyld an excuse for publishing another map of France.
But he would not like it at the expense of a war with
England.
“T am not very proud of the spectacle presented by our
Werchants, brokers, and M.P’s., in their ovations to the
Pugilist Sayers. This comes from the brutal instincts having
been so sedulously cultivated by our wars in the Crimea and
Specially in India and China. I have always dreaded that
our national character would undergo deterioration (as did
that of Greece and Rome) by our contact with Asia, With
“other war or two in India and China, the English people
would have an appetite for bull-fights, if not for gladiators.”