[omar
1860. found them engaged in settling the affairs of the whole
&ir. 56. world, instead of their own, I should have despaired.”
(10.) To William Hargreaves.
Annexation of Savoy.
“I should like to know what practical result is likely to
follow from our Foreign Minister persevering in borrowing
the tome of Mr. Kinglake and Sir Robert Peel in his
despatches to the French Government, The annexation of
Savoy to France is a *fait accompli.” The bargain has
pleased Piedmont, the Savoyards, and the French people,
the only parties really interested ; and why, instead of the
snarling, dissatisfied tone in which our Foreign Minister
persists in treating the matter, cannot he dismiss it with 8
little of the dignity with which the Russian or Austrian
Government has got rid of the disagreeable affair, There
is nothing so unworthy of a nation, or even of a man, a8 &
bone of dissatisfied criticism which leaves no after resource
but a fit of pouting and sulking. Ibis a style of contro
versy fit only for the nursery. I should like to know
whether the correspondence now going on between our
Foreign office and the American Government upon the
subject of the island of St. Juan, is conducted in the same
captious, irritating tone as that which has characterized some
of our recent despatches to France, Austria, and Naples.
If so, the train is being laid for either a war or a great
humiliation.”

824

(11.) To William Hargreaves.
Hopelessness of our rule in India,
“ Pars, August 4, 1860.—To confess the truth I have
no heart for discussing any of the detasls of Indian management,
 for I look on our rule there as a whole with an eye of
despair, Whether you put a screen before your eyes and