up with great enthusiasm,—that of converting a portion of African desert into a navigable salt lake, by letting in the ocean at a certain point where it had been ascertained that the sand lay considerably below the sea level, thus giving new scope to the commercial relations of the rest of the world with that continent. The scientific pros and cons having been thoroughly thrashed out by competent explorers, the objections made by the British Government were frivolous and vexatious. Perhaps that was the very reason why they were made, harmonious relations with the Republic having become more and more impaired ever since the accession to office of the Bungling Coalition. Any stick will do to beat a dog, and, given the disposition to quarrel, a pretext is not hard to find. With all their national defects—what nation is without?—the French of the day were, on the whole, struggling honestly through difficulties toward a higher standard of civilisation; they were weighted with some anarchy, some crime, much violent partisanship, yet, taken altogether, the people wished and strove to press forward rather than to lapse backwards or stagnate; while, on this side of the Channel, stagnation, rooted in the social, and evinced in the political sphere, had set in, and showed no signs of giving way under any milder stimulants than those which were now ready in the hand of Fate.
The unfriendliness of—we do not say England, but the dominant English party—thus showing itself in minor matters, provoked the French Chamber to re-open the question of an extended protectorate over the southern coast of the Mediterranean. The pulse of Italy was felt in regard to a French advance over her African possessions; and it was soon clear that she would not go to war about that territory merely, so long as her commercial and other interests were guaranteed. The views of the Russian Pro-
