-One loving houre For many years of sorrow can dispence : She was happy now. cility of our own ministry needs no proof. Every body who has bestowed a thought upon the matter will acknowledge it. Lord Aberdeen piques himself apparently upon one thing only, viz., that his policy contrasts strikingly with that of his prede cessor. The fact is as he supposes. The contrast is most striking. Lord Palmerston's policy was to the last degree bold. and consistent, tending to the preservation of peace, by creating in all nations the M. GUIZOT AND THE RIGHT OF SEARCH. conviction that there was nothing to be From the Foreign Quarterly Review. A rather one-sided, party-article, but racy, and stirring, and withal truthful in many of its aspects.-ED. 1. Slave Trade. Copy of Correspondence relating to the Suppression of the Slave Trade. Presented to Parliament by her Majesty's Command. 1845. gained by going to war with us. Lord Aberdeen's policy is timid, fluctuating, and for that reason most dangerous, since it tends to inspire foreign states with the belief that there is no indignity to which we will not submit, rather than engage in expensive hostilities. Now, as this is a mistake, his lordship, whether he knows it or not, is actually laying a trap for foreign powers, who may find, when they least ex2. A Complete Collection of the Treaties pect it, that they have arrived at the limits and Conventions, and Reciprocal Regu- of English patience, and roused the lion lations at present subsisting between instead of the animal which in the fable Great Britain and Foreign Powers, and puts on the lon's skin. Among the of the Laws, Decrees, and Orders in statesmen likely to fall into this mistake is Council, concerning the same, so far as M. Guizot, who, notwithstanding his supthey relate to Commerce and Navigation, posed partiality for England, is, in truth, to the Repression and Abolition of the among the foremost of those that would Slave Trade, and to the Privileges and take advantage of Lord Aberdeen's simpliInterests of the Subjects of the High city to wound and humiliate her. The Contracting Parties. Compiled from Tories, however, for party purposes, have Authentic Documents. By LEWIS HERTS-long been engaged in disseminating an erLET, Esq., Librarian and Keeper of the roneous opinion of this man. According Papers, Foreign Office. Vol. VI. Lon- to them his abilities are of the first order. don: Butterworth. 1845. His political principles, derived from a proTHERE is no question invested at the found study of history, and the most extenpresent moment with greater interest, than sive practical knowledge of mankind, they that of the Right of Search, since the peace regard as on a level with his genius. But of the whole world depends upon it. It what charms them most is the wonderful unfortunately happens, moreover, that the predilection for this country which they solicitude which the subject itself is calcu- discover equally in his writings and in his lated to inspire, is very much heightened policy. On each of these points they have by accidental circumstances. The persons deceived themselves, and would deceive entrusted with the management of public the public. M. Guizot is not a man of affairs, both in England and France, want genius. We might say of him, as Canning the wisdom and the probity that might in- did of Peel, that he is the sublime of medispire confidence. With the word peace con- ocrity. His political principles, instead of tinually in their mouths, they are heaping up being the growth of study and experience, in every quarter of the world the materials are purely traditional, and belong to that of war, not designedly, which would, at motley school which sprang up after the least, argue forethought and genius, but Restoration in France, and adopted for its through sheer want of statesmanlike capa- leading characteristic the desire to reconcity. The French cabinet stands con- cile contradictions. victed by its own showing of weakness or folly, since it has entered upon a course which M. Guizot himself, not two years ago, maintained to be absurd. The imbe We impute it as no particular crime to M. Guizot that he ranks among this class of politicians. If his prepossessions and the natural habit of his mind had not attached him to them, the events of the times would no means necessary to enter into an elaborprobably have done so. Possessed by the ate critique of his works, or to recapitulate ambition to distinguish himself and to rise, all the events of his life. As a writer M. he soon perceived that he could succeed Guizot is industrious, clever, and enterno other way, than by siding with the party taining: nothing more. He has no philosothat might be uppermost; to do which, phy of his own. He receives and reflects without incurring peculiar odium, it was ingeniously the colors and intellectual forms necessary to make profession of a political of the age. His views are the views of his creed susceptible of a double interpretation, contemporaries. His system, if he can be the one popular, the other anti-popular, ac- said to have one, is of the composite order, cording to the exigencies of the moment. made up of heterogeneous elements, united It has for this reason frequently been doubt- by an arbitrary act of the will, but sustainful whether M. Guizot was a Legitimist or ed by no single great principle. He does a Liberal; whether he was for the elder not even form a necessary part of the intelbranch of the Bourbons with or without lectual existence of these times. So that if the charter, or for the charter, in all its de- he and his works were taken away, blotted velopments, at any rate. Our opinion altogether out of the list of contemporary has always been, that M. Guizot was nei- entities, no chasm would appear, no loss ther for the one nor for the other, but would be felt. He does very well where simply for himself. He has in him noth- he is; but hundreds would do as well, maing of the passion or poetry of politics. ny would do much better. M. Guizot is It answers his purpose exceedingly well wholly incapable of taking an independent to seem to be a minister, by taking on himself the responsibility of another man's actions; by expounding to the chamber doctrines which he does not hold, as the representative of an individual who could not conveniently expound them there himself; by defending measures which he did not originate, nay, which in secret he condemns as vain, or worthless, or prejudicial to the best interests of France. M. Guizot is not endowed with a prolific mind: he gives birth to nothing. He only adopts the illegitimate offspring of others, and allows them, for a consideration, to assume his family name and seem to be his. This, no doubt, is a proceeding which implies some hardihood, some ingenuity, some power of face. It is not every one that could stand up in the presence of a whole parliament, and maintain contradictory propositions with an equal show of reason; that could, by the speciousness of his sophistry, paths, in the vain hope of placing themobtain credit for conscientious patriotism, while openly acting contrary to the declared convictions of his whole life; that could establish his reputation for pacific views and honorable intentions, while laboriously exciting national animosities, and giving daily proofs of reckless Jesuitism and improbity. It is not every one, we say, that could accomplish this, and therefore we admit M. Guizot to be a shrewd man; a man capable of much calculation, a man familiar with all the prevailing arts of intrigue. What we mean to say is, that M. Guizot is neither a great nor an honest man. To make good this proposition it is by view of political positions. He does not examine society as it is, and strike out original measures to meet its necessities, and conduct it towards something better. He falls into the pedantry of imitation, and is haunted by the desire of producing political parallelisms; of re-enacting, as it were, the events of history, and impressing on occurrences of the present day the image and superscription of the past. This indication of mental poverty, however, is common to him with most of his countrymen. Though intensely jealous of our superiority,they have done little, during the last hundred years, but study our history and literature, in order to discover models for copying. Our spirit has accordingly been upon them, for good or for evil, in all that they have achieved or imagined during that period, whether they have trodden ingenuously in our footsteps, or have flown off into eccentric or absurd selves beyond the reach of that over-mastering influence, which Providence seems to have decreed shall impart its distinguishing characteristic to modern society. M. Guizot, to do him justice, has scarcely sought to conceal the sources of his inspiration. We might almost say, perhaps, that he has somewhat too explicitly pointed them out; because, from his supposed familiarity with English history, English politics, and English literature, he has drawn upon himhimself the very unfounded suspicion of being friendly to this country. He has studied Great Britain, however, in the same spirit that Voltaire studied Christianity, and for precisely the same purpose. His object will more especially refer, are of recent from the beginning has been to discover date and universal notoriety. We shall where we were most vulnerable, that he not pursue the stream of M. Guizot's might teach his countrymen to strike us achievements back through all the obscure there. But this, it may be said, is to pro- and tortuous mazes of its earlier course. nounce M. Guizot's eulogium, since it is We shall omit to mention his flight to his duty to promote, not the interests of Ghent, his intrigues under the government England, but those of France. Be it so of the Restoration, the pitiful part he playbut then follows the inquiry, whether he did ed during the Revolution of July. Nay, not overshoot his mark; since, instead of our charity induces us to pass over in creating among his countrymen generally silence much of his subsequent career. It the belief that he is inimical to Great Brit- would, indeed, be unfair to criticise with ain, which might go far to render him severity the fluctuations of the youthful popular, he has had the unskilfulness to and unformed statesman, the waverings of obtain credit for the feeling least calculated whose mind, like those of the magnetic to recommend him to the people of France. needle when its direction has been disturbThus vaulting ambition sometimes over-ed, may only indicate its anxiety to disleaps itself. But most things have two handles. cover the polar principle to which it will ever after point steadily. We take up M. This at least is the case with M. Guizot's Guizot at a period when his political inJesuitism. For if on the other side of the stincts may be supposed to have been channel it has curtailed his influence, and brought into subjection to his reason; exposed him to obloquy, it has produced when it was no longer permitted him to on this side the contrary effect, and pro- veer and shift, and betray tokens of undiscured for him the support of our Tory ad- ciplined impulses. In short, we come at once ministration, which, joined with that of to the year 1840, and the negotiations for a Louis Philippe, may be regarded as of far treaty between the five great powers of greater consequence than the applauses of Europe on the subject of the Right of the Parisian multitude. It is for the sake, Search. One of the motives by which therefore, of Lord Aberdeen and Sir Robert England was urged to desire this treaty, Peel, that we have engaged in the present was the conviction that it would place her investigation into M. Guizot's character. in a better position for operating upon the Had the Whigs remained in office, we reason of the United States, which had night have spared ourselves the trouble. hitherto refused to act cordially in conLord Palmerston understood the man tho-junction with us for the suppression of the roughly, had taken the exact dimensions of slave-trade. With the pride and obstinacy his mind, and was familiar with the whole which its citizens originally carried along sweep of his policy. He would not, we with them across the Atlantic, the great fancy, have given him credit for being the American Republic refused to recognize friend of England. He knew better the the Right of Search from the idea that it value of such phrases and professions; and would be derogatory to its dignity. It was it is only because our present rulers super-believed, however, that if all the great abound in the milk of human kindness, and powers of Europe were to come in and have foresworn Machiavelli, and adopted consent to act frankly together, and give the maxim that frank credulity is the basis proofs unequivocal that they considered it of all true statesmanship, that we under- to be for their honor to yield to the intake the task of unmasking M. Guizot. Our bowels yearn with compassion towards Lord Aberdeen when we behold him made the dupe of the wily Frenchman, when we behold this small Talleyrand of the Universities throwing dust into the eyes of the British minister, and when we observe that minister himself, in order to keep him in his place, retract his solemn declarations in Parliament, and perform exactly the contrary of what he voluntarily undertook to accomplish. he transactions to which our remarks stances of Great Britain in the cause of humanity, the United States also would follow in their wake, if not from any better motive, at least from the vanity of being included in the list of civilized and influential states. M. Guizot was of this opinion, and labored cheerfully and earnestly, in concurrence with our own minister, to bring to a successful issue the discussion on the celebrated treaty of '41. The necessity for this convention arose out of the limited sphere of operation secured by the Right of Search treaties of 1831 and 1833. By those treaties our But M. Guizot, either because he then cruisers were frequently hampered in the sincerely desired the suppression of the discharge of their duty. They could not slave-trade, or, which is more probable, pursue a slaver beyond the tenth degree of because he unconsciously acted under the latitude north or south, or more than influence of Lord Palmerston's genius, sixty leagues from the coast. Without vigorously combated the arguments of the these limits the most suspicious vessels Russian ambassador, and returned so fremight pass to and fro within sight, nay, quently to the charge, and reasoned with within hail. Under whatever flag they sail- so much subtlety, warmth, and cogency, ed they were sure of impunity. This was that after a resistance protracted for seva most vexatious state of things, which eral weeks, Count Brunnow yielded. This ought, it may be said, to have been fore-circumstance, considered in itself, is honseen by the framers of the former treaties. orable to M. Guizot. It proves him to But Lord Palmerston's object in 1831 and possess many of the qualities of a man of 1833, was not to alarm the prejudices of business. It is creditable to his diplomatic the continent by insisting on too much. eloquence, and it shows that, under certain He knew that having obtained the recog- conditions, he is far from being indifferent nition of the principle by France, it would to the sufferings of humanity. be much easier to extend the range of its The objections of Russia having been thus operation when experience should have overcome, no obstacle appeared to stand in proved that no practical evils of any im- the way of the signing and ratification of portance were likely to spring out of it. In the treaty. France entered heartily into 1840, therefore, considering that the time the business. Those evil influences which was come to give plenary execution to his afterwards swayed her resolution appeared great plan, he set on foot the negotiations to be wholly dormant. But there was for a new and vastly more comprehensive then, on the edge of the horizon, a small treaty. This time the Right of Search was speck, which was destined soon to spread to extend its influence along the whole of and darken this fair prospect. Every one the western and eastern coasts of Africa, will recollect the position in which the af and along the eastern coast of America fairs of the Levant were placed in 1840, from the Gulf of Mexico to Cape Horn. and the famous treaty concluded on the Russia at first felt considerable repug- 15th of July of that year. The ruling nance to concede to Great Britain, neces- mind of France may possibly, in secret, sarily the chief actor in all affairs taking have expected that, by giving way to Great place on the ocean, the power to overhaul, Britain in the matter of the Right of under any pretext, all the commercial na- Search, it might purchase her forbearance vies of the world. She herself had many in another quarter. Louis Philippe, in ships engaged in the fur and timber trades, conformity with certain views of policy, which would probably be often mistaken for which, without plunging deep into the slavers from the character of their build, affairs of the East, it is impossible to unand from the circumstance of their always derstand, was desirous, at the period rehaving scattered about them numbers of ferred to of aggrandizing Mohammed Ali loose planks, spars, and other things calcu- at the expense of the Sultan, of securing to lated to expose a vessel to suspicion. For him the possession of Syria, and ultimately, these and for other reasons, Count Brun- it would seem, even the throne of Constannow felt considerable repugnance to enter tinople itself. What France expected to upon those negotiations. It was impossi- gain by this scheme, we may discuss some ble to foresee all the consequences that other time. Some prospect of advantage might flow from the act about to be she had, though M. Thiers, who acted as accomplished by the plenipotentiaries of Louis Philippe's minister at the time, prothe leading European powers. Certain tests he knew not what they were, or, vague apprehensions that somehow or knowing, regarded them as of far too little other Great Britain would reap all the ad-importance to justify the disturbance of the vantages of the measure disturbed him. peace of Europe. He, therefore, long held back. He desired that the treaty should be temporary, and regarded merely as an experiment. He suggested the term of ten years as long enough to give the scheme a fair trial. However this may be, the treaty of July, 1840, came, very inopportunely for the children of Africa, to disconcert the projects of Great Britain for their deliverance. Here again M. Guizot was engaged, though far less to his credit as a man and as a di- country at his back. To any one reasonplomatist, than in the matter of the Right ing à priori, from the characters and abiliof Search. M. Thiers, then first minister ties of the men, the contest never could of France, has since, publicly, in the have appeared for one moment doubtful. Chamber, accused M. Guizot of having But fortune sometimes prides herself on played him false in the summer of 1840, of giving practical proofs that the race is not having designedly kept him in ignorance of always to the swift, or the battle to the the progress of the negotiations going on strong; and, therefore, by some perverse in London when he was ambassador, and concatenation of accidents, she might have that, too, for the dishonorable purpose of enabled the atrabilious Huguenot to trisupplanting him in the post of minister. umph over the first diplomatist of this age. For M. Guizot's honesty no sane man How far M. Guizot deserved to succeed, would undertake to answer. Intrigue and we shall presently see. Having sounded, hypocrisy are necessary to him. He rose in succession, all the foreign ambassadors, by them originally, and now, that they are and made use of all that mixture of coaxing less necessary, adheres to them, perhaps and menace, which in the hands of a man of out of habit, or gratitude. He hates M. genius, sometimes produces effects so wonThiers, and has always hated him. He must, derful, M. Guizot perceived that the influence therefore, when he saw him placed over his of Great Britain, in the hands of a diplomathead, have ardently desired his overthrow, ist worthy to wield it, was a thing difficult and been ready to co-operate with any one to be counteracted. He foresaw, or might who could bring it about. But in the have foreseen, the isolation in which transactions of 1840, which terminated in France was likely to be placed, by the dithe treaty of July, we doubt whether M. plomatic isolation in which he himself acGuizot's inaptitude for business did not tually stood. He was no longer permitted completely neutralize his malice. We to witness the secret agency by which a deshall give the history of his achievements, terminate direction was given to the great and leave the reader to judge. currents of European affairs. He stood The object, it will be remembered, of without the magic circle, and could disGreat Britain and the other parties to the cern nothing of the characters drawn withtreaty, was to preserve the integrity of the in it. He became irritated, fidgetty, and Ottoman empire, and France was formally perplexed. He sought to provoke to arguinvited to co-operate with Great Britain ment the leading members of the diploand her allies. Not that our foreign min- matic body, in the hope that in the intemister was ignorant of the intrigues which perate moments of discussion, they would the French had for some time been carry- drop something that might enable him to ing on in Egypt, but that it was not thought guess at their designs. But he found them proper to take notice of her underhand do- impenetrable. The blunt bonhomie of Baings, which, however congenial to her ron Bulow, the quiet taciturnity of Neucharacter, it was believed she might not mann, the stern volubility of Brunnow, and like to have brought under public notice. the easy, graceful frankness of Lord PalmBut Louis Philippe had formed his own erston, equally puzzled him. theory of Levantine affairs, which he persuaded M. Thiers to seem, at least, to adopt, and instructed M. Guizot to act upon. His policy, as we have already said, was to sacrifice Turkey to Mohammed Ali, and, in the first instance, to gain over Lord Palmerston to these views; or, secondly, if that were found impracticable, to address himself to the representatives of Austria, Russia, and Prussia, and endeavor to prevail on them to co-operate with France in thwarting Great Britain. Here, then, we bave M. Guizot pitted against Lord Palmerston. They had the same materials to work upon, the same tools, external to their minds, to work with. They entered upon the arena, each with the power of a great Still there were circumstances which led him to think it probable that the designs of the British cabinet would be defeated. The soil of England, though not fertile in intriguers, yet produces, from time to time, a few who are active in proportion to the scantiness of their numbers. Into the hands of two or three of these M. Guizot fell in 1840. Their names we need not mention, though they are at present enjoying, in high and lucrative situations, the reward of the ignoble services which, at the period referred to, they were supposed to render their party. One of these, revolving perpetually like a satellite round M. Guizot, undertook to keep him exactly informed respecting the proceedings of the |