SPANISH PROVERB. 357 



surpassed, but her short-sighted and bungling 

 statesmen and diplomatists always manage to lose 

 the advantages, honour, and prestige, that cost the 

 nation so much blood and treasure to gain. 



These are strong words, and possibly too plain, 

 but they are, nevertheless, true. I maintain that 

 England, by the injudicious policy which her 

 ministers have adopted during the last ten years, 

 has lost more 'prestige — which in the present age 

 means also power — than half-a-dozen brilliant 

 victories can regain. In former years, when we 

 ventured an opinion, we were not afraid to stand by 

 it, and the bite was ever felt before the British lion 

 began to growl. The haughty Spaniard had a 

 proverb which alone showed the wholesome respect 

 with which the power of Britain was regarded in 

 Europe. It was: — 



" Con todo el mondo guerra, y paz con Ingleterra." * 



Would that this feeling still continued in Europe ! 

 But I am wandering from my subject, and must 



* " War with all the world, but peace with England." 



