72 BRITANNY AND THE CHASE. 



sajs that " liberty of th% press and of examination is 

 totally opposed to the principle of authority, and therefore 

 inadmissible," and this is France. To be black or white we 

 can understand, but to be black and white together, now one 

 and now another, is like the optical illusion of the spin- 

 ning card, and confuses us. But, harking back from 

 politics and leaving the Frenchmen to settle this account 

 with posterity, and sincerely hoping that ere long Napoleoa 

 w^ill treat them according to their deserts and convince them 

 d priori and a posteriori, let me merely say that there he is, 

 firmly and well seated and supported by the finest army in 

 the world, and I for one am decidedly of opinion that, 

 sooner or later, that army will want to do something 

 more congenial than eating sugar plums and playing with 

 windmills. When that time arrives let John Bull shake 

 himself and open his eyes wide, or he will be suddenly 

 pounced upon in a disagreeable manner. If in the mean- 

 time John is wise, he will see that every thine: belonmns to 

 the fleet is made ship shape, and he will get his father's 

 Wunderbuss down, and, if it be past service, buy one of 

 Colt's revolvers ; he will also have the old mare trained to 

 stand fire, and habituate himself to being awoke in the 

 middle of the night, so as to avoid apoplexy. If our wooden 

 walls are in good order we may boldly defy them all, but 

 if otherwise, England's glory will be short-lived. In 1840 

 Thiers proposed to make a dash at Gibraltar and Malta ; 

 in 1848 Louis Napoleon talked of a great military under- 

 taking to bind Frenchmen together, which I believe was 

 against England ; and why all this smelling and snuffing 

 about if they do not like the morsel and covet and desin> 



