58 RECOLLECTIONS OF FORTY YEARS. 



contrary to the principle of free communications and 

 free trade, which their nation has proclaimed in the 

 face of the world, to be carried out in their name, and 

 whether further efforts shall be made to prevent the 

 joining of two seas which lead direct to India and to 

 China, while in other ways they are doing all they 

 can to bring these vast countries into contact with 

 civilised peoples. 



" I now come to the personalities, and I will endea- 

 vour, in replying to them, to observe the rules of mo- 

 deration, considerateness, and dignity, which have 

 scarcely been adhered to by making an attack upon 

 me in an assembly where I could not be heard in 

 defence. Lord Palmerston thought fit to state, in 

 terms that I will not stoop to repeat, that I had come 

 over to England with designs upon the pockets of his 

 countrymen, and in order to take advantage of the 

 credulity of any capitalists who might be weak enough 

 to believe in a chimerical enterprise. You know, 

 gentlemen, whether I have said or done anything to 

 justify imputations of this kind. Have 1 made a 

 single appeal for subscriptions ? You will remember 

 that, upon the contrary, I have several times told you 

 that I had come to ask you, not to subscribe for shares, 

 but for an expression of your opinion. If, in the 

 allotment of a capital of eight millions, England, like 

 France, is ultimately to have a fifth share, I made 

 this proposal out of deference to a powerful com- 

 mercial nation directly interested in the opening of 



