1906-7. TRANSACTIONS. 61 



being allied with Austria, Holland and other continental powers 

 against France, entered into secret arrangements with the sup- 

 posedly mutual enemy, while pretending to co-operate with the 

 allies in the field (6) . 



They remind us of our Admiral Haddock at Cadiz in 1742; 

 when pretending to blockade the Spanish fleet for the benefit of 

 our friends, we really let it escape to their overthrow. Of which 

 Carlyle said : — 



''Europe admired with a shudder that refined stroke of art; 

 for in cunning they equal Beelzebub, those perfidious Islanders, 

 and are always at it, hence their greatness in the world. Imitate 

 them ye Peoples, if you also would grow great " (c). 



They remind us of Carteret, afterwards Lord Granville at 

 Hanau in 1743. They remind us of Lord Bute's betrayal 

 (as they call it) of Frederick the Great in 1762 (d) of which the 

 London Times recently said : — 



''The real reason why England has never been forgiven in 

 Germany for her conduct to Prussia is that Lord Bute, the Prime 

 Minister of England, did not scruple to betray to Choiseul the 

 plans of Frederick, then the ally of England, for military operations 

 against the French * * * At the present moment undoubted- 

 ly the most hostile of all powers to England is the new German 

 Empire. " 



They remind us too of our Chinese Opium wars in the middle of 

 the last century (e) ; and of the considerable properties we our- 

 selves have somehow arranged to acquire in the Flowery Kingdom. 



They remind us of our quite recent promises respecting 

 Egypt (/). And they remind us of many other things in the way 

 of broken promises, which we very much wish they would be kind 

 enough to say nothing about. Of such episodes, Machiavelli 

 said : — 



"A prince therefore, who is wise and prudent, cannot or ought 

 not to keep his parole, when the keeping of it is to his prejudice. " 



Army and Navy. — Machiavelli said nothing as to all being 

 fair in love ; but to save the State he permitted everything. And 

 to-day every man who joins the army or navy of any country, 

 divorces himself for the purposes of his profession from moral 



(6) Lecky's Hist, of Eng-., I, p. 138. 



(c) Fred, the Great, V. 163. 



(d) Carlyle, IX, 216, 229. 



(e) 163 N. A. Review, 381. 



(/) Ashley's Palmerston, I, 351. 



