no other power interpose to aid Switzerland, if no revolutionary outbreak shake the continent-our intervention would be equally impolitic and nugatory.

But if England be assailed with deadly hostility by the combined despots of Europe, aiming to extinguish the glories of her arts and commerce, the light of her example and her liberty, the mighty refuge of hunted freedom, then-in spite of her monarchical head and aristocratic decorations-I see the vile attempt of despots to crush the spirit of liberty which alone renders her powerful, terrible and hated: and in my judgment, the time would have come when the sword of the republic should be drawn to defend in the person of England the rights of freedom and our own independence.

If God shall put it again in the hearts of the people to rise with simultaneous resolution against their oppressors as in 1848, and shall bless their efforts by again placing their rulers at their mercy and liberty within their grasp, then this Republic should not stand still and see them overborne by combinations of foreign arms and domestic treachery. She should not hesitate to improve the precious opportunity which Providence affords. She should display the banner of freedom in aid of our struggling brethren, and fling her sword into the trembling scale which weighs the destiny of the world.

We must be ready to make costly sacrifices of blood and treasure. Despotism will deliver terrible battle ere it loose its gripe on the neck of man: and the next battle will be the final and decisive one. It will be no passing cloud; but neither sun nor stars

shall appear for many days after its fury bursts over the world: and they who love fair weather and smooth seas should pray that that day be put far from them. But our contribution will be of our abundance to the necessities of the weak and destitute. Their wants will determine the shape of our aid. We shall be called on for no army for the invasion of Europe. The cause of liberty now numbers her soldiers by the million; it can command more men than it can arm, support, or officer. The spirit of liberty-like that of religion-makes her abode in the hearts and homes of the poor and the powerless. Their blood is the only libation they can pour on her altars—but that is ever ready at her call. We shall be called on for liberal and unceasing supplies of provisions for the hand that wields the musket must abandon the plough. Our coffers must stand open-that men willing to contribute their life to the cause may not become a fruitless sacrifice. Arms must be placed in the outstretched hands of her devotees for despotism has been careful to leave them defenceless. The military monarchies of Europe will yield to no arguments but steel and lead,and they must be made to feel the bayonets they are so ready to inflict. Military science may be needed to marshal the willing but ill-instructed recruits,-and our youths at West Point and her splendid alumni eagerly expect their country's call to the field of glory. Our fleet-augmented so as to be less scandalously unequal to the resources and the wants of the country-combined with that of England can sweep our enemies from the face of the ocean

and its high duty will be to pour in the supplies we furnish through every seaport of the continent, while it vigilantly intercepts all assaults on our domestic peace. From invasion by European armies we have nothing to fear; they will be employed at home, or if they venture the rash experiment, the luckless force which lands will melt away before the flood of armed men our teeming population will enable us to pour around it. Our only danger is from our southern neighbors, and they can only be driven into the arms of the despots by our selfish, grasping, unsocial policy.

Hungary fell-not for lack of men or heroism or science, but because destitute of arms for the hands of her sons and of food for their mouths. She had no friendly flag, no La Fayette and Kosciusko, no French money, arms, or hearts. No French fleet poured its stores into her ports or kept them free to neutral commerce. But for such aid vain had been the devotion of Washington. He would have been buried in a month beneath the masses of disciplined soldiers whose march trampled out Hungarian freedom. His name would have been branded as that of a traitor or enrolled among the martyrs of libertyleaving no offspring to bless him with the name of father.

The principle therefore of our aid must be-to supply the deficiencies of the liberal men of Europe-to place them on even terms with their foesand then trust to their courage and devotion to win for themselves what no one can give them-the priceless blessings of deserved and appreciated liberty.

The grievous fault of 1848 should not be repeated by England and America. They then threw away by sloth and indifference, by timidity and selfishness, the greatest opportunity ever afforded to settle the war between freedom and slavery. France is equally to blame; but she has paid the penalty of her folly by bitter humiliation beneath the heel of her tyrant. She has her own salvation to work out, and not till that is done can her glorious legions be counted amid the hosts of freedom. In the presence of her great agony let the tongue of censure be silent-yet let not the eye which provides for the future fail to mark the costly errors of the past.

Things would be very different in Europe now, had France and England and America acted with unity, energy, and devotion.

The men of the Provisional government reversed the precedents of the great revolution in order to rescue the cause of the republic from the stain of blood and the imputation of ambition. They proclaimed peace as their policy and refused to mingle in the strife of neighboring people lest they should bring on their cause the charge of propagandism. History looking on the event pronounces that policy a blunder. It could be right only on condition that all other powers acted on it also. The northern powers had been canting of peace for thirty yearsyet never failed to make war under pretext of its preservation. It was contrary to experience to anticipate any change of their policy or of their conduct. It was a blunder to act on so baseless a supposition. It should have been assumed that their moderation

was only a calm policy waiting the time to strike; that their only restraint is coercion that the first blow might decide the combat; that no faith could bind the enemies of freedom; and that disability to do harm was the only assurance of safety.

Had France and England acted on this theorytreated the cause of the people as theirs, wherever it was contested, and manfully afforded it the support of their name and their arms-Europe would now be free and at peace, and the dictatorship of Russia a thin shadow of the past.

Had France crossed the Alps and supported the cause of Charles Albert, an inconsiderable force would have driven Austria, distracted and enfeebled by an universal revolt, from Lombardy-put to flight the incubus which oppressed the breathing of Italyand secured its entire independence.

Had England remembered her greatest momentwhen Ferdinand anxious to repay his debt to despotism, prepared to crush the Portuguese constitution whose freedom he hated and whose contact he feared, and George Canning electrified Parliament by the memorable words—

"The precise information on which alone we could act arrived only on Friday last. On Saturday the decision of the government was taken. On Sunday we obtained the sanction of his majesty. On Monday we came down to Parliament.-And at this very hour while I have now the honor of addressing this House-British troops are on their way to Portugal"—and had she acted in that spirit-Europe would not now be at the feet of the Czar.