Page:Notes on the Anti-Corn Law Struggle.djvu/282

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It might be expected that a Frenchman's opinion of Englishmen would differ somewhat from Englishmen's opinion of themselves; but with so many opportunities of knowing the fighting qualities of Englishmen, one would hardly have looked in a paper printed under the authority of the representatives of the French nation for such an opinion as that which has been just quoted. It is in the evidence of the French Enquête Parlementaire, nominated in November, 1849, and it is accompanied by the evidence of eighty-nine witnesses, flag and other officers, appended to the French report. All this shows that the French Government of that day contemplated a sudden attack upon England—an attack to which the Channel Tunnel would, it may be supposed, have afforded extraordinary facilities. And this took place very soon after the fine frenzy of Sir William Molesworth's indignation at the possibility of any public instructor, like The Spectator, "considering the French to be ruffians, Pindarees, freebooters." "Good God!" exclaims Sir William, like the friend of humanity in Canning's Knife Grinder, in a transport of Republican enthusiasm and universal philanthropy, "can it be possible?" And one is inclined so far to follow Sir William's example, as to apply his