and from it went forth the conquest of Algiers. And that our humiliation may be complete, this conquest is to be resigned—this last rag of the honour of France is to be sacrificed to the delusion of an alliance with England.[1] As if the vain hope of it had not already cost enough! On account of this alliance the French must bear the blame, and toil not only on the fort of Ancona, but on the plains of Belgium and under the walls of Lisbon. And should Lord Grey fall, England will ask yet more; but with him will fall Casimir Perier. Both keep themselves upright by their mutual tendency to tumble down, like two drunkards who remain standing by leaning one against the other.
In the interior embarrassments and inconsistencies have reached such a pitch that even a German would lose his patience over them. The French at present resemble those of the damned in the hell of Dante, whose state has become so intolerable that they wish to be freed from it at any cost, though it should be for something worse. This explains why the Republicans would prefer Legitimacy, and the Legitimists the Republic to the mud-hole of a juste milieu which lies between, and in which both are now friends.
- ↑ The passage following, until the words "in the interior," is omitted in the French version.
