The progress for which we wish is political progress—­not within, for there we are satisfied to oscillate, and shall be most happy if in 1860 we find ourselves where we were in 1820—­but without.  I believe that our master’s sortie against Belgium was a pilot balloon.  He wished to see what amount of opposition he had to fear from you, and from Belgium, and how far we should support him.  He has found the two former greater than he expected.  I am not sure that he is dissatisfied with the last.’

I spent the morning at H.’s.  He too attacked me about the Canal.

‘Do entreat,’ he said, ’your public men to overrule their ill-conditioned colleague.  I told you a year ago, the mischief that you were doing, but I do not think that you believed me.  You may find too late that I was right.’

I repeated to him Ellice’s opinion that the commerce of England would not use the canal.

‘I have heard that,’ he said, ’from Ellice himself, but I differ from him.  I agree with him, indeed, that your sailing vessels will not use the canal, but I believe that a few years hence you will have no purely sailing vessels, except for the small coasting trade.  Every large ship will have a propeller; and with propellers, to be employed occasionally, and sails for ordinary use, the Mediterranean and the Red Sea are very manageable.  I believe that the canal will be useful, and particularly to you.  But whatever be the real merits of the scheme, for God’s sake let it be tried.  Do not treat us like children, and say, “We know better what is good for you than you do yourselves.  You shall not make your canal because you would lose money by it."’

‘What did you hear,’ I said, ‘about the Congress?’

‘I heard,’ he answered, ’that Clarendon was very good, and was the best, and that Walewski was very bad, and was the worst.’

‘Can you tell me,’ I said, ‘the real history of the Tripartite Treaty?’

‘I can,’ he answered.  ’There was an old engagement between the three Powers, entered into last spring, that if they succeeded in the war, they would unite to force Russia to perform any conditions to which she might submit.

’This engagement had been allowed to sleep; I will not say that it was forgotten, but no one seemed disposed to revert to it.  But after the twenty-second Protocol, when Piedmont was allowed to threaten Austria, and neither England nor France defended her, Buol got alarmed.  He feared that Austria might be left exposed to the vengeance of Russia on the north and east, and to that of the Italian Liberals on the South.  An alliance with France and England, though only for a specified purpose, at least would relieve Austria from the appearance of insulation.  She would be able to talk of the two greatest Powers in Europe as her allies, and would thus acquire a moral force which might save her from attack.  He recalled, therefore, the old engagement to the recollection of Clarendon and Louis Napoleon, and summoned them to fulfil it.  I do not believe that either of them was pleased.  But the engagement was formal, and its performance, though open to misconstruction, and intended by Austria to be misconstrued, was attended by some advantages, though different ones, to France and to England.  So both your Government and ours complied.’