Excerpt from Letters on England, Vol. 2 of 2

The Congress of German Sovereigns assembled at Frankfort does not at all go down with the English. And the reason is that the fruits are far, very far, from responding to the hopes that had been entertained.

When it was first of all known here that the work of German unification was at last about to be taken in hand in good earnest, great was the joy. The sentiment which moved the English to follow with their good wishes the unity of Germany was precisely the same as that which had endeared to them the unity of Italy. France held in on the east and towards the south by powerful neighbours! There is not a heart in England that is not quickened by such a prospect.

Is there any occasion for me to say why? Suppose that at the epoch when revolutionary France had all Europe on her arms, Italy on the one side and Germany on the other had been what it is now proposed to make them, would revolutionary France, with all the prodigies of her sublime wrath, have shivered the coalition to fragments and driven Pitt to despair?

It is fair to doubt it, and the English do doubt it.

The continental power of France being the subject of their eternal disquietude, whatever can serve as a counterpoise to her weight in peaceful times, or as a barrier against her in stormy days, cheers and fascinates them.

Besides, it is not alone the power of France that alarms them.

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