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with the House of Austria, others accused him of inter-fering unjustly in the internal affairs of Spain. In themost ingenious and humorous political satire extant in ourlanguage, Arbuthnot’s History of John Bull, England andHolland are typified by a clothier and a linendraper, whotake upon themselves to settle the estate of a bedridden oldgentleman in their neighbourhood. They meet at thecorner of his park with paper and pencils, a pole, a chainand a semicircle, measure his fields, calculate the value ofhis mines, and then proceed to his house in order to take aninventory of his plate and furniture. But this pleasantry,excellent as pleasantry, hardly deserves serious refutation.No person who has a right to give any opinion at all aboutpolitics can think that the question, whether two of thegreatest empires in the world should be virtually united soas to form one irresistible mass, was a question with whichother states had nothing to do, a question about whichother states could not take counsel together without beingguilty of impertinence as gross as that of a busybody inprivate life who should insist on being allowed to dictatethe wills of other people. If the -whole Spanish monarchyshould pass to the House of Bourbon, it was highly pro-bable that in a few years England would cease to be greatand free, and that Holland would be a mere province ofFrance. Such a danger England and Holland might law-fully have averted by war; and it would be absurd to saythat a danger which may be lawfully averted by war can-not lawfully be averted by peaceable means. If nations

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