What would not the elder Buonaparte have given to find us in such a state! Very far, indeed, are we from imagining that the present President of the French Republic bears any personal ill-will to this country, wherein he has met with much hospitality; but, giving him the utmost credit for amicable dispositions and pacific intentions, we cannot forget the peculiarity of the position which he occupies, or the varied influences which control him. However we may wish to believe the contrary, it is certain that France regards herself rather as the rival than as the ally of England. It cannot, indeed, be otherwise. France has recollections, not of the most soothing kind, which no lapse of time has been able to efface; and these will infallibly, when an opportunity occurs, regulate her future conduct. And how stands France at this moment with regard to military preparation? Observe--there is no enemy threatening her from without. Of all states in Europe she is the least likely to be attacked. Yet we find her available force as follows:-- Regular troops. Staff, 3,826 Cavalry, 58,932 Infantry, &c., 301,224 Artillery, 30,166 Engineers, 8,727 Pontoon train, &c., 5,755 _______ Total, 408,630 Garde Nationale. 82 battalions of 1500 men, 123,000 2378 do. of 1000 men, 2,378,000 _________ 2,501,000 Of whom 2,000,000 are armed with firelocks. To the above are to be added:-- Garde Nationale of Paris, 129,800 _______ Total, 2,630,800 Together, more than three millions of trained men! We need not dwell on the disproportion which is apparent here; indeed, our whole task is one from which we would most willingly have been held excused. It is not pleasant either to note or to reiterate the undoubted fact of our weakness; and yet what help is there, when purblind demagogues are allowed by senseless clamour to drown the accents of a voice still speaking to us from the verge of the grave? Let Sir Francis Head illustrate this point, and may his words sink deep in the heart of an unwise generation. "Why, we ask, have the Duke of Wellington's repeated prayers, supplications, admonitions, and warnings "to various Administrations," and through the press to the British people, been so utterly disregarded? Without offering one word of adulation--we have personally no reason to do so--we cannot but observe, that no problem in science, no theory, important or unimportant, has ever been more, thoroughly investigated than the character of the Duke of Wellington by his fellow-countrymen.