welfare of the country, but in a military point of view its success is immense. We have but our regular army, and were it broken, defeated--in the quiet contemplation of affairs it is the duty even of a French mouth to pronounce this hard word--we have nothing--except perhaps, undisciplined masses with a good courage, who would be sacrificed without result. I will not maintain that it would be advisable, or, indeed, with our national peculiarities, that it would be possible to imitate the Prussian system, nevertheless we must create something which will be a true national reserve. I wish to express that we must have, to back up our regular army, material sufficiently trained to form another army in case of need, if we would avoid entering on the war with unequal forces. I will shortly recapitulate my opinion. We must, in the first place, be completely freed from Mexico, that we may be able to concentrate the whole power of France upon one point. We must then supply the whole army with an excellent breach-loader; we must modify our drill to our new weapon; our fortresses must be in perfect readiness for war. Finally, we must create a mobile and efficient national reserve. I consider all these preparations indispensable before commencing so grave and decisive a war." Deep silence reigned for a moment throughout the apartment. The emperor fixed his eyes upon Marshal Forey, the youngest in the assembly. "I perfectly coincide in the views that Marshal Niel has so clearly and convincingly expressed," he said. The other marshals were silent, but their looks plainly showed that they had nothing to say against the views Niel had advanced. "Sire," cried Drouyn de Lhuys, vehemently, "I am not a soldier, and I am convinced that from a military point of view the gallant marshal is perfectly right; but the completion of the preparations he deems needful for a successful campaign requires time, much time, and I think we have none to lose if we are to guard the honour and the interests of France. The favourable moment will go by, Prussia will grow stronger and stronger, the military strength of Germany will become more and more organized and concentrated, and if all is carried out that the marshal desires, the increase to our strength, however important, will perhaps be met by a still more considerable increase of strength on the part of the enemy. Sire," he proceeded, with extreme excitement and with flashing eyes, "I implore your majesty that two men and one officer with the banner of France, may stand at the frontier and support the needful demands which we must make upon Prussia; if they see we are in earnest in Berlin they will yield, and if they do not, in a few days all France would be formed into battalions to strengthen our armies. It was with such battalions, sire, that your illustrious uncle conquered the world; from these he formed those mighty armies, educated not in the barrack-yard but on the battle-field, with which he subdued Europe."