to other powers.” Switzerland bears relations to the great powers of contemporary civilization, in some respects, even more remarkable than those which the little strip of soil along the Jordan, at the meeting of the continents, bore to the civilizations of antiquity. Like that of Palestine, its situation, while affording small temptation to aggression upon its neighbors, is supremely advantageous for defence, for isolation from foreign influence; and yet, at the same time, for the exercise of effective influence outward upon the coterminous nations. To these advantages it adds another, in its polyglot facility of communication with the most important nations of Europe. Preserving its ancient character, content within itself, constituting a confederated republic, which, by its good order and industry, morals and laws, rivals in age the oldest monarchy with its stability of self-government,--the greatest of these monarchies cannot afford to despise its friendship. Not only securing and protecting its own liberty, but it has been the arbiter of the fate of other people. It has given examples of those qualities by which men may be so ennobled that they are respected even amid their comparative poverty and weakness; heroes, though too few to be feared by the weak, they are too brave to be insulted by the strong. In Europe, powers of apparently inconsiderable greatness have usually brought about its most decided changes, or at least have most influenced its historical course. Thus did Venice in the times of the Crusades, and Switzerland during the Burgundian and Italian wars; as Holland at the commencement of the eighteenth century gave a new form to Europe, so did Sweden predominate in the seventeenth century, and in the earlier half of that age surpass France herself in splendor. It seems to be a capital necessity of great states to have something placed between them that may relieve the severity of their mutual friction; an arm of the sea; an impassable mountain; a small neutral state, one not strong enough to play a great part in foreign politics, but, with a modest policy, absorbed in domestic affairs; any of these may be of great importance to limit and moderate the dangerous currents of great politics. This was illustrated by the action of Austria, after the partition of Poland and the consequent juxtaposition of Russia, offering to restore its part of Poland for the purpose of reconstituting that kingdom. The present age in Europe differs entirely from that of the Middle Ages. Then the general tendency was to small states, now it is to large ones. Then there existed a number of petty monarchies and republics; the unity of the Roman empire was ideal rather than actual. The tendency to form larger states began with England, and is seen on the continent after the latter part of the fifteenth century, and has not yet reached its limits. Everywhere there is a tendency to the formation of large and important states, speaking