graph. We could hear nothing more till we reached the Sand-
wich Islands, or probably till we reached San Francisco; and
I looked forward with real satisfaction to the month of
quiet which lay before us, when we should be no more dis-
tracted by the broken patches of news which had been drop-
ping in upon us from hour to hour. E-----, who was going
home with us, shared none of my feelings. He, a high Scotch
Tory, hated the Russians with genuine party vigour. Why
the Tories should hate Russia which alone maintains in Europe
the old-fashioned Tory principles, is one of those paradoxes
which historians will hereafter puzzle over. As long as the
Duke of Wellington lived, the Tories wished well to Russia,
and the Whigs detested her; now they have changed places.
The two parties seem really to think of little save how to defeat
one another. Consistency and principle are valued only as
virtues which one's enemies can be accused of being without.
They wheel round each other like armies in the field, choos-
ing their ground with a view to the immediate campaign.
For decency's sake they cannot avow the true motives of their
action, and conceal it, even for themselves, behind a veil of
plausibilities; but in a few years they may change places
again, and will have excellent reasons for doing it. E-----
any way was happy, thinking that we were going in for the
Russians at last; and so were a number of militia officers who
had been recalled to their regiments, and were in high spirits
at the prospect.

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