England could have done it better. If you write a book though now, you
must just pitch it out of window and say, 'Ho! all you jackasses, come
and trample on it and trample it into mud, or go on till you are
tired.'" He laughed heartily at this explosion. His laughter struck
me--humour controlling his wrath and in a sense ABOVE it, as if the
final word were by no means hatred or contempt, even for the jackass. "
. . . No piece of news of late years has gladdened me like the victory
of the Prussians over the Austrians. It was the triumph of Prussian
over French and Napoleonic influence. The Prussians were a valiant,
pious people, and it was a question which should have the most power in
Germany, they or Napoleon. The French are sunk in all kinds of filth.
Compare what the Prussians did with what we did in the Crimea. The
English people are an incredible people. They seem to think that it is
not necessary that a general should have the least knowledge of the art
of war. It is as if you had the stone, and should cry out to any
travelling tinker or blacksmith and say, 'Here, come here and cut me for
the stone,' and he WOULD cut you! Sir Charles Napier would have been a
great general if he had had the opportunity. He was much delighted with
Frederick. 'Frederick was a most extraordinary general,' said Sir
Charles, and on examination I found out that all that Sir Charles had
read of Frederick was a manual for Prussian officers, published by him
about 1760, telling them what to do on particular occasions. I was very
pleased at this admiration of Frederick by Sir Charles . . .

"Sir John Bowring was one of your model men; men who go about imagining
themselves the models of all virtues, and they are models of something
very different. He was one of your patriots, and the Government to
quiet him sent him out to China. When he got there he went to war with
a third of the human race! He, the patriot, he who believed in the
greatest-happiness principle, immediately went to war with a third of