WHAT BEST CONSORTS WITH THE CONSORT'S DIGNITY.
The best monument on which, at present, (and may it be "at present" for many years to come!) to inscribe Prince Albert's abilities and amiabilities, is to be found in the columns of the Newspapers.
AN INJUDICIOUS PATRIOT.
WE read among the speeches delivered at the late Polish Anniversary Meeting, one which was made by a foreign gentleman, introduced as a friend of M. Mazzini, and which concluded thus:—
"Revolution was called disorder. It might be so, but the only way to finish with disorder was to make revolution.—(Cheers.) Therefore it was that he wished for revolution, though its permanent success involved the sad necessity of the guillotine." (Great cheering.)
These daring words were uttered, not in the slummish purlieus of the Square of Leicester, but at the splendid Rooms of that of Hanover. How proud and glad we ought to feel of our freedom of utterance, considering that at a place of fashionable resort, in an aristocratic neighbourhood, an individual is permitted to speak out thus: declaring himself boldly on the side of revolution and the guillotine!
Nevertheless, for the cause of European liberty, it is a pity that this gentleman had not either had his mouth stopped by the spontaneous action of the muscles which serve to close that orifice, or shut up by cries of "No, no!" substituted for the "great cheering" which greeted his avowal in regard to revolutionism and decapitation. The use and applause of such language must estrange all friends of freedom except those who are mad. The exiles that indulge in it ought not, perhaps, to be deprived of an asylum, but they ought to be restricted to one in which they can be looked after. It is bad enough when patriots are consigned to the halter by despots, but it is worse when, having rope given them, they use it to hang themselves. The Emperors of Russia and Austria are much obliged to those who talk like this foreign gentleman. The revolution contemplated by M. Mazzini is another thing, we hope, than that which is advocated by his indiscreet friend, and to "make" which will, in truth, be a certain "way to finish with disorder."