Our shout must be "Neutrality!" To England peace is sweet; But, friends, that she may neutral be, LET'S MAN OUR FORTS AND FLEET.
He may be an inoffensive animal, but he don't look like it.]
After Magenta the share in the fighting between Italy and France is symbolized in the fable of the Giant and the Dwarf: Victor Emmanuel was to do all the fighting while France, forsooth, claimed half the honours of war. No opportunity was lost of putting the worst construction on Louis Napoleon's patronage of Savoy. His pacific statements are constantly contrasted with his policy of aggrandisement. In the autumn _Punch_ quoted the _New York Herald's_ tribute: "We are seriously of opinion that if Louis Napoleon were not Emperor of the French, he would have made a first-rate newspaper editor. His style is like that of the American papers." The report that Cavour had retired in disgust inspired a bitter attack on the two Emperors in July:--
Count O'Cavourneen, the bubble is breaking, You've had the last scene, Solferino's red hill, The cannons no longer the echoes are waking, Count O'Cavourneen, what, Minister still? O hast thou forgot the diplomacy clever In which thou didst bear so distinguished a part, Thy vow to clear out all the Hapsbugs for ever? The vermin still linger, Cavour of my heart.
Cavourneen, Cavourneen, the dead lie in numbers Beneath the torn turf where the living made fight; In the bed of My Uncle the Emperor slumbers, But Italy's Hapsbugs continue to bite. Well done, my Cavour, they have cut short the struggle They fired all the pulses of Italy's heart; And in turning thy back on the humbug and juggle, Cavour, thou hast played a proud gentleman's part.
[Illustration: MILITIA OFFICER: "Ah, this is Smithers! Why, you're getting very fat, Smithers. Let's see--this is your fifth training, isn't it?"
STOUT PRIVATE: "Yes, sir. After we was disembodied, sir, the Adj'tant he took an' _reintestined_ me, sir!!!"
(_Note._--Militiamen, after serving four trainings, can be "_Re-attested_" for another five years.)]
Italy and her friends were alike profoundly dissatisfied with the terms of the Peace of Villafranca, by which Savoy and Nice were handed over to the French Emperor, whose further "intentions" kept England in a simmer of indignant anxiety for years to come. The scare of a French invasion revived, the volunteer movement took on increased activity, and the anxiety of financiers was revealed in the grotesque incident of the four Liverpool brokers who wrote to Louis Napoleon asking him what his "intentions" were. They were faithfully dealt with by _Punch_ in his burlesque verses on "The Four Fishers"--who caught nothing, and in an imaginary parallel letter to Queen Victoria.