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 108 CAUSES INVOLVING FPANCE AND ENGLAND CHAP, the retention of office by two men whose attach- ^^' ment to the cause of peace was believed to be passionately strong; but it chanced, moreover, that publicity had been given to a highly-spirited and able despatch, the production of the French Foreign Office ; and since there had transpired no proof of a corresponding energy on the yjart of England, it was wrongly inferred that Lord Aber- deen's Government were hanging back. Accord- ingly, Ministers were taunted for this supposed fault by almost all the speakers in either House. What the Government were chargeable with was an undue forwardness in causing England to join with France alone in the performance of a duty which was European in its nature, and devolv- ing in the first instance upon Austria. What they were charged with was a want of readi- ness to do that which they had done. There- fore every one who spoke against the INIinistry was committing himself to opinions which (as soon as their real course of action should be disclosed) would involve him in an approval of their policy. Production But uow at last, aud within a day or two from Papers. the conclusiou of the debate on the Address, some of the papers relating to the negotiations of 1853 and the preceding years were laid upon the table of both Houses. As soon as the more devoted friends of peace were able to read these documents, and in some degree to comprehend their scope and bearing, they began to see liow lueir offeot. their causG had fared under the official guardian-