The semi-official North-German Gazette is delighted with the prospect of
the meeting in St, James's Hall to sympathise with
the Prussian persecution of Roman Catholics, and is very anxious that Lord Russell should not abandon his intention of taking the chair, an act which, it declares, will be worthy of "the ideas of Sir Robert Peel and of the great historical policy of old England." We conclude our Berlin contemporary refers to "the ideas of Sir Robert Peel and the great historical policy of Old England "before 1829, that is, at the time Sir Robert Peel was resisting, not at the time he conceded the Catholic claims. Lord Russell, however, can hardly emulate Sir Robert Peel successfully by adopting his views in reverse order. A statesman who in his youth held Sir Robert Peel's maturest views, and in his age adopts those of Sir Robert Peel's youth, is no more treading in Sir Robert Peel's footsteps, than Julian the Apostate can be said to have trod in the foot- steps of Constantine. Nor can it be called "the great historical policy of Old England" to extol retrograde movements, and to pray God to show his special favour by sending backwards the shadow on the sun-dial.
