Note 15 — LETTERS ON POLITICS AND WAR.
Reading edition
The debate (July 4, 1864) was upon the Danish question and the policy of the Government, and took place just after the end of a temporary armistice and the resumption of hostilities by the bombardment of Alsen, in the Dano-Prussian war. Alsen was taken two days after the publication of this letter. The "two English gentlemen" were Mr. D'Israeli and Mr. Gladstone (at this time Chancellor of the Exchequer), the latter of whom had quoted the lines from the sixth Æneid (ll. 489-491):
"At Danaum proceres Agamemnoniæque phalanges Ut vidêre virum fulgentiaque arma per umbras Ingenti trepidare metu."