Blackwood’s Edinburgh Magazine No. CCCCLXII. April, 1854. Vol. LXXV

THE QUIET HEART. — PART V.—CHAPTER XXV. — CHAPTER XXVI. — CHAPTER XXVII. — CHAPTER XXVIII. — CHAPTER XXIX. — CHAPTER XXX.

But this Menie Laurie, rising up from her bed of unrest, when the morning light breaks, cold and real, upon a changed world, has wept out all her child’s tears, and is a woman once again. No one knows yet a whisper of what has befallen her, not even poor Jenny, who sobbed over her last night, and implored her not to weep.

Now, how to tell this—how to signify, in the fewest and calmest words, the change that has come upon her. Sitting, with her cheek leant on her hand, by the window where she heard it, before any other eyes are awake, Menie ponders this in her heart. Always before in little difficulties counsel and help have been within her reach; few troublous things have been to do in Menie’s experience; and no one ever dreamt that she should do them, when they chanced to come to her mother’s door.

But now her mother’s honour is involved—she must not be consulted—she must not know. With a proud flush Menie draws up herself—herself who must work in this alone. Ah, sweet dependence, dear humility of the old times! we must lay them by out of our heart, to wait for a happier dawn. This day it is independence—self-support—a strength that stands alone; and no one who has not felt such an abrupt transition can know how hard it is to take these unused weapons up.

“Will you let me speak to you, aunt?” Menie’s heart falters within her, as she remembers poor Miss Annie’s unaccepted sympathy. Has she indeed been driven to seek refuge here at last?

“My love! how can you ask such a question, darling, when I am always ready to speak to you?” exclaimed Miss Annie, with enthusiasm.

“But not here—out of doors, if you will permit me,” said Menie in a half whisper. “I—I want to be out of my mother’s sight—she must not know.”

“You delightful creature,” said Miss Annie, “are you going to give me your confidence at last?”

Poor Menie, sadly dismayed, was very ill able to support this strain of sympathy. She hastened out, not quite observing how it tasked her companion to follow her—out to the same green overgrown corner, where once before she had spoken of this same subject to Randall himself. With a slight shudder she paused there before the little rustic seat, from which she had risen at his approach; but Menie knew that she must harden herself against the power of associations; enough of real ill was before her.

“I want to tell you, aunt, if you will please to listen to me, that the engagement of which you were told when we came here is dissolved—broken. I do not know if there is any stronger word,” said Menie, a bewildered look growing on her face. “I mean to say, that it is all over, as if it had never been.”

And Menie folded her hands upon her breast, and stood patiently to listen, expecting a burst of lamentation and condolence; but Menie was not prepared for the laugh which rung shrilly on her ears—the words that followed it.

“My sweet simple child, I have no doubt you quite believe it—forgive me for laughing, darling; but I know what lovers’ quarrels are. There, now, don’t look so grave and angry; my love, you will make it all up to-morrow.”

And Miss Annie Laurie patted Menie’s shrinking shoulder encouragingly. It was a harder task this than Menie had anticipated; but she went on without flinching.

“This is no lovers’ quarrel, aunt; do not think so. My mother is in some degree involved in this. I cannot consult her, or ask her to help me; it is the first time I have ever been in such a strait;” and Menie’s lip quivered as she spoke. “You are my only friend. I am serious—as serious as mind can be, which feels that here it decides its life. Aunt, I apply to you.”

Miss Annie Laurie looked up very much confused and shaken; very seldom had any one spoken to her with such a sober seriousness of tone; she could not think it unreal, for neither extravagance nor despair were in these grave sad words of Menie. The poor frivolous heart felt this voice ring into its depths, past all superficial affectations and sentiments. No exuberance of sympathy, no shower of condoling words or endearments, could answer this appeal; and poor Miss Annie faltered before this claim of real service—faltered and shrank into a very weak old woman, her self-delusions standing her in no stead in such a strait; and the only answer she could make was to cry, in a trembling and strangely altered voice, “Oh, child, do not speak so. What can I do for you?”

Most true, what can you do, indeed, poor soul! whose greatest object for all these years has been to shut out and darken the daylight truth, which mocked your vain pretences? You could give charity and gentle words—be thankful; your heart is alive in you because of these: but what can you do in such a difficulty as this? where is your wisdom to counsel, your strength to uphold? This grave girl stands before you, sadly bearing her burden, without an effort to conceal from you that she feels it hard to bear; but you, whose age is not grave, whose heart has rejected experience, whose mind has refused to learn the kindly insight of advancing years—shrink into yourself, poor aged butterfly; feel that it is presumption to call yourself her counsellor, and say again—again, with a tremble in your weakened voice, “What can I do for you?”

“Aunt, I apply to you,” said Menie Laurie; “I ask your help, when I resolve to decide my future life according to my own will and conviction of what is best. I have no one else to assist me. I apply to you.”

Miss Annie melted into a fit of feeble crying; her hands shook, her ringlets drooped down lank about her cheeks. “I will do anything—anything you like; tell me what to do, Menie—Menie, my dear child.”

It was pitiful to see her distress. Menie, whom no one comforted, felt her heart moved to comfort her.

“I will not grieve you much,” said Menie gently; “only I beg you to give me your countenance when I see Randall—Mr Home. I want you to be as my mother might have been in other circumstances; but I will not trouble you much, aunt—I will not trouble you.”

Miss Annie could not stop her tears; she was very timid and afraid, sobbing helplessly. “What will I do? what can I do? Oh, Menie, love, you will make it up to-morrow;” for poor Miss Annie knew no way of conquering grief except by flying out of its sight.

Menie led her back to the house tenderly. Menie had never known before this necessity of becoming comforter, when she had so much need to be comforted. It was best for her—it gave her all the greater command over her own heart.

And to hear poor innocent July, in her own young unclouded joy—to hear her unsuspicious mother at their breakfast-table—to have Randall’s name cross her now and then, like a sudden blow—Randall, Randall;—Menie knew nothing of all these depths, nor how such sorrows come in battalions; so, one by one, her inexperienced heart gained acquaintance with them now,—gained acquaintance with that sorest of human truths, that it is possible to love and to condemn—possible to part, and know that parting is the best—yet withal to cling and cling, and hold, with the saddest gripe of tenderness, the heart from which you part. Poor Menie! they said she looked very dark and heavy; that last night’s exertions had wearied her—it was very true.

Miss Annie sent a message that she was not well, and would breakfast in her own room. In the forenoon, when she came down stairs again, even Menie was startled at the change. Miss Annie’s ringlets were smoothed out and braided on her poor thin cheek—braided elaborately with a care and study worthy of something more important; her step tottered a little; when any one spoke to her, a little gush of tears came to her eyes; but, notwithstanding, there was a solemnity and importance in the hush of Miss Annie’s manner, which no one had ever seen in her before. Half-a-dozen times that day she asked, in a startling whisper, “Menie, when is he to come?” Poor Menie, sick at heart, could scarcely bear this slow prolonging of her pain.

“Aunt, he has come.”

No one knows; July is out on a ramble in this pleasant heath, where she cannot lose herself; Mrs Laurie has gone out for some private errands of her own. In her first day, Menie has managed well. True, they all know that Menie has been wearied last night; that her eye looks dull and heavy; that her cheek has lost its slight bloom of colour; that she says something of a headache; but nobody knows that headache has come to be with Menie Laurie as with many another, only a softer word for heartache—no one suspects that the quiet heart, which feared no evil when this spring began, is now a battle-ground, and field of contest, and that sometimes, when she sits quiet in outward seeming, she could leap up with a start and scream, and feels as if madness would come to her underneath their unsuspicious eyes.

“Aunt, he has come.”

Miss Annie Laurie is very nervous; she has to be supported on Menie’s arm as they go down stairs. “You will make it all up, Menie; yes, my darling;” but Miss Annie’s head nods spasmodically, and there is a terrified troubled expression about her face, which looks so meagre in its outline under that braided hair.

Slightly disturbed, something haughty, rather wondering what Menie has got to say for herself, Randall sits waiting in the drawing-room. It is no small surprise to him to see Miss Annie—especially to see her so moved and nervous; and Randall restrains, with visible displeasure, the words which rose to his lips on Menie’s entrance, and coldly makes his bow to the lady of the house.

“My dear Mr Home, I am very much grieved; I hope you are ready to make it all up,” murmurs Miss Annie; but she trembles so much that it is not easy to hear what she says, except the last words, which flush Randall’s cheek with a sudden disdainful anger. A lovers’ quarrel!—that he should be fancied capable of this.

“My aunt has come with me,” said Menie steadily, “to give the weight of her presence to what I say. Randall, I do not pretend that my own feelings are changed, or that I have ceased to care for you. I do not need to seem to quarrel, or to call you by a less familiar name. We know the reason both of us; there is no use for discussing it—and I have come to have it mutually understood that our engagement is broken. We will go away very soon. I came to say good-by.”

Before she concluded, Menie had bent her head, and cast down her wavering eyes upon Miss Annie’s hand, which she held firmly in her own. Her voice was very low, her words quick and hurried; she stood beside Miss Annie’s chair, holding fast, and twining in her own Miss Annie’s nervous fingers; but she did not venture to look up to meet Randall’s eyes.

“What does this mean? it is mere trifling, Menie,” said Randall impatiently. “You hear a gossip’s story of something I said; true or false, it did not affect you—it had no bearing on you; you know very well that nothing has happened to make you less precious to me—that nothing can happen which will ever change my heart. Menie, this is the second time; is this the conduct I have a right to expect from you? Deal with me frankly; I have a title to it. What do you mean?”

“My darling, he will make it up,” said Miss Annie, with a little overflow of tears.

But Menie was very steady—so strange, so strange—she grew into a startling acquaintance with herself in these few hours. Who could have thought there were so many passionate impulses in Menie Laurie’s quiet heart?

“We will not discuss it, Randall,” she said again; “let us simply conclude that it is best for both of us to withdraw. Perhaps you will be better content if I speak more strongly,” she continued, with a little trembling vehemence, born of her weakness, “if I say it is impossible—impossible—you understand the word—to restore the state of mind, the hope, the trust, and confidence that are past. No—let us have no explanation—I cannot bear it, Randall. Do we not understand each other already? Nothing but parting is possible for us—for me. I think I am saying what I mean to say—good-by.”

“Look at me, Menie.”

It is hard to do it—hard to lift up those eyes, so full of tears—hard to see his lips quiver—hard to see the love in his face; but Menie’s eyes fall when they have endured this momentary ordeal; and again she holds out her hand and says, “Good-by.”

“Good-by—I answer you,” said Randall, wringing her hand, and throwing it out of his grasp. “Good-by—you are disloyal, Menie, disloyal to Nature and to me; some time you will remember this; now I bid you farewell.”

Something crossed her like an angry breath—something rang in her ears, confused and echoing like the first drops of a thunder-shower; and Menie can see nothing in all the world but Miss Annie weeping upon her hand, and, like a culprit, steals away—steals away, not knowing where she goes—desolate, guilty, forsaken, feeling as if she had done some grievous wrong, and was for ever shut out from peace or comfort in this weary world.

Yes—there is no one to see you. Lie down upon the ground, Menie Laurie—down, down, where you can be no lower, and cover your eyes from the cheerful light. How they pour upon you, these dreadful doubts and suspicions of yourself!—wisely—wisely—what should make it wise, this thing you have done? You yourself have little wisdom, and you took no counsel. If it was not wise, what then?—it is done, and there is nothing for it now but to be content.

“It must not be—I cannot permit it,” said Mrs Laurie. “Menie, is this all that your mother deserves at your hands? to take such a step as this without even telling me—without giving me an opportunity of remonstrance? Menie! Menie!”

And with hasty steps Mrs Laurie paces backward and forward the narrow room. Beside the window, very pale, Menie stands with a half-averted face, saying nothing—very pale—and there is a sullen suffering in Menie Laurie’s darkened face.

“I cannot have it—I will not permit it”—Mrs Laurie is much excited. “My own honour is compromised; it will be said it is I who have separated you. Menie! it is strange that you should show so little regard either to Randall or to me. I must do something—I must make an effort—I cannot have this.”

“Mother, hear me,” exclaimed Menie. “No one shall do anything; I will not bear it either. In everything else you shall make of me what you will—here I am not to be swayed; I must decide this for myself—and I have decided it, mother.”

With astonished eyes Mrs Laurie looked upon her daughter’s face. Flushed with passion, full of a fierce unrespecting will—was this Menie Laurie? but her mother turned aside from her. “I am sorry, Menie—I am very sorry—to see you show such a spirit; another time I will speak of it again.”

Another time!—Menie Laurie laughed a low laugh when her mother left the room. Something like a scowl had come to Menie’s brow; a dark abiding cloud was on her face; and in her heart such bitterness and universal disappointment as killed every gentle feeling in her soul: disloyal to the one love, disrespectful and disobedient to the other—bitterly Menie’s heart turned upon itself—she had pleased no one; her life was nothing but a great blot before her. She was conscious of a host of evil feelings—evil spirits waging war with one another in her vexed and troubled mind. Sullenly she sat down once more upon the ground, not to seek if there was any comfort in the heavens above or the earth beneath, but to brood upon her grief, and make it darker, till the clouds closed over her, and swallowed her up, and not a star remained.

There is a certain obstinate gloomy satisfaction in despair. To decide that everything is hopeless—that nothing can be done for you—that you have reached to the pre-eminence of woe—no wonder Menie’s face was dark and sullen—she had come to this point now.

Like a thunder-storm this intelligence came upon little July Home—she could not comprehend it, and no one took the trouble to explain to her. Lithgow, knowing but the fact, was surprised and grieved, and prophesied their reunion; but no hope was in Menie’s sullen gravity—none in the haughty resentment of Randall Home.

And Mrs Laurie once more with a troubled brow considers of her future—will Menie be best in the Dumfriesshire cottage, where no one will see their poverty, or pursuing some feminine occupation among the other seamstresses, teachers, poor craftswomen of a less solitary place? For now that all is done that can be done, there is no hope of recovering anything of the lost income,—and Mrs Laurie will not live on Miss Annie’s bounty. She is anxious with all her heart to be away.

Miss Annie herself has not recovered her trial: autumn winds grow cold at night—autumn rains come down sadly upon the little world which has had its cheerfulness quenched out of it—and when Randall takes away his little sister to carry her home, Miss Annie looks a mournful old woman, sitting there wrapped up by the early lighted fire. These two or three mornings she has even been seen at the breakfast-table with a cap protecting the head which is so sadly apt to take cold—and Miss Annie cries a little to herself, and tells bits of her own love-story to Menie, absorbed and silent, who sits unanswering beside her—and moans to herself sadly sometimes, over this other vessel of youthful life, cast away.

But Miss Annie Laurie never wears ringlets more. Strangely upon her conscience, like a reproach for her unnatural attenuated youth, came Menie’s appeal to her for help and comfort. Feeling herself so frivolous and feeble, so unable to sustain or strengthen, Miss Annie made a holocaust of her curls, and was satisfied. So much vanity was relinquished not without a struggle; but great comfort came from the sacrifice to the heroic penitent.

And Jenny, discontented and angry with them all, furiously now takes the part of Randall Home, and wonders, in a fuff and outburst, what Miss Menie can expect that she “lightlies” a bonny lad like yon. A great change has taken place on Menie; no one can say it is for the better—and sullenly and sadly this bright year darkens over the house of Heathbank.

“You’re to bide away—you’re no to come near this place. Na, you may just fecht; but you’ve nae pith compared to Jenny, for a’ sae auld and thrawn as Jenny has been a’ her days. It’s no me just—it’s your mamma and the doctor. Bairn! will you daur struggle wi’ me?”

But Menie would dare struggle with any one—neither command nor resistance satisfies her.

“Let me in—I want to see my mother.”

“You can want your mother for a day—there’s mair than you wanting her. That puir auld haverel there—guid forgi’e me—she’s a dying woman—has sairer lack o’ her than you. Keep to your ain place, Menie Laurie—muckle made o’—muckle thocht o’—but you’re only a bairn for a’ that—you’re no a woman of judgment like your mamma or me. I tell you to gang away—I will not let you in.”

And Jenny stood firm—a jealous incorruptible sentinel in the passage which led to Miss Annie Laurie’s room. “Miss Menie, ye’ll no take it ill what I say,” said Jenny; “there’s death in the house, or fast coming. I ken what the doctor means. Gang you ben the house, like a good bairn; look in your ain glass, and see if there should be a face like that in a house where He comes.”

Menie looked silently into the countenance before her—the keen, impatient, irascible face; but it was easy to see a hasty tear dashed away from Jenny’s cheek.

And without another word, Menie Laurie turned away. Some withered leaves are lying on the window-sill—the trees are yielding up their treasures, dropping them down mournfully to the disconsolate soil—but the meagre yew-tree rustles before her, darkly green in its perennial gloom. Rather shed the leaves, the hopes—rather yield to winter meekly for the sake of spring—rather be cut down, and rooted up altogether, than grow to such a sullen misanthrope as this.

And Menie Laurie looks into her own face; this gloomy brow—these heavy eyes—are these the daylight features of Menie Laurie?—the interpretation of her heart? Earnestly and long she reads—no lesson of vanity, but a stern sermon from that truthful mirror. Hush!—listen!—what was that?—a cry!

The doctor is leaving Miss Annie Laurie’s room—the cry is over—there is only now a feeble sound of weeping; but a shadow strangely still and sombre has fallen upon the house, and the descending step rings like a knell upon the stairs. What is it?—what is coming?—and what did it mean, that melancholy cry?

Alas! a voice out of a startled soul—a cry of wild and terrified recognition—acknowledgment. Years ago, age came gently to this dwelling—gently, with light upon his face, and honour on his grey hairs. There was no entrance for him through the jealous door; but now has come another who will not be gainsaid.

Gather the children, Reaper—gather the lilies—take the corn full in the ear—go to the true souls where thought of you dwells among thoughts of other wonders, glories, solemn things to come—leave this chamber here with all its poor devices. No such presence has ever stood within its poverty-stricken walls before. Go where great love, great hope, great faith, great sorrow, sublimer angels, have made you no phantom—leave this soul to its toys and delusions—it is a poor triumph—come not here.

Hush, be still. They who have sent him have charged him with a message; hear it how it rings slow and solemn into the ear of this hushed house. “There is a way, and it shall be called the way of holiness; the wayfaring man, though a fool, shall not err therein.” Stay your weeping, poor fool—poor soul; prayers have gone up for you from the succoured hearts of some of God’s poor. Unawares, in your simplicity, you have lent to the Lord. Your gracious debtor gives you back with the grand usury of heaven—gives you back opportunity—hope—a day to be saved—lays aside those poor little vanities of yours under the cover of this, His great magnanimous divine grace—and holds open to your feeble steps the way, where wayfaring men, though fools, shall not err any more for ever.

“I’ll let you pass, Miss Menie, if you’ll bide a moment,” said Jenny, wiping her eyes; “he says it’s no the fever he thought it was, but just a natural decay. Did you hear yon? she wasna looking for Him that’s at the door, and He’ll no wait lang where ance He’s gi’en His summons—pity me! I would like to see him coming the road mysel, afore I just found him at my door-stane.”

The room is very still; through the quiet you can only hear the panting of a frightened breath, and now and then a timid feeble sob. She has to go away—knows and feels to the depth of her heart that she must go upon this solemn road alone; but, with a sad panic of terror and curiosity, she watches her own feelings, wondering if this and this be death.

And now they sit and read to her while the daylight flushes in noon—while it fades and wanes into the night—the night and dark of which she has a childish terror—read to her this gracious blessed Gospel, which does not address itself alone to the wise and noble, but is for the simple and for fools. Safe ground, poor soul, safe ground—for this is no scheme of eclecticism, no portal to the pagan heavens—and you cannot know yourself so low, so mean, as to escape the range of this great wide embracing arm.

“I have not done all that I ought to have done,” murmurs poor Miss Annie. “Don’t leave me:” for she cannot rest except some one holds her hand, and has a faint superstitious trust in it, as if it held her sure.

A little pause—again the fingers close tightly upon the hand they hold. “I never did any harm.” The words are so sad—so sad—falling out slow and feeble upon the hushed air of this darkening room.

“But I never did any good—never, never.” The voice grows stronger. “Does anybody think I did? I—I—I never was very wise. I used to try to be kind sometimes;” and in a strain of inarticulate muttering, the sound died away once more.

And then again the voice of the reader broke the silence. They scarcely thought the sufferer listened; for ever and anon she broke forth in such wavering self-justifications, self-condemnings, as these. But now there is a long silence; strange emotions come and go upon this old, old, withered face. The tears have been dried from her eyes for hours; now they come again, bedewing all her poor thin cheeks; but a strange excitement struggles with her weakness. Looking about to her right hand and to her left, the dying woman struggles with an eager defiance—struggles till, at a sudden climax, her broken voice breaks forth again.

“Who said it was me—me—it’s not me! I never could win anything in this world—nothing in this world—not a heart to care for me. Do you think I could win Heaven? I say it is not me; it’s for His sake.

“For His sake—for His sake.” If it is a prayer that ends thus—if it is a sudden assurance of which she will not loose her hold for ever—no one can know; for by-and-by her panic returns upon Miss Annie. Close in her own cold fingers she grasps the hand of Menie Laurie, and whispers, “Is it dark—is it so dark to you?” with again a thrill of terror and trembling, and awful curiosity, wondering if this, perchance, is the gloom of death.

“It is very dark—it is almost night.” The lamp is lighted on the table; let some one go to her side, and hold this other poor wandering hand. “Oh! not in the night—not in the night—I am afraid to go out in the night,” sobs poor Miss Annie; and with a dreadful suspicion in her eyes, as if of some one drawing near to murder her, she watches the falling of this fated night.

A solemn vigil—with ever that tight and rigid pressure upon their clasped hands. Mother and daughter, silent, pale, keep the watch together; and below, the servants sit awe-stricken, afraid to go to sleep. Jenny, who is not afraid, goes about the stairs, up and down, from room to room, sometimes serving the watchers, sometimes only straying near them, muttering, after her fashion, words which may be prayers, and dashing off now and then an intrusive tear.

Still, with many a frightened pause—many a waking up, and little pang of terror, this forlorn heart wanders back into the life which is ending now—wanders back to think herself once more engaged in the busier scenes of her youth, in the little occupations, the frivolities and gaiety of her later years; but howsoever her mind wanders, she never ceases to fix her eyes upon the span of sky glittering with a single star, which shines pale on her through the window from which, to please her, they have drawn the curtain. “I am afraid to go out in the dark;” again and again she says it with a shudder, and a tightened hold upon their hands—and steadfastly watches the night.

At last her eyes grow heavy—she has fallen asleep. Little reverence has Miss Annie won at any time of all her life—but the eyes that look on her are awed and reverent now. Slowly the hours pass by—slowly the gradual dawn brightens upon her face—the star has faded out of the heavens—on her brow, which is the brow of death, the daylight glows in one reviving flush. The night is over for evermore.

And now her heavy eyes are opened full—her feeble form is raised; and, with a cry of joy, she throws out her arms to meet the light. Lay her down tenderly; her chains are broken in her sleep; now she no more needs the pressure of your kindly hands. Lay her down, she is afraid no longer; for not in the night, or through the darkness, but with the morning and the sun, the traveller fares upon her way—where fools do not err. By this time they have taken her in yonder at the gate. Lay down all that remains of her to its rest.

The curtains are drawn again in Miss Annie Laurie’s house of Heathbank—drawn back from the opened windows to let the fresh air and the sunshine in once more to all the rooms. With a long breath and sigh of relief, the household throws off its compelled gloom. With all observances of honour, they have laid her in her grave, and a few natural tears have been wept—a few kindly words spoken—a reverent memento raised to name the place where she lies. Now she is passed away and forgotten, her seat empty—her house knowing her no more.

In Miss Annie’s desk, a half-written paper—intimating vaguely that, in case of “anything happening” to her at any future time, she wished all that she had to be given to Menie Laurie—was found immediately after the funeral. But some superstitious terror had prevented her from finishing it, far more from making a will. Menie was her next of kin; it pleased them to have this sanction of her willingness to the inheritance of the natural heir.

Miss Annie had been rather given to speak of her savings; but no vestige of these savings was to be found. She had practised this on herself like many another delusion; and saving the furniture of Heathbank, and a profusion of ornaments not valuable, there remained little for Menie to inherit. Miss Annie’s maid was her well-known favourite, and had been really attentive, and a good servant to her indulgent mistress. Her name was mentioned in the half-written paper, and Maria’s own report of many conversations, modestly hinted at a legacy. Miss Annie’s furniture, pretty and suitable for her house as it was, was not valuable in a sale; and Mrs Laurie, acting for her daughter, bestowed almost the whole amount received for it upon Maria, as carrying out the will of her mistress. Having done this, they had done all, Mrs Laurie thought, and would now go home to live as they could upon what remained to them. Burnside, with all its plenishing, brought in no greater revenue than fifty pounds a-year, and Mrs Laurie had two or three hundred pounds “in the bank.” This was all. She began to calculate painfully what the home-journey would cost them, and called Jenny to consult about their packing. They were now in a little lodging in the town of Hampstead. They had no inducement to stay here; and Menie’s face looked very pale—very much in want of the fresh gale on the Dumfriesshire braes. True, they knew not where they were going, but the kindly soil was home.

When her mother and Jenny began to take enumeration of the bags and boxes which must go with them, Menie entered the room. Menie looked very slight, very pale, and exhausted, almost shadowy in her mourning dress; but Menie’s now was a face which had looked on Death. The conflict and sullen warfare were gone out of it. Dead and silent within her lay her chilled heart, like a stricken field when the fight is over, with nothing but moans and sighs, and voices of misery, where the music and pomp of war has so lately been. The contest was over; there was nothing to struggle for, or struggle with, in this dull unhappiness—and a heavy peace lay upon Menie like a cloud.

“There’s a wee kistie wi’ a lock. I set it by mysel for Miss Menie; and there’s the muckle ane that held the napery at hame; but I’m no gaun owre them a’. I’ll just lay in the things as I laid them when we came. Miss Menie! gang awa your ways, like a good bairn, and read a book; your mamma’s speaking about the flitting, and I can only do ae thing at a time.”

“Are we going home, mother?”

“There is nothing else we can do, Menie,” said Mrs Laurie. “I suppose none of us have any inducement now to stay in London.”

A flush of violent colour came to Menie’s cheeks. She paused and hesitated. “I have, mother.”

“Bless me, I aye said it,” muttered Jenny quickly, under her breath, as she turned round with an eager face, and thrust herself forward towards the mother and daughter. “The bairn’s come to hersel.”

Mrs Laurie coloured scarcely less than Menie. “I cannot guess what you mean,” she said hurriedly. “You did not consult me before—I am, perhaps, an unsuitable adviser now; but I cannot stay in London without having a reason for it. This place has nothing but painful associations for me. You are not well, Menie,” continued the mother, softening; “we shall all be better away—let us go home.”

The colour wavered painfully on Menie Laurie’s cheek, and it was hard to keep down a groan out of her heart. “I am not come to myself—my mind is unchanged,” she said with sudden meekness. “I want you to stay for a month or two—as short a time as possible—and to let me have some lessons. Mother, look at these.”

Menie had brought her little portfolio. With some astonishment Mrs Laurie turned over its contents, and delicately—almost timidly too—lest Randall’s face should look out upon her as of old. But all the sketches of Randall were removed. Jenny pressed forward to see; but Jenny, as bewildered as Menie’s mother, could only look up with a puzzled face. What did she mean?

“They are not very well done,” said Menie; “but, for all that, they are portraits, and like. I want to have lessons, mother. Once before, long ago,”—poor Menie, it seemed to be years ago,—“I said this should be my trade. I will like the trade; let me only have the means of doing it better, and it will be good for me to do it. This is why I ask you to stay in London.”

Jenny, very fierce and red, grasping the back of a chair, thrust it suddenly between them at this point, with a snort of emphatic defiance.

“Ye’ll no let on ye hear her!” exclaimed Jenny; “you’ll let her get her whimsey out like ony ither wean!—ye’ll pay nae attention to her maggots and her vanities! Trade! My patience! to think I should live to hear a bairn of ours speak of a trade, and Jenny’s twa hands to the fore!”

And a petulant reluctant sob burst out of Jenny’s breast—an angry tear glittered in her eye. She drew a long breath to recover herself—

“Jenny’s twa hands to the fore, I say, and the bere a’ to shear yet, and the ’taties to gather—no to say the mistress is to buy me twa kye, to take butter to the market! I would just like to ken where’s the pleasure in working, if it’s no to gi’e ease to folk’s ain? I’ve a’ my ain plans putten down, if folk would just let me be; and we’ll can keep a young lass to wait upon Miss Menie,” cried Jenny, with a shrill tone in her voice, “and the first o’ the cream and the sweetest o’ the milk, and nae occasion to wet her finger. You’re no gaun to pay ony heed to her—you’re no gaun to let on you hear what she says!”

Reaching this point, Jenny broke down, and permitted, much against her will, a little shower of violent hot tears to rain down upon the arms which she folded resolutely into her apron. But Jenny shook off, with indignation, the caressing hand which Menie laid upon her shoulder. Jenny knew by experience that it was better to be angry than to be sad.

“I would think with you too, Jenny,” said Mrs Laurie, slowly. “I could do anything myself; but a bairn of mine doing work for money—Menie, we will not need it—we will try first—”

“Mother,” said Menie, interrupting her hastily, “I will need it—I will never be wilful again—let me have my pleasure now.”

It was a thing unknown in the household that Menie should not have her pleasure. Even Jenny yielded to this imperative claim. The boxes were piled up again in Jenny’s little bedchamber. Jenny herself, able to do nothing else, set to knitting stockings with great devotion. “I’ll ha’e plenty to do when we get hame, without ever taking wires in my hand,” said Jenny. “Nae doubt it’s just a providence to let me lay up as mony as will serve.”

Their parlour was in the first floor, over one of the trim little ladies’ shops, which have their particular abode in little towns of competence and gentility. Toys and Berlin wool—a prim, neat, gentle Miss Middleton sitting at work on some pretty bit of many-coloured industry behind the orderly counter—gay patterns and specimens about—little carts and carriages, and locomotive animals upon the floor—bats, balls, drums, shining tin breastplates, and glorious swords hanging by the door, and a linen awning without, throwing the little shop into pleasant shade. This was the ground floor; above it was a very orderly parlour, and the sun came glistening in upon the little stand of flowers through the bright small panes of the old-fashioned window, and fell upon Mrs Laurie, always at work upon some making or mending—upon Jenny’s abrupt exits and entrances—her keen grey eyes and shining ‘wires,’ the latter of which were so nobly independent of any guidance from the former—and upon Menie’s heavy meditations, and Menie’s daily toil.

For toil it came to be, exalted from the young lady’s accomplishment to the artist’s labour. She worked at this which she harshly called her trade with great zeal and perseverance. Even herself did not know how deficient she was till now; but Menie worked bravely in her apprenticeship, and with good hope.

“I wouldna ha’e come hame as I gaed away, if I had been you, Jenny.” The speaker stands at the door of Jenny’s little byre, looking on, while Jenny milks her favourite cow. “Ye see what Nelly Panton’s done for hersel; there’s naething like making up folk’s mind to gang through wi’ a’ thing; and you see Nelly’s gotten a man away in yon weary London.”

“I wouldna gang to seek a misfortune—no me,” said Jenny; “ill enough when it comes; and I wonder how a woman like you, with twelve bairns for a handsel, could gie such an advice to ony decent lass; and weel I wat Nelly Panton’s gotten a man. Puir laddie! it’s the greatest mercy ever was laid to his hands to make him a packman—he’ll no be so muckle at hame; but you’ll make nae divert of Jenny. If naebody ever speered my price, I’m no to hang my head for that. I’ve aye keepit my fancy free, and nae man can say that Jenny ever lookit owre her shouther after him. A’ the house is fu’ ’enow, Marget; we’ve scarcely done with our flitting; I canna ask you to come in.”

So saying, Jenny rose with her pail, and closed the byre-door upon Brockie and her black companion. The wind came down keen from the hills; the frosty wintry heavens had not quite lost the glow of sunset, though the pale East began to glitter with stars. Sullen Criffel has a purple glory upon his cap of cloud, and securely, shoulder to shoulder, this band of mountain marshals keep the border; but the shadows are dark about their feet, and night falls, clear and cold, upon the darkened grass, and trees that stir their branches faintly in the wind.

The scene is strangely changed. Heaths of other nature than the peaceful heath of Hampstead lie dark under the paling skies, not very far away; and the heather is brown on the low-lying pasture hills, standing out in patches from the close-cropped grass. Yonder glow upon the road is the glow of fire-light from an open cottage door, and on the window ledge within stand basins of comfortable Dumfriesshire “parritch,” cooling for the use of those eager urchins, with their fair exuberant locks and merry faces, and waiting the milk which their loitering girl sister brings slowly in from the byre. It is cold, and she breathes upon her fingers as she shifts her pail from one hand to the other; yet bareheaded Jeanie lingers, wondering vaguely at the “bonnie” sky and deep evening calm.

Another cottage here is close at hand, faintly throwing out from this back-window a little light into the gathering gloom. Brockie and Blackie are comfortable for the night; good homely sages, they make no account of the key turned upon them in the byre-door; and Jenny, in her original dress, her beloved shortgown and warm striped skirts, stands a moment, drawing in, with keen relish, the sweep of cold air which comes full upon us over the free countryside.

“I’m waiting for Nelly’s mother,” says Jenny’s companion, who is Marget Panton from Kirklands, Nelly’s aunt; “she’s gane in to speak to your mistress. You’ll no be for ca’ing her mistress now, Jenny, and her sae muckle come down in the world. I’m sure you’re real kind to them; they’ll no be able now to pay you your fee.”

“Me kind to them! My patience! But it’s because ye dinna ken ony better,” said Jenny, with a little snort. “I just wish, for my part, folk would haud by what concerns themsels, and let me abee. I would like to ken what’s a’ the world’s business if Jenny has a good mistress, and nae need to seek anither service frae ae year’s end to the ither—and it canna advantage the like o’ you grudging at Jenny’s fee. It’s gey dark, and the road’s lanesome; if I was you, I would think o’ gaun hame.”

“I wouldna be sae crabbit if I got a pension for’t,” returned Marget, sharply; “and ye needna think to gar folk believe lees; it’s weel kent your house is awfu’ come down. ‘Pride gangs before a fa’,’ the Scripture says. Ye’ll no ca’ that a lee; and I hear that Miss Menie’s joe just heard it, and broke off in time.”

“I’m like to be driven daft wi’ ane and anither,” exclaimed Jenny furiously. “If Miss Menie hadna been a thrawart creature hersel, I wouldna have had to listen to the like o’ this. Na, that micht ha’e been a reason—but it was nane of the siller; she kens best hersel what it was. I’m sure I wouldna have cast away a bonnie lad like yon if it had been me; but the like of her, a young lady, behooves to ha’e her ain way.”

“Weel, it’s aye best to put a guid face on’t,” said Jenny’s tormentor. “I’m no saying onything at my ain hand; it’s a’ Nelly’s story, and Johnnie being to marry July Home—it’s a grand marriage for auld Crofthill’s daughter, such a bit wee useless thing—we’re the likest to ken. Ye needna take it ill, Jenny. I’m meaning nae reproach to you.”

“I’m no canny when I’m angered,” said Jenny, setting down her pail in the road; “ye’ll gang your ways hame, if you take my counsel; there’s naething for you here. Pity me for Kirklands parish, grit and sma’! with Nelly at the Brokenrig, and you at the Brigend; but I canna thole a lee—it makes my heart sick; and I tell ye I’m no canny when I’m angered. Guid nicht to you, Marget Panton; when I want to see you I’ll send you word. You can wait here, if you maun get yon puir decent woman hame wi’ you. I reckon I would get mony thanks if I set her free; but I dinna meddle wi’ ither folks’ business; you can wait for her here.”

And, taking up her pail again rapidly, Jenny pattered away, leaving Marget somewhat astonished, standing in the middle of the road, where this energetic speech had been addressed to her. With many mutterings Jenny pursued her wrathful way.

“Ye’ve your ainsel to thank, no anither creature, Menie Laurie; and now this painting business is begun, they’ll be waur and waur. Whatfor could she no have keepit in wi’ him? A bonnie ane, to ha’e a’ her ain way, and slaving and working a’ day on her feet, as if Jenny wasna worth the bread she eats; and the next thing I’ll hear is sure to be that she’s painting for siller. Pity me!”

Full of her afflictions, very petulant and resentful, Jenny entered the cottage door. It was a but and a ben—that is to say, it had two apartments, one on each side of the entrance. The larger of the two was boarded—Mrs Laurie had ventured to do this at her own expense—and had been furnished in an extremely moderate and simple fashion. It was a very humble room; but still it was a kind of parlour, and, with the ruddy fire-light reddening its farther corners, and blinking on the uncovered window, it looked comfortable, and even cheerful, both from without and within. Mrs Laurie, with her never-failing work, sat by a little table; Menie, whose day’s labour was done, bent over the fire, with her flushed cheeks supported in her hands; the conflict and the sullen glow had gone out of Menie’s face, but a heavy cloud oppressed it still.

Conscious that she is an intruder, divided between her old habitual deference and her new sense of equality, as Johnnie Lithgow’s mother, with any Mrs Laurie under the sun, Mrs Lithgow sits upon the edge of a chair, talking of Nelly, and Nelly’s marriage.

“Nelly says you were real kind. I’m sure naething could be kinder than the like of you taking notice of her, when she was in a strange place her lane, though, nae doubt, being Johnnie’s sister made a great difference. I can scarcely believe my ainsel whiles, the awfu’ odds it’s made on me. I have naething ado but look out the best house in Kirklands, and I can get it bought for me, and an income regular, and nae need to do a thing, but be thankful to Providence and Johnnie. It’s a great blessing a good son.”

As there was only a murmur of assent in answer to this, Mrs Lithgow proceeded:—

“I’m sure it’s naething but neighbourlike—you’ll no take it amiss, being in a kindly spirit—to say if there’s onything ane can do—There’s Nelly gotten her ain house noo, and wonderful weel off in the world; and for me, I’m just a miracle. If there was ought you wanted, no being used to a sma’ house, or ony help in ae way or anither, from a day’s darg wi’ Jenny, to——”

But Mrs Lithgow did not dare to go any further. The slight elevation of Mrs Laurie’s head, the sudden erectness of that stooping figure by the fireside, warned the good woman in time; so, after a hurried breathless pause, she resumed:—

“I would be real glad—it would be naething but a pleasure; and I’ll ne’er forget how guid you were to me when I was in trouble about Johnnie, and aye gied me hope. Poor laddie! next month he’s coming down to be married—and I’m sure I hope he’ll be weel off in a guid wife, for he canna but be a guid man, considering what a son he’s been to me.”

“He will be very well off,” said Mrs Laurie; “and poor little July goes away next month, does she? Has Jenny come in yet, Menie? We have scarcely had time to settle in our new house, Mrs Lithgow; but I will remember your kind offer, and thank you. How dark the night grows—and it looks like snow.”

“I’ll have to be gaun my ways,” said the visitor, rising; “it’s a lanesome road, and I’m no heeding about leaving my house, and a’ the grand new things Johnnie’s sent me, their lane in the dark. I’ll bid you good night, ladies, kindly, and I’m real blithe to see you in the countryside again.”

She was gone, and the room fell into a sudden hush of silence, broken by nothing but the faint rustling of a moved hand, or the fall, now and then, of ashes on the hearth. The bustle and excitement of the “flitting” were over—the first pleasure of being home in their own country was past. Grey and calm their changed fate came down upon them, with no ideal softening of its everyday realities. This sliding pannel here opens upon their bed; this little table serves all purposes of living; these four dim walls, and heavy raftered roof, shut in their existence. Now, through the clear frosty air without, a merry din breaks into the stillness. It is little Davie from the cothouse over the way, who has just escaped from the hands which were preparing him for rest, and dares brothers and sisters in a most willing race after him, their heavy shoes ringing upon the beaten way. Now you hear them coming back again, leading the truant home, and by-and-by all the urchins are asleep, and the mother closes the ever open door. So good night to life and human fellowship. Now—none within sight or hearing of us, save Jenny humming a broken song, on the other side of the wooden partition, which, sooth to say, is Jenny’s bed—we are left alone.

Menie, bending, in her despondent attitude, over the fire, which throws down, now and then, these ashy flakes upon the hearth—our mother, pausing from her work, to bend her weary brow upon her hand. So very still, so chill and forsaken. Not one heart in all the world, except the three which beat under this thatched roof, to give anything but a passing thought to us or our fate; and nothing to look to but this even path, winding away over the desolate lands of poverty into the skies.

Into the skies!—woe for us, and our dreary human ways, if it were not for that blessed continual horizon line; so we do what we have not been used to do before—we read a sad devout chapter together, and have a faltering prayer; and then for silence and darkness and rest.

Say nothing to your child, good mother, of the bitter thoughts that crowd upon you, as you close your eyes upon the wavering fire-light, and listen, in this stillness, to all the stealthy steps and touches of the wakeful night. Say nothing to your mother, Menie, of the tears which steal down between your cheek and your pillow, as you turn your face to the wall. What might have been—what might have been; is it not possible to keep from thinking of that? for even Jenny mutters to herself, as she lies wakefully contemplating the glow of her gathered fire—mutters to herself, with an indignant fuff, and hard-drawn breath, “I wish her muckle pleasure of her will: she’s gotten her will: and I wadna say but she minds him now—a bonnie lad like yon!”

CHRONOLOGICAL CURIOSITIES: WHAT SHALL WE COLLECT?

Is knowledge, like Saturn, destined to devour her own masculine offspring, and leave only the weak to live to propagate follies? If Common Sense, the strong born, has escaped, it is because Knowledge has been deceived, like Saturn, with a stone, not very easy of digestion, nor promising to add much to her substance. But this survivor, Common Sense, has the effeminate yet numerous progeny to contend with, who, with a busy impertinence, multiply absurdities, and put them forth under the glorifying name of their parent, Knowledge. We rejoice, therefore, to see a laudable attempt being made to rescue knowledge from the cramming in of uncommon and worthless things, and to substitute for the people’s use a knowledge of “common things.” And we hope an aggregate addition of the bone and muscle of a little more common honesty, and true genuine natural feeling, will be the result of the wholesomer food. The people have been long enough imposed on by false titles; or the “Useful Knowledge,” the pretence of the age, has been exhausted, and resort had to a very useless substitute.

It is not long since that we read the question and answer scheme of an examination of a retired village school, consisting of labourers’ children; one of the questions being, “What is chronology?” “What is its derivation?” Answer, “Derived from two Greek words,” &c. Will any one think that children so taught become wiser or better? This may not be an isolated instance. It seems possible that chronology may become rather too fashionable a study, and engage a host of collectors of valueless nothings. The neglected science has certainly some arrears to make up. Some few years ago we were authoritatively told that “History” is nothing but an “old Almanac.” Since which time, History and her sister, Chronology, have been discarded servants—out of place, and glad to pick up a few pence here and there as charwomen, in all sorts of odds and ends of corners, to sweep away time-collected dust and rubbish. Their industry seems likely to be rewarded at last. A few of the old worshippers, taking advantage of this exhaustion of “useful knowledge,” benevolently lend them a helping hand, and are trying to persuade the public that the dust was gold dust, or better than gold dust, and the rubbish a treasure, and advising that it should all be swept in again—and where?—into our National Gallery! and doubtless their next step will be to appoint a Parliamentary Commission, not so much for the purpose of sifting it, as of issuing treatises and lectures upon the value and national importance of this new-old treasure trove. So that the public may look to this, that, instead of having their eyes gratified by the beauties of art, they will be disgusted with its deformities; while their heads will be so stuffed with its history, as to leave no room for a thought of its excellence, or a sentiment to be derived from it.

Let not the reader be alarmed at the very mention of the National Gallery. We are not about to inflict upon him the evidence in the Blue Book respecting the picture-cleaning, the doings and misdoings of trustees, the “discrepancies” of opinions and statement of facts, the faults of a system which is inconsistently at once condemned and recommended for continuance, the labyrinth of question and answer leading to no conclusion, the blame here and the flattery there, the unwilling admissions and unreserved condemnations: most people we see are perhaps inclined to believe, in this instance at least, that a “big book is a big evil.” We do not, therefore, intend in this place to reopen the discussion which made the subject of our former papers.

The difficulty under which the Commission laboured was visible from the beginning. The trustees had approved of the cleaning. The task of very decidedly condemning this approval was naturally distasteful; therefore, what is too evidently wrong is charged upon a “system,” while the honourable personages are praised and flattered as if they had never had anything to do with it.

The case must for a while rest where it is, and we should have waited with patience the leisure of our now busy Parliament for its resumption, were it not that a very grievous mischief is left in the Blue Book, where it meets with much favour, to be taken up and made the key-note, the first and last principle of every future discussion respecting a national gallery. It might be thought that, after thirty years of its establishment, we should not have now to come to the question, what a national gallery should be. But so it is. There has been as yet no “fixed principle,” we are told, upon which a national collection is to be formed. We have no charge to bring against the trustees on that account; indeed, we rejoice that they had no fixed principle, if by fixed principle is meant such scheme and system as we see pertinaciously and insinuatingly urged upon the public notice in parts of the evidence, and more particularly in the appendix of this voluminous Report.

We give our reader credit for good taste and common sense, and doubt not he will think it sufficient that a national gallery should consist of good pictures—the best that are to be had. But no: common sense is too unrefined for this knowledge-age, and good taste is of private purveyorship, and of very little importance in forming a public collection. However absurd this may seem to be, we assure the reader that it is an idea put forth with a good deal of authority, and perhaps no little presumption, on the part of some of its advocates; we see its dressing up into a substantial image of magnitude, and mean to take up the sling and the stone, and do battle with it. There are always a multitude of dilettanti who, loading their memories with names, love to talk with apparent learning about art, and yet have little feeling for its real excellences. To such, a history of art is better than art itself. They would make a national gallery a lumber-house of chronological curiosities. They have a perverse love for system and arrangement: very good things in their proper places, and with moderation, keeping a very subordinate position, not without value in a national gallery; but the value is little indeed, if put in any degree in competition with what should be the great primary aim—to gather together the finest works of the best painters. The chronological arrangement should be the after-thought, arising out of what we possess, not directing the first choice. This whim of the dilettanti school is not new with us. It may be seen in the Report of the Commission of 1836—and is repeated in the present Report.

“The intelligent public of this country are daily becoming more alive to the truth, which has long been recognised by other enlightened nations, that the arts of design cannot be properly studied or rightly appreciated by means of insulated specimens alone; that, in order to understand or profit by the great works, either of ancient or modern schools of art, it is necessary to contemplate the genius which produced them, not merely in its final results, but in the mode of its operation—in its rise and progress, as well as in its perfection. A just appreciation of Italian painting can as little be obtained from an exclusive study of the works of Raphael, Titian, or Correggio, as a critical knowledge of English poetry from the perusal of a few of its masterpieces. What Chaucer and Spenser are to Shakespeare and Milton, Giotto and Massaccio are to the great masters of the Florentine school: and a national gallery would be as defective without adequate specimens of both styles of painting, as a national library without specimens of both styles of poetry. In order, therefore, to render the British National Gallery worthy the name it bears, your committee think that the funds appropriated to the enlargement of the collection should be expended with a view not merely of exhibiting to the public beautiful works of art, but of instructing the people in the history of that art, and of the age in which, and the men by whom, those works were produced.”

There is but little said here in many words, and that little based upon an erroneous presumption. We do not believe that the “intelligent public” are becoming alive to “the truth,” which is a fallacy, that they cannot profit by great works without having before them the previous failures, experiments, and imbecilities of the earlier practitioners in art. If the public have any intelligence at all, they will appreciate the “Madonna de Sisto,” for instance, without disgusting their eyes with such Byzantine “specimens” as that shown to Mr Curzon in the monastery, where the monk in his strange ignorance inquired if “all women were like that?” Nor is the parallelism between poetry and painting here fortunate. For, besides that books may sleep on shelves and not offend, and pictures (for the purpose intended) must obtrude themselves on the eye, we do not see that Chaucer and Spenser at all bear the relation to Shakespeare and Milton that Giotto and Massaccio do to the great masters of the Florentine school. All these were men of great, mostly independent genius, worthy of galleries and libraries for their own sakes. But they are here placed as screens to hide the chronological deformities behind them. The “not merely exhibiting to the public beautiful works of art” would seem to infer, to give any force to the passage, that not only the painters Giotto and Massaccio had no “beautiful works,” but that Chaucer and Spenser were poor poets, having no beauties, and no other or little merit but that of being the warning precursors to Shakespeare and Milton, to enable them to eschew their faults.

The committee very cautiously abstained from defining any chronological limits, for we are not to infer that they are to begin with Giotto. However they may consider him the founder of the Italian school, the appendix shows that the Byzantine and very early Italian art (if to be obtained) are desired specimens. “The specimens more especially fitted for a gallery of paintings commence with movable paintings on wood, by the Byzantines, representing the Madonna and child, single figures of saints, and sometimes extensive compositions on a minute scale,” going back even to the ninth century, and so to the earlier Italian “influenced by Byzantine art.” And more decidedly to show the mere chronological object, it is added, “In the case of works without names, or inscribed with names before unknown, the test of artistic merit must chiefly determine the question of eligibility.” Artistic merit only in these cases, and then “chiefly” so that in other cases names are everything.

And all this is for the purpose of instructing the people, not in art, but in the history of art, which may be quite well enough learnt from books by the curious, or in some museum of curiosities, better than in a national gallery, where the real and proper instruction would only be hindered by the sight of things antagonistic to any beauty. We do not doubt that this idea, carried out, would lead to a pictorial chronological mania, if it does not commence with it, not unlike the Bibliomania, ever in search of works, only rare because worthless. Such a national gallery as this scheme contemplates would be the exhibition of a pictorial Dunciad, in which we hope the veræ effigies of the first schemers and promoters would not be omitted, that some future satirist may give them also their merited immortality. Why cannot a committee upon a national gallery confine themselves to the objects for the consideration of which they are appointed, and not run needlessly into the duties of an educational committee, and talk of instruction, when the preservation and advantageous exhibition of the monuments of antiquity and fine art “possessed by the nation” are what they are required to give their attention to? There is enough to be done in the line pointed out to them, and no need of bewildering themselves or the public, led astray by this ignis fatuus of a chronological whim. We are weary of the daily cant; everything is to be instruction, works of art are to be “specimens.” Michael Angelo, Raphael, Correggio, are to be known only by and as “specimens.” The “people” must be ever in a worry of knowledge, flying about from specimen to specimen: it is for knowledge alone they are to come to a national gallery—we hear nothing of enjoyment, of an indulgence in the repose of taste; and we do sometimes smile, in turning over the leaves of the Blue Book, when meeting with much talk about instructing the people, and turn our thoughts for a moment to the happy “specimens” of instruction the walls of our or any National Gallery exhibit. Is moral instruction or art instruction to be gathered in by the people’s eyes, with their astonishment at “Susanna and the Elders,” and that other Guido purposely purchased as a companion to it, the “Lot and his Daughters?” very costly specimens of instruction, the one amounting to £1680, the other £1260, and neither thought very good specimens for instruction in art—not that the severe criticism upon Guido in the evidence is quite to be depended upon. The great flustering “Rape of the Sabines” is not of very nice instruction, perhaps, either in morals or art. There are the “Three naked Goddesses” by Rubens, to whom the caterers of public instruction took the part of Paris, and threw the golden apple, and a very large one too;—what are their Flemish nudities to teach? A stern moralist showed his insulted purity by dashing one offending specimen to atoms.

We do not, however, profess to be such purists as to desire an irruption into the Gallery of a mob of mad Savonarolas, not easily gathered together in these Latter-day-Saints’ times, knowing as we do the real why and wherefore of collecting; yet we cannot but smile at the pretence of instruction, which is sometimes put upon moral, and sometimes shifted to pictorial, grounds. But there is a class of pictures we could wish to see more sought after—pictures of a pure sentiment. It is true they are rare, in comparison to those of a far other character; but they are the most precious, and the really improving. Nevertheless, at once to get rid of this pretence and sham of instruction, we would ask, to whom are such works of sentiment precious, and whom are they likely to improve?—Certainly not the multitude, who would look at them with indifference, and pass them by. They are precious to cultivated minds and pure tastes: minds which, either from natural dulness or evil habits, cannot receive, or even admit, the perception of common virtues, will be altogether untouched by their pictorial representations. Fortunately, there are enough works of a simply pleasing character, that excite little emotion, and none of a high caste, so that, to a certain degree, those may be gratified, and receive a pleasure, who will neither receive instruction nor improvement from a national gallery. And it is this modicum of pleasure to all which justifies expenditure for a national gallery. The real, solid benefit, delight, and improvement are very great, but they are the luxury of the few.

It must be that the multitudes go to such an exhibition more from curiosity than from any love of art. Nor is love of art likely, in the first place, to be there implanted; for, in most cases, a certain love of art, commencing, perhaps, with a mere love of imitation, precedes taste—that perception of what is good. If we were to collect only for the masses, we should have a very worthless gallery. Nor would “the people” ever even learn, from a chronological collection, that history of art, which it seems, in the opinion of the Commissioners, so desirable to teach them. Art, which is not valued for itself, will not, in general, be valued for its history; and without the love for itself, a knowledge of its history is nothing but pedantry. High art is a common prate; it is in every one’s mouth, but in very few hearts. It is not difficult to find the “reason why.” High art treats of high and noble sentiments, of generous actions, fortitude, patience, sublime endurance—all that is great, and good, and pure—all tending to a real “elevated taste.” If it be true that “Similis simili gaudet,” the recipients of delight from this High art should, in some degree at least, be recipients of these high virtues themselves. It must be a large nature for High art. Such a nature may not always be good; but if it be large, even if it be viciously great, it may be possible that it will have a perception of what is great in art, though it may lose its finer qualities. But narrow and utterly selfish minds are altogether out of art’s pale. There are degrees of narrow-mindedness and of selfishness, and there is a condition which may be free from these vices, yet of no very elevated virtue. We do not wish to put all our fellow-men in the worst category, but we do maintain that there is a general lack of moral training—of moral habit—and not confined to one branch of society, which operates as a bar to the acquirement of a real taste for art. We live in too mercenary an age. There is too great a worship of mere money—there is cold calculation where there should be feeling. The romance of life is a term of contempt. What is useful supersedes what is good. Take classes with their characteristics, and see if they be fit for the enjoyment of the Fine Arts. The Parliamentary class have established new maxims. Expediency has taken the place of honour, and perhaps of integrity. To say one thing and mean another not only meets with no reprobation, but is justified and applauded. Statesmen make sham speeches and false promises; politicians bribe and are bribed. Is it likely that High art, whose essential being is good, great, and noble, and, beyond all, truth, should find a real love among such? We deny not exceptions, we speak of that which prevails. View the large and important class, the manufacturing, the great fabricators of wealth—they are encouragers of art, but of what quality? Shall they who thicken their cotton goods with flour, to give them a deceitful substance; shall the common traders, who adulterate everything, whether it be what we put in our mouths or on our backs—nay, to a fearful extent, even the drugs, for lack of whose genuineness miserable sufferers die—shall these, we say, stand with delight before the grand dignity wherewith Michael Angelo has embodied our common nature; or before the pure “Spozalitio” of Raffaelle; or, to come to a “specimen” in our National Gallery, before the lovely countenance of the pure-minded St Catharine, beaming with every grace of truth, of love, of faith, and of fortitude, that appears too much natural instinct to have the effort of strength? Will they, whose pursuits are the material things of a material world, stand for a moment to receive one impression that shall produce an unusual awful thought, before the solemn miracle, the “Raising of Lazarus” of Sebastian del Piombo? No one will deny that there is but little feeling for works of this kind; and that there is so little, characterises our utilitarian times.

It may be as well here to notice what is said in the body of the evidence with regard to this chronological principle. The questioning is not very extensive, and was, perhaps, purposely limited. J. Dennistoun, Esq., is examined, and says: “The only further observation I would venture to make is the extreme desirableness of something like an arrangement of the pictures. I believe that is a matter felt to be so important that it is hardly necessary for me to speak upon it. I think a chronological arrangement in schools is desirable; but, in the meanwhile, as that would be totally impossible in the present building, I think, as far as possible, an arrangement of the pictures might be made chronologically, without reference to schools,—even that would be a step.” We observe that Mr Dennistoun subsequently, as if alarmed at the chronological prospect, very much qualifies this his opinion. To Question 5901, he says: “I have already stated that I think they should omit no favourable opportunity of obtaining any monument illustrative of the progress of art in any school, such as pictures authenticated by signature or date, and of sufficient interest to be specimens of art of that period. But I think it is desirable that they should, in the first place, bestow their attention and dedicate their funds to that more particularly interesting and valuable period of Italian art, which I have already considered in the course of my evidence.” This puts the chronological arrangement happily a little more in the background. As might have been expected from the accomplished and learned author of the Dukes of Urbino, we find in Mr Dennistoun a nice appreciation of the immediate predecessors of Raffaelle, but he has no very long list; he only mentions twenty whose works should be collected, not merely on account of their historical relation to Raffaelle, but for their merit.

No one is more thoroughly acquainted with the Italian schools than Sir Charles Eastlake, both as an artistic critic and historical scholar. He is (Q. 6512) consulted with regard to chronological arrangement. He evidently fears the subdivisions of the whimsical process. Q. 6515: “Would you then propose to arrange the Italian school in a chronological series as a whole, or would you subdivide it into separate schools?”—“I would certainly not separate the schools needlessly; but I would not take out the finest works and put them apart.” Q. 6015: “Then you do not approve of having separate apartments for paintings of the Venetian, Florentine, and other schools?”—“I see no objections to a separation, but I do not see that there would be anything gained by having a mere historical series independent of merit.”

We rejoice to find that the influence of Sir Charles, deservedly great, will not tend to turning our National Gallery into an hospital of invalids and imbeciles. We now come to Mr Dyce’s evidence. Q. 7471: “You have also, in your published work, made suggestions as to the mode of carrying into effect the historical and chronological principle in the arrangement of the collection?”—“I have touched on the subject very slightly, though I have laid it down as a primary rule in the formation of the National Gallery, that the historical arrangement of the works should be had regard to.” Q. 7472: “You insisted that an endeavour should be made, as far as possible, to show the origin and progress of a school of art, independently of showing the excellence of its highest and most perfect works?”—“Yes.” As Mr Dyce’s pamphlet, a Letter, addressed, by permission, to H.R.H. the Prince Albert, K.G., may be considered the first, and perhaps authorised, movement towards the fully setting up the chronological system, we shall make it the subject of our comments more at large; preliminary to which it may be useful to show the reader the number of painters in the several lists furnished in the Appendix, which, we are yet told, is imperfect—in fact, deficient, by many omissions; so that the actual lists—as the mania of making fresh acquisitions would become very restless and busy—would be possibly doubled and trebled. Sir Charles Eastlake, in his suggestions in the Appendix, not very strenuously, we think, notices the object, keeping it somewhat subordinate; and we discover here why Mr Dyce has dedicated his letter, by permission, to H.R.H. the Prince Albert. “The idea of a catalogue of the masters, who might sooner or later be represented in a national gallery, has occurred to many; but the actual formation of such a list has only been recently undertaken, according to a plan suggested by His Royal Highness Prince Albert, and for His Royal Highness’ use. With reference to that list, I may add, that the catalogue of the Italian masters was prepared by myself, and that relating to the other schools by Mr Wornum. The series cannot be considered complete; there are probably both omissions and redundancies; but it may, at least, be taken as the ground-work for such a guide.” We find the lists for this chronological collection to contain (the Byzantine curiosities not included) one thousand five hundred and fifty-five names, and it is probable that as many more might be collected. So that these specimens, if even confined to one for each name, would very soon exhaust the public purse, and possibly so disgust the nation, by their exhibition, as to cause a stoppage of supply for a national gallery. Seeing this array of names, Mr Dyce may well add, when he asks, “What ought a national collection of pictures to be?”—“extensiveness will, I think, suggest itself as one of those characteristics.”

We are not denying that catalogues of this kind are of value—far from it; they are parts of the history of Art; but surely a dictionary of painters is one thing and a collection of pictures another. An army and navy list are valuable documents, but would be rather unwieldy national incumbrances if accompanied by each individual’s portrait at full length—especially viewing the collection, as is the case with this gallery scheme, “independently of merit.” It may be well said, that it is absurd to think of such a scheme with our present building; and it would be difficult to find a site of sufficient area for these specimens by thousands, and at the same time provide for the increase at the present ratio of art propagation.

We proceed to consider Mr Dyce’s pamphlet, or letter—happily not very long—for we have seldom met with so much serious nonsense in so few pages. He blunders on the very threshold of his work; for, as shown, he makes extensiveness a characteristic, whereas it must be but the accident of finding good things to collect. He considers it as a museum, having evidently in view a collection of curiosities, the thing above all others a National Gallery should not be. “Then, again, as every collection has in view some definite purpose, the systematic fulfilment of that purpose on the most enlarged basis—in other words, systematic arrangement, and a wholeness or completeness in relation to its particular purpose, seem necessary to the idea of a national collection.” Words, words, words! all to envelop a commonplace truth that no one need be told. Of course, every man, woman, and child, having a “purpose,” should suit the matter in hand to it. If the man had been destined to manufacture small-clothes instead of writing about art, he wouldn’t begin at the wrong end, and stitch on the buttons before he had cut out his shapes. Of course, he would have had his arrangement and his “chronological” measure too, and not put the boy’s fit on the aged father. There is no end to writing in this style; there may be, if a writer pleases, miles of verbiage before reaching a place of rest or tolerable entertainment, without any prospect of the journey’s end. Then he goes on thinking, and “thinks” what nobody ever doubted: “I think we may assume that a public museum ought to fulfil its purpose” (so ought a pipkin)—but more—“and, secondly, that the objects contained in it ought not merely to be coextensive with that purpose, but illustrate it with the greatest possible fulness and variety; that is to say, the collection ought to be at once extensive and complete.” Extensive and complete—or we would put it plainly, as with regard to the pipkin, that care should be taken that as much be put into it as it will hold without boiling over, preserving in the simmering every variety in the broth—the meat, the bone, the fat, and the vegetables. Notwithstanding this his very clear explanation, he immediately again gravely asks, “But what are we to understand by the completeness of a collection of pictures?” The reply to this question (a reply which may well astonish any inquirer) “depends upon the view we take of its purpose;” that is, to pursue our illustrations, whether the small-clothes be to be made for grandson or grandfather; whether the pipkin is to hold porridge for breakfast, or broth for supper. “Now all, I imagine, will agree, that the object of our National Gallery is, to afford instruction and enjoyment” (a discovery which he very shortly annihilates, by taking out the enjoyment, and making the instruction doubtful); “that it is, or ought to be, an institution where the learned study art, and the unlearned enjoy it, where docti artis rationem intelligunt, indocti sentiunt voluptatem; so that we have to consider how that instruction and enjoyment which the gallery is calculated to afford ought to be provided for.” Not a doubt of it. But why, Mr Dyce, ride your poor hobby-horse round this circle? Don’t you see you haven’t advanced ten paces beyond the stable door. In fact, you have said but the same thing over and over again; but you have taken out of the pack-saddle a scrap of Latin, which, however well it may sound, and your own hobby may prick up his ears at it, is really a piece of arrant nonsense; indeed the reverse of it is the truth; for it is the unlearned, of course, who come to your lecture, that they may understand, “intelligunt;” and the learned, the “docti,” they who know something about the matter, only who can perceive, “sentiunt,” the “voluptatem,” the pleasure of art. But we said Mr Dyce would annihilate enjoyment, and see if he does not do the thing, and most astonishingly. After the passage last quoted, follows: “Now, if there be any, and at this time of day it is to be hoped there are very few, who think that the purpose of the National Gallery will be served by what in popular phrase is termed ‘a selection of the best works of the best masters’” (we rejoice to find so sensible a phrase is popular), “I will simply beg them to apply their opinion to the case of any section of a national library to convince themselves how utterly untenable it is.”

Now the Curiosity Museum is a Library, and a Museum of Curiosities and a library are, ergo, moulded into one—a National Gallery; whereas the materials will not amalgamate,—not one is a bit like the other. To go on is really to get deeper and deeper into the quagmire of nonsense, the only kind of depth to be met with in the whole pamphlet. It must sadly have tired the patience of his Royal Highness, if he did read it; and if Mr Dyce wrote it with any view of giving his Royal Highness a lesson in the English language, which was not needed, he has furnished as bad a “specimen” as could be well met with. But to the matter and the argument:—“the best works of the best masters” is as silly an idea, he thinks, as to supply a library with the best dramatists, Shakespeare, of course, included. He is an advocate for the worst, such as no one would read—and why?—the very sound of it is truly asinine. “Would such a proceeding be tolerated for a single moment? Would it be endured that they, that any body of men, however eminent, should possess the right to withhold from the public any attainable materials for literary knowledge and criticism?”—for which purpose Mr Dyce does not withhold this pamphlet. His materials it is not difficult to decide. It certainly could never have been intended for knowledge but under the greatest mistake; supposing it then to be for criticism, we take him at his word, and indulge him accordingly, or, as he says, “in relation to its particular purpose.” But he is not satisfied yet; having nothing more to say, he must say that nothing in more words. He continues—“that, in fact, they should have it in their power” (that is, the any men, however eminent) “actually or virtually to pronounce a judgment on the comparative merits of authors, the accuracy of which could only be tested by the very comparison which the judgment has the effect of preventing. Yet there is no difference between such a proceeding and the restriction of the national collection of pictures to such works as might happen to be considered the best.” What a circular jumble of words is here!—“a judgment on comparative merits” not to be pronounced, not to be endured to be pronounced, because such judgment has the effect of preventing the said judgment, which is here made at once both desirable and undesirable.

The reader sees how much nonsense may be comprised in less than two pages, for we have not advanced further in the pamphlet. A library, to be a good library, ought to contain the veriest rubbish, even Mr Dyce’s letter, because without comparison therewith we shall never be able to appreciate the styles of Swift, and Addison, and Milton, nor Shakespeare’s dramas, without ransacking the “condemned cells” of Drury Lane. And when at length, by these forbidden comparisons, we have discovered the best works of the best masters, it is not to be endured that “any men, however eminent,” should prefer them to the worst, or at least not give the worst equal honour. Our letter-writer thinks he strengthens his argument by quotations from the evidence, which, if there be anything in them, are quite against him, for they tend to show that selection should be of the best: thus Mr Solly is asked, Q. 1855—“Is it your opinion the study of these earlier masters is likely to lead to a purer style on the part of our own painters, than of the later and more effeminate school?”—“Certainly. I perfectly agree with the questions that have just been put to me, and I am not aware that I could add anything to them, as I think they comprehend all that I should have thought of suggesting myself upon the subject.”

It would have been surprising if Mr Solly had not agreed with questions so manufactured by epithets—for “purer” and “effeminate” make an undeniable difference. The questioner might as well have said, Don’t you think good better than bad? Don’t you think virtue better than vice? This is a specimen of the art of dressing up a false fact, to knock down with it a true one; but even here, according to the Dycian theory, the only earthly reason for preferring the purer is that it is the earlier; if the effeminate had by chance changed places with it, it would have had his chronological post of honour.

In his next quotation the pamphleteer is intent on giving a blow to his compeers of the English school. Mr Leigh confirms Mr Solly’s view—is questioned, Q. 1913: “You say the more chaste works of the Italian school—do you refer to an earlier era?”—“I allude to that particular period so justly referred to in the questions put to Mr Solly.” Q. 1914: “Do you mean the historical painters who were contemporaneous or prior to Raffaelle?”—“Yes.” Q. 1915: “You prefer these to the schools of Bologna?”—“Yes; it is a school whose works we are exceedingly in want of, to enable us to correct the tendency of the English style towards weakness of design, effeminacy of composition, and flauntiness of colouring.” But Mr Dyce has altogether forgotten his own rule, that it is not to be endured to give a judgment, &c.—that is, to pronounce what is good, what is “best” and “of the best,” and that if proved best, we have nothing whatever to do with that accident. We have just warned the public, by showing the probable number of specimens for this new “Old Curiosity Shop,” to be called our National Gallery. Page 18, Mr Dyce says, “Still, if it be remembered that only fifteen years after the commencement of the Royal Gallery of Berlin it possessed works of all classes, from the rude Byzantine down to productions of the last century, to the number of nearly twelve hundred, we need entertain no great misgiving as to the possibility of forming even a very considerable collection within a moderate period.” The public, we hope, do entertain a very great misgiving of the consequences of so frightful an inundation, especially as it is to begin with the rude Byzantine. But as the “rude Byzantine” may stand as high art, or fine art, in comparison with still more rude beginnings; and as antiquity lore is ever increased as it looks backward, and is not confined to country, there may be cause for misgiving whether there may not be an attempt to ransack China and Japan for new old schools—to discover picture mines in Peru, for monstrosities in paint and design; for all become legitimate sources under the ever-growing chronological mania, this outrageous pedantry of the “The history of Art.” And here the writer of the pamphlet, having perhaps momentary misgivings himself as to the quality of the stuff to be collected, goes backwards and forwards in oscillating contradictions, from best to any specimens, and from any specimens to best, ending in such wise conclusion as he generally comes to, that it is “best” to get the “best” specimens we can, but no matter whether we get them or not, provided we get any. For he insists that the one object is to have “a collection illustrative of the history of the art, and “(in italics)” the formation of it must be undertaken expressly with that view.” Moreover, “secondly, that though it be desirable that all works collected should be of the highest order—that is to say” (he loves to explain himself thus by duplicate) “that every master should be represented by one or more of his best works, yet as such works are not essential to the completeness of the collection, considered as an historical series, but serve rather to enrich it as a mere assemblage of beautiful works,” &c. &c. Can anything show more his contempt of mere beautiful works, as in no way being an object in collecting? In fact, the whole pamphlet is to recommend, if not to enforce, the gathering together an enormous mass of curiosity lumber, and building a labyrinth of “Chambers of Horrors” to hold them. And it must be taken into account that this absurd, this tasteless scheme, is not confined to pictures. It is proposed, in most views of our future gallery, that statues are to be added, and architecture is to claim its due share as one of the Fine Arts; and where are we to begin, and where end? Is statuary to find its rude commencement in the “Cannibal Islands,” its progress in Tartary, its rise and deification in joss-houses, Burmah furnishing “specimens,” even the wheels of Juggernaut moving slowly and majestically to a new enthronement in Kensington Gardens, or wherever our grand, national, amalgamated museum is to be? Pagodas will yield up their deformities to the new idolatry of chronological worshippers; the old monsters of Nineveh will be revived; and to prove Lord Jeffrey to be right, that there is no principle of beauty, many a hideous image will in arrangement claim affinity to the Venus de Medicis and the Apollo Belvidere. Really, all this is but a natural consequence of the first step in the system. It is to be, not art, but a history of art, to be shown by “specimens;” nor will it do to bring a brick even from Babylon as a specimen of its architecture. The public may rejoice in its ruin, or it would have to be brought in bodily, and a hundred or two crystal palaces added to our wonder of the world; as it is, there must be an “hiatus maxime deflendus.” We should have architecture, and “specimens” of architects of all the several countries and schools, as of pictures and painters. The English progress would be delightful to see. Holingshed says, that within the memory of many in his days, chimneys were rare; of course we must have “specimens.” We might go on indeed to weary the reader with absurdities, and it would only be following out Mr Dyce’s chronological idea in all its collateral branches; for, getting warm in riding his hobby, his heated imagination looks out for inconceivable vanishing points, which recede as fast as he finds them, till he sees in the unbounded space of art, which he thinks he has himself created, arts and sciences flying about in every direction, and crossing each other like so many dancing comets. The reader must look for a little incomprehensible language and confused utterance when Mr Dyce descends, having breathed the bewildering gas of his extraordinary sphere, to put his thoughts on paper, and thus he writes: “What I was going to say was in substance this—that if the idea of a complete museum of the fine arts involved the illustration of decorative art, and of physical science in its relation to art, to an extent which, though not unlimited, is nevertheless indefinite, if the vanishing point” (the italics of Mr Dyce), “so to speak, of such a museum lies somewhere in the region of practical science, one is immediately led to consider whether, as the reverse is true—viz., that practical science finds its vanishing point in the region of fine art—the true idea of a museum of arts would not be that which embraced the whole development of the artistic faculty, and commenced, therefore, on the one hand, with those arts which are solely, or almost solely, dependant on æsthetical science, and terminated on the other with those which are solely or chiefly dependant on physical science. Such an institution would start at the one extreme from physical science, and at the other from fine art; and these two would meet and cross one another, the influence of each vanishing and disappearing towards the opposite extremes.” So that, if there is anything to be understood and unriddled from this confusion of wordy ideas, it is this, that these arts and sciences, æsthetical and physical, do not meet to kiss and be friends, but to cross each other, and, having simply blazed awhile in each other’s faces, to fly off to their own vanishing points, more distant than ever, disappearing beyond the hope of that happy junction which, nevertheless, it had been the whole purpose of Mr Dyce’s pamphlet to bring about, and which, perhaps, he thinks he has brought about, or intends to bring about, unconscious of the impossibility which he has set in their way.

Lest the reader think we have needlessly brought in this body of architecture, we must again quote Mr Dyce. He certainly, to do him justice, does admit that specimens of architecture may be too big; but if he enumerates and measures his “fragmentary remains” from the British Museum and elsewhere, “models of whole structures, or models and casts of details,” “adequate to the great purpose of exhibiting the development of architecture, both as it is a science and a fine art, in all the various stages of its history,” and if some genii could bring them all together and throw the brick and plaster down before him, we doubt if his, or any known human agility, would enable him to escape the being buried under the dust that would be made by the deposit.

“But secondly, there is a peculiarity in the case of architecture which deserves to be specially noticed. It is this:—that the examples required to illustrate the history of architectural construction and decoration lead us at once into the province of practical science and of decorative art; and thus the door is opened to a more extended view of the contents of a National Gallery of Art.” When he told us in the commencement that extensiveness was one of the characteristics of a National Gallery, we never thought of an extensiveness that should have no termination. The opening of this, his one door, shows a wearying vista—but there are so many doors to open to “complete” his scheme, that it is past all comprehension where he will find door-keepers, or the nation means to pay them.

Let us imagine these ten thousand chronological galleries built, and inhabited by all the arts and sciences. Who could preside over such a seraglio of beauties and uglinesses?—who could possibly know anything about one-half of them? We should doubt even Mr Dyce’s powers to interpret their languages, which would be wanted, considering that the object in view is instruction in their history. And yet Mr Dyce, in his scheme of government for the National Gallery, looks to some one “coming man.” “Some officer should be appointed to take charge of all business relating to the National Gallery, to be responsible for the immediate management, and to whom the public should look for the success or failure of the undertaking.” He must be a very wonderful man indeed: if Mr Dyce has any such in his eye, he ought to have named him; for no one besides ever saw a man on earth equal to so much; and if he is to be general instructor too, he would be wondered at, as when

Yet upon the appointment of this one officer Mr Dyce again insists in the conclusion of his letter, and under the idea of his duty embracing sculpture and architecture, as well as painting, under which heads also are included unlimited and undefined æsthetical and practical arts and sciences.

In our former articles on the National Gallery, we advocated the appointment of one responsible person; in what then, it may be asked, do we differ from Mr Dyce? Simply, that we would confine his attention to one thing which he might be able to know—to the collection of pictures. Even if it were thought desirable to place statues under the same building, we would put them under the direction of a person specially acquainted with sculpture.

The interest of the nation has been now awakened with regard to the National Gallery, to the pictures only, to their collection and preservation. A national museum, such as Mr Dyce and others propose, is far too large a subject, to discuss which seriously would be only drawing away the public mind from that which is a pressing necessity. As the system holds at present, we are neither able to buy pictures properly, nor to preserve them when we have them. Mr Dyce’s own experience in the art qualifies him to speak upon this point, and in justice to him we add, that, excepting the times when the chronological mania is upon him, he writes fairly and sensibly; and we willingly add his modicum of assent to the general opinion, upon the matters which the blue-book has brought before the public. Indeed, in this pamphlet he has two styles of writing: the pages might be well thought the work of two hands. Whatever relates to his chronological scheme is redundant, confused, and ambitiously laboured. He does not appear very clearly to know what he has to say. He is, we suppose, in the midst of his theoretic arrangements, as a painter of eminence visited with some misgivings as to the worthless trash the fulfilment of his scheme would introduce. He writes like one under an adopted whim, against his first instincts, with the verbosity of an untutored and awkward advocate. When he knows clearly what he is writing about, he writes like other people.

He successfully exonerates the keepers of the National Gallery, those appointed subsequently to Mr Seguier, from much of the blame that had been cast upon them. He shows that the responsibility had been, for the most part, taken out of their hands, with regard to the purchase of pictures; that the trustees superseded the keepers, and were afterwards themselves superseded by the Treasury as to active operations. The Lords Commissioners of the Treasury, from the nature of their appointment, are sure to be more incompetent than the trustees themselves. It is in evidence that the Lords of the Treasury had no confidence in the trustees; nor, perhaps, much in themselves. Therefore, in 1845, when the trustees recommended the purchase of the Guido from Mr Buchanan, the Treasury do not comply with the request unconditionally—they require Mr Seguier to be consulted as to the condition of the picture; and also “two other eminent judges of the merit and pecuniary value of Italian pictures.” They even point out the individuals for selection: “Mr Woodburn and Mr Farrer might probably be selected with advantage for the purpose, or any others whom Mr Eastlake might consider preferable.” The Lords of the Treasury then preferred the opinion of two dealers in pictures to that of the trustees or Mr Eastlake; the latter being more competent than all the others put together to decide upon the subject. The only surprising thing is, that the trustees, upon this slight put upon them, did not resign their appointments, which, if honourable in other respects, were now marked with the character of incompetency. We have already strongly insisted that picture-dealers should in no case be consulted. They are too much interested, and wish to keep up the value (artificial) of pictures; and the world knows too well the nature of their trafficking, to place implicit confidence in their decisions. We say not that a judicious choice might not be made of skilful and honourable men; but looking to all times, and with some knowledge of the temptations of trade, we should be sorry to see the practice of consulting dealers become a habit or a rule. Take the case which has occurred—the Treasury nominate judges; at a subsequent meeting of the trustees these very judges have pictures to be recommended—are other trading judges to be called in? In that case decisions will have to go the round of these dealer judges. They will either be shy of pronouncing against the interests of each other, or be under the temptation to give each other a good turn, or, at any rate, keep up the market, which they themselves supply. The public have of late been let a little too much into the secrets of picture trafficking, and of picture manufacturing. Is there truth in the exposure that an overbaked would-be Raffaelle was spoiled for that master, but would make an admirable Correggio? With all the respect we owe to individuals, we confess that there is a strong resemblance between picture-dealing and horse-dealing. The habit of appointing dealers as judges would certainly end in a council of dealers, who would, in actual operation, supersede all others. The fiat of the Treasury transferred to the fiat of Wardour Street. We are glad to quote Mr Dyce on this subject:—“This, then, is the present state of matters. The right to entertain a proposal to purchase any picture rests with the trustees; the ultimate opinion of its merits, on which the purchase depends, is not theirs, but that of certain ‘eminent judges’ of such points. The trustees decide what may be and shall be purchased, if it be worth purchasing; the eminent judges decide whether it be worth purchasing, and worth the money asked for it. It may be said that this is an extreme and exaggerated case; that the Treasury, though reposing confidence in the recommendation of the trustees, might nevertheless think it desirable, on several accounts, to have this recommendation fortified by the opinions of eminent judges. True: but as it cannot be supposed that the trustees would press a recommendation, in any case, in the face of an adverse opinion given by the judges they had summoned to their assistance—in other words, since they cannot make a recommendation at all without both summoning such assistance, and obtaining a favourable opinion—it is perfectly clear that the favourableness of opinion they have obtained, not their concurrence in it, must be looked upon by the Treasury as the real warrant for adopting their recommendation. Nor, on the other hand, is it refining too much to say that the ex officio trusteeship of the heads of the financial department of the Government, not only annihilates the responsibility of the trustees, but prevents the due exercise of the control which that department ought to have over their proceedings.”... “If the trustees were to be superseded in a matter of such importance, they surely ought to have been consulted, not only as to the manner in which they might, with the greatest advantage, avail themselves of professional assistance, but as to the class of persons who were to afford it. But no discretion was left to them; and who, let me ask, were the ‘eminent judges’ fixed upon by the Treasury? Will it be believed that not only the class of persons, but the very individuals chosen to give an opinion, on which the purchase of pictures was to depend, were those who were in the habit of offering, and actually at the time were offering pictures to the trustees for sale? At the very meeting (held February 2, 1846) at which the communication from the Treasury was read, I find the trustees considering a proposal for the sale of a collection of pictures by Mr Woodburn, one of the judges nominated by the Treasury. At the next meeting (held March 2, 1846), I find that “the trustees again took into consideration the offer of a picture, by Spagnoletti, for sale by Mr Farrer,” the other “eminent judge” recommended by the Treasury. So that, in fact, the “eminent judges” were by turns competitors for the patronage of the trustees, and by turns sat in judgment on one another’s wares.”

Constitutions grow—they are not made. We never knew one from any manufactory, paper-made, that could hold together; yet we go on with the conceit that we have consummate skill in that line; we make ourselves, as it were, sole patentees for all people and nations, and wonder at the folly of those who reject the commodity, and yet we never attempt the thing on a small scale at home, or a large one abroad, but the result is a failure. The School of Design is a parallel case with the National Gallery. The committee of management of that school was in the same relation with the Board of Trade as the National Gallery with the Treasury. The action of the body was stopped if no official representative of the Board of Trade was present; and if present, the council felt themselves to be a nullity. Yet the council could not at once be easily dismissed, for the Parliamentary grant was voted for the council of the School of Design. In 1842, therefore, this constitution is remodelled. The School is put “under the management of a director and of a council, subject to the control of the Board of Trade.” But here again is a failure. The council and director cannot arrange responsibilities. The director resigns, another succeeds: as before, there is no working together. The constitution has to be remodelled again. The Board of Trade takes the management, assisted by the artist members of the old council. This fails also; and at last that is done which should have been done at the beginning—an officer is appointed, “under the authority of the Board of Trade, to superintend and be responsible for the business of the schools.”

In our democratic tendencies we are jealous of one responsible director; and, on the other hand, with our aristocratic tastes and habits, we devolve upon men of rank and wealth, solely on account of their rank and wealth, duties which they are not qualified to perform (and, we think, the greater honour would consist in their declining such positions), and which, if in other respects qualified to perform, they will not, simply because it is not their distinct personal business, and of a paid responsibility. And thus it is that the really qualified persons, eminent for their knowledge in art, science, and habits of business, are ever excluded. Can we be surprised if there be perpetual failures?

The best boon the trustees of the National Gallery can confer upon the nation, is to resign in a body. Surely there is now little to induce them to remain where they are, and as they are. This step would compel the Government to do what they have found it necessary to do in other cases—appoint a paid and responsible minister; and, if it be thought worth while to have a National Gallery at all, to provide liberally the means of obtaining it. It will never do, on every trifling occasion, to have to go to Parliament, and to be met in a huckstering spirit. We must break some of the shackles which the modern utilitarian school is ever imposing; we must learn to view the fine arts as a constitutional part of the liberal arts, which must be treated liberally, if we would have them permanently established.

We must now return for a little space to the subject which, in the commencement of this paper, we proposed to discuss: “What are we to collect?” We shall make a great mistake indeed, if we are led by Mr Dyce as an authority, to pass contempt upon either the works of, or the admiration felt for, the genius of the greatest men in art—if we put chronological series in competition with excellence. He overdoes his part, and can gain nothing by such language as this:—“Turgid, unmeaning panegyrics of Raffaelle, Michael Angelo, Titian, Correggio, and the rest.” These “and the rest” are such pre-eminently great masters, that, in some shape or other, we would have their works ever before the public. Where we cannot have originals, we would have copies, and the best that either have been made and can be acquired, or that can now be made. We cannot think a gallery perfect without them. We would have a portion set apart especially for copies of the best works, and also for prints. In them we might have the designs, and the light and shade, the great and beautiful ideas represented: and here we cannot but lament, that the perfection to which the art of engraving has been brought should in this country be given up to inferior and almost to worthless things. Our engravings indicate the public taste, the causes of the low state of which we have already remarked upon. If there be really a desire to instruct the public—and without instruction there will not be an encouragement for a better devotion of that beautiful art—let the collecting the best engravings, whether old or new, be a great object with the purveyors of a National Gallery. Nor would we have the grand works to which we allude put away in portfolios, but glazed, and hung upon walls specially appropriated to them. Let us have, at least, good things—the best originals we can procure, and the next best, copies, and engravings of the best; and not waste time and squander means in searching out for chronological histories, the attenuated deformities of the Byzantine schools, the hideous performances of those predecessors in art, who had not yet acquired the knowledge of drawing with any tolerable correctness.

We are earnest to make this protest against the chronological scheme, and we hope it will be dissipated by the general voice, because Mr Dyce’s pamphlet seems to have found favour in the eyes of the commissioners. They almost adopt his language—or at least, with little variation of phrase, his argument, and his illustration. They too speak of an “intelligent public,” which has no existence as to art, and is but the translation of Mr Dyce’s Latin quotation, “docti artis rationem intelligunt.” With him, they snub the admirers of “Raffaelle, Titian, and Correggio,” and adopt his literary illustration, and a very bad illustration it is, for the rubbish of books in the world is even greater in bulk than the picture rubbish. Some of the book rubbish may indeed bear affinity to art, and come within the scope of the scheme’s arrangement. The woodcuts of our earliest spelling-books, of Jack the Giant-killer, of Pilgrim’s Progress, and the “specimens” heading last dying speeches and confessions, may yet be discovered with some pains, and no very large cost, if a Parliamentary commission would bespeak Mr Dyce’s acceptable labours. How gratifying to such collectors would it be to trace the rise and progress of that particular branch of the art now so much in fashion, from the earliest “specimens” of designs in popular editions of Æsop’s Fables, to Mr Landseer’s last costly print. Nor should the old glazed picture tiles, that used to amuse our early childhood, when the glow of fire-light illuminated the “animali parlanti,” warmed our young affections, and heated our incipient imaginings, be omitted. The “intelligent public” might perhaps hence learn not only a little in the history of art and its progress, but somewhat also of the history and progress of cruelty, when they see how much artistic labour has been bestowed, and what a large price is given, in our modern improvement days, in getting up and in the sale of that “perfect specimen,” Mr Landseer’s “Otter Hunt,” where the poor creature is writhing upon the spear of the huntsman, and the howling brute dogs are in sympathetic delight with the human bigger brute than themselves. It will be then not uncreditable if the “intelligent public” retrograde in their taste, and for once agree with Mr Dyce in rather admiring the attenuated and ill-drawn deformities, which, after all that can be said against them, were a less libel upon man and brute than some later and more perfect “specimens.” To this extent the chronological idea must go for completion, for Mr Dyce, the favourite of connoisseurs and dilettanti, will not allow them to stop short of it. “Notwithstanding appearances,” he says, “I do not imagine the trustees of the National Gallery ever seriously contemplated the establishment of an index expurgatorius of pictures.” Such opinions he considers obsolete. We must have all “specimens,” however bad; for he says, in emphatic italics—“The collection can aim at no lower object than to exhibit the whole development of the art of painting; the examples of which it consists must therefore range over its whole history!” The “ςηματα λυγρα” of Zellerophon were not of a more deadly character than would the contemplated collection be to all true notions of the Beautiful in art—the collection of inhumanities, the doleful horrors of saints and demons, and worse and more awful representations which preceded perceptions of the Beautiful.

We ought to be glad to learn from any who know better than ourselves, but we very much question if our perpetual appeal to the practice of foreign galleries, in the way in which it is made, is at all a healthy sign. We are not sure that some of the examples we seek may not rather be warnings. It is a confession of imbecility and mistrust in themselves of trustees and commissioners. Foreign architects, foreign directors, and foreign galleries, bear too prominent a part in our blue-books and our pamphlets. We are confident in our own men, if not in the “intelligent public.” We have men quite able to devise galleries, and to know how to fill them. The misfortune has been, not that we lack men of ability, but we do not employ them. And why? Our governments have no better taste, no better knowledge, no better desires, with regard to the arts, than the “intelligent public.” They have never entertained serious views upon the subject. In conclusion, we would ask if the series of Hogarth’s pictures have been removed from our National Gallery, on which they conferred an honour and importance of a kind that no other gallery in Europe can boast of possessing, with the object of forming a chronological series of the British school. We hope to see them transferred to their old places. Our National Gallery should not be deteriorated, to give a grace to Marlborough House, however much it may want it.

THE REFORM BILLS OF 1852 AND 1854.

The postponement of the second reading of Lord John Russell’s new Reform Bill, until a later, and it may be a protracted period of the Session, is suggestive of some important considerations. It shows, in the first place, that even the author of the bill is by no means confident in his power of carrying it through the House of Commons, else we may be perfectly certain that no departure from the original arrangements would have taken place. It shows, moreover, that other members of the Cabinet—or, we should rather say, the members of the Cabinet collectively—do not consider the provisions of this measure of so much importance as to justify them in allowing it to interfere with the more immediate exigencies of the state. In one sense of the word, Lord Aberdeen and his colleagues are thoroughly conservative. They want to keep their places; and they have no idea whatever of sacrificing themselves through the impulse of Quixotic gallantry, or of allowing Lord John Russell’s pledges to imperil their tenure of office. But they have an obstinate and pragmatical man to deal with, and cannot afford to affront him. Without Lord John Russell, the Coalition could not stand, and therefore, in some matters, they are compelled to allow him more license than is agreeable to their own inclination, or in accordance with the interests of the country. Thus, they not only permitted him to prepare his measure during the recess, but they gave it real importance, by introducing it as a material part of the ministerial programme, as announced by her Majesty from the throne. At that time there was no more probability of a pacific settlement of the Eastern question than exists just now; so that every objection to the measure, founded on the impropriety of exciting internal agitation at such a crisis, must have been foreseen. There was still time before the development of the measure, and the publication of its intended details, to have postponed it without any loss of credit. No one would have blamed the Ministry had they done so—even the most ardent reformer could scarcely have maintained that they were bound to force it through Parliament, just as if no war were expected, or as if the country emphatically demanded it. But Lord John Russell would not consent to that. He was determined that the whole details of his project should be laid before the public; and he accordingly did so in a speech which fell flat on the ear alike of the House and of the country. He fixed a day for the second reading; but before that day arrived, postponed his bill until a later period of the Session, with a statement that, even then, it would depend upon circumstances whether he should proceed with it or not.

This is not such conduct as the country has a right to expect from the ministers of the Crown. They were entreated, both by friends and opponents, not to bring forward their measure in the midst of warlike preparations, and in the total absence of any demand on the part of the country for an immediate change in the representation. Those entreaties were met by silly, bombastical, and vapouring speeches about the sublime spectacle which Great Britain would afford to the world, if, while waging war abroad, she applied her energies to the remodelment of the constitution at home! We need not pause now to demolish that most pitiful pretext. It has virtually been given up by the Ministry; for they now acknowledge, that the time originally fixed for the second reading of the English bill was not seasonable; and they indicate, that if we should be actively engaged in war on the 27th of April, the bill will not be proceeded with; so that the notion of the “sublime spectacle” is thrown aside, whilst the cause of the irritation, made worse by the divulgence of the scheme in detail, is still continued.

No really united cabinet would have ventured to act in such a manner. It is in vain to tell us of concert and cordiality, when the public measures of one week belie the bragging language used in that which immediately preceded it—when bluster is followed by postponement, and extreme recklessness by an affectation of patriotic caution. The prevalent opinion is, that the bill will not be proceeded with; and if the Ministry had said even so much as that, there would have been no occasion for any further discussion; but they will not say it. Lord Aberdeen, on the 9th of March, when urged by Earl Grey to withdraw the bill altogether, is reported to have replied, that “the second reading of the bill had been postponed by Lord John Russell till the 27th of April, in sincerity and good faith. Whether it would then be proceeded with, depended upon the state of Europe; for no one could tell what a day or an hour would bring forth. Government, however, would act consistently with the interests of the country, and with a due regard to their own honour.”

We cannot predict what the Government may do hereafter, but we know what they have already done with respect to this matter; and it is our humble but deliberate opinion, that they have neither consulted the interests of the country nor their own collective credit. We should have been very glad, indeed, had they allowed the subject to drop; for we should then have been spared the necessity of criticising their conduct. But, threatened as we are, though by no means agitated or alarmed by the suspension of a most clumsy weapon over our heads, we must take the liberty of reviewing the proceedings of these Dionysians.

Let us assume, which we really believe and devoutly hope to be the case, that, notwithstanding the professions about sincerity and good faith, this bill has been absolutely sent to limbo. Let us look upon it in the light of a scheme abandoned. That, however, cannot acquit Ministers from the serious charge of having played fast and loose with the country, by embodying in the Queen’s speech, at the opening of Parliament, a distinct recommendation of internal organic change, when war was staring us in the face. They knew then perfectly well that there existed no probability of the settlement of the Eastern dispute without a direct appeal to arms; and it was their bounden duty to have interdicted the mooting of such a question at such a time. We maintain, that no cabinet has a right to countenance this species of deception. No specific measure should be announced by a Ministry, much less recommended by the Crown, unless it is seriously intended that it shall be carried through, not at some indefinite future period, but in the course of the existing session. This is not the first time that the country has been annoyed by this indecent and reprehensible practice, introduced, we believe, by Lord John Russell, of rash ministerial pledges. We do not think that even a premier is entitled, towards the close of one session, to announce distinctly the ministerial policy of the next, or to bind himself by a specific pledge; for even a premier is not allowed by our constitutional custom to act autocratically—he must carry along with him at least the majority of the Cabinet. He cannot accurately predict who may be his colleagues at the opening of the ensuing session—he cannot foresee what events may occur or causes arise to render a change of the intended policy not only expedient, but necessary. If a premier is not entitled to do this, still less is a subordinate like Lord John Russell; and yet we see him, session after session, blabbing about future schemes, and pledging himself unconditionally to their introduction. This is really intolerable, and it is full time that the nuisance should be abated. If the noble lord is of opinion that, notwithstanding all which we have heard and seen, he has still power and reputation enough to head an independent party—let him leave the Cabinet, and then, as a plain member of Parliament, he may pledge himself to his heart’s content. But while he remains a minister and servant of the Crown, he is bound to maintain the dignity of his position, and preserve a due decorum, instead of acting like a popularity-hunter and a partisan. Of late he has let himself down woefully. We are not accustomed, in this country, to see ministers, while in office, engaging in literary squabbles—and exposing themselves to damaging rejoinders by petulant paragraphs and absolutely deplorable sneers. Their duty is, not to write or edit gossip and scandal, but to devote themselves, heart and soul, to the affairs of the nation and the service of their sovereign; and, if they are not willing to abandon their favourite pursuits, they ought at once to withdraw. With less than this the nation will not be satisfied; and we really think we are acting a friendly part to Lord John Russell to tell him so, in as many words. If he doubts our sincerity, let him ask the opinion of his colleagues upon the point; and we are ready to stake our existence that they will be unanimous in their agreement with us. We believe also, that, if the question were fairly put them, they would be unanimous in recommending him, for the future, so long as he is a member of the Cabinet and acting along with them, to abstain from that system of specific pledging, the result of which, in the present instance, has by no means tended to raise them in the estimation of the country.

But it may be asked, why, when the Ministry have postponed for the present, and may abandon, the Reform Bill, we should harp upon a string not intended, for some time at least, to vibrate in the ear of the country? To that we reply that we have many good reasons for doing so. The vibration has already been made. If a man is told that it was intended, by virtue of a parliamentary act for which Ministers were to be responsible, to make some decided change in his property or condition, but that, in respect of certain external circumstances, it was deemed expedient to allow him a respite—surely he is entitled to use the interval in examining into the nature of the proposed change; and, if need be, in preparing his defence. It would perhaps be too strong a phrase to say that we know what is to come—for Lord John Russell is such an experimentalist, so entirely dependent upon suggestions from others, and so utterly devoid of any fixed principles to guide his own judgment, that no one can venture to predict what his views may be six months from the present moment. As a constitution-monger, the Abbé Sièyes was, in reality, less erratic. But we know this—that his lordship in 1852 brought forward a bill for amending the representation, which bill, owing to certain circumstances which we need not recapitulate, went to limbo; and that in 1854 he has brought forward another, bearing in no respect any likeness to the former one. Indeed the issue of Banquo and of Macbeth could not have been more dissimilar. No. 3, however, is a great deal more sweeping in its innovations than No. 2 (for we must recollect that more than twenty years ago the noble lord carried No. 1); and No. 4 may be still more progressive. Heaven only knows what we shall have proposed, when the number of his Reform Bills equals that of his Jew Bills, or the volumes of his Biography of Moore! He seems to think that the story of the Sybilline books was written expressly for his guidance and conduct, and that he is entitled, after each successive failure and rebuff, to charge the constitution with an additional per centage of radicalism by way of penalty. He becomes louder and broader in his demands whenever they are negatived or postponed, and seems in the fair way to adopt some of the views of the Chartists.

We do not say this lightly—by way of banter—or in regard of general political disagreement. We never, at any time, reposed much faith in the judgment or sagacity of Lord John Russell; and, of late years, our opinion of him, in these respects, has, we confess, materially declined. We have been, in our own sphere of action, engaged in most of the political struggles which have taken place within the memory of the present generation; and we trust that these have not passed by without some wholesome lessons. To change of opinion, where honestly induced and through conviction, every one is bound to be fair and lenient; because, undeniably, in our own day there has been a great unravelment of social questions, and mere party prejudice is no longer allowed to be paramount. Perhaps the only living statesman of eminence, who cleaves to the old system, and is inveterate in his addiction to party intrigue, and what he calls “tradition,” is Lord John Russell. Put him into Utopia, and his first thought would be how he might establish the exclusive supremacy of the Whigs. He is so much and so inveterately a party man, that he seems to care little what becomes of the country, provided only that he, and his, sit at the receipt of customs. He showed that long ago—not in the days of his hot youth, but in those of his pragmatic manhood. He—the Whig Constitutionalist—characterised the opinion of the Upper House as “the whisper of a faction;” and did not disdain the violent and frantic sympathy of mobs when such demonstrations tended to his own particular purpose, or aided the ascendancy of his party. Ever since he has pursued the same course. No man can tell when he is in thorough earnest, or when he is not. He invited, by word and deed, Papal aggression; and, when the aggression came, he started up at once, as an indignant Protestant champion, and flung down his diminutive gauntlet, in name of Great Britain, to the Pope! And yet, at the bidding of the Irish Roman Catholic phalanx, we find this second Luther a strenuous supporter of Maynooth, and of the nunneries! Had his ancestor John, the first Lord Russell—who in 1540, and 1550, obtained grants from the Crown of the possessions of the Abbey of Tavistock and the Monastery of Woburn—been equally zealous for the protection of convents, he probably would have remained, as he was born, an utterly unacred gentleman.

The proposed Reform Bill of 1852 did not attract a large share of the public attention, and that for two reasons. In the first place, the country was quite apathetic on the subject; and in the second place, it was introduced at a time when the Whigs were tottering to their fall. Nevertheless, it is a remarkable document, inasmuch as we may conclude it to embody the experiences and observation of Lord John Russell upon the working of our representative system during a period of exactly twenty years. That there should have been some defects in the machinery of the engine which he invented in 1832, is not wonderful; nor can we call him rash for essaying, after so long an interval, to remedy these defects according to the best of his judgment. His position in 1852 was this:—He told the House, that he, the mechanist of 1832, was now prepared, from the results of twenty years’ observation, to introduce certain improvements which would have the effect, for a long time coming, of preventing the necessity of any further change. The improvements he proposed were these:—The qualification in towns was to be reduced from £10 to £5; and in counties from £50 to £20. Every man paying 40s. a-year of direct taxes was to be entitled to vote. There was to be no disfranchisement of boroughs, but the smaller ones were to receive an infusion of fresh blood by the incorporation of adjoining villages. No property qualification was to be required for members, and the parliamentary oaths were to be modified, so as to allow the admission of Jews and other unbelievers in the Christian faith. Such were the chief features of the proposed measure of 1852, as laid before the House of Commons by Lord John Russell, then Prime Minister. Wise or unwise, they were the conclusions which he had formed as to the change necessary to be made in the English representative system; and we must assume that he had not formed them without due thought and matured investigation. That both the necessity for, and the nature of the change were seriously considered by him and his colleagues in the Cabinet, it would be unfair and irrational to doubt; and we must therefore hold that the provisions of the bill were regarded by them not only as wise and salutary, but as the very best which their collective wisdom could devise.

If, in 1852, this bill had been rejected by a majority of the House of Commons, Lord John might either have remodelled it, so as to meet the more obvious objections, or have again introduced it, without alteration, for the consideration of another parliament. But it was not rejected by the House, and its merits were never thoroughly discussed throughout the country. It was, as we have said, introduced at a time when the Whig ministry were obviously in the death throes, and in February of that year they tendered their resignation. The bill accordingly fell to the ground before judgment could be pronounced upon it. The public at large seemed to care nothing about it. There was no enthusiasm manifested at its introduction, and no disappointment expressed at its withdrawal.

The scheme, therefore, of 1852, was not only untried but uncondemned. Nothing had occurred that could reasonably shake the confidence of the deviser in its prudence, correctness, or aptitude for the necessities of the country; unless we are to suppose that he felt somewhat disappointed by the exceedingly cold and indifferent nature of its reception. That, however, could not be taken as any distinct criterion of its merits. We are not to suppose that Lord John Russell, in framing that bill, merely looked to the popularity which he and his party might attain thereby, or the future advantages which it might secure to them. We are bound, on the contrary, to assume that he, being then Premier, and in the very highest responsible position, was acting in perfectly good faith, and had embodied in the bill the results of his long experience and observation.

Now, mark what follows. In 1853, he again pledges himself to introduce a measure for the amendment of the Parliamentary representation; and redeems his pledge by bringing out, early in 1854, a measure totally different from that which he recommended in 1852! The great points of difference are these: By the one, the boroughs were to be preserved, and in some cases enlarged; by the other, they are to be disfranchised to the amount of sixty-six members. The bill of 1852 maintained the distinction between town and county qualification—that of 1854 abolishes such distinction. The first proceeded upon the plain principle that majorities alone were to be represented—the second, in special cases, assigns a member to minorities. In short, the two bills have no kind of family resemblance. They are not parallel, but entirely antagonistic schemes; and it is almost impossible, after perusing them both, to believe that they are the productions of the same statesman.

Nothing, it will be conceded on all hands, has occurred during the last two years, to justify such an extraordinary change of sentiment. We have had in the interim a general election, the result of which has been that a Coalition Ministry, numbering Lord John Russell among its members, is presently in power. Trade, we are told, is in the highest degree flourishing; and the prosperity of the country has been made a topic of distinct congratulation. Search as closely as you please, you will find no external reason to account for so prodigious a change of opinion. The potato-rot and famine were the visible reasons assigned for Sir Robert Peel’s change of opinion on the subject of protective duties—but what reasons can Lord John Russell propound for this prodigious wrench at the constitution? He cannot say that the proposals in both his bills are sound, safe, and judicious. The one belies and utterly condemns the other. If his last idea of disfranchising and reducing sixty-six English borough constituencies is a just one, he must have erred grievously in 1852 when he proposed to retain them. So with the other provisions. If he intends to maintain that he has now hit upon the true remedy, he must perforce admit that he has acquired more wisdom in 1853 than was vouchsafed him during the twenty previous years of his political career. He must admit that he was totally and egregiously wrong in 1852; and he has no loophole for apology on the ground of intervening circumstances. Really we do not believe that there is a parallel instance of a British minister having voluntarily placed himself in such a predicament. How is it possible that he can expect his friends, independent of the mere official staff, to support, in 1854, a measure diametrically opposite to that which was propounded in 1852? No wonder that Earl Grey and other influential Whigs are most desirous to have the measure withdrawn without provoking a regular discussion. Some of them may not have approved of the former bill; but those who did so, or who were at all events willing to have let it pass, can hardly, if they wish to be consistent, give their sanction to the present one. It is not Lord John Russell alone who is compromised; he is compromising the whole of his party. If they thought him right in 1852, they must think him wrong in 1854; for he cannot point to the smallest intervening fact to justify his change of principle. And if they think him wrong, how can they possibly support him? We do not believe that he can reckon on the support of the high-minded Whigs of England. They have principle and honour and character to maintain; and we think it exceedingly improbable that they will allow themselves to be swept into the howling Maëlstrom of Radicalism. Rather than that, we venture to predict that they will toss the rash little pilot, whose incapacity and want of knowledge are now self-confessed, overboard, and trust to the direction of an abler and more consistent member of the crew.

Be that as it may, we must try if possible to ascertain what cause has operated to produce this singular and rapid change in the opinions, or rather convictions, of Lord John Russell on the subject of Parliamentary Reform. As we have said already, there are no external circumstances, either apparent or alleged, to account for it. The boroughs have done nothing to subject them to the penalty of disfranchisement; the counties have done nothing to entitle them to a considerable addition of members. To use diplomatic language, the status quo has been rigidly observed. Well, then, in the absence of any such tangible reason, we must necessarily fall back upon motives, the first of which is the advice and representation of confederates.

We at once acquit Lord Aberdeen and the majority of the Cabinet of any real participation in the scheme of Lord John Russell. What may be the mind of Sir James Graham and Sir William Molesworth on the subject, we cannot tell, but we are tolerably sure that no other minister regards the bill with favour. Even the members of the Manchester party do not seem to consider it as an especial boon. Mr Bright knows well enough that a new reform bill, if carried, cannot be disturbed for a number of years to come; and as this one does not come up to his expectations, he is ready to oppose it. Indeed, it seems to satisfy none of the extreme party beyond old Joseph Hume, who, for some reason or other to us unknown, has of late years been in the habit of spreading his ægis from the back seats of the Treasury bench over the head of the noble Lord, the member for London. The voice of the ten-pounders, as a body, was not favourable in 1852 to the lowering of the franchise; and we have heard no counter-clamour from the class who were and are proposed to be admitted to that privilege. The Whig aristocracy, naturally enough, regard this bill with peculiar bitterness. Therefore we do not think that the astonishing change of opinion, or rather of principle exhibited by Lord John Russell, is to be traced either to the advice of colleagues, or the influence of more matured democrats. Our own theory is this—that he never had, as regarded improvements on the form of the constitution or the representation, anything like a fixed principle—that he was striking just as much at random in 1852 as in 1854; and that, so far from having any settled or original ideas of his own, he grasps at any which may be presented to him with extreme recklessness and avidity.

We are quite aware that it would be, to say the least of it, gross impertinence to make any such statement, or to express any such opinion, without reasonable and rational grounds. We should be very sorry to do so at any time, but more especially at the present, when we wish to see Ministers disembarrassed of all perplexing questions at home. But it is their fault, not ours, if we are forced to make the disclosure; and to show that, in reality, the grand mechanist of 1832 had so forgotten his craft, if he ever had a due knowledge of it, that after his last abortive effort, in 1852, he was fain to derive new notions from the pages of the Edinburgh Review. In saying this, we intend anything but an insinuation against the talents of the author of the articles to which we refer. We can admire the ingenuity of his arguments, even while we question their soundness. We have no right to be curious as to what section of politicians he belongs. He may represent the philosophic Liberals, or he may be the champion of Manchester in disguise. All we know is, that he has written three plausible articles, after the manner of Ignatius Loyola, the result of which has been that poor Lord John Russell has plunged into the marsh, misled by the ignis fatuus, and is at the present moment very deep in a quagmire.

Some of our readers will doubtless remember that, during the autumn of 1851, various pompous paragraphs appeared in the Whig newspapers, announcing that Lord John Russell had withdrawn himself to country retirement, for the purpose of maturing a grand and comprehensive scheme of Parliamentary Reform. The task was entirely gratuitous and self-imposed; for although the venerable Joseph Hume, Sir Joshua Walmsley, and a few other Saint Bernards of the like calibre, had attempted to preach up an itinerant crusade, their efforts met with no response, and their harangues excited no enthusiasm. Nobody wanted a new Reform Bill. The class which, of all others, was most opposed to innovation, embraced the bulk of the shopkeepers in towns, who, having attained considerable political and municipal influence, were very unwilling to share it with others, and regarded the lowering of the franchise not only with a jealous but with an absolutely hostile eye. It was upon the shoulders of that class that the Whigs had been carried into power; and it really seemed but a paltry return for their support and devotion, that a Prime Minister, upon whom they had lavished all their honours, should attempt to swamp their influence without any adequate reason. It would be absurd or unfair to charge them with selfishness. The first Reform Bill, acceded to and hailed by the great mass of the people, had established a certain property qualification for voters; and no one could allege that popular opinion was not sufficiently represented in the House of Commons. Nay, many of the Whigs began to think that popular opinion was too exclusively represented therein, and did not scruple to say so. Anyhow, the Bill had so worked that there, in 1851, was Lord John Russell, its parent and promoter, in the office of Premier of Great Britain, and in the command of a parliamentary majority. Small marvel if the ten-pounders asked themselves the question, what, in the name of gluttony, he could covet more?

They were quite entitled to ask that question, not only of themselves, but of the singular statesman whom they had been content to follow. Could he state that there was any measure, not revolutionary, but such as they and other well-disposed subjects of the realm desired, which he was prevented from introducing by the aristocratic character of the House of Commons? Certainly not. The triumph of the Free-trade policy was a distinct proof to the contrary. Was there any discontent in the country at the present distribution of the franchise? Nothing of the kind. The apathy was so great that even those entitled to enrolment would hardly prefer their claims. Even the enrolled cared little about voting—so little, indeed, that it was sometimes difficult to persuade one-half of a large constituency to come to the poll. All attempts at public meetings, for the purpose of agitating a reduction of the franchise, had been failures. The people were quite contented with things as they stood, and grumbled at the idea of a change. And yet this was the time, selected by a Prime Minister who had everything his own way, for getting up a fresh agitation!

Every one, beyond himself, saw the exceeding absurdity of his conduct. The leading Whigs became positively angry; and from that period we may date his rapid decadence in their estimation. The real nature of his scheme, consisting of an arbitrary lowering of the franchise, was quite well known; and as that could not, by any possibility, be carried even through the House of Commons, his own friends thought it advisable to put the noble Lord upon another scent.

There appeared, accordingly, in the Edinburgh Review for January 1852, an article on “The Expected Reform Bill,” which took most people by surprise on account of its apparently moderate, philosophic, and even Conservative tone. It would be difficult to analyse it—it is difficult, even after reading it, to draw any distinct conclusion from its propositions and argument. But this, at all events, was admitted, that “clearly there is no call for Parliamentary Reform on the part of any large or influential class. There is no zeal about it, one way or the other. An extension of the franchise is wished for by some, and thought proper and desirable by many; but it is not an actual want largely felt, nor is the deprivation of the franchise a practical grievance, clear enough, tangible enough, generally recognised enough, to have given rise to a genuine, spontaneous, exclusive demand for redress. There is a general languor and want of interest on the subject, manifested nowhere more plainly than in the tone and character of the meetings got up by the Reform Association for the sake of arousing public feeling. The nation, as a whole, is undeniably indifferent; the agitation is clearly artificial.” Then, again, we are told that “Quieta non movere is, in political matters, as often a maxim of wisdom as of laziness;” and a great deal more to the same effect, which could not have had a very exhilarating effect on the mind of Lord John Russell, supposing, as we do, that he was in total ignorance of the article in question before it was given to the public. Certainly, on this occasion, he had but a poor backing from his friends.

The view of the writer in question seemed to be this—that instead of arbitrarily lowering the franchise on the footing of a property qualification, it is important to discover some criterion by means of which persons morally and educationally qualified, who have not the franchise at present, may be admitted to that privilege. We are not reviewing or discussing the article—we are simply pointing out the sources from which Lord John Russell has derived most of his new ideas. Therefore we shall simply quote one passage from this article.

Source of Lord John Russell’s new idea of the Savings’ Bank Deposit qualification.—“Our present system is defective and unjust in this—that it selects two kinds or forms of property only as conferring the franchise. Let us continue to maintain a property qualification; but let us not insist that the property, so favourably and honourably distinguished, must be invested in one special mode. If a man has accumulated by diligence or frugality £50 or £100, and spends it either in the purchase of a freehold, or in removing his residence from an £8 to a £10 house, his realised property confers upon him the distinction of a vote. But if he invests the same sum, earned by similar qualities, in the savings’ bank, or in railway shares or debentures, or in the purchase of a deferred annuity—which would probably be much wiser modes of disposing of it—it carries with it no such privilege. This seems neither equitable nor wise. It might easily be rectified, and such rectification would be at once one of the safest, simplest, justest, and most desirable extensions of the franchise that could be suggested. Let the production before the registration courts of a savings’ bank book, showing a credit of £50, of at least six months’ standing, or of a bona fide certificate of shares to the same value in a valid railway, or of coupons to the same amount, be held to entitle a man to be inscribed upon the list of voters for that year.”—Edinburgh Review, Jan. 1852, p. 265.

Adhering to our original intention of not discussing the merits of the different proposals of this and the other articles in the Edinburgh Review, we shall not comment upon the unblushing impudence of such a project as this, which would place the representation of the country principally in the hands of millionaires and railway directors. It is unparalleledly impudent. But we notice it now simply as the germ of Lord John Russell’s £50 savings’ bank qualification.

By the time this article appeared, Lord John Russell’s Bill was prepared; though no one expected that it would be carried. The Whig party were conscious that the hour of their doom was approaching, but they wished to bear with them into opposition a weapon which might be available for future warfare. Lord John’s ideas had not then penetrated beyond a lowering of the franchise and the admission to the register of parties who paid 40s. a-year of direct taxes. These were his deliberate impressions before the schoolmaster of the Edinburgh Review appeared abroad.

After this, Lord John Russell went out of office; but the Review kept harping on Reform. The writer had already stated, “that a new measure of Parliamentary Reform was demanded, rather in the name of theoretical propriety than of practical advantage.” It seems to us that such an admission was nearly tantamount to an argument against the policy of making any change at all; more especially when we were told, nearly in the same page, that “there was no call for Parliamentary Reform on the part of any large or influential class.” If that were true, we should like to know who “demanded” the new measure? But we must not be too critical regarding the advances of the new Lycurgus.

In October 1852, a second article appeared, the preamble of which was very moderate—indeed, rather calculated to impress the casual reader with the idea that the author would have much preferred if “the vexed question of the franchise” could have been left alone. Nevertheless it appeared to him that there were “many reasons which make it impossible either entirely to shelve or long to postpone the question of Parliamentary Reform;” and, having stated these, he dashes again into his subject. He is, however, a great deal too knowing to commence with the proposal of innovations. He treats us to several pages of high Conservativism, condemnatory of universal suffrage; and having thus established a kind of confidence—acting on Quintilian’s advice, to frame the introduction so as “reddere auditores benevolos, attentos, dociles”—he begins to propound his new ideas. In this article we have:—

Source of Lord John Russell’s new proposal to swamp the Counties by the admission of £10 occupants.—“The other plan is to extend the £10 qualification to counties, by which means every householder (to the requisite value) throughout the land would possess a vote; if he resided in a small town or a village, or an isolated dwelling, he would be upon the county register. The only objection we can hear of to this plan is, that in the country districts and in hamlets a £10 occupancy generally includes some land, and would not, therefore, indicate the same social station as the living in a £10 house in town, and that it might lead to the creation, for the sake of augmenting landlord influence, of a numerous and dependent class of tenant voters. But in the first place, the occupier of a £10 house in villages and small towns belongs to a decidedly higher social grade than the occupier of a £10 house in cities; and, in the second place, it would not be difficult to meet the objection, by requiring that the qualifying occupancy shall be, in the county register, a house, and not a house and land, or by fixing a sum which shall, as nearly as can be ascertained, be generally an equivalent to the £10 occupancy contemplated by the present law.”—Edinburgh Review, Oct. 1852, p. 472.

That is the second instance of appropriation on the part of the wise, ripe, deliberate statesman, who for twenty years had been watching the progress of his own handiwork with the view to introducing repairs. Before this article in the Edinburgh Review appeared, it had never occurred to him how convenient it might be to swamp the counties, and how very simple were the means of doing so! Now for appropriation third:—

Source of Lord John Russell’s proposal to admit all Graduates of Universities to Town and County franchise. “It is, of course, desirable, and is admitted to be so by every party, that all educated men shall be voters; the difficulty is to name any ostensible qualifications which shall include them, and them alone. But though we cannot frame a criterion which shall include all, there is no reason why we should not accept one which will include a considerable number of whose fitness to possess the franchise there can be no question. We would propose, therefore, that the franchise be granted to all graduates of Universities,” &c.—Edinburgh Review, Oct. 1852, p. 473.

Another hint adopted by Sir Fretful Plagiary! Next we come to a more serious matter:—

Source of Lord John Russell’s proposal for disfranchising the lesser English boroughs.—“The great majority of them are notoriously undeserving of the franchise, and those who know them best are least disposed to undertake their defence. The plan of combining a number of them into one constituency would be futile or beneficial according to the details of each individual case. If a close or a rotten borough were amalgamated with an open or a manufacturing town, much advantage might possibly result; if two or three corrupt or manageable constituencies merely united their iniquities, the evil of the existing things would only be spread farther and rooted faster. We should propose, therefore, at once to reduce the 61 boroughs with fewer than 500 electors, and now returning 91 members, to one representative each.”—Edinburgh Review, Oct. 1852, p. 496.

We shall see presently that this proposal was amended, as not being sufficiently sweeping. Only thirty seats are here proscribed; but it was afterwards found expedient to increase the black list to the number of sixty-six. Pass we to the next instance of palpable cribbage.

Source of Lord John Russell’s proposal that Members accepting office shall not be obliged to vacate their seats.—“The most desirable man cannot be appointed Colonial Minister, because his seat, if vacated, might be irrecoverable. Administrations cannot strengthen themselves by the alliance of colleagues who possess the confidence of the general public, because the place for which they sit has been offended by some unpopular vote or speech. We need add no more on this head: the peculiarity of the case is, that we have no adverse arguments to meet.”—Edinburgh Review, Oct. 1852, p. 501.

The writer is decidedly wrong about the non-existence of adverse arguments; and we shall be happy to convince him of the fact if he will be kind enough to accord us a meeting. In the mean time, however, he has humbugged Lord John, which was evidently his special purpose. Even while we deprecate the morality of his proceeding, we can hardly forbear expressing our admiration of his skill. We know not his earthly name or habitation; but he is a clever fellow, for he has led, with equal audacity and success, the ex-Premier of Great Britain, and the father of Reform, by the nose!

But we have not yet done. The article last referred to was penned and published before the new Parliament met, towards the close of 1852, and before the balance and state of parties could be ascertained. The result of the election showed that parties were in effect almost equally balanced—so much so, that, but for the junction of the Peelites with the Liberals, Lord Derby would have obtained a majority. The election, it will be remembered, took place under circumstances peculiarly unfavourable to the Government; and never perhaps was misrepresentation of every kind more unscrupulously employed than by the Liberal press on that occasion. Still it became evident that Conservatism was gaining ground in the country; and it was a natural inference that, after the question of Protection was finally set at rest, its progress would be still more rapid. This was not exactly what the writer in the Edinburgh Review had calculated on. He now saw that it would be necessary, if the Liberal party was to be maintained in power, to go a good deal further than he at first proposed; and accordingly, when he appears again before us in October 1853, we find him armed this time, not with a pruning-hook, but with a formidable axe. We hear no more about “theoretical propriety”—he is evidently determined upon mischief. Now, then, for his developed views, as adopted by his docile pupil.

Source of Lord John Russell’s proposal that freemen shall have no votes.—“There is no doubt in the mind of any man, we imagine, that incomparably the most openly and universally venal portion of borough constituencies are the old freemen, so unhappily and weakly retained by the Reform Act of 1832.... The disfranchisement of the freemen is, perhaps, of all steps which will be urged upon Parliament, the most clearly and indisputably right and necessary, and, added to the plan already suggested for pursuing individual cases of venality, will probably sweep away the most incurably corrupt class of electors.”—Edinburgh Review, Oct. 1853, p. 596.

We have already seen that, in Oct. 1852, the reviewer proposed to abstract thirty members from the smaller English boroughs. It became evident, however, that so paltry a massacre of the innocents would not suffice, more especially as it had become part of the scheme to swamp the English counties. Accordingly we are told, in an off-hand and easy manner: “To all that we said on a former occasion as to the theoretical propriety and justice of the small borough representation, we unreservedly adhere. But, unfortunately, it is too notorious that these boroughs are generally in a condition which, for the sake of electoral purity, imperatively demands their disfranchisement, partial or entire. Here again it is true that parliamentary statistics do not altogether bear out our conclusion. Of the seventy-two boroughs convicted of bribery between 1833 and 1853, only twenty-one can properly be called small—as having fewer than five hundred electors—while some of the more constantly and flagrantly impure places number their votes by thousands.” So, according to the admission of even this writer, there is no case established, on the ground of corruption, for the wholesale disfranchisement of the small boroughs. Nevertheless we are to assume them to be impure, because he says it is notorious that they are so; and by this short and summary process of assertion he gets rid of the trouble of investigation. The boroughs are not put upon their trial, for there is no specific charge against them; but they are condemned at once because the writer has a low opinion of their morality. This is worse than Jeddart justice, where the trial took place after the execution. In the case of the boroughs there is to be no trial at all. The following conclusion is therefore easily arrived at: “There can be no doubt in the mind of any reformer that, in some way or other, these small boroughs ought to be suppressed; that we must have, if possible, no more constituencies under one thousand electors.” So much for the disfranchisement; now for the redistribution.

Final scheme suggested to Lord John Russell for disfranchising the small boroughs and swamping the counties.—“The third method proposed is to merge all these small boroughs into the county constituencies, by depriving them of their members, and reducing the county franchise to a £10 occupancy. In this way the class would still be represented, and the individuals would still retain their votes, and the electoral lists of counties would be considerably modified and greatly enriched. This plan would, we think, be far the fairest and most desirable, inasmuch as it would give us constituencies large in number and varied in character, and, therefore, to a great extent secure against illicit and undue influences.”—Edinburgh Review, Oct. 1853, p. 602.

The next and last point which we shall notice is the representation of minorities. We do not know to whom the credit of having invented this notable scheme is really due. There are various claimants in the field. Mr G. L. Craik, of Queen’s College, Belfast, asserts that he was the original discoverer, having propounded a plan of this nature so early as 1836. Ingenious as the idea may be, it will hardly rank in importance with the discovery of the steam-engine, nor do we think that its originator is entitled to any exorbitant share of public gratitude or applause. We shall give it as we find it in the Review.

Source of Lord John Russell’s proposal to give members in certain cases to minorities.—“The mode by which we propose to insure the constituent minorities their fair share in the representation—i. e. to make the majorities and minorities in the House of Commons correspond as nearly as may be to majorities and minorities in the country, or in the electoral bodies—is, to give (as now) to each elector as many votes as there are members to be chosen, and to allow him to divide these votes as he pleases among the candidates, or to give them all to one. But as at present most places return two members, it is obvious that, under the proposed arrangement, wherever the minority exceeded one-third of the total number of the electors, they would be able to return one member, or to obtain one-half the representation, which would be more than their fair share, and would place them on an equality with the majority, which would never do; while, if they fell short of one-third, they would be, as now, virtually unrepresented and ignored. To obviate this, it will be necessary so to arrange our electoral divisions, that as many constituencies as possible should return three members: one of these a minority, if at all respectable, could always manage to secure.”—Edin. Review, Oct. 1853, p. 622.

Here, at all events, is the notion about the representation of majorities, and the establishment of as many constituencies as possible, returning three members. Lord John Russell’s method of working this, is to restrict each elector to two votes.

Thus we see that all the leading features and peculiarities of Lord John Russell’s new Reform Bill—the disfranchisement of the boroughs, the swamping of the counties, the ten-pound occupancy clause, the qualification by deposit in the savings’ bank, the voting of graduates, the retention of their seats by members accepting office, and the representation of minorities—are contained in the articles published in the Edinburgh Review, in 1852 and 1853. This is, to say the least of it, a very singular coincidence. Of course we do not mean to maintain that Lord John Russell was debarred from availing himself of any useful hints which might be offered him, or from adopting the notions of any political sage, or harum-scarum cobbler of constitutions; we entirely admit his right to gather wisdom, or its counterfeit, from any source whatever. What we wish to impress upon the public is this, that, down to 1852, not one of these notions had occurred to our grand constitutional reformer, who for twenty years had been sedulously watching the operation of his original measure! Nay, more than that: two years ago, his ideas on the subject of Parliamentary Reform were diametrically opposite to those which he has now promulgated; and that not only in detail, but in absolute essence and form! Had he come before us this year with a scheme based upon the principle of 1852, which was a lowering of the franchise, without any farther disturbance of the constitution of the electoral bodies, it would have been but a poor criticism to have taunted him with a minor change in the details. He might have used his discretion in elevating or lowering the point where the franchise was to begin, without subjecting himself to any sneer on account of change of principle. But, wonderful as are the changes which we have seen of late years in the views of public men, this is the most astounding of them all. Never before, perhaps, did a statesman pass such a decided censure on his own judgment, or make such an admission of former recklessness and error. If he is right now, he must have been utterly wrong before. The constitution of 1852, as he would have made it, must have been a bad one. One-tenth of the members of the House of Commons would still have been returned by constituencies which he now regards as unfit to be constituencies any more. If the maintenance of the small boroughs is a blot on the constitution, how was it that Lord John Russell did not discover that blot until 1853, after the articles we have referred to were published? Did he take his ideas from those articles? If so, was there ever a more humiliating confession of entire poverty of mind? If he did not take his ideas from those articles, what was it that produced so entire a change of opinion?—what eminent political oculist has removed the film which impeded his vision but two short years ago? This is, in reality, a very grave matter. We are accustomed in this country to associate measures with men, and sometimes to accept the former on account of our belief and confidence in the sagacity of those who propose them. But what faith can we repose in a man who thus plays fast and loose upon a question with which he has been occupied all his life? This is not a case of expediency arising out of unforeseen circumstances. That the question is of the deepest import no one in his senses can deny. We know how the constitution, as framed at present, works; but we do not know how it may work if very materially altered. And yet we find the same mechanist proposing, within two years, two separate kinds of alteration! The first was simple enough, and had at least this much in its favour, that it did not require any violent displacement of the machinery. The second is so complex that the whole machinery must be re-arranged. It was our sincere hope that the country had seen the last of sudden conversions of parties—at no time edifying events, and sometimes attended by disastrous consequences—but we must, it seems, prepare ourselves for another conversion on the part of the Whigs, if this bill is to be carried through. They must, supposing them inclined to support Lord John Russell, either unsay what they said, or were prepared to have said, in 1852, or be ready to maintain that they were then greatly in advance of their leader. The dilemma, we admit, is an unpleasant and an odious one; but there is no escape from it, if the Whigs are determined, at all hazards, to follow their erratic leader.

That there is room for certain changes in the national representation we are by no means disposed to deny. It is impossible to devise any system so perfect as to preclude the idea of amendment; indeed, we suppose that there never was a constitution, or phase of a constitution, in the world, which gave entire and perfect satisfaction to all who lived under its operation. We may be told that the present system is theoretically wrong, that its principle is to exalt property and to exclude intelligence, and that in some parts it is incongruous, inconsistent, and contradictory. Possibly there may be some truth in such allegations; but then we must never lose sight of this, that the real test of a constitution is its practical working. It is undeniable that under the present system the middle classes have gained, not only power, but preponderance in the state; and accordingly we find that they are not favourable to a change which would certainly operate to their disadvantage. The ulterior aims of the men of Manchester may prompt them to desire a still further infusion of the democratic element, but neither the members nor the doctrines of that school have found favour with the British public. If public opinion generally, and the great interests of the nation, are well and effectively represented in the House of Commons, it does seem to us a very perilous experiment to disturb that state of matters. We should like very much to hear from Lord John Russell a distinct exposition of the results which he anticipates, should this scheme of his be carried. Is there any real point of interest to the nation which he is at present debarred from bringing forward by the exclusive constitution of the House of Commons? What are the existing grievances which call for so radical an alteration?

We apprehend that the noble lord would be greatly puzzled to frame an intelligible answer to such queries. Well then, we are, perforce, compelled to fall back upon theory, and to assume that he vindicates his proposal, not because future measures will be of a better kind, or better discussed than heretofore, but because it is desirable, for symmetry’s sake, that the representation should be readjusted.

Be it so. We are content to take that view, albeit a low one, and to examine his scheme without any partial leaning to the present constitution of the House of Commons. And first, let us see what regard he has paid to the principle of equal representation.

It will not, we presume, be denied by any one that the three kingdoms of England, Scotland, and Ireland, ought to be put upon an equitable footing as regards one another in this matter of representation. If imperial measures were all that the House of Commons had to discuss, this relative equality might be of less importance; but with separate laws and separate institutions guaranteed to and existing in the three kingdoms, it is proper that each should be fairly represented in the grand council of the nation. At present that is not the case. If we take the test of population, Scotland ought to have 18 more members than are now allotted to her; if we take the test of taxation and revenue, she ought to have 25 more. Combining the two, there is a deficit of more than 20 members to Scotland in her share of the national representation. Now, that is a matter which ought, in the very first instance, to have occupied the attention of the noble lord, and would have so occupied it, had he laid down for himself any fixed principles of action. It is nonsense to talk of inequalities between one borough and another, or between town and country qualification, before the first grand inequality is remedied. Apply the double test of population and revenue, and you will find that Ireland is upon an equality in point of representation with England, but that Scotland is not; and no reason has been, or can be, assigned for this anomaly. The quota for Scotland was fixed by the Act of Union at 45 members. It was increased by the Reform Act of 1832 to 53, but the number is still insufficient. Lord John Russell proposes, out of the 66 disfranchised seats, to give three to Scotland, but he has assigned no reason for doing so. The people of Scotland are not in the position of men supplicating for a boon. They are demanding that, when such a change as this is made, their political rights shall be respected and allowed; and they will not be satisfied with less than a measure of perfect justice. We think it right to put forward this point prominently, because it lies at the foundation of the whole question of the readjustment of the representation.

The question of the disfranchisement of the boroughs is one which should be approached with very great caution. In 1852, as we have already seen, Lord John Russell did not propose to touch them—now he has made up his mind to lop away 66 members from this branch of the representation. This is, in our opinion, by far too reckless a proceeding. We can see no good ground or principle for the entire disfranchisement of any of the boroughs, a step which we think ought never to be taken, except in case of absolute and proved corruption. When constituencies are too small, the proper and natural plan is, to annex and unite, not to abolish; and we believe that this could be effected with very little difficulty. The new Schedule A contains a list of 19 boroughs, returning at present 29 members, which are to be wholly disfranchised, on the ground either that the number of the electors is under 300, or that of the inhabitants under 5000. Therefore the privilege is to be taken from them, and the voters are to be thrown into the counties. We agree with Lord John Russell, that some constituencies are too small, but we do not agree with him in his scheme of disfranchisement, and we utterly object to his proposal of quartering the electors on the counties. They are borough voters, and so they ought to remain; and it is a very poor pretext, indeed, to make this disfranchisement the excuse for altering the county qualification. Let a union of the boroughs, by all means, take place; let the number of their members, if necessary, be considerably reduced; but let us have no disfranchisement, or assimilation between the town and county qualification, which would quite upset the whole system throughout the kingdom.

We do not profess to be conversant with local details, so that we cannot speak with perfect confidence; but it appears to us that some such arrangement as the following, which would unite the smaller boroughs, and at the same time diminish the number of members, might be adopted with advantage:—

Thus, without any disfranchisement, or violent displacement, fifteen boroughs, at present returning twenty-two members, might be formed into seven respectable constituencies, returning one member each to Parliament. There are, however, four others—Knaresborough, Evesham, Reigate, and Andover—which cannot be so easily thrown together. We would proceed with these on the same principle, by adding them to boroughs at present returning two members, but which Lord John Russell proposes to restrict to one member each. The following is our view:—

Here there are twenty-three seats set at liberty, without disfranchisement in any one instance. In justice to ourselves, we must state that we have implicitly followed the schedule attached to Lord John Russell’s bill, and not indulged in speculations of our own. Had the latter been the case, we might have been tempted to ask why Westbury, with an electorate of 289, is to be spared, while Wells, with 368, is to be blotted from the list of boroughs?

Besides these, Lord John Russell proposes that thirty other seats shall be made vacant, by restricting boroughs now returning two members to one. (His number is thirty-three, but we have already noticed Ripon, Tewkesbury, and Guildford.) If it could be shown that there is a really clamant case for representation elsewhere, the reduction might be allowed, but only to the extent required. It seems to us perfect madness to proceed with wholesale disfranchisement, until the necessity of transferring seats to other places is satisfactorily established. We can very well understand why some of the smaller boroughs which have now two members should be restricted to one, in order to satisfy the just requirements of some rising township which has hitherto been unrepresented. We have no doubt that Lord John Russell is quite right in his proposals to give members to Birkenhead, Burnley, and Staleybridge, and to erect Chelsea and Kensington into a Parliamentary borough to return two members. We think that two additional members each might be granted to the West Riding of Yorkshire and to the county of Lancaster—that Salford should return two members instead of one—and that the London University should be represented. We think that these are rational demands, and such as might be accorded; and the necessary number for these purposes, and for putting Scotland on a fair footing of equality with England and Ireland, would amount to the vacation of about thirty or thirty-two existing seats. We have already shown how, without entirely disfranchising any borough, twenty-three seats may be obtained; and if nine others are required, it would be no hardship to take from each of the following boroughs one out of the two members which they presently return:—

This would take out of Schedule B no less than twenty-one seats which are now included in it; and it would be obviously unwise to exhaust, all at once, the only source from which new rising constituencies can be endowed. Lord John Russell seems to think—and we agree with him—that the present number of the House of Commons (654) is quite large enough; and although there is no principle to fix numbers, it may be as well to maintain them as they are. It is but natural to expect that, in future years, some places will decrease, and others increase, and that partial changes will be required. For that very reason we deprecate too hasty a reduction of the boroughs, and an apportionment of their seats to places and constituencies which do not require them. Suppose that in ten years after this, new seats of commerce and manufacture, like Birkenhead, Burnley, and Staleybridge, start into existence—that places like Salford increase immensely—and that new Chelseas require to be conjoined with new Kensingtons—where are we to find members for them, without unduly swelling the bulk of the House of Commons, if all the smaller borough seats are to be disposed of at the present time? The Legislature may say just now, with perfect propriety, to the men of Lymington—“Your borough is the smallest in the country which returns two members to Parliament. Birkenhead is a place of such importance that it requires a member; and therefore, as it is not expedient to increase the aggregate number of the national representatives, we shall take a member from you, and give one to Birkenhead.” That is quite intelligible; but why disfranchise boroughs when you do not know what to do with the vacancies? It is true that Lord John Russell tells us what he means to do with them; but we entirely demur to every proposal of his beyond those which we have already noticed. He proposes, we observe, to give three members instead of two to the following cities and boroughs whose constituencies we have noted:—

It must strike every one that there can be no principle in this. The constituencies both of Manchester and Liverpool are more than five times larger than that of Bradford, and yet all of them are to have three members; whereas the Tower Hamlets with 25,366, Marylebone with 20,377, and Lambeth with 18,522 electors, are but to have two each as heretofore. Even the sage of the Edinburgh Review has borne testimony to the impropriety and injustice of adding to the number of representatives returned for large towns. In his article of October 1852, he says:—

“It would appear that the large towns have their full share of the representation; since, if we add the small boroughs to the counties, on the supposition of their returning a somewhat similar class of members, and containing a somewhat similar constituency, the comparison would stand thus:—

—whereas the proper arithmetical proportion for the cities would be 169, instead of 206.”

The fact is, that Lord John Russell has assigned an additional number to each of these towns, not because they require one, but in order to make the extraordinary experiment, to which we have already alluded, of the representation of minorities in Parliament. For that reason, also, he proposes to give thirty-six additional members to so many counties and their divisions, making each up to the number of three, so that minorities may be represented on rather an extensive scale. We shall have occasion presently to say a word or two on that subject. The notion seems to us not only impracticable, but positively silly; and such as no man of ordinary sense could entertain for a moment. Even were it more feasible than it appears, that would not justify an unnecessary disfranchisement of the boroughs. We can see no reason for parting with them so abruptly—many for retaining them; because, undoubtedly, they keep the balance even between town and country, and so perform a very valuable function in the Legislature. We do not dispute the propriety of their remodelment or curtailment. Our views, in that respect, are, we submit, sufficiently liberal; for we think it just that from them, as small constituencies, any palpable defect or positive need in the national representation should be supplied. But we will not consent to their sacrifice merely for theoretical experiment; or in order to give colour to the proposal for assimilating the town and county franchise—in other words, for swamping the latter representation. We are greatly surprised that Lord John Russell should, in his mature years, have thus been led astray. In the popular ferment of 1831–2—the particulars of which are better known to his lordship than to us—almost any proposal might have gone down; but now reason instead of passion must be appealed to and satisfied, before any one can be allowed to make a material inroad on the Constitution. Lord John is singularly unfortunate. Mr Bright is quite as much opposed to the notion of the representation of minorities as we are; and we venture to say that the collective voice of the counties, to which he proposes to give an additional member, will be raised against him. We need not press the point that the borough electors will be especially unwilling to lose their existing privileges. And if it should so happen—as we know, and as every man who knows the political feeling of the country, must be the case—that both the disfranchised parties, and those whose franchise is thereby nominally increased, hold the scheme in detestation and contempt, how is it possible that he can hope to carry it even through the House of Commons? He has no enthusiasm to back him. He is not attempting to give voice to the opinion of any large section of the public—he is simply repeating, parrot-like and without examination, in opposition to all he has heretofore said, the opinions enunciated by another. He is theorising, contrary to his own experience; and sacrificing, for a mere crotchet, his own arrangements, which, for twenty years, and until 1852, he deemed to be mathematically correct.

We now come to the question of qualification. This is a very serious one, and cannot be properly treated without reference to our existing fiscal arrangements. Indirect taxation has been reduced to the lowest possible limit; and, in order to make up the deficiency in the revenue occasioned by numerous relaxations, we are forced to submit to an income-tax which amounted last year to more than five and a half millions, levied from those persons only who are in receipt of more than £100 yearly. From Mr Gladstone’s financial statement, it appears that the Government does not intend to increase the amount of the national debt by contracting fresh loans, but that the inevitable expenses of the war, however large, are to be defrayed by additional yearly taxation. Further, we are told that it is not proposed to raise any portion of this by again resorting to indirect taxation, but that the whole of it is to be charged upon those persons who are already rated to the income-tax. We subscribe in theory to the opinion, that it is not advisable for the interests of posterity to increase the amount of the national debt; which might, however, have been cleared off during the years of peace but for the insane system pursued by successive Ministries, of abandoning indirect taxation for the sake of immediate popularity. In practice, it may be found impossible to avoid the contraction of fresh loans. It is not likely, for some time at least, that any Ministry will be bold enough to resort to the customs and excise duties for the supply of the yearly deficiency, so that there really seems no other available course than that of taxing property and income still farther. The effect of this is, that a certain limited class is made to pay for the others, and that the great bulk of the population are exempted. How long this can be endured we shall not venture to predict. We have demonstrated over and over again, in the pages of the Magazine, the extreme impolicy and ultimate danger of continuing a war tax in time of peace, and the result shows the soundness of our warning. The day will arrive when this burden will become so great as to be intolerable; and then, perhaps, it may be discovered that, in abandoning easy and evident sources of revenue, our commercial legislators have committed a most grievous error. At present, however, we can only look to the fiscal arrangements which have been proposed. It is obvious, at least to us, that it would be highly inexpedient, and even dangerous, to lodge political power in the hands of those who are not called upon to contribute directly to the necessities of the State. If you are to select a certain class as peculiar rate-payers, and to compel them, year after year, to make up the deficiency of the national income, whatever that may be, you are bound also to give them peculiar privileges. We care not how low you make the assessment. Indeed, we are of opinion that it should be brought down to the lowest possible limit, which, probably, would be fixed, as regards income, at £60 per annum. But whatever that limit may be, this principle ought to be established, that no man, not rated to the property and income tax, shall hereafter be capable of voting, or of being enrolled. This is the only good security we can have against confiscation. It is said that the idea of a war is peculiarly popular in the country. No wonder that it should be so. The artisan is informed that no additional tax will be laid in consequence upon any article of his consumpt; that the price of his beer, spirits, tea, coffee, sugar, and tobacco, will not be raised; and that others will defray the cost of equipping those fine fleets, and maintaining those splendid troops, which he cheers as they leave our shores. Very different are the feelings of the unfortunate individual who, by dint of industry, has worked his way to an income of £150 a-year, and has a wife and family to support. Last year he had to pay £4, 7s. 6d., directly to the Exchequer, and was consoling himself with the vision that, after April 1855, his contribution would be lowered to £3, 15s. Down upon him, like a vulture, swoops the tax-gatherer, with a demand for £7, 11s. 3d., to be increased if the war goes on. You cannot expect that man to be quite as enthusiastic as the artisan, whose voice, like that of Sempronius, is still for war, so long as he escapes untaxed. It is easy to be patriotic when there is nothing whatever to pay. What we advocate, therefore, is, an extension of the property and income tax to the lowest available limit, and an exclusion from the franchise of all those who do not contribute to it. It is a proposition not only fair and reasonable, but imperatively necessary under the circumstances in which we are placed; and no one can complain of injustice in being excluded from a privilege for which he does not pay, either from want of means, or because he fraudulently evades the tax.

Of course, this is tantamount to a rejection of Lord John Russell’s proposal, that persons having £50 for a certain period of time deposited in a savings’ bank, shall be entitled to the franchise. This is a proposal which really will not bear examination. In the first place, it would lead to a prodigious deal of fictitious registration and wholesale manufacture of votes; in the second place, it is a most invidious and senseless preference given to one species of property beyond another. Why a savings’ bank? Are chartered, joint-stock, or private banks not as good? And why give a vote for £50 in the shape of a deposit only? Money is only equivalent to money’s worth. The man who expends £50 in the furnishing of his house, or in purchasing a share in some small business, or in fifty other ways of investment, is as good or better than his neighbour, who lets his money lie in the savings’ bank. It is utterly absurd to select one only kind of deposit for the franchise, practically excluding hundreds of thousands, who have more money invested in a different way. Then, again, what means are to be devised for ascertaining the right of parties so registered to continue on the roll? The tenure is obviously of the most precarious kind. An election takes place to-day, and a depositor votes in virtue of his £50; to-morrow he withdraws it from the bank. How is that to be ascertained? We presume it is not contemplated that the savings’-bank books shall be open to the inspection of the public; and if not, where are the means of ascertaining the continued qualification of parties? In like manner, we object to the qualification of £10 of yearly dividend from the Funds, or from bank stock. It is reasonable enough, perhaps, on account of their educational attainments, that graduates of universities should be admitted to vote either in town or county, provided that they are assessed to the property and income tax, but not otherwise; and the receipt of £100 a-year of salary, as it implies direct rating, may be taken as a sufficient qualification for borough or town voting.

But we are not at all prepared to agree to the proposed assimilation of the town and county franchise. It is a direct and dangerous innovation on the principle of the British constitution, which is, that the county representation shall be kept apart from that of the towns and boroughs. The Act of 1832 admitted the proprietor of a £10 house, not situated within the boundaries of a borough, to a county vote; and the result of that, in some localities, has been, that the voters in villages and small towns which were not boroughs, have been numerous enough to swamp and overpower the proper county constituency. That was bad enough; but it is now proposed that occupiers shall have the franchise; and, as we remarked last month, it is not by any means necessary that the house which the voter occupies should be of the yearly value of £10. We must again quote the words of Lord John Russell: “We propose, with respect to the county right of voting, that—with the exception of a dwelling-house, which may be of any value, provided the voter lives in it—in all other cases the building must be of the value of £5 a-year. Supposing there is a house and land, the house may be rated at £1 or £2 a-year, provided the voter resides in it; but if the qualification is made out by any other building—a cattle-shed, or any other building of that kind—then we propose this check, that such building shall be of the value of £5 a-year. This, then, is the franchise we propose to give in counties for the future.” Thus the English counties are to be inundated, 1st, By £10 occupiers, not resident within borough boundaries; and, 2dly, By the voters of sixty-six disfranchised boroughs, who are to be thrown loose upon them! We are confident that, in any case, such a proposal as this will be rejected. The counties do not want additional members at the expense of the boroughs; and we think it is, on principle, most important that the two kinds of representation should be preserved distinct. Indeed, but for the crotchet of giving representation to minorities, by assigning to as many constituencies as possible three members each, we should probably have heard nothing of this transfer of borough representation. That the county franchise may be advantageously lowered as regards tenants, we are ready to admit. Let them be enrolled from £20 upwards, provided they pay property and income tax, which, according to our view, ought to be made an indispensable condition to the franchise.

But we shall be asked, what is to become of £10 occupants residing beyond borough boundaries, who are really rated to the income-tax? Are they to remain unrepresented? Our reply is, that they ought to be represented, and can be represented, without sending them to the county-roll. The true, sound, and equitable method is to enlarge the parliamentary boundaries of boroughs, so that persons of this class may be enrolled in the nearest borough to their residence. Such enlargement may be made irrespective of other persons who are entitled to the county franchise, and who would still claim to be placed upon that roll. In this way, no one really entitled to vote would be excluded: both counties and boroughs would be preserved; and the latter would receive a very considerable augmentation of numbers from a class of men who at present do not enjoy the franchise.

There is but one point more to which we shall specially refer, and that is the proposed representation of minorities. We have shown, in a former article, that this is perfectly unworkable, and moreover greatly to be deprecated, as entirely changing the relations of the electors and their representatives. It can only, according to Lord John Russell’s admission, be attempted in constituencies which are to be allowed three representatives; and the simple fact of its being the exception, and not the rule, seems to us sufficient to condemn it. We have already put the case of the death or resignation of one of these minority members, and we cannot see how his place can be supplied, unless it is enacted that the candidate lowest on the poll is to be returned. It is neither sensible nor equitable to challenge the authority of majorities. If you leave a question, whether it relate to men or measures, to be decided by a certain number of people, you must perforce adopt and acquiesce in the verdict of the majority. But it is within our power to render the majorities less oppressive, by multiplying as much as possible the number of the tribunals of appeal.

This brings us to the consideration of a topic which we broached in the last number of the Magazine, and which, we venture to say, is well worthy of the attention of our statesmen. It cannot be denied that in many places, especially large towns, there is an immense degree of apathy on the part of those who are entitled to the franchise. Men who are in the possession or occupation of property far more than sufficient to entitle them to vote, do not even take the pains to place themselves on the roll; and many of those who are on the roll will not give themselves the trouble to vote. It is remarkable also that these are generally men of wealth, station, and intelligence—belonging, in short, to the class most likely to use the franchise with discretion and independence. The reason of this apparent apathy is, that they know quite well that they will be outvoted. In urban constituencies of four thousand or upwards, returning two members each, every one knows beforehand how the election will go, and consequently no effort is made by a desponding minority. We grant that such ought not to be the case; because an elector, though he may not be able to find a candidate of his own way of thinking, can always exercise a wholesome control, by voting for the man who, in his judgment, is the best in the field—but there can be no doubt that the case is as we represent it. For example, at last election, there voted, in round numbers, at London, only 7,500 out of 20,000 electors—at Finsbury, 9,000 out of 20,000—at Lambeth, 8,000 out of 18,000—at Manchester, 9,000 out of 13,000—at Westminster, 800 out of 14,800—at Sheffield, 3,500 out of 5,300—at York, 2,500 out of 4,100—at Edinburgh, 3,500 out of 6,900—at Glasgow, 5,000 out of 16,500. These represent the actual numbers on the register, but not the number of those entitled to be enrolled, but who have not lodged claims. In short, the activity in voting and enrolling seems to decline in proportion to the size of the constituency.

There is but one way of remedying this, and that is by recurring to the simple principle that no man shall be entitled, in one place, to vote for more than a single member. We do not mean by this that large populations should be restricted to a single member—that would be unfair, and even preposterous. We mean that each county, division of a county, city, town, or borough, which has more than one member allotted to it, should be subdivided into parishes, districts, or wards, each to return a member, according to the votes of the majority of the qualified electors within it. Thus London would be divided into four electoral districts; Liverpool, Manchester, Edinburgh, and others into two; and the counties would, in the same way, be partitioned into so many districts as there were members to be returned. This system is at present in partial operation in the counties of England, which are split into divisions, and there undoubtedly the system has worked well and satisfactorily. No man in his senses would propose that each county elector of Yorkshire should have six votes; and we really cannot see why one man, because he happens to live in a large town, should have double the personal political influence of another who resides in a small borough. It does not necessarily follow, by any means, that the members to be returned under the operation of the system which we propose should be antagonistic to one another. It would, we are convinced, materially tend to improve the representation, by infusing fresh energy into the constituencies; it is already recognised, and partially in effect; and it is not liable to any of the objections which it requires no ingenuity to rear against Lord John Russell’s absurd scheme for giving members to minorities.

We might say a great deal more on the subject of the present bill, but we think that further comment is needless. We have shown, by absolute demonstration, that it is not the result of Lord John Russell’s own Parliamentary experience—that, for twenty years of his public life, dating from 1832, he had failed to see the proper method of amending the representation of the people—and that he was at last enlightened by a series of articles, which display as little consistency as wisdom. We have shown also that he has not probed the great question of the relative proportional representation of the three united kingdoms—that he proposes to demolish borough representation, without any necessity for doing so—and that he wishes entirely to change, or rather to abrogate, the ancient distinction between town and county franchise. We have shown that he has not taken at all into consideration the recent fiscal changes, and that he proposes to place those who are heavily and directly taxed on the same footing with those who are allowed to escape that burden. We have shown that other parts of his scheme are either merely fantastical, or dictated by party motives; and having said so much, we are content to abide by the decision of the country.

If this bill is again brought forward on the 27th of April, or a later day in the session, we do not believe that it will ever pass into the statute-book. If it is withdrawn, on the score of inconvenience or otherwise, we are perfectly certain that it will not again appear in its present shape; for, many as are the legislative proposals which we have had occasion to consider, this is, beyond comparison, the worst digested, most incoherent and most rambling measure of them all.

THE BLUE BOOKS AND THE EASTERN QUESTION.

Notwithstanding the imposing aspect of these azure tomes, technically termed Blue Books, we confess we do not look upon them without a feeling of suspicion or incredulity. No doubt the usages of Parliament and the will of the Crown require the production of documents relating to every important transaction connected with our foreign policy, and they are intended to furnish ample and accurate details of our international acts, and to unfold to the public the intricacies of complicated and tedious negotiations. Such is the object of those expensive publications; but, for the attainment of that object, they should be not merely authentic, but complete. And when we say that we do not regard the Blue Books with all the respect that full confidence inspires, it is because we know that the papers they contain are well sifted and culled: those parts which would prove the weakness, the ignorance, and the imprudence of a Minister, are so carefully kept out of sight, and so curtailed, and those in his favour so prominently brought forward, that we have, after all, a very partial, and consequently a very imperfect, view of the manner in which a negotiation has been conducted. Truth, they say, lies at the bottom of a well: the Foreign Office may be that well, but the eye of the public is not always enabled to pierce its depth. Moreover, we have heard it related that some Ministers indulge a vicious habit of communicating instructions to their diplomatic agents in notes or letters marked private, or evidently meant to be so from their familiar style and tone; and that some letters contain hints or instructions sometimes contrary to the official despatches. This is unjust to the public, and unfair to the diplomatic agent himself, who, in case his conduct should become subject of inquiry or censure in Parliament, is thus debarred from defending himself, because the real instructions on which he acted bear the stamp of privacy, which delicacy forbids him to violate; and it is quite certain that the Blue Books contain no trace of those confidential missives. There is one personage in particular whose name has been more connected than any other with our foreign policy, who is said to carry this habit to such a point as to force complaints from his own subordinates.

We are not exempt from human weakness: we confess that we have more than once cast a curious and a longing glance on those plethoric Jacks which daily issue from Downing Street, and the safe conveyance of which to their distant destination costs the country annually a handsome sum of money. We have often desired to dive to the very bottom of these round white leathern envelopes, which are so tenderly handled and so scrupulously guarded. What profound thoughts, what foresight, what eloquence, and what wisdom, must be contained, we have often thought, within that mysterious covering of calf, of more than aldermanic rotundity, tightly closed at the neck with whipcord, and the genius of England protecting the orifice in the form and fashion of a huge red seal. It is true that idle or blabbing clerks, and supercilious or rollicking messengers—the external “gentlemen” of the Foreign Office—are said to indulge occasionally in a laugh, whilst lounging in their waiting-room, at the reverential awe with which the vulgar are wont to look upon the “despatch bags.” Strange stories, too, are said to be current of the miscellanies which sometimes fill them, the curious olla podrida, the several parts of which are so well adapted to the tastes of the youthful employés of our foreign embassies. Packages of pomatum, bottles of hair-dye, pots of varnish, patent-leather boots, and dress-coats, are occasionally conveyed to the capital where we are blessed with a representative who unites in his own person the conflicting tastes of dandyism and parsimony. Gossipping tongues speak of even more important cargoes—not, of course, in the bag, but outside it—that were sometimes conveyed, at her Majesty’s expense, to her “Honourable” or “Right Honourable” representative, under the care of some bustling “gentleman,” whose official character is indicated by the Windsor uniform, and a minute badge with the royal arms, and the effigy (a harmless irony) of a greyhound—the latter symbolical of the speed at which he is presumed to travel.

Taking the present Blue Books at the value set upon them by the Government, we believe that every impartial man who has glanced over their contents, and who has read the debates in Parliament, will be convinced of the blindness, the weakness—we will not say the criminality—of the Cabinet, in all that relates to the Eastern question. It is in vain that we attempt to defend their conduct on the ground of ignorance, for there are abundant proofs in the documents before us, however imperfect they may be, that they were not ignorant, and were not unwarned of what was going on. The evidence is too clear even for audacity to deny, or hypocrisy to diminish. They themselves have been forced to admit that they were outwitted and duped as no men were ever duped before; and however a generous and forgiving people may pardon the fault for the frankness of the confession, such imbecility in the past is but poor encouragement for the future. The noble lord who holds the post of Prime Minister is indeed unfortunate in his general estimate of men and things. When the Revolution of February was on the point of bursting forth, he is said to have declared his conviction that King Louis Philippe and his dynasty were firmer than ever on the throne of France. After a long, and, we presume, conscientious study of the President of the new French republic, the same acute intellect pronounced Louis Napoleon to be little better than an idiot, and in contemptuous terms described him as incapable in thought and action. When the votes of millions approved and confirmed the daring illegality of the act of December 1851, he believed that his rule could not last three months: and in the latest exercise of his discrimination and knowledge of the world, our great statesman laughed to scorn the fear that the Emperor Nicholas ever contemplated any attack against the integrity of the Ottoman Empire, and this at the moment when every post was bringing home news of the hostile attitude of Russia; when the newspapers teemed with accounts of the movements of armies in the south of Russia; when that force was placed on a war footing, and provisioned as if on the eve of a campaign; when a fleet was at Sebastopol ready to weigh anchor; when wood was cut down for the construction of pontoons and bridges for the Pruth and Danube; and when Constantinople itself was menaced with a coup de main;^[8] when the magazines of Odessa were gorged with military stores for the complete equipment of 150,000 men; when troops had already marched to the Turkish frontier; when Prince Menschikoff was outraging the Sultan in his own capital, and dictating who should, or who should not, be his minister. And with the reports of our own diplomatic and consular agents confirming all those facts, the noble Lord at the head of her Majesty’s Government was smiling complacently at the compliments lavished on him by that great master of irony, Count Nesselrode, who chuckled with his imperial master at the simplicity of the statesman refusing to believe the evidence of his senses. We have seldom witnessed so much prevarication, so much barefaced misstatement, as have been exhibited on this question. It was denied in the most positive manner in the House of Lords that Russia had ever required from the Sultan the dismissal of his minister Fuad Effendi; or that the resignation of that minister was voluntary. The repeated warnings in the public press, the official communications of his own agents in Turkey and Russia, went for nothing. The intentions of the Emperor of Russia were in his eyes moderate and pacific, even so late as the end of April. The arrogant language of the Russian Envoy at Constantinople, the menaced occupation of the Principalities, were, because Count Nesselrode pronounced them to be so, not merely exaggerated, but “destitute of any foundation whatever.” The “beau rôle” which the wily chancellor of the Russian Empire congratulated Lord Aberdeen for having preferred, was in point of fact the meanest subservience; and we are satisfied that it was to the conviction that this “beau rôle”^[9] was to be played out to the end, that we owe all that has since taken place. The same truckling spirit characterised even those acts of the Government which had the appearance of energy. When our ships entered the Dardanelles, and anchored before Constantinople, the country was made to believe that their presence in the Bosphorus had no reference to the acts of Russia, but to the protection of British subjects and property, and to the defence of the Sultan from the violence of his own subjects at a moment when it was known that not the slightest danger menaced either the one or the other. Abdul Medjid must have felt indignant at the imputation thus cast by his friends on the loyalty of his subjects, and even Lord Aberdeen’s own ambassador declined to accept such an explanation of movement of the fleet without a pretext. Lord Stratford de Redcliffe, while expressing his thanks for the interest taken by the British Government in the preservation of British life and property at Constantinople, said, at the same time, that he applied his gratitude also to that part of the instructions which authorised him to consider the presence of her Majesty’s squadron, if he thought proper to require it, as intended to embrace the protection of the Sultan in case of need: from whom the Sultan most needed protection, no man knew better than the English ambassador. The defence set up for the delays, the hesitations, and the inaction of the Aberdeen Cabinet, was, it seems, the doubt entertained of the co-operation of France. Now, nothing is more clearly shown, even in the Blue Books, that the contrary was the fact. It is proved by the despatches of the French Ambassador in London, and of the English Ambassador in Paris. They show, beyond the possibility of doubt, not only that such was not the case, but that every proposition of active measures, from the very beginning when the squadrons appeared in the Bay of Salamis to their entering the Black Sea, originated exclusively with the French Government. The despatch of Lord Cowley of the 28th January confirmed the intelligence published in the London papers, that it was the French Government who had invited the English to join the French fleet in the expedition to the Greek waters, and the fact is corroborated in the despatch of the French Minister of Foreign Affairs to his ambassador in London, dated the 5th June. Again, on the 13th July the French Ambassador proposed to Lord Clarendon that, in the event of Russia not accepting the Vienna note, or showing a disposition to persist in a violent policy, the French and English fleets should forthwith enter the Dardanelles. That proposition was repeated in the beginning of September by the French Government; and once more, on the 23d of the same month, Count Walewski urged the presence of the fleets in the Black Sea as indispensable. On this important point there was not the slightest divergence of opinion between the head of the French Government and his Minister of Foreign Affairs; their views were the same, their opinions identical; and the Blue Books prove no fact to be more indisputable, more certain, than that their conduct throughout the whole of the affair was frank and straightforward. It is not alone in the French despatches that we find this proof. We see it in the correspondence of Lord Aberdeen and Lord Cowley. The latter noble lord, who had the best opportunity of ascertaining the truth, and who is not a person to be easily deceived, repeatedly informs his Government that he invariably received from the Emperor, or from his minister, the same assurances of a desire to act in concert and in cordial alliance with England, and that he never could discover, though he was evidently on the watch, the slightest difference between them. It is all very well to say that the time which has been spent in, as it now appears, useless negotiation, has not been lost, and that the Government has been enabled to prepare the means of resisting the encroachments of Russia, and of wresting from her the territory she has seized. It is a poor defence to allege that fortune has, after all, favoured us, and that we are not in so bad a condition as we might have been. A blunder is not the less a blunder because its results are not so mischievous as they might be. But if we are prepared at this moment, as there can be little doubt, the credit is not due to Ministers, who have exhibited throughout a credulity and a simplicity we believe to be unexampled. We have no reason to believe that if, in the very commencement, a firm and imposing attitude had been assumed by our Government, the Emperor of Russia would not have recoiled before he had yet placed himself in a position, to retire from which, without striking a blow, is shame and dishonour. Had it been announced that the squadrons would enter the Black Sea the moment the Russians crossed the Pruth, we believe that that passage would not have taken place, and in that menace we are confident that France would have joined us.

On perusing the despatches published by the French Government in its official organ, we have been particularly struck by the clearness of views and the intrepidity, mingled with good sense, which pervade them. From the moment that the question assumed a more general character; when it ceased to refer exclusively to French interests, we remark the masterly view which the Emperor’s minister of foreign affairs took of the whole question as it then stood; of the accuracy with which he judged of the future conduct of the Czar, and the marked line of conduct which he proposed to follow. Yet the difficulties in the way of the French Government were great. With the cunning which distinguishes the policy of Russia, this power had the tact to present the Eastern question, from the outset, in a light most disadvantageous to France; and the excessive zeal and indiscretion of M. de Lavalette indisposed the other powers, and afforded a pretext to our own Government to stand aloof. In this country the policy and person of the French Emperor had been unpopular. With the prejudice, mistrust, and ill-feeling which his name inspired, it is not to be wondered at that all his acts were viewed with suspicion; and the question of the holy places was at once, and as this result has shown, unfairly interpreted as the forerunner of new and more important pretensions,—as the continuation, in fact, of the plans of his uncle, whose hostility to England he was supposed to have inherited with his crown. It was at the moment of the invasion panic—which was so far useful that it roused us to strengthen our defences, and organise a naval and military force which we then little thought would be employed against Russia—that the French minister at Constantinople succeeded in obtaining immunities in favour of the Latin church, of which France assumed to be the protector. We will not now examine whether these privileges were of the exorbitant and unjust character ascribed to them. It is sufficient that they were so considered by Russia, and that the advantages extorted from the Porte for the monks of the holy cities were understood as placing the Greek communion in a condition of relative inferiority, and as realising a triumph over Russia in those places where she had long reigned supreme, and where she would brook no rival, much less a superior. From such a quarrel between rival churches, with the dogmas of which we had nothing in common, England properly kept apart, and France was left to find her own way, unaided, out of the unpleasant position in which her agents had placed her. No moment could be more propitious to Russia, ever watchful as she has always been of dissension between the Western powers, and ever ready to take advantage of it. The French Government soon saw and met the danger. Its ambassador was recalled and disavowed. Explanations were promptly and frankly given, and readily received; and M. de Nesselrode himself, however disappointed or checked, was forced to admit that these explanations were perfectly satisfactory, and that the redress obtained in favour of the Latins was not of a nature to trench upon the immunities of the Greeks. That admission completely closed the question of the Holy Places, in which France was exclusively interested. But scarcely had it terminated when the mission of Prince Menschikoff assumed all at once a strange and startling aspect. It was soon seen that the holy places were but the mask which covered pretensions of far greater moment. The French Government, struck by the haughty and menacing tone of the Russian envoy, quickly understood the true cause of the vast military preparations of Russia, and became aware that they were the prelude to a state of things which would endanger the independence of the Sultan and the security of his states. It considered that France was bound by the Treaties of 1841, to which she was a party, as well as by her position in Europe, not to regard with indifference the proceedings of Russia; and, as a precautionary measure, it ordered the Mediterranean fleet to proceed on the 20th March to the Greek waters, and to remain there until further events rendered a nearer approach to the Sultan’s capital necessary. When that order was issued, France alone declared its belief in the grave and threatening character of the pretensions of the Czar. Austria affected to give credit to the repeated assurances of Russian moderation, and continued to keep aloof; and Lord Aberdeen, whose attention had been drawn by the public press, and, no doubt, by his own agents, to the coming storm, could perceive no cloud, no angry speck in the political horizon. The French Government, as is proved by the despatches in the Moniteur, persisted in its conviction that the most serious dangers were at hand; and that Russia believed that the long-expected moment had arrived for realising her traditional policy in the East—the annihilation of the Ottoman Empire, or its absorption, by the process of previous degradation. France considered that, under such circumstances, complete obstruction was impossible, and that, so far as England was concerned, the necessity of maintaining her maritime superiority ought to be a sufficient motive for her participation in a more active policy. The instructions to M. de Lacour, dated the 22d March, presupposed the adherence of the British Government to that policy; the co-operation of the English squadron was anticipated for months previously; and, in his despatch of the 3d June, M. Drouyn de Lhuys presumed that the policy of the French Cabinet would soon become that of the Powers who were equally if not more interested than France in the maintenance of the Treaties of 1841. This energetic conduct, and the conviction which began to creep over the slow mind of Lord Aberdeen, produced some effect. On the 3d June the English squadron received orders similar to those of the French, and at length it sailed for Besica Bay. In the course of the same month, Austria and Prussia, roused to a sense of the impending danger, mustered courage enough to show symptoms of resistance to the pretensions of Russia, and in the month of July these two Powers united with England and France in the Vienna note, with the avowed object of maintaining peace. We are bound to admit that throughout this operation the French Government acted in a manner that redounds to its honour, and that subsequent events have fully justified its original apprehensions and precautions. The Vienna note was very properly regarded by the Divan as leaving a door open to the encroachments of Russia. The instinct of impending danger rendered the Porte more acute than usual, and its fears, which had been termed puerile, were completely justified by the commentary of M. de Nesselrode, who accepted the note for the same reasons that made the Sultan reject it. The plenipotentiaries were confounded (or at least affected to be so) on learning that the elaborate state paper, which had been so carefully worded, and which had stood the scrutinising glance and the keen criticism of the collective statesmanship of the Four Cabinets, was, in point of fact, nothing less than the Menschikoff ultimatum, which had been indignantly rejected by the same conference that adopted the Vienna note. Matters now became more complicated and alarming. The war which began to rage on the banks of the Danube, with every prospect of a long duration, produced its fatal effects on the commerce of western Europe; and as the hope of preserving peace became weaker each day, the union of the four great Powers was found to be more necessary. The consequence of this resolution was a new conference, which opened on the 5th December 1853. The note of the 13th January was the result. It was, no doubt, intended as the bond by which the Powers pledged themselves to act together for the peace of Europe; for, notwithstanding the suspicious conduct of Austria, it was clear that she, even more than any other, was interested in resisting any attempt to violate international law. The French Government acted throughout this affair with much prudence, foresight, and loyalty. We have it on record that Louis Napoleon and his Government saw from the commencement the aim of Russia, and fully appreciated the grave and alarming character of the events which were preparing in the East. The Emperor of the French had, as we have said, been exposed to a great deal of obloquy in this country. He had encountered the sullenness or hostility of our Government; he had to contend with the intrigues of political parties in France, the most selfish and unprincipled of all, the Fusionists; and he exhibited throughout the sagacity which foresaw, and the judgment which estimated, the full importance of the situation—as well as the courage to face it. He who had been suspected of a design to trample all obligations under foot, to disregard faith and honour, stood forth boldly, first, and alone, to defend the inviolability of treaties; and he summoned the nations of Europe to co-operate with him. Insulted by suspicions of his good faith, and baffled in his attempts to conciliate his enemies, he yet did not abandon the task he had undertaken. He at length succeeded in bringing over England. Austria and Prussia, ever timorous, hesitating, and slow, inclined to the manly policy of which France had set the example, and the question of the Holy Places, which had been confined to Russia and France, soon lost its original character, and assumed another, which now interests and agitates the whole of the European continent. We live in strange times! One of the strangest events to which the Eastern question has given rise is, that Napoleon III.—the “idiot,” as a noble lord in the present Cabinet was wont to call him—the penniless adventurer, the man regardless of all ties, of all faith, should be the person to remind the Conservative Governments of Europe of the treaties they themselves had framed, and to summon them to execute them faithfully. Louis Napoleon is no longer an outcast; nor is France isolated. His alliance, on the contrary, is courted; and among his former foes are some who find no terms too extravagant to celebrate his disinterestedness and his loyalty. The French despatches do honour to the sovereign who inspired, and the minister who drew them up; and they are in every respect worthy of the great nation whose title to our friendship is, that she has been the most formidable and honourable of our enemies.

Foresight, moderation, and firmness are, as we have observed, the characteristics of French policy in the Eastern question. In these despatches we see the French minister anticipate the moment when negotiation would become fruitless, and when all honourable mode of arrangement would be rejected by Russia. In its earlier stages we find the French ambassador in London, earnestly and repeatedly urged to come to an understanding with the English Cabinet on the conduct which, in such an emergency, it would be necessary to adopt. It is to the repeated instances of M. Drouyn de Lhuys we owe it, that identical instructions were given to M. de Lacour and Lord Stratford de Redcliffe, which directed that the fleets should enter the Dardanelles if the Russians did not evacuate the Principalities which they had invaded. Yet the fatal hesitation of Lord Aberdeen may be traced even in the resolves of the French minister. In the decided measure adopted by M. Drouyn de Lhuys, there appeared an unwillingness to break off rudely with Russia. In his despatch of the 1st September, that minister informs Count Walewski, that the presence of the fleets at the entrance of the Dardanelles—outside the castles—if demanded by the Porte—was rather a measure of precaution against the weather, than an encouragement to the Porte in its refusal to the reasonable demands of Russia. It may be that such a declaration was with a view to allay any alarm which might be felt by the German states at the onward movement of the fleet. We find additional evidence of the unwillingness to occasion fresh embarrassment in the cause assigned for the first appearance of a detachment of the squadron before Constantinople. That pretext was the apprehension of insurrection against the Sultan by the Ulemas, and the massacre of the Christian population. We have no doubt that there was considerable dissatisfaction manifested by the Turks at the delays of their soi-disant allies; and that there existed much irritation at the conduct of the western Courts, who had advised the Porte to resist the demands of Russia; excited it to use all the means at its disposal to maintain that resistance; and who, when Turkey was left exposed to the wrath of her formidable enemy, still lingered at the mouth of the Dardanelles. But we look in vain for satisfactory proofs of the plots of insurrection and massacre attributed to the Mussulman population, and assigned as the cause of the presence of the fleets at Constantinople. We regard the whole thing as one of those paltry subterfuges, of which we find so many instances throughout this proceeding. Nothing was, however, gained by it; and neither the Emperor of Russia nor the public was deceived. The Christian population of Stamboul showed no sign of apprehension, and we have reason to believe that they disclaimed, so far as they were concerned, any such motive. The Turks were offended at being accused of a crime which they had not contemplated, and outraged by being falsely accused by Christians of treason to their own sovereign. With the arrival of the fleets before Constantinople vanished the danger of the Christians, of which, however, they were perfectly unconscious; as also of the Sultan, who, though informed that the vengeance of his subjects had placed his crown and life in danger, yet, in all the consciousness of security, had not ceased for a single day to appear in public, in the streets and public places where the population is in greatest number;—that population which our Ministers pretended to believe was watching the first favourable occasion to depose or assassinate him. He never failed to pray at the stated hours in the mosque, where the plotting Ulemas and the fanatical Softas explained or studied the Koran. Not only no insult was offered to him in word, act, or perhaps thought; but his Highness was on all occasions received with the same respect, reverence, and affection which Abdul-Medjid, ever since his accession to the throne, has proved himself deserving of.

The fleets having gone up for a special service, which they were not called upon to perform, the next question was, what was to be done with them, and where they should go next? An extract from the despatch of M. Drouyn de Lhuys to Count Walewski, of 4th September, shows the anxiety of the French Government to get as quickly as possible out of the awkward position in which their assent to that contemptible policy placed them. The French minister took up the matter with courage, and like a man of business:—“The question now is to determine as to the employment of our naval forces. The Emperor is of opinion that our fleet is destined to play an important part in the defence of the Ottoman empire. It might serve to cover Constantinople, and to operate, if necessary, on the western coast of the Black Sea, as far up as Varna,” &c. This plan was not, however, executed. Some difficulty arose on the part of Austria and Prussia, and these powers did not think, notwithstanding the intended massacre of the Christians and the deposition of the Sultan, that the appearance of the combined forces in the Bosphorus, much less their entry into the Black Sea, was sufficiently called for. Whether right or wrong, their influence arrested the further proceedings, which, if we are to credit M. Drouyn de Lhuys, had been already contemplated by the Emperor of the French. The fleets of France and England remained, therefore, in a state of inactivity near the Golden Horn, and negotiations again commenced. New collective notes were drawn up, and the idea of another quadruple intervention, with, of course, a view to a pacific solution, was again revived. The prospect grew brighter. The inexorable Czar appeared to take pity on our Cabinet; to smile graciously on the minister of the “beau rôle,” the gentle and confiding friend of Nesselrode. The Emperor of Russia, whose preparations were not as yet complete, showed a disposition to treat; and, false throughout, gave assurances that he would not assume the offensive on any point. “Our latest intelligence,” says M. Drouyn de Lhuys, so recently as the 15th December—“our latest intelligence from St Petersburg is to the effect that Russia is resolved to treat, and, above all, to adopt no offensive measures, and our confidence in this may suffice to explain the inactivity of the fleets.” But the pacific declarations of Russia, which we fear M. Castelbajac too readily believed, were but the cloak under which the attack on the Turkish squadron of Sinope, and the massacre which followed, were concealed. With such a deed perpetrated at so short a distance from the spot where the flags of England and France were floating together, the fleets could not linger any more in the Bosphorus. They entered the Black Sea, and what was termed a policy of action commenced. Prussia and Austria were startled from their propriety, but they still followed on in the pursuit of that peace which, when nearest, always eluded their grasp,—and

The attitude of France and England became more decided, and at length, after much hesitation, the Russian ambassadors were recalled from Paris and London.

In the course of the long operation which preceded the rupture of diplomatic relations, the judgment of M. Drouyn de Lhuys appeared nowhere to greater advantage than in the accuracy with which he divined and unmasked the real designs of the Czar in the matter of the Holy Shrines, while our noble Premier looked on credulous and confiding. The anger of the Czar, so much out of proportion to the offence, had, to be sure, something suspicious in it, and to the uninitiated or unsuspecting was utterly inexplicable. M. Drouyn de Lhuys knew well the cause of that immense wrath. It was not on account of the miserable squabbles of Latin and Greek monks that vast bodies of troops traversed the plains of southern Russia, that stores sufficient for an immense army and for a long campaign were accumulated in the magazines of Odessa, and that vast preparations were made at Sebastopol.

The absorbing interest which attached to events in western Europe since the revolution of 1848—the revolution which had convulsed nearly every Continental state—had occupied the public mind to the exclusion of everything else; and Russia availed herself of the storm which raged everywhere, except in her own territory, to realise her aggressive projects. Her political and religious influence had long been paramount at Constantinople. The arrival of M. de Lavalette first threatened to disturb that monopoly. Indeed, any allusion, however slight, to the capitulation of 1741, instantly alarmed Russia; and Prince Menschikoff, finding that the secret of the Czar was discovered, hastened to present his ultimatum, with all the aggravating and insulting circumstances already known. The French Government explained at length to the Cabinet of St Petersburg the motives and the extent of the French demands with reference to the Holy Places; but the Head of the Orthodox Church refused to listen—he would bear no rival in the East. “There is established,” said M. Drouyn de Lhuys in his despatch of the 21st March to General Castelbajac, “an important political usage in Europe. It consists in this, that the Powers interest themselves in common in certain general interests, and overcome, by means of their diplomacy, difficulties which at another period could only be terminated by force of arms. Be so good, then, General, as to demand of M. de Nesselrode if the Cabinet of St Petersburg, repudiating the principle which has prevailed for thirty years in the relations of the great Powers with each other, means to constitute itself the sole arbiter of the destinies of Turkey, and if for that common policy, to which the world is indebted for its repose, Russia means to substitute a policy of isolation and domination which would necessarily constrain the other Cabinets in the approaching crisis to consult only their own interests, and to act only with a view to their private views.” Russia did not choose to comprehend the full significance of that intimation; and though she herself had often been among the first to solicit a European combination when there appeared a chance of her deriving advantage from it, she yet haughtily rejected the proposal when it crossed, or did not promote, her ambition. Her great object was to treat with Turkey without the intervention of a third party; and it was the arrogant manner in which she met the advances of the Western Powers, or rather forbade them to meddle in what she regarded as a domestic quarrel between a vassal and his master, that attracted general attention to the question, and gave it a European character. We find no point more strongly insisted on by M. Drouyn de Lhuys, in his despatches to General Castelbajac, than not permitting Russia to assume this exclusive right of dictating her will on the Oriental question. It is superfluous to say that France had no intention of excluding her from a fair share; but beyond that she would not go. Fearing the probability of a cordial union between England and France—an event which, so long as Lord Aberdeen directed the affairs of state, he would not believe possible—the whole force of the Emperor’s policy was directed to prevent it, or break it off if it had been already formed. Heretofore the Czar had fully approved the conduct of his noble friend, and we find more than once, in the papers laid before Parliament, the warm expression of imperial gratitude. Happy minister! It falls to the lot of few to be enabled to boast of such certificates of conduct as those from Louis Philippe in 1846, and from Nicholas in 1853. It is true that the excellent qualities so much admired rendered it easy for a hypocrite to overreach, and an overbearing despot to insult, England. The English and French alliance must be broken off at any cost. The insults to the French Emperor, and the French people, were still ringing in the ears of the public. The impertinencies of two members of the Aberdeen Cabinet—the wriggling of miserable sycophancy which met with the contempt it merited—when alluding to the ruler of France, were fresh in the memory of all. The invasion fever had not been entirely allayed; the old suspicions of the insincerity of the French Government, and the jealousies and hatreds which had been dormant, might again be roused. France must be isolated, and the partisans of the Orleans family, the “Fusionists,” or by whatever nickname they are known, already exulted in the shame which they invoked at the hand of a foreign despot on their own country. The Chancellor of the Russian Empire brought all his ability to the task. He accused France of ambition, and reproached her with being the cause of the quarrel by her conduct in the question of the Holy Places. The point was a sore one, as, however disingenuously it was revived by Russia, it was nevertheless a fact that the quarrel followed hard on the demands of M. de Lavalette. M. de Nesselrode, with true Muscovite candour, omitted to add that he himself had expressed his satisfaction and approbation of the fair and honourable manner in which the French Government had brought that question to an issue. That account had been finally closed. A considerable portion of the despatches of M. Drouyn de Lhuys is taken up with a refutation of those charges, and it is admitted on all hands that his refutation of them is satisfactory and complete. With the history of Russian aggression for the last century before us, the charge of ambition against another power was strange in the mouth of a Russian minister. But the capitulation of 1741, which confirmed the previous immunities of the Latin communion in the East, were not, after all, of a nature to offend or alarm any one. The sort of protectorate which they established, was not menacing to any power in Europe, inasmuch as they applied to establishments which were under the protection of all alike; whilst the Greek protectorate was of the most exclusive character, and, as has been shown in a previous article, was not religious, but political, and aimed at placing the whole Ottoman Empire at the feet of Russia.

Another point which M. Drouyn de Lhuys has handled successfully, is that which relates to the difference in the measures adopted in common by France and England, when affairs reached a most alarming point, and those which Russia, in the impatience of her ambition, adopted, at the very outset. In the despatch of the 11th June, General Castelbajac is enjoined to apprise the Russian Government of the position in which it was about to place itself with respect to the rest of Europe; to warn it that it was grievously mistaken if it counted upon allies in the realisation of its designs, and particularly upon the German states. Indeed, it was not probable that these states would see with indifference the Lower Danube in the possession of a powerful government, which might at will obstruct its navigation, and at any moment block up a commercial outlet of so much importance. The French Minister clearly showed that the conduct of Russia was in opposition to the general interests of Europe; and that the realisation of the doctrines of the Russian Chancellor meant, in point of fact, the subjugation of the weaker states to the will of one great power. The replies of M. de Nesselrode are, of course, replete with the same pacific declarations which had produced so soporific an effect on our own Government, and with solemn denials of ambitious views, which present a curious contrast with the warlike preparations which were never for a moment suspended except by difficulties independent of the will of Russia. It was soon seen that, coûte qui coûte, Russia was determined not to give way. Smooth and hypocritical, like a thief at the bar, who profits by the scantiness of the evidence at first brought against him, earnestly to protest his innocence, she became bold, insolent, and defying, like the same culprit when accumulated proofs leave no doubt of his guilt. There are some despatches that have not been inserted in the Moniteur, but we have little doubt that the omitted ones are not less moderate, less firm, and not less characterised by good sense and dignity, than those we have noticed; and if any such doubt existed, the ultimatum, which was at once followed by a complete rupture of diplomatic relations, would suffice to remove it. Towards the close of December all was over. The massacre of Sinope had taken place, and no further hope remained of obtaining any satisfactory result from a power which, in its diplomacy as its hostility, appeared to have all at once lost every sentiment of truth, justice, and humanity. The autograph letter of the Emperor Napoleon is little more than a summary of the despatch of the 25th December, of the notes addressed to M. de Kisseleff before his departure from Paris, and of the last letter of M. Drouyn de Lhuys to the French ambassador at St Petersburg.

We believe the Emperor of Russia to have been led into his present difficult position—a position from which escape, unless through a disastrous war, seems almost impossible—by the erroneous information he received with respect to the state of public feeling in France and England, from “antiquated imbecilities” of both countries. In ordinary times it would be no easy task to so impose on any person of intelligence, even much inferior to that of the Emperor Nicholas; and his facility of belief in the present instance can only be explained by the social and political complications supposed to exist in a country which has gone through so many violent changes. Under the regime of Louis Philippe, the female diplomatists of the Rue St Florentin were enabled to ascertain with accuracy, and communicate with fidelity, the secret policy of the Tuileries. In the Russian salons of Paris, the centre of the more important espionage, were nightly assembled ministers, ex-ministers, functionaries past and present, and, in fine, all who, in official parlance, were supposed to represent France. The secrets, the gossip, the scandal of every political coterie in the capital, were discharged, there, as in one common reservoir; and were thence transmitted for the information, or amusement, of the Imperial Court of Russia. The ministers of the citizen-king were too eager to propitiate the favour of the northern Court, to withhold their confidence from any of the Czar’s agents, official or non-official. The revolution of February rudely interfered with that machinery, directed by a well-known intrigante. Attendance at a half-dozen saloons no longer sufficed to obtain a knowledge of the state of the country. Whilst a dozen dowagers of the old schools, and as many retired, discontented, or broken-down statesmen, and a few amateur republicans, were indulging in reveries of a restoration, or the re-establishment of a convention, with its appendages of committees of public safety, the dream was broken by the acclamations of millions, who bestowed absolute power on the only man capable of saving them. The Cabinet of St. Petersburg could not be expected to know more about the country than those who had for so many years administered its affairs. The agents of Russia beheld the struggle that had been going on so long among political coteries, the selfish disputes of discarded placemen, and their ephemeral and hollow reconciliations; and they supposed that, because adventurers quarrelled, or political coteries made war on each other, the nation was similarly divided. The diplomatic communications of that period must be curious; and we confess we should like to be permitted a perusal of the confidential correspondence of the well-known diplomate in petticoats, who for so many years was the pet agent of the Czar, and for whom existence was valueless unless passed in the atmosphere of political intrigue, to which it had been so long accustomed. When speaking of confidential correspondence, we do not, of course, allude to those indecent libels penned daily in the French capital; and, we regret to say, with the knowledge, or under the superintendence, of persons who, though known for profligacy in private life, were the confidential companions and bosom friends of personages whose praises we have heard, even to satiety, for austerity of morals, and who are held up as samples of every public and private virtue. Those chroniclers of scandal spared neither sex, nor age, nor rank. The meanest agency was set to work to furnish amusement for the Cabinet of the Czar during his hours of recreation; and to record stories and anecdotes in the style and manner of Taillement des Réaux, the Œil de Bœuf, or the Chevalier de Faublas. With such unerring guides, it is no wonder that the Czar believed that the propitious moment was come. It was represented to him that the Court of Paris was more corrupt, more profligate, than that of Louis XV.; that all France was impoverished, degraded, and discontented, anxious to throw off the yoke of the Buonaparte, eager to receive a sovereign flung to it by any foreign despot; or, at all events, utterly incapable of resisting any encroachment, much less avenging any insult from abroad. The ruler of France, he was told, was overwhelmed by the difficulties that naturally encompass every government in its commencement. His declaration of the pacific policy of the empire was but the unwilling avowal of his weakness, and of his fears. The agitation of political parties, he believed, ruined the country, though, since 1789, political intrigues, secret societies, and conspiracies never were more powerless than at the moment we speak of. The agents who thus instructed the Emperor of Russia crowned those reports by depicting Louis Napoleon as apathetic, because they saw him calm; as hesitating and timid, because they saw him patient and moderate.

We have no doubt that the Emperor of Russia was led into similar error with respect to this country. He was assured that it had become selfish and apathetic from its unexampled prosperity; and that so opulent and so sensual a nation would never expose itself, after so long a peace, to the chances and the dangers of a long war, for the sake of maintaining the integrity and independence of an empire whose people preferred the Koran to the Bible. Their commercial prudence, the love of ease engendered by opulence, the long period of time that passed since the wars with the first Napoleon, the many important interests which have grown up since then, religious antipathy—everything, in fact—indisposed the English nation to interfere with his designs in Turkey. But the presence in the Government of a statesman, recently so ridiculed and insulted by those who were now his colleagues, believed to be a warm admirer of the Emperor of Russia, and known for his cold hatred of the Emperor of the French, was considered the most fortunate circumstance of all; it was, at any rate, a guarantee against any favourable understanding with France or her ruler. Letters, said to be from that statesman, addressed to one of the former ministers of Louis Philippe, were read in one of the principal Russian saloons in Paris, the most notorious of all for intrigues, and the resort of the leaders of every anti-national party. These letters, asserted to be genuine, are described as having alluded in terms of the greatest contempt to the person, the character, and the intellect of Louis Napoleon; and as containing declarations that, under no circumstances whatever, could England act with France so long as its present regime lasted. The scum of the Orleanist agency were sent round to circulate the news, and despatches addressed to St Petersburg repeated the same. The tone of a portion of the daily press in England with reference to France seemed to confirm those assurances, and to render the formation of a coalition against the French Emperor, in which it was hoped England would join, by no means a difficult nor an improbable task. The falsest of all these calculations was unquestionably that which represented England as labouring under an oppression of wealth, a plethora of opulence, of which indifference, timidity, and inaction were the consequences. Yet such is the description given of us to Russia by Orleanists, whose incapacity and cowardice produced the overthrow of the dynasty of July. The acquisition of wealth and power supposes the possession of great energy of character; for those qualities we have been distinguished above all other people. That we have not become wearied or satiated, the events of each day that passes over our heads prove; and whatever be the period at which we are destined to reach the declining point, and which such scribblers as Ledru Rollin and the like maintain we have attained, we ourselves believe that the fatal moment is still far distant. We have shown energy without example, since the time of the Romans, in making ourselves what we are; and we are ready to let the world see that we know how to maintain the power which was supposed to have enervated us, with more than Roman courage. With admitted social and political evils—far less, however, than any other nation on earth—we have not become corrupt or effeminate. It is not true that the extraordinary development of our public and private fortune has buried us in that shameful indolence which made the Romans so easy a prey to the barbarians. Prosperity has not made us forget or disregard our rights. The wonderful development of our railway communications and our steam navigation, the extension of our commerce, the pacification of India, the colonisation of Africa, ought to have shown the Emperor of Russia that we have not yet fallen from our high estate in the political or moral world. The mighty fleets and the gallant bands of warriors that are even now conveying to him our answer to his insolent defiance, will show him the magnitude of his error. Our courage and our activity, our resolution in council, and our sternness in execution, are in proportion to the grandeur of the interests we have to defend. Our decline, much less our fall, has not yet commenced; and if any foreign or domestic friend has persuaded Russia that we resemble the Romans in the latter days of their empire, and that we are in a condition to fall a prey to the barbarians, he is an idiot or a calumniator.

Nothing is now so clear as that the Emperor of Russia has been most grossly deceived with respect to Turkey; but it is just to admit that the error has been also shared by many who should know better. Prince Menschikoff, during his short sojourn at Constantinople, had only time to insult the Sultan and his government, but also time to rouse a spirit of resentment and resistance. The backwardness of Turkey in civilisation was taken as a proof of her weakness and her deficiency in moral courage. But, with all her shortcomings, the old Mussulman spirit still subsisted amid the ruins of her former glory. It has been said that there are qualities which are effaced or destroyed by refinement, but there are others which live without it, though the occasion may have seldom occurred to call them forth. Turkish patriotism was regarded as a byword, Turkish loyalty as a mockery; Turkish courage was more than doubtful; and nothing remained of the daring valour which, in other times, made Christendom quail before the Crescent, except that vigour of faith which once distinguished the children of the Prophet: and even that, we were led to believe, had degenerated into a brutal and ignoble fanaticism, capable of vulgar crime, but unequal to a single act of heroism. The arrogant envoy of Russia rendered an essential service, not to his imperial master, but to his intended victim. His insults roused the dormant spirit of the Mussulman. The Ottoman army was undisciplined—unprovided with the commonest necessaries; the navy was but the melancholy remnant of Navarino; the Sultan’s authority was weakened by internal abuses and disorders; his territory dismembered by the separation of Greece, and by the all but successful rebellion of Egypt. Those to whom he looked for aid or protection against his colossal foe were long cold, if not hostile to him; yet Turkey rose with a courage and a dignity which have extorted applause, and won respect, even from those who were most indisposed to her cause, politically and religiously. She summoned her children about her; appealed, not to the relentless fanaticism of their creed, but to their manlier and nobler instincts; and after making every sacrifice, every concession consistent with self-respect, to appease or disarm her unscrupulous and faithless enemy, who was bent on her destruction, drew the sword in the cause of her independence. Whilst still uncertain whether she was to maintain the struggle alone and unsympathised with, against fearful odds, she advanced to the contest with a bravery worthy of better times, and with a success which has astonished her friends as well as foes. The feelings which Prince Menschikoff believed he could most safely outrage were those which quickened the nation into life and vigour. The Emperor of Russia was astonished at a result so different from what he was led to expect. The advices which had reached him from his friends in London, Paris, Berlin, Vienna, and Constantinople, were such as might have been true some twenty years ago, but were false in 1853. France and England were said to be divided, and likely to remain so as long as a Buonaparte ruled the destinies of the former, and as long as Lord Aberdeen directed the administration of the latter. France had become exhausted by revolution, discontented with her new chief, demoralised, and rotten at the very heart;—no remedy to restore her, till the Count de Chambord, or the Count de Paris, was restored to the throne; and with England, satiated and unwieldy with unwholesome prosperity, no desire remained, no passion survived, but that of enjoying in undisturbed tranquillity what she had hardly acquired. Count Orloff has learned something at Vienna; but it does not appear that the lesson has much profited him or his imperious master.

In these multiplied and intricate transactions, in which Russia was alternately the deceived and the deceiver, there is one point in particular to which we would direct the attention of our readers. We allude to the claim made by the Porte to the intervention of the great powers in its quarrel with Russia. It is a claim based on equity and on international law, which it is impossible to dispute. Previous to 1841, Turkey was hardly looked upon as forming part of the general combination of European states in the settlement of any great international question. Rightly or wrongly, the Turks were considered less as forming an integral part of the European family of nations, than as an agglomeration of various tribes of warriors, bound together only by a common superstition and a common fanaticism; not rooted in the soil they occupied, but merely encamped on the outskirts of Christendom. The Treaties of 1841, which facilitated to France the resumption of her place in Europe, after her separation the previous year, also admitted Turkey to that general political association. That privilege or right Turkey has not forgotten in her hour of need, as we believe she would have done in her hour of prosperity; and in her appeal to the world against the pretensions of Russia, she summoned Austria, France, Prussia, and Great Britain, in the name of those solemn obligations, to come to her aid. She maintained that her participation in what is termed, in diplomatic parlance, the Concerte Européen, was recognised; and she showed, we think successfully, that henceforth all questions affecting the independence and integrity of her territory should be brought before the great tribunal of European states, and not left to the judgment of a single and an interested power. The principle of the right claimed by Turkey was admitted by the Cabinets of Vienna, Berlin, Paris, and London; and that recognition is manifest in the documents that have been made public. In the note addressed to the Austrian Cabinet on the 31st December 1853, we find this declaration:—“The multiplicity of the relations and the alliances of the Sublime Porte and of the European States, giving to it, in every respect, the right and the faculty of participating in the community which binds these States to each other, and to the security which they derive from them, the necessity will be felt of confirming and completing in that sense the Treaty of 1841, and for that it reposes on the friendly efforts of the allied Courts.” And the allied Courts, in turn, declared, “that the Russian Government, which invaded the territory of the Sultan, had placed itself in opposition with the resolutions declared by the great powers of Europe in 1840 and 1841. That, moreover, the spirit of the important transaction in which Russia took part in 1841 with the other powers, and with Turkey herself, is opposed to the pretension that the affairs of the East should be treated otherwise than in common, and in the conferences in which all these interests should be examined and discussed. And it must be well understood that every such question must be treated by five; and that it does not belong to one or to two cabinets to settle, separately or apart, interests which may affect the whole of Europe.” The allies of Turkey also added, “that the Treaty of 1841, in the meaning of which all are this day agreed, is to serve as the basis of operations. All the powers who have signed that treaty are qualified to appeal to it. We present ourselves as the defenders of that treaty, violated in its spirit, and as the supporters of the equilibrium of Europe, menaced by the power which seemed, more than any other, to have the pretension of constituting herself the guardian of it. The cause for which we are armed is that of all.” That claim of Turkey to form part of the European community is precisely the one to which Russia is inexorably opposed. Its admission would destroy the monopoly of interference and protection which the Czar wishes to maintain over Turkey, and we need not therefore be surprised at the stern refusals which the good offices of any other power have invariably encountered at St Petersburg. Russia insisted throughout that the question only regarded Russia and Turkey; it denied the right of any one to interfere, except in advising Turkey to submit to her dictates; and to the last she rejected all intervention or mediation. It is true that intervention menaced the fundamental principle on which the traditional policy of Russia is based; and the day that the Treaty of 1841 forms part of the international law of Europe, the designs of Russia on Turkey are at once arrested. Russia will then have lost all exclusive rights; and all questions of public interest affecting the Porte must be treated by all the states who have affixed their signatures to that important instrument.

We are decidedly of opinion that the view taken by Turkey of the rights created for her by this new state of things, is the correct one; and we submit that the interpretation which gives the greatest effect to the joint engagement of the four powers, is that which is most conformable to the spirit and meaning of its framers. “The important act of this Convention,” said M. Guizot in the Chamber of Peers, “is to have included the Porte itself, the inviolability of the sovereign rights of the Sultan, the repose of the Ottoman Empire, in the public law of Europe. Therein is comprised the general recognition—the recognition made in common, and officially declared—of the inviolability of the sovereign rights of the Porte, and of the consolidation of the Turkish Empire. It cannot be supposed that France would have refused to facilitate by her adhesion the execution of that act.” “The Turco-Egyptian question,” said the same minister in the Chamber of deputies, “was settled—the question of Constantinople remained. What is the object the policy of Europe has in view for a long time past with reference to Constantinople? It is to withdraw Constantinople from exclusive protection; to admit Turkey into our European law; and to prevent her from becoming the Portugal of Russia. Well, then, a step has been made towards that end. It is true that the Porte has not been secured from ambition of all kinds—from all the chances of the future; but, at all events, we have an official instrument, signed by all the great powers of Europe, which admits Turkey into the European law, which declares that it is the intention of all the great powers to respect the inviolability of the Sultan’s rights, and to consolidate the repose of the Ottoman Empire.”

There is no doubt that Russia is deeply interested in the possession of Constantinople. It is equally certain that, whenever she becomes mistress of both shores of the Bosphorus, she will, in an incredibly short time, add to her present pre-eminent military character that of a first-rate commercial and maritime power. The populations that would then acknowledge the supremacy of the Knout would be over eighty millions; and the seventy millions of Christians professing the Greek faith would bow their necks to the political and religious autocrat. Russia would then indeed hold at her girdle the keys of the Caspian Sea, the lake of Azof, the Black Sea, and the Mediterranean. The possession of Syria and Egypt would before long follow, as a matter of course, that of Turkey in Europe; and soon the fairest regions in the world, the most fertile shores of that inland sea, would fall under her rule. A single glance at the map will enable us to comprehend the magnificence, the vast extent, of such an acquisition; and the mind may dwell with wonder on the immensity of the new Russian Empire in Europe and Asia, and anticipate the supremacy she would gain by the conquest of Constantinople, which opens to her a path to the very heart of civilised Europe. That Russia should make gigantic efforts, and risk, as she is now risking, her rank as a first-rate Power, if not her existence, to attain such an object, is not astonishing. The fair capital that stands on the Bosphorus is the guarantee of the empire of the world. It is more than the ambition of Alexander, of Charlemagne, or of Napoleon, ever dreamed the realisation of; and if treachery or violence ever gives it to Russia, the irresistible and universal domination of Rome over the rest of the world, after the fall of Carthage, alone furnishes an example of what Russia would then become.

Russia has, by the tolerance or apathy of Europe, been singularly favoured since the seventeenth century; and she whose name was not even mentioned in the Treaty of Westphalia, which defined the limits of the great European states, has risen to gigantic proportions since then. She has invariably availed herself, as she is now ready to do, of the dissensions of the Western kingdoms; she has absorbed provinces and nations of various tongues, religions, and races; and has opened her way, through the territories of her neighbours, to the shores of two seas. Her hand it was that put an end to the existence of Poland. It was she that paralysed Sweden and Denmark; and it is by her that Persia and Turkey have been pushed on to their ruin. The history of her crimes in Poland is the same as that of her plunder in Turkey, Georgia, and Persia; and the partition of the ancient northern kingdom is now to be repeated with the Ottoman Empire. The means she employs are ever the same;—menaces and caresses by turns;—attempts at exclusive intervention;—a slow but steady system of dismemberment;—pretensions and claims, as impudently advanced as they are unfounded; then apparently withdrawn, postponed, placed in abeyance, seemingly forgotten, but never finally abandoned; revived with hypocritical humility, or with arrogance, according to circumstances; pretexts of quarrel of the most imaginary and untenable kind; intimidation mingled with seduction. Nothing is too bold, too base for her selfishness. Her princes and nobles are spies; her princesses—worse. No profligacy is too gross, no crime is too enormous, that advances by one inch the influence of “Holy Russia.” War is undertaken for no other object than to arrive at conventions ruinous to the conquered. Such is the hereditary policy of Russia; such it has been since she first assumed a standing in Europe; and we say it to our shame, that her unexampled success is in great part owing to the selfishness of some, the exaggerated fears of others, and the indifference and apathy of all the states of Europe. If England and France had but pronounced a veto in 1774, Poland might, with a reformed constitution, and an improved administration, still be an independent kingdom, and stand the barrier between the barbarism of the north and the civilisation of the west. If the Western Powers had directed their attention a little more frequently, and more earnestly to Turkey, the events against which we are now preparing might not have taken place. Even now, it is not too late; and we firmly believe that it is in the power, as we have little doubt it is the desire, of Europe, to arrest for many years the aggressive policy of Russia.

We have heard one argument advanced against our interference to save Turkey from Russia, and which seems to have made a certain impression in some quarters. We think the argument to be more specious than real; and the only reason we notice it here is, because it has been dwelt upon by persons whose opinions are in other respects entitled to consideration. We are told that it is a shame and a scandal for a civilised and religious nation to go to war in support of a barbarous and unbelieving Government. If such an argument mean anything, it must mean that England is to have no ally but such as can boast of equal civilisation, and profess the same faith as ourselves. We deny that we go to war, and in support of Turkey, in order to insure the supremacy of the Koran over the Bible, of the Crescent over the Cross, of barbarism over civilisation. We take the part of Turkey, not on religious grounds, but on political; to prevent the extension of Russia in those parts of Europe and Asia where her power would seriously endanger the vital interests of Western Europe; to maintain what is termed the balance of Europe; or, in other words, to prevent any one Power from growing to such a colossal size as that all the others would be at her mercy. We do not go to war to continue Mussulman barbarism, or to perpetuate the despotism under which the Christian populations have groaned. The conditions on which France and England afford succour to the Sultan are, that the reform long since commenced by Sultan Mahmoud, and continued by Abdul Medjid, shall be still further developed; and that the Christian subjects of the Porte, whose condition has materially improved, shall be placed on an equality with the Mussulmans. As well might it be said that our wars in Spain had for their object the protection of the Roman Catholic religion, the consolidation of the influence of the Pope, the re-establishment of the Inquisition, or the perpetuation of the stupid despotism of Ferdinand. We entered on the Peninsular war, not for such objects, but for reasons similar to those which now lead us to the East;—to rescue the Spanish territory from the grasp of a usurper, from the power of a conqueror whose ambition of universal rule was not less than that of Nicholas; to prevent the whole of Europe from falling under the dominion of a single potentate. In this country we denounce the doctrines of the Church of Rome as contrary to Scripture, and we, a Protestant Government, employed its armies in defence of a nation whose principle has been, and still is, intolerance of all other creeds but its own, and against a Government which, whatever may have been its faults, had not, at all events, religious intolerance among them. In no country is the Roman Catholic religion made to assume a more odious form than in Spain. We are told that the Turks speak of Christians as “dogs;” but, in Christian Spain, English Protestants are actually treated as dogs, or worse. We have seen, and this within a very few years, those who fought, and bled, and died in the cause of Spanish independence, flung, like offal, into a hole, or left to rot on the sea coast below high-water mark. We have, within the last few months, witnessed the tedious negotiations carried on between our Minister at Madrid and the Government in whose cause our blood and treasures have been spent with profusion, to obtain a secluded spot of earth wherein the bones of those of our countrymen, who still labour to introduce civilisation into that country, may be sheltered from pollution; and we have no cause to rejoice at its humiliating conclusion. When we are told of Turkish bigotry and intolerance, we would point to Madrid, to Naples, and to Tuscany. Turkish honour and Turkish fidelity to engagements will not suffer by a comparison with the Government of her most Catholic Majesty, as we presume those Englishmen who have had anything to do with it will be ready to admit. We are not of opinion that the barbarism of the Turks is greater than that which may be found in many parts of the Spanish peninsula; and those who have travelled into the interior of both countries may bear witness to the fact that her Catholic Majesty’s subjects, with the exception of the large towns, cannot be surpassed by any others in ignorance, sloth, and bigotry. Corrupt as the Turkish Government may have been, and badly administered as the country unquestionably is, we doubt whether the general run of Spanish statesmen have exhibited much more probity, integrity, and talent in government, with all the advantages of our example; and, in the matter of private morals, we think we could point out Spanish sovereigns who, with all their piety and attachment to Catholicism, have not much to boast over Sultan Abdul Medjid. We are not of opinion that, as respects mere civilisation, the Russian serfs are superior to the Turks. We have no evidence that Russia has made any improvement within the recollection of the present generation; while it is undeniable that, within the same space of time, Turkey had made, and is still making, material progress in its administration. Since the time of Mahmoud, Turkey—though, of course, still far behind France and England—has effected immense ameliorations in all matters connected with internal navigation, with her military and naval establishments, and her political and judicial administration; and, from the great improvement that has taken place in the condition of her Christian populations, we are confident that, before long, she will realise the wish of Mahmoud, and those populations will be placed on a footing of political equality with the Mussulmans. We doubt whether all these things can be stated of Russia.

The Grand-duke Michael is said to have predicted the dismemberment of the Russian Empire soon after the death of the present autocrat. Whatever be the claims of that prince to the character of a prophet, it is evident that Russia is now approaching a more important crisis. Russia will give way, or she will not. If the former, her prestige is gone, and the pettiest Continental kingdom may regard her with indifference. If the latter, a more terrible fate may await her, for she can scarcely resist all that is powerful in Europe combined against her. Russia has been to Europe, for the last forty years, what a ball remaining in an old wound is to the limb of a veteran. Every change of temperature, the heat of summer, the cold of winter, produces uneasiness and pain. The ball must now be extracted; the wound must now be entirely closed up, that we may be all at rest.

Since the preceding pages were written, a “Confidential correspondence” has been brought to light, which no longer leaves any mystery in this once incomprehensible question. Our readers will find these important documents, and the indefensible conduct of the Ministry in the matter, fully discussed in the concluding article of this Number.

LIFE IN THE SAHARA.

Tired of poetical criticism, in which we last month so freely indulged, and turning with satisfaction from the political disquisitions now going through the press for the benefit of our sorely-perplexed countrymen, we feel disposed, cutting both poetry and politics, fairly to fly our shores, and recreate ourselves and readers in some less troubled quarter of the earth. Among the host of new books on our table, redolent of Cossack and Turk, Cross and Crescent, and here and there interspersed with cabalistic-looking titles, which, we are requested to believe, signify the “Doom of Turkey,” or the “Drying up of the Euphrates”—lo, there peeps forth one of a more pacific hue. There, lustrous on its boards, rises the feathery palm-tree of the Desert,—the Arab tent,—the camel; and what an emblem of peace is that cross-legged Oriental, smoking his long pipe, imperturbable as a statue! Sedit æternumque sedebit. We open the book, and, amidst the intricacies of a very long title, catch the piquant words—“Wanderings in the African Sahara.”^[10] How we feel the breezes of the Desert come around us!—the freedom,—the expanse,—the wild novelty of the scene;—the heaving motion of the camel beneath us,—the flashing spears and pennons of the escort, as they whirl in mimic warfare around. Away into the Desert! with a sea of rigid white sand beneath, and a twin sea of glowing light above! On, over the waste, till the glare of day is done, and the cool breeze comes forth, and all the stars of night,—and we kiss our hand to the moon “walking in brightness,” and say, with Southey,

What mystery hangs over this last-born of continents! whose plains are sea-beds, at whose vast upheaval the waters of ocean must have rushed furiously in all directions to regain their level. A land of mystery, from the days of Herodotus until now. How we long to join those yearly caravans, which, after leaving behind them the whole northern region of the coast, travel for sixty days southwards through the burning Sahara,—reaching springs but once a-week,—crossing alternately now mountain-ridges, now seas of sand; until, passing from oasis to oasis, they at length penetrate into the region of Soudaan,—the heart of Africa, the death-place of Clapperton, and Richardson, and Overweg,—and behold the great central lake of Tchad, the most inaccessible point on the globe, yet to within a few miles of whose shores the dying energies of Clapperton brought a boat,—whose waters have been navigated by his European comrade, and on whose bosom, perchance, that bark still floats, with the flag of England flying from its mast!

Such were the quick musings of the moment of imaginative pleasure which elapsed, as we cut open preface and contents, and plunged into the book itself. In a trice, the argument of the book is plain to us. After a residence of several years on the shores of North Africa—during which time he seems to have mastered the various dialects of the Arab tribes, and of course studied their manners—Mr Davis, the reverend author, catches sight of an excellent opportunity for visiting the interior. “Sidy Mohammed Bey,” he says, “the heir-apparent of the throne of Tunis,—a prince possessed of excellent qualities, among which extreme kindness and affability are not the least prominent,—was on the point of making a journey into the interior, in order to regulate some public affairs; and, upon application, he very kindly took me under his immediate protection.”

On the sixth day after starting, they came to a good deal of broken country,—traversed several dry beds of rivers,—and crossed a number of rugged heights, rent into strange shapes. Marching through an opening in one of these minor ridges, they passed at once from a beautiful plain into the wild and ragged outskirts of the great chain of Gebel Waslaat, celebrated for the warlike character of its ancient inhabitants. “At a little distance,” says Mr Davis, “these famous and romantic heights have a most lovely appearance, resembling the vineyards of Spain and of the south of France;” but on a nearer approach, he found—as on many other occasions during the expedition—that it was only distance that lent to them their enchanting look. The Arabs of the coast look upon this region as perhaps the blackest spot in all creation; and you may as well call one of them a devil as a Waslaati. They relate that this part was at one time inhabited by a very wicked people, and that the Pharaoh under whom the Israelites were in bondage, and who received such signal chastisement, was a native of these mountains. The Mohammedan doctors go still further, and assert that it was upon this Gebel Waslaat that Eblis (Satan) was hurled down, after his expulsion from the regions of light and happiness; and that it was in these mountains that he took up his first earthly abode.

Leaving these ill-omened mountains to the west, they journeyed south-eastwards, for two days, through a plain, which, says Mr Davis, “for this part of the world, must be pronounced a luxuriant one.” It is pretty well cultivated, and is watered by a river which has its source in the Waslaat mountains. They then encamped for a couple of days in the vicinity of Cairwan, the “city of saints.” “At a short distance,” he says, “this, like every other Mohammedan city of any note, has a fine appearance, but as one approaches, its beauty vanishes. Crooked and filthy streets, ruined and dilapidated houses, wretched shops and miserable hovels, are too glaring not to attract one’s attention.” The city is surrounded by a wall in pretty good condition, and has a garrison of regular as well as of irregular troops. Outside are large cisterns, supplementing the reservoirs with which the houses within are furnished for collecting rain-water; and, still more remarkable, though much less useful, the tomb wherein repose the holy remains of Saint Shaab, “the Prophet’s barber.”

After a two days’ halt, they left behind them the plain of Cairwan, and began to approach the borders of the Sahara. On the day after starting, the Prince’s party was met by the “noble and highly-favoured” tribe of Arabs, the Dreeds (who are allowed to sit in presence of a prince, whilst every other Arab is obliged to stand), headed by their kaid or governor, Smeeda Ben Azooz. “Smeeda himself was mounted on a magnificent grey steed, whose saddle appeared to be of a solid mass of gold, so richly was it embroidered; and the other trappings were also sumptuously adorned with gold and silver. He rode in advance, and the hundred Dreeds who followed him were on horses not much inferior to that of their proud and haughty chief. When within about a hundred yards of the Prince, Smeeda dismounted, and approached on foot to kiss his hand. On resuming his seat in the saddle, he took up his position to his master’s left, whilst his attendants fell back in the rear of our party.”

The Prince was enthusiastically fond of hunting. Every day, when he had the opportunity, he was engaged in it. The chase of gazelles was his favourite sport, and it was one in which success was neither easily nor frequently achieved. “It is a grand sight,” says Mr Davis, “to behold these slender-limbed and feeble-looking tiny creatures defying the most spirited horse in speed. When pursued, they actually often stopped to nibble the grass,—as if to challenge the rider and ridicule his efforts, and treat him, his horse and hounds alike, with contempt.” They were frequently seen in companies of about twenty together. On the day after Smeeda and his Dreeds joined the expedition, a great many gazelles were chased by the Prince’s cavalry and the Arabs, but not a single one was killed. This, it is alleged, was owing, firstly, to the rough and broken character of the soil; secondly, to the burning heat which prevailed; and thirdly, the shirocco wind, which sometimes, as it blew in their faces, seemed as if it carried along with it flames of fire, and caused the riders to check the speed of their horses. But to compensate the party for their bootless efforts, Smeeda sent his servants for his well-trained hawks.

“In half an hour about twenty of these birds of prey, of an unusually large size, were brought, accompanied by several Dreeds, expert in hawking. Smeeda,—who is rather a short, but very corpulent man, with a handsome face, ornamented by a fine black, neatly-trimmed beard, and most penetrating dark eyes,—was this day mounted on a beautiful white horse, decked out with the same saddle and trappings his grey horse exhibited the day before. The dress of the rider was elegant and rich in the extreme. As soon as he had protected his hands from the talons by gauntlets, partly covered with plates of gold, a hawk was handed to him by one of his attendants. He undid the hood which confined the head of the bird, and prevented his quick eye from beholding the objects around. In an instant the hawk was seen soaring up to the sky. Another and another followed, and in this manner about twelve or fifteen were despatched. A few seconds elapsed, when one after the other pounced upon his prey. Hares and rabbits, partridges and other birds, were thus secured in abundance. The servants were busily engaged running in all directions to secure both the hawks and the prey,—the former, in order to adjust their hoods for a short time previous to being despatched again; and the latter, ‘to cut the throat’ before life is extinct, so as to render them lawful food for the true believer.”

In connection with this love of the chase, we must mention an incident which occurred as the expedition was approaching Cairwan, and which shows how little prevalent is any rule but the “law of the strongest” in those quarters, and how naturally men take to deceit as a refuge against lawless force. Mr Davis and some others of the party came to half-a-dozen Arab tents, where, to their great surprise, a general stillness and gloom prevailed. The men and children sat on the ground with an air of profoundest melancholy; whilst the women, usually so active, were resting from their labours, and exhibiting grief by floods of tears.

“‘What has happened, Ali, that you are all so much cast down?’ asked one of our party, addressing an old man.

‘Such is the will of God,’ was the only reply.

‘But what has happened, Ali?’

‘Maktoob,—it is so preordained!’ answered the old man, shaking his head, and clasping his hands.

‘Has any one died?’

To this he only replied with a sigh, and pointed us to the interior of his tent. But instead of participating in his grief, my friend abruptly asked him,—Where is the sloghi (greyhound) of last year?’

‘How can you put such a question to me, when you witness my grief and distress?’

‘Who, then, is dead?’ pursued my inquisitive companion.

‘My wife!’ replied the old Arab, again pointing us to the interior of the tent, where apparently she lay, covered with a kind of blanket.

‘But what have you done with the lovely (greyhound)?’

Old Ali now indignantly expressed his surprise that such a question should be put to him at a time when his mind was so differently occupied. He thought it manifested hard-heartedness, if not cruelty.

‘But are you sure your wife is quite dead?’

‘Do not mock me, O Moslems!’

The interrogator then called a soldier, who happened to be near, and gave him his horse to hold, while he himself ruthlessly entered the tent. On removing the blanket, he found the Arab’s wife, all alive, and holding the pet sloghi in her arms. On being thus detected, the poor woman cried out most beseechingly, ‘Do not take the dog!’ and the whole company, men, women, and children, most imploringly re-echoed the cry.

The intruder then turned to old Ali, and with an ironical smile said,—‘You see your dear wife is not quite dead!’”

The Prince, as we have said, was a keen sportsman, and not one of his dogs could compare with Ali’s sloghi; but his veneration for justice predominated even over his love of the chase. “Ali is rich,” said he, when the hound was brought to him, “and money will not tempt him, else I would gladly offer it him. Send the sloghi instantly back!”

The day after the junction of Smeeda and his noble Dreeds, the expedition entered the district of the Majer,—a tribe (numbering 200 tents, or 1200 souls) of a peculiarly rascally character, and the larger portion of whose scanty resources is obtained by the robbery and murder of travellers. For these outrages they are rarely brought to account, save when the Prince, or other representative of the Regency of Tunis, makes a tour in person among the tribes. On the present occasion they had a heavy debt to pay,—the value of a life, in the Desert, being generally reckoned at from twenty-five to thirty camels. Within the precincts of this tribe are the ruins of Spaitla, the ancient Sufetula; and, by the favour of the Prince, our author set out to visit them. Under the guidance of the Majer chief, and escorted by twenty soldiers well mounted, and armed to the teeth—after a gallop over a beautiful plain, and thence crossing a district of hill and dale, “all covered with verdure, and occasionally bordering upon the picturesque,” Mr Davis and his party arrived at the ruins. On their first approach all was perfectly still. Not a sound but their own was audible, save the rippling of a brook which glides past the ruins on their north-eastern side. Not a human being was to be seen, either among the ruins or in their vicinity; and even animal life seemed to have for ever departed from the sombre walls and mansions of the ancient Sufetulans. But such was not really the case. In the holes, caverns, and clefts of the rocks on which the city stands, were dispersed numbers of the followers and subjects of the Majer chief. From their dwellings they issued forth imperceptibly to the travellers. And most unpleasant company they must have been; for, says our author, “all the corrupt ramifications of the human heart,—all the vile actions of which man is capable, could be traced, and that distinctly, in the features of these sons of Ghiath.”

The situation of this ancient city is delightful. It is built upon an eminence, commanding a panoramic view of an expanse of country which, even in its present barren and deserted condition, has a charming aspect. Wild olive, juniper, and almond trees in abundance stud the banks of the brook. Of the place itself, Mr Davis says, “I had no conception of the extent of the ruins to be found here; so that my companions, as well as myself, were absolutely amazed on beholding the magnificence of some of them. As I viewed these from some angles, I could almost fancy myself again on the majestic ruins of Baalbec.” He especially notices a sumptuous triumphal arch of the Corinthian order, with a lesser arch on each side. From this he proceeded to three temples,—upon which time, and the innate destructive disposition of the Arabs, have left evident traces. “Parts are in a most dilapidated condition, yet it is surprising to meet with so much which, with very little trouble and expense, might easily be restored to its former grandeur. The front and entrance to the temples are in ruins, and large masses of stone are lying about in all directions, and block up the ingress; but the backs, which face the triumphal arch, are in capital repair.”

On his return from visiting the ruins of Spaitla, our author and his companions, miscalculating the movements of the main body of the expedition, found themselves very much out of their reckoning. Night came on,—their guide, the Majer chief, disappeared at the very time his presence was most required; and what with the fear of his rascally tribe before their eyes, as well as of the wild beasts of the desert, the night which the little party had to pass on the sands before they could rejoin the main body was anything but a comfortable one.

Lions are common in these parts, and their tracks were occasionally visible; but the king of beasts nowhere appeared in person, and the Prince, who longed to try his skill on this lordly tenant of the wastes, was balked of his sport. Hyenas are likewise to be met with; and the manner in which they are taken by the Arabs in these parts is very peculiar. Its subterranean abode, it appears, is so narrow as not to permit of the animal turning about in it; and hence, to use the Arab phraseology, it has “two doors,” by one of which it enters, and by the other goes out. The Arabs, lying perdus in the vicinity of one of these dens, watch the particular hole by which the hyena enters, and then proceed to place a strong rope net over the opposite hole,—whilst one of their fraternity, skilled in the business, and prepared with a rope, works his way in by “the door” which the animal has entered. As he nears the brute (which cannot turn upon him), he “charms it,” according to our author’s informants, saying,—“Come, my dear little creature; I will lead you to places where many carcases are prepared for you,—plenty of food awaits you. Let me fasten this rope to your beautiful leg, and stand quiet whilst I do so.” This sentence, or something very similar to it, is repeated till the operation is effectually achieved; when the daring son of the Sahara begins to gore the brute with a dagger, till he is forced to rush out, when he is caught in the net, and either killed on the spot or carried off alive. If any blunder happens, however,—as is sometimes the case—through which the hyena is enabled to struggle and re-enter its abode, the “charmer,” in spite of his charming, falls a victim to its savage rage, and frequently his companions can scarcely contrive to get clear without feeling something of its effects.

The powerful Hamama tribe was the next which our travellers fell in with,—two hundred of this tribe coming to pay their respects to the heir-apparent of the throne, and escort him to the city of Cafsa. “There was much in their appearance,” says Mr Davis, “to make me regard this tribe with a great degree of interest. They are genuine Arabs, and of this they are very proud. ‘Their hand is against every man, and every man’s hand is against them.’ An officer from the reigning sovereign of Tunis, (who has just joined our expedition) with a number of cavalry soldiers, is now amongst them, in order to enforce a fine of 2000 camels, for murders and other outrages committed by these genuine descendants of Ishmael. They are at enmity with the Dreeds, jealous of the Farasheesh, and almost constantly at war with the Mamshe—a tribe inhabiting the western borders of the regency, quite as powerful and as full of pretensions as their own.” As seldom more than thirty camels are ever demanded for a single life, these two thousand camels symbolise upwards of sixty murders committed by this tribe, and known to the Government!

His Highness the Prince made his entry in grand style into Cafsa,—the Mamlooks on their choice horses, and in their best uniforms—a native band playing their national tunes—a host of unfurled banners—and at the wings several companies of cavalry. In all, including the various tribes that had joined, the camp now amounted to no less than 30,000 men, about 50,000 camels, and 2000 horses and mules! “A just estimate of the size of the expedition,” says our author, “can only be formed by viewing it from some eminence as it is moving along, either in some large plain, or over the seas of sand which now and then it is traversing. Often have I taken my position on a little hillock, and could see nothing for miles before me or behind but the living masses which composed the inhabitants of our canvass city. How similar to this must have been the marching of the Children of Israel in the wilderness, on their way from Egypt to the Promised Land!”

The morning was lovely as they approached Cafsa. Not a speck could be discovered in the sky, and everything around seemed to have an aspect of contentment and cheerfulness. The city is surrounded by gardens, gay with clusters of date, olive, lemon, orange, pomegranate, pistacchio, and other fruit trees. “In walking among these gardens, richly watered by a delicious brook, which has its supply from two fountains, one within the citadel, and the other in the centre of the city, a stranger can imagine himself in some more temperate region, and among a people more advanced in civilisation.” But on entering the city, the charm (as usual) vanishes. Cafsa is the ancient Capsa, (built three hundred years before Carthage), the stronghold of Jugurtha; of the inhabitants of which place Florus says, “They are in the midst of their sands and serpents, which defend them better from those that would attack them than armies and ramparts would.” Marius, however, after some adroit manœuvring, pounced upon and took the city;—and as the inhabitants were strongly attached to the Numidian prince, the Roman general, after giving the place up to be plundered by his soldiers, levelled it with the ground, and put the inhabitants to the sword, or sold them as slaves. The modern city, built on the ruins of the ancient one, is situated upon a rising ground, and has a population of about three or four thousand inhabitants. Within it there is a spring, the waters of which, at their source, are tepid, but are considerably cooled in the large basin into which they discharge themselves. This is in all probability the Tarmid of Edrisi and the Jugis aqua of Sallust. A small kind of fish, about two or three inches in length, is to be found in this slightly tepid basin.

The capture of one of the Hamana tribe at this place, who had been “preaching up a kind of crusade against the Government, and instilling Chartist principles,” (!) not unnaturally suggests to Mr Davis the recollection of certain cases of capital punishment which he had witnessed at Tunis. One of these he thus describes:—

“A crowd near the Carthagenian gate attracted my attention, and on inquiry I found that the five or six hundred persons had assembled to see the sentence of their despot carried into execution. In a few minutes six hambas (policemen) made their appearance on the wall, some forty yards distant from the gate, and about thirty feet in height, leading two culprits, whose hands were pinioned in front. They stepped firmly, and seemed quite callous and indifferent about their doom. The hambas set at once about their work. They fastened ropes round the necks of the criminals, which they secured to the battlements, on the wall. No ecclesiastic was present to administer any religious consolation; but the executioners now and then ejaculated the words, Maktoob, ‘it is so predestinated,’ and Hacka yehab rubby, ‘such is the will of God.’ When desired to take the position pointed out to them, they did so without manifesting the slightest reluctance, or exhibiting the least symptom of fear. Each took his seat between two of the battlements, their feet hanging over. They looked for a moment on the crowd beneath; and when one of the hambas desired them to pronounce their creed, they cried out, ‘O Moslems! pray for us.’ Then, turning their eyes heavenwards, they pronounced in a clear, distinct, and audible voice, the words,’There is no God but God, and Mohammed is his apostle.’ When the last word was uttered, the executioners pushed them simultaneously off the wall, and thus the wretched men were launched into eternity. The conduct of the assembled spectators was very orderly—indeed, grief seemed depicted on every countenance.”

In Mohammedan law, sentences, whether capital or otherwise, are no sooner pronounced than they are carried into execution. There is a delectable variety in the modes of exit from this world, which the law prescribes for capital offenders. Arabs are generally hanged, seldom decapitated; Turks are mostly strangled; Jews are dealt with after the manner of Arabs. Women are drowned; and the higher classes, and princes, enjoy the privilege of being poisoned. In some few cases, criminals are sentenced to be burned. One mode of death—which we Europeans regard as rather an honourable one—is regarded by the Koran-readers and the orthodox portion of the community as heterodox in the extreme. A knowledge of Roger Bacon’s invention, gunpowder, never having been vouchsafed to the Prophet in any of his revelations, the Faithful, of course, are unable to find a single passage in the Koran to justify sentencing a soldier to be shot. But in this, as in many other instances, the common sense or convenience of the Pasha leads him to deviate from the Cadi’s opinion, and to overrule the Sharrah.

On leaving Cafsa, our travellers found themselves fairly in the Sahara. “As the day advanced,” says Mr Davis, “the heat increased, and by noon became almost intolerable. Besides the excessive heat of a burning sun, we had to endure the noxious influence of the southerly wind, which, fortunately for us, did not blow with all its wonted fury. Its effect, however, was apparent, not only on myself, but also on some of my friends. The weakness and lassitude these combined agencies produced, manifested themselves by the perfect stillness and sullenness which prevailed in every group of travellers, as they either walked or rode along. The heat it collected in its sweep across the burning sands, it now freely vented on us,—and that to such a degree that some of its puffs actually resembled in their effects the flames issuing from a furnace.” No wonder that the Psylli of old should have attempted the extermination of so destructive a tenant of the waste! This nation, says Herodotus, who in ancient times inhabited a district bordering on the Regio Syrtica, having once had all their reservoirs of water dried up by the south wind, advanced into the Sahara in order to make war upon it; but the enemy, defying bow and arrow, opposed them by blowing with extreme violence, and raised such clouds and torrents of sand that the poor Psylli were overwhelmed, and all of them perished! What African traveller does not regret that the victory was on the side of the noxious element!

Mr Davis never saw the Simoom in its full and dreadful force, nor did he witness any of those astounding exhibitions of sand-columns, circling in numbers over the surface of the desert, and overwhelming everything that come in their way, that Bruce once gazed upon with awe and wonder. But of snakes and scorpions, and suchlike poisonous inhabiters of the Desert, our author had his fill. On one occasion, when about to encamp, they found the ground literally covered with snakes, whose bite, the Arabs say, is certain death. “Happily for man,” said one of Mr Davis’s companions, “these reptiles have not the benefit of sight;—had they not been deficient in this, the world could not have existed, as these enemies of man would undoubtedly have extirpated him from the face of the earth! So powerful is their sting, that they have been known to have penetrated the large iron stirrup of the Hamama.” The snake thus alluded to—and we need hardly say, our readers may take the description cum grano salis—is the liffa or liffach,—a reptile about a yard in length; and the account which the Arabs give of the death of those who have been bitten by it tallies very closely with the description which Lucan gives of the death of Nasidius in the same locality:—

The next place the expedition reached was Tozar,—a town fairly in the Sahara, and beyond even the farreaching sway of the old Dominos rerum and their redoubtable Legionaries. “Before Tozar,” says our author, “there are a few hillocks, dotted with some majestic palm-trees; affording a delightful shade: and the silvery rivulet, winding its way among these in devious directions, adds to the charm of the scene. As we approached, we found the hillocks and the trees literally covered with men, women, and children,—assembled to witness the entry of Prince Mohammed and the camp, with their shrill notes of lo-lo-lo-lo!” Tozar, like the other cities of the Sahara, is in one important feature different from those on the coast. Generally speaking, the streets of all the towns of Barbary, like those in Egypt and Syria, are exceedingly narrow, so that one camel, laden with wood or merchandise, is sufficient to obstruct the thoroughfare. But in the towns of the Sahara the streets are generally very wide,—the object of which is, to allow the furious winds of the Desert, charged with immense masses of sand, to sweep clean through, instead of being checked in their course, and therefore blocking up the streets with their noxious deposit. From these sand-storms of the desert, the coast-towns have little to fear, on account of the intervening mountain-chains robbing those terrible visitants of their deadly burden; and accordingly the inhabitants of the Barbary towns can afford to build their streets very narrow, so as to exclude the fierce rays of the sun,—a luxury which their southern brethren dare not indulge in.

The population of Tozar amounts to about five thousand,—for the most part of a swarthy complexion, with a cast of features bordering upon that of the Negro. Indeed every fresh stage one makes in the journey into Central Africa, a gradual change is perceptible in the features and complexion of the population,—the white man, by a slow but invariable process, changing into a Negro. “Were it possible,” says Mr Davis, “to introduce into Europe an ethnological collection, classified latitudinally, from the northern coast to Central Africa, the greatest sceptic might be convinced of the fact, that time and place alone made our coloured fellow-creatures what they are. The slave-dealer, and the Negro-dealer, might thus have an ocular demonstration of the great truth, that the black man is our brother, and that circumstances alone, with the nature of which we are not fully acquainted, made him to differ from us.” He mentions, as an additional proof of this, that even among the Jews (who, he says, “have probably lived in this part of Africa from the time the Phœnicians first settled here”) a striking difference is perceptible between those on the coast and those residing in the interior. He adds the curious fact, that in the desert the Jews certainly do not live for many centuries; and thence deduces the conclusion, that if its influence is so clearly shown in them, both as regards colour and features, it is not to be wondered that it should have told to a much greater extent on those to whom the Sahara has been a home for thousands of years. Of all these vari-coloured sections of the North African population, the most merry and gay are unquestionably the Negroes, whether male or female. To ask a Moor or an Arab if he danced, would be to offer him a serious insult—the former especially being too grave to have a regard even for music. But the black people are almost always cheerful, and enjoy life even when in a state of bondage. “Often have I seen them,” says Mr Davis, “congregated by hundreds in some open space, singing and dancing, and playing, for hours consecutively. The ability of the Negro to accommodate himself to circumstances is surprising. What would depress and crush a white man is supported with a marvellous resignation by the black, whose light heart enables him to toil and to sing, to suffer, and yet not despair.”

Within the oasis of Tozar, and its date-forest, are half-a-dozen villages, besides four marabouts with their cupolas, around each of which are a few huts. The houses of the Desert are generally only one storey high, and are built, like those of Cafsa, of bricks, with rafters of palm-wood. The interior of the houses is as humble as their exterior. The rooms are long and narrow, with only a hole here and there to admit the light; and from the rafters of the ceiling of every apartment is suspended the stock of dates which, with milk, forms the principal articles alike of food and of commerce. It is by the sale, or rather barter, of their dates to the wandering tribes that the inhabitants of the oasis of Tozar procure for themselves wheat, barley, cloth, cattle, &c. In former times their commerce was not of so simple or so innocent description—for a flourishing business used to be done here with Tunis in human flesh. A slave was given in exchange for two or three hundredweight of dates, or at the intrinsic value of about £3; and when the rich planter’s shed was filled, he marched the unhappy objects of his purchase northwards to the coast, where they were shipped for their various destinations. “Before the abolition of slavery in the regency of Tunis,” says our author, “I have often seen caravans from this place exposing their merchandise in the slave-market of the capital, and selling them at the rate of £12 or £15 per head. But this lucrative business is now stopped, at least so far as Tunis is concerned, and loud are the complaints of the Tozarians on this subject.”

Besides the stock of dates pendant from the ceiling, the chief ornaments which decorate the rooms of the Sahara towns, are a strange medley of jars, jugs, dishes, plates, bottles, and glasses, suspended on the wall facing the entrance-door. Here they are exhibited promiscuously, totally irrespective of size, shape, colour, or order, and by the quantity of these, an estimate is formed of the wealth of the owner. A low table, a few stools made of the branches of the palm-tree, and, in some instances, a couch or divan, complete the furniture of an apartment,—and an apartment generally forms the residence of a single family. At night, sheepskins, rugs, or mats, are spread on the floor, and supply the place of beds. Every household, we may add, has one or more immense jars, into which any loose or stray dates are thrown. Within an inch or two of the bottom of these jars there is a top, by which they draw off a species of date-honey, which they use in cooking and for other purposes.

Date-honey, however, is not the only species of juice which the Tozarians obtain from the palm-trees of their oasis; for we are informed that though the devout believers in the Koran there scrupulously abstain from wine, they indulge freely in lagmi, or the juice of the palm-tree, which, when fermented, is quite as intoxicating in its effects as the beverage prohibited by the Prophet. This juice is easily obtained, and if possible still more easily prepared. At a certain season of the year, an incision is made in the tree just beneath the branches,—a jar is then so fastened as to receive the liquid as it exudes,—and, in this manner, they usually procure from a tree, during the course of a night, from a quart to a quart and a half of lagmi. When drunk immediately, this liquor tastes like genuine rich milk, and is perfectly free from an intoxicating influence; but when allowed to stand for a night, or at most for twenty-four hours—during which time fermentation takes place—“it partakes (with the exception of the colour, which is whitish) of the quality and flavour of champagne, and that of a much superior sort to what is usually offered in the British markets.” This date-tree wine is to be found in every house, and has its victims reeling through the streets of Tozar just as beer and whisky have in our streets at home. But the curious part of the matter is, that “the faithful” openly justify themselves against the charge of transgressing their Prophet’s precept. “Lagmi is not wine,” they say, “and the Prophet’s prohibition refers to wine.”

Of the social relations at Tozar, Mr Davis says:—“My first impression, on visiting several families, was such as to induce me to believe that greater domestic happiness prevailed here than in the Mohammedan cities on the coast. The females are not kept in distinct and separate apartments, nor do they even cover their faces when in the presence of strangers, but appear perfectly free, and seem exceedingly affable.” A closer examination, however, sufficed to show that the regulations of Mohammedanism in regard to females produced very much the same results here as elsewhere. Marriage is usually contracted very early,—so that it is no uncommon thing to see boys of thirteen and fourteen in possession of wives of eleven or twelve, or even younger; and the result, here as elsewhere, is, that girls of twelve look as old as European females do at twenty, and at thirty they are almost fit to be placed on the retired list. Indeed, as Colonel Dow in his Ferishta says, polygamy in the East is founded very much on natural causes, as, owing to early marriages, and the effects of the climate, a man there keeps his vigour long enough to see two or three wives bloom and fade in succession. Moslems consider it wrong, and even sinful, if a man has reached his twentieth year without marrying. The young couple are joined together on the good faith of their parents or relations; for they are not permitted to see each other before the nuptial night. Certain persons, however,—generally old women, relatives of the parties—are sent from the man, who examine the lady, and bring him back a report of her bodily accomplishments. If the man finds himself disappointed, he has a right to send her back to her parents, without restoring to her the portion that was promised her,—or rather, the price that was to be paid for her, as the wife is bought by the husband. The young damsels, it must be allowed, take all pains to avoid so lamentable a catastrophe. “Excessive obesity,” says Mr Davis, “is considered the perfection of female beauty among the Mohammedans on the coast; hence a young woman, after she is betrothed, receives gold or silver shackles upon her hands and wrists, and is fed so long till these are filled up. A kind of seed called drough, and their national dish coscoso, are used for the purpose. The young lady is literally crammed, and some actually die under the spoon.”

These African beauties, it would appear, are subject to strange fantasies and superstitions. The Jenoon, or devil, we are told, sometimes causes a lady to fancy some article of dress or jewellery; and until her husband (for the lady is always a married one) procures her the article, the Jenoon torments her in a most pitiless manner. But the tormentor is not satisfied by the lady obtaining the article. He must have something for himself, in return for the trouble he takes in the matter,—and that something is nothing less than a splendid feast exclusively of ladies. Our reverend author, however, by special favour, was once present at a feast of this kind at Nabil, the ancient Neapolis; and as the spirits do not seem to have stood much in awe of “the cloth,” he is able to furnish us with the following account of this Jenoon or devil feast:—

“The room in which it was celebrated was beautifully illuminated, and surrounded with ottomans, upon which the ladies, amounting to forty, were luxuriously reclining, and amongst them the lady possessed by the Jenoon. All of them were beautifully dressed, and none of them, judging from their appearance, were more than forty years of age, though some of them were still in their teens. After I had been there a few moments, supper was brought in; and coscoso, the favourite dish of Barbary, was of course not excluded. They all sat down on the ground, and some with wooden spoons, whilst others with their hands, partook freely of the repast. I was invited to join them, which I did, and had also the pleasure to be favoured with a spoon.” (We hope it was a long one!)

“After supper they all took their former places; and a band of music began to strike up some of their national tunes. All the ladies sat quiet—till of a sudden one of them, a young woman of about twenty, arose and began to dance by herself. She was soon followed by several others, who were wheeling rapidly round; and all of them worked themselves into such a frenzy that from weakness they dropped to the ground, where they lay, till, recovering their strength, they recommenced their madness. This lasted a considerable time. The lady with the Jenoon was sitting quietly on the ottoman. When the visitors had finished their amusement, she started up, and followed their example; and when she, like the others, was stretched on the floor, one of the spectators arose, and asked what article she fancied,—to which she made no reply. The former then named several articles of dress, asking whether she wished any of them; and when the article which the Jenoon lady desired was mentioned, (I believe a shawl), she suddenly started up,—and this was the signal that the Jenoon feast was considered as ended.”

When Barbary ladies play the Jenoon with their husbands at this rate, it is not to be wondered at that a separation from such fantastic spirits should be placed within easy reach of the man. Barbary husbands, at least if they be Moslems, can take back their divorced partners after a first divorce, but not after a second, unless—strange provision!—she has in the interim been married to another man. A husband may oblige his divorced wife to nurse any infant she has borne him, until it is two years old; and no man can marry a divorced woman sooner than four months and a half after her total separation from the former husband. The facility with which a divorce can be procured in Northern Africa, even for the most trivial causes, cannot be otherwise than most pernicious to the social welfare of the community. Mr Davis narrates the following anecdote in illustration of this ridiculous as well as most mischievous license:—

“A servant of mine of the name of Ali, once very pressingly applied for leave to go out for a short time. It was not my custom to inquire into the nature of his business, but, on that occasion something unaccountable prompted me to put the question,—‘And where are you going to, Ali?’

“Holding up a piece of paper, he very coolly answered,—‘To give my wife this divorce; and shall soon be back, Arfi,’ (my master).

“‘To give your wife a divorce! Well, you may go; but remember, if you divorce her, I from this very moment divorce you.’

“Handing me the paper, Ali exclaimed,—‘Here, master, take it; on such conditions I shall not divorce my wife.”’

Tozar was the most southerly point which the expedition reached; and here it remained for the space of three weeks, during which time Mr Davis and his three French companions made excursions to the neighbouring oases. Accompanied by the Governor and Cadi of Nefta, with a retinue of some twenty well-mounted servants, they set out over the sands to visit that place. “Never,” says Mr Davis, “had the propriety of styling the camel the ship of the Desert been so apparent to me as this day. The whole way from Tozar to Nefta, the Desert had completely the aspect of a vast bed of an ocean, and we seemed to plough the sandy waves of the Sahara as the ship does those of the sea. The morning was rather hazy, and the sky was overcast with a number of detached small white clouds, which (particularly those along the horizon) very often assumed the form of a variety of sailing crafts; and thus added considerably to the delusion, under the influence of which we Europeans were quite willing to abide, viz. of navigating some expansive lake. By seven o’clock, however, the sun burst forth in all his brilliance; every cloud was speedily dispersed, and a clear, blue ethereal sky was stretched over us as far as the eye could reach.” When fairly launched upon the Deserts, the sameness of the scenery becomes most oppressive. Seldom is the traveller’s eye refreshed by anything in the shape of a mountain or a green plain. One sea of sand succeeds another; and were it not for an occasional mirage, which for a time diverts them, or, for the circumstance that the glaring sun and drifting sand-clouds compels them sometimes for hours together to envelop their faces in the bornoos, or cloak, so that they are able to dream of the fantastic groups of date-trees, and the gentle rivulets winding amongst them in their native land, their journey through such portions of the Desert would be the most intolerable and dreary imaginable. These alleviations, or “comforts,” as an old voyager of the Desert called them, being mere illusions, are rather calculated to vex the heart of the inexperienced traveller. But those who have been in the habit of crossing the sandy ocean from their infancy, and to whom every spot on its surface is familiar, are diverted, and even cheered by such illusions. “It is a change for them,” said one of these veteran voyagers, “and any change in a monotonous life is agreeable.”

On the present occasion, however, our travellers were embarked on a much shorter journey. A few hours’ ride sufficed to carry them over the waste, and bring them to the oasis of Nefta—of the extreme antiquity of which town the Cadi had the most assured belief. “Nefta,” said he, “was built—or, rather the foundation of it was laid—by Saidna Noah (our Lord Noah): peace be upon him! Here he discovered the first dry spot; and hence he disembarked here, and erected an abode for his family.” The inhabitants of these oases of the Desert are not without their etiquette; and on approaching the town, the Governor assumed his dignified aspect, made his entry with all possible gravity, and was no sooner seated in his own residence than the sheikhs and aristocracy of Nefta assembled to welcome him, some kissing his head, some his shoulder, some his elbow, and some the palm of his hand. The worthy Governor, however, who had a good dash of humour in his composition, loved other things better than etiquette. “No sooner was the assembly dismissed,” says our author, “than our lordly host again resumed his easy and affable manner. When the sound of the feet of the last grandee had died away, Ibrahim rose up, and assumed an attitude which might have been a subject for the study of an artist. There he stood, not unlike what I could fancy a Demosthenes, a Cato, or a Cicero, when on the point of commencing one of their thrilling orations. Ibrahim remained in that position a few seconds, and then turning to us, said, ‘I am glad to be free again. Gentlemen! you no doubt are hungry as well as myself; have you any objection to a good dinner?’”

Having despatched the dinner, which justified the host’s eulogium of it, and reposed for a few hours after their fatigues, Mr Davis and one of his companions set out by themselves to ride all round the oasis of Nefta. “All went on well at first,” he says, “and we even enjoyed our ride along the outskirts of the thick forest of magnificent and majestic date-trees, till we suddenly perceived our horses sinking beneath us. ‘Pull up! pull up!’ screamed my companion; ‘the ground is unsafe!’ We were on the brink of getting on the Kilta, a dangerous swamp, which receives the surplus waters of the head-fountain, after they have supplied the vast date-plantations. The Kilta joins the ‘Sea of Pharaoh,’ and never have I seen anything of a more delusive character. The surface of the swamp had precisely the same appearance as the solid ground; and had we been riding at full speed, we might have perished in this deceitful abyss.” The Ras Elain—“head fountain or spring,”—which is the source of the waad, or river, constitutes the charm and luxury of this delightful oasis. The spring is surrounded on three sides by hillocks, and is embowered amidst a cluster of palm-trees, so thickly and eccentrically placed that our travellers had much difficulty in approaching it so as to taste its waters. Fi kol donya ma atsh’ kaifho’,—“In the whole world there is nothing like it!” exclaimed their guide. “And I must candidly confess,” says Mr Davis, “that though he had never left the locality of his birth, he was pretty correct on this point. Never did I taste more delicious water; and we unanimously agreed that the Neftaweens might well be proud of their Ras Elain. What a boon is this spring, located as it is amidst the burning sands!”

But the great marvel of this district is the mysterious Bakar Faraoon, the “Sea of Pharaoh.” The whole tribes of the vicinity look with awe and terror upon this so-called “sea,” and superstitions innumerable are connected with it. Not only has the army of that wicked monarch after whom the sea is called, perished in it, but hosts of infidel sovereigns, persecutors of the Faithful, with their myriads of warriors, been engulfed in it, and are still sinking down its bottomless abyss! Such are the reports of the Moslems, confirmed by the weighty asseverations of our author’s learned friend, the Cadi of Nefta. “Not only have numberless armies been seen marching and re-marching on its surface by night,” said that erudite expounder of the Koran, “but repeatedly have they been seen during broad daylight. Giants on monstrously large horses, have been seen galloping about in various directions, advancing and receding, and then suddenly disappearing again in that ‘sea.’”

“‘Have you ever, my Lord Cadi, seen any of those submarine warriors?’

Cadi.—‘No, I never have.’

‘Can you mention any trustworthy person of your acquaintance who has?’

Cadi.—‘I certainly cannot.’

‘Then what evidence have you for the truth of those marvellous apparitions?’

Cadi.—‘Every one believes in all I have told you.’

‘Is it not possible that all this belief may be the result of the fevered imagination of some superstitious individual?’

Cadi.—‘It certainly is possible,—but all believe it.’”

This wonderful “sea” is a vast lake, dry for about nine months of the year, extending about seventy miles in length, by forty broad at its widest part. It receives several streamlets, such as the Ras Elain of Nefta; and, during the rainy season, the torrents from the mountains which on two sides at least adjoin it. During the winter, portions of the lake-bed retain for a short time the waters thus poured into it; but during the greater part of the year, a deposit of salt only is visible on its sandy surface. It abounds in marshes, quicksands, and trap-pits; and at no time can it be crossed save by a single route, which is pointed out by trunks of palm-trees, placed at short distances,—and hence its proper name, the Lake of Marks. Tufts of very sickly-looking grass, and mounds clothed with consumptive shrubs, fringed its shores at the time our travellers visited it; and its surface was wavy, and covered with saline incrustations. Towards the north-east part of the lake there is a kind of island, about four miles in circumference, which is covered with palm-trees. The Arabs say that those trees have grown up from the kernels left there by Pharaoh’s troops,—and this they regard as an additional proof that the Egyptian monarch and his army perished there!

At last the three weeks’ stay at Tozar drew to a close, and a most lovely night was that which preceded their departure. Mr Davis seldom indulges in scenic description; and we give the following as a rare and charming picture of a night-scene in the Desert:—

“At half-past ten, when every inmate of my establishment had retired to rest,—the tranquillity, the universal stillness, and balmy atmosphere seemed to invite me to leave my tent again. All was serene and calm without, and everything appeared to inspire the mind with serious and sober reflection.

The sultry heat of the day had now ceased, and a cool northerly breeze gently waved the branches of the stately palm-trees. The darkness gradually vanished before the bright rays of the moon, whose silvery light streamed through the forest; and in a few minutes, she rode high above the loftiest of its countless trees, and by her splendour and brilliancy so illuminated every object around, that day appeared again perfectly restored. And the stars, too,—

vied with each other in lustre, to contribute to the magnificence of this majestic scene,—to add dazzling refulgence to the prodigious theatre exhibited for the admiration of wondering man!

“Here we have our white canvass city, and, a little beyond it, the sombre buildings of Tozar. Here again is the thick forest of graceful palms, with their clusters of ‘fruits of gold,’ pendant beneath their feathery branches. The rippling brook flows on in its eccentric course, bearing on its surface the reflection of the host of stars in the firmament. All nature—animate and inanimate—as far as my vision could embrace, not only declared the omnipotence and benevolence of the great Eternal, but seemed to proclaim universal peace and safety,—

“The only sound audible, besides that of the sentries, and the rippling stream close by, was the voice of a dervish or saint, who was entertaining the inmates of a tent, pitched a short distance from mine, with some extraordinary Mecca legends. I was on the point of re-entering my tent, when one of the party, attracted by the scene without, called upon his companions to behold the wonderful works of God. All obeyed; and my thin texture partition enabled me to listen to their repeated exclamations of Allah Kabeer, ‘God is great!’ Thus the Moslem, like the Christian, was led, from a survey of the stupendous works of nature, to contemplate nature’s omnipotent God.”

We need not follow the steps of the expedition as it slowly retraced its path northwards through the Desert, from oasis to oasis, till it fairly reentered the region of verdure and perennial waters. Nor can we stay, even in passing, to tell of the many French deserters who have sought refuge among the tribes and towns of the Sahara, nor of their strange adventures, nor of the hardship and death which in so many cases has overtaken them. We merely reconduct Mr Davis, with a velocity unknown to desert-travelling, back to Tunis, and there leave him. His book is a very creditable performance,—though one-half of it might have been as well written (and perhaps was so) in comfortable lodgings in London as in “My Tent” in the Balad Ejjareed. It is not a book of personal adventure. The author is a reverend gentleman, who has no ambition to rival the feats of Gordon Cumming among the lions and hippopotamuses of the African wastes; still less is he inclined to become a “free lance” in the ranks of General Pelissier’s Zouaves, and spin us thrilling tales of hairbreadth escapes, such as have lately issued from the press of Germany. But he has been a considerable time—six years—in Northern Africa, and has made himself well acquainted with the language and customs of its people,—upon which subjects we know of no writer in whom we would place more confidence. He is also well acquainted with the works of adventure and travel already published on this part of the world, and of which he very properly makes use to lend additional value or interest to his own. Indeed we think we have recognised several anecdotes in his book which we have already quoted in our pages, when reviewing the foreign works in which they originally appeared. Hence these Evenings in my Tent do not contain so much fresh matter as we anticipated; yet the substance of their pages is, on the whole, both good and readable—if we except the antiquated chapter on the Slave-trade, and a few passages where the author’s clerical habits incline him to sermonise rather more than may suit the tastes of his lay readers.

THE COST OF THE COALITION MINISTRY.

It is probable that ere these pages issue from the press, war will have been formally declared with Russia, and Great Britain will be irretrievably engaged in a contest of which it is impossible to see the termination. Already our choicest troops have left our shores for the Mediterranean, inspired by the cheers and accompanied by the blessing of many hundreds of thousands of their fellow-countrymen, who, for the first time in their lives, have witnessed so solemn yet exciting a spectacle. Already has a noble fleet sailed for the waters of the Baltic, to sweep that inland sea, and to launch its thunders against the foe. Wellnigh forty years have elapsed since such din of martial preparation has been heard. On the last occasion, Russia and Britain were combined against France—now, Britain and France are combined together against Russia. Such a struggle, so commenced, must be a desperate, but not therefore necessarily a short one. We cannot yet calculate on the part to be taken by the central powers of Europe; for, notwithstanding Lord Clarendon’s assurance that Austria is with us, we have every reason to believe that the government of that country is so closely leagued with Russia, that when compelled to throw off its appearance of neutrality, its forces will be ranged upon her side.^[11] We cannot depend upon the cordial co-operation of Prussia—which power, besides having no direct interest in the Eastern quarrel, is intimately allied with Russia, and has always acted, during times of European disturbance, with a view to its own aggrandisement. It would be folly to underrate the magnitude of the contest in which we are engaging. The re-pacification of Europe cannot be achieved without an enormous expenditure of blood and treasure, and without very considerable alterations in its territorial adjustment. The war once begun, Russia will know that she is fighting, not for the occupation of the Danubian provinces, but for the retention of the territories which she has absorbed or pillaged from her neighbours. The penalty she must pay in the event of defeat is dismemberment, and she will resist that to the uttermost.

We must not, therefore, blind ourselves to consequences, which, in so far as human judgment can go, appear to be inevitable. We may be able to disperse or even to annihilate the Russian fleets in the Baltic and the Black seas—we may be able to prevent the colossal northern power from crossing the Danube, or even beat it back from the Principalities—but the contest will not end there. We are on the verge of a general European embroilment, in which there will not only be wars, but bloody revolutions; and as we have been the first to enter, so we must be the last to withdraw. We do not say this for the purpose of checking enthusiasm—God forbid! We are already committed to the struggle; and if in the minds of any there has lingered a doubt as to the propriety of Christian intervention for the maintenance of a Mahometan power in Europe, that ought to be dispelled by the revelations recently made of the objects of the Russian ambition. The Czar is no crusader; nor is he influenced by any tender regard for the religious liberties of the Christian population dwelling beneath the government of the Sultan. He has set his eyes upon Turkey, just as Catherine in 1772 fixed hers upon Poland, and he has had the astounding effrontery to propose that Great Britain should take part in the spoliation. Here is his own proposition, as communicated to Lord John Russell, by Sir G. H. Seymour, in his despatch of 22d February 1853:—

“The Emperor went on to say that, in the event of the dissolution of the Ottoman empire, he thought it might be less difficult to arrive at a satisfactory territorial arrangement than was commonly believed. ‘The Principalities are,’ he said, ‘in fact an independent state under my protection; this might so continue. Servia might receive the same form of government. So again with Bulgaria. There seems to be no reason this province should not form an independent state. As to Egypt, I quite understand the importance to England of that territory. I can then only say that if, in the event of a distribution of the Ottoman succession upon the fall of the empire, you should take possession of Egypt, I shall have no objections to offer. I would say the same thing of Candia: that island might suit you, and I do not know why it should not become an English possession.’”

Such was the language used by the Emperor of Russia to the British minister at the Court of St Petersburg, and we really cannot imagine anything more absolutely infamous. It was a bribe, tendered evidently in the belief that it would be accepted; and the offer ought to have been at once most indignantly repelled. Was it so? We shall see presently—for the correspondence recently published is far too remarkable and momentous to be passed over with a single extract from its contents.

The Government of Lord Aberdeen, it will be remembered, acceded to office in the latter part of December 1852. On the 9th of January following, the Emperor Nicholas, at a private meeting in the palace of the Grand-duchess Helen, thus approached Sir G. H. Seymour. We shall be as short in quotation as possible; but it is absolutely necessary that the leading points of such an extraordinary transaction as this should be kept before the public view. We quote from Sir Hamilton Seymour’s despatch to Lord John Russell, then Foreign Secretary, of date 11th January 1853:—

“The Emperor came up to me, in the most gracious manner, to say that he had heard with great pleasure of Her Majesty’s Government having been definitively formed, adding that he trusted the Ministry would be of long duration.

“His Imperial Majesty desired me particularly to convey this assurance to the Earl of Aberdeen, with whom, he said, he had been acquainted for nearly forty years, and for whom he entertained equal regard and esteem. His Majesty desired to be brought to the kind recollection of his Lordship.”

Then follows the report of some expressions regarding the close amity which ought to prevail between the two countries, and their community of interests, which, being general, we may pass over: but Nicholas speedily comes to the point—

“In the mean time, the Emperor went on to say—‘I repeat, that it is very essential that the two Governments—that is, that the English Government and I, and I and the English Government—should be upon the best terms; and the necessity was never greater than at present. I beg you to convey these words to Lord John Russell. When we are agreed (d’accord), I am quite without anxiety to the west of Europe; it is immaterial what the others may think or do. As to Turkey, that is another question; that country is in a critical state, and may give us all a great deal of trouble. And now I will take my leave of you,’ which His Majesty proceeded to do by shaking hands with me very graciously.”

The Czar probably thought that he had said enough in the first instance, and that it would be prudent to allow Sir Hamilton Seymour to chew, for a day or two, the cud of thought. But that active and astute diplomatist saw that something more than common was intended, and pressed for a further explanation. The following conversation is certainly as curious as any which is recorded in the pages of history:—

“‘Sir,’ I observed, ‘your Majesty has been good enough to charge me with general assurances as to the identity of views between the two Cabinets, which assuredly have given me the greatest pleasure, and will be received with equal satisfaction in England; but I should be particularly glad that your Majesty should add a few words which may tend to calm the anxiety with regard to the affairs of Turkey, which passing events are so calculated to excite on the part of Her Majesty’s Government. Perhaps you will be pleased to charge me with some additional assurances of this kind.’

“The Emperor’s words and manner, although still very kind, showed that His Majesty had no intention of speaking to me of the demonstration which he is about to make in the South. He said, however, at first with a little hesitation, but, as he proceeded, in an open and unhesitating manner—‘The affairs of Turkey are in a very disorganised condition; the country itself seems to be falling to pieces (menace ruine); the fall will be a great misfortune, and it is very important that England and Russia should come to a perfectly good understanding upon these affairs, and that neither should take any decisive step of which the other is not apprised.’

“I observed in a few words, that I rejoiced to hear that His Imperial Majesty held this language; that this was certainly the view I took of the manner in which Turkish questions were to be treated.

“‘Tenez,’ the Emperor said, as if proceeding with his remark, ‘tenez; nous avons sur les bras un homme malade—un homme gravement malade; ce sera, je vous le dis franchement, un grand malheur si, un de ces jours, il devait nous échapper, surtout avant que toutes les dispositions nécessaires fussent prises. Mais enfin ce n’est point le moment de vous parler de cela.’

“It was clear that the Emperor did not intend to prolong the conversation. I therefore said, ‘Votre Majesté est si gracieuse qu’elle me permettra de lui faire encore une observation. Votre Majesté dit que l’homme est malade; c’est bien vrai, mais votre Majesté daignera m’excuser si je lui fais observer, que c’est à l’homme généreux et fort de ménager l’homme malade et faible.’

“The Emperor then took leave of me in a manner which conveyed the impression of my having, at least, not given offence, and again expressed his intention of sending for me on some future day.”

It is proper to subjoin Sir Hamilton Seymour’s own impressions of this interview, as communicated to Lord John Russell.

“Your Lordship will pardon me if I remark that, after reflecting attentively upon my conversation with the Emperor, it appears to me that this, and any overture of the kind which may be made, tends to establish a dilemma by which it is very desirable that Her Majesty’s Government should not allow themselves to be fettered. The dilemma seems to be this:—If her Majesty’s Government do not come to an understanding with Russia as to what is to happen in the event of the sudden downfall of Turkey, they will have the less reason for complaining if results displeasing to England should be prepared. If, on the contrary, Her Majesty’s Government should enter into the consideration of such eventualities, they make themselves in some degree consenting parties to a catastrophe which they have so much interest in warding off as long as possible.

The sum is probably this:—That England has to desire a close concert with Russia, with a view to preventing the downfall of Turkey; while Russia would be well pleased that the concert should apply to the events by which this downfall is to be followed.”

In a postscript to this despatch, we learn that the Emperor had communicated to the Austrian Minister the tenor of the above conversation. That circumstance is, to say the least of it, significant.

Five days afterwards, Sir Hamilton Seymour waited upon the Emperor, at the request of the latter, and was favoured from the imperial lips with a remarkably choice specimen of what our Irish friends denominate blarney. The Czar began by asseverating that he had not the least intention of increasing the extent of his territorial dominions. The only danger, he said, which he could foresee to Russia would arise from an extension given to an empire already too large. From this general statement he presently condescended to particulars.

“Close to us lies Turkey, and, in our present condition, nothing better for our interests can be desired; the times have gone by when we had anything to fear from the fanatical spirit or the military enterprise of the Turks, and yet the country is strong enough, or has hitherto been strong enough, to preserve its independence, and to insure respectful treatment from other countries.”

These were, we venture to think, injudicious premises on the part of the Emperor, for they are tantamount to an admission that Turkey, if left alone, was quite able to maintain its own position. We are not quite sure that the same could be said of Austria, which, but a few years ago, owed its integrity to the intervention of Russian bayonets. Be that as it may, the Emperor went on to state that he had the right of surveillance over some millions of Christians in the Ottoman empire—a right which he regarded as a duty, but used sparingly, because it was “attended with obligations occasionally very inconvenient.” And then we arrive at a statement, quite inconsistent, we think, with what had gone before.

“Now, Turkey, in the condition which I have described, has by degrees fallen into such a state of decrepitude, that, as I told you the other night, eager as we all are for the prolonged existence of the man (and that I am as desirous as you can be for the continuance of his life, I beg you to believe), he may suddenly die upon our hands (nous rester sur les bras); we cannot resuscitate what is dead: if the Turkish empire falls, it falls to rise no more; and I put it to you, therefore, whether it is not better to be provided beforehand for a contingency, than to incur the chaos, confusion, and the certainty of a European war, all of which must attend the catastrophe if it should occur unexpectedly, and before some ulterior system has been sketched? This is the point to which I am desirous that you should call the attention of your Government.”

We had better give in extenso the conversation which immediately followed; because we think that Sir Hamilton Seymour might, without any breach of propriety, have used more decided language than he did employ, with regard to the view likely to be taken by the British Cabinet. We are quite aware of the difficulties of an ambassador in such a situation; still we cannot avoid the conclusion that Sir H. Seymour was unnecessarily timid, and not nearly decided enough in the tone which he assumed. He objected, indeed, but the objection was rather feeble; which was unfortunate, as his principal in England immediately adopted the like inconclusive tone.

“‘Sir,’ I replied, ‘your Majesty is so frank with me that I am sure you will have the goodness to permit me to speak with the same openness. I would then observe that, deplorable as is the condition of Turkey, it is a country which has long been plunged in difficulties supposed by many to be insurmountable. With regard to contingent arrangements, her Majesty’s Government, as your Majesty is well aware, objects, as a general rule to taking engagements upon possible eventualities, and would, perhaps, be particularly disinclined to doing so in this instance. If I may be allowed to say so, a great disinclination (répugnance) might be expected in England to disposing by anticipation (d’escompter) of the succession of an old friend and ally.’

“‘The rule is a good one,’ the Emperor replied, ‘good at all times, especially in times of uncertainty and change, like the present: still it is of the greatest importance that we should understand one an other, and not allow events to take us by surprise; maintenant je désire vous parler en ami et en gentleman; si nous arrivons à nous entendre sur cette affaire, l’Angleterre et moi, pour le reste peu m’importe; il m’est indifferent ce que font ou pensent les autres. Usant donc de franchise, je vous dis nettement, que si l’Angleterre songe à s’établir un de ces jours à Constantinople, je ne le permettrai pas; je ne vous prête point ces intentions, mais il vaut mieux dans ces occasions parler clairement; de mon côté, je suis également disposé de prendre l’engagement de ne pas m’y établir, en propriétaire il s’entend, car en dépositaire je ne dis pas; il pourrait se faire que les circonstances me misent dans le cas d’occuper Constantinople, si rien ne se trouve prévu, si l’on doit tout laisser aller au hazard.’

“I thanked his Majesty for the frankness of his declarations, and for the desire which he had expressed of acting cordially and openly with her Majesty’s Government, observing at the same time that such an understanding appeared the best security against the sudden danger to which his Majesty had alluded. I added that, although unprepared to give a decided opinion upon questions of such magnitude and delicacy, it appeared to me possible that some such arrangement might be made between her Majesty’s Government and his Majesty as might guard, if not for, at least against certain contingencies.

“To render my meaning more clear,” I said, further, “I can only repeat, Sir, that in my opinion her Majesty’s Government will be indisposed to make certain arrangements connected with the downfall of Turkey, but it is possible that they may be ready to pledge themselves against certain arrangements which might, in that event, be attempted.”

We have no desire whatever to reflect upon the conduct of the prudence of Sir Hamilton Seymour, but we cannot help saying that he seems to have missed one very material point—that being a distinct explanation of the quarter from which the anticipated danger to Turkey was to arise. Sir Hamilton was perfectly justified in intimating that Britain did not intend to subvert the integrity of Turkey, and that she would not be passive if France were to manifest such a design. There was no earthly danger from either quarter; and certainly Austria, whatever she may wish to have or is ready to receive, would not have dared, under existing circumstances, to disturb the peace of Europe. Turkey itself was in a far better position than it ever had been. “L’homme gravement malade,” was exhibiting every symptom of convalescence, and the only danger to be apprehended was from the Muscovite doctor, who, without being summoned, was preparing to administer his pills. Therefore, we think that the rejoinder to the Emperor’s confidences—subject, of course, to the official Cabinet approval—should have been in the shape of a query as to the nature of the apprehended danger. The Czar had protested, in the most emphatic language, that he was “eager for the prolonged existence of the man;” and, if that were the case, his dissolution was an event much less likely than that of many a dynasty of Christian Europe. With Russia and Britain as determined protectors, who was to give him the coup-de-grace? Surely Sir Hamilton Seymour erred in not putting that point more forcibly and distinctly in his confidential conversations with the Emperor.

We say this, because the last paragraph in Sir Hamilton Seymour’s despatch, of 22d January 1853, to Lord John Russell shows that he was not altogether uninfluenced by the Imperial blandishments and affectation of perfect sincerity.

“A noble triumph would be obtained by the civilisation of the nineteenth century if the void left by the extinction of Mahommedan rule in Europe could be filled up without an interruption of the general peace, in consequence of the precautions adopted by the two principal Governments the most interested in the destinies of Turkey.”

Precautions indeed! Precautions which would have made Russia, without assuming the name of proprietor, the virtual and absolute occupier of Constantinople, with the power of the keys of the Bosphorus! It is marvellous that so acute a minister as Sir Hamilton Seymour—who otherwise deserves great praise for his lucid exposition of the designs and motives of the Czar—did not perceive that any approach to an arrangement for disposing of the inheritance, was tantamount to a declaration of the immediate dissolution of Turkey.

In answer to these communications, Lord John Russell, on the 9th February, forwarded a despatch, of the wisdom of which it is for the public to form their own opinion. It commences with an acknowledgment of “the moderation, the frankness, and the friendly disposition of his Imperial Majesty.” Why the first of these terms should have been employed, we really do not comprehend. Then Lord John, adverting to the indirect proposal of the Emperor, observes that—“In considering this grave question, the first reflection which occurs to Her Majesty’s Government is, that no actual crisis has occurred which renders necessary a solution of this vast European problem”—that “there is no sufficient cause for intimating to the Sultan that he cannot keep peace at home, or preserve friendly relations with his neighbours”—and that “it occurs further to her Majesty’s Government to remark that the event which is contemplated is not definitely fixed in point of time.” After pointing out the impropriety as well as the impolicy of devising a partition for providing for a settlement under such circumstances, Lord John intimates, in tolerably distinct terms, that “neither England nor France, nor probably Austria, would be content to see Constantinople permanently in the hands of Russia.” He then draws the following conclusions:—

“Upon the whole, then, Her Majesty’s Government are persuaded that no course of policy can be adopted more wise, more disinterested, more beneficial to Europe, than that which His Imperial Majesty has so long followed, and which will render his name more illustrious than that of the most famous sovereigns who have sought immortality by unprovoked conquest and ephemeral glory.

“With a view to the success of this policy, it is desirable that the utmost forbearance should be manifested towards Turkey; that any demands which the Great Powers of Europe may have to make should be made matter of friendly negotiation rather than of peremptory demand; that military and naval demonstrations to coerce the Sultan should as much as possible be avoided; that differences with respect to matters affecting Turkey, within the competence of the Sublime Porte, should be decided after mutual concert between the great powers, and not be forced upon the weakness of the Turkish Government.”

To this succeeds a passage which we cannot help considering as unfortunate, because it gives decided colour to the Russian pretext, that a protectorate over Turkey was necessary for securing the rights of the Christian inhabitants. There was no occasion whatever for its introduction, especially as the Emperor had not thought it necessary to ask advice upon the subject:—

“To these cautions Her Majesty’s Government wish to add, that in their view it is essential that the Sultan should be advised to treat his Christian subjects in conformity with the principles of equity and religious freedom which prevail generally among the enlightened nations of Europe. The more the Turkish Government adopts the rules of impartial law and equal administration, the less will the Emperor of Russia find it necessary to apply that exceptional protection which his Imperial Majesty has found so burdensome and inconvenient, though no doubt prescribed by duty and sanctioned by treaty.

We observe that the Times, notwithstanding its notorious ministerial leaning, has declined awarding praise to this state document, and we are not surprised at it. It is dissuasive and declinatory, but it is altogether feeble. We should have expected to find in it, not hypocritical acknowledgments of Imperial moderation and so forth, but a distinct, firm, and energetic protest against any attempt to disturb the peace, or to violate the integrity of Turkey. The infamous proposals made to Britain—for they were infamous not only as regarded Turkey but other European powers—should have been rejected in a manner that could have left no doubt in the mind of the Czar as to the part which the British Government was prepared to take in the event of his entering into hostilities with the Sultan. From the beginning to the end of this despatch there is not a single word which can be construed into a plain warning to the Czar, that any attempt made by him upon Turkey would provoke the hostility of Britain. On the contrary, the declinature to participate in the scheme is mainly founded on the fact that no “actual crisis” has yet arrived; but there is nothing said to indicate that Britain would oppose the forcing on of such a crisis, if Russia thought proper to precipitate it; and a more unlucky expression than “that the event which was contemplated is not definitely fixed in point of time” it is utterly impossible to conceive. The perusal of this despatch could leave no other impression upon the mind of the Czar, than that the British Ministry were afraid to commit themselves by entering into any secret or separate treaty with Russia for the disposal of the Turkish dominions, until a crisis actually should occur. That they would have preferred the maintenance of the status quo to a disturbance of it, was tolerably clear; but it was not in the least degree clear that they would take umbrage at an act of aggression, or be indisposed to treat with Russia after the aggression was made, and the weakness of the Ottoman empire exhibited by its being forced to succumb to the attack of the northern Colossus. The despatch, in short, was not couched in such manly, distinct, and positive terms as a British Secretary of State for foreign affairs should have employed on such an occasion. It is weak, timid, and almost subservient; and we are not in the least degree surprised to find that the Czar considered that it gave him sufficient encouragement again to renew his attack. Here is an extract from his next conversation with the British envoy, Sir Hamilton Seymour.

“‘I think your Government does not well understand my object. I am not so eager about what shall be done when the sick man dies, as I am to determine with England what shall not be done upon that event taking place.’

“‘But, sir,’ I replied, ‘allow me to observe, that we have no reason to think that the sick man (to use your Majesty’s expression) is dying. We are as much interested as we believe your Majesty to be in his continuing to live; while, for myself, I will venture to remark that experience shows me that countries do not die in such a hurry. Turkey will remain for many a year, unless some unforeseen crisis should occur. It is precisely, sir, for the avoidance of all circumstances likely to produce such a crisis that Her Majesty’s Government reckons upon your generous assistance.’

“‘Then,’ rejoined the Emperor, ‘I will tell you that, if your Government has been led to believe that Turkey retains any elements of existence, your Government must have received incorrect information. I repeat to you, that the sick man is dying; and we can never allow such an event to take us by surprise. We must come to some understanding; and this we should do, I am convinced, if I could hold but ten minutes’ conversation with your Ministers—with Lord Aberdeen, for instance, who knows me so well, who has full confidence in me, as I have in him. And, remember, I do not ask for a treaty or a protocol; a general understanding is all I require—that between gentlemen is sufficient; and in this case I am certain that the confidence would be as great on the side of the Queen’s Ministers as on mine.’”

The despatch, containing the report of this conversation, was written on the 21st February, and received at the Foreign Office on 6th March 1853; so that the Emperor Nicholas, whatever may be thought of his conduct otherwise, cannot be justly charged with deliberate perfidy in concealing his views from our Government. Indeed, Sir Hamilton Seymour, in this very document, gave Lord John Russell a distinct intimation of the real objects of the Czar.

“It can hardly be otherwise but that the Sovereign, who insists with such pertinacity upon the impending fall of a neighbouring state, must have settled in his own mind that the hour, if not of its dissolution, at all events for its dissolution, must be at hand.

“Then, as now, I reflected that this assumption would hardly be ventured upon unless some, perhaps general, but at all events intimate understanding, existed between Russia and Austria.

“Supposing my suspicion to be well founded, the Emperor’s object is to engage Her Majesty’s Government, in conjunction with his own Cabinet and that of Vienna, in some scheme for the ultimate partition of Turkey, and for the exclusion of France from the arrangement.”

On the following day a more particular, and, if possible, more interesting, conversation took place between the Czar and the British envoy. We regret extremely that our limits will not allow us to detail this so fully as we could wish, but we shall advert to the principal points, which were in the form of a commentary upon Lord John Russell’s despatch. The Emperor began by saying,—

“That he was, perhaps, even more interested than England could be in preventing a Turkish catastrophe, but that it was constantly impending; that it might be brought about at any moment, either by an external war, or by a feud between the old Turkish party and that of the ‘new superficial French reforms,’ or again, by a rising of the Christians, already known to be very impatient of shaking off the Mussulman yoke. As regards the first cause, the Emperor said that he had a good right to advert to it, inasmuch as, if he had not stopped the victorious progress of General Diebitch in 1829, the Sultan’s authority would have been at an end.”

Next he descanted upon what could not be permitted in the event of a break-up of the Ottoman empire. This is perhaps the most curious passage of the whole.

“‘Well, there are several things which I never will tolerate; I will begin by ourselves. I will not tolerate the permanent occupation of Constantinople by the Russians; having said this, I will say that it never shall be held by the English, or French, or any other great nation. Again, I never will permit an attempt at the reconstruction of a Byzantine empire, or such an extension of Greece as would render her a powerful state; still less will I permit the breaking up of Turkey into little republics, asylums for the Kossuths and Mazzinis, and other revolutionists of Europe; rather than submit any of these arrangements I would go to war, and as long as I have a man and a musket left would carry it on. These,’ the Emperor said, ‘are at once some ideas; now give me some in return.’”

This was an awkward demand, but Sir H. Seymour seems to have acquitted himself with sufficient adroitness. He put the following case: “How would it be if, in the event of any catastrophe occurring in Turkey, Russia and England were to declare that no Power should be allowed to take possession of its provinces; that the property should remain, as it were, under seals, until amicable arrangements could be made as to its adjudication?” Of course this notion could not be countenanced; and the Emperor’s reply allowed Sir Hamilton the opportunity of making the following remark:—

“‘Sir,’ I then observed, ‘if your Majesty will allow me to speak plainly, I would say that the great difference between us is this—that you continue to dwell upon the fall of Turkey, and the arrangements requisite before and after the fall; and that we, on the contrary, look to Turkey remaining where she is, and to the precautions which are necessary for preventing her condition from becoming worse.’ ‘Ah!’ replied the Emperor, ‘that is what the Chancellor is perpetually telling me; but the catastrophe will occur some day, and will take us all unawares.’”

Then follows a passage of very great interest at the present moment, when the course which Austria may adopt is still matter of speculation. Our impression has been, and is, that she will ultimately co-operate with Russia.

“Being desirous, if possible, of ascertaining whether there was any understanding between the Cabinets of St Petersburg and Vienna, I added, ‘But your Majesty has forgotten Austria; now all these Eastern questions affect her very nearly; she, of course, would expect to be consulted.’ ‘Oh!’ replied the Emperor, greatly to my surprise, ‘but you must understand that when I speak of Russia I speak of Austria as well: what suits the one suits the other; our interests as regards Turkey are perfectly identical.’ I should have been glad to make another inquiry or two upon this subject, but I did not venture to do so.”

Next comes the bribe—for we can call it nothing else—implied in the Emperor’s statement, already quoted, that he saw no reason why, in the event of the dissolution of the Ottoman empire, Great Britain should not obtain possession of Egypt and Candia! And so completely does he seem to have considered that point settled, that a few days afterwards, and without any further intercourse with Britain (for so we are given to understand), a confidential memorandum, dictated by the Czar, and containing the following passage, was placed in the hands of Sir Hamilton Seymour:—

“In short, the Emperor cannot but congratulate himself at having given occasion for this intimate interchange of confidential communications between Her Majesty and himself. He has found therein valuable assurances, of which he takes note with a lively satisfaction. The two Sovereigns have frankly explained to each other, what in the extreme case of which they have been treating, their respective interests cannot endure. England understands that Russia cannot suffer the establishment at Constantinople of a Christian Power sufficiently strong to control and disquiet her. She declares, that for herself she renounces any intention or desire to possess Constantinople. The Emperor equally disclaims any wish or design of establishing himself there. England promises that she will enter into no arrangement for determining the measures to be taken in the event of the fall of the Turkish empire, without a previous understanding with the Emperor. The Emperor, on his side, willingly contracts the same engagement. As he is aware that in such a case he can equally reckon upon Austria, who is bound by her promises to concert with him, he regards with less apprehension the catastrophe which he still desires to prevent, and avert as much as it shall depend on him to do so.”

This is, perhaps, the most extraordinary note that was ever issued. If founded upon nothing else than Lord John Russell’s single despatch of 9th February 1853, it is an attempt to make a memorandum supply the place of a treaty, and that not with regard to existing circumstances, but to a contingency involving the destruction of an ally. The Emperor must, indeed, have had great faith in the subserviency of the British Cabinet to his views, before he could have ventured on such a step. Lord Clarendon now comes into action, as the successor of Lord John Russell in the Home Office; but we need not pursue the correspondence further than to say, that it was conducted on the same principle of remonstrance, though very feeble on the part of the British Minister, against the assumption that Turkey was absolutely in a critical state, and of assertion to the contrary on the part of the Czar. His object was to alienate Britain from France—to keep the latter power out of any arrangement which might be made for the partition of the Turkish territories—and to hasten the crisis as fast as possible, in order that Britain might be compelled to come to definite terms. Lord Clarendon’s despatches are couched in terms quite unworthy of his position. Lord John Russell, who had primarily to state the views of the British Cabinet, may be excused for a certain weakness of expression; but no such apology can be made for Lord Clarendon, who was bound emphatically to have informed the Czar that this country disdained his proposals, and was prepared, at any hazard, to maintain the integrity of Turkey. We say that he was bound to have done so, on the supposition that the Aberdeen Ministry disapproved of the partition of Turkey, and were prepared, by force of arms, to oppose it. Disapproval is of two kinds: There is the faint remonstrance, which is usually considered to imply reluctant consent; and there is strong distinct denial, which cannot possibly be misinterpreted. We find no such strong distinct denial in Lord Clarendon’s despatches. They are filled with almost fulsome adulation of the Czar, who had previously tendered a bribe. Thus, in the despatch of 23d March, we find the following passage:—

“The generous confidence exhibited by the Emperor entitles His Imperial Majesty to the most cordial declaration of opinion on the part of Her Majesty’s Government, who are fully aware that, in the event of any understanding with reference to future contingencies being expedient, or indeed possible, the word of His Imperial Majesty would be preferable to any convention that could be framed.”

Scarce less miserably sycophantish are the terms of the despatch of April 5th. “My despatch of the 23d ult. will have furnished you with answers upon all the principal points alluded to in the memorandum which Count Nesselrode placed in your hands; but it is my duty to inform you that that important and remarkable document was received by her Majesty’s Government with feelings of sincere satisfaction, as a renewed proof of the Emperor’s confidence and friendly feelings; and her Majesty’s Government desire to convey their acknowledgments to his Imperial Majesty for having thus placed on record the opinions he expressed at the interview with which you were honoured by his Imperial Majesty.”

We do not profess to know much about the language of diplomacy; but if these are the sort of terms to be addressed to an avowed disturber of the peace of Europe, who has attempted to engage us in a conspiracy by offer of a bribe, we are at a loss to know what language can afford by way of adequate encomium to a really honest ally. The excuse of sincere belief in the sincerity of the Czar is entirely precluded by the terms of the previous communications from Sir Hamilton Seymour, which not only indicate but demonstrate the game which the Autocrat was playing. It is certainly remarkable to observe the extreme cordiality with which the Emperor greeted the accession of his old friend, Lord Aberdeen, to power, and the fervency of his wishes for his long continuance in office. Immediately thereafter—or rather on the same occasion—he begins to develop his designs upon Turkey, states his prognosis of the condition of the sick gentleman, and requests to be informed what are our views as to the partition of his property. Our Ministers demur as to the fact of the sickness; but the Imperial Doctor assures them that it is so, or shall immediately be so, and states that he will be contented with a temporary occupation of the dying man’s domicile—the catastrophe to be hastened by a bolus of his own administration—but that we are perfectly welcome to seize upon certain outlying hereditaments! And in return to such proposals, which, if agreed to, would have made us deservedly infamous throughout Europe, the Ministers of Queen Victoria think fit to beslaver the Czar! Since the days of Charles II. England has seen no similar instance of adulation to a foreign potentate.

The correspondence is now before the world, and the public must decide whether it is such as to justify Lord Aberdeen’s assertion, in reply to Lord Derby, “that if he thought it would be found to contain anything on which a charge could be founded against the Government, he would find himself egregiously mistaken.” Undoubtedly they are not chargeable with connivance—but they are chargeable with incapacity and misconduct so gross, that even connivance could not have produced effects more disastrous. If they did not play directly into the hands of the Czar, they failed to make him aware of the part which they were bound to take should he persist in his nefarious designs. They manifested no kind of honourable indignation at his offers; they received his cajolements with complacency, and paid him back with compliments and assurances not one whit more sincere than his own. If this really is the style in which our diplomatic intercourse is usually conducted, there is ample room for a reform. They cannot with justice assert that the Emperor was keeping them in the dark as to the nature of his own projects. He was, on the contrary, particularly frank. He insisted, over and over again, that Turkey was on the eve of dissolution; he even indicated that he might himself be the agent to force on that catastrophe—and yet Lord Aberdeen and his colleagues are now maintaining that he had deceived them! How, where, and when were they deceived? He showed them the victim, prophesied his immediate death, intimated that the fatal deathblow might be given by his hand, told them that he was in accord with Austria, invited them to declare their wishes as to the subsequent partition, and emphatically assured them that there was no time to be lost. Let us call things by their proper names. Stigmatise the conduct of the Czar, if you will, as ambitious, tyrannical, unprincipled, or nefarious—but do not accuse him of having concealed his purpose from the British Ministry.

Were the Ministers then so blind that they failed to perceive his purpose? Of course they were not. The Cabinet which contained Lords Aberdeen and Palmerston, both of them experienced in foreign affairs, could be at no loss to divine his meaning, even if that had been more obscurely expressed; and consequently we must conclude that so early as March 1853 they were put thoroughly on their guard. They were aware that the Czar meditated the destruction of the Ottoman empire, and having that knowledge, every movement of his in the East, whether diplomatic or military, could only be regarded as progressive means towards the end proposed.

Now there were two courses open to Ministers. The one was to have intimated at once, without any circumlocution or compliment, that Great Britain would not submit to any invasion of the Turkish territories on the part of a European power, but would be prepared, by force of arms, to resist any such attempt. That would have been a manly and honourable course; and we are satisfied that, if adopted, the Czar would not have had the temerity to provoke a crisis. Unfortunately no declaration was made. A faint dissuasive, accompanied by an immense deal of complimentary sugar, was all that our Ministers ventured to tender; and the Czar was accordingly allowed to proceed, under the evident impression that Great Britain would not actively interfere to prevent his designs upon Turkey, any more than she interfered to prevent those of his ancestress upon Poland.

The other course was to have maintained a strict neutrality, and to have treated the Eastern question as an affair entirely between Russia and Turkey. To that, however, it is more than doubtful whether the people of this country would have submitted. The appetite of Russia for territorial aggrandisement is so insatiable, and her advances have been pushed so far, that the virtual cession to her of so fair and fertile a country as Turkey, and the entire command of the entrance to the Black Sea, would, very justly, have been deemed an act of culpable cowardice. Setting aside the position of India, and the facilities which the occupation of Turkey would afford for any hostile demonstration upon that part of our dominions, we have now, in consequence of Free Trade, a direct interest in the Danubian Principalities, as so many granaries for our home consumption. Since we ceased to act upon the principle of growing corn for our own population, and made ourselves dependent upon foreign supplies, it would be suicidal to give Russia the power of cutting us short both in the north and on the south—in the Baltic and the Black Seas. Still that was the only other course which Ministers could consistently have adopted, if they wished to avoid or postpone the terrible calamity of a war.

They followed neither the one course nor the other. They did not tell the Czar that, if he persisted in the schemes which he had disclosed to them, he must be prepared to meet Britain in the field; nor did they tell him that, in so far as they were concerned, he might do what he pleased with Turkey. They halted between two opinions. In full knowledge of his designs, they allowed him to commit himself—to pick a quarrel with Turkey about some rubbish relating to the keys of the Holy Places—to march his forces across the Pruth—to occupy the Principalities,—to do, in short, the work of one effective campaign. They never intimated to the country that the religious questions,—on which Russia, with scandalous hypocrisy, rested her justification of invasion,—were mere pretexts to mask the avowed intentions of Nicholas. They did not even send a fleet at once to Constantinople, but kept it hovering between Malta and Besika Bay, in the attitude of observation, long after the Russian guns were roaring upon the Danube. Is it fair to suppose that Nicholas,—after having frankly communicated to them his intentions more than a twelvemonth ago; after having told them that the sick gentleman was sure to die immediately; and after having taken measures to secure the fulfilment of that prophecy,—could consider their late hesitating and dilatory movement as otherwise than a convenient sham? It must have appeared to him that if the British Government was determined to oppose his project, they would at once have said so, with the same openness which he manifested in his communications to them. They said nothing of the kind. They gave him fulsome compliments. Of course he went farther, and marched into the sick man’s territory. What did our Ministers then? They concealed what they knew, and entered into negotiations about the Russian Protectorate of Christian subjects in Turkey, as if that were the sole point which had occasioned the disturbance! What, under such circumstances, could the Czar conceive, but that they were playing into his hands? He had apprised them, in almost as many words, that he intended to take possession of Turkey, so that they knew perfectly well that the question involved was not one of religion, but of political aggrandisement. It was, however, his policy to make it appear to the uninitiated that religion was his paramount motive; and when the British Cabinet began to negotiate and issue notes upon that footing, he was, after the confidential correspondence which had taken place, fairly entitled to believe that they were not in earnest. The Czar is a remarkably able man—we question whether, politically speaking, he is not the ablest man in Europe—but his own extraordinary position precludes him from understanding the effect of public opinion in such a country as our own. He is accustomed to deal with Cabinets, not with nations or parliaments; and he attributes more power to the former than they possess, at least according to the constitution of Great Britain. The British Cabinet cannot, like that of Prussia or Austria, commit the country to a course which is inconsistent with or derogatory to its honour.

In consequence of this irresolution on the part of our rulers, we are now precipitated into war, and are already beginning to feel some of its inconveniences. Let us now endeavour to ascertain the causes which have led to so very serious a denouement as the disruption of the peace of Europe. It is important that we should do so now, and not leave the question entirely to the future speculation of historians.

During Lord Derby’s short tenure of office, relations of peculiar amity had been established between Britain and France. Lord Malmesbury, than whom no more able or judicious minister ever held the seals of the Foreign Office, saw that the interests of civilisation not only in the west, but throughout the whole of Europe, could only be maintained by a close and permanent co-operation, and mutual good understanding between these two countries; and he addressed himself to the task with equal discretion and success. It is not too much to say that Britain and France never were more cordially united and confidentially allied than during the period we refer to. This, of course, was anything but agreeable to the Czar, whose opportunity lay in a separation of the interests of the two great powers of the West.

The dissolution of Lord Derby’s Government and the accession of the Aberdeen Ministry effected a material alteration. The new Premier, Lord Aberdeen, had been for a great many years on the most intimate footing with the despotic Courts and Cabinets. He had not, it was true, the ability of the Nesselrodes or Metternichs; but he was considered in the highest diplomatic circles as a person who might easily be led, and upon whom a certain show of deference would not be thrown away. It was supposed, also, that he regarded with particular dislike the recent changes in France, and was not favourable to the re-establishment of the Empire under the rule of Napoleon III. This veteran ally of the despotic powers was now associated with men whose former political opinions had differed greatly from his, but who were openmouthed and unscrupulous in their attacks upon the Emperor of the French. We need hardly remind our readers of the highly reprehensible language which was employed by Sir James Graham, and Sir Charles Wood—both of them Cabinet Ministers—in respect to the Emperor Napoleon, or of the foul and scurrilous attacks upon him with which, about the beginning of last year, the columns of the Liberal press abounded. All that is changed now. There is, indeed, plenty of invective and abuse, but it is directed towards another quarter. The French Emperor, formerly pilloried by the Coalitionists, has become the object of their laudation. The Russian Emperor, whom they formerly lauded, is now put into the pillory.

Such being the declared views of the Coalitionists in regard to France, it very naturally occurred to the Czar, that a more favourable opportunity could not possibly arise for detaching Britain from the side of France, and so rendering a future combination between these two powers impracticable. Accordingly, as the published correspondence shows, he did not lose a moment in opening his views to the British envoy at St Petersburg: France, as we have seen, was not to be consulted at all regarding the disposal of Turkey. Provided Britain and Russia were of accord, it mattered nothing what view might be taken by any other European power. France might do as she pleased, but the others would be an overmatch for her. Here are the expressions which the Emperor used on the 21st February:—

“His Imperial Majesty spoke of France. ‘God forbid,’ he said, ‘that I should accuse any one wrongfully, but there are circumstances both at Constantinople and Montenegro which are extremely suspicious; it looks very much as if the French Government were endeavouring to embroil us all in the East, hoping in this way the better to arrive at their own objects, one of which, no doubt, is the possession of Tunis.’

“The Emperor proceeded to say that, for his own part, he cared very little what line the French might think proper to take in Eastern affairs, and that little more than a month ago he had apprised the Sultan that if his assistance was required for resisting the menaces of the French, it was entirely at the service of the Sultan!”

But for the temptation held out by the accession of the Coalition Ministry to power in Great Britain, it is more than improbable that the Czar would have made any overtures of the kind. But at the head of that Ministry he saw Lord Aberdeen, “who knows me so well, who has full confidence in me as I have in him”—the extent of that confidence being marked by the statement, that he was convinced he could bring his lordship to an understanding in the course of ten minutes’ conversation. He had also remarked that at least two members of the Cabinet, in violation both of decency and of their duty as Ministers of the Crown, had been indulging in coarse and unmannerly invective against the Sovereign of France; and, as a matter of course, he arrived at the conclusion that they would be more ready to coalesce with him than to ally themselves cordially with a government which they had spoken of in public in such unexampled terms of contempt. In this calculation, however, he was deceived. Wrong-headed as Lord John Russell is, we do not believe that he would, for one moment, have allowed himself to become a consenting party to such a flagitious transaction as the partition of Turkey; and the same thing may be said of Lord Palmerston, whose exclusion, through short-sighted jealousy, from the Foreign Office at that particular time, we must regard as a national misfortune. But that matters not in the consideration of the point before us. Both circumstance and time concur to show that it was the accession of the Coalition Ministry to power, and the unwarrantable language used by some of its members towards the Emperor of France, that encouraged the Czar to bring forward, and to put into shape, the project which, no doubt, he had long entertained, but which could not be previously pursued for the want of a fitting opportunity.

We regard, therefore, the formation of the Coalition Ministry in Britain as the event which directly led to the original overture—the hopes of the Czar being founded upon the political connections and understood tendencies of Lord Aberdeen, and also on the declared aversion of some of his colleagues to the head of the French Government. But for the formation of that Ministry the designs of Russia upon Turkey would have been postponed.

We have already commented upon the course which was pursued by the Ministry from the time when they were apprized of the designs of the Czar, down to that when the Danubian Principalities were invaded. We have expressed our opinion that a serious remonstrance, coupled with a plain intimation that Great Britain would not permit an occupation of the Turkish territory, would have sufficed during the earlier part of last year, and before any overt step was taken, to have deterred the Czar from proceeding with his project. We ground that view upon the policy which has been invariably pursued by Russia—which is to bully and cajole, not to fight. Let us grant that the possession of Constantinople is the darling project of the Czar—let us grant that, in order to attain it, he would run considerable risk, and submit to extraordinary sacrifices; still we are of opinion that had he been aware, before utterly committing himself, that he would be opposed by the combined forces of Britain and France, he never would have plunged into the contest. See what he risks. First, the annihilation of his fleets, both in the Baltic and in the Black Sea, for he can hardly hope to contend with Britain and France upon the waters. Next, the derangement and stoppage of trade, so vital to the real interests of Russia, and equivalent to a sentence of bankruptcy against many of her nobles and merchants, who depend entirely upon the amount and continuance of their exports. Then there are the chances of insurrection in Poland, and revolt in Finland; and the certainty that Russia, if worsted, will be so dismembered as to prevent her from again disturbing the peace of Europe. These are very serious considerations; and we may be certain that the Czar, great as his appetite undoubtedly is for appropriation, would rather have foregone his purposes upon Turkey, than have proceeded had he believed that the two Western powers would be firm and united in their resistance. Indeed, singular as it may appear, we are about to engage in a war for which no one country in Europe is desirous. Britain, with her eight hundred millions of debt, is by no means desirous to increase the burden of taxation, or to imperil or impede that commerce to which she owes so much of her greatness. In like manner France has no interest to go to war, for she also is heavily burdened, and the present Emperor has nothing so much at heart as to restore the state of the finances. Austria has anything but an interest that war should take place, for in that event, if she takes the side of Russia, there will be immediate insurrection both in Hungary and Lombardy; and if she takes the other side, she must quarrel with a very old partner in iniquity. Prussia has no interest, for the age of subsidies has gone by, and she is likely to suffer to whichever side she adheres; but most especially if she adopts the cause of Russia. Neutral she cannot remain. We need not say that Turkey, the state which is attacked, does not desire war; and we are thoroughly convinced that the Czar, were he not committed so deeply, would be glad to withdraw his pretensions. Now, who suffered him to commit himself so deeply? We answer, the Coalition Ministry.

Had they been of one accord among themselves, nothing of this kind would have happened. If Lord Aberdeen had been sole and supreme master in his Cabinet, it is possible that Russia might have succeeded in acquiring a protectorate over Turkey. The Sultan could hardly have attempted to resist without powerful European aid; and France, had she found Britain lukewarm or indifferent, could not be expected to come forward as the defender of the balance of power without a single ally. No doubt, had this occurred, it would have given Russia a most dangerous preponderance in Europe, and probably necessitated a future struggle; but, in the mean time, there would have been no war. Had the Cabinet been under the guidance of Palmerston or Russell, the first advances of the Emperor, if made at all, would have been met by a distinct and peremptory refusal, and by a threat which would have effectually deterred him from moving a step further. But unfortunately—most unfortunately for us, and for our children, and for the general peace of Europe, this is not a united Cabinet. It is a congregation of men holding totally opposite opinions—bred up in adverse schools—adhering to antagonistical traditions—influenced by jealousy among themselves—and unable, upon any one important point, whether it relates to foreign or domestic policy, to arrive at a common conclusion. Take the case now before us. But for Palmerston and Russell, and their other adherents in the Cabinet, Lord Aberdeen might have established the principle of non-interference between Russia and Turkey—and there would have been no war. But for Lord Aberdeen and his adherents, Palmerston and Russell might have checked the designs and met the overtures of the Czar, by declaring at once that they would not suffer him to send a single soldier across the Pruth, and that if he persisted in his design, they would invite the co-operation of France, and defend Turkey to the uttermost—and in that case also there would have been no war. But the Cabinet was split into two, if not three, parties; and the adoption of a middle course, of feeble dissuasion, unaccompanied by any hint of ulterior consequences, but rather couched in terms of extreme and unworthy subserviency, deceived the Czar, encouraged him to proceed,—and now war is all but declared, and our fleet is riding in the Baltic. We have approached the subject in anything but a party spirit—we have perused the correspondence, recently published, over and over again, in the hope that we might gather from it a justification of the course which the British Ministry has pursued—but we are unable to arrive at any conclusion except this, that but for the formation of the Coalition Cabinet, the ambitious schemes of Russia would not have been developed; and that, but for its continuance and internal divisions, those schemes would have been effectually checked. In plain language, had it not been determined by a secret cabal that Lord Derby’s Government should be overthrown by the most extraordinary combination of parties ever known in this country, there would have been no war; and it is right that the country should know to whom they are indebted for the burdens which are now to be imposed upon us.

We do not object to the principle upon which the war proceeds. We think it full time that the grasping ambition, insidious progress, and inordinate arrogance of Russia should receive a check. It is to us matter of pride and congratulation to know that, in the coming struggle, the colours of Britain and France will be displayed side by side. But we detest war, for its own sake, as fervently as any member of the Peace Society can do, and we are perfectly alive to the awful consequences which it entails. What we wish is, that the public should not misapprehend the real cause of the present rupture of the peace of Europe. That it originally arose from the exorbitant ambition of the Czar, is beyond all question; but ambition can be controlled, and, fortunately, the Czar is not yet master of the universe. Nay, he is not yet master of Europe; for although, by spoliation and absorption, he has secured to himself a vast extent of territory to which he had no patrimonial claim; and although he exercises a great influence over States which, in former times, have acquired accretions by unprincipled subserviency to his house, he has yet to encounter the exerted power and civilisation of the West. Had our Cabinet been united, and true to their trust, that encounter might have been avoided. But it was not so. Some of them were Russian, and some anti-Russian in their views, principles, and antecedents; and so, in consequence of having a Coalition Ministry, which, after being warned of the designs of Russia, egregiously bungled our finance, and left us with a prospect of a deficit, we are to be forced into a war of which no man can foresee the issue.

Let those who shudder at the cost, at least know to whom the cost is due. We are now paying, and are likely to pay for a long time to come, for the privilege of having a Coalition Ministry. But we submit, that the continuance of such a form of government is not desirable. We have shown, in regard to foreign affairs, and from evidence which cannot be gainsayed, what are its results; we could show, if space allowed us, its results upon domestic legislation. But we shall not enter into the lesser topics now. We have, as yet, but touched upon a part of the expediency of coalition; and our deliberate conclusion is, that to the fact of the formation of the Coalition Ministry we must attribute the development of the schemes of Russia, and to its extraordinary vacillation and want of concert the catastrophe of a European war.