The Spectator 1858-01-02: Vol 31 Iss 1540

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Ghe Spectator FOR No. 1540.] WEEK ENDING SATURDAY, JANUARY 2, 1858, THE UnsTaMPEeD 82, STaMPeEp .. 9d, News or THE WEEk— A Journalist's Nightmare ... Political Summary Mr. Spurgeon in the Confessional... 1 The Court 2 Metropolis ... oR ass Provineiz Scotland ... Ireland .... is Foreign and Colonial..... Miscellaneous Births, Marriages, and Deaths .... Lerrers TO THE Eprrorn— Currency and Credit The Western Bank of Scotiand.... 15 Contributory Boroughs ....... veoe 1S The Educational Franchise ace The Army 8 Trade Prices Current .. 8 Advertisements. . 9 Pi Monthly Supplement. Booxs— Bayle St. John’s Montaigne the Mmea yet... cccccccccsccessoseccse 2 Bayard Taylor’s Northern Travel .. 22 Trench on some Deficiencies in English Dictionaries 23 Matthew Arnold's Tragedy of Me- m 2 « § _s 3 ° -- . 16 Postscript TO THE Wererk’s News— Money Market The Theatres 9 The Mevemwe. ...ccscvccccccsccsee wo Torics or THE Day— Epochs. [Apropos of the Opening of this Year of Grace 1858) The Peelites and Canningites The Military Conservatives ....... 12 Proposed International Com- mittee on the Slave-Trade Deeates... .ccccccsccccccccccscce The London Carnival The Liverpool A Emigration of the Crown Jewels.? The Moselle. Murder not Murder! Advertisements rope Publications Received Fine Anrs— NEWS OF THE WEEK. Tue New Year begins with announcements preparatory to the marriage which is by a fresh link to join the Government of this country with Lutheran Germany. One consequence of the schismatical differences in the Christian faith, coupled with the assumed necessity of making our royal matches upon a certain level, is that the highest family in this country is supposed to be necessarily more closely united with alien than with English in- terests. The knowledge vouchsafed to the country this week is interesting : the marriage-ceremony is to take place in the Chapel Royal ; certain royal persons will arrive and take up their abode at Buckingham Palace, or at other places provided for them ; three theatrical entertainments will take place at Her Majesty's Theatre ; and when Prince Frederiek William of Prussia shall have been three days the husband of Queen Victoria’s eldest daughter, he will be invested with the Order of the Garter. Yet the whole programme has not given satisfaction! Few of our Sovereigns have been so popular as Queen Victoria; but if the | public regards her as belonging to the country, the said country does not like to be excluded from witnessing the grander exhi- bhitions of her royal state. It is quite true that the 27,000,000 souls of the United Kingdom cannot “ assist” at the first mar- riage in Queen Victoria’s family ; but the public could to a cer- fain extent assist by proxy; and if the ceremony itself could not be viewed by a vast concourse, the approaches to it might be public. Why does not the marriage take place in Westminster Abbey ? —that is. the great question of the week. Precedent has perhaps decided in» favour of the Chapel Royal: precedent also | has kept the programme of the ceremony concealed until it is perhaps too late to alter the arrangements. If a coronation can be performed in Westminster Abbey, why not a marriage ? There is one practical test which would draw the line between public and private character in such events. whole arrangements of the marriage look too much like a family affuir,—not a favourable aspect for it to bear in the public sight. And if it is so, we ought to find that all the cost of it, even the alterations of the Chapel Royal, have been defrayed out of the private purse of the Crown. If a “little bill” is presented to Parliament for the expenses, then it is not a private but a public affair, and the public ought to be admitted to a participation. Some official movements raise a surmise that matters are not quite so settled as we might suppose in the Government. A little while ago it was understood that there was to be no change; but it has since been officially known that the East India Company is to be superseded, and that a new department of state is to be ereated on the ruins of the Company and the Board of Control ; the names of various statesmen being already mentioned as likely to take the newly-created Secretaryship. Lord Harrowby suddenly retires from the Cabinet and the post of Lord Privy Seal, in order to admit Lgrd Clanricarde ; who, even within a few weeks, has been considered almost an Opposition Peer. The explanation is, that Lord Harrowby’s indifferent health causes (Wits Monruty SurrLeMent. ] At present the | | him to retire: but the public remembers that while he failed to vote for Lord Palmerston’s Jew Bill, the present Ministers will be all the better for a little more strength to encounter formidable opponents in debates on Indian affairs, It is always supposed that Macaulay was made a Peer not solely in acknowledgment of his eminent literary services, but also in the hope to secure from him occasional assistance in grand debates, particularly on Indian matters. Baron Macaulay will of course take the very highest ground, and he may rise to more exalted discourse than Lord Ellenborough can command. The practical details of the ! immediate measures in prospect, however, will need a man in ' more vigorous health and one more recently accustomed to business; and Lord Clanricarde is such a man, [His accession to the Ministry is a double gain, since it probably transfers him from the ranks of the Opposition to add him to the ranks of the Ministerial side. The retirement of Lord Stratford de Redcliffe from his post at Constantinople is a greater mystery, and it has not yet been explained. The 7imes treats it as the close of Lord Stratford's active political life: but ‘ there is life in the old dog yet,” and he is still too energetic a man to be spared—or at least to spare himself. His return to the West is rather remarkable in sequel to the recent state of affairs at Constantinople. He and M. Thouvenel the French Minister were known to be violently at issue. It has been reported that the French Government suc- cumbed to ours in the matter of the Principalities; and M. Thouyenel, it has been said, was made to ‘‘ knuckle down” before Lord Stratford de Redcliffe. The French diplomatist, like Achilles, retired to his own abode and sulked; and, curiously enough, he only emerges from this seclusion when his trium- phant opponent, Lord Stratford, is for some reason or other re- called home. It would look as if France made the concession in show, while England made it in reality: but at present the mys- tery is simply inscrutable, The fuller despatches from India considerably qualify the first statements issued to the public. From those it might haye been imagined that Sir Colin Campbell had made some progress in re- ducing at least the city if not the province of Oude; but it is now obvious that the rebels remain in foree much more concen- trated than they were supposed to be; that Sir Colin still needs reinforcements to dislodge them, and that the work before him will be an affair of time and labour. Among official papers, three possess the interest of events. One sets forth the conditions on which the dispersed but not guilty fragments of the Bengal Army may be received back in their corps—as if the army still existed! Another specifies the modes in which compensation will be given to the British who have suffered loss of property,—all arranged to give somewhat | equably-distributed relief rather than to meet individual cases, | The third, by the Judicial Commissioner of the Punjaub, declares that in future Native Christians will be encouraged to enter the public service, and invites the Missionaries to aid a commence- ment of the new rule; which is said to have been at work for three months. Indian trade is somewhat reviving ; and speculation appears so | ready to rebound, that what looks like an official caution has been | conspicuously published in the Globe, warning all whom it may | concern that the measure for placing India under the direct go- vernment of the Crown will not justify the speculation of some | persons who appear to be gambling in Indian securities. Itis in- | timated that the revenues of India will still, like those of Canada or any other British colony, continue to be separate from the | Imperial revenues. Another question has been opened this week, giving us 4 glimpse into the vista of future debates. A writer who is master of his subject shows, that instead of handing over India to the covert control of a bureaucratic State department, it would be | much better to give the responsible Minister in London the as- sistance of a Council, whose members might sometimes have opinions of their own, and whose recorded proceedings would greatly assist Parliament in controlling the Executiye. (Latest Eprrron,]

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2 THE SPECTATOR. [January 2, 1858. The contested election for Buckinghamshire has led to an in- teresting discovery. It passed off almost as a matter of course, and there was no necessity for that preliminary whieh, as we see by the Mayo election, appears to be still necessary in Ire- land—the introduction of military to keep the peace while the ‘free and independent” exercise their privilege. The Tories have been supposed to possess the county of Buckinghamshire, though the Liberals were magnanimously allowed to return one out of the three Members. A soi-disant representative of the tenant-farmers, Captain Hamilton, attempted to get for them the third seat ; but the Liberals have found that they could return the son of the late Member, Mr. Cavendish, in spite of the Tories. Mr. Disraeli’s own county therefore is not so completely in the hands of the Opposition as it was supposed to be ; and the same change is found to have taken place quietly in other counties supposed to be Tory preserves. This gradual but steady increase of Liberal feeling is an index of growing opinion in the country, which should be kept in mind by those who are respon- sible for the construction of the promised Reform Bill. It shows that it will not do to underrate either the opportunity or the Liberal feeling even among those classes that are not generally considered turbulent or dangerous. By all the established tests of the commercial barometer, we ought to be able to report an improvement; and there is no was raging at the time; there was a large stock of ammunition on board; and numbers of people, including many women, The discovery was made too late to suppress the fire; but to organize volunteer parties of the soldiers—to snatch the gun- powder from the hold—to put the ship up to the wind, keeping the fire sternwards—to ply the hose as if upon a blazing house in a quiet street—to defend the threatened main- mast with wet blankets—to witness without despair the burning out of the after-cabins, with an explosion of a portion of the gunpowder that could not be removed—to keep the wo- men floating on rafts or in boats for ten hours or more during a severe gale—to recover the ship and all on board without the loss of a single life—and to reach Mauritius, four hundred miles distant—are the incidents in a story that would be incredible if it had not been actually accomplished. Che Court. No business appears to have been transacted at Windsor Castle in this festive season. The Queen has gone abroad little, but taken horseback exercise in the Riding-house. The Prince Consort has been shooting with the Prince of Leiningen, the Duke D’Aumale, and the Count of Paris, The Prince of Wales and Prince Alfred have shot together in the Home Park, The Princess Royal has sat to Mrs. Thorneycroft for her bust, Herr Frikell, the Russian conjuror, has exhibited before her Majesty and her visitors. Her Majesty and family went on Friday to the Riding-house to wit- doubt that improvement is going on, although the reaction can- not possibly be so rapid as the sanguine anticipate. The lower- | ing of the rate of discount at our own Bank, last week, from 10 | to 8 per cent, has been followed by the Bank of France, which still keeps considerably below ours, now descending from 6 to 5. | It has been remarked that the repayment of the two millions of over-issue towards the end of last week may be said formally to | have closed the crisis: but in many respects the termination is only formal, If few large houses are now falling, many smaller establishments are still added to the list of bankruptcies. And | the cases which occur continue to point a remarkable distinction between commercial houses which declare their position and place themselves in the hands of their creditors the moment they find that there is any deficiency in their capital—any want of balance between their means and their liabilities, and those houses which have been for years trading upon consolidated insolvency. Many circumstances contribute to disclose the hollow nature of trading for some time past,—such, for example, as the discovery at Belfast, that the ship-returns of 1856 show numbers below | those for 1855. From New York they report something better than a mere resumption of specie payments,—a large cotton crop, and declining prices ; high prices never being so healthy a state for large trades as moderate prices. It is not unimportant to note, that with the commercial recovery in Paris and London the drain of silver to the East appears to be reviving: with our faci- lities come back the most enigmatic of the difficulties. And if we were prone to a preposterous revival of over-con- fidence, the Revenue-tables would rebuke it. They show a de- cline of 1,800,000/. on the year. No doubt, this is in great | part owing to diminished taxation, especially the 800,000/. of decrease in Income-tax ; but diminished consumption also has much to do with the decline of 600,000/. in the Excise, and of | 1,154,000/. in the Customs. Itis to be hoped that these sombre figures will prelude a more healthy year than that which followed upon the showy figures and inflated boasting at the close of 1856, M. Régis has been hastening up to Paris to satisfy the doubts of the Emperor Napoleon on the subject of the African free emi- gration scheme. The British Government, it appears, has re-- monstrated ; perhaps intimating to the Emperor that supplies of labour can be obtained from other sources—from China or India. And the Emperor has been so far impressed that the friends of | the new Marseilles slaye-trade are driven to great exertions in defence of their traffic. If occupation cannot be found for French capital and hands in that direction, the improvements of Paris are to continue, not- withstanding the progress made already, and the difficulty of finding the money. Another Continental capital is to be improved. Among the pacitic signs of the times is the demolition of the internal fortifications of Vienna, in order to the better building of the city. The in- cident, however, is not so great a testimony to pacific policy as it is supposed to be. The capital of the great Austrian empire has long groaned under the nuisance of fortifications which cramped the dwelling-accommodations, and the Government has only eeded to the importunity of years. In the long list of stories of disaster and heroism at sea, one of the grandest and most beautiful of all is that of the Sarah Sands, an iron steamer used asa transport for troops. On the voyage from Portsmouth to Calcutta, the ship was found to be on fire ; a storm | bellies of the poor little innocents. | some such association as that which you have got up > | yearly account of his two little boys at school. | and seven, who are at a very excellent school, where they are well and ness the distribution of the Queen’s gifts of food and clothing to the poor of Windsor and Clewer. The list of guests includes the Duchess of Kent, the Prince of Leiningen, the Duchess and Princess Mary of Cambridge, the Com- mander-in-chief, the Portuguese Ambassador, and the Dean of Windsor. Che Artrapalis. Christmas festivities have been celebrated with more than ordinary vigour in the Metropolis, Not only were the usual places of public re- sort, the theatres, galleries, and institutions, opened on Monday, with | attractions befitting the season, and thronged with visitors, but there | have been two novelties—performances by Mr. Lumley’s operatic corp at the Haymarket House, with Giuglini and Piccolomini for stars; and Christmas revels at the Crystal Palace. The latter was the novelty par excellence, and “drew” accordingly. The Palace, traditionally sup- posed to be devoted to art, was on Monday the scene of uproarious mirth. There was a monster Christmas tree; the ancient drama of Punch and Judy; and a magician. There were dances after the old English type of the great Sir Roger’s day, apparently improvised for the occasion. There was also a bunch of mistletoe, with some rough scrambles beneath it for the forfeits which its overhanging leaves and berries entail on the fair sex. With the exception of these not very de- corous scenes, all is reported to have gone off well. The holiday-makers at the Palace, including numbers of children, mustered 14,000. Nearly one hundred and fifty orphan children are now educated in the Commercial Travellers’ Schools at Pinner. To commemorate the esta- blishment of the schools, and to aid the funds by means of which they are continued, a dinner was held at the London Tavern on Saturday; Mr. Thackeray presiding. After praising the management of the schools, Mr. Thackeray lamented that the literary profession have not anything as good, ‘““T wish that we had an institution to which we could confide our chil- dren, instead of having to send them about to schools as we do, at an awful cost. When the respected Mr. Squeers, of Do-the-Boys Hall, announces that he proposes to take a limited number of pupils—I should rather say a number of very limited e-t is not because he is in love with the little darlings that he does it, but because jhe designs to extract a profit out of them. It always pains me to think of the profits to be screwed out of the Why have we not, as men of letters, I appeal to my literary brethren, if any of them are present, whether we, the men of the line, cannot emulate the men of the road? A week ago, a friend engaged in my own profession, making his 10007. a year, showed me the half- These little heroes of six comfortably provided for, came home with a little bill in their pocket which amounted to the sum of 75/. for the half-year. Now, think of this oor Paterfamilias earning his moderate 1000/7. a year ; out of which he has 1is life-assurance, his income-tax, and his house-rent to pay, with three or four poor relations to support—for, doubtless, we are all blesssed with these appendages—and with the heavy bills of his wife and daughters for millinery and mantuamaking, to meet, especially at their present enor- mous rates and sizes. Think of this overburdened man having to pay 75/. for one half-year’s schooling of his little boys.”’ In the course of his discursive speech, Mr. Thackeray told an anecdote of a “traveller,” from whom he had that day sea “T parted today from a near neighbour, and as famous and intelligent a traveller as any that I could name—I mean Mr. William Howard Russell, the traveller for a celebrated publishing firm in Printing House Square. We all know how he travelled these years ago, when he went out for his employers to inspect the shot and shell and bayonet market of the Crimea, and reported on the state of French grape at the Malakhoff, of British beef at Balaklava, and of Russian hides at Inkerman. He is now on his way to Marseilles. In another month he will be in India; and he will see the shattered gates around which the brave young engineers died at their duty and through which Wilson and his gallant comrades passed over heaps of enemies, until they reached the Imperial Palace of Delhi, in which, amid shouts of vic- tory, the health of Queen Victoria was drunk. He will see the battered ae through which Havelock and Outram, and lastly Sir Colin Campbell and his relieving army, marched to rescue our women and children, crush- ing hosts of foes before them, and finally planting the glorious old flag of England on Lucknow’s walls. That, gentlemen, was a melancholy dinner of his yesterday—his Christmas dinner, the last meal he was to take here at home. The little children sat round the table on that sad evening, and the poor wife must have gazed at them with a wistful eye. But now the part- ing is over, and this day he has taken his first step on his long journey.

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January 2, 1858.] THE SPECTATOR. 8 Many and many a time in the solitude of travel, in the loneliness of the desert—on - tye at the morning-watch, when sea and sky are flushed with the golden sunrise, or at midnight, amid the rushing waters, and under the stars of God—he will think with inexpressible tenderness of the dear beings he has left at home.” e Commercial Travellers’ Schools appear to have stood in need of some pecuniary aid, for while the income of the charity is 4327/., the expenditure is 5000/7. It is not stated how much was collected at the | dinner. At a meeting of military officers at Woolwich on Tuesday,—General Sir F. W. Williams in the chair,—it was resolved, though not with unanimity, that a military institute for the recreation of the private sol- dier should be established by private subscription. Similar institutions exist at Dover and other places, and have been attended with beneficial effects. Mr. Edward Auchmuty Glover, for a short time Member for Beverley, spent his Christmas in Newgate. In consequence of the resolution of the ommons, he was arrested, apparently on Thursday last week, on the charge of making a false declaration in the House of Commons as to his property qualification : forty-eight hours’ notice of bail was required; so Mr, Glove r could not be released till Saturday. Thomas Emerson, a builder in Milton Street, who lately became bank- rupt, was charged at Guildhall Petty-Sessions with stealing gas the pro- perty of the Great Central Gas Consumers’ Company. The gas had been **cut off” ; but Emerson furtively reconnected his burners with the supply- pipe. He pleaded guilty—he had merely supplied himself with a little light **to settle his affairs.” He was committed to prison for one month. Two “ gentlemen,”’ who call themselves “‘ brothers’’—“‘ John Jones’”’ and “Thomas Jones’’—have been committed by the Clerkenwell Magistrate for trial on charges of assaulting five constables. ey were drunk and very disorderly, at midnight, in the Southgate Road; when the police tried to convey them to the station they resisted with great violence. The gentle- men evidently hoped that the Magistrate would dismiss them with a fine ; but Mr. Corrie said the matter was too grave for that. James M‘Kinder, coachman to Mr. Gladstanes of Gunnersbury, was sent by his master to pay 130/. fora pair of horses. Instead of doing so, he ‘stepped it’? with the bank-notes: when arrested he had but 30/. left ; he said he had been robbed of 60/7. The Marlborough Street Magistrate has committed him for trial. Two sailors in the Duke of Queensberry brig, lying off Poplar, have died from suffocation, by imprudentiy placing a pan of burning coals in the round-house before they retired to rest. Provincial, The Liberals, as was anticipated, have triumphed in Buckingham- shire. After a spirited polling on Saturday, during which Mr. Caven- dish never lost the lead he obtained at starting, that gentleman finally carried the day. The High Sheriff, on Monday, declared the poll to have been—for Cavendish 1617, for Hamilton 1454; giving a Liberal majority of 163. Mr. Cavendish returned thanks in a brief speech. Mr. Hamilton took up a much longer time in endeavouring to explain how it was he had lost the election, and to answer, at the same time, the smart fire of ‘ chaff’ liberally directed upon him. His explanation was, thathe had been taken by surprise ; that his opponent knew that the late Member would be made a Peer, and was therefore early in the field ; that Mr. Cavendish employed “a host of paid agents,” whereas Mr. Hamilton only had some who worked “ gratuitously, without fee or | reward.” Mr. Hamilton, on behalf of “the great Conservative party and the tenant-farmers of the county,” insisted that they had met not with a defeat but a “check” ; and he looked forward in anticipation to the time when he would again give Mr. Cavendish “a run over the Buckinghamshire hills.” The clergy of the Archdeaconry of Liverpool met a few days ago in the Board-room of the Collegiate Institution to deliberate on the new move- ment on behalf of middle-class education. In the resolutions passed, they express a sincere desire to codperate with the University of Oxford, “so far as their conscientious convictions will allow” : but they cannot conceal from the public and the University, “ that many of their body have serious misgivings respecting the effect which is likely to be pro- | duced on the religion of the middle-classes by that regulation which pre- | cludes proficiency in divinity from receiving honourable distinction. They therefore respectfully request that that part of the proposed scheme may receive careful reconsideration, and especially that such steps as seem desirable may be taken for obtaining the general sense of the clergy of the Church of England on the subject.” The Town-Council of Manchester, through the Mayor of that city, have presented a testimonial consisting of a vote of thanks to the Executive Committee of the late Art Treasures Exhibition. The ceremony took place in the Town-hall with the Anglo-Saxon accompaniments of sub- stantial viands and generous wines. The shipbuilders of the Wear, 1400 in number, are “on strike” : they turned out when the masters proposed 4s, instead of 5s, per day; the employers now offer 4s. Gd,—the men refuse it. The strike of colliers in the Aberdare district is more general than ever ; some who had returned tu work have been compelled by threats to | turn out again, Thomas Johnson, an American sailor, is in custody for sending a letter to | the soldiers of the 9th Regiment, in barracks at Sunderland, inciting them to mutiny, to disarm their officers, appoint officers from the ranks, and pro- claim a republic. Johnson has been examined by the Magistrates. There seems to be no doubt that he is insane, Mr. James Hunt, Poor-law Auditor of the Oxfordshire and Warwick- shire district, who was one of the sufferers by the Jate accident near Charl- bury, on the Oxford, Worcester, and Wolverhampton Railway, has since died. He did not appear to have sustained any serious hurt from the collision ; a post-mortem examination showed that the bursting of an aneurismal sac and a flow of blood into the abdomen. The laceration of this sac might have been caused by any excitement or exertion : did the railway accident actually cause it? This will be an im- rtant question if an action for compensation should arise. The Coroner as adjourned the inquest in order that a full inquiry may take place. eath had resulted from | Miss Mary Woods, an aged single lady of Liscard in Cheshire, a sleep- walker, rose from her bed during the night, walked throngh the village in her night-dress, entered the Mersey, and was drowned. Later in the morn- ing her body was discovered floating in the river. An engine-driver has been killed at Gorton station, on the Manchester and Sheffield Railway, by breaking a rule during the improper absence of a pointsman. Holland, the driver of the engine, as the pointsman was not in his box, told his fireman to move the points that he might cross the rails to entera shed; while crossing, another engine came along the line ; there was a violent collision ; Holland was killed, and the fireman of the second engine was hurled to the ground and sustained a concussion of the brain, The signalman, Taylor, who had left his post to get beer at 2 public-house, was taken into custody. An accident of an unusual kind, but not unprecedented, has happened on the railway between Ramsbottom and Accrington. In ascending a long in- cline, cight stone-trucks broke away, and ran back for two or three miles ; a ope agp approac hed ; the driver stopped it, but had not time to back iis train, and a violent crash followed. The engine and first carriage were nearly destroyed, A boiler at Harehills Lane Colliery, near Leeds, exploded on Tuesday morning, killing Mr. Joseph Garside, one of the owners of the colliery, and seriously wounding two othe r persons. The boiler was old; there seems te have been a deficiency of water. SCOTLAND. The question of University “reform” or * improvement,” long a stir- ring topic in the Scotch newspapers, has made its way to the platform. On Wednesday a meeting on the subject was held in the Queen Street | Hall, called together by the Acting Committee of the Association for the Improvement and Extension of the Scottish Universities. The meeting was attended by distinguished men of all parties. Lord Campbell, the chairman, opened the proceedings with a long speech ; the other speakers were the Dean of Faculty, Principal Campbell of Aberdeen, Dr. Cand- lish, Sir Edward Colebrooke, Mr. Stirling of Keir, Dr. Robertson, Lord Neaves, Principal Tulloch of St. Andrews, Dr, Guthrie, the Lord Advo- | cate, and Dr. Christison. They all appeared to be very much in earnest in the exposition of their views. The resolutions declare the necessity for more encouragement to the attainment of high excellence in literature and philosophy ; an increase in the efficiency of professorial instruction, but so that the distinctive character of the Scottish Universities may be preserved ; an increase of professorial endowments with provision for re- tirements ; new professorships; the extension to graduates of a share in University government ; and an improved system of examinations. At the Glasgow Circuit Court last week, John Thomson, otherwise Peter Walker, was tried for the murder of Agnes Montgomery, by administering prussic acid to her at Eaglesham ; and also with administering prussic acid to Archibald Mason and his wife, at Glasgow, whereby their lives were put in danger. The trial occupied three days. Peter Walker, a tailor, had been transported for robbery; on his return he called himself John Thom- son. He was hired by Mr. teen. a tailor of Eaglesham; and he paid court to Agnes Montgomery, sister to Mrs, Watson; but she gave him the reverse of encouragement. One Sunday afternoon, Thomson took out his employer’s little child for a walk; he called on Agnes; a noise was heard in her room; Thomson left it, locking the door, Moans were heard in the room ; the other people in the house effected an entrance; Agnes Montgomery was found seated in a chair, and apparently dying—she did die in less than an hour. No suspicion of foul play arose for a time, Thom- son left Eaglesham for Glasgow : he became intimate with the Masons; he treated them one day with whisky—prussic acid had been mixed with it, and both the Masons became very ill. In the mean time, the prattle of Mrs. Watson’s little girl—a child only three years old—had awakened sus- pieion respecting the cause of Agnes Montgomery’s death. The body was exhumed ; a chemical examination proved the presence of prussic acid in the viscera. A number of witnesses at the trial deposed to circumstances lead- ing to the conclusion that Thomson administered the poison. He had ob- tained prussic acid from Glasgow, on a false pretence, It is supposed that he put it into beer which the deceased was drinking; that after she drank it she fell upon the floor; that Thomson lifted her up, dragged her along, and seated her in the chair where she was found. There was no doubt that he locked the door, and afterwards secreted the key near a tree, where it was found. A phial had been broken on a path near the house. With regard to the second ease, it was shown that Thomson had made a se- cond purchase of prussic acid. No motive for such atrocious crimes was apparent, Shopmates of the | prisoner proved that there had been a good deal of conversation among them on the occasion of Miss Smith’s trial respecting the effects of prussic acid. The counsel for the prisoner relied strongly on the absence of motive as evi- | dence of the prisoner's innocence. In charging the Jury, the Lord Justice Clerk dwelt at length on this part of the case. He observed that the absence of apparent motive—of a motive that would be conceived by pure minds—was no proof of innocence: whe can fathom the motives of the wicked? It is an undoubted fact that a great trial for poisoning has a tendency to excite others to the crime: there isa dreadful fascination to some in the idea that they hold a power of destroying human life. Thomson might have been actuated by a desire to get posses- sion of a little money which it is supposed the deceased had, The Jury unanimously returned a verdict of ‘* Guilty.” The Lord Justice Clerk ex- essed his Concurrence with that verdict ; and he sentenced the convict to hanged. Thomson heard the sentence with a stolidity which had cha- racterized his demeanour during the whole trial. Since his condemnation, however, he has become somewhat softened ; confessing his guilt, and seeking spiritual consolation. He states that his motive for killing Agnes Montgomery was to obtain what money she might have: nothing is reported of his motives for the second poisoning. Some of the Staffordshire Militia, stationed at Edinburgh, have behaved in a most shameful manner, A squabble arose between a number of the militia and some civilians who were drinking—such a disturbance is a very ordinary occurrence ; but a picket sent under a sergeant to quell it actually assailed several persons: Lieutenant Milligan, of the City Police, interfered to protect a young man, when several of the picket thrust their bayonets at him, inflicting a number of flesh-wounds on the head and cutting through his clothes. Five of the ruffians are in custody—Lanee-Sergeant Day and four privates. IRELAND. Lord John Browne was elected on Wednesday for the County of Mayo, without opposition. He promises to be an “independent su porter ” of the Government. Mr. G. H. Moore made a spcech from the hustings at Castlebar.

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4 THE SPECTATOR. [January 2, 1858. Lord Carlisle returned to Dublin on Wednesday, after an extended. holiday in England. The “great slander case’ of Strevens versvs Campion continued to occupy the Court of Exchequer up to Wednesday: it had then lasted thirteen a. and was still unfinished. The Chief Baron had begun his charge to the Jury. There has been a good deal of fighting and rioting by soldiers stationed at Dublin. The Guards and the Shropshire Militia, on Christmas night, fouzht the men of the 30th and 55th Regiments. The inhabitants suffered much alarm, and many windows were broken. On Sunday evening, a party of the 30th and 55th attempted to rescue some comrades who they errone- ously thought were confined in a police-station: an inspector, a constable, and a prisoner, armed with swords, held the soldiers at bay till aid came. The authorities took measures to put an end to the disturbances, and the ringleaders will be punished. Foreign aud Calouial. #rautt.—Paris has, like London, enjoyed a fine healthy Christmas season, and the streets and public walks have been crowded with holi- day-makers and venders of all kinds. There is hardly along the Boule- vards a space without its stall, and in cach stall a choice display of wares supposed to be suited to the season. The Emperor has been unwell; a fact made known to the public by his absence from a Council of Ministers and the countermanding of a re- view. The question of agricultural assurance, debated the other day before the Council of State au grand complet, the Emperor presiding, is for the present at an end. The project of M. Perron sayoured too much of Socialism to be popuiar with the Council. It was rejected by a ma- jority of 47 to 3, 50 being the total number present. ‘The Council will soon meet to take into consideration the question of the usury laws. It is said that Marshal Pélissier has prevailed upon the Emperor to permit the return of the whole of the exiled Generals to France, without exacting any conditions. Charles Lagrange, a veteran Revolutionist, has died at the Hague, after a long and painful illness. Another instance of private vengeance in France is recorded. A young man named Basset fell in love with the daughter of the Mayor of Ail. She received her lover in her bedroom. The father discovered the intrigue; and, ordering his daughter to sleep in another room, placed his son in the girl’s room armed with a gun, telling the youth to shoot any one who got through the window. Basset appeared, and was killed. Both father and son have been arrested, much to their amazement. Qustria.—Lord Stratford de Redcliffe has been much feted at Vienna. He arrived there on the 22d December, intending, it is said, to continue his journey on the 24th; but the invitations that poured in upon him from the Emperor downwards made it impossible for him to resume his journey so soon. The Zimes, at the close of a long article, recalling the services of Lord Stratford in Turkey and elsewhere, thus estimates his more recent labours— ** The veteran statesman is now to return home for a time, perhaps for ever. All his fierce feuds, his personal discourtesies, his favouritisms, and his strange dislikes, will soon be forgotten. His faults of temper will linger only in the remembrance of a narrow circle. On the other hand, his exer- tions for his own country, for Turkey, and for the world, will probably rise iu estimation with every succeeding year. He has certainly achieved a work in which a less stern and resolute character would have failed. His very defects seem to have been necessary to success in his peculiar mission. If he had been a goodnatured, easy diplomatist of the usual type, he could never have held his position among the demoralized cliques of Constanti- nople. During the most momentous period of modern Turkish history he has been the controlling spirit of the Porte ; incorruptible in the midst of universal corruption ; unterrified while all around him were shrinking; of preternatural activity, with sloth and apathy on every side; carrying on a ceaseless warfare against every kind of evil, positive or negative, which came within the circuit of his view. He has roused a lethargic Sultan into action, taught self-seeking Pashas honesty, terrified distant Governors into justice, foiled the sedition of Greeks, restrained the eupidity of Armenians, protected missionaries, checked Mussulman persecution, and extended Christian rights. In fact, Turkey as it is today is mainly his work. All the younger race of Pashas who shrink in decency from the enormous cor- ruption of their fathers have received from him the education which has made them what they are. Ifthe ‘ sick man’ is ever destined to be whole again, the world will recognize in Lord Stratford de Redcliffe the physician who has worked the cure.” The Emperor of Austria has determined to enlarge Vienna by razing the fortifications, The population had outgrown the house-accommo- dation; rents are accordingly exorbitant. The only cure was to throw down the walls, The ground they now occupy will be sold, and the pro- ceeds devoted to public buildings. **The fortifications are first to be done away with on the Northern and Western sides of the city; and there is to be a broad quay along the canal of the Danube, which runs along the Northern part of the city. The pa- rade-ground, on the South-west side of the city, is to be properly regulated. In the new part of the city between the suburbs of Rossau and Alser-Vor- stadt, (the Qorth-east at) there is to be a fortified caserne, containing a military prison and bakehouses. The open space before the Imperial Palace, which is on the South side of the city, and the gardens on cach side of it, are to remain as they now are until further orders. The space between the outer Burggate, and the Imperial stables is to be left in statu quo; as is that ill-placed edifice which overlooks the Leopoldstadt, and which is known as the Francis Joseph Caserne. When the above-men- tioned alterations have been made, the city will be enlarged on its South- eastern side, where is the Karnthner-gate. Among the public buildings to be constructed, are a palace for the General Commando of the army, a residence for the Town Major, an operahouse, a record-office, a library, a municipal palace, Museums, &c. Inside the quay of the Danube, and Fae pry | round the inner city, there is to be a Boulevard. The breadth of the street, including causeways, is to be 240 feet. On different parts of the glacis the houses are to have large gardens, and all the prin- cipal streets are to be very broad; even the side-streets are to be 48 feet in breadth. All European architects will be at liberty to send in general plans for enlarging and beautifying the city. The reward for the best plan will ~ ow (about 900/.), for the second 1000, and for the third 500 ucats, | | Staly—bBefore the Piedmontese Legislature broke up for the Christ mas holidays, the Liberals tried their strength with the Clerical party, but on a question of slight importance. The Liberals carried the vote by 82 to 59 : the Ministers did not vote. The earthquake at Naples continued four days. It has been far more serious than was at first supposed. In extent it stretched from the Medi- terranean to the Adriatic, with varying violence , doing most damage in the Basilicata, but inflicting great sufferings on the people in all the pro- vinces South of Naples. Some villages have disappeared ; others have been nearly destroyed ; scores have been seriously damaged. But the loss of life has been terrible. In one town, 2000 persons were killed ; in another, 400; in a third, 300; and all over the region affected by the shock so many lives have been sacrificed that the lowest estimate of the loss is 13,000. The Government is said to have promptly rendered aid to the sufferers; but other accounts represent the aid rendered as very in- efficient. During the week of the earthquake at Naples the thieves plied their trade, and the lottery-offices were as much frequented as if no public calamity had occurred. A report by Mr. Acting-Consul Barbar to the Earl of Clarendon on the past and present condition of two English engineers imprisoned at Salerno has been published. Mr. Barbar writes, that in reply to him the Attorney-General had stated that Park and Watt were detained when the crew were released because a letter from Miss White was found on Watt. This statement, {the Acting-Consul says, ‘is com- pletely false.” The paper found on him was a notice enforced on both engineers at the dagger-point by the insurgents, that if they did not do their duty as engineers they would be killed. They worked the engines of the Cagliari under a guard armed with a pistol. Mr. Barbar appends a memorandum describing the cruelties inflicted on the engineers by the Neapolitan authorities in the Vicaria prisons at Naples and afterwards at Salerno. Switserlan} —The Government of the Swiss Confederation is now constituted as follows: General Politics, M. Furrer; Interior, M. Pioda ; Justice and Police, M. Knusel; War, M. Frey-Hérosée; Finances, M. Staempfli; Commerce and Tolls, M. Fornerod ; Post-office, M. Naeff. CUurkry.—It is reported that “ a note addressed by M. de Boutenieff to the Porte declares that the occupation of Perim by the English is con- trary to the integrity of the Turkish territory.” Another rumour is, that “ the Shah of Persia invited the various Am- bassadors to be present at the coronation of his son; and that the Eng- lish Minister refused to attend, making a reservation in favour of the rights of another heir to the throne, now a refugee at Bagdad.” € gypt.—a telegraphic despatch from Alexandria, dated the 14th De- cember, states that the different detachments brought there by “ the steam-transports Sultan and Nemesis have arrived at Suez under the command of Colonel Mackirdy. These detachments formed a total of about 1100 men; of whom only four were ‘on the sick list, and not with any scrious illness. The transit from Southampton to Suez was effected in the most satisfactory manner. It is stated that the India Company have made arrangements for the passage of a thousand men a mont through Egypt to Calcutta or Bombay.” Subia.—The fuller despatches of the Bombay overland mail arrived in London on Monday morning, and those of the Calcutta mail on Thursday. They do not increase our information very much either in substance or detail; but they correct an impression produced by the first telegraphic message that Sir Colin Campbell was master of Lucknow. Oude. The concentration of the relieving force under Sir Colin Camp- bell before Lucknow was not accomplished until the 10th November. The first to cross the Ganges was the Delhi column, 3460 strong, under Brigadier Hope Grant. They met with no opposition until they had crossed the river Sye by the Bunnee bridge; but parties of the enemy hovered around, intent on reaching the baggage. Some of them occu- pied a village, from which they were speedily routed, on the 3d Novem- ber. Brigadier Grant halted his column at Nawabgunge, within hear- ing of the sound of firing at Lucknow. Here he was first joined by de- tachments from several regiments on the 8th and 9th, and on the 10th by Sir Colin Campbell with 1500 men. The Commander-in-chicf then had under his orders about 6000 men, eleven heavy guns, two 18-pound- ers, cighteen field-pieces, and several mortars. His first operation was to take and blow up the fort of Jellalabad, and to clear the ground around Allumbagh; his next, to turn as far as possible the strong posi- tions of the enemy, and reach the Residency by a circuitous route. Some idea of the severe nature of the operations may be obtained from the fol- lowing description of the obstacles. ** Allumb.egh stands South of Lucknow about three miles. A direct road runs due North, crosses the canal at right angles in a point called the Char- bagh bridge, and, diverging slightly to the Westward, cuts through the heart of the city, and stops at the Balee guard, or Residency. The canal, which runs nearly East and West, falls into the Goomtee, at a point North of the Martiniere school. The Muchee Bawun and Residency abut on the river, which flows almost due East and parallel to the canal ; but at some distance the course of the stream alters and winds South, joining the canal above the Martiniere school. Thus Lucknow, the Muchee Bawun, the Re- sidency, and other buildings, are enclosed North, South, and East, by a barrier of waters, which bathe an area forming almost a rectangle. Near the junction of the canal and Goomtee, and consequently near the Mar- tiniere, several bridges are built on the canals, that which is nearest the river leading to a group of buildings called the Mahals. These Mahals are the residence of Wajid A's: tree hundred wives; and are an extensive structure built of brick, ...orung excellent covering positions to infantry, but incapable of resistance to artillery. Near them are Secunderbagh, the barracks, and mess-house. Troops occupying the Mahals and other build- ings just named are under fire South-eastward from the Residency. Ar- tillery placed on the canal in front of the Martiniere could fire on them in a North-westerly direction. It is, then, obvious, that by an advance of our troops from the Southward or Martiniere direction the occupants of the Mahals would be under a double fire. At no great distance in rear South of Martiniere is Dilkhoosha, literally Heart’s Delight, a palace of brick, com- posed of two rectangular blocks of buildings, forming half a square.”’ Avoiding the direct road and the cross fires, Sir Colin Campbell moved by his right, and occupied the Dilkhoosha and Martiniere on the 15th, er a running fight of two hours. When he was well established, the rebels made a counter-attack, but were repulsed, with small loss on our side, On the 16th, Sir Colin, having turned the position, advanced di-

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January 2, 1858.] THE SPECTATOR. 5 rectly on the Residency; crossing the canal, battering Secunderbagh with his artillery, and storming it after a severe struggle. Without halting, the heavy guns were turned upon another large building; the fire was kept up for three hours; and at dusk it was carried, “ after one of the severest fights ever witnessed.” Such was the work of the 16th. There now remained between the relieving force and the Resi- dency, the palaces, the mess-house, and the barracks. Here again Sir Colin made a great use of his big guns, with Peel's sailor gunners work- ingthem; and when the balls and shells had broken a way into the buildings, the troops dashed through and won possession at the point of the bayonet. This was achieved before the sun had set; and on the bloody ficld so stoutly won, the three Generals, Outram, Havelock, and Campbell, met in the dusk. There was again hard fighting on the 18th and 19th, of which we have no particulars. But since the garrison of the Residency, and the women, children, sick, and wounded, were re- moved on the 20th, and sent on to Cawnpore, it may be inferred that other obstacles in the way of a complete communication with the Resi- dency, than those encountered on the 17th, had to be overcome. Beyond the 20th all is dark. Of the heavy fighting on the 2Ist we have no de- tails. It is clear, however, that on the 2Ist the British had not cap- tured Lucknow, for the whole of the Western end of the city is unac- counted for. No approximate estimate of the losses on either side has been pub- lished. Ours is supposed to have been smaller than the severe nature of the operations scems to warrant. The losses of the rebels must have been very large, since 1500 dead bodies were cownted in the Se- ecunderbagh. This may well be, since our infantry are armed with rifles, and among Sir Colin’s artillery were some 68-pounders. According to one report, Fyzabad, where the rebels had set up a King, | was to be the scene of their next stand, after Lucknow shall have been wrested from them. Cawnpore. General Windham, left at this station to forward rein- forcements and secure the communication with Allahabad, was threat- ened when the mail was despatched by the Gwalior mutineers coming from Calpee. This erratic and vacillating force is said to have crossed the Jumna according to one account, strong in all arms, and led by Nana Sahib; and General Windham was supposed to have marched out to meet them. But according to another account, deterred by the reports of the arrival of troops at Cawnpore, they had turned back at the bank | of the river, and had set off cither for Jhansi or Gwalior. Another ac- ae states that they were still at Calpee, suffering from divided coun- sels. Dethi. The moveable column which started from Delhi under Bri- gadier Showers has been actively engaged in scouring the country South of Delhi; dispersing small bands, cutting up marauders, burning vil- lages, scizing and executing prisoners, and altogether doing much execu- tion. One part of the column under Colonel Gerard met with an unex- pected enemy. The Joudpore Legion, led on, it is supposed, by a belief that Delhi had not fallen, moved up all the way from Awa in Raj- pootana, intending to enter Delhi. They were heard of between Nar- nool and Rewarree, and Colonel Gerard hastily collected a force and marched to meet them ; the Legion, trusting to its numbers, quite ready for a fight. The action lasted all day. The Legion held a strong stone building, and fought stoutly. But by sunset the rebels were driven off the field in a confused rout, with the Guides and Carabineers on their heels. Both leaders were killed—Sumnud Khan, chief of the Legion, on the spot; and Colonel Gerard, being mortally wounded, soon died. We lost 70 killed and wounded. i From Delhi itself we have little news. One of the sons of the King has been allowed to live, on account of his youth. The papers have ex- pressed great indignation because Colonel Hogge carried him out on his elephant at the request of Mr. Sanders, the Commissioner, for an airing of an evening. The journalists at Calcutta are enraged because any one is spared. They ask that a special envoy should be sent to Delhi with full power to do anything ‘‘except pardon.” The Bombay correspondent of the Daily News writes— ** Justice seems tardily to have taken its course at Delhi. Twenty-four of the inferior members of the Royal Family of Delhi were executed on the 20th November, by order of a military commission, before which they were tried. Hukeem Abdool Huk, who was one of the most influential rebels, and fore- most in his hostility to our Government, was executed on the 21st. There are others remaining to be dealt with. A fatal spirit of lenity, the ghost of Mr. Colvin’s policy, lingers there. Numerous prisoners sent in from time to time are treated with respect and tenderness. ‘The King is sumptuously attended in his so-called confinement, and receives the customary forms of ceremonial to which his old rank entitled him. A son of the King of Delhi is seen taking airings on an elephant, with Colonel Hogge and Mr. C, B. Sanders seated behind him in the howda. Noted leaders of the rebellion are in custody, and should be tried. Their names have been published: they are—Hoosscin Khan, a Persian, who commanded a regiment at Delhi; Nu- wab Ahmed Kooli Khan, father-in-law of the King, who went out to meet the Bareilly brigade and escorted them into the city ; the Nuwab of Jhujjur, ~ Nuwab Ameen Oodeen Khan, accused of assisting in the murder of Mr. raser.”* ventral India. Brigadier Stuart, with the Mhow ficld force, has been successful in defeating the rebels in Malwa. He gave them battle near Mundesore, and inflicted on them a severe loss. In the night they abandoned Mundesore. Another body of rebels, hanging round Nee- much, when they heard of the defeat of their comrades at Mundesore, abandoned that place. Rampoora, a town further Northward, seems to be the point where the scattered bands of insurgents united. “Sir Hugh Rose, gazetted to the command of the united brigades _ rately led hitherto by the two Stuarts, takes the field immediately, and is now on his way to head-quarters ; the measures which he is instructed to pursue having been duly concerted at Matheran, between him, Lord El- phinstone, and Sir R. Hamilton. The Mhow column, thrown forward to the vicinity of Mundesore, stands fast at that place, after forcing the rebels to evacuate the neighbourhood. Its strength has already been inereased by the junction of Orr's Edlabad force, near Mehidpore. Brigadier Stuart's Aurungabad column, lately halted at Asseerghur, will proceed to Hoshunga- bad at once. Whilst with this army Sir Hugh advances Eastward as rapidly as the ground and means of transport will permit, Whitelock’s Madras co- lumn, now in course of formation at Nagpore, will keep the right bank of the Nerbudda. On the West, General Roberts’s brigade will push forward from Decsa; on the North-west, Lawrence’s brigade will move from Aj- mere; and the Delhi detachments will hem in the insurgents from the orth.” The Punjaub, Some disorder has occurred here. It was occasioned by the activity of the marauding tribes, who sallied forth and plundered right and left. They were pursued by flying detachments ; many have been caught and slaughtered, and some chiefs have been hanged: One body was surprised in its stronghold, and a large head of cattle and much stolen property were recovered, Lieutenant Neville was murdered by one band as he was proceeding down the Sutlej on his road to Bombay to meet his intended bride. Bengal. Anew mutiny has broken out. Just before the despatch of the mail on the 24th November, news reached Calcutta that three com- panies of the 34th Native Infantry stationed at Chittagong had mutinied, | plundered the treasury, opened the gaols, and marched off for Dacea, | They committed no murders. Some companies of British Infantry were | tostart from Calcutta for Dacca on the 25th. The Indian Government have sent an expedition to explore the Anda- man Islands with the view of ascertaining whether a penal settlement can be established there. A long and detailed order has been issued by the Governor-General deciding what compensation shall be given to sufferers from the rebellion. | Grants are to be made on a fixed scale to all persons who have suffered loss of property during the mutiny, whether they be connected with the Company or not; and pensions to the families of those who have been killed. The scale of pensions is liberal, but the compensation for loss of property is very small, Natives who rendered active assistance to the Government will be compensated ; those who did not will rece no Free passage on steamers has been and will be given to Bengal, and from | compensation. all women and children from up-country stations to | Caleutta home. The Commander-in-chief has published an order laying down ru r | the disposal of Native soldiers on furlough belonging to niutinous or dis- armed regiments. All Native oflicers, non-commissioned oflicers, and Sepoys of mutinous regiments, who report themselves on the expiration of their leave, will be paid and discharged ; those of disarmed regiments may rejoin at the expiration of their leave. Commanding-oflicers may report the cases of faithful men who belonged to mutinous regiments, for consideration. All who overstay their leave will be liable to dismissal, with forfeiture of pay : they must give satisfactory proof of the manner in which they were employed during their unauthorized absence. The Times Caleutta correspondent brings under notice an order issued | three months ago by Mr. R, Montgomery in the Punjaub with the sane- | tion of Sir John Lawrence. It notifies, that thenceforth “the system of caste could no longer be permitted to rule ” in the British service ; and | that Native Christians would be eligible, equally with Hindoos and Ma- | hometans, for appointments in the judicial and police departments. | Up tothat time, there had not been a single Native Christian in any em- | ployment under the Government of the Punjaub. The Moonshee Ameer Ali. The appointment of this gentleman as As- | sistant-Commissioner at Patna occasioned severe attacks upon the Indian Government. Mr. Samuels, the Commissioner of Patna, has explained ; and defended the circumstances that led to the appointment, in a letter to | the Secretary of the Government at Caleutta. Moonshee Ameer Ali was a leading pleader in the Sudder Court ; his professional income is estimated at from 3000 to 4000 rupees a month. His father was a loyal servant of the British, and he was known to be loyal. When Mr. Samuels was about to quit Calcutta for Patna, the Moonshee offered his | services ; and, knowing that he was intimately acquainted with the | history of every private family in Behar, Mr, Samuels asked the Moon- | shee to report his offer to the Lieutenant-Governor. He did so, and it was aceepted. But to make his services useful with the Zemindars, it was necessary that he should hold an appointment; and he was ac- cordingly made Assistant-Commissioner at a salary of 700 rupees a month, Mr. Samuels acknowledges the great services he rendered. ‘* His assistance was most useful to me during the Mohurrum. By my desire he assembled the inhabitants of the different Muhullahs in rotation, and explained to them, according to a programme I had previously given him, the precise position of affairs, and the power and resources of the British Government; answering all their questions, satisfying all their doubts, and confirming their confidence in the stability of the British rule. He explained to them at the same time the rules I had laid down for their guidance during the Mohurrum, and the necessity of carefully avoiding every demonstration which might lead to a breach of the peace. He at- tended at the Jurgah on the great day of the Mohurrum, and super- intended all the police arrangements at that spot in person ; and it was un- doubtedly owing in a great measure to his exertions that the Mohurrum, which had been looked forward to with dread by so many persons, passed | off more quietly than it had ever been known before in the city of Patna, and this without any coercion of the people or any display of military force. | Since that period Moonshee Ameer Ali bas been occupied in conducting the extensive correspondence which [ have had with Native zemindars and others on affairs connected with the disturbed state of the country, and in aec- quiring information for me on the state of feeling among the Natives in all parts of my jurisdiction. In all this, his zeal, tact, and intelligence have been conspicuous; and I should be most unjust if I did not ac- knowledge in the fullest manner the assistance which I have derived from him in this department of my duties.”’ But Mr. Samuels regards the appointment as useful in a political point of view, and censures the press for its ceascless vituperation of Ameer Ali and the Mahometans in general. ‘The main ground of attack against him was, however, that he was a Mahometan ; and I confess I think, had his appointment served no other purpose, that it would have been of the greatest utility in proving practi- cally to the Natives that the Government did not sympathize with the vio- lent tone which the press assumed towards the Mussulman community, and had no intention of acting upon its suggestions. The whole of the Calcutta a. apparently without exception, have taken up the idea that this is a Mahometan rebellion, not merely in the sense that the Sepoys were worked upon by individual Mahometans, which may or may not be true, but that the entire Mahomctan community is disaffected, and merely waits its op- portunity to rise and throw off the British yoke. 1 need not point out how destitute of foundation this notion is, how entirely unrestrained a mil- lions of Mahometans in Bengal have been during the last four months ex- cept by their own feelings of loyalty, and how quict the Mahometan villages of Southern Behar have amelie remained while the Rajpoot and Brahmin villages were rising round them. In this neighbourhood, in particular, as the Lieutenant-Governor is aware, the Mahometans have been foremost in acts of devotion to the State. When a few fanatics, principally Oude men, attempted to excite an émeute in the town of Patna, proclaimed a juhad or holy war, and carried before them a banner inscribed with a verse of the

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6 THE SPECTATOR. (January 2, 1858. Koran, not above twenty or —_— persons of the enormous Mahometan population of this town showed the least sympathy with them. A Maho- metan Darogah was the first to attack them, and lost his life in a gallant attempt to arrest them with the aid of his Burkundayes alone. Numerous other acts of devotion on the of Mahometans might, as you are aware, be cited. But the press could sce no virtue in the act of a Mahometan; and it was seriously contended, in issue after issue of the different papers, that the entire race should be proscribed; that no employments of trust should be given to them; and that we should treat them, in fact, as our na- tural enemies, people on whom our heels should be constantly pressed. I confess it appears to me that articles of this description are much more likely to endanger the stability of the Government than any amount of abuse, whether of the persons or the measures of the members of the Government. They have a direct tendency to excite disaffection me | large masses of | t the population, and to convert what is now a military revolt into a national rebellion. I cannot conceive a more sure method of inciting the whole Ma- hometan_ population of the empire to rise, than to persuade them that the English Government is determined for the future to treat them as disaffected subjects, and to exclude them from every honourable office. At all the sta- tions which I passed on my way up the river, I understood that the violent tone which the papers had assumed towards the Mahometan community had excited alarm and anxiety among them, and that they were in dread lest the Government should issue an edict of proscription such as the Calcutta | papers advocated. The appointment of Moonshee Ameer Ali, and the ho- | nours liberally bestowed since on other Mahometans who have shown their devotion to the State, have done much to satisfy the people that the Govern- | l 3 t : ‘ men-of-war had set off on receipt of the news of Walker’s landing for the meut are not likely to be led by popular clamour into the commission of such an act of folly and injustice.” Chins .—The advices from Hongkong come down to the 15th No- vember. The Russian and United States Ministers had arrived there. No attack had yet been made on Canton, but it was understood that the operations would begin at the end of the month. coéperate, and the force at the disposal of the allies is said to be 5000 of all arms. Yeh was much pressed by rebels in the _Kwangtung province. @uitrd Statrs—The America arrived at Liverpool on Monday, with advices from New York to the 18th December. The separation of Mr. Douglas from Mr. Buchanan on the Kansas question, and the fortunes of the Utah expedition, form the prominent political topics. Mr. Douglas takes his stand on the out-and-out Demo- cratic doctrine that the whole constitution intended for Kansas should be submitted to the people ; and he disputes the validity of the proceedings of the Lecompton Convention, whereby only a clause of the consti- tution was so submitted. The President recognizes the validity of the roceedings of the Convention. Governor Walker and acting Governor tanton took the same view as Mr. Douglas; and Mr. Stanton thought himself justified in calling the new Territorial Legislature together at Le- compton, a body well-known to be in favour of free institutions. It is for this act that the President has dismissed Governor Walker and Mr. Stanton ; thus practically leaving the destinies of Kansas for a time in the hands of Calhoun, the “ Regent” appointed by the Convention. But the Free Statemen have not been inactive. Called up by Stanton, they came in great numbers ; and at present civil war seems not far distant. It is supposed that the key to the defection of Mr. Douglas is to be found in his prospects for the next contest for the Presidency. The posi- tion he has taken is that of the thoroughgoing Democrat, determined to settle everything on extreme Democratic principles. Hence his protest on behalf of the Democracy of Kansas is considered as an appeal to the Democracy in general, whose leader and champion he aspires to be. “Very contradictory accounts have been received from the Utah expe- dition. One represents the troops as almost certain of obtaining shelter, fuel, fodder, and a good position for the winter, in some happy valley of the Rocky Mountains; another draws a doleful picture of their struggles in that difficult country, wanting in all things, cut off from their resources, and destruction before and behind. All the accounts describe the forces as divided at least into three if not more bodies; and none place their joint numbers higher than 1500 of all arms. When Captain Van Vleit was at the Salt Lake City, Brigham Young preached a sermon before him. “*T shall treat,” he said, “every army and every armed company that attempt to come here asa mob.”’ (The congregation responded ‘* Amen.”’) ** You might as_ well tell me that you can make hell a powder-house as to tell me that you could let an army in here and have peace ; and I intend to tell and show them this if they donot keep away. .... Before I will suffer what I have in times past, there shall not be one building, nor one The French were to | foot of timber, nor a stick, nora tree, nor a particle of grassand hay that | | stand off until further orders. All hands then turned to constructing rafts will burn, left in reach of our enemies, Iam sworn, if driven to ex- tremity, to utterly lay waste in the name of Israel’s God. . . . . As I said this morning ten years ago on this ground, I stated that we would not ask any odds of our enemies in ten years from that date ; and the next time I thought of it was ten years afterwards to a day! They are now sending their troops was the news; and it directly occurred tome, ‘ Will you ask any odds of them?’ No, in the name of Israel’s God, we will not, for as soon as we ask odds we get ends—of bayonets. .... I am aware that you want to know what will be the result of the present movement against us. power, while our enemies will sink and become weaker and weaker, and be no more; and I know it just as well now as I shall five years hence. The Lord Almighty wants a name and a character ; enemies that 1, and to try our faith and integrity. And he is saying, ‘Now, you, my children, dare you take a step to promote righteousness, in direct and open ——— to the popular feelings of all the wicked in your Govern- ment? If you do, I will fight your battles.’ ”’ Brother Heber C. Kimball also made an exhortation at the same meet- ing, of greater directness and blasphemy. ** Wake up, ye saints of the most High, and prepare for any emergency that the Lord our God ma have pleasure in bringing forth. We never shall leave these valleys till we get ready—no, never, never! We will live here till we go back to Jackson County, Missouri. I prophesy that in the name of Israel’s God.” (The congregation shouted ‘‘ Amen !”’ and Presi- sident Brigham Young said, “ It is true.’’) The Deseret News of the 7th of October publishes the resolutions adopted by the Mormon Legislature at its last session, and forwarded to Mr. Buchanan. The pith is, that they “will resist any attempt of Go- vernment officials to set at nought the Territorial laws, or to impose nm them those which are inapplicable and of right not in force in this erritory.” While the North and the South are struggling for the possession of the remote Territory of Oregon has settled the question of slayery and He will show our | e is God, and that He has set His hand again to gather | Mormonism will take an almighty stride into influence and | | dian Bureau to by the adoption of a constitution excluding slavery, with which it will sppear this winter at the bar of Congress, asking admission to the nion. Among the papers presented to Congress, is a long report from the In. - 1" te of the Interior, throwing a favourable light upon the position of the Indians in the States and Territories, and de- scribing the various and complicated relations existing between them and the Federal and State Governments. The instances where the Red men have settled down to anything like a semblance of civilized life are few and far between. The tribes are now mere remnants, excepting those on the Western frontiers. Central Amerira.—William Walker, the Filibuster, at the head of 200 men, has once more planted his standard in Nicaragua. Early in November he was arrested at New Orleans on a charge of violating the neutrality Jaws. Bailed out instanter, he put to sea with his men in the steamer I’:shion, made Nicaragua about the 25th November, landed fifty men at the mouth of the Colorado, and, passing under the guns of the United States corvette Saratoga, landed the remainder and six guns op- posite Greytown, where he was to await Henningsen with a stronger | band. The Fashion went to Aspinwall. Overhauled by an American man-of-war, her “ papers’ were found to be “ correct.”” Her captain said he had taken two hundred “ coffee-planters’’ to Nicaragua, and had ‘‘ asked no questions.” It is stated that two English and two American San Juan. Burninc oF THE Saran Sanps.—The second calamity that has be- fallen the fleet of transports sent to India with troops was far more se- rious than the mishap of the Austria. The Sarah Sands, screw-steamer, having on board nearly 350 men of the 54th Regiment, with the head- quarters, a number of ladies, soldiers’ wives, and children, has been partly burnt at sea; the saving of the ship and of the numerous lives on board being due only to the courage and skill of the officers and the good conduct of the men. ‘The voyage appears to have been favourable until the 11th of No- vember, “as the ship had reached lat. 148., long. 56 E. (upwards of 400 miles from the Mauritius). About three o’clock in the afternoon of that day, the troops berthed on the after orlop-deck noticed a smell of burning, which apparently proceeded from beneath them in the hold. It rapidly increasing, the alarm was given to Captain Castle, who at once ordered the after-hold to be examine , and, to the astonishment and horror of all, the cargo stowed there proved to be on fire. It is stated that the bulk of the cargo there consisted of Government stores. Bale after bale was hauled up in the hope of getting at the seat of the fire ; but in a short | time the smoke became so dense as to defy any of the crew getting further into the hold. There was no confusion, however ; every order was obeyed by the men with coolness and courage. The course of the ship was stopped, Colonel Moftatt was seen in earnest consultation with Captain Castle deci- ding upon measures for suppressing the flames, while the crew were ac- tively employed in taking all sail in and bringing the ship before the wind. Others ran out lengths of hose from the fire-engines, which were passed down to hands below, while hose was also put on to the donkey engine, It soon became apparent that all these exertions failed in checking the pro- gress of the fire. Colonel Moffatt, at the suggestion of the commander, directed his men to at once cast overboard all their ammunition ; and ina short time they succeeded in clearing out the starboard-magazine. The remainder of the powder in the port-magazine, however, excited great apprehensions, Already had the after-part of the ship become almost un- approachable from the pao smoke and heat which filled every portion of it. The Colonel appealed to his men for volunteers to attempt to rescue the contents of the magazine now so threatened. Several brave fellows in- stantly came forward and heroically succeeded in reaching the magazine and clearing it, with the exception, it is supposed, of one or two barrels, It was a truly hazardous work ; several nearly lost their lives; they became overpowered with the smoke and heat, and fell; and when hauled up by ropes to the deck they were senseless. The flames soon afterwards burnt up through the deck, and running along the various cabins, speedily set the whole on fire. There was a heavy gale blowing at the time ; and Captain Castle, perceiving the critical position of the ship, at once took measures for the safe lowering of the boats. They were launched without the least accident. The troops were mustered on deck, there was no rush to the boats, and the men obeyed the word of command with as much order as on parade. Colonel Moffatt informed them that Captain Castle did not Seapets of saving the ship, but for their own preservation it had been deemed advisable to keep the boats off so as to act in case of emergency. The ladies, women, and children, were lowered into the port life-bout, and she was directed to of spare ——- In a short time three were = together, which would have been capable of saving a large portion of those on board. Captain Castle succeeded in launching two overboard, and the third was left across the deck, to be lowered at a moment’s notice. In the meanwhile, the flames had made terrible progress : the whole of the cabins, saloon, Ke., were one body of fire; and about nine o'clock the flames burst through the upper deck and ignited the mizen-rigging. Through the forethought of Captain Castle in bringing the ship to the wind, the fire and smoke were swept sternways; but serious anxiety was felt lest the ship should pay off, and so render her destruction inevitable. During this fearful suspense a dreadful | explosion took ea doubt arising from one or two barrels left in the port-magazine, which blew out the po-t-quarter. The ship from the main rigging to her stern was in one general body of fire. Captain Castle still had hope, although he expressed his fears to the commanding-officer of the troops [a separate letter from wn mg Castle implies that Major Brett was now in command] that the ship would be lost. | Providentially the bulkhead of the after-part of the ship withstood the action of the flames. Here all efforts were concentrated to keep it cool. Party after party of the troops volunteered for the work, and so endeavoured to prevent the fire making its way forward. For hours did this state of affairs continue. Although the men kept the fire at bay below, it gained the main rigging. Mr. Welch, the chief officer, with several of the soldiers, at once went aloft with wet blankets, and after considerable peril and risk succeeded in extinguishing the flames. As it was, however, some of the yards were destroyed. To- wards two o’clock the following morning the men had the satisfaction of seeing the fire diminishi The flames were gradually beaten back and by g- | daylight were entirely ee. It was not till then that the fearf | havoc made by the fire was c early ascertained. The after-part of the | was burnt out—merely its shell remaining ; and now another fate threaten her. The gale still prevailed, and the ship was rolling and pitching in a heavy sea, constantl shipping water at the patqunm, which had been blown out by the osion. She had fifteen feet of water in her hold, and active steps were necessary to prevent her foundering. All the men were set to the pumps and baling water out of the hold. Captain Castle, fearing 4 ah ~~~ orn oe De ae o we aeorown

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January 2, 1858.] THE SPECTATOR, 7 the stern would fall out, got two hawsers under the bottom and made them taut. The next difficulty was to stop the water which was pouring in through the quarter. Spare sails and blankets were placed over the opening, and the leak was partially stopped. There was no abatement in the gale during the morning, and im every heave of the ship the water- tanks in the hold which had got loose were dashed from one side to the other. The state of the ship and the continued severity of the weather rendered the constant working of the pumps and the baling imperative. It was not till two o’clock in the afternoon that the boats containing the women and children could be got alongside. They were got on board; and the other boats, which had been ordered off during the raging of the fire, returned, with the exception of the gig, which had been swamped during the night ; the officer in charge of her, however, Mr. Wood, and the hands were picked up by another boat, During the remainder of the day, the following night, and sueceeding day, the whole of the hands and troops were engaged working the pumps and clearing the ship of the water. By the evening of the 13th the crew succeeded in securing the stern and getting steerage-way on the ship. She hadthen drifted as far as longitude 13-12 South. Captain Castle then set all sail, and bore up in the hope of making Mauritius ; and, to the joy of all on board, made that port in eight days, where her arrival and marvellous escape excited considerable sensation, The officers in command of the troops speak in the highest terms of the conduct of Captain Castle during the trying occasion. By the latest arrivals, the head-quarters and men of the 54th Regiment continued at the Mauritius, awaiting the arrival of a ship to take them on to their desti- nation.’ PMisrellanrans, The wedding-day of the Princess Royal, the names of most conspicu- ous guests, and a programme of the after-festivities, have now been put forward in the official journal of the Court. * The marriage ceremony of her Royal Highness the Princess Royal and Prince Frederick William of Prussia will take place at the Chapel Royal, St. James’s, on Monday the 25th of January. “There will be present on the occasion, besides the Royal Family, his Majesty the King of the Belgians, their Royal Highnesses the Duke of Bra- bant and the Count of Flanders, their Royal Highnesses the Prince and Prin- cess of Prussia, Prince Frederick Charles (nephew of the King, son of Prince Charles), Prince Albert (brother of the King), Prince Charles Albert (son of Prince Albert), Prince Adalbert (cousin of the King), and the Prince of Ho- henzollern Sigmaringen, their Royal Highnesses the Grand Duke and Duchess of Baden, and Prince William of Baden (brother of the Grand ee and their Royal Highnesses the Duke and Duchess of Saxe-Coburg ; the whole of whom will arrive in London from the Continent on the 15th of January and the following days, and will be her Majesty’s guests at Buck- ingham Palace, while apartments have been engaged for their respective suites at Farrance’s and Fenton's Hotels. There will also be present on the occasion their Serene Highnesses Prince Edward of Saxe-Weimar, the Prince and Princess of Hohenlohe Langenburg, Princess Feodore, and Prince Victor of Hohenlohe, and the Prince of Leiningen. “ Her Majesty, his Royal Highness the Prince Consort, and the Royal Family, will arrive in town on Friday the 15th January. “A series of theatrical representstions will take place at Her Majesty’s Theatre on Tuesday the 19th, Thursday the 21st, and Saturday the 23d of January, at which her Majesty, the Royal Family, and foreign visitors will be present. “ Her Majesty will give a state ball at Buckingham Palace on Wednesday January 20th. ** His Royal Highness Prince Frederick William will arrive on the 23d. After the marriage ceremony on the 25th, the Prince and Princess Royal will leave Buckingham Palace for Windsor Castle, attended by a limited suite. ** Her Majesty will give that evening a state concert at Buckingham Palace ; to which the persons present at the marriage ceremony, the Corps Diplomatique, the members of the Government, and a number of the aristo- cracy, will be invited. “On the 26th, most of her Majesty’s guests ‘will return to the Con- tinent. On the 27th, her Majesty and the Prince Consort, with the junior mem- bers of the Royal Family, will join the young married couple at Windsor Castle; where, on the 28th, her Majesty will hold a Chapter of the Garter, for the purpose of investing Prince Frederick William with this dis- tinguished order. The Knights of the Garter attending the Chapter will be her Majesty's guests at the Castle, and will be present at a grand banquet to be given in honour of the occasion. “On Friday, January 29th, her Majesty, his Royal Highness the Prince Consort, and the Royal Family, with their Royal Highnesses Prince Frederick William and the Princess Royal, will return to town, and be resent in state at a representation at Her Majesty’s Theatre in the evening. n the following day, January 30th, her Majesty will hold a drawingroom at St. James's Palace, for the purpose of receiving congratulations on the happy event. “The departure of their Royal Highnesses is fixed for Tuesday February 2d. Their Royal Highnesses will embark at Gravesend, in her Majesty's yacht Victoria and Albert, and cross over to Antwerp.” The selection of the Chapel Royal has necessitated considerable al- terations both in the Chapel and the Palace. The Zimes repeats the current question, ‘‘ Why not Westminster Abbey?” In the Palace and Chapel, workmen are busy widening doorways, altering staircases, erecting a gallery in the court-yard, and gilding walls. But when all is done the body of the Chapel will only contain 200 persons, and a gallery 200 more. ‘‘The Chapel Royal will be almost exclusively filled by the suites of the Queen, the Princess Royal, and the Bridegroom, and the Royal guests that have been invited to this great gathering.” There are to be “three distinct processions before the ceremony,—that of the Queen as Sovereign, that of the Bride, and that of the royal Bridegroom.” About 1500 persons will be able to see the processions and ceremony. ** Fifteen hundred !’ says the Zimes ; ‘what a number! And that only to see the bare externals of the scene! Fifteen hundred to be all that are even to have outside places! Fifteen hundred out of all England! As for the inside and kernel of the ceremonial !—that, as we have said, not a single Englishman who is not in one of the suites will see.’’ The Court Circular, while stating that no official proposal has been made by the Dutch Court on behalf of the Prince of Orange for the hand of the Princess Alice, expresses a belief that the King of Holland does intend to make such a proposal. Should it be accepted by Queen Vic- toria, the Prince of Orange is to be sent to England ‘to complete his studies, probably at Cambridge.” A slight change has been made in the composition of the Cubinet. The Earl of Harrowby is announced to haye ‘resigned the office of Privy Seal, not from any political difference with his colleagues, but solely on account of the state of his health, which renders it for him to abstain for some time from all business.” He is to be suc- ceeded by the Marquis of Clanricarde. The pension for distinguished service, rendered vacant by the appoint- ment of Sir Henry Berton to the Coloneley of the Third Butts, has been conferred by the Commander-in-chief on Colonel Inglis, of the Thirty-second Regiment, who so gallantly and successfully prolonged the defence of the Residency of Lucknow. It is stated that “ the title by which Mr. Charles Compton Cavendish will be called to the Upper House is Lord Chesham, and not Lord Lati- mer, as previously stated.” The following list of the preachers at the Sunday evening services in Westminster Abbey during the month of January has been published as “ the correct list’ — “ The first sermon, on the 3d of January, will be preached by the Dean of | Westminster ; the second, on the 10th, by the Sub-Dean ; the third, on the 17th, by the Bishop of Oxford ; the fourth, on the 24th, by the Dean of Canterbury ; and the fifth, on the 3lst, by the Reverend C, J. P. Eyre,” By an order issued from the Horse Guards, the future admission of students to the junior department of the Royal Military College at Sand- hurst will be regulated by competitive examination. ‘* The age of admission to be from sixteen to eighteen years. The candi- date must apply through his parent or guardian to the General Command- ing-in-chief for permission to have his name entered on the list of com- petitors for the College. On receiving that permission, it will be open to the candidate to compete at any one of the half-yearly entrance exami- nations which may occur while he is within the prescribed limits of age. If unsuccessful, he will be allowed a second trial; but if again unsuccessful, he will be debarred from further competition for entrance into the College. The unsuccessful candidate, however, will still be eligible to enter the Army by passing the examination for direct commissions. The period of study will be two years. It will be terminated by a competitive exami- nation ; the most successful candidates in which will be permitted to se- lect the corps of Royal Engineers or Royal Artillery, according to the num- ber of vacancies in those corps, or will receive commissions without purchase in the Cavalry, Guards, or Line. Those who select the Ordnance Corps, will be removed to the School of Application at Woolwich.” The payments for education vary from 1002, per annum for the sons of private gentlemen to 20/. and upwards as far as 80/. for the sons of va- rious grades of officers. Twenty ‘* Queen's cadets,” the sons of officers who have fallen in action or who have died from the effects of active service, will be educated free of expense. The first competitive ex- amination will take place at Burlington House in the course of the pre- sent month. The subjects of examination include the classics, mathe- matics, the English and French languages, history, geography, science, and drawing. ‘The competitors will be reported to the Commander-in- chief in their order of merit, and those first on the list will succeed to the vacancies at the College.” The competitive examinations for admission to the Staff College will | be held at Burlington House on the Ist of February. The health of the Metropolis has greatly improved. The number of deaths last week was 1013, or 221 fewer than in the week preceding, and 300 below the calculated average. It is remarked in conjunction with this state of the mortality-tables, that the weather has been unusually fine and warm for the season, Barely a month ago, Earl Spencer resigned the office of Lord Steward of the Household. He was then in excellent health, and continued to be so until last Saturday, when he went out shooting with some friends, at Al- thorp Hall. On Sunday he died suddenly, a few minutes after midnight. Frederick, fourth Earl Spencer, was born in 1798, at the Admiralty, where his father the First Lord lived at the time of his birth. He entered the Navy before he had attained his fourteenth year, and served on the coast of France and Spain towards the close of the great war, He com- manded the Talbot, 28, at Navarino; and for his services was made a Com- eee of the Bath, a Knight of St. Louis, and a Knight of St. Anne of tussia. Since 1828 he has not been afloat. On shore he was known as Captain Spencer, Member for Worcestershire in 1831, and afterwards for Midhurst until 1841. He became a Peer on the death of his brother, best- known as “ honest Lord Althorp,”’ in 1845. The late Peer was Lord Cham- berlain from 1846 to 1848, and Lord Steward from 1854 to the 28th Novem- ber last. He was also a Knight of the Garter. In politics he was a Whig. He is succeeded by his eldest son, John Pointz, elected for South Northamp- tonshire at the general election. Death has carried off another sailor of Nelson’s day—Sir Alexander Dixie, who died recently at Bosworth Park, Hinchley, Leicestershire, In early life he was wrecked on the coast of France and taken prisoner ; but being | released at the peace of 1803, he joined the Canopus, and afterwards the Nelson confirmed him to a Lieutenancy in 1804 in the Phobe ; and he served with distinction at Trafalgar. During his naval career, he was once shipwrecked, twice captured, and twice wounded. His services ended with the peace of 1815. He became a baronet in 1850 by the death of a nephew. Sir Frederick George J. Foster, who died at Westcombe Lodge, Wimbledon, on Christmas Day, had been for some years in the diplomatic service ; first under his father, Sir Augustus Foster, Minister at Turin from 1824 to 1840; and afterwards at other Continental Courts as paid attaché. Victory. By an order of the Postmaster-General, issued on Saturday, “ the British rate of postage upon letters despatched, on and after the Ist January, from any port of the United Kingdom by a private ship, whether steamer or sail- ing-vessel, will be reduced to 6¢. the half-ounce, in all cases where it now exceeds that sum. The charge upon letters above half an ounce in weight will increase according to the scale for charging inland letters. Letters conveyed by private ship from this country to France or Belgium will con- tinue liable to a combined British and foreign rate of 4d. the half-ounce ; and letters conveyed by private ship to Holland, Hamburg, or Bremen, will still be charged ‘with a combined British and foreign rate of 8d. the half- ounce as heretofore.” The Duke of Portland is suffering from chronic rheumatism in his hip; to allay the pain, he inhales the vapour from a spirit-lamp ; while doing so in bed, on Wednesday morning, attended by Mr. Lewis, his house-steward, the lamp was upset, and the curtains and bedding were set on fire. Mr. Lewis acted with great promptitude : the Duke was removed to another room, engines sent for, the house-door kept closed, and buckets of water thrown on the fire, which was subdued before the engines arrived. :

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8 THE SPECTATOR. When the Emperor of the French left Osborne in August last, Jacob Har- bour, a labourer, lost his arm by the explosion of a gun with which he was assisting in firing a salute. About 160/. was raised for his aid; an applica- tion was also made to the Emperor, and on Christmas-eve arrived a check for 100/. for Harbour—a very welcome Christmas-box for the poor man. The Abbé Faudon, curé of St. Roch, is to be the new Bishop of Ver- sailles, in the place of Monseigneur Gros, deceased. M. Léon Falloux a few days ago communicated to the Academy of Inscrip- tions and Belles-Lettres some curious discoveries which he had made at Epinay-sur-Scine, near St. Denis, of vestiges of a Gallo-Roman village and burial-place on the estate called Manoir du Mont, the property of M. Cré- mieux. While some workmen were digging a ditch, M. Falloux observed traces of sarcophagi in plaster. He immediately bid the men clear away the earth carefully, and thus succeeded in extricating eight of them entire, each of which contained a skeleton. Continuing his researches, he dis- covered ten yards below the surface of the soil a gallery eight yards in length by two in height and breadth. From this gallery doors led to two lateral passages, each in the form of a Greek cross. At another spot, near the principal street of Epinay, he found a crypt, composed of two galleries crossed by a third, the latter of which opens into a subterranean church, constructed of masonry of great antiquity. Ata distance of two kilometres from this, near the Chateau de la Briche, a large number of ancient graves were found. All these crypts and relies appear to belong to the Merovin- gian period. When at Balmoral, the Prinecss Royal has been wont to be a frequent visitor at many of the humble cottages around the Palace ; and her habits of acute and intelligent observation had rendered her quite familiar with the details of lowly life as seen in a Scottish peasant’s home. Burns has sung the praises of ‘* parritch,”’ ‘* Scotia’s hamely food.” Some of our readers may be surprised, while sager faces will relax into a genial smile, on being told that a Princess of royal blood has, in this nineteenth century, donned the housewife’s apron, andin childish glee “ tried her hand ”’ at stir- ring the porridge-pot. One anecdote we have heard of the Princess Royal was this—Several years ago, when quite a young girl, a matron, for whom her Royal Highness had a special liking, had added one more to her husband’s family. The baby, of course, was an object of super- lative interest; and when the christening was about to take place, the Princess asked to be permitted to attend and act as godmother. This was freely agreed to. The day came, and so did his Presby- terian reverence; but the expected godmother, from some cause, did not make her appearance, and after a little the ceremony went on in her ab- sence. It was barely concluded when the Princess came, breathless with haste and excitement. On being told how matters stood, her undisguised feelings found vent in a sorrowful “Oh! but couldn’t you do it over again?’’ When the Court left Balmoral last summer, the dependants were invited up to the lawn to bid farewell to her Royal Highness. The feelings of the Princess so overeame her, however, that she was unable to make her appearance before them, and the Prinee Consort bade adieu on her behalf. It is a cherished hope that they will yet see her at Balmoral, though her home must now be at a foreign court. Invitations to be in London at the Princess’s marriage have, we hear, been sent, by her own special request, to Dr. Robertson, the Prince Consort’s commissioner, and to Mr. Grant, the head gamekeeper at Balmoral.— Edinburgh Express. The Emperor of Austria has empowered the formation of a “ Trieste Commercial Bank,”’ with a capital of 1,000,000/. The stock of bullion in the fortress of St. Petersburg and at Moscow is re- ported to be upwards of 20,000,000/.; but the paper circulation of Russia is estimated at 120,000,000/. About 120 versts of the Warsaw Railway is in working order, goods-trains running over it. The scheme for completing Clifton Suspension Bridge has not been ad- vanced with sufticient rapidity to permit of an application for an act this year. The portion of the East Kent Railway from Chatham to Faversham will be opened for traftic shortly. The number of letters which passed through the post-offices of France last year was 951,997, 700-—double the number in 1847, before the postal reform. The treasury derived a profit of 19,491,130 francs. The employés numbered 25,515. The actual strength of the regular United States Army is but 15,764. This body is required to garrison sixty-eight permanent forts and to occupy | , “ | and 200 guns. seventy posts spread over 3,000,000 square mi From aunual returns it appears that the benefits of savings-banks are early more and more appreciated by the people of the Eastern counties of England. The French Government have received advices from the Marquesas Is- lauds narrating an wttempt of Admiral Lugeol to punish the cannibal tribe of the Taipi-Vahi for attempting to steal two young women from the French mission territory, that they might be sacrificed and eaten. The Admiral burnt a number of villages, but did not succeed in killing any of the sa- vages. The Taipi-Vahi tired a volley at the Frenchmen from the bushes, but hit no one : American whalers had supplied the guns thus employed by the Marquesans. Count George Brembati, of Bergamo, has been savagely attacked in the streets at night but not robbed ; and his life is in danger. He was connected with the police, and his assassin is supposed to have been a Liberal. With a view not to encourage the very prevalent practice of duclling in France by giving publicity to ‘affairs of honour,” the press has been ** invited” to refrain from publishing the particulars of these combats. Suicides have been frequent in the French Army of late; several Colonels have published orders of the day stigmatizing the ** cowardice ”’ of the practice ; and the Minister of War has thanked these officers. Among the oaths administered to Governor Moore of Alabama at his in- auguration was the following—‘ Do you solemnly swear that you have not, directly or indirectly, given, accepted, or knowingly carried a challenge, in writing or otherwise, to any person being a citizen of this State, to tight with deadly weapons, either in or out of this State; or aided or abetted in the same since you have been a citizen thereof; and that you will not, di- rectly or indirectly, give, accept, or knowingly carry a challenge to any person, being a citizen of this State, to fight with deadly weapons, either in or out of the State, or in any manner aid or abet the same during your con- tinuance in office ?’’—New York Journal of Commerce. BIRTHS, On the 25th November, at Bombay, Lady Yardley, of a son. On the 22d December, in Grosvenor Square, the Countess of Lichfield, of a son. On the 23d, at Howick Grange, Northumberland, Lady Tancred, of a son, [January 2, 1858, re = | On the 24th, at Bedale Hall, Yorkshire, Mrs. Reginald Courtenay, of a daughter On the 25th, in Berkeley Square, Lady Wenlock, of a son. . On the 26th, at Phabe Cottage, Crabtree, near Plymouth, the Wife of Captain Henry 8. Hillyar, R.N., C.B., of a daughter. On the 27th, at St. Andrews, the Wife of Sir Charles M. Ochterlony, of Ochter. lony, Bart., of a daughter. On the 28th, at Kinnaird, Dunkeld, the residence of her father, Sir St. Vincent Hawkins Whitshed, Bart., the Wife of Lieutenant-Colonel Arthur Cavendish Ben- tinck, commanding her Majesty’s 7th Dragoon Guards, of a son. On the 30th, at Finborough, Suffolk, the Lady Frances Pettiward, of a daughter, MARRIAGES, On the 17th December, at Hordle Church, the Rev. Clement Hammond Gosset M.A., of West Tisted, Hants, to Lucinde Elizabeth, daughter of Rear-Admiral Symonds, of Yeatton, Lymington, Hants. On the 24th, at St. Alphege, Greenwich, Lindsay, youngest son of the late Patrick Ogilvie, Esq., of Maze Hill, Greenwich, to Emily Craigie, widow of the late Edward Kennedy, Esq., Bengal Artillery, and younger daughter of Major-General H, J, Wood, C.B., Bengal Artillery. On the 24th, at Monkstown Church, county Dublin, George William, son of the tev. E. E. Maunsell, of Fort Eyre, Galway, to Alice, only daughter of General Sir Michael Creagh, and granddaughter of the Right Hon, Charles Osborne. DEATHS, On the 23d October, at Bolarum, Deccan, the Hon, Clementina Maria, wife of Captain William Rose Campbell, of Ballochyle, Argyllshire, and daughter of the Viscount Arbuthnott. On the 30th, at Barrackpore, near Caleutta, Marian, second danghter of General Sir John Bennett Hearsey, K.C.B., H.E.1.C.S. On the 20th December, Sir Alexander Dixie, Bart., of Bosworth Park. On the 2lst, in Bread Street, Oxford, Mary Hariott, widow of the late Right Rey, Charles Lloyd, D.D., Lord Bishop of Oxford. On the 22d, at Claydon, near Ipswich, Lieutenant-General hirby, Royal Artillery ; in his 76th year, F On the 23d, at [ehester, William Good, Esq.; in his 97th year, On the 23d, at the Manor House, Frenchay, the Key. John Surtees, Canon Resi- dentiary of Bristol Cathedral. On the 25th, at St. Leonards-on-Sea, the Hon. Augusta Maude, youngest daughter of the late Viscount Hawarden; in her 27th year. On the 25th, Rear-Admiral Edward Lecras Thornbrough ; in his 62d year, On the 25th, Sir Frederick G. T. Foster, Bart., at Westcombe Lodge, Wimbledon, On the 26th, at Thorverton, Devon, the Rev. Dr, Coleridge, Vicar of Thorverton, and Prebendary of Exeter; in his 68th year, On the 26th, at Blairquhan, Sir David Hunter Blair, Bart. On the 27th, at Althorp, Earl Spencer. On the 27th, at Upfield, near Stroud, Gloucestershire, Edward Bullock, Esq., late Common Sergeant of the City of London ; in his 57th year. On the 29th, at Dover, Lieutenant-Colonel Smart, late Royal Engineers, Lieute- nant-Governor of Dover Castle ; in his 72d year. P () ST SC R I P T. SATURDAY. The Chinese question has again revived ; and the Leading Journal this morning ventures an opinion, that “ by the present time probably Canton has been attacked and captured.” This qualified assertion is founded on the contents of an interesting letter from the China correspondent of the Times, who had, on the 11th November, returned to Hongkong from his wanderings up and down the coast. ‘*Tt is understood that on the 16th the Caleutta fiag-ship will change her anchorage for Tiger Island. The rest of our fleet will gradually gather about her up the river. Then in deliberate strength our heavily-armed vessels will move right up and occupy the river under the walls of Canton. They will clear the water, remove all sunken obstacles, protect the neces- sary reconnoissances of the land-approaches to the city, and make matters comfortable for the final assault. ‘Then the great Yeh will be summoned, not to treat, but to surrender the city. Should he neglect or refuse, pro- clamations will be issued directing the unarmed people to — the city during the impending operations. Then will come the final scene—the landing of the Marines and land forces, the shelling the forts, the breaching the walls, and the storm.” The 1000 Marines sent from England had arrived. Lord Elgin trusted that his loan of 500 to Lord Canning would be returned. Two gun- boats only, of all the squadron, had not reached Hongkong ; and Captain Osborne had gone to Manilla to fetch them. ‘The force at Lord Elgin’s dis- posal was estimated at 7000 men and 700 guns. The sailors, who furnish 4000 of this force, were undergoing drillon shore. ‘The French Minister had resolved to take part in the operation. He had tive ships of war, four gun-boats, and 1000 men, of whom 600 would be available for land operations. What preparations Yeh had made to mect the storm seems not to have been ascertained. One account fixes his force at 22,900 men It appears also that an “ impertinent proclamation” has been issued in the North, ‘‘ warning the Barbarians not to venture into the interior, and declaring that even if they should not create disturbances there, punishment will await them.” The Hyderabad correspondent of the Morning Post relates the following ancedote bearing on the question of missionary effurts among the Native soldiers of the Madras Arniy— ‘When with my regiment at Jaulna, a havildar of my troop came to me with a pamphlet, which had been circulated to the extent of 200 copies in the regiment, by two missionaries from Bombay who had arrived. His manner at the time struck me so forcibly that it led me to reflection on the subject; and when I considered the thread by which we held the Native army, I have often since wondered that it was not sooner cut than it has been in Bengal in 1857. He put the pamphlet into my hand, and asked me to read a portion he pointed out. It was written in the language of the Decean, which may be termed a patois, but is spoken by our men. 1 read it, and I eame to the expression, * Believe not in Mahouncet, for he is a false prophet.’ I shut the book, spat on the ground in token of my disapproba- tion, and said, ‘ I will take this to the Colonel.’ A change instantly came over the countenance ofthe havildar. He had scanned me with asearching gaze whilst I was reading the passage, divining my inmost thought on the objectionable paragraph ; and when I rose, exhibiting my feelings as I have above shown, ~ merely raised his eyes, and said, ‘God is great.’ I felt then, as I feel now, that his confidence in the truth of religious toleration to all, as enunciated by our Government, was truth, and not mere words. I took the pamphlet to the Colonel; who ordered me to collect all in the regiment and publicly burn them in front of the guard; which I did. From that hour, I believe, no Mahometan in the regiment did not feel that he might worship his God, through his prophet, without let or hinderance ; and I feel still more cer- tain, that in the Madras army the confidence of the men in their officers has been materially guaranteed by the spirit of conciliation, free from preju- dice, which generally obtains. I make a point of subscribing to their Mo- hurrum and their Fatyahs,—to the former, not in the light of a Mahometan religious festival, but as a carnival, a masquerade, which it is; and to the latter, because it is a distribution of charity, a feeding of the poor; and in this light I view it, although doled out in the name of their prophet.” a 2

Page 9

January 2, 1858.] THE SPECTATOR. 9 The Emperor of the French, who has been suffering from influenza, was sufficiently recovered to attend divine service and receive the com- munion in the Chapel of the Tuileries on Thursday, and afterwards to show himself on the grand baleony while the bands of the Army of Paris layed the serenade usual on the last day of the year. The Empress was with him on both occasions. A meeting of the Plenipotentiarics representing the Powers who signed the treaty of Paris was held on Thursday at the hotel of Count Walewski, Minister for Foreign Affairs ; when the ratifications of the treaty reetify- ing the fronticrs of Russia in Bessarabia were exchanged. The French Minister and Redschid Pasha are once more, at least out- wardly, on peaceable terms. They were brought together on the 19th December, at a reconciliation dinner given by Aali Pasha. * At table, M. de Thouvencl oceupicd the place of honour; and at his right sat the Grand Vizier, with whom he had not had any conference for several months before.” That this reconciliation should have occurred so soon after the departure of Lord Stratford, has caused some remark. A letter from Vienna states that Lord Stratford has publicly expressed his hope of being back in Constantinople by the 15th March, There are now two vacancies on the Irish Bench. Mr. Justice Moore, of the Court of Queen’s Bench, died on Thursday night. He had been Solicitor and Attorney-General, and was raised to the Bench by Lord ohn Russell in 1847. It is supposed that Mr. Fitzgerald, the Attorney- General, will take the seat vacant in the Court of Queen's Bench; and that Mr. Christian, the Solicitor-General, will succeed the late Judge Jackson in the Court of Common Pleas. A Morning Herald on dit—“ A rumour is in circulation to the effect that Lord John Russell has received a communication with reference to the new India Secretaryship.” A further attempt to push the Leviathan into the Thames will, it is stated, be made today or Monday. An immense number of larger and stronger hydraulic presses have been brought to bear. One of them, weighing twenty-cight tons, was used to hoist the Britannia Bridge. Mr. Robert Stephenson and Mr. Locke have inspected the arrangements. The City writer of the Zimes states that * the prospects of the claimants of the nine millions due by the Western Baik of Scotland, as well as those of the shareholders, are causing increased anxiety, owing to the shameful fact, already developed in so many analogous cases, that the commercial laws of the country, instead of being any protection, require to be avoided with the utmost caution, lest the extent of ruin at present certain should be aggravated in an incalculable degree. It has been determined, if possible, to efleet a voluntary winding-up, and to promote that end, the Directors, who are, of course, more interested than any other parties in averting a public exposure, have recommended four gentlemen to be appointed as li- quidators, This recommendation has met the concurrence of a committee of shareholders ; but some among the general body are disposed, very natu- rally, to resist any nomination in which the Directors presume to take a part; and, in consequence, there seems a possibility of a contest which may lead to the most ruinous result,—namely, that of forcing the entire inatter before the tribunals professedly constituted for the express purpose f lightening the difficulties of every man by doing justice toall.” A cor- respondent of the same journal estimates the cost of a judicial winding-up it 600,000/. The slander case at Dublin ended on Thursday night. After three hours’ Geliberation, the Jury found a verdict for Strevens the plaintitf, but they only gave sirpence damages and sixpence costs, A judgment has just been pronounced in the commercial court of Paris which will give great satisfaction to foreigners residing in France, M. Clairvaz, a Swiss of sreat respectability, was arrested in Paris by M. Bigi for an asserted debt of 16,000 franes by virtue of the law permitting the wovisional arrest of foreigners. On appeal to the President of the court, M. Clairvaz was liberated; and he then commenced an action against M. Bigi for false imprisonment. M. Bigi was sentenced to pay M, Clairvaz 2000 francs damages and all the costs. MONEY MARKET. Svock Excuanck, Fripay Arternoon. The English Funds opencd on Monday with great firmness at an advance of § per cent upon the quotations of Christmas-eve, in consequence of the | very favourable Bank-return of Saturday, the abundance of money, and the improving condition of the commercial world, The first price in Consols was 934 3: operations were nearly all in one direction till there were buyers ut 944. The failure of a dealer, whose transactions were considered to be very extensive and complicated, caused a reaction of about 4 per cent; but the market has since steadily recovered, closing this afternoon at 94) 1; showing an improvement upon last week of exactly 1 per cent. There has been a good deal of business doing throughout the week, and there is still a tendency to higher prices. Bank Stock leaves off at 217 219. Reduced, 9 i 1. New Three per Cents, 943 2. Exchequer Bills, par 5 premium. The Foreign Market has been very firm; prices generally oe ae ruled much higher, averaging 1 to 2 per cent. Turkish Six and Four per Cents have beth advanced 2 per cent, and Mexican and Spanish 1 per cent. The rate for money in this market has been extremely high, frequently 15 per cent. Turkish Six per Cents are 98} 3; Ditto Four per Cents, 103} 104 ; Peruvian Four-and-a-half per Cents 78 80 ; Peruvian Three per Cents, 53 55; Buenos Ayres, 92 95 ; Spanish Three per Cents, 404 tof ex div. ; Ditto Deferred, 25} 26; Venezuela Active, 31 33; Russian, 107 109; Mexican, 21 213. A rather large business has been doing in Railway Shares, although a great deal of attention has been given to the arrangement of the account, which was settled yesterday. Quotations are all considerably higher : Mid- land fully 2 per cent; London and North-Western 2}; Great Western, 1} per cent. Caledonian Shares are quoted 2/. better—423 42§—in spite of a heavy Contango of about 1/. per share. Great Western close at 55} London and North-Western, 98} 99 ; London and South-Western, Midland, 913 92. In heavy Shares the rate of continuation has been from 10 to 25 per cent. London and Brighton, 107} 108}—about 3 per cent higher than last week. 213 4. Great Northern, 243 3. ‘he French Share Market continues very good. Northern of France, 38} 39; Paris and Lyons, 34} 35} ; Strasbourg, 27} 28. Notice has been given that the final instalment of 2/. 12s. per share of the Lombardo- Venctian Railway, less 6s. for interest, is to - paid by the 15th January ; and that the half-yearly dividend, at the rate of 5 per cent per annum, is ready. The Shares have improved, and are now quoted 53 6. Indian continue in their tendency upwards, with scarcely any reaction. East Indian, 112 113; Great Indian Peninsula, 22 224; Madras, 20/. shares, 22 22}. - | Sarurpay, Tweive o’Crock, The Bank return shows an increase of 701,680/. in the stock of bullion. The Markets are all good this morning, with a further improvement in the Funds of } per cent. Consols 943}. Foreign Stocks and Railway Shares active, at somewhat higher prices. Satvrpay, Ore o’Crock. A reaction of } per cent has taken place in the price of Securities since the opening; Consols are now 944 buyers only. Railway Shares are like- wise a shade flatter, but the business passing has been immaterial, The following are the last transactions—Caledonian, 86; Eastern Counties, 603; East Lancashire, 92}; Edinburgh, Perth, and Dundee, 31; Great Northern A Stock, 86}; Great Western, 573; Lancashire and Yorkshire, 94%; London and Blackwall, 6); London and North-Western, us 1 Lon- don and South-Western, 984; Midland, 92}; North-Eastern—Berwick, 98}; Ditto York, 87} ; Oxford, Worcester, and Wolverhampton, 33 ; South- Eastern, 72}; Southern of France, 23. Joint Stock Banks—Oriental Bank Corporation, 32; Ottoman Bank, 18}; Union of London, 21}. Miscella- neous—Canada, 133; Crystal Palace 14; Electric Telegraph, 107, 3 per Cent Consols .......... shut , Dutch 24 per Cents ......... 634 64, Ditto for Account ........... 941 | | Ditto 4 per Cents ........... 98 99 3 per Cent Reduced ......... oi } | Mexican 3 per Cents ........ 21) New 3 per Cents ............ 94} } | Peruvian 44 per Cents....... 7 Long Annuities ............ 2 Lis) Ditto 3 por Comte ...cccsecse 53 55 Bank Stock ........0eeeeee0e 217 219, Portuguese 3 per Cents 1833 . 434 44) Exchequer Bills ............ parSpm. Russian 5 per Cents......... 107 109 ww shut Ditto 4) per Cents........... 96 98 Austrian 5 per Cents ........ 92 94 Spanish 3 per Cents .. 404 1 Brazilian 5 per Cents ........ 98 par Ditto Deferred....... 25] 6 Belgian 44 per Cents ........ 5 YS Sardinian 5 per Cents 8 6 Chilian 6 per Cents.......... 100 103 - Swedish 4 per Cents 83 5 Danish 5 perCents .......... 100 102 Turkish 6 per Cents ca j Ditto 3 per Cents ......... -- 80 82 Ditto 4 p, Cent Guaranteed ., 1 The Bank return has resumed its customary aspect, the 2,000,000/. of notes issued against “ securities ’ under the authority of the Treasury letter having now been withdrawn. The bullion increased during the week end- ing Saturday by 701,680/. Ata mecting of the shareholders of the N« District Banking Company, on Saturday, it s resolved to register the company under the “ Joint-Stock Banking Companics Act 1857,” witha view to protect individual sharcholders from actions by creditors and to fa- cilitate a winding-up. Actions, it appears, have been entcred against share- holders to the extent of some 8000/. wrthumberland and Durham The commercial community have lest two members which it can ill spare in these degenerate days—two sterling British merchants, who have pur- sued a long career in honour,—Mr. Jolin Horsley Palmer and Mr. James Mackillop, who retire from the firm of Messrs. Palmer, Mackillop, Dent, and Co. ; it will henceforth be known as “ Dent, Palmer, and Co,” Mr. David Barclay Chapman has retired with the closing year from the firm of Overend, Gurney, and Co. Two London firms suspended payment on Tuesday—Messrs. Lupton, Hooton, and Co., in the Manchester trade, and Messrs. Hinton, Brothers, and Co., Italian merchants: inneither case are the liabilities very great, and in both the prospects of creditors are good. The Norwegian Government are raising a small loan in London to assist mercantile firms in Norway. Messrs. Baring have undertaken the arrange- ments, Messrs. Powell and Son, Manchester warehousemen, are to pay 17s. in the pound. The cause of failure was a practice the reverse of the old- fashioned one—the senior partner drew out excessively large sums for his private expenditure, while his son took but 150/. a year: the business will be resumed by the son. Among the private property is 700 dozen of wine. The accounts of Messrs. Svendsen and Co., who recently stopped, show a lamentable state of things for the ereditors—liabilities amounting to 93,0252, and —— dividend of 2s. 67. in the pound. The estate is to be wound- up under inspection, What little change had occurred in the manufacturing districts at the end of last week, had been for the better; this week, the accounts are still more cheering. The Staffordshire ironmasters are about to make a reduction of 20s, per ton in their prices; and they announce a reduction in wages. CrystaL Paracr.—Return of admissions for six days ending Friday January Ist, including season-ticket-holders, 62,910, Che Oheatres. After making a tolerably careful survey of the dramatic amusements provided by managers for the special gratification of the holiday public, we arrive at the conclusion that the model pantomime, considered with reference to the present period, is to be found at Drury Lane. It has all the novel elements that were not to be found in the old pantomimes, whereof Grimaldi was the hero ; and it is not marked by that complete sacrifice of Harlequin and his associates which is becoming more com- mon and more openly avowed every succeeding Christmas. The modern pantomime, to be perfect in every respect, should consist of three parts,—a fairy prologue; an introduction, embodying the story named in the title; and a harlequinade, in which the old conventional figures, supposed to be the personages of the introduction, endowed with new forms, keep possession of the stage. In the classic days of panto- mime—that is to say, about forty ycars ago—the harlequinade was all- important; the intreduction being a short dramatic preface, in which the actors, who afterwards appeared as the habitual drolls of the piece, wore | “a. = +. . | loose habiliments over the garments subsc quently displayed, and being t43 | 18 48); South-Eastern have improyed 1/., leaving off at | thus encumbered, reserved the chief manifestations of their talent for the time when they reduced themselves to those forms that never vary- ing had become to them a second nature. In the cld pantomime of Mother Goose, produced at Covent Garden in 1806, and constantly re- ferred to as a type of cxcellence, Grimaldi earncd unfading glory by playing the Clown—not by playing Squire Bugle, the character from whom the Clown was evolved as the butterfly from the grub. On the other hand, the tendency of modern pantomime-builders—as we have frequently remarked on occasions like the present—has been to expand the introduction at the expense of the harlequinade, and to pay so little attention to the latter that the fairy who changes the characters rather terminates than inaugurates the merriment of the evening. To such an extreme is this tendency carried in Lalla Rookh, the pantomime now played at the Lyceum, that it is in fact a pantomime only in name. A burlesque on Moore's story has been written by Mr. W. Brough, quite

Page 10

10 THE SPECTATOR. [January 2, 1858. in the style of those picecs that were once so common at Easter, and the | stage surrounded by the company, and the prima donna c : ape who comprise Mr. Toole, Mr. Barret, Mrs. Alfred Mellon, (late | with laurel amid the pone Bam ns ofa thn audic a tha iss Woolgar,) and Mrs. Buckingham White, are regular actors of co- | a pension of 1500 thalers, about 2207. sterling. The illustrious vete a medy and vaudeville, whose talent has nothing in common with that be- | is in his seventy-fourth year, but hale and vigorous in body and mind. longing to pantomime properly so called. These are dressed with no | He has lately written several quartets, which are said to be not inferior more exaggeration than belongs to ordinary burlesque ; they act and they | to any of his previous works of this class. - a sing as if no Harlequin were looming in the distance; and when their part of the work is at an end, they finally bid adieu to the audience, THE REVENU leaving the stage to be occupied by the really pantomimic actors, who go sVENUE, through a few insignificant scenes that nobody cares to see. The Adelphi I. The following is an Abstract of the gross Produce of the Revenue of the United Kingdom, in the undermentioned periods, ended December 3] ’ iece, which turns on the loves of Cupid and Psyche, is on a similar S? emenered wi : : , : pac oo ay with the peculiar feature het the Secheain is tin lili 1857, compared with the corresponding periods of the preceding year, of last year, is played by a lady, costumed in the Italian style. QUARTERS ENDED This tendency is not indeed carried so far at the other houses; . eee for although the introduction is in most places more important than the 3lst March | 20th June | 30th Sept. | lst Dec. harlequinade, it is still distinguished from the ordinary burlesque drama oe | aoe alle B.S by the caricature-extravagance of the chief personages, and the pre- | , ite re eet £ ponderance of dumb-show and practical fun over the faseinations of song | Bxeise 220 saeeee | Suereee | Stananee a and dialogue. aii ; wy ‘ —,: “| “'Seetene | iassoee | Uptezes | aetient The pantomime at the Princess's is a good specimen of what may be | Property Tax. sseecccc edanaes | saeehes | osener | ven called moderate conservatism. The story, founded on The White Cat of | Yost-oftiee :--...ccveeseseeeeevens -++] 777,000 | 675,000 730,000 | 810,000 the Countess d’Aulnoy, is elegantly and likewise comically told, by | Miscellaneous............ 02), re al ws wel actors clever in grotesque gesticulations, before a series of tasteful pic- tures; and though the exploits of Harlequin and Clown are less ex- hilarating than those achieved by the suitor for the hand of the White QUARTERS ENDED Cat, still the old maskers are not elbowed out altogether, but reasonably | } vie Syacag share the task of amusing the Christmas public. ‘The Haymarket panto- mime of the Sleeping Beauty is another sample of the conservative school, |31st March | 30th June | 30th Sept. | 31st Dee. 1856 1856. 1856. 1856. | less elegant throughout, but more gorgeous in the bright places. Customs ...... caethea delta eataatie oie 5,864,724 | 5,981,344 | 6,232,175 All-essential to the success of a modern pantomime is some striking | EXise..+++sseeeesseseeeeee reese ees ; 7 5,005,000 | 5,446,000 | 4,816,000 re er ‘nm the &trs s . ” ayy eae ts i ° Stamps.. seeeeeeoe! 1,801,540 1,858,083 1,770,649 1,438,000 peculiarity in the ‘transformation-scene ’—that is to say, the scene in | Taxes ......2.72: RT NE: 249,000 | 1/343.026 157,000 | 1,356,000 which the fairy converts the personages of the introduction into the per- | Property Tax...... note eeeeeeeseesess | 6,880,971 751 | 5,347,286 | 1,423,464 ¢ ° v1 er F | POBE-OMCC 0 os cccccccccccccceseccecess | 760,152 716,000 645, 00 748,000 sonages of the harlequinade. ‘The grand principle of these scenes is to | Crown Lands . £23 67,000 64,000 67,857 86,000 exhibit, in the first instance, a vague undefined picture, which | Miscellaneous...... hecietawcreeossss) Seen 320,418 156,343 195,842 promises to become brighter than it is, and then gradually to develop Totals ....... Sjandesaiinmekaeks | 16,404,075 | 17,548,003 19,571,429 | 16,695,481 the preparatory chaos into a wide world of beautiful and glittering forms, we eae eile & Searusied conceived in an arabesque spirit, and reducible to a certain order of stage sIst Dec Bist De 1856. architecture, through the constant employment, somewhat in Caryatid- fashion, of living female figures. In the mechanical ingenuity, the pic- turesque arrangement, and the brilliancy of this particular scene, the | Customs managers of London yie with each other every Christmas; and each of | Stamps...00000000220. them would gladly consent that one of his rivals should have the best | 7ases.--;.--.. Clown, if he could secure the best transformation-scene for himself. | post omee Eyen at the Lyceum, where the harlequinade is reduced to insignificance en oo+s2 by the burlesque, the burlesque is eclipsed by the transformation-scene, | ~ "°° "8°°“S sts" —_——— on which Mr. Fenton, an ardent competitor of Mr. W. Beverley, has TOtAISsseeereeereees Steet ee rete eees teeeeeeaeeenenees ae lavished all his fancy. However, all the transformation-scenes in Lon- | Il. Increase and Decrease in the Quarter, Nine Months, and Year ended don, West and East, should be seen by those who take an interest December 81, 1057. as compared with the corresponding periods of the in the art of stage-mechanism. Tere all managers, high and low, how- preceding year, tite ee er ever careless they may be in other respects, strive to do their best, and it | : is curious to see how various may be the realizations of one simple idea, Returning to the point from which we started, namely, the excellence ace BEPC ee * QUARTER ENDED [NINE MONTHS ENDED Dee 57 Dec, 31, 1857 (considered in reference to its time) of the Drury Lane pantomime, we | Increase. | Decrease. | Increase. | Decrease would expand our brief assertion by remarking that every part of it is =e — ee fully developed—that nothing is wanting that a modern connoisseur of | Customs ..,..........+. 5 ee ee — pantomime could reasonably expect. The fairy prologue is elevated into Rae Stespet one rtec cata a beautiful ballet by the talent of Miss Rosina Wright, Madame Auriol, | Taxes .............0c.es.000e : 5,00 and a regular choreographic troop; the introduction, showing the pro- | ProPemty Bax ----...ss--0000: ame gress of Little Jack Horner—of Christmas-pic celebrity—from ignorance | Crown Lands ..2. 0022.00 _—— to learning, admits the exhibition of sundry grotesque impersonations of | M*eelaneowsees--e+--e-0e0-- tee a0 ees grammatical abstractions, highly amusing to those who consider that Dotadd sncccccesvccescssonses sees 596,865 | 1,365,184 | 084,923 | 2,628,643 absurdity is a right thing in the right place. The transformation-scene michel 3 a7eba0e - 21,943,790 is one of the happiest achievements of Mr. W. Beverley, who first es- ———_—__—_—_—_— tablished the popularity of this description of picture, by employing it FEAR BEDED for the decoration not of pantomime but of the Lyceum burlesques, pro- Sits Ee Jt duced in the time of Madame Vestris. And lastly, the ‘ comic business,” Increase. | Decrease. no longer Jucus a non lucendo, is actually comic; the two Clowns, a r Messrs. Flexmore and Boleno, violently competing with each other inthe | Customs ........-.. seveeseeeeees eeseeense ssénacosesceeses —— | 11sten production of that broad practical fun which children so much delight to | EAN 0"""" Pane neem inadesegeatneey ena rinteensnr?s “on shit behold, and which, if delight were followed by imitation, would plunge | Taxes........ = Sip Rae DSRS ka Re ae red Bx ; ae “oh every London household into a state of the wildest anarchy. Mechanical PTOPOMy PAX s--ss.sssecesseesscesrcccssccsessrrtressessssst! 90 gas — changes, effected by Harlequin’s bat, are indeed far from abundant; but | Crown Land : Maken’ | ue these have for many years lost their old importance, in consequence | ™*¢elaneous vite ted probably of the immense amount of mechanical genius consumed by the | SOIR asia oercauitoveancen Giecnes as thin conndedamennennetens = _S20,789 | 2,658,435 transformation-scene. £1828 646] The only burlesque unaccompanied by pantomime is at the Olympic. | Net Decrease. It is entitled The Doge of Duralto ; and, contrary to usual precedent, is IIT. An Account showing the Revenue and other Receipts of the Quar- the absolute invention of the author, Mr. R. Brough, instead of being ter ended December 31, 1857; the Application of the same, and the founded on an existing tale. A certain goodnatured Doge is doatingly Charge of the Consolidated Fund for the said Quarter, together with the fond of his stepdaughter, until he finds out that she literally sheds tears Surplus or Deficiency upon such ree. of pearl, This discovery converts him into a monster of cruelty ; his Surplus Balance beyond the Charge of the Consolidated Fund, for the Quarter £ knowledge of the great value of the young lady’s tears prompting him to | °™4e4 September 80, 1807, vig eens wae make her shed as many as possible. In this situation Mr. Robson gives Ireland ...... idki anc aiaksinieth cin seeieuNnabaaee mile S065 one of those delineations of frantic avarice of which we had a specimen | j,..omo yoceived in the Quarter — sim Accounti...... seen in Daddy Hardacre ; and when the pearly weeper apparently dies, the | Amount received in the Quarte 21, repayment of Ad ravings of his selfish grief are based on the lamentations of Lear over the _ Y#ees for Public Works, &e-++.+++++seeeeseeeeeereerereeeees Byaerrceeovenress body of Cordelia. The scenery and dresses are in excellent taste ; : ; Bh de showing that Messrs. Robson and Emden are determined to maintain | ny ; the character for elegance established by Mr. Wigan. able in the Quarter to March 31, 1858, a7 16,954,976 on the charge of the Consoli ividends and other Charges pay h Exchequer Bills (Deti ciency) will be issued in that Quarter........ pik ikke siphenbiebeebaaiineraila 1,211,623 Refusing to recognize the pantomime monopoly of Christmas, Mr. aes Js.166,593 Lumley has opened Her Majesty’s Theatre for three or four nights of | Amount agile’ out of the Taceme to Supply Services, in the Quarter ended =, opera; Piccolomini and Giuglini reappearing in their most popular cha- | (pee te Gon coidsted “Fund for the Quarter ended’ Dee wT co" racters, with reputations increased abroad. Mr, Lumley has succeeded 1857, viz.— ‘ ieee in filling the great house, at the season when “everybody” is out of cate Ra NR Re RRRE NR re Gseae7 town ; but then he did it at “ the old playhouse prices.” Probably he | __ Interest of Exchequer Bills (Deficiency ssesescceseenere Bll has netted a large sum by the transaction ; ‘it is for him to consider how | Gye ON tte constitiiced Band 2 — far the success by such means may have the effect of disrating his house | —_— Advances for Public Works, &¢. «....+.++++- . 322,195 in fashionable estimation. | Sinking Fund ..,.....++.+++ Scoseceeseessecs evccce »_ tat aee +,934,650 Se at gl Surplus Balance beyond the Charge of the Consolidated Fund, for the Spohr has resigned his office of Kapellmeister to the Duke of Hesse Quarter ended Dec. 31, 1867, viz— = Cassel, which he has held for six-and-thirty years. He took leave of the del peta . * gen ses Cassel public on St. Cecilia’s Day, the 22d of November; and received —— __ 72,168 an ovation in the German fashion. After the performance of his Jes- £18,166,598 sonda, conducted by himself, the curtain egain rose, he appeared on the

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a asennad January 2, 1858.] THE SPECTATOR. 11 TOPICS OF THE DAY. EPOCHS, [APROPOS OF THE OPENING OF THIS YEAR OF GRACE 1858, ] Tue grandest growths of history are not always those of which it is possible to trace the origin or determine the extinction; nor do we hold in much respect that pedantry which amuses itself with imagining periods or coincidences where they do not exist. On the other hand, it must be acknowledged that the actual ex- amples of such correspondencies are so numerous and striking, as sometimes to give rise to the suspicion, that by some mystery which we cannot fathom, arithmeiical harmonies either mix themselves up with the ordinations of Providence or are natu- rally evolved in the progress of human affairs. Trace, for example, the analogy suggested by the year now opening for us with a world of work in prospect, which a singu- larly eventful predecessor has provided. We find that for three centuries past the fifty-eighth year of the century has been a most notable one in English history—has probably more than any other, certainly more than any other but one, determined the for- tunes of this country for the succeeding hundred years. In the year 1558, the premature death of Queen Mary raised to the English throne her half-sister, the Princess Elizabeth,—the person of all others who united the highest genius for govern- ment with the most potent motives to aid in constituting the Pro- testant religion as it was to exist in these kingdoms, and to ad- here to it when constituted. In the year 1658, the death of Cromwell, hardly less premature in a political sense than that of Mary, paved the way to the Re- storation; and thus rendered it necessary that constitutional liberty should develop itself in England through quite other vicissitudes and in far different forms from what it might had the Proteetor survived for another dozen years. In the year 1758, William Pitt the elder, after a period of such national disaster and despondency as it is not easy to parallel in of this to ourselves ; because probably a good deal of it is due to our insular position. But so it is, that never was European na- tion so little greedy of European territory as ours. And as for the encroachments on other continents, which are all the world over developing themselves into empires or germs of empire, it was individual thirst for liberty or else commercial enterprise that commenced most of them, and the remnant were the prizes of wars undertaken for quite other objects. Down to 1758 and later, the English people thought little and cared less for any other empire than that of the ocean ; to which latter, indeed, they laid rather an exclusive claim, so much so that its very bottom was reckoned to be English ground. A few West India Islands they had, and a strip of colonies on the East coast of America, about which they had no idea except to monopolize them as cus- tomers, The loss of those colonies, too late appreciated, it was, together with the gain of India, that first opened the eyes of the English people to the fact that they were fitted for and destined to empire beyond any other race upon earth—that their long un- disputed mastery of the seas was but the prelude and pledge of a dominion of the land, which in a hundred years has grown to be the widest, wealthiest, and most populous that ever was known on this earth. Taken by themselves, the periodicities which we have pointed out might have little claim to rank higher than as “ curiosities of history.” What raises them above that category, is not so much the great events in individual careers which struck the “ secular hour,” as the preparative and collateral influences—surges from the high tides of human opinion—which made those events signi- ficant. Even so signal an occurrence as the Indian insurrection, representing as it does the conflict of character and opinion be- | tween two great divisions of the human race, need not in itself English annals, found himself at length uncontrolled master of | the English Government, and began to realize his great and novel designs. In his own opinion, which he took no great pains to conceal, he was the only man able to save the country. The na- tion thought the same. The nation found it true. In three years he had wiped away all disasters, raised the country to the foremost place in Europe, and laid in both hemispheres the foundations of that empire which ever since has gone on increasing ; and of the racticability and desirableness of which up to that time no Eng- ishman but himself seems to have had even a vague conception. And now in 1858, the nation is addressing itself, under in some respects new conditions, to determine on what principles, and by what organization, a section of the empire outnumbering fourfold the population of all the rest is to be governed, These are as dominant events, and mark out as distinct periods in the national growth, as any others in our history; and yet every one of them comes within the precise limit of one hundred years. That such analogies may be pursued too far, or childishly played with, or perverted to superstitious uses, is no argument against the instruction and admonition which may be gathered from them. Even the puerile or superstitious abuse of them we cease to despise when we perceive how it reacts upon destiny, and tends to produce the very marvels of which it dreams. superstition the Mahometans as fatalists are prone beyond all other races. For many years it was a current prophecy at Con- stantinople, that the Turkish dominion would not outlast its four hundredth year from the capture of that city in 1453: and, as Russian intrigue turns everything to account, no doubt this was among the motives why the grand assault on the Turkish empire was fixed for 1853. More recently, we have seen the hundredth anniversary of the battle of Plassey chosen for the outbreak of the Hindoo vespers, which, fortunately for England, the stupidity of General Hewitt precipitated by some weeks. Here we perceive that Moslem superstition has again been pulling the wires of the world, and timing to a day the strokes of destiny. Only it is we, and not they, for whom the secular hour has struck. “ By their savage zeal and dreamy superstition it is brought about that the beginning of the fourth century from the accession of Queen Elizabeth—at which time, properly speaking, England may be said to have come of age—inaugurates a state of things as novel, dangers as formidable, duties as pressing, responsibilities as al- tered and enlarged, as at any of the correspondent epochs which we have noted—the beginning of a new era, in fact. Nor is it uninstructive to observe, how for years social and political changes at home, the decay of parties, the damage to aristocratic prestige, the cry for a reform of patronage, the spread of educa- tion, and above all the progress of scientific invention, abridging or annihilating time and distance, have been preparing the nation, and placiug new instruments in its hands, for the per- formance of the mighty work to which it is now seen that it can no longer defer addressing itself. Of this, however, we may have other and fitter occasions to speak, At present we deem it not least important to remark,— both for the admonition of our countrymen, and for the rebuke of those Continental politicians who are for ever declaiming against English ambition,—how foreign the thirst for empire naturally is to the English mind, and how recently either the wish for or the possibility of such aggrandizement has become one of the main- To this form of constitute the end of an old era or the beginning of a new. That depends rather on its concomitants—on the lessons it conveys, and the extent to which they are profited by. It results above all from its coming in the rear of other revolutions—putting the climax on a series of changes and influences having a similar tendency. What is it, then, that makes an epoch of the year now closed ? What is it that differences the British empire ante from the British empire post? Perhaps this above all things,—that hitherto, great though its power and astonishing its development, that empire had no right to be regarded as more than a provisional one, For, in the first place, it differed from most previous and all its rival empires, in that being purely maritime in its origin, it wanted coherency and continuity, and never could be made to forma compact and united whole: secondly, its vastly richest and most imperial constituent, India to wit, was notoriously precarious : —_ thirdly, there was every reason to expect that most of our colonies would, when they reached a certain point in their growth, sever themselves from us as the United States had done. So that practically it seemed not somuch an empire, as a sort of half-way- house, nursery, or college, wherein aspirant or adolescent na- tionalities baited, or sojourned in a state of tutelage, and under- went certain discipline, until they were in a position to set up for themselves. So palpably was this the case, that many people grudged the expense: indeed, the principal leaders of an influen- tial, and as it was thought at that time a growing political party, did not disguise their opinion that we should be better off without colonies at all; and numbers who would have blushed to share that sentiment legislated nevertheless as if some such consumma- tion were inevitable. Nor was this confined to colonies wherein our own race predominated. Our actual and our contem- | plated legislation for India was altogether in the same spirit, i. e. to put the Natives on an equality with us, and enable them as soon as possible to do without us, Not an unwise policy, we dare say, as certainly it was a disin- terested one, so long as the constituents not less than the instru- ments of our empire were scattered the world over, without an means of frequent union or cordial intercourse with us or wi each other. Twenty or even ten years ago, none other might seem practicable. But what if new inventions, not isolated or apart like the discoveries of former centuries, but swarming and codpera- tive asa beehive, changed all that, and set about making the whole world near neighbours? At once the British empire as- sumes quite a different aspect, as regards coherency and perma- nency, from what it did before. Time and space thus brought under subjection, the two chief sources of quarrel between us and our greatest and most English colonies—distance and misintelligence—disappear. For some years now, our North American Colonies have become conscious that they practically enjoy all the prosperity, liberty, and inde- pendence of the United States, free from the licence and corrup- tion that lower the tone of society and morals in the latter, Our Australian Colonies, endowed with similar privileges, are likely to arrive at the same conclusion. The assurance which the result of the outbreak of 1857 gives us that we can hold India as long as we like, augments our prestige with our Colonies no less than with foreign nations, and thus gives no slight furtherance to imperial consolidation. Their desire to be one with us becomes greater and our reluctance less. Without India, the Mother-country might dread some day being outweighed and outvoted by her giant pn ag With it, and with the discipline which it generates and the preponder- ance in the world to which it leads, such jealousy disappears for as many centuries as any political organization can be ex to last. From every point of view, indeed, this strikes us as the springs of the national action, We are not taking all the credit | great blessing of India, that it is something that will task us to

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12 THE SPECTATOR. [January 2, 1858. govern it, and not a settlement of our own race, which almost in the cradle we are forced to allow to govern itself. India holds out a prospect of hard work enough to keep Old England in good health and sound wind for a thousand years. THE PEELITES AND CANNINGITES, Iv two of our most eminent statesmen were to be judged by the position of their followers at the present moment, we might pro- nounce Canning to be the immortal, Peel the perishable man. The scattering of the ‘‘ Peelites” has for the time been completed. The “‘Canningites ” are gathering round the banner of power. Lord Harrowby leaves the Cabinet to make room for Lord Clanri- carde, and the present Ministers might almost consider themselves the heirs, administrators, and assigns of George Canning. His pupil is the Premier; his son is Governor-General of India ; his cousin is returning from the East clothed with diplomatic lau- rels; his son-in-law Clanricarde is taken in to recruit the Minis- try. It is a Canning Government. At the same time, the very family and retinue of Peel have dis- appeared from office. Before his death, the man himself had re- tired, not into the a but into independent statesman- | ship, exercising a kind of patronage over the Government for the time being. His most eminent colleagues, who were with the Ministry when the Russian war broke out, retired from it for one reason or another: Aberdeen and Newcastle, because they were too sincere and straightforward; Graham, Gladstone, Sidney Herbert, because they could not reconcile themselves to the po- sition of the country. Peel’s sons have both retired. Even Card- well left office, and was for a time excluded from Parliament. The Peelites are essentially out of office, and appear to be doomed to act neither with the Government nor the Opposition. It is true, many of the changes have becn made for personal reasons that had littie to do with general polities. Some are strictly of a private character. Lord Harrowby, it is understood, in declining health, wishes to be released from the anxieties of office in order to attend to personal affairs. Again, Lord Clanri- carde is brought into office, not because the Government desires to strengthen itself with the resources of his political virtue, but be- cause it wants in the House of Lords aman strong enough to mect the powerful antagonists in practical questions of Indian adminis- tration. Nevertheless, the fact is that the most cificient men of the day—those who adapt themselves best to the particular task of the moment—are neither the pure Whigs, the Russells and Greys who stand aloof, nor the Tories who stand excluded, nor the Peelites who haye failed to inherit the administrative supremacy of their chief; but the Canningites, men who might have been considered to be obsolete. The grounds of the preference are re- markable, and perhaps not uninstructive as to the present bearing of politics, Robert Peel was a thoroughly typical Englishman. Strong in the desire to carry measures practically advantageous to this country, bred in Tory principles, with ‘Tory connexions, slow to develop his own opinions or his own policy, he laboured out the Liberalism which was natural to his own mind and constitution, by very slow degrees. It was the keenness of his sense which enabled him to elaborate the problems of the day; and_ befere others of the Tory party had got to the core of the grand ques- tion, Free Trade, he had completely mastered it in its details and | in its scope. Among the Conservatives, or the Conservative Whigs, were some few men of very active or refined reasoning | reality. Of a genius to be before his powers, who perceived the logical fitness of Peel’s position, and | they lent him the support of their influence. If he worked to his position by the sheer force of common sense, English feeling, and a perception of business, the Gladstones, the Sidney Herberts, the Cardwells, followed him by the exercise of more purely intellec- tual faculties ; and Graham jumped to tlie conclusion of support- ing him by a species of political wit. Thus Peel found himself surrounded by lieutenants who became so through the refinement of their understanding, while he had stepped to the chief position by the thoroughly solid, prosaical, somntiedl turn of his genius. When Peel was removed, his lieutenants for a time retained the pres- tige attendant upon the past supremacy ; and their own great wers of understanding enabled them still to have a large in- uence in Parliament. sympathy between themselves and the community brought on estrangement, nice questions of political ethics led them into bypaths into which the public could not follow them. One of Peel’s sons, Mr. Frederick Peel, seemed likely to be useful to any Administration, from the fact that he was more distinguished by striking administrative faculties than by strongly-pronounced po- litical opinion ; and the heir to the title, Sir Robert Peel—a gay, dashing, young country gentleman, ultra-Liberal in feeling—ap- peared to be available as a popular feather in the cap of a Ministry whose acting principles he did not very materially influence. But even these two have, on different yet personal grounds, followed in the general exclusion of Peel’s political heirs. Although they were called ‘‘ Peelites,” because they had acted under that chief, the lieutenants of the party were by the very force of their minds, by the nature of their powers, essentially lem to the spirit of Peel’s Government. ‘They were not suited to carry on the policy which belongs to his name; and thus the title of ‘“ Peelite” has be- come, not a proper designation, but a mere nickname, which has ceased to have any applicability. With regard to George Canning the case is exactly reversed. Liberal by disposition, ready in his fancy, he began life with sport- ive aspirations that gradually sobered down into a more practical | the purse system in India operates like a benetit society. But, by degrees, the essential want of | age, he consented to be be- hind it in order to form part of ‘‘ the governing classes.” As Peel joined the Liberal party trom the heart of the Tory ranks, Canning formed the leader of a school of expedientists—men who accommo- dated the arbitrary spirit of Toryism to the tone of Liberalism, Peel bent the Tory party to do work desirable for the great body of the people ; Canning set the example of reconciling Liberal proclivities to Tory tenets. Peel was naturally a leader of the people accidentally placed in office; Canning was essentially an ofticial accidentally born out of office and working his way thither, Peel appeared upon the scene at a time when the substantial in- terests of the English people were delayed by the puncetilios or the dissensions of party, and he broke down those artificial bar- riers in order to accomplish the great wants of the day. We have arrived at a season when there are no very distinct and determi- nate wants calling for the action of the whole community, and officialism has a holiday ; but it must still enjoy that holiday in a country governed by Liberal institutions, and at a season when the freedom of publie diseussion, the development of the press, and the education of the numerous classes, have obliged our administrative rulers to adopt the style and dialect of popularity. It is just the time when the compromising school of Canning ought to be in the ascendant. THE MILITARY CONSERVATIVES, Tue system of promotion in the Army by purchase, to judge from the mode in which it is defended, is the citadel of the Army Con- servatives. You may make many Innovations in military ad- ministration, but the thing which is objectionable in principle, and which noone would adopt were he pe mt afresh—promotion by the higgling of the market—that you shall preserve from the hand of the innovator. This aspect of the case is thrown into strong relief by the report of the minority of the Army Purchase Commission—Mr, E, Ellice, Licutenant-General Wynyard, and Major-General Bentinck; a report not based so much upon the evidence as upon the arguments and conclusions of the majority of the Commissioners. That majority, it may be remembered, advised her Majesty to appoint future commanders of regiments by selection ; thus cutting off the top round of the ladder of purchase, and increasing the chances of obtaining good regimental leaders, The minority dis- sent from this. One of their reasons is, that it would not remove any objections to the principle of purchase; another, that the Duke of Wellington and others, in 1840, recommended the main- tenance of purchase; a third, that the Indian Government has sanctioned the practice among the officers of contributing a purse for the purchase of the higher ranks; a fourth, that it would be difficult to prevent the application of moncy to the creation of vacancies; a fifth, that an officer entering the Army knows what he is about; a sixth, that promotion by selection would soon be- come promotion by seniority. Now of all these reasons, the last is the only one that has any weight. If the proposed change would not remove objections to the principle in general, it would to the application of the principle to a special class of cases. We are not in 1858 bound by opinions held by the Duke of Wellington in 1840, The practice sanctioned by the Indian Government is a very different thing from the practice sanctioned by the Horse Guards; inasmuch as promotion in the Indian Army goes by se- niority and selection, but in the Queen’s Army promotion goes as a right to the monied man. There is no leap-frog in India with a golden pole, as there is in England. In fact, An officer contributes as he passes upwards. In his turn he may receive the contributions of others. But in the Queen’s Army there is the sale of a vested interest ; there is a property in a pub- lie situation, which is at the option of the holder to sell or not to sell. The application of money to create vacancies is not what the Army-reformers object to; nor does Mr. Ellice and his backers object to it. On the contrary, he and they applaud it, boast of it as one of the beauties of their system. They only furbish it up as an objection when they wish to show the evil effects of the abo- lition of purchase ; so that one of the beauties of the present sys- tem becomes a vice the moment it appears ina far purer and more legitimate shape in another! To say that an officer on entering ' the Army knows what he is about, and therefore should not com- plain, is no justification for the maintenance of any system which may be vicious in principle and unjust in practice. But the last argument—that promotion by selection would become promotion by seniority—is an argument of some weight; for it avers that we can find no one to take the chief command of the British Army, and no Minister to preside over the War Department, suf- ficiently discerning to make good selections, and sufficiently strong to bear the wrath of the disaffected, the unsuccessful, and the corrupt. It isa confession of a want of public virtue ; and that by the very men who are forced to select Colonels of regi- ments, and the officers who hold all the higher commands—the Governors of fortresses, the Commandants, the District Gencrals, the Commanders of armies actually in the presence of an enemy. The truth is, that the Conservative minority were bent on a thick-and-thin defence of purchase, and resolute against any in- fraction of the charmed circle. They believe in purchase as one of the national safeguards, and thus tacitly admit that what they confess to be morally wrong is politically right. If they were not bent upon defending purchase, as it might be supposed they would defend the Bill of Rights, 4 l’outrance, why should they use such arguments as that ‘“‘a British regiment, as at pre-

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wemaa January 2, 1858.] THE SPECTATOR, 13

sent organized, is equal if not superior to any similar corps in the world”? At what period in our history has not the same thing been said ? Long before purchase was invented, British fighting was famous in Enropean battle-fields. Then, in order to maintain purchase, the minority are generously willing to concede what is demanded as necessary, whether purchase be re- tained or not. They approve of an amended system of education and examination ; they are kind enough to think that every pre- caution should be taken to prevent irregular promotion ; they are ready to limit the period for the command of regiments; and above all, they believe that the judicious selection of Statt-officers and the limitation of their period of service will be the best

answer to complaints of the inetliciency of our system. Now, we | thought that, quite independently of the existence of purchase, the public had decided on some such changes ; and that they were to be effected not because they might or might not modify the evils of purchase, but because they are good and desirable in themselves. It would seem that we were mistaken—that we have made a compromise. <A line, even in Army-reform, must be drawn somewhere; and Mr. Ellice, like the Government, draws it at promotion by purchase and sale. The Military Conser- | vatives graciously concede improvements like the New Staff Col- lege that is to be, and in return they expect the public to concede to them that hoary relic of a barbarous age which Mr. Ellice would maintain. But the marvel of the whole controversy is, that the defenders of the purchase system either overlook or refuse to see that it does a great injustice by keeping out of the Army many men who are born soldicrs, and quite as capable of filling high commands as any holder of Army stock and shares since the days of Charles the Second ; that in its character as a monopoly, it defrauds the nation of the services of some of her sons, and invidiously ex- cludes those sons from a career which should be as open to Eng- lishmen as any other; and that it excludes them by the lowest and most vulgar of tests—that of gold. PROPOSED INTERNATIONAL COMMITTEE ON THE SLAVE-TRADE TREATIES, A NEW idea has dawned upon those who are anxious for the economical redemption of the West Indies ; or rather, two ideas have been put together, and a third has been struck out by the process. The want of labour in the West Indies is a matter only too notorious, The best source of all for the genuine supply of labour is Africa; but we stand excluded from that source by cir- | cumstances that any form of free emigration might be the pretext and justification for a spurious counterfeit carried on by nations that have traded in slavery. ‘Thus, the so-called plan of free African emigration conducted by M. Régis appears to labour under the threcfold disadvantage of arousing British jealousy, of being in itself a very unsuccessful experiment, and of setting the ex- ample to Spain, Portugal, Yankee adventurers, and other slave- traders, for reéstablishing a slave-trade in disguise. Various expedients have been adopted to supply labour without secking it | from Africa ; and the most promising sources have been China and the Hill regions of India, which produce Coolies. But on trial that plan again may be pronounced a failure. The races are too weak for the English idea of labour, and cannot be put in competition with good specimens from Africa, The question still presses : the British West Indies languish in the competition of the sugar-trade for want of hands ; our own subjects suffer injury through our philanthropical policy, without suceess in the ex- tinction of the slave-trade. the door for a new form of African emigration ; and the Ministerial papers of this country are very anxious to put a spoke in the wheel of that scheme. It is understood that the Emperor of the French has shown signs of yielding, and the plan may after all | § be abandoned : but what then ? Both for the sake of our own West Indies and of those countries which need Tropical labour, it is desirable to find a source which may supply the want without reéstablishing the African slave-trade. Eureka! some journals, including the Ministerial Morning Post, have hit upon the source. They are for executing two great duties at once—they would supply the want of labour in the Tropical English Colonies, and at the same time supply an appropriate punishment fur the mutinous Sepoys. Let the Hin- doos be branded * M. D.,” [not Medicinw Doctor, but Mutineer- Deserter,] and condemned to be beasts of toil for the benefit of those Whites whom they would have injured; the West Indies thus becoming a penal prison for the Sepoys, and recovering the supply which they have so long lacked. The idea may be spe- cious, but it will not stand a moment’s criticism. All the hor- rors, the crimes, the vices, the corruptions, that attended White- eonvictism in Australia, would here be repeated (we say it with- out a pun) with an infinitely blacker dye, The workmen in the sugar-plantations, we can casily foresee, would be infinitely more active in the field of vice. ‘The forms of atrocity would be such that their very existence would contaminate the world. The problem of the West Indies still remains unsolved, Not- withstanding the failure of M. Régis, the system of the preventive squadron has been broken through, and can scarcely be made whole again. The Zimes is for staving off the difficulty by a continuance of Coolie immigration: but, we repeat, the Coolie is a failure, not strong enough to keep out the African. It appears to us that the time is arrived when the whole subject ought to be reconsidered with a view to the best arrangement of all interests, Whatever may be the failure of the | Régis plan as its author designed it, it has undoubtedly opened | ] Y 9 including the true interests of Africa as well as those of the West Indies and of the plantation-owning powers of Europe. Most civilized governments of the world are parties to the virtual al- liance which is embodied in the Slave-trade treaties; and the best of all tribunals for a reconsideration of the subject would be a Joint Commission appointed by all the states signataries to the Slave-trade treaties, that Commission empowered to review the whole subject and to report upon it. THE LONDON CARNIVAL, Wiru the 1st of January, says a fair correspondent of the Morn- ing Post, ‘the Florentine season will commence: the usual carni- val gayeties are already in preparation—the toys and rattles of those whom it is sought to retain in political and moral childhood.” Very humiliating reflection, no doubt; and yet if you come to ‘‘ moral” questions, it is questionable whether even we of Eng- land have much right to look down upon Florence. In one re- spect the comparison is awfully against us, and it might make some of our impatient moralists pause. Contrast our first day of carnival, ‘‘ Boxing-day,” with the Florentine. On the gala-day of Florence you will find the whole population in the streets ; most | house-doors are open, and strangers enter ; a large proportion will be masked ; all is gayety and unrestraint: but from one end of the town to the other it is most likely that you will not meet a single drunken man. Could the same be said of a single London parish ¢ We ask the question in full remembrance of the fact that the police report an unusually light number of ‘“ cases” arising from intoxication at Christmas. But we have no absolute faith in wlice statistics. We speak on direct information of those who one known the streets of London for years, and we assert that the drunkenness was more frequent and more widespread than it has ever been before. If there had been some improvement 1 the London of Hogarth’s or even of Sheridan’s time, there has been a reaction, The inerease of population has also contributed | to augment the dead weight of vice; and the extraorainary fine- | ness of the weather enabled it to stagger abroad, | There must be a great and cogent reason for a continued growth of the evil notwithstanding so many countervailing influ- ences. One auxiliary cause has perhaps been the unusually ex- tensive closing of shops, which turned forth vast numbers * dis- sipere in loco” —and they did it with a vengeance. The result is not calculated to aid the movement for additional holidays, But we must look a little deeper; for they have more holidays in Florence, and never work so hard, And if we talk of our North- ern climate, winter is bitterly cold in Florence. Possibly we may find the cause if we go down one of the narrow streets inhabited by the classes who are least wealthy and orderly; and there a strange spectacle presents itself. Is it Christmas-day, or Boxing-day, or the first Sunday after Christmas,—there you see crowds of people, men and women, all come forth from their dull narrow homes to amuse themselves by—standing about. For hours they do it. They have nothing else to do. In some other places they might take a country walk; from this place it is a long expedition to the mere borders of “the country.” In some places amusements would be open to the listless multitude; here the British Museum is not to be opened. At last it is discovered that standing about is “slow,” and the gin palace is bright and gay. EMIGRATION OF THE CROWN JEWELS, Enpravovurs have been made in London to soften the announce- ment that the Crown Jewels were to depart; but the softening assurances are not confirmed by what is said at Hanover, where they are all exultation at extorting from England the value of a million sterling. A certain degree of light is thrown upon the ubject by the German papers. ‘They ascribe the result in some degree to Prussian influence, the Prince Regent of Prussia being | on very friendly terms with the King of Hanover, But they also | show that the movement is only part of a larger course of action, The King of Hanover appears to labour under an increasing im- nulse to enjoy “ his own,” or what he thinks to be his own. His Ministers have for some months past been working to define a distinction not hitherto existing, Scomens the ‘“‘ Krondomainen,” or domains of the Crown, and the ‘‘domainen,” vested in the government. The produce of the Crown domain is graciously destined by the King to go into his own private exchequer ; leaving only the “domainen,” the smaller part of the revenue, to go, as hitherto the whole has gone, towards the expenses of government. Though otherwise a very obedient body—almost as obedient as the French Imperial Pariiament—the anoverian Chamber of Representatives is decidedly opposed to the encroachment, and the public is still more pn Mn But King George is fortunate enough to have found a proper instrument for his purpose. He has met a very zealous man, a Herr Bar, formerly a subordinate employé in a small Hanoverian town, who has already pushed the Krondomainen demand through its several stages, so that only a last and nominal assent of the Chambers is wanting to place it beyond revocation. This M. Bar, it is said, will receive, as remuneration for his services, the congenial post of Keeper of the King’s Privy Purse—keeping what he has so augmented, It is calculated that when the King shall have got “ his own” out of London Tower and the Hanoverian Parliament, he will be one

of the wealthiest monarchs in Europe.

Page 14

ee 14 THE SPECTATOR. [January 2, 1858. MURDER NOT MURDER! Ar the trial of Madame de Jeufosse, a French jury decided that if a person be found to enter another person’s house clandestinely, not with the intention of committing a felony, but with that of declaring his affection to some engaging young lady, he may be shot like a dog, and the shooter may go unpunished and unre- strained. On the showing of the reports, Guillot commanded lit- tle sympathy ; but the hazardous nature of the principle involved in the decision is brought out in another case. Near the North-eastern frontier of France, a few miles from the town of Metz, is a place called Ail. The Maire of this small town lately found that his daughter, a charming child of a thou- sand weeks, had secret nocturnal interviews with a young man named Basset, who used to visit his innamorata by climbing up the window-grating from the garden side. The Maire became cognizant of this fact ; and, fresh — from reading the re- port of the Jeufosse trial, he ordered his son to post himself at the window and to shoot the adventurous lover. No sooner ordered than done. The obedient son cocks his double-barrelled , lies down in ambush, and as soon as poor Basset appears lows out his brains. Father and son go quietly to bed, and sleep the slumber of virtue; and when the gendarmes come to arrest the Maire of Ail and his son, both are highly astonished at being thus taken to account. They had evidently failed in discrimination. There is no evi- dence that Guillot had any warrant from the young lady for his intrusions ; yet he openly and impudently courted notoriety in his approaches, and defied warning. His intrusion really assumed the aspect of forcible entry. He was not a Romeo, but a burglar, the object of whose rapacity was something more sacred than or gold. But the vulgar do not discriminate. Guillot was professedly a gallant seeking access to the object of his affections, and the Evreux verdict pronounced it lawful to shoot trespassers of that kind: the Maire of Ail seems only to have taken his law as it was laid down by M. Berryer with the sanction of judge and jury. So dangerous is it in criminal law to let feelings how- ever laudable palter with principle. A JOURNALIST’S NIGHTMARE. WE are somewhat uneasy about an intelligent daily journal | | that which their consciences told them was not right.” ightened from its propriety by a casual expression of ours. Adverting last week to the position of Lord Palmerston in re- | to Indian affairs, we expressed the belief, which we hold still, that the public would be muck inclined to support an “ energetic” policy. “¢ double government,”—prejudices in many respects unthinking, but assisting by their momentum to strengthen any truly rational course for removing such relics of a separate administration as obstruct the action of government in India. We believe, there- There are strong prejudices against the | fore, that notwithstanding the resistance which will be made by | persons in the interest of the East India Company, and by the political antagonists of the Government, Lord Palmerston will be able to carry any reasonable bill for simplifying the Indian Go- vernment and bringing it under the direct control of the Impe- rial Executive, if he should satisf: the English public generally by domestic affairs. The English interest in India is at all times slight ; we have had a long turn at foreign polities; and ‘the time has arrived,” as political philosophers say, when the man at the head of the Government will be required to stand the test of domestic legislation. Now if he should satisfy English feeling in that matter, he will be in possession of a large amount of power—more than most men possess, or ought to possess—for carrying his In- dian measure. The public at large will not examine it very nicely. Many of the objections to the measure, perhaps canna objec- tions, will be slighted as coming from interested persons. In briefly characterizing the position of the Minister under these circumstances, we stated our anticipation that he ‘‘ would be a to make the House of Commons register his Indian icts. By that novel phrase the writer in the Daily News is incon- tinently frightened into political hysterics ; he imagines that we are sacrificing our independence to the idol Palmerston. Our nervous friend needs be under no alarm; we can take care of our independence for ourselves; we are not touting for a brief from either side, He speaks as if he thought that we would agi- tate for such a change in the British constitution as would make the House of Commons merely a Corps Legislatif to register the edicts of Henry John I. It never seems to have occurred to the ractical writer in the Daily News, that, in talking of English islation, the ‘‘registering of an edict” must necessarily be a metaphor. He reminds us of the little boy at school whose cries in brought assistance, and who explained that he was kept awake in the dark with fear that an Hyperbole was coming. MR. SPURGEON IN THE CONFESSIONAL, WHEN a man sets himself ' as a teacher in order to give advice, it most commonly happens that all he says may be taken as a con- fession. He presents to us his beau idéal, his own archetypal por- trait pho’ phed by himself; and we may fairly describe him to be what he recommends, In many such cases men’s limited perceptions are strongly brought forth, and they present them- in a curious, sometimes in an amusing light. A bazaar has been opened to aid the funds of Mr. Spurgeon’s Tabernacle ; the new temple not scorning to base itself on the profits of the the House of Commons and | is measures in reference to | | reney, must its origin be sought. market-place. As an additional attraction, Mr. Spurgeon lec- tured, and the place which he chose for his lecture was the re- freshment-room of the Surrey Music-Hall; for Spurgeon has de- cidedly wedded Dissent to the Muses. ‘‘ He selected for his sub- ject,” says the report which has been vouchsafed to the public, ‘the Pleasures that might be enjoyed by Christian persons” ; just as the Pope tells Catholic persons what ma may enjoy and what they must not, when, where, and how. Mr. Spurgeon re- pudiated asceticism, but warned his hearers ‘‘ against pleasures which the conscience told were not pleasures that should be in- dulged in by a Christian person.” Thus the lecture, while con- stituting advice to his hearers, is a description of Mr. Spurgeon’s own conscience and tastes: it is a biographical sketch, from which we gather many amusing points. Mr. Spurgeon does not care for evening parties— ** Of this class [pleasures not meet for Christian ere he instanced evening parties, where persons met together in white kid gloves, stared at one another, and talked nonsense ; and declared that, for his part, he would rather stop at home than undergo the misery of such amusements.”’ Mr. Spurgeon is not fond of water— ‘* He believed that if some persons advertised bottles of water as a most delectable drink, the draught would soon be considered a great delicacy ; and that many things pleased merely because they were called pleasures.” Mr, Spurgeon is fond of dancing— ‘* With regard to dancing, his opinion was, that it was a most healthy exercise, and should be freely indulged in.”’ Mr, Spurgeon is subject to unholy thoughts— ‘** But he thought males and females should dance apart, the ordinary _— of coupling the sexes in the dance being productive of unholy thoughts.”’ Mr, Spurgeon finds cards tedious, and prefers chess; but he points to a curious remedy as ayailable in mild cases for the evil consequences of gambling— ** Games of skill he saw no objection to, but games of chance could be said to be productive of no beneficial result ; and, as in the case of Messrs. Palmer and Cook, had led to evil consequences, which the countenance of Lord Derby could not counteract.” Mr. Spurgeon sees something mystic in the dice-box— ‘** The rattle of dice-boxes always reminded him of the casting of lots at the foot of the cross for the vesture of the Saviour, and he did not think it became any Christian to touch them.” Mr, Spurgeon does not take advice— ‘* But it was no use giving advice on these matters, for most persons had made up their minds upon them, and only sought some authority to excuse Mr, Spurgeon sees no momnpetnaiy between faith and fun— ** Religion, he declared, was never intended to make our pleasures less ; and he advises all to despise conventionalism in their enjoyment, but to avoid those pleasures which the conscience condemned,”” But Mr, Spurgeon has an eye to the main chance— “‘ Referring in conclusion to the object with which the meeting had taken place, he thanked those who were in attendance for their assistance, and stated, that up to the present time 5200/. had been raised towards the erec- tion of the Tabernacle, the total cost of which would be 20,000/.”" CTrtters ta the Editar, CURRENCY AND CREDIT, London, 28th December 1857. Sin—We are gradually learning wisdom. Each successive decennial dis- aster brings to light some source of danger, before unknown or unheeded, in our monetary and commercial systems. The conclusion drawn from the experience of 1857 appears to be, that a crisis may coexist with currencies re- spectively consisting wholly of paper, wholly of bullion, or partly of one and partly the other; and that in some cause, therefore, other than mere cur- Generally, but not with the same unani- mity, that cause is acknowledged to have been what is variously termed as over-hanking, discounting of fictitious or accommodation-bills, undue exten- sion of credit. With your permission, I will offer separately a few brief remarks upon each division of the subject, and the practical amendments of which it may appear to be capable. This may be the more useful, as we have been so long ac- customed to certain parts of the present system, and certain prepossessions still adhere to us so closely, that even yet we are unable either to see clearly the remedy really required, or if seen to apply it with safety, except by de- grees and in successive portions, I, Currency. Upon this point three preliminary facts deserve more attention than they commonly receive. Ist, That, exclusive of notes based upon gold, say to the amount of about 10,000,000/., there are in authorized circulation notes issued upon Govern- ment and other Securities to the amount of about 30,000,000/.; namely, 14,475,000/. by the Bank of England, and say 15,525,000/. by other banks in various parts of the United Kingdom. 2d, That by law, the whole of these notes are declared to be convertible into gold on demand; and the Bank-of-England portion of them is in Eng- land made a legal tender ; but that, to secure such conversion, the only safe- guards provided by the law are the penalty of bankruptcy and the personal liability of such shareholders as have not a charter, 3d, That in this respect the Bank-of-England issue stands upon exactly the same footing as that portion of the issues of en private banks which is based upon Government Securities: for the actual convertibility of this 14,475,000/. there is no statutory provision whatever. It is usually taken for granted that the convertibility of this 14,475,000/. is at all times insured by the Government Debt and the deposit of Govern- ment Securities ; but a little reflection will show that this is not and can- not be the case. The said Debt and Securities are not money; and, in the event of the demand for gold being in excess of the supply, they cannot be converted into money except by another process, and after a certain delay. Consols, when sold, are paid for in notes. Those notes are presented at the Bank, for gold. The gold in the Bank can only satisfy the amount of notes issued in respect of gold. When these are satisfied, there yet remain the notes issued in respect of the Government Debt and Securities. For pay- ment of these, if presented, gold must be purchased, in whatever market, and at whatever price it may at the time be obtainable. That these notes will all be ultimately paid there is no doubt. But for their immediate pay- ment, under the circumstances supposed, the Debt and Securities no more afford provision—i.e. they no more insure a supply of gold for this pur ——than did the landed estates of the shareholders of the Western of

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YIM January 2, 1858.] THE SPECTATOR, 15 Scotland supply gold for the immediate payment of the sums due to its de- itors The only means for insuring such supply, at the command either of the Government or the Bank Directors, is the power of increasing the rate of discount charged upon private bills. And, as we have seen, on the 12th of November, this power was deemed insufficient to avert the danger which was then imminent, whatever that danger actually was. In truth, the con- vertibility of the 14,475,0007. in question depends on the union of three several contingencies—namely, that gold in quantities sufficient to meet all demands be voluntarily tendered to the Bank, at the fixed price of 32. 17s. 9d. per standard ounce ; that demands in excess of the gold on hand, on the part of persons who require their own bills to be previously discounted, be warded off by a high charge for discount ; and that Providence, or a for- tunate course of trade, prevent such demands on the part of depositors or others who can obtain notes without discount—as in the case of the — recently obtained for the Scotch Banks by the sale of Government tocks. Such a state of things cannot be healthy or unattended with danger. The substitute, and the means of attaining and securing it, which with great humility I venture to propose for the consideration of yourself and your readers, are shortly as follow 8. Ist, The debt of the Government to the Bank of England, amounting to 11,015,100/., to be gradually paid off by means of Exchequer Bills; 1,015,1007. on Ist January 1859, and 250,000/. quarterly, (or 500,000/. half- jeuy» thereafter, so that the whole may be thus paid off by Ist January 71. The debt of the Government to the Bank of Ireland, amounting to 2,630,769/. 4s. 8d., to be gradually paid off in like manner ; 130,769/. 4s, 8d. on Ist January 1859; and 62,500/. quarterly (or 125,000/. half-yearly) thereafter. 2d, The issue of notes by any bank other than the Bank of England to be gradually extinguished throughout the United Kingdom; so much of the authorized issue of each as may be a fractional part of 10007, to be extin- guished on Ist January 1859, and one-tenth of the remainder on Ist January in each year thereafter, so that the whole may become extinct on Ist Janu- ary 1871. ’ 3d, The amount of notes authorized to be issued by the Bank of England against Government Securities to be 15,000,000/. from 1st January 1859 to ist January 1872; to be diminished on and after that date at the rate of 1,000,000/. annually, until on Ist January 1886 such issue be wholly dis- continued. . 4th, The Bank of England to be required, as at present, to receive all gold that may be tendered to it at the rate of 3/. 17s. 9d. (or 993 pence) per 7 ounce of standard fineness. _ And to be authorized, as at present, to issue notes against coin and bul- lion eoeeny in the possession of the Issue Department, without limit. 5th, Bank-of-England notes to be made a legal tender throughout the United Kingdoms, so long as there is no issue of them in excess of the amounts authorized as above. But in the event of an issue being made in excess of the authorized amount, at any time, under any circumstances, or upon any authority what- ever other than a resolution of both Houses of Parliament, (or an act,) the validity of all Bank-of-England notes, as a legal tender, to be determined ipso facto, and to cease altogether until or unless it be duly restored by an act of Parliament. f Postponing to another opportunity the few words that I have to offer on the subject of credit, I remain, your obedient servant, Hi.* BANK OF SCOTLAND, Edind gh, 28h December 1857. Sm—I have just read your notice regarding the Western Bank headed “The Public and the Banks.’”” While perfectly agreeing with you upon some of the essential points, I hope you will correct some errors you have inadvertently fallen into. You take for granted that those who purchased lately into the Western Bank secured by so doing 9 per cent for the money so invested, his was not the case. The shares of 50/. each had risen to 76/. previous to July 1856 ; and after the increase then to 9 per cent dividend, they rose to 84/, and 85/. There can be no question that this was owing to the belief that this in- crease of one per cent to the dividend was a bona fide statement on which reliance might be placed as to the well-doing of the Bank. If the Western Bank had been the only joint-stock bank in Scotland that aid 9 per cent on its original stock, some hesitation might have been felt y the public. But on looking to the returns, we find that the British Linen Company pays 9 3-5 per cent, the Commercial Bank 10 per cent, the Union Bank 9 percent, some of the smaller banks 16 per cent, and the Bank of Scotland 8 per cent. The public, then, had only to judge as to the trust to be placed in the truth of the statement made by the Directors. In the Western, they were all men who in the commercial world had hitherto held a high and unblemished reputation. 1 therefore conceive, that although we have been unfortunate in giving credit to this estimate of them, we exposed ourselves to no risk beyond that now run by every holder of shaves in the joint-stock banks of Scotland. You also olinle to what I said at the last meeting when expressing my opinion that it was yet to be explained how men of realized wealth, and who from their intimate acquaintance with the trade of Glasgow must have known the kind of business transacted by the Western Bank, yet retained their position in it. Excuse me if I say you have not given my views upon that subject. I myself believe it to be next to impossible that traders and men who held the position of bank directors could have remained in ignorance of the style of business carried on by the Western Bank. I also perceive that to men trading in Glasgow,—where sound credit and realized wealth are perhaps more scarce than the fictitious counterfeit which is presented by the class of empty speculators receiving unbounded accommodation from such banks,— the wealth drawn from the shareholders and depositors, and so distributed with a lavish hand by the Western Bank, was an important element in the — of those gigantic fortunes we have heard of as lately realized in asgow. I am unacquainted with trade myself, and have only lately turned my at- tention to these subjects; but it requires no wtond to perceive that the position of director in so speculative a bank as the Western, where no secu- rity for advances appeared to be required, was a place of great influence and authority, particularly to commercial men. Glasgow, a the closing of the doors of the Western Bank, has lost, for the present at least, the use of six millions of deposits beyond the invested capital: had this money been well distributed among the commercial circles of Glasgow, the loss would have been more serious than it may now prove. There can be no question that the reckless system of advances made to empty speculators has fostered a trade in Glasgow dangerous to our best in- terests. Sound traders have been undersold, and have been unable to com- pete with men who were dependent not upon their profits but upon a THE WESTERN | classes: Ist, | by either of the other two. low system of credit. A large population has been brought up in G » trusting to employment which depends upon unsound trade. The w commercial bs has been convulsed by the introduction of men who, with capital received from these banks, have pushed their connexions their legitimate trade, and who, with a widespread system of accommo- dation-bills beyond their stock or other securities, have, by removing credit from sounder traders, drawn them also into this general vortex. The working of our joint-stock banks is, through their various branches to collect from every part of the country the capital that is unemployed, and by distribution in our trading towns, to make it available for increasing our commercial wealth. The power thus held by our banks is of the most momentous nature. They are no less than the depositories of the public purse, and are left in uncontrolled power of dispensing it in furtherance of commerce. Taking for granted that it is of vital importance nothing should be done to interfere with this source of our commercial wealth, nor to lessen the flow of capital into these channels, it becomes most desirable that the Le- gislature, while it gives to these institutions the power of issue and other advantages, should take steps to guarantee a sound discretion being used by the directors and a proper use being made of this great amount of capital. It has been urged that the limited responsibility of shareholders would be an improvement. If by this it could be hoped that those who were now de- =e should become shareholders, there might be an advantage in this; ut I doubt if such would be the consequence; and the limitation of respon- sibility of shareholders to the capital invested would certainly lessen the confidence of the depositing public. It was the belief that a full investigation into the conduct of the Western Bank Directors would show their culpable folly and negligence in the di- rection of our affairs, would agitate this vital question, and would lead to some law being passed making directors liable for their conduct, that induced me to pursue from the first the line of conduct I have adopted—hoping that public attention should be directed to the condition of our joint-stock bank property, when the fact became patent that one manager, through the con- nivance or neglect of a body of directors, had brought such wholesale ruin upon the Western Bank. Believe me, yours, &c., W. Maconocure-WELwoop. [If Captain Maconochie-Welwood will reperuse our remarks a little more attentively, he will perceive that there is less difference between us than he has supposed,—Ep. ] CONTRIBUTORY BOROUGHS, Lanrumney, Cardiff, 29th December 1857. Sir—Will you allow me to go through the process, perhaps some may say half-egotistical and half-adulatory, of asking your readers to turn back to an article of yours, and a letter of uiy own, published in your pages more than six years back? They will be found respectively in your numbers for Oc- tober 11th and October 18th 1851, at pages 971 and 996. 1 wish, in short, again to call attention to my old theory of Contributory Boroughs, which seems to have then met with some favour in your own eyes. It has certainly struck we as singular, not only that a scheme which ap- pears to me so desirable should have occurred to so few, but, what is more remarkable, that a scheme which certainly is a very simple one should seem to be understood by so few. It is actually at work in two parts of the kingdom, through all Scotland and all Wales, and yet most people seem not to have the faintest notion what it is. I have more than once found to whom I mentioned it confound it with the scheme of “ electoral districts,” which is its exact opposite. ‘‘ Electoral districts ’’ go on the notion of mere numerical representation—a member to so many head of electors, with, imagine, little or no regard to the old historical landmarks of counties, cities, boroughs, and universities. ‘‘ Contributory boroughs,”’ on the other hand, are only another carrying out of the old English principle of com- bining local ‘representation with some regard to the distinctions of classe and interests. It is an attempt to give their proper position and their proper share of weight, neither more nor less, to a class of citizens some of whom are at present unduly exalted and others unduly depressed. Speaking roughly, the population of the country falls into three great The inhabitants of the rural districts; 2d, The inhabitants of the great cities and towns; 3d, The inhabitants of those small towns which are for the most part chiefly important as centres of their own districts. Their inhabitants clearly form a distinct class, with distinct feelings and in- terests from either of the other two. They should therefore have a distinct share in the representation, and not be allowed either to swamp or be swamped That is, there ought to be members for small towns as well as for counties and for large towns. Now at present we have far too many Members for small towns, and yet the small towns are not adequately represented. One moderate-sized mar- ket-town sends its two Members to Parliament equally with Manchester and Glasgow. Another, of equal population and importance, has no political existence at all. Some of its inhabitants may happen to have votes for the county, but the town, as a town, has no representation whatever, Wells elects two Members as much as Bristol ; Yeovil, decidedly a more important town than Wells, has no Member at all. What is the remedy? Surely not to obliterate the fact that Wells and Yeovil, though not large towns, are still essentially ¢owns and not villages, as would be done if they were sim- “ly merged in the county of Somerset. I say rather, group them together ; lei Wells and Yeovil and one or two other of the Somersetshire market- towns join to elect a single Member. Or, if it be preferred, make a larger group to elect two or three. Iam persuaded, that by carefully poing over the map of England in this way, it would be easy at once to enfranc. a large number of considerable towns, and yet to save from the aggregate of Members for the smaller boroughs enough to supply the acknowledged defi- ciency in the representation of our great cities. It may be objected, that I am not only pleading for the continued ex- istence of many constituencies which most Stormers would destroy, but actually proposing the establishment of many more of the like order. It may be said that I wish to preserve or to reéstablish a class of electors who have too commonly proved themselves either servile or venal. I answer, that the real objection to the present system is not to small boraahe having some Members, but to their having too many Members; not to Wells being represented, but to its being equally represented with Manchester. I an- swer, again, that any system of reform would preserve or establish the class of voters thus objected to. No reformer will, I - © be satisfied with anything less than Mr. Locke King’s motion. But, supposing Wells abolished as a borough, the ten-pounders of Wells would, by the terms of that motion, retain, and those of Yeovil would acquire, the elective fran- chise, as electors for East Somerset. I cannot see that they would be leas servile or venal as electors for a county than as electors for a group of con- tributory boroughs, while I am sure they would be in a much natural position. Again, I should of course give to these voters, as to all voters, | the protection of the ballot. With regard to the existing arrangement in Wales, the space of six years has simply made the case which I formerly stated infinitely stronger. two counties of Glamorgan and Monmouth, which are just now the most hol- | rapidly advancing portions of the kingdom, are scandalously under-repre-

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aye gaat ne SA es LS ee 16 THE SPECTATOR. [January 2, 1857. sented. Newport, Cardiff, Merthyr, Swansea, might all fairly have two Members apiece. A vast population has grown up in and about —, which has yet no Member at all. With regard to the borough in which I am most interested, that of Cardiff, I wish to speak a few words more particu- larly, as the case is one easy to be misunderstood. The figures which you will find given as representing the population or the number of voters gives no test of the real growth of the place. Cardiff is probably the most rapidly increasing town in the kingdom ; it is popularly said to grow at the rate of a house a day, and I really believe that the exaggeration is not very great. But this vast increase is not attended by any proportionate increase on the existing register of voters. The actual town has far outstripped the limits of the halliemnsutaey borough. The adjoining parishes are being covered with houses, which, except in the exceptional case of a 50/. rental, give no vote either for town or county. The contemplated new docks will soon cause anew town, equally unrepresented, to spring up in another quarter. Now it is surely the franchise of the borough of Cardiff, not that of the county of Glamorgan, which ought to be extended to this great population. The Parliamentary borough of Cardiff should be so enlarged as to take in the whole of what is practically the town of Cardiff. United with Cardiff are the contributory boroughs of Cowbridge and Liantrissant. Cowbridge is a respectable little town, which one might not have gone out of one’s way to enfranchise, but which I see no reason to dis- franchise. It is really a town, and forms something of a local centre. But Llantrissant is a practical evil, and ought to be disfranchised. It is a mere village ; but somehow or other it retains the right of manufacturing fagot- votes in the shape of freemen, and thus, though an incomparably less con- siderable place, it furnishes actually more electors than Cowbridge. For Llantrissant I should substitute the thriving little town of Bridgend, which is, I believe, the only town in Glamorganshire not included in any borough. To a constituency composed of Cowbridge, Bridgend, and an enlarged Car- diff, I do not see how any one could refuse a second Member. I am, Sir, your obedient servant, Epwarp A. FREEMAN. N.B. It is rather a curious comment on the rapid growth of this district, that, writing in 1851, 1 classed Cardiff with Carmarthen as towns decidedly inferior to Newport. Probably the census of 1851 was not then published, aud I had before me that of 1841. By that census I was right, by that of 1851 1 was wrong ; much more decidedly so by the actual state of things in 1887. THE EDUCATIONAL FRANCHISE, Str—There will be many objections to details of the proposed Educational Franchise. Will you permit me to dispute the principle ? The present system is based on property, a representation of interest. This requires of the enfranchised the possession of some amount of property, a common in- terest in the general good. Will the possession of education confer the like common interest? It may be answered, that education when finished does confer fitness for the franchise, in enlargement of mind, equal to any ma- terial superiority. But education is a means, not an end; it gives its pos- sessor an advantage in competition with others, that should make the at- tainment of a property qualification an easy labour. Educational is intel- lectual industry, and has as much right to be represented as any other in- dustry. The enfranchisement of the industrious classes is a favourite project ; the objection to which is that it would tend to the spoliation of capital, and so destroy production. But education is thought to supply its own cor- rective to those snares which endanger the adept in manual industry. Education in its best sense is never complete, but ordinarily it is a fitness for some particular sphere of action. This fitness is evidenced by success in the proposed calling, and success results in independence. He who has attained personal independence is fit to influence the fortunes of others by his voice at elections for the Legislature. There is no merit in education, to set it above industry, as respects its recipients. Much, however, belongs to the educators, direct or ielises—paeeute and guardians, schoolmasters, charitable promoters, and those who study how best to diffuse instruction. But education has nothing to do with votes; it should enable its possessors to obtain the franchise, not entreat a Minister to bestow it. The common suspicion against Government interference with education is, lest it should sap independence, and accustom the recipients to look to be fed whence they are taught. The seed is to produce the crop; but if the educated are to be ever clamouring for aid, it would be much cheaper for Government to maintain them at once. Demand for political recognition differs from that for material assistance, but since a moderate degree of success will attain the franchise, one demand is as unworthy as the other. Your obedient servant, A Barrister. For Books, and Fine Ants, see the accompanying panying Monthly Supplement.) Che Army. FROM THE LONDON GAZETTE, DECEMBER 29. War Opricr, Pall Mall, Dec. 29.—Caralry—7th Dragoon Guards—Gent. Cadet A. H. Vincent, from the Royal Military College, to be Cornet, without purchase, vice Weaver, appointed to the Ist Drags. 7th Light Drags.—Charles P. Viscount Royston to be Cornet, by purchase. 9th Light Drags.—Lieut. F. Ellis to be Capt. without purchase, vice French, killed in action. 10th Light Drags.—Serg. E. Simpson to be Riding-Master. 16th Light Drags.—Serg.-Major T. Brown to be Cornet, without purchase, Infantry—2d Regt. of Foot—Staff-Surg. of the Second Class D. J. Doherty to be Surg. vice Bain, who exchanges, 6th Foot—To be Lieuts. without purchase—Ensign A. W. O. Saunders, Ensign T. Bowen. To be Ensigns, without purchase—C, W.H. Wilson, Gent. vice Saun- ders ; E. F. A. M‘Carthy, Gent. vice Bowen. h Foot—Ensign W. Morrison, from the 64th Foot, to be Paymaster. 30th Foot—G. R. Hassall, Gent. to be Ensign, by purchase, vice M‘Neill, ap- pointed to the 78th Foot. 32d Foot—Lieut. S. H. Lawrence to be Capt. without purchase, vice Moore, killed in action; Ensign W. H. Studdy to be Lieut. without purchase, vice Law- rence; P. W. Justice, Gent. to be Ensign, without purchase, vice Studdy. 53d_ Foot—Major F. English to be Lieut.-Col. without purchase, vice T.S. Howell, C.B. killed in action; ety W. Payn to be Major, without pur- chase, vice English ; Capt. A. P. Gore to Major, without purchase, vice Payn, whose promotion on the 17th November 1857 has been cancelled; Lieut. J. A. Dalzell, to be Capt. without purchase, vice Gore; Ensign R. Prince to be Lieut. without purchase, vice Dalzell; Gent, Cadet W. L. Auchinleck, from the Royal Milit College, to be Ensign, without purchase, vice Prince. 64th Foot—Lieut. M. Fanning to be Capt. without purchase, vice Shute, killed in action; Ensign J. W. Taylor to be Lieut. without purchase, vice Fanning; Ensign A. W. L. Mirehouse to be Lieut. without purchase, vice Turner, killed in action. To be Ensigns, without purchase—Ensign D. Gardiner, from the Ist West India Regt. vice ‘aylor, promoted; Ensign W. H. Ashe, from the 24 West India Regt. in succession to Lieut. Bateman, killed in action; Ensign J. G. Hamilton, from the 3lst Foot, vice Mirehouse, promoted. 68th Foot—Paymaster F. F. Fereday, from the Military Train, to be Paymaster, vice Bernard, transferred to the Royal Canadian Rifle Regt. 73d Foot—A. H. Palmer, Gent. to be Ensign, by purchase, vice Fraser, promoted. ‘78th Foot—Ensign M. M‘Neill, from the 30th Foot, to be Ensign, in succession to Lieut. Webster, killed in action. For T. H. Thompson, Gent. to be Ensign, without purchase, *‘ in succession to Lieut. Swanson, killed in action,” which appeared in the “Gazette” of the 18th inst. read, &c. “in succession to Lieut. Kirby, died of his wounds.” es 84th Foot—The promotion of the under-mentioned officers to be antedated to the 27th of Nov. 1857—Major W. J. M‘Carthy and Capt. W. M‘G. Keats. 89th Foot—W. Atthill, Gent. to be Ensign, without purchase, vice Brownrigg promoted. 90th Foot—Lieut. P. J. Deverill to be Capt. without purchase, vice Brevet-Major Perrin, died of his wounds; Easign H. B. Savory to be Lieut. without purchase vice Deverill. ‘ 96th Foot—Lieut. P. Hunter to be Capt. by purchase, vice Meade, who retires, lst West India Regiment—R., 8. Lemon, Gent, to be Ensign, by purchase, vice E Smith, promoted; J. R. Kenny, Gent. to be Ensign, without purchase, vice Gardi- ner, appointed to the 64th Foot. 2d West India Regiment—G. M. Studdert, Gent. to be Ensign, without purchase vice Ashe, appointed to the 64th Foot. 3 Hospital Staf—Surg. D. 8. E. Bain, M.D. from the 2d Foot, to be Staff-Surg. of the Second Class, vice Doherty, who exchanges. Brevet.—Lieut.-Col. J. T. Grant, C.B. 49th Foot, having completed three years’ actual service on Dec. 12, 1857, in the rank of Lieut.-Col. to be promoted to be Col. in the Army, under the Royal Warrant Oct. 6, 1854; Capt. T. Esmonde, half-pay Unatt. to be Major in the Army; Paymaster W. H. Wardell, on half-pay of the Royal Canadian Rifle Regt. to be Major in the Army, the rank being honorary only, under the Royal warrant, dated Dec. 2, 1857. 7 The undermentioned officers of the Royal Engineers having completed three years’ service in the rank of Lieut.-Cols., to be Cols. in the Army, under the Royal warrant of Nov. 3, 1854—Brevet-Lieut.-Col. J. L. A. Simmons, C.B.; Lieut.-Cols, E. W. Durnford, E. T. Lloyd, H. James, W. Robinson. The undermentioned Cadets of the East India Company’s service to have the local and temporary rank of Ensign during the period of their being placed under the command of Col. H, Sandham, of the Royal Engineers, at Chatham, for field instruction in the art of sapping and mining—L. C. Gordon, Gent. J. L. Brand- reth, Gent. J. Browne, Gent. C. Mant, Gent. H. H. Lee, Gent. A. R. Seton, Gent. T. YT. Carter, Gent. H. M. Vibart, Gent. L. G. Stewart, Gent. W.M. Roberts, Gent. Brecet.—Memorandum.—In pursuance of a memorandum dated in Oct. 1854, the Queen has been picased to confer upon G. A. Morgan, Esq. late Lieut.-Col. attached to the Turkish Army, the equivalent honorary rank of Lieut.-Col, such honorary rank, however, to confer no privileges as a British Lieut.-Col. on that officer. Crate. FROM THE LONDON GAZETTE, DECEMBER 29. Partnerships Dissolved.—J. and T. Sturt, Petersfield, Hampshire, coach-wheel- wrights—Hughes and Fletcher, Chancery Lane, patent-agents—Burton and Cayley, High Holborn, railway-advertising board-makers—Charlton and Hind, Durham, milliners—Stringer and Everest, New Rommey, Kent, attorneys—-Young and Co. Foxhillbank, near Accrington, and Manchester, calico-printers ; as far as regards J. 8. Young—Hughes and Son, Longton, Staffordshire, ironmongers—A. and M. Hill, Market Drayton, Shropshire, inn-keepers—Aspin and Cook, Rochdale, power- loom cloth-manufacturers—The Bradford Colliery Company, Bradford, near Man- chester, and elsewhere ; as far as regards R. J. Lawton—White and Crouch, Mar- shall Street, Golden Square, manufacturers of fancy-work—Battes and Crockett, Roberts Terrace—Middleton and Son, Liverpool, merchants—A, F. and R. Max- well, Liverpool, merchants; as far as regards A. Maxwell—Knowles and Smith, Rotterdam, merehants—The English Company for Working Mines in Ireland— Greenwood and Co, Burnley, Crimet Bridge, near Golne, power-loom-manufacturers. Bankrupts.—Jous Barsen and Freperick Rosexaver, Hammond Court, Min- cing Lane, merchants, to surrender Jan. 14, Feb. 18: solicitors, Lawrence and Co, Old Jewry Chambers ; official assignee, Bell, Coleman Street Buildings. Joxatuan and Roperr Hits, Gravesend and Dartford, bankers, Jan. 19, Feb. 9: solicitor, Wright, Chancery Lane ; official assignee, Graham, Colen.an Street. Wiiiam Cviiemore, Upper Seymour Street, Euston Square, draper, Jan. 11, Feb. 17: solicitor, Cox, Pinner’s Hall ; official assignee, Nicholson, Basinghall Street. Perern M‘Lacniay, Birchin Lane, Cornhill, and St. George’s Terrace, Kilburn, baker, Jan. 11. Feb. 15: solicitor, Davies, Basinghall Street ; official assignee, Pennell, Guildhall Chambers. Joun Green and Witttam Baker, Newgate Street, stay-manufacturers, Jin. 13, Feb. 17: solicitors, Sole and Co, Aldermanbury ; official assignee, Nicholson, Da-ing- hall Street. Wittiam and Henry Werrsrep, Molyneaux Street and Shouldham Street, Bryanstone Square, cabinet-makers, Jan. 14, Feb. 16: solicitors, Lawrance and Co, Old Jewry Chambers; official assignee, Edwards, Basinghall Street. Wiiu1am Hexry Warkrys, Portsea, inn-keeper, Jan, 12, Feb. 9: solicitors, Low, Chancery Lane; Low, Portsea; official assignee, Edwards, Basinghall Street. James Wartrs, Gravesend, hotel-keeper, Jan, 12, Feb. 9: solicitors, Wilkinsou and Stevens, Nicholas Lane ; Sharland, Gravesend; official assignee, Lee, Alder- manbury. Arruvr Jackson, Peterborough, corn-merchant, Jan. 7, Feb. 12: solicitors, Law- rence and Co. Old Jewry Chambers; Deacon and Taylor, Peterborough ; official assignee, Whitmore, Basinghall Street. Tuomas Routine, Palterton, Derbyshire, cattle-dealer, Jan. 9, Feb. 6: solicitors, Cutts, Chesterfield; Smith and Burdekin, Sheffield; official assignee, Brewin, Sheffield. Ronert and Joun Brow, Great Grimsby, Lincolnshire, corn-merchants, Jan. 20, Feb. 17: solicitor, Veal, Great Grimsby ; official assignee, Carrick, Hull. Grorcr Livermore Suortanp, Manchester, ironmonger, Jan. 12, Feb. 9: solici- tors, Deakin and Dent, Wolverhampton ; Owen and Co. Manchester ; official as- signee, Pott, Manchester. Sinas Tertow, Oldham, cotton-waste-dealer, Jan. 13, Feb. 3: solicitor, Sutton, Manchester ; official assignee, Pott, Manchester, Bexsamin Hatton, Dukinfield, Cheshire, engine-maker, Jan. 12, Feb. 9: solicitor, Gartside, Ashton-under-Lyne ; official assignee, Fraser, Manchester. Diridends.—Jan. 20, Morriss, Wisbeach, grocer—Jan. 20, Gilbert, Railway Place, Fenchurch Street, and Limehouse, sailemaker—Jan. 22, Bracher, Old Jewry, tailor —Jan. 19, C. and J. M. Mosley, Catherine Street, Strand, news-agents—Jan. 22, W. J. and J. Sears, Ivy Lane, printers—Jan, 22, Dixon, Lymington, Hampshire, tailor —Jan, 22, Feast, Finsbury Pavement and Little Moorfields, oil-warehouseman— Jan. 22, Hart, Charlotte Street, Blackfriars, hat-manufacturer—Jan, 22, Lewis, Surrey Place, Kennington Park, surgeon—Jan, 22, Lawrence, Eastcheap, fruit- dealer, and Old Kent Road, grocer—Jan, 21, Peacock, Manchester, starch-manu- facturer—Jan. 20, Robinson, Macclesfield, hosier—Jan. 23, W. and J. Tyler, King’s Bromley, Staffordshire, millers—Jan. 20, Lliffe, Birmingham, commission-agent— Jan. 18, Rogers, Oswestry, draper—Jan. 21, Bell, Jarrow, Durham, alkali-manuufac- turer—Jan, 21, Crosthwaite, Liverpool, merchant. Certificates to be granted unless cause be shown to the contrary on the day of meeting.—Jan,. 22, Francis and Austen, Cheapside, warehousemen—Jan. 22, ben- nett, Great Newport Street, grocer—Jan. 22, Willmott and Hartley, Essex Street, Kingsland Road, and Battersea, sawyers—Jan. 22, Kenway, Three King Court, Lombard Street, commission-agent—Jan. 23, Daniell, Poplar, founder—Jan, 19, Pain, Hammersmith, chemist—Feb. 3, Vincent, Mistley, Essex, beer-house-keeper —Jan. 20, A. and W. Marsden, High Street, Islington, shawl-warehousemen—Jan. 23, Ellison, Bread Street, Cheapside, and Harley Street, Cavendish Square, ware- houseman—-Jan. 20, Roberts, Gorad, Holyhead, Anglesea, corn-dealer—Jan. 22, Hyde, Chester, clothier—Jan. 22, Walker, Liverpool and Rochdale, tobacconist— Jan. 21, J. and J. Mackay, Liverpool, timber-merchants—Jan. 18, Lee, Wolverhamp- ton, engine-manufacturer. Declarations of Dividends,—Hawke, Great Queen Street, builder ; second div. of ls. 6¢. Wednesday next and three subsequent Wednesdays; Lee, Aldermanbury— Whimpenny, Holme Bridge, manufacturer; second div. of ls. any day; Young, Leeds—Beaumont, Huddersfield, flour-dealer ; first div. of 63d. any day; Young, Leeds—Nicholson, Salterhebble, oil-merchant; first div. of 4jd. any day; Young, Leeds—Mertens and Co, Apperley Bridge, dyers ; first div. of 10s. any day ; Young, Leeds—Murfin, Litchurech, Derbyshire, inn-keeper ;_first div. of 6d. Monday next and two following Mondays; Harris, Nottingham—Hobson, Long Sutton, Lincoln- shire, corn-merchant; first div, of 1s. 6¢d, Monday next and two following Mon- days ; Harris, Nottingham. otch Sequestrations.—Morton, Hamilton, Lanarkshire, grocer, Jan. 2—Grant, Kenowaird, Inverness-shire, tacksman, Jan. 9—Newlands, Alexandria, and Fenar in Renton, Dumbartonshire, draper, Jan, 2—Brackenridge, Glasgow and Dunoon, boot-maker, Dec, 29—Ramsay and Smart, Arbroath, manufacturers, Jan. 7—Stew- art, Glasgow, grocer, Jan. 4—Liddell, Glasgow, commission-agent, Jan. 5—Con- nell and Taylor, Glasgow, sewed-muslin-manufac‘urers, Jan, 4—Fraser, Muirfield, Inverness-shire, ship-owner, Jan, 5—Strapp, Pollockshields, Renfrewshire, con-

Page 17

vVviiwd January 2, 1858.] unnenl — 5—Renwick, Glasgow, seamen. Jan. 5—Goodall, Kirkaldy, con- fectioner, Jan, 5—M* Lintock, Livingston, Linlithgowshire, merchant, Jan, 5, FROM THE LONDON GAZETTE, JANUARY 1. Partnerships Dissolved.—Legg and Gregory, Bermondsey Street, wool-staplers— Nugent and Davis, Upper Southwick Street, Hyde Park, aue tioneers—Cooke and Co. Oxford, proprietors of the ** Oxford Chronicle and Berks and Bucks Gazette ” —Richardson and Co. Newe astle-on-Tyne, tanners; as far as regards J. Richard- son—Hirst and Hague, Lancashire, band-makers—Atkins and Co, St. Helen's Place, merchants—Muspratt and Co. Liverpool, and Muspratt and Co. Flint, mer- chants—Rodden and Barter, Plymouth, blacksmiths—Ketchum and Co, Liverpool, commission-merehaots—C ampbe ll and Preston, Liverpool, cotton-brokers—W heat- ley and Co. Mirfield, Yorkshire, woollen- manufacturers—Armitage and Co, Hud- dersfield and Great Grimsby, timber-merchants—Le Coq and Watson, Muscovy Court, Trinity Square, merchants—Entichidi and Tambaci, Manchester, merchants —Overend and Co. Lombard Street, money-dealers ; as far as regards D. B. Chi apman —Beesley and Hayes, Bristol, indiarubber-m: anufacturers—Symons and Slater, ¥ulham Road, Chelsea, and Sussex Terrace, Old Brompton, butchers— Morris and Co. Old Broad Street, merchants; as far as regards P. Prevost—Rodgers and Bourne, St. Martin’s Lane and New Street, Covent Garden, hosiers—Spruce and Co. Everton, quarrymen—Hickman and Son, C hapel Street, Edgware Road, ironmon- gers—Richardson, Tee, and Rycroft, and Richardsvu, Tee, and Co, Barnsley Manchester, and Bolton, linen-manufacturers ; as far as regards H. M. Richardson— Stone and Man junior, Lime Street, commission-merchants—The Vernon Chemical pag Liverpool—Coolon and Co. Threadneedle Street, merchants—Warton and Co, Old Stoneyford, coal-masters; as faras regards J. F. Milnes—M. R. and A. Lang- dale—Mackenzie and Balfour, Cullum Street, ship-brokers—R. and J. Nichols, Farn- ham, stationers—Sheards and Senior, or otherwise, Batley, Yorkshire, or elsewhere, woollen-manufacturers ; as far as regards 8. Senior—Jones and Rober countants—Carr and Co, St. Mary-at-Hill, coal-factors— Bladon and Cavell, Change Alley, stock and share brokers—Boyd and Chapman, Welbeck Street, ironmongers— Pankhurst and Co. Hanley, Staffordshire, earthenware-manufacturers—Phillips and Rowell, Harp Lane, Great Tower Street, Customhou.e-agents—Liddiard and Co, Friday Street, calico-printers—Lambert and Ashby, T i i-merchants— Baker and Co. Gresham Street and Manchester r nger, Lower Thames Street, and Liverpool, provision-brokers ; as far as regs Cockburn— Lerd and Co. Kirkby Stephen, Westmoreland, mercers—Greenshields and Co, Liver- pool, commission-merchants; as far as regards M. Strang—Davis and Co. late of Ulverston, Lancashire, iron-manufacturers—Lange and Taylor, Emmett Street, Limehouse—Hazlehurst and Sons, Runcorn, Cheshire, soap-makers ; as far as re- gards J. Hazlehurst—Steddy and White, Howard Road, Stoke Newington, builders —W. H. R. and J. H. R. Nuth, Malmesbury, tanners. Bankruptci ies Annulled.—Wi.t1aM MipLetox, Manchester, leather-merchant. Evwarp Lerce, Whittle-le-Woods, Lancashire, cotton-spinner, Bankrupts.—F RANcIS CLAXTON, Doverc ourt, Essex, victualler, to surrender Jan, 8, Feb. 12: solicitor, Jones, Gresham Street, and Cole ester ; ; official assignee, Can- nan, Aldermanbury. Tuomas Roacn, Broad Street Chambers, mining-agent, Jan. 14, Feb. 18: solici- tor, Catlin, Ely Place, Holborn; official assignee, Johnson, Basinghall Street. Henry Warkiys, Irengate Wharf, Praed Street, Paddington, lime-merchant, Jan, 12, Feb. 18: solicitors, Lawrance and Co, Old Jewry Chambers ; official assig- nee, Bell, Coleman Street Buildings. Samvuev Perry, Birmingham, jeweller, Jan, 13, Feb. Birmingham ; official assignee, Whitmore, Birmingham. WituaM Hvrs, Warwick, commission-agent, Jan. 16, Feb, 4: solicitor, Arm- field, Birmingham ; official assignee, Kinnear, Birmingham. Witi1am Cook, Birmingham, stone-mason, Jan. 16, Feb. 4: Birmingham ; official assignee, Kinnear, Birmingham. Joun Burrorp and James Tuompson, Bilston, Staffordshire, iron-masters, Jan. 25, Feb. 15: solicitors, Corser and Co. Wolverhampton; James and Knight, Bir- mingham ; ; Official assignee, Whitmore, Birmingham. Joun Scorr, Shrewsbury, coal-dealer, Jan, 16, Feb. 4: solicitors, Barnett and Marlow, Walsall; official assignee, Whitmore, rg Barxanp Grorce Dyer, Cardiff, ship-chaudler, Jan. 11, Feb. 9: solicitors, Le- mar and Humphrys, Bristol ; official assignee, Acraman, Bis tol. Grorcre Watt, Cheltenham, grocer, Jan. 12, Feb. 9: s . citors, Pruen, Chelten- ham ; Abbott and Luc as, Bristol ; official assignee, Miller, Bris stol. Wittiam Qvayie, Liverpool, ‘ship-broker, Jan, 13, Feb. 1: solicitor, Jenkins, Liverpool ; official assignee, Cazenove, Liverpool. Dante. Evear Monies, Liverpool, merchant, Jan. 18, Feb. jun. Liverpool ; official assignee Cazenove, Liverpool. Wituiam Taytor sen. WritamM Tayror jun. and Hexry Tayrtor, Barnsley, linen-manutacturers, Jan. 18, Feb, 22: solicitors, Bond and Barwick, Leeds ; official Hope, Leeds. FREDERICK Beckman, North Shields, sifh-c handler, Jan. 12, Feb. 21: » Brignal, Durham ; official assignee, Baker, Newcastle ~~ Tyne vide nds.—Jan, 22, Tull, Andover, groc er—Jan. 23, Parker, New Inn Y urd, Old Bailey—Jan. 23, Palmer, Savoy Street, Strand, printer—Jan. Warrington, New Corn Exe ene, Mark Lane, carrier, and Mark Lane, corn-inerchant—Jan, 22, Fer- nell, Aldermanbury, commission-agent—Jan. 28, Merry, Bristol, grocer—Jan. 27, Jc inston, Whitehaven, currier—Jan, 27, Usher, Sunderla: “, rope-manufacturcr— Jan, 22, Cooke, Leeds, grocer—Jan. . and R. Hailt« , Halifax, wire-workers —dJan. 25, Ww otherspoon and W alford, “L iverpool, merchants, icates to be granted unless cause be shown to the contrary on the day of —Jan, 22, Stubbs, Bishop’s Sutton, Hampshire, corn-dealer—Jan. Tull,

Chester, ac-

1: solicitors, Gem and Cc, solicitor, Smith,

12: solicitor, Yates

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Andover, groce , Sleigh, Strand, newspaper- proprietor Feb. 1, Merry, Brist« r grocer—Jan, 25, Wyld, Bristol, wine-merchant—Jan. Cadman, Up- holland and Billinge, ‘ashire, bric k-maker—J an. 22, Morrow and Co. Liver- pool, mere hants—Jan. Sissons, York, grocer—Jan. 22, Coe, Halifax, builder— Jan. 22, Backhouse, Leeds, painter—Jan, 23, Earnshaw, Sheffield, hosier-dealer _ 23, Oliver, Kimberworth, Yorkshire, miller—Jan. 23, Seale, Sheffield, plun aber—Jan. 23, T. and J. Matthews, Sheffield, turn-screw-makers—Jan, 25,

Davies, Aberkentig I wer; first V 6a. any Tuesday; Pennell, Guildhall Cc ~o rs—M, 3 Huddleston, Be rners Gtr, Oxford Street, cabinet-makers; second div. of Is, any Tuesday ; Pennell, Guildhall Chambers—Ellison, I d Street, Cheapside, and H: irle ry Street, Cavendish Square, warehouseman ; first. div. of 3s. Tuesd: 1y; Pe nneli, Guild- hall Chambers—Pollard and Symonds, Guildford, builders ; second div, of 6d. any Cyesday; Pennell, Guildhall Chambers—Singer, Oxf Street, tailor; first div. of 5d. any Tuesday ; Pennell, Guildhall Chambers —Lanib : ‘o. Wouldham, and Kingsiand Road, cement-manufacturers ; first div. of 7¢. any Tuesday; Pennell, Guildhall Chambers—Smallpiece, Guildford and Aldershott, ecurrier; first div. of Ss. 6d. on the separate estate, any Tuesday; Pennell, Guildhall Chambers—Sim- mons, Bridge Ter . Harrow Road, marble-merchant ; first div. of ls. 6d. any Tuesday; Pennell, Guildhall Chambers—Isaacs, , cigar-dealer; first div. of 4s. 6d. any Tuesday; Pennell, Guildhall Randall, Maidstone, hotel-keeper ; first div. of 2s. 6d. any Tuesday; Penne!!, Guildhall Chambers Turner, Newcastle-upon-Tyne, oil-merchant; first div. on new proofs of 6 11-32. (being part of former ‘div, of 3s. 6d. previously declared) any Saturday ; Baker, Newcastle-upon-T yne— Ve rnon, Low Walker, iron-shipbuilder ; first div. of 1s. 5 1d. any Saturday ; Baker, Newe: astle-upou-Tyne —Simpson, Sedgfield, draper first div, of Ls. 8d. any Saturday; Baker, Newcastle-upon-Tyne—M‘Cartney, South Shields, grocer ; first div. of 5s. 6d. any Saturday; Buker, Neweas tle-upon-Tyne. Scotch Sequestrations.—Macdonald, Musselburgh, ps artner of the Western Bank of Scotland, Jan. 4—J. and R. A. Ronald, Paisley, and Patrickbank, Paisley, printers, Jan, 8—Oughterson, Greenock, wood-mer« hant, Jan. 8—Blair, Glasgow, shawl-fringer, Jan. 8—M‘Claren, Glasgow, ship-carpenter, Jan. 9,

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PRICES CURRENT. _ BRITISH FUNDS. (Closing Prices.) Saturd ., Monday.| Tuesday.| Wednes., Thurs. | Friday. - — — {— ———

| an 3 per Cent Consols teneserererseseee| shut | [ —— —_ |— Intto for Account ocene ee O4 ex a. 933 939 | «oR 94e 3 per Cents Reduced ° 933 | 4) 935 | 93% 944 New 3 per Cents ..... ey » 4 | 981 | 978 \ 93; 943 Long Annuities » @ | Wie sccces 2306C«4 Peas....... 4l i FLOUR PROVISIONS Butter—Nest Fresh, 16s. 0d. per doz Carlow, 4/. 16s. to 5/. 12s. per ewt Town ‘made Seconds -per sack ~ to ate.

-- ssex and Sulh Mk, on | vard ship 33 - 4 Bacon, Irish .......+6++ per cwt. 56s. — 60s, Norfolk and Stockton ......... 33 — 3 Cheese, Cheshire, fine - 72 — 7a American . -per barrel 25 — 28 Derby, pale ...... - 6 — 74 GeMOGias ccccccecevccceoce 2a 28 Hams, York ....... .% —1l0O Bread, 6d. to Sd. the 4b. loaf Eggs, French, per , Bs. Od. to Lis. Od.

BUTCHERS’ MEAT. CaTTLe MARKET.” Heap or Catrie at tun Newoate ano LEADENMALL.*

ad sad sad s s. d. | CaTTLe- MARKET Beef... 3 2 to it to 4 2 3 Btod B8to5 0 M Friday. Mutton 3 4—4 0—4 6 44—-6 2—6 6/ ° 915 Veal... 3 S—4 O—4 8 48—-5 0—5 4 - 2,925 Pork... 3 4—4 0—4 8 40—44-— ‘ 8 | Calves B nsec 136 Lamb. 0 0—0 0—0 0 00 Pigs... 150 wees 120 HOPS WooL Weald of Kent Pockets...... 45s. to Gis. | Down Tegs .....0e000 per ib. léd. to 17}4. Mid and East Ke nts litto - 7 — 1312 Half-bred Weth TB wovcccvcces “a4 — Db Sussex ditto......... esses 62 — GO Leicester Fleeces ° coco = @ Farnham ditto ...... o— 0 Combing SKINS ... 6.666. eeeeee lo — 13 HAY AND STRAW Per Load of 36 Trusses Suivn W srrecHaret CumMBERLAND Hay, Good .....+646+. 65s 68s. to 78s. to 86s . 50 6 = 63 — 72 0 9 _ ° . o-— 0 85 as 06CU — 1200 —t—=—“ 05 — 100 25 “a = i 3 — 33

MISCELLANEOUS. GROCERIES Jamaica Rum. pergal. 5s Tea, Souchong, fine, per lb. 2s. Od. to 2s. Ad

a to 5s. 9d,

Congou, fine ......+..«. 1wo-—-—2 8 Krandy, Best Brands..... 13 —15 06 Pekoe, flowery 3 0-46 Cotton, N. Orleans.perib. © 25 — © 7h In bond— Duty Is. ‘oa. per Ib. Saltpetre, Ref... 4220—43 0 Coffee, fine (in bond) cwt. 64s. Od. to 80s. Od. | Guano, Peruvi 28 0— 0 8 Good Ordinary ........ 558. Od. to 56s. Od. | Tallow z Y.¢ so 9 - 0 0 Cocoa, Trinidad (in bond) 88s. Od. to 96s, Od. Town ss 9 0 06 Rice, Ame. dr. Carolina... 0s Yr to Os. Od. | Rape oll, ‘Engin refined 42 0 ~ 43 0 Sugar, Muscovado, average... 30s. 7}¢. own. o—@2 0 West Iadia Molasses .... 15s. ‘od to 18s. Od. Linseed Oil... 6 - @ POTATOES ‘ocoa-nut Oil . o-# 0 Kent and Essex Regents. .ton.120s.tol40s. | Palm Oil. 0oo-—- 00 20 Shaws .......- o-—- 0 Linseed Oil “cake, per ton . “200 o~— 00 York Regents. 40 —160 Coals, Hetton «......++ o-—- 00 veeeel0O —140 ! SOE cccaciascuicns ° o—- 00

Scotch 45 svereeewscene

Page 18

ABE FeO Ear $$ ae Bo. os. Ait seg LY eva: 18 THE SPECTATOR. [January 2, 1858, ER MAJESTY’S THEATRE— PICCOLOMINI, SPEZIA, LUCHESI, BELLETTI, ALDIGHIERI, VIALETTI, and GIUGLINI. IL TROVATORE, LA TRAVIATA, LUCIA, LA FIGLIA DEL REGGIMENTO, and LA FAVORITA. EXTRA NIGHTS. The order of performance will be as follows. Tuesday, Jan. 5—IL TROVATORE. Wednesday, Jan. 6—LA PIGLIA DEL REGGIMENTO and last act of LA we Thursday, Jan. 7—LA TRAVIATA Saturday, Jan. 9—LUCIA Dr LAMMERMOOR. Prices.—Pit Stalls, 12s. 6d. Boxes (to hold four persons —Pit and One Pair, 2/. 2s.; Grand Tier, 3/. 3s.; Two Pair, 1/. 5s.; Three Pair, 15s.; Gallery Boxes, 1@s. Gallery Stalls, 8s. 6d. Galle ry, 28. Pit, 3s. 6d. Applications to be made at the Box-office at the UCKNOW AND DELHI. — GREAT GLOBE, Leicester Square.—DIORAMA of LUCKNOW and the SIEGE and the CITY of DELHI, its Streets, Pa laces, and Fortifications, at One, Three, and Seven p.m. INDIA, a Diorama of the Cities of, with Views of Calcutt Benares, Agra, and the Scenes of the Revolt, at Twel Noon, and Six p.m. The RUSSIAN DIORAMA, at Three and Eight o’clock. the whole building, 1». UEEN’S COLLEGE, LONDON, Theatre. 67 and 68, Harley Street, W. Incorporated by Royal | Charter, 1853, for the GENERAL EDUCATION DIES and for granting Certificates of Knowledge. Visitor —The Right Hon. and Right Rey. the Lord Bishop of Lonpon. Principal—The Very Rey. the Dean of Wrsruinstrr. of LA- The CLASSES of this College will REOPEN forthe Lent ! term on Janvary I8th, 1858. The PREPARATORY CLASS for CHILDREN above eight years of age will REOPEN on the same day. Pupils are received as Boarders within the College, by Mrs. Wit L1aM8, With the sanction of the Council. Prospectuses and further particulars may be obtained at the office, or by written application to the Secretary or Lady President. E. H, PLUMPTRE, M.A. Sec. and Dean. (\UEEN’S COLLEGE, LONDON, 67 and 68, Harley Street, W. Tusorperate d by Roy a Charter 1853, for the GENERAL EDUCATION of LADIES, and for granting Certificates of Knowledge. The Rev. F. D. Mavrice proposes (if as many as sixty names are entered) to deliver a Course of LECTURES next | Term, ON SOME OF THE LEADING MORAL AND SOCIAL QUESTIONS WHICH OCCUPIED CHRISTEN- DOM DURING THE FOURTEENTH, FIFTEENTH, AND SIXTEENTH CENTURIES. The proceeds of the Lecture will be applied to the Endow- ment Fund of the College. Fee for the Course, One Guinea and a Half. Ladies wish- ing to attend are requested to send their names to the As- | sistant-Secretary, Mrs. Wittiams, on or before the 15th of Janvary. The Lectures will be delivered on Fridays, at 3 p.m. beginning on Janvany 29th. A Prospectus of the Course may be had on application. bE. H. PLUMPTRE, M.A. Sec. and Dean. lr ONDON AND WESTMINSTER BANK.—Notice is hereby given, that the RATE of INTEREST to Depositors in this Bank for amounts of 500/. and — is from this day —S ED to 5 per cent, until further notice. . W. GILBART, _ December Sist, 1857. PERFECT SECURITY ital, FIVE MIL “POR Sterling. ‘ LLIANCE BRITISH AND LIFE AND FIRE ASSURANCE COMPANY, Bar- tholomew Lane, London, E. ESTABLISHED 1824. Branch Offices : Edinburgh, Ipswich, and Bury St. Edmund junds. The Receipts for the Renewal Premiums due at CHRIST- MAS are ready for delivery at the Office in Town and at the several Agenci ies throughout the Country. F. A. ENGELBACH, Actuary and Secretary. MUTUAL LIFE ASSURANCE. THE WHOLE ae oan — AMONGST THE COTTISH EQUITABLE LIFE ASSURANCE SOCIETY.—Instituted 1831. Incorporated by Special Act of Parliament. The Fund accumulated from the Contributions of Members exceeds ONE MILLION STE RLING. e Annual Revenue exceeds ONE HUNDRED and SEVENTY-SIX THOUSAND POUNDS. The amount of Existing Assurances exceeds FOUR MIL- LIONS AND THREE-QUARTERS The amount paid to the Representatives of Deceased Mem- bers is upwards of Nine Hundred Thousand Pounds, of which | One Hundred and Twenty Thousand Pounds consisted of Bonus Additions. A Division of Profits is made every Three Years, the next Division being at lst March 1859. HEAD OFFICE—26, St. Andrew Square, Edinburgh. —_— RT CHRISTIE, Manager. WILLIAM sage Secretary. LONDON OFFIC E—26, Poultry, E. ARCHD. T. RITC HIE, Agen WESTERN Lannea OFFICE—6a, James's “street, West- bourne Terrace, CH ARLES B. LEVER, Solicitor, Agent. DE JONGI IGHT- BROWN C OD- “LIVER OIL, tirely free from nauseous flavour and after taste, is prescribed with the greatest success by the Faculty, as the safest, speediest, and most effectual remedy for consumption, bronchitis, asthma, gout, rheumatism, sciatica, diseases of the skin, neuralgia, rickets, infantile wasting, general de- bility, and all scrofulous affections. Numerous spontaneous testimonials from Physicians of European reputation attest that, in innumerable cases where other kinds of Cod-Liver Oil had been long and copiously administered, with little or no benefit, Dr. de Jongh’s Oil has produced immediate relief, arrested disease, and restored health, Sold only in Imperial Half-Pints, 2s. 6d.; Pints, 4s. 9d.; Quarts, 9». , capsuled and labelled with Dr. De Jongh's stamp and signature, without which none can possibly be genuine, by most cae Chemists throughout the provinces. WHOLESALE AND RETAIL DEPOT, ANSAR, HARFORD, & CO. 77, STRAND, LONDON, w.c DR. DPF JONGM'S SOLE BRITISH CONSIGNEES. OLLOWAY’S PILLS positively the best remedy for the cure of every internal complaint incidental tothe human frame.—The virtues of this wonder- ful medicine have rendered them invaluable to persons of debilitated constitutions ; while to those suffering from de- rangement of the stomach and bowels, liver, or kidneys, they are equally serviceable, and from their gentle yet posi- tive effect, they can be used with the utmost safety. Thousands of persons have testified that by their use alone they have been restored to health, after other remedies had proved unsuccessful.—Sold by all Medicine Vendors through- out the world; at Professur Hozttowayr's Establishments, 244, Strand, London, and 80, Maiden Lane, New York; by A oe Constantinople ; A. Guidicy, Smyrna ; and EF. Muir, : Tilustrative Lectures.—Admittance to | | ciently advanced to provide ye Manager. } FOREIGN | DUCATION IN PARIS.—Madlle. DE CORNET (who resided six years with the late Mrs. Bray) and her Sisters, 11, Rue de Chaillot, Champs Elysées, RECEIVE a limited number of SELECT PUPILS and PARLOUR BOARDERS. Madlle. pe Corner will be in London from Janvary 2d to the 15th, and may be seen be- tween the hours of One and Four, at 21, Somerset Street, Portman Square, every day during that time. Reference permitted to the Rev. Dr. Emerton, Principal of Hanwell College, who will forward a Prospectus of this long-esta- blished institution when required. 2x a 7 r ARENTS AND GUARDIANS ARE invited to inspect Messrs. NICOLL’S New Establish ment, WARWICK HOUSE, Mii, REGENT STREET, LON- DON, devoted expressly for the manufacture of Young Gen- tlemen’s Clothing of the best qualities, and at the most moderate prices. I ARVEY’S| SAUCE —The admirers of this celebrated Fish Sauce are particularly requested | to observe, that none is genuine but that which bears the name of Witiiam Lazeney on the back of each bottle, in ad- dition to the front label used so many years, and signed Evizasetnu Lazenny.—6, Edwards Street, Portman Square. LN 7 TWAT TSSENCE of MITCHAM LAVENDER, —This is the finest description of pure Lavender dis- | tilled in a manner known only to H. Brizpensacn. It is strongly recommended for use in warm climates, on account of its refreshing qualities. Price, 2s. 6d. } pint, ds. 6d. 4 &s. pint. Briedenbach’s Royal Distille ry of Flowers, 1572 New Lond Street, facing Redmayne’ 8. ro wp EW YEAR’S GIFTS.—The new style = of French Toilet Bottles, Fancy Boxes, and Baskets of Perfumery, &c., from 6d. to 5l. 5s. Birds’ Nests, Scent Flowers, and other Novel Ornaments, containing Perfumes for Christma as Trees, from 3d. to 10s. 6d. Perfumed Alma- nack, 6d. ; by post, for seven Stamps. Wholesale and Ke- tail, at RIMMEL *S, 96, Strand ; and Crystal Palace. > - SLER’S CRYSTAL GLASS CHAN- | DELIERS, for GAS and CANDLES.—A great variety | of the newest designs always on view at 44, Oxford Street. | Also, a large assortment of Glass Lustres, Decanters, Wine glasses, Dessert Services, and every desc ription of Table Glass, | at very moderate prices. A large and choice collection of | Ornamental Glass of the newest description. Export and furnishing orders executed with despatch.—44, Oxford Street. Manufactory, Broad Street, Birmingham. Established 1807. DINBURGH REVIEW, No. CCXVIL, Janvakry 1858.—ADV ERTISE M ENTS intended for insertion are requested to be forwarded to the Publishers immediately. ADVERTISEMENTS and BILLS — be received later than SaruRDAY NEXT London: Loneman and Co, 39, Paternoster Row, * WESTMINSTER REVIEW. NEW SERIES, No. = . Janvary 1858. Price 6s, ONTENTS : . African Life. . Spirits and Spirit-Rapping. Morayshire. Shelley. The Religious Weakness of Protestantism, The Crisis and its Causes. . The English in India, . State-Tamperings with Money and Banks, Contemporary LitEratcrE—? 1. Theology and Philo- sophy.—} 2. Politics and Education. —} 3. Science. —} 4. History, Biography, Voyages and Travels,— t5. Belles Lettres and Art. DIDO me co London : Joun Cuarman, 8, King William Street, Strand. On January Ist, price 5s. The No. XI, CoNTENTS : . Principles of Indian Government, George Sand. . Colonel Mure and the Attic Historians. Hashish. . Ben Jonson. The Czar Nicholas. The World of Mind by Isaae Taylor. Mr. Coventry Patmore’s Poems, Civilization and Faith. The Monetary Crisis. ll. Books of the Quarter Suitable for Reading So- cieties, CuApMAN and H. ALL, 193, Piccadilly. AGRICULTURAL 8 STATISTICS. OURNAL of AGRICULTURE, and e) the TRANSACTIONS of the HIGHLAND and AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY of SCOTLAND, No. N ATIONAL REVIEW. 4 ow PREPPY LIX. January 1858. Containing the Agricultural Statistics of Scotland for 1857. Price 3s.; free by post, 3s. 4d.; Annual Subscription, 12s, Published Quarterly. r > > y r /\PEDIE’S SELECT LIBRARY.— 4 NOTICE.—C. E. Mvupie has the pleasure to announce that the alterations in progress at his Library are now suffi- increased accommodation for | the Subscribers and greater facilities for the rapid exchange of books. The supplies of the higher class of works, for the | circulation of which the Library was originally established, | are also largely increased, and will be further augmented by the addition of nearly One Hundred Thousand Volumes in {| the course of the present and ensuing season.—509, New Ox- | ford Street, January 1858. | > > . HE BEST SHOW OF IRON BED- | STEADS in the KINGDOM is WILLIAM 8. BUR- TON’S.—He has FOUR LARGE ROOMS devoted to the exclusive show of Iron and Brass Bedsteads and Children’s Cots, with appropriate Bedding and Bed-hangings. Port able Folding Bedsteads, from 12s. 6d.; Patent Iron Bed- steads, fitted with dovetail joints and patent sacking, from lds. ; and Cots, from 20s. each ; handsome Ornamental! Iron and Brass Bedsteads, in great variety, from 2/. 13s. 6d. to 20/7. Illustrated Catalogues sent (per post) free. 39, OXFORD STREET, W.; 1,14, 2, and 3, NEWMAN | STREET; and 4,5, and 6, PERRY'S PLACE, London.— Established 1820. = MES SSRS. NICOLL’! ESTABL ISH- a MENTS are thus divided —NUMBER 114 REG STREET, is their Dépot for Paletots, Uniforms, G ste | men's Evening and Morning Dress; NUMBER 116, for the manufacture of the Guinea Trousers; NUMBER 113, for Half-Guinea Waistcoats; NUMBER 120, for Waterproofed Guinea Capes, Servants’ Liveries; NUMBER 142 is their | new Establishment fer i 's Riding Habits and Mantles in Fur and Cloth ; and NUMBER l44 contains their other new Department for C thine one Gentlemen with the taste, excellence, and economy whereby MESSRS. NICOLL have secured widespread confide . The Wholesale Ware rooms are at the rear of the Regent Street Premises, viz. 29, 30, 31,and 41, WARW Te x STREET. The City Dépot is at 21 and 22, CORNHILL; and the addresses of the various Agents are duly advertised in the journals of the United Kingdom and the Colonies. NEW DISCOVERY IN TEETH.— Mr. HOWARD, SURGEON-DENTIST, 52, Fleet Street, has introduced an ENTIRELY NEW DESCRIP- TION of ARTIFICIAL TEETH, fixed without springs, wires, orligatures. They so perfectly resemble the natural teeth as not to be distinguished from the originals by the closest observer; they will never change colour or decay, and will be found superior to any teeth before used. This method does not require the extraction of roots, or any painful operation, and will support and preserve teeth that are loose, and is guaranteed to restore articulation and mas tication. Decayed teeth rendered sound and useful in mas tication. 52, Fleet Street.—At home from 10 till 5. + y INE HEAD OF HAIR, the BEARD, WHISKERS, and MUSTACHIOS. — ROWLAND'S MACASSAR OIL is highly and universally appreciated for | its unprecedented success during the last half century in the growth, restoration, and improvement of the human hair. It prevents it from falling off or turning grey, | strengthens weak hair, cleanses it from scurf and dandriff, and makes it beautifully soft, curly, and glossy. For chil- dren it is especially recommended as forming the basis of a | beautiful head ofhair. Price 3s. 6d. and 7s.; family bottles, (equal to four small,) 10s. 6d.; and double that size, 21s.— Cavtron: A new label from stecl, by Messrs. Perkins, Bs and Co. is now used, which cannot be forged ; “— be white letters the words “ Rowland’s Macassar oil, their signature in red ink, “A. Rowland and ky at 20, Hatton Garden, London, and by Chemists ont Per- fumers. e = 7 PTURES.—BY ROYAL LETTERS PATENT | \ THITE’S MOC-MAIN LEVER TRUSS is allowed by upwards of 200 Medical Gentlemen to be the most effective invention in the curative treatment of HERNIA. The use of a stecl spring, so often hurtful in its effects, is here avoided; a soft bandage being wornroundthe | body, while the requisite resisting power is supplied by the | MOC-MAIN PAD and PATENT LEVER fitting with so | much ease and closeness that it cannot be detected, and may | be worn during sleep. A descriptive circular may be had, and the Truss (which cannot fail to fit) forwarded by post, on the circumference of the body, two inches below the hips, be- ing sent to the Manufacturer, Mr. WHITE, 228, Piccadilly. LASTIC STOCKINGS, KNEE-CAPS, | &c. for VARICOSE VEINS, and all cases of WEAK- 3 NESS and SWELLING of the LEGS, SPRAINS, &c. Taney are porous, light in texture, and inexpensive, and are drawn on like an ordinary stocking. Price, from 7s. 6d. to Ifs. each ; Postage 6d. Joun Wuite, Manufacturer, 228, Piccadilly. | of the Fourteenth , FOR MANUFACTURE RS, Wituu™ Briackwoop and Soxs, Edinburgh and London, HE GENTLEMAN’S MAGAZINE, for Janvanry. (Price 2s. 6d.) Contam Minor Cor- respondence—T he Arms, Armour, and Military Usages Cc entury—Gothie Houses and Mo- dern Requirements—Croker’s Essays—Raine’s Memoir of John Hodgson—Wright’s Volume of Vocabularies— Antiquities of the Bench and the Bar—Antiquarian Researches—Correspondence of Sylvanus Urban—His- torical and Miscellaneous Reviews—The Monthly In- telligencer—Promotions and Preferments—Births, Marriages, Obituary, &e, Ke ___London, nha 7,8 Strand : id. “i. and J. PARKER. for Jaxnvany 1858. No. DVII. Price 2s, 6a. CONTENTS = Hunger and Thirst. What will he do with it? Part VIII. The Bells of Botreaux : Debit and Credit. The Scottish Universities. The Poorbeah Mutiny—The Punjaub. Béranger. The First Bengal European Fusiliers in the Delhi Campaign. Note to Article ber No. WruuM Biackwoor & Soxs, Edinburgh and London. IX. New serie rice 38. 64. OF PSYCHOLOGICAL Edited by Foxsrs WrInsLow, By Pisistratus Caxton, a Legend, ** The Company’s Raj” in Novem- ~On Ist st January, No. 1 OURNAL e MEDICINE, M.D. D.C.L, Oxon. ConrTeENTS = 1. Body v. Mind. 2. The Indian Rebellion in its Moral and Psycho- logical Aspects. The Asylums of Italy, Germany, and France, . The Condition of the Insane. . Pathology of Insanity. . Intemperance considered as a form of Mental "Disorder. . On the Treatment of Insanity in Julius Hospi- tal, Wurzburg. 8. Phantasmata. 9. Homicide in Insanity. 10. The Juridical Society, and the Criminal Re- sponsibility of the Insane. 1). The late Samuel Tuke, Esq. of York. London: Joun Cuvrcnint, New Burlington Street. PICTURES IN HER MAJESTY’S PRIVATE COLLECTION. RT-JOURNAL-: a Monthly Record of the Fine Arts, the Arts Industrial, and the Arts of Design and Manufacture. (Price 2s, 6d.) The Volume for 1858 will contain various novelties— all, it is hoped and believed, useful as well as interest- ing; and Subscribers may rest assured that every pos- sible effort will be exerted to retain for it the favour it has so long and so largely enjoyed. The ILL USTRATIONS ON STEEL are highest order, comprising engravings of the Ancient and Modern Pictures from the Royal Galleries; and a series of Portrait-Statues, engraved from the works of modern seulptors. The WOOD-CUTS which illustrate the Memoirs of British Artists, and those which supply examples of the progress of Art-manufactures, or are suggestions for their benefit, are resumed. There is an especial series of ORIGINAL DESIGNS gathered from the best Som oe ~ of the sources. The ILLUSTRATED TOUR OF THE THAMES, by Mr. and Mrs. 8. C. Hat, appears monthly. vings on Steel from the WORKS OF J, M. W. TURNER will form part of this year’s issue. London : James 8. Vintur; and sold by Arravur Haut, Virtur, and Co, 25, Pate rnoster Row. *.* Now ready, wn I. to III. New Series, 2, lls. 6@. each, , price

Page 19

Viimw January 2, 1858.] THE SPECTATOR. 19

IVING CELEBRITIES. A Series of Photographic Portraits, by Mavi1 and Pory- BLANK. The Number for Janvary contains CHARLES KEAN, Esq. F.S.A. with Memoir. Mavtt and Potyntank, 55, Gracechurch Street, and 170a, Piccadilly ; and W. Kent and Co. Fleet Street. HE FIELD, THE COUNTRY GEN- TLEMAN’S NEWSPAPER, commences a NEW VOLUME on January 2d, with numerous additions and improvements. Edited by Practical Sportsmen. Price 5d.; or 6d. stamped. Subscription 6s. 6d. per quarter. Office, 2 to 5, Essex Street, Strand, London,

ADKIEL’S ALMANACK for 1858.— Fortieth Thousand. Price 6d. Converts : In- dia, China, the Reform Bill, &e«. The Great Indian Rebellion was fully portrayed in the Almanack for 1857. Hieroglyphic ; the Ram and the Goat, &c. London : Pirer, Srernenson, and Srence; and all Booksellers.

Now ready, price 5s. LIVER and BOYD’S NEW EDIN- BURGH ALMANACK and NATIONAL RE- POSITORY for 1858. The volume is larger than even that of last year, and comprises an unusual amount of valuable information, embracing almost every condition of our Industrial, So- cial, and Political State. _ London: SIMPEIN, MARSHALL, and Co. Just published, price peirisii ALMANACK COMPANION for 1858. Contents OF COMPANION ¢ Education and Social Science. The Great Eastern, or Leviathan. The Manchester Exhibition, The Atlantic Telegraph. Purchase of Commissions in the England and India. Architecture and Public Wood-cuts. Besides numerous Army, Improvements: with other Articles of universal in- | A New Edition of the firs AND) terest, including the Legislation, Statistics, and Chro- | nicle of 1857. London : Kyienrand Co. 90, Fleet Street; and all Booksellers in Town and Country. 3 ds ay is published, price 2s. OURNAL OF THE INSTITUTE OF ACTUARIES and ASSURANCE MAGAZINE, No, XXX. for Decemper. CONTENTS = 1, Ona Formula for the Expectation of Life. Mr. WILLick. 2. On a Method of Testing the Solvency of an As- surance Company, w.th some Considerations re- specting the Terms upon which a Society's Busi- ness may be purchased. Mr. Younerr. 3. On Proportion of Marriages at Different Ages of * Sexes. Mr. Samver. Brown. 4, On the Mortality arising from Military Opera- tions. Mr. Honor. Foreign Intelligence, Correspondence, &e. London : Cuar.tes and Epwin Layton, 150, Fleet Street, HE FLORAL WORLD and GARDEN GUIDE, NUMBER ONE, published this day, price 4d. contains the most valuable information, by the best Writers on Horticultural Subjects. A Co- loured Plate, and other Engravings of a practical na- ture, illustrate the various Articles, which are most interesting to every lover of the Garden. Annual Sub- scription, Four Shillings, post free, which may be re- mitted to the Publishers. GroomsBuiper and Sons, 5, Paternoster Row, NDIAN FINANCES, the Bank Charter, &c.—A complete and full Account of the Revenues of British India, a History of the Bank of England, and a Copy of Original C harter, with the Charter Act of 1844, as well as the Financi: al Condition of F rance, of the United States, and of all the Principal States of Europe, are given in AYRES’S FINANCIAL RE- GISTER. Price 10s. cloth, RicHarpson, BRotners, 23, Cornhill, E.C.

London.

FOR CHRISTM. AS Pr ARTIES. Edition, fe a. hae Y 3s. 6d. cloth ; NC ISTORICAL, ‘AC "TIN G CHARADES ; Amusements for Winter Evenings. By the Al - +f **Cat and Dog,” &c. “It is the very book we have felt the Tlustrated Times. ‘It teaches children all the details.”"— The Press. Grirrrrn and Farran, Corner of St. Paul's Chure rchys ard. New need of,"— Q a SvO. pri ice 2s HREE. TNTR ODU CTOR Y LE <CTUR ES ON ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY. By Wit- Liam Ler, D.D. Fellow and Tutor of Trinity College, and Professor of Ecclesiastical History in the Univer- sity of Dublin. Rrvixcrons, Waterloo Place; and Hopcrs, Surrm, and Co. Dublin. Of whom may be had, by the same Author, EIGHT DISCOURSES on the INSPIRATION OF HOL Y¥ ! SCRIPT U RE. Sec ond d Edition. l4s. NEW. WORK ON SOUTH “AFRIC AN FIEL a SPORTS. In 1 vol. price 10s, 6d. 8vo. cloth gil ‘PORTING SCENES AMONG THE h KAFFIRS OF SOUTH AFRICA. By Captain Drayson, R.A. With Eight large Illustrations, i rinted in colours, from Sketches by the Author. * Captain Drayson details his adventures ina lively style, and the final results of his e xperience of sport= ing in South Africa are comprised in much excellent practical advice to brother sportsmen. The volume is handsomely illustrated with several characteristic sketches taken from life, and is altogether one of the most entertaining and presentable books of the season.” —Press. London :

Gerorce Rovrience and Co, Farringdon Street. | | Just published, in feap. Svo. price 5s. cloth, HE LETTERS OF A 'BETROTHED, Lone MAN, , Brow N, and | Ce 0. London :

wablished, in 2 vole. crown 8vo. price 21s. cloth HE BEAUTIFUI L in NATURE, ART, and LIFE. By Axprew James Sy MINGTON, London : ye MAN, Brown and Co, NEW EDITION, REVISED AND CORRE CTED. Just published, in post Svo price 6s. cloth, vol. II, of ORD MACAULAY’S HISTORY OF 4 ENGLAND, from the Accession of James I. t four volumes of the octavo revised and corrected. To be continued and to be comprised in 7 vols. post 8vo, pric« ies

edition, monthly, 6s. each. London : NEW WORK M ATTHEW ARNOLD. Just published, in feap. 8vo. price 5s, clot \ EROPE; a Tre sgely. By Marr Wm Ww 4 Aryotp, With a Preface and an Historical In- troduction. By the same Author, uniform with the above POEMS, First Series, Third Edition, price 5s, ¢ POEMS, Second Series, price 5s. cloth. London : Lk »womaN, Brown, and Co. LoxeMaAn, Brown, and Co, NEW AND CHE APER EDITION OF COL, MOUNTAIN’S MEMOIRs, Just published, in feap. Syo. with Portrait, cloth, yew and LETTERS of the late i Col. A. S 3. H. MOUNTAIN, C.B. Aide-de-camp price 6s, to the Queen, and Adjutant-General of her Majesty's Forces in India. Edited by Mrs. Mounrary. S« Edition, revised and corrected, with Additions. London: Loxoman, Brown, and Co, NEW AND CHEAPER COLLECTED EDITION OF THE STORIES BY THE AUTHOR O! “AMY HERBERT.” On Friday, —, m anuary, will be published, in crown ae . price 2s, 6d. cloth, MY HER BE RT. Complete in One f Volume. Being the first of a New and Cheaper Uniform Edition of the Tales of the Author of “ J Herbert,” to be published monthly, and to comprise the following works : GERTRUDE. (On March 1 MA

RGARET PERCIVAI The EARL’S DAUGHTER. | KATHARINE ASHTON LANETON PARSONAGE CLEVE HAL! The EXPERIENCE of LIFE. | 1VORS London: MISS STRICKLAND’S LIVES OF THI ENGLISH QUEENS. Complete in 8 vols. post 8vo, (each containing betwee 600 and 700 pages,) with many Portraits, _Price cloth le anes t or any vol, separately, pri complete set IVES of ‘the QUEENS of ENGLAND, from the Norman Conquest. By Acnes Srrick- LonoMAN, Brown, and Co.

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20 THE SPECTATOR. [January 2, 1858. ALBEMARLE Srrext, January 1858. MR. MURRAY'S LIST. Now Ready. MISSIONARY TRAVELS AND RE- SEARCHES IN SOUTH AFRICA. By Davin Livinasronr, LL.D. 25th Thousand, Portrait and Il- lustrations, 8vo. 21s. THE EARLY PERIOD By the late ESSAYS ON OF THE FRENCH REVOLUTION. Mr. Croker. 8vo. 15s. Ay a 3. LETTERS FROM HIGH LATITUDES. By Lord Dvurrertx. 4th Thousand. Wood-cuts. Crown 8yvo, 21s. 4, LECTURES ON THE FATHERS; Delivered at Cambridge, Rev. J. J. Brunt, B.D. 8vo. 15s. JARLY By the late 5. GALLERIES AND CABINETS OF ART IN ENGLAND, visited in 1854-’56, and not a pe By Dr. Waacrey. With Index, vo. 18s, 6. LIFE OF GEORGE STEPHENSON, oo Suites. 6th Thousand. Portrait. 8vo. 7. CHANTREY’S WOODCOCKS; (Wixcrep Worps on.) Edited by Jas. P. Murrueap, M.A. Etchings. Square 8vo. 10s. 6d. 8. ST. PAUL’S EPISTLES TO THE CORINTHIANS. With Critical Notes, &c. By Rev. A. P. Siaxtey. 2d Edition, 8vo. 18s. 9. 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The geographer finds in it notice of ground heretofore left undescribed, the eth- nologist, geologist, and botanist find notes and pic- tures, too, of which they know the value, the sports- man’s taste is gratitied by chronicles of sport, the lover of adventure will find a number of perils and escapes to hang over, and the lover of afrank good-humoured way of speech will find the book a pleasant one in every page.” — Examiner. LODGE’S PEERAGE and BARON- ETAGE, for 1858, under the especial Patronage of her Majesty and H.R.H. the Prince Consort, and corrected throughout by the Nobility. In 1 vol. royal 8vo. with the Arms beautifully engraved, handsomely bound, with gilt edges. ** *Lodge’s Peerage’ is acknowledged to be the most complete, as well as the most elegant work of the kind. 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pectator Supplement. 2, 1858. JANUARY BOOKS. BAYLE ST. JOHN’S MONTAIGNE THE ESSAYIST.* As it is not always the most meritorious men, morally and intel- lectually speaking, who are most successful in life, so it is not always the best authors, critically speaking, who achieve the atest fame. Other things than goodness or even merit contri- ute to worldly success. Industry, energy, dexterity, bonhomie, impudence, with feelings not too sensitive and may be a conscience not over nice, all aid the worldly aspirant, in addition to a turn for practical affairs. In like manner, mere genius—even tical genius in poetry—will not alone suffice to make a house- old book, or its author’s name a household word. Originality of subject or a class of literature has a good deal to do with popular fame : and rightly—‘“‘ the first hound catches the hare.” Human interests, another term for worldly knowledge, is a feature of greater importance than originality itself; because there is not only substantial reality but solid advantage to be gained from the An author who so penetrates or partakes of the worldly spirit about him as to Sood, palliane unconsciously to himself, a coming movement invisible to others, also stands a good chance of | maintaining the popularity of his name, though the readers of his work may drop away with time. Montaigne probably illustrates these positions better than any other man. In a mere literary point of view, neither his ac- quirements nor his skill were so great as to preserve his celebrity ; for although he learned Latin as his mother tongue, and had a collegiate education, he can by no means be considered a man of learning or of reading ; and although a species of charm belongs to his style, the charm, depending upon a half-obsolete quaint- ness, is only appreciable by some previous study. The Essays, with nothing save their literary merit to depend upon, had long since been forgotten. They have preserved themselves and their author by a variety of extraneous characteristics. Montaigne was himself a character, and of a nature which attracts mankind. There was no impracticable virtue about him, nothing of the saint or the stoic. He may rather be considered a type of the good- natured, tolerant, pleasant old gentleman, who had seen a great deal of life, who knew that the practice of men could not be brought to square with doctrinal theories, and had formed a some- what low opinion of women. The difference between Montaigne and his class in general is, that the old Frenchman wrote down what he thought, while the mass confine themselves to conver- sation. In this frankness a great charm of his writings consists— **T love to pour out all myself as plain As downright Shippen, or as old Montaigne ”’: and the frankness, properly considered, tells in favour of the man. When we consider the atrocious cruelty under form of law that was practised in France and especially in his own province, and the state of morals under the house of Valois, his tolerance argues kindness if it be indifference, and his laxities might have been much greater. Character and style alone will not permanently preserve works ; reservation must rest in a great degree upon matter and spirit. Tn Montaigne’s case, both of these existed, and were of the world, worldly. Of his life not much is known in particulars; but we know that he was bred to the law, and acted as a provincial ma- istrate. He was a courtier from his youth; and if not a pro- essional soldier, he had lived in camps and seen war; he had the management of a large household and an extensive property, when the seigneur had a good deal more to do than the country gentle- man of the nineteenth century ; he was a great traveller, not only in his own country but in Switzerland and Italy, at an advanced time of life,—and we need not say that travel in the latter half of the fifteenth century was a very different thing from what it was even in the days of slow coaches, The pedantic fashion of his age, which dealt so much in classical quotation, may seem to diminish Montaigne’s originality ; but in reality he tested what he took and stamped it with his own impress. Montaigne’s celebrity, however, rests upon something larger than the merit of his works even if m by other than a literary standard. He cannot be called the first popular prose writer, for Boccaccio had forestalled him, even had there been no such thing as popular tales; but he was the first who introduced that easy kind of writing both in form and spirit which enables a person to throw off what he knows, be it much or little, with the very least of trouble or effort, and which bids fair to swal- low up almost every other class of composition. As Mr. Buckle observes in his History of Civilization, Montaigne followed Rabelais as a shaker of authority, if in one sense he was not really the first who would substitute freedom of inquiry for blind submission to spiritual and temporal power. Perhaps, * Montaigne the Essayist: a Biography. By Bayle St.John. With Illustra- tions. Intwovolumes. Published by Chapman and Hall, [MonTuLy SuPPLEMENT. } in conjunction with his father, he represented the modern world in another and less creditable trait, its love of laziness—its un- willingness to labour unless it is paid. In any pursuit by which money can be made, men will work as hard as ever, perha harder; but they will not labour for love. We exercise the “most exalted virtue,” charity, by means of a guinea-subscrip- tion; a man who risks his life in the discharge of what he thinks a duty is sneered at as a fool if neither money nor money’s worth is to t by the risk; an individual who spends his time and perhaps his means on some special object of study is deemed not even worth the notice of a sneer; many would discourage the highest investigations of science as “ abstract,” and the more knowing only tolerate them because what seems at first a barren truth often admits of some useful application. Our very study of accomplishments is less perhaps for the pleasure they furnish than as a means of display. ‘And when Pierre Eyquem (the family name—Montaigne was de terre) hired a German tutor to teac his infant son Latin by conversation, he struck the key-note of the modern world. At all events, since his son’s celebrated ac- count of the easy way in which he learned the language of old Rome, without trouble or flagellation, without “ infant’s blood or mother’s tears,” almost every age has had its projects for Greek and Latin made easy to the meanest capacity. The quackery of the “Hamiltonian system” actually imposed upon the shrewd and practical sagacity of Sydney Smith; yet the scheme had come to nothing in the case of the original. “* We may easily believe, that by the means I have described the little Michel soon obtained a remarkable proficiency in the Latin language: nor need we be surprised that a modern pedant, the Abbé Mangin, forgetting all disadvantages in the consideration of one advantage, should have written a book called *The Education of Montaigne, or Art of Teaching Latin ac- cording to the Method of Roman Mothers,’ in which he recommends the establishment of schools, whither infants, as soon as weaned, should be taken to learn the spirit of the as in presenti. Previously some solemn pro- fessor had recommended to a mighty monarch—also, perhaps, on the hint of Montaigne—the founding of a city, isolated from the world, in which no- thing but Latin should be spoken. The learned Buchanan was more in ac- cordance with the spirit of his age, however, when he promised Montaigne to recommend his father’s system in a forthcoming Essay on Education. “« It was not the fault of the system, but of its discontinuance, that Mon- taigne so easily forgot a language in which he became early so proficient. When he wrote his Essays he could still speak Latin, as could all men of letters in those days, but with difficulty ; and had lost even the habit of writing it, in which he once was a complete master. Like his father, he used, when young, to compose Latin verses, but noticed that he always imi- tated the last poet he had read, and so abandoned that exercise. By degrees he seems to have had no more ordinary command over Latin than if he had been merely grounded in it at school : and this, no doubt, would always be the result of any such experiment, unless sufficiently well carried out to leave a boy ignorant of his own language.” It may be suspected that the proficiency which Montaigne allots to himself was somewhat exaggerated, and that the system is more to blame than Mr. Bayle St. John supposes, A deeply- inflected language can only be thoroughly mastered by the mas- tery of grammar. A dead language cannot be acquired by con- versation, because there is nothing to talk about. The common things, the common thoughts, and almost the common feelings of daily life, are so different in modern and Christian Europe from what they were in ancient and Pagan Rome, that the Latin words used to represent a French or English thing or custom will gene- rally convey a false idea, The pupil taught in this way may acquire doctor’s Latin, or law Latin, or low Latin, or modernized Latin, but most assuredly not classical Latin. Such a plan, un- less combined with the study of grammar, would fail in teaching the niceties of the inflections. In the easier authors, it may be doubted whether 1 is the real obstacle to classical nal —whether the matter, the thoughts and images, are not eq stumblingblocks. We suspect it is often as difficult to get at the meaning of the ideas as at the mere sense of the words, Many English works of great and even original genius are neglected— as Hudibras, not that there is any difficulty in the language, but the subject and matter cannot be understood without acquired kesvtsiea. Such works can be read easily enough, but they cannot be relished. Montaigne afterwards went to col- lege, he was not in any strict sense a scholar; nor could he have become one by the method of teaching which he promulgated, and which has perhaps had more disciples than any other system whatever, though, to say the truth, it has been reduced to prac- tice as little as any. Mr. Bayle St. John calls this book on Montaigne “a biogra- phy” ; though it has no resemblance to the continuous narrative of a life, even upon the imaginative system of Charles Knight's Shakspere. The leading incidents of Montaigne’s career are pretty well ascertained, and his own pen has intimated an ac- count of his traits and habits; yet notwithstanding records, his age Sy and the labours of French savants, the out- line is not always complete, and many per remain to be filled up. A great part of Mr. Bayle St. John’s book is disquisi- tional. For instance, the status of the family is not demonstra-

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22 SPECTATOR SUPPLEMENT. [January 2, 1858 tively settled : was the house, like Talleyrand’s, as old as the hills of Perigord? was his grandfather a novus homo? or was his father, as Scaliger asserts, a herring-dealer ?—the foundation for which statement probably is, that the old gentleman was en- gaged in the shipping interest of Bordeaux and in the sea-fish- eries, as it is known he was magisterially connected with the city. And these points are proper topics for discussion, but the bio- rapher pursues them in a wearisome manner, if not at too great ength, and lands at last in nothing conclusive. Montaigne en- tertained a friendship for La Boétie, a celebrated writer of those days, whose work against monarchy or more properly against au- tocratical government still survives in party reading. Mr. St. John therefore gives a life of La Boétie, a notice or abstract of his principal work, and some sketches of his and Montaigne’s learned friends or contemporaries. It is not clear whether Mon- taigne at a certain period of his youth went to Paris; but the bi her oe it, and thereupon gives a description of Paris, with the kind of en it possibly made upon his hero’s mind. The particulars of Montaigne’s position at Court are not clearly ascertained ; but Mr. St. John fancies what is needful, and is also persuaded that his subject was engaged in public affairs more extensively than is supposed. As boy and man, Montaigne was an actor, a spectator, or at least a contemporary, in sundry re- ligious and political outbreaks at Bordeaux and its neighbour- hood ; so there is an historical sketch of sundry public proceedings under the successors of Francis the First, with an occasional no- tice of Court life and morality. Some of these things were good enough topics for separate articles, had they been better done ; one or two are of interest,—as the coup d’eil of La Boétie’s treatise ; but introduced as they are, and treated as a A are, they seem to have less relation to Muntaigne’s biography than to Mr. St. John’s bookmaking. About half of the work has a more direct bearing on the pro- fessed subject, but this half often consists of illustrative articles on Montaigne. In fact, the essays and the travels furnish the topies and the materials for the greater part of the last volume,— as Montaigne’s marriage, his wife, his neighbours, his household, what books were contained in his library, the origin of the Essays, the Essays themselves, and so on. In these things, as indeed throughout, Mr. Bayle St. John is more successful in critical discussion or fancy sketches than where he is coming close to biographical particulars, when precision is required both in facts and their narration. Of brief precision, indeed, there is little. Mr. St. John seems to think that it is incumbent on him to discuss. This peculiarity renders some of the extrinsic — of more interest considered separately than the matter that bears closer upon Montaigne,—as, for example, this powerful picture of Italy about the beginning of the sixteenth century. ** During the reigns of Charles the Eighth, Louis the Twelfth, and Francis the First, the French spirit of adventure set in a strong current towards Italy. Those kings warred for family and personal objects, and were ac- companied and imitated by a vast mass of the ambitious nobility of the country. Every Royal army was swelled by a number of volunteers—young gentlemen of family, who left their homes partly from mere love of fight- ing, partly impelled by that vague desire of experience which France has so seldom yielded to, but which in this case so maryellously influenced its fortunes. **A recent historian picturesquely calls this movement the Discovery of Italy, And it was, morally and intellectually, adiscovery. Without adopt- ing the exaggerated language it is the custom to use with respect to the Renaissance,—which was a stride in civilization following on many good steps, but falling far short of its aim,—we must admit the peculiar import- ance of that period in the history of France. The French adventurers in Italy were more simple-minded and susceptible of impression than their heirs ; quite as corrupt in manners, but less egotistical ; astute and able, but not so aware of their defects and their virtues; more disposed to fraternal intercourse even with enemies. Europe at that time was laying open new empires East and West. The world was growing under men’s feet as the heavens were deepening to their gaze. France shared little in this grand labour. It had remained shut up in its almost provincial indifference—de- veloping moderate talents in literature and art, small poets and estimable ornamentists, but no men of science of note ; great only in bigots, wranglers, and formal “geyy Italy was a revelation to the nobility and fighting men, though not quite a revelation to the artisan, not at all to the trader. Even now Italy is a revelation to poets and moralists who come down the Southern slope of the Alps for the first time. We advance under the blue sky dim with light, or beneath an awning of brightly-tinted clouds. White cottages, villas, clustered villages, and steepled cities—though often found silent and weed-grown when we draw nigh—expand, look beautiful, and shine in that brilliant atmosphere, which exaggerates everything. The dusty plain of stubble, with its undergrowth of pale wild flowers, seems like a garden ; the expanse of corn, shot with variegated green as the breeze trembles over it, seems like a water-meadow. All the women are waiting by the wayside to be hallowed into Madonnas by some Raphael. Bring with us what prejudice, we may, we feel wafted into another world—a world of stronger passions, brighter impressions, warmer and more glittering than our imagination has dared to picture. But what is this to the Italy of the sixteenth century ? The severe manners of the Republics—severe compa- ratively—had given place to a portentous luxury, never surpassed in modern times, save in some Eastern despotism. Poison and the dagger were often at work, it is true, in gloomy aleoves or dreary porticoes, at night; but these were episodes recorded by the whisper of fear, or rolled along the lower levels of society by the echoing voice of popular rumour. The outside aspect was marvellously gay, and bright, and fascinating. Palaces of marble were de- corated with all the luxury of the goldsmith’s art—which exhausted its re- sources, and then made way for costlier ornaments dug out of the deepest mines of genius. Swarms of princes, and dignitaries, and chiefs, from the Pape- gaut of the Vatican down to the Gran’ Diavolo, who patronized Aretino and in- troduced him to Francis the First, glittered or rioted amidst brocadedandsilken | courts—where merriment and music, and dance and song, and compassionate beauty, and more refined sources of pleasure, slaked all the senses and stimulated all the faculties of man, There was nothing wanting in that resplendent civili- zation, which put on more gorgeous colours at the approach of death—‘ the last still loveliest’—nothing, save morality. The intellect and the hand alike created miracles ; but no high purpose actuated man or society. Italy was a brilliant and cultivated libertine, too old to begin'a new career, too hardened to repent ; sinking amidst sweet sounds, and perfumes, and down and gold, and caresses, and the last thrills of pleasure, always so fondly sa- voured, to a dishonoured grave.” The book exhibits a good deal of reading connected with Mon- taigne and his age, but we suspect of a hasty and superficial kind. The commentary, of which the volumes mainly consist, has some of that independence which distinguishes men of extreme opinions especially in politics, mixed up with a good deal of the violence, self-sufficiency, and exaggeration, that as often ac- company this independence. The merits of Francis the First have been exaggerated, whether as a monarch, a soldier, a pa- tron, ora man; but the following judgment of him is extreme, whether in conclusion or tone. “Francis came, perfectly uncultivated, in contact with a very brilliant civilization ; and being possessed of unusual love of praise and fondness for display, with sufficient observation to see whence the brilliance of the Italian courts was derived, determined by an exertion of power, and without any ponent sacrifices, to be surrounded, when the society of panders and har- ots palled, by artists and men of letters. How much pleasure he found in their works we cannot determine. Probably his vanity only was appealed to: for we are unable to see what place for the pure delights that are derived from art and poetry could be found in the mind of one who was ever in al- ternate fits of licentiousness and superstition, when he did not combine the two; who has the especial honour of having revived the punishment of heresy by fire; the great proof of whose ingenuity was the invention of the estrapade—a machine for ducking heretics into the flames and lifting them out again, so that the tortures of martyrdom might be prolonged ; whose jaded senses derived but a moderate excitement when he went to a burning, as an English mob goes to a hanging, from the shrieks and struggles of suffering saints. Verily this bosom-friend of Csar Borgia, whose gallantry was that of the mastiff—for instead of courting ladies, he forced his way sword in hand into their chambers, brutally driving the husband away,—this smirking, rawboned, apoplectic hero of a country fair, whose portrait dis- figures the gallery of the Louvre—this blusterer, half whose phrases flattery eflaces to convert him into a hero—‘ all is lost except honour .. . . and life, which is safe,’—this savage persecutor, without the excuse of faith, exactly comes up to the idea of a patron of letters, who forbids the exercise of the art of printing in his dominions,”’ This is all positive enough ; but a person disposed to be hyper- critical might aflirm that Mr. Bayle St. John did not know who Francis the First was; for he actually represents him as the son of Louis the Twelfth: ‘* We may accept his father’s estimate of him; Louis the Twelfth used to say, ‘All my labour will be spoiled by that gros garcon,’—as who should say a booby, a sort of ‘lubberly boy,’ mysteriously destined to oceupy the throne.” (Vol. I. pp. 21, 22.) The relationship between them was no closer than that the grandfather of Louis was the great-grandfather of Francis; and this is not a barren genealogical fact, but a preg- nant circumstance, which had Mr. St. John been so deep in French history as he professes to be, he could not have avoided knowing. For instance, the celebrated mother of Francis the First left her impress upon a considerable portion of his reign. Her slighted passion caused the defection of Bourbon, the defeat of Pavia, and the captivity of Madrid. Yet any common history would tell that Louis the Twelfth must have committed bigamy had he married Mary Tudor with a Queen living. BAYARD TAYLOR’S NORTHERN TRAVEL* Mr. BAyarp Taytor, as a travelling correspondent, bids fair to do the world. Within the limits of the Vanity of Human Wishes —* from China to Peru”—he may be said to have done it al- ready, including Japan, He seems now setting about the job in the direction of latitude, and may write off a description from Pole to Pole. The volume before us embraces a winter’s tour from Stockholm to Kautokeino in Finmark, lying in about 69° North latitude and 23° East longitude ; his route being nearly along the shore of the Gulf of Bothnia, and up the river Tornea, which separates Sweden from Russian Lapland. His summer excursion in Norway was in the main over the common route by earriole from Christiania to Drontheim, and then by steamer to Vadso in the Varanger Fjord, which last divides the Swedish from the Russian dominions, One can well imagine that anybody with means and leisure might take a summer trip along the Norwegian coast, if it were only to see the sun at midnight. So many people have made the excursion, and published their accounts of it, since Mr. Barrow, years ago, undertook his earriole journey, and the Norwegian Go- vernment started the summer line of steamers, that there was scarcely occasion for another book. To look in vain for the sun at midday in Europe, as Mr. Taylor did at Kautokeino, is a fresher exploit; though we must confess the sensation does not seem worth the sensations to be undergone before and after it. A dili- gence runs from Stockholm to Sundsvall on the Gulf of Bothnia: from Sundsvall Mr. Taylor and his friend travelled in an open earriage—in fact, made a sledge journey to within the Frozen zone—observing nothing but the ‘‘ outward forms of sky and earth,” and meeting no one save the people at the inns, or some hospitable Samaritan they occasionally fell in with at the larger towns. The cold wasintense. During the more Northern part of their way it varied from below zero to mercury freezing. Yet such are the effects of a good constitution, contrast, and ‘* wraps,” that cold in (Arctic) moderation soon became not only endurable but pleasant. After a little use, zero or somewhat below it with a calm atmosphere was fresh and bracing ; when the thermometer rose much above zero, the weather became warm. Indeed, here is a * correct seale of the physical effect of cold, calculated for the latitude of 65° to 70° North.” ** 15° above zero—Unpleasantly warm. * Northern Travel: Summer and Winter Pictures of Sweden, Lapland, and No By Bayard Taylor, Published by Low and Son. ray,

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January 2, 1858.] SPECTATOR SUPPLEMENT. 23 ** Zero—Mild and agreeable. **10° below zero—Pleasantly fresh and canting. ** 20° below zero—Sharp, but not severely cold. Keep your fingers and toes in motion, and rub your nose occasionally. ** 30° below zero—Very cold; take particular care of your nose and ex- tremities : eat the fattest food, and plenty of it. **40° below—Intensely cold; keep awake at all hazards, muffle up to the eyes, and test your circulation frequently, that it may not stop somewhere before you know it. “ below—A struggle for life.” Between Muonioniska in Russian Lapland and Harapanda at the head of the Gulf of Bothnia, this struggle took place. Intense cold and insufficient food at some of the small inns or st-houses, not only induced severe suffering, but that wan- ering of mind and torpidity of circulation which takes the form of a wish to slumber. Had the author been travelling alone, his trip might have ended in death, but the iwo kept each awake by discourse or even blows. ‘The following was not the worst day, | for there was even greater suffering and with a duller sky ; but it | may serve as a sample both of cold and of Arctic landscape. ** In the morning the mercury froze, after showing 49° below zero, The cold was by this time rather alarming, especially after our experiences of the previous day. The air was hazy with the fine frozen atoms of moisture, a raw wind blew from the North, the sky was like steel which has been breathed upon,—in short the cold was visible to the nakedeye. We warmed our gloves and boots, and swathed our heads so completely that not a feature | was to beseen. I had a little loophole between my cap and boa, but it was soon filled up with frost from my breath, and helped to keep in the warmth. The road was hard and smooth as marble. We had good horses, and leaving Avasaxa and the Polar circle behind us, we sped down the solid bed of the Tornea to Niemis. On the second stage we began to freeze for want of food. The air was really terrible ; nobody ventured out of doors who could stay in the house. ‘The smoke was white and dense, like steam ; the wind was a | blast from the Norseman’s hell, and the touch of it on your face almost made you scream. Nothing can be more severe—flaying, branding with a hot iron, cutting with a dull knife, &c., may be something like it, but no Worse. “« The sun rose through the frozen air a little after nine, and mounted quite high at noon. At Piackilii we procured some hot milk and smoked reindeer, tolerable horses, and a stout boy of fourteen to drive our baggage- sled. Every one we met had a face either frozen, or about to freeze. Such a succession of countenances, fiery red, purple, blue, black almost, with white frost-spots, and surrounded with rings of icy hair and fur I never saw before. We thanked God again and again that our faces were turned South- ward, and that the deadly wind was blowing on our backs. When we reach- ed Korpykili, our boy’s face, though solid and greasy as a bag of lard, was badly frozen. His nose was quite white and swollen, as if blistered by fire, and there were frozen bletches on both cheeks. The landlord rubbed the purts instantly with rum, and performed the same operation on our noses. ‘**On this day, for the first time in more than a month, we saw daylight, and I cannot describe how cheering was the effect of those pure, white, brilliant rays, in spite of the iron ‘landscape they illumined. It was no longer the setting light of the level Arctic sun; not the twilight gleams of shifting colour, beautiful but dim; not the faded, mock daylight, which sometimes glimmered for a half-hour at noon; but the true white, full, golden day, which we had almost forgotten. So nearly, indeed, that I did not for some time suspect the cause of the unusual whiteness and bright- hes Ue A apr Tak HV Was BUpRi's. “Tin Usige of The birch and the needles of the fir were coated with crystal, and sparkled like jets of jewels spouted up from the immaculate snow. The clumps of birches can be com- pared to nothing but frozen fountains—frozen in full action, with their showery sheaves of spray arrested before they fell. It was a wonderful, a fairy world we beheld—too beautiful to be Tifeless, but every face we met reminded us the more that this was the chill beauty of Death—of dead Na- ture. Death was in the sparkling air, in the jewelled trees, in the spotless snow. Take off your mitten, and his hand will grasp yours like a vice; un- cover your mouth, and your frozen lips will soon acknowledge his kiss. “ Even while I looked the same icy chills were running through my blood, recursors of that drowsy torpor which I was so anxious to avoid. But no; it would come, and I dozed until both hands became so stiff that it was barely possible to restore their powers of motion and feeling. It was not quite dark when we reached Kuckulii, the last station, but thence to Hapa- randa our horses were old and lazy, and our postilion was a little boy, whose weak voice had no effect. Braisted kept his hands warm in jerking and urging, but Isat and froze. Village after village was passed, but we looked in vain for the lights of Tornea. We were thoroughly exhausted with our five days’ battle against the dreadful cold, when at last a row of lights gleamed across the river, and we drove up to the inn.” __ And now, what did they go to see? As Mr, Taylor expresses it—‘“a day without a sun”; a striking sight and something more, but hardly worth the labour ; and the traveller confesses he should not like to go again. “The sky increased in brightness as we watched. The orange flushed into rose, and the pale white hills looked even more ghastly against the bar of glowing carmine which fringed the horizon, A few long purple streaks of cloud hung over the sun’s place, and higher up in the vault floated some loose masses, tinged with fiery crimson on their lower edges. About half- past eleven, a pencil of bright red light shot up—a signal which the sun uplifted to herald his coming. As it slowly moved Westward along the hills, increasing in height and brillianey until it became a long tongue of flame, playing against the streaks of cloud, we were apprehensive that the near disc would rise to view. When the Linsman’s clock pointed to twelve, its base had become so bright as to shine almost like the sun itself; but after a few breathless moments the unwelcome glow began to fade. We took its bearing with a compass, and after making allowance for the varia- tion (which is here very slight) were convinced that it was really past meridian, and the radiance, which was that of morning a few minutes be- fore, belonged to the splendours of evening now. ‘The colours of the firma- ment began to change in reverse order, and the dawn, which had almost ripened to sunrise, now withered away to night without a sunset. We had at last seen a day without a sun.” ; 2 A large part of the matter of the book graphic and animated by a poctical spirit ; little other than scenery, tires even in nature, much more in books. Customs and national! character are the most interesting topics of Mr. Taylor’s pen. It is true, he had not much time to form a judgment ; but opportunitics are greater in those primitive regions than in more populous and conventional countries, where the competition of numbers and the frequent presence of strangers “en. consists of description, but always scenery, and impose real reserve even under the appearance of frankness. He also limits himself to manners and honesty, which he could test ; and chastity, of which he judges by the rule of unsophistieation. “There is something exceedingly primitive and unsophisticated in the manners of these Northern people—a straightforward honesty, which takes the honesty of others for granted—a latent kindness and good-will which may at first be overlooked because it is not demonstrative, and a total un- consciousness of what is called, in highly-civilized circles, ‘ propriety.’ The very freedom of manners which, in some countries, might denote laxity of morals, is here the evident stamp of their purity. The thought has often recurred to me, which is the most truly oe and virginal nature, the fastidious American girl, who blushes at the sight of a pair of boots outside a gentle- man’s bedroom-door, and who requires that certain unoflending parts of the body and articles of clothing should be designated by delicately circumlo- cutious terms, or the simple-minded Swedish women, who come into our bedrooms with coffee, and make our fires while we get up and dress, coming and going during all the various stages of the toilet with the frankest un- consciousness of impropriety > This is modesty in its healthy and natural development, not in those morbid forms which suggest an imagination ever on the alert for prurient images. Nothing has confirmed my impression of the virtue of the Northern Swedes more than this fact, and I have rarely felt more respect for woman or more faith in the inherent purity of her nature.”’ Contrary to the general opinion, Mr. Taylor prefers the Swedes to the Norwegians for honesty, morality, and sobriety. He ad- mits that the statistics of Stockholm, as well as the opinion of the capital, are against him ; but then, he is speaking of the North and the provinces of Wermeland and Dalecarlia, to which last he paid a visit on the conclusion of his Norwegian trip. The immorality of Norway may in part be explained by poverty and customs; but there it is, in his opinion. In — of frankness and courtesy there is no comparison: the Swedish peasantry are delightful, ‘and Dalecarlia the very Arcadia of the world; the greater part of the Norwegians are mere louts. As for dishonesty, their charges are something frightful if they catch a chance, from the postmaster (or mistress) who fleeces you in passing, to the so- called hotel in the cities, where you are taken in as regards accom~- modation and fare, and done for inthe bill. This is not the opinion of Mr. Taylor alone. Every English or other traveller he met last summer agreed with him in this conclusion: and he attributes the change to the increase of travellers, and the lavishness of English- men, which encourages the greed of the Norwegians. When our traveller found moderation it was out of the usual route, and he duly chronicles the fact. The most striking peculiarity, he thinks, is a national techiness. : ; . ‘* Perhaps the most general feature of the Norwegian character is an ex- cessive national vanity, which is always on the alert, and fires up on the slightest provocation. Say everything you like, except that Norway in any respect is surpassed by any other country. One is assailed with questions about his impressions of the scenery, people, government, Xe. ; a very natu- ral and pardonable curiosity, it is true, and one only demands in return that his candour be respected and no offence taken. This, however, is rarely the ease. If there is no retaliatory answer on the spot, you hear a remark days afterwards which shows how your.mild censure. has rankled in the mind of the hearer. Mined a lady’s acceptance of a pro ; we at, Garo Ta er Seeger poe ~ wile aon yy « yitoowngee” Weer DC cad not tiunk the women of Finmark very beautiful. 1t was impossible to answer in the affirmative ; the questioner went off in high dudgeon, and did not speak to him again for several days. ‘“*In the Varanger Fjord, we had pretty freely expressed our impressions of the desolate coast. Afterwards, on returning past the grand cliff scenery of Nordkyn, we were admiring some bold formation of the rocks, when a Norwegian came up and said in a tone of angry irony, ‘ Ah, you find a little to admire at last, do you? You find some beauty in our country after all?’ So in regard to the government. The Norwegians may be justly proud of their constitution, which is as republican as our own. There is so much in the administration of the government which every one must heartily com- mend, that they should be less sensitive in regard to minor faults. * * * **One cannot find fault with a people for their patriotism. I have al- ways admired that love of Gamle Norge which shines through Norwegian history, song, and saga; but when it is manifested in such ridiculous ex- tremes, one doubts the genuineness of the feeling, and suspects it of being alloyed with some degree of personal vanity. There are still evils to be eradicated, reproaches to be removed, reforms to be achieved, which claim all the best energies of the best men of the country, and positive harm is done by concealing or denying the true state of things.”’ These are singular remarks to be made by an American, the rincipal charge against whose countrymen is precisely the same. his Mr. Taylor slightly admits, when he says that you can no more talk about several things in Norway than you can against slavery in the South. Like some of the officers in the Arctic expeditions, Mr, Taylor found perpetual daylight become wearisome and oppressive at last, however agreeable in the outset. The conclusion is not new, but it is presented with the force of a practised pen, and with the fulness of a man whose trade it is to observe his own ideas and sensations as well as the external appearances of men and things. There is a shocking picture of Norwegian leprosy; a disease which the traveller mainly attributes to dirt, though bad diet and licentious habits may have something to do with its origin. He considers the state of religion in Sweden and Norway; and finds that in both countries it is dead, yet persecuting, and is threatened, he thinks, by a dissenting sect with vitality that pro- mises progress, When we consider how much has been written upon Norway, and in a lesser degree upon Sweden, these ‘‘ Summer and Winter Pictures” are creditable to Mr. Taylor’s power as a traveller and to his skill as a describer of travels. TRENCH ON SOME DEFICIENCIES DICTIONARIES,” Tux turn of Dean Trench towards philology has not only pro- duced several attractive books on words and sentences, but bids * On some Deficiencies in our English Dictionaries: being the Substance of two Pape vs read before the Philological Society, November 5, and November 19, 1857. — f- —woruam Chenevix Trench, D.D., Dean of Westminster, Published by Parker and Son, IN ENGLISH

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24 SPECTATOR SUPPLEMENT. [January 2, 1858. fair to give us a dictionary such as the world has never yet seen, spite of French Academies and Italian Della Cruscans. If not solely yet in great measure by his exertions, a division of labour upon the grandest scale is applied to the English language. Books the best —— to trace the age, authority, and meaning of words, are distributed among volunteers the most competent to deal with them. The results are to be transmitted to the Philo- logical Society ; the original idea being a supplement to existing and a _ to future dictionaries ; but it seems likely to conduce to a new dictionary. At all events, the support the scheme has elicited is worthy of such a final result. ‘*Let me mention here, that seventy-six volunteers have already come forward, claiming their shares in this task. A hundred and twenty-one works of English authors, in most cases the whole works of each author, have been taken in hand by them; and in evidence of the interest which the work inspires, Imay add, that thirty-one contributions, many of them, I understand, of very high value, have been already sent in. “Any reader of these pages, who should feel disposed to join in the work, address- ing a line to the Secretary of the Committee, Herbert Coleridge, Esq., 2 Stone Buildings, Lincoln’s Inn, would receive from him a list of books un- appropriated yet, and all other information he might require.” It was perhaps with reference to a new dictionary that Dean Trench delivered to the Philological Society these observations on some existing defects in our present dictionaries, which he has now revised and given to the press. The publication exhibits more than a classified account, illustrated by examples, of seven errors in scheme and numerous imperfections in execution to be found in existing dictionaries. It contains an exposition of what a real English dictionary should be in plan, with some hints as to the manner in which the plan should be carried out. Here is the general idea, “A dictionary, then, according to that idea of it which seems to me alone capable of being logically maintained, is an inventory of the language : much more indeed, but this primarily, and with this only at present we will deal. It is no task of the maker of it to select the good words of a language. If he fancies that it is so, and begins to pick and choose, to leave this and to take that, he will at once go astray. The business which he has undertaken is to collect and arrange all the words, whether good or bad, whether they commend themselves to his judgment or otherwise, which, with certain ex- ceptions hereafter to be specified, those writing in the language have em- ployed, He is an historian of it, not a critic. * * * * The lexicographer 1s making an inventory; that is his business: he may think of this article which he inserts in his catalogue, that it had better be consigned to the lum- ber-room with all speed, or of the other, that it only met its deserts when it was so consigned long ago; but his task is to make his inventory complete. Where he counts words to be needless, affected, pedantic, ill put together, contrary to the genius of the language, there is no objection to his saying so; on the contrary, he may do real service in this way; but let their claim to belong to our book-language be the humblest, Am he is bound to record them, to throw wide with an impartial hospitality his doors to them, as to all other. A dictionary is an historical monument, the history of a nation contemplated from one point of wee; and the wrong — _ which a lan- abik@hawanueteu, of atromtne:-fiWander, may be nearly as instructive age right ones in which it has travelled :».#8, much may be learned, wat. nearly as much, from its failures as its successes, from it follies as from its wisdom.” Considered as a national record of words undertaken by the élite of the nation’s philologists, there is nothing to object to in this exposition. ‘ Store is no sore”: there is no harm in seeing what a number of crabbed, uncouth, ill-looking and evil-sounding words, have been coined by writers when classical imitation was a fashion of the day,—though, speaking sensibly, it may be doubted whether the use of one word by one author should require, as the Dean maintains, its insertion in a dictionary; for a man may be very able, yet pedantic by habit or quaint by nature. For na- tional purposes, though not for national character, we should feel inclined to extend our author’s definition of a dictionary to “an inventory of the language” in use ; leaving for a supplement ob- solete, temporary, (as it may be said,) and single words—words, that is, by single authors, and apparently never received even temporarily. No doubt, if you stop short of all, there is, as the Dean observes, great practical difficulty in drawing the line. Pope, possibly even Collins, may contain a word or two that requires explanation for the general reader ; Milton many words, Shak- spere a great many: so that on what principle are you to go ? where are you stop? The difficulty is felt in all similar under- takings—as in annotation, The safe side is the full side, even when you have the Supplement of the Philological Society to fall back upon. At all events, to a supplement we think words such as most of the following should be relegated. ; “The maker, for example, of an English dictionary may not consider ‘mulierosity,’ or ‘ subsannation,’ or ‘ coaxution,’ or ‘ludibundness,’ or ‘deli- nition,’ or ‘septemfluous,’ or ‘ medioxumous,’ or ‘ mirificent,’ or * pulmifer- ous,’ or ‘opime,’ or a thousand other words of a similar character which might be adduced, (I take all these from a single work of Henry More,) to contribute much to the riches of the English tongue; yet has he not there- fore any right to omit them, as all these which I have just adduced, with a thousand more of like kind, have been omitted from our dictionaries. I will not urge that one or two in this list might be really serviceable (* mulicros- ity,’ for instance, expresses what no other word in the language would do) : but, admitting them to be purely pedantic, that they would be quite intolerable in use, still they involve and illustrate an important fact in the history of our language,—the endeavour to latinize it to a far greater extent than has actually been done, the refusal on its part to adopt more than a certain num- ber of these Latin candidates for admission into its ranks,—and, therefore, should not be omitted from the archives of the language.” Words like the above are mostly exotic experiments, plants that perished in transplanting. Obsolete words fall under an- other category, for they are units in the history of the tongue, and not the mere failures of innovators. Some of these, however, are extremely uncouth, and not likely to be restored to use. The following are taken from the part where the philologist properly dwells upon the difference between obsolete words and provincial- | isms that should haye no place in a dictionary, unless they were | once national. “* *Spong’ is now a Suffolk, or it may be an East Anglian word. Halli- well deals with it as thus provincial, and rightly describes it as ‘ an irregu- lar, narrow, and projecting part of a field’ ; corresponding, therefore, very nearly to the ‘ sling,’ ‘ slang,’ or ‘ slinget,’ of some of our Midland coun- ties. Our dictionaries know nothing of it; nor should they take note of it on the score of its present provincial existence; but they should on the ground that it once had free course in our literary English, being often used by Fuller. Once more, take the verb ‘to hazle.’ Halliwell and Wright explain it rightly as ‘ the first process of drying washed linen,’ and assign to it also East Anglia as the region where it is current : but it was once not East Anglian but English, as a noble passage, of which I cite a few words from a great but little-known divine, will prove. Then, once more, the verb ‘ to faite,’ signifying to scare, to terrify, and standing in the same relation to ‘ flit’ that ‘ fugare’ does to ‘ fugere’—this may be, as our glossaries tell us, a word of the North country now; but it was a word of the whole country once, and as such should have found place not in our glossaries alone but in our dictionaries no less. ‘To hopple,’ (the word is not in Richardson,) Todd gives as a Northern word, and without example. Supposing he was right in saying so, he had no business to give it at all: but he is not, for it is employed by Henry More. ‘ Dozzled’ our archaic glossaries assign to the Eastern Counties, and explain rightly as meaning stupid, heavy : but we should not have to seek it, or at least to find it, only in them; Bishop Hacket employs it. I believe a corn-sieve is still called a ‘try’ in some parts of England, asmall enclosure a ‘ pingle,’ a pond a ‘ pulke’; but the words had once nothing local about them, that they should be relegated to these collections; and found only in them.” Unless practical considerations are disregarded altogether, number and space are elements of rejection or insertion. From the Dean’s criticism on modern dictionaries, it is probable that a work on the plan indicated would be less bulky (with the same au- thorities and quotations) than the lexicons we are now invited to buy. ‘“* Were it necessary that our dictionaries should grow considerably in bulk, through the taking in of much which hitherto they have not taken in, I should acquiesce in the necessity even while I felt the inconvenience. But in regard of most of them there is no such necessity. Let them throw overboard that which never had any claim to make part of their cargo, and they will find room enough for the more precious wares which they are spe- cially bound to convey. ‘* The most mischievous shape which this error assumes consists in the drafting into the dictionary a whole army of purely technical words, such as indeed are not for the most part, except by an abuse of language, words at all, but signs, having been deliberately invented as the nomenclature, and, so to speak, the algebraic notation of some special art or science, and having never passed the threshold of this nor mingled with the general fa- mily of words. It is not unfrequently a barren ostentation which induces the bringing in of these, that so there may be grounds for boasting of an immense addition made to the vocabulary. Such additions are very cheaply made. Nothing is easier than to turn to modern treatises on che- mistry or electricity, or on some other of the sciences which hardly or not at all existed half a century ago, or which, if they existed, have yet been in later times wholly new-named,—as botany, for example,—and to trans- plant from these new terms by the hundred and the thousand, with which to crowd and deform the pages of a dictionary, and then to boast of the vast increase of words which it has gained over its predecessors. The labour is little more than that of transcription ; but the gain is nought, or indeed less | than nought; for it is not mercly that half-a-dozen genuine English words recovered from ou¥ olf authors would be a greater gain, a more real advance toward the completion of our vocabulary than a hundred or a thousand of these ; but additions of this kind are mere disfigurements of the work which they profess to complete. Let such be reserved for a technological lexicon by themselves.”’ Here we break off, for our doubting difference with the author is exhausted ; all the rest would be agreement in opinion, and ad- miration of the knowledge and acumen brought to bear upon the subject. The tractate itself, moreover, is not very long or high- priced; and it well deserves the attention of every one who feels an interest is his native language, not only for what the publica- tion does but for what it suggests. MATTHEW ARNOLD’S TRAGEDY OF MEROPE.* ‘‘ WILFUL man must have his way,” much more wilful poet. Mr. Arnold still maintains that a proper subject for poesy is Classi- cal rather than shall we say Christian times, or beyond any doubt our own times. He proceeds not only to enforce his views in a long and very able preface, but to prove his conviction by his conduct, selecting an ancient Greek story for an English tragedy. It were useless to reopen the discussion on such general points as our want of living knowledge of the ancient world—the great changes that have taken place in religion, opinions, manners, modes of life, involving corresponding change of feeling as to events and even in the exhibition of passion—the enlargement of our information in nature and science, with the consequent differ- ence in the estimate of things. It may not, however, be unprofit- able, in criticizing the book, to show how the remarks and treat- ment of his subject shake the writer’s theory. ma The preface, as we have said, is very able, and exhibits Mr. Arnold to greater advantage as acritic and literary historian than his tragedy does as a poet. Besides a defence of his own idea, and some nice remarks on the Greek dramatists, he gives an historico- critical account of the three great modern tragedies that have been written on his subject of Merope, by Maffei, Voltaire, and Alfieri. He also discusses the structure of the Greek drama, describes the position and object of the chorus, and well characterizes the pecu- finrities of Greek theatrical representation, which in its turn in- fluenced the pieces that were written to be represented. “ The Greek theatres were vast, and open to the sky ; the actors, masked and in a somewhat stiff tragic costume, were to be regarded from a consider- able distance : a solemn, clearly-marked style of gesture, a sustained tone of declamation, were thus rendered necessary. Under these conditions, t- tricate by-play, vapid variations in the action, requiring great mobility, ever-changing shades of tone and gesture in the actor, were impossible . Broad and simple effects were, under these conditions, above all to be aimed at; @ profound and clear impression was to be effected. Unity of plan in the ac- tion, and symmetry in the treatment of it, were indispensable. The action * Merope: a Tragedy. By Matthew Arnold, Published by Longman and Co. iin DS hi ae aS a a Wn a. a. a in, a a a a ee mn

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January 2, 1858.] SPECTATOR SUPPLEMENT. 25 represented, therefore, was to be a single, rigorously-developed action ; the masses of the composition were to be balanced, each bringing out the other into stronger and distincter relief. In the best tragedies, not only do the di- visions of the full choral songs accurately correspond to one another, but the divisions of the lyrical dialogue, nay, even the divisions of the regular dra- matic dialogue, form corresponding members, of which one member is the answer, the counter-stroke to the other ; and an indescribable sense of dis- tinctness and depth of impression is thus produced.” Surely all this, especially the passages we have marked in Italics, intimates a broad distinction between the Classical and the English drama, if we may not say an advance in the latter. The greater variety in its action and discourse—the greater num- ber, and the comparatively humbler position of its dramatis per- sonse—the greater naturalness of its persons, its incidents, and its sentiments—may or may not be better. but wideiy different they certainly are; and this evidently from a totei difference in society, to which the poet should accommodate himself. In de- scribing the ‘‘aim” of Greek tragedy, Mr. Arnold establishes, we think, a further contrariety. After an account of the several impressions the Greek drama produces, he goes on: ‘ And this again conducts us to a state of feeling which it is the highest aim of to produce—to a sentiment of sublime acquiescence in the course of Fate, and in the dispensations of human life.” These Italics are the author’s ; and surely the sentiment is quite opposed to Christian doctrine and to modern ideas, which teach man to discard the notion of Fate, and to struggle bravely and indefati- gably to the end for what reason and conscience tell him to be right, even as if he could shape his own destiny. All this is prefatial: the tragedy itself as little supports its author’s theory. Briefly, the Greek story or tradition is this. Polyphontes murders Cresophontes King of Messenia, usurps the throne, and marries the late King’s widow Merope. Two of the royal children are also slain ; the third son is saved, and brought up at a distance. On reaching manhood, he returns to Messenia ; and, after several incidents which may affect the dramatic con- duct but not change the catastrophe, kills the usurper and re- gains the kingdom. Mr. Arnold properly feels that to marry Merope to the murderer of her Sheek and her sons, would be shocking to modern feel- ings. To ancient Greeks the idea was not so revolting, because in the heroic ages the practice was common enough—one of the rights of war. But when a poet feels compelled to keep a widow single, against one of his authorities, because the marriage would be too shocking, it seems to us a strong argument against his theory. In this particular instance it has an ill effect upon the conduct of the plot. One of the first scenes exhibits Polyphontes and Merope on the twentieth anniversary of the murder; the usurper explaining the political necessity of the deed, and proposing a marriage of convenience. Old as he is, and long as he has delayed, he does not affect to be violently in love; but he argues that their union will give the Queen a more defined position, and secure the throne to her son, while it will put an end to the plots which seem to be disturbing him! The influence of modern ideas is felt throughout the Queen’s character—she has a shrinking from violence and bloodshed, which is more Christian than Pagan, and seems un- real, The attempt to excite some regard for the usurper,*by repre- senting him as the chief and victim of a party, has also an incon- sistency which would have been avoided “ making him the cruel and remorseless tyrant of antiquity. e unities of time and place, and the chorus, are not essential parts of a tragedy on an ancient story ; but they are to Mr. Arnold's drama, because he is writing expressly on the Greek model. In Merope the chorus hangs like a dead weight upon the narrative ; the unities render the conduct of the story meagre and bare. These are things which go to the substance of the piece as it were, having little effect upon its merely poetical spirit. How- ever essentially burlesque it may be to hear an old usurper court- eb ne widow of the monarch he has murdered, and making his political difficulties a reason for acceptance, the dangers that beset this usurper, the terrible necessity which impels him to cruel deeds, and his ruthless determination to crush those who would drive him from his throne, may be forcibly and poetically ex- pressed. The moralizing of the Chorus may be heavy as regards effect upon the story, but reflections on the mystery which hangs over human life, and the uncertainty of human motives in pub- lic actions, may be sung in the loftiest strain of lyric verse. It strikes us that Mr. Arnold’s Merope will be found more deficient in what is popularly thought poetry, than even his previous at- tempts on classical subjects. This may arise from his being un- equal to tragic poetry—one of the highest efforts of the human mind ; or his efforts after the severe not to say naked simplicity of the Greek tragic verse, may have caused a peculiarity whic without being prosaic approaches a weighty baldness. This pas- sage from the Chorus is a good imitation of classical coldness, so far as it is imitable. ** The most are bad, wise men have said. Let the best rule, they say again. ; The best, then, to dominion have the right. Rights unconceded and denied, Surely, if rights, may be by force asserted— May be, nay should, if for the genera! weal. The best, then, to the throne may carve his way, And hew opposers down, Free from rh guilt of lawlessness, Or selfish lust of personal power ; Bent only to serve Virtue, Bent to diminish wrong. And truly, in this ill-ruled world, Well sometimes may the good desire To give to Virtue her dominion due ; Well may they long to interrupt The reign of Folly, usurpation ever, Though fenced by sanction of a thousand years ; Well thirst to drag the wrongful ruler down ; Well purpose to pen back Into the narrow path of right, The ignorant, headlong multitude, Who blindly follow ever Blind leaders, to their bane. But who can say, without a fear, That best, who ought to rule, am I; The mob, who ought to obey, are these ; I the one righteous, they the many bad ?— Who, without check of conscience, can aver That he to power makes way by arms, Sheds blood, imprisons, banishes, attaints, Commits all deeds the guilty oftenest do, Without a single guilty thought, Arm’d for right only, and the general good? Therefore, with censure unallayed, Therefore, with unexcepting ban, Zeus and pure-thoughted Justice brand Imperious self-asserting Violence.” PUBLICATIONS RECEIVED. Tue number of publications keeps up, but the opening week of this yas exhibits no greater promise in novelty of subject than did last year’s close. Mr. Dyce’s “‘ Shakespeare” is in itself beyond all value, and we do not doubt will be found to be a capital edition of the poet editorially speak- ing ; but it is by no means a novelty. Neither can India be considered a new subject ; though Mr. Ludlow appears to have brought to it an acu- men which will put various things in a new light. The two posthumous volumes of Lectures and Essays by the late Samuel Brown may contain some useful or remarkable matter, but are not likely to exhibit much of the promise and noyelty we speak of. Books. The Works of William Shakespeare, The Text revised by the Rev, Alexander Dyce. In six volumes. British India, its Races and its History, considered with reference to the Mutinies of 1857 : aseries of Lectures addressed to the Students of the Werk- ing Men’s College. By John Malcolm Ludlow, Barrister-at-law. Lectures on the Atomic Theory, and Essays Scientific and Literary. By Samuel Brown. Volumes 1. and II. Northern Travel : Summer and Winter Pictures of Sweden, Lapland, and Nor- way. By Bayard Taylor. Some Deficiencies in our English Dictionaries: being the Substance of two Papers read before the Philological Society. By Richard Chenevix Trench, Db. Dean of Westminster. Merope: a Tragedy. By Matthew Arnold, The Letters of a Betrothed.—We laugh at the “ Polite Letter-writers” of a former age; yet they were something at all events to the inditer of a less schoolly-educated generation, who had nothing to work upon. They embraced most of the prosaic occurrences of life. We do not re- member whether they contained a lady’s acceptance of a proposal; we are quite sure they did not extend through the varying incidents of a “ long engagement,” with the lover’s absence, the betrothed’s tour to Paris, many little incidents and numerous fancies, till the last epistle previous to the ceremony—* The thought grows frightful, ’tis so wildly dear.” We are quite certain that none of the old epistolary correspond- ence directories had the elegant literature of this volume, or its feminine and animation of style and sentiment, with an earnest glow of feeling, whose exhibition in a single young woman would have caused our grandmothers to put their fans before their faces. Whether it is quite so safe a guide to follow as those more practical productions, we cannot tell ; though it is ever so much better to read. ould this out- pouring on some hitch in the correspondence be a safe experiment, espe- cially in too frequent doses of such strength ? ‘“‘Then, when the postman arrives, I sit down, sick and faint, saying, ‘ He has no letter, I know he has none,’ while I listen with all my life in my cars for the step that is to bring it to me. And it does not come ;—a despair overwhelms me, and I feel as if it never, never can come now, and as if I could not support a renewal of this suffering for another twenty-four hours. ** And I can do nothing! there is the terrible part. It is this forced in- action that wears me so frightfully ; another day’s hope gone ; and what is there for it ? just to sit down saying, ‘ Wait, perhaps tomorrow may bring a letter, perhaps the day after, perhaps a week, perhaps never! But there is nothing you can do; se sit down and wait!’ Frank, és it your fault, this suffering I endure? If it be in any degree whatsoever, for God’s sake do not again subject me to it, for the burden is greater than I can bear. Is it your misfortune? are you ill? No answer, no answer! nothing but a stony silence mocking me.” Transatlantic Sketches. By Professor Kelland.—Scotch University Reform having lost its freshness, Professor Kelland thought he could not better meet his classes than by an account of a vacation-trip to America. Vacational in one sense the excursion was not, as it involved the business of an institution; which, however, furnished a companion to the Pro- fessor, and what was perhaps as good, “a purse.” His business-tour was confined to Canada; and among other things the traveller was pre- sent at the gathering of an American Scientific Association at Montreal. His journey through the States embraced the settled part of the Western frontier, an excursion into Tennessee and Kentucky, including a visit to the celebrated Mammoth Cave, and a return to New York via Phila- delphia. The journey was too rapid, and the account is too brief, to admit of much elaboration cither in observation or remark, What there is appears sound, and is certainly fresh and pleasant. Here are a couple of samples. Presbyterianism in America.—* My custom was to attend the Presbyte- rian service, that I might learn how the sons of severe Scotland conduct themselves under a change of circumstances. If the specimens I stumbled on may be regarded as a fair average sample of the whole, I have but a sorry report to bring back. ‘The first preacher we listened to gave us an animated onslaught on Calvinism, slashing the doctrines of the Shorter Catechism unmercifully. The next said nothing intelligible at all. A third leetured his audience for an hour on their want of interest in church matters; and from their apparent want of interest in the lecture, I have no doubt they deserved all they got. A fourth was a plain-spoken earnest man, remind~ ing me a little of old Scotland. But the grand characteristic feature of all

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26 SPECTATOR SUPPLEMENT. [January 2, 1858. the churches was thesinging. This was performed by a professional quartett, with florid accompaniments on the organ. As an Episcopalian, I find no fault with the organ, quite the contrary; but I think some of the sympho- nies and voluntaries with which we were favoured, rather to the school of Rossini and Verdi than to that of Handel and Sebastian Bach, and should have been reserved for the operahouse.” American Feeling towards Britain.—“ One topic more, and I have done. The temper of the American people towards the British is not, I am per- suaded, that of warm fellow-feeling. It may be the remembrance of having separated from us by force ; it may be the consciousness of following in our wake in so many things which elevate humanity; it may be jealousy of the power which has barred them from a portion of the continent of North America; it may be a too sensitive amour propre constantly wounded by the teasing of our literary men; it may be any or all of these which ruffles the skin of an American: however it be accounted for, I am persuaded that cordial love towards us as members of the same family does not exist. There is respect, and cold distant regard, but no more.” Dry Sticks Fagoted. By Walter Savage Landor.—In part a collec- tion of published—poems shall we say, or jeux d’esprit—as well in Latin asin English. Other parts have perhaps been legally published, for the pieces have circulated in manuscript, though some without the author’s consent. A copy was “procured from a person who had engaged to transcribe them. Precaution is hereby taken against subtraction, or what is worse, addition. This is an excuse for some few levities.”” Let us hope that a few of those few were written “ long long ago.” Ghost Stories and Phantom Fancies, By Hain Friswell, Author of “The Sham Pamphlets,’ &c.—As regards framework, this collection of tales of diableric, incidents of crime, and the like, might rank as a Christmas book; indeed, the introductory story, with its memory of many Christmas dinners, is by no means the worst part of the volume, The stories themselves are too worldly and too advanced for children ; in point of merit they take rank with magazine tales. Two little Christmas volumes or gift-books come before us from Mr. Bentley. “ Fairy Fables,” by Cuthbert Bede, have more of fancy in them than of genuine fairy spirit, though the fairy form is there. With the exception of ‘* The Queen of the Twelfth Cakes,” they ali refer to animals or trees, which take upon themselves the action and discourse of human beings. This is done cleverly, but somewhat formally, with knowledge of a naturalist kind, and a good many satiric hits at actual irs. “Fairy Tale Charades.” There are several volumes of “ acting charades ” for young people. These dramas are written for little peo- ple; and pleasant enough they are—just the very things for children to act. Dramatic spirit we have no right to look for, but there is dramatic situation, sometimes comic, and fit for the end in view—as the unlucky nose in “‘ The Fairy Mount.”’ Fairy Fables. By Cuthbert Bede, B.A. With Illustrations by Alfred Crowquill, Fairy Tale Charades, for Acting. By M. G. Aveline. The great reprint of the week is a new edition of James Mill’s “ His- tory of British India,” with Professor Wilson’s continuation of the nar- rative, and his copious corrective, explanatory, and it may be said expan- sive notes. Faults and shortcomings of various kinds may be found in Mill’s India. The writer may have his prepossessions, as who has not ? he himself would have despised the critical objection that he is deficient im warmth and brilliancy of colouring: the alleged fault of dryness is rather a merit, accompanied as it is by an unimpassioned clearness, not devoid of animation when the narrative requires life. Various histories of India by able men practically versed in the subject have , oye we suspect that if a man were limited to one history of India, he should take James Mill’s. The work appears to be merely a reprint, without fresh matter since Professor Wilson’s last edition. It is of neat appearance and handy form—somewhat minute-looking in size, for those who think that history should not sink below an ample octavo ; but it is all the more fitted for use. The two volumes contain the Hindoo and Mahometan histories, and bring down the story of the trading com- pany to the beginning of the last century. The tenth volume of Dugald Stewart’s Collected Works contains the Memoirs of Adam Smith, Robertson, and Reid, with a Life of the philosopher, and a speaking portrait, after Wilkie. This closes the edition in a disbursing sense : an eleventh yolume, containing index, and the quotations translated, will be given gratis to subscribers. Surely this may be called an unequalled edition ! Religious books still prevail. Dr. Cumming’s new edition of his Apocalyptic Sketches has been revised and enlarged, with a reference to “recent stirring events’ that bear on the fulfilment of prophecy. Archdeacon Pratt has not perhaps so tough a subject in his endeavours to show ‘Scripture and Science not at Variance,” as the Doctor deal- ing with the Apocalypse, though his theme is far from easy. The Arch- deacon concludes in—cultivate science, hold fast by Scripture. The History of British India. By James Mill, Esq. Fifth edition, with Notes and Continuation, by Horace Hayman Wilson, M.A., F.R.S., &e. &e. Volumes I, and II. The Collected Works of Dugald Stewart, Esq., F.R.SS., Professor of Moral Philosophy in the University of Edinburgh, &c. &e. Edited by Sir William Hamilton, Bart., A.M., (Oxon,) Professor of Logic and Metaphysics in the University of Edinburgh, &c. Volume X. Apocalyptic Sketches ; or Lectures on the Book of Revelation. By the Reve- rend John Cumming, D.D., F.R.S.E., Minister of the National Scottish Church, Crown Court, Covent Garden. New edition, thoroughly revised, corrected, and arranged. Volume I. Scripture and Science not at Variance; with Remarks on the Historical Cha- racter, Plenary Inspiration, and surpassing Importance of the earlier Chap- ters of Genesis. By John H, Pratt, M.A., Archdeacon of Caleutta, Author of ** The Mathematical Principles of Mechanical Philosophy.” Second edi- tion, with new matter. Fine Arts, THE LIVERPOOL ACADEMY, It is not often that the affairs or principles of action of a provincial art body come prominently before the general publie. An exception has now arisen in the case of the Liverpool Academy of Fine Arts. In their own town, the controversy rages fiercely both in society and in the press ; and in the press of London also, as well as in artistic circles here, it has excited attention and comment. A principle of considerable importance is involved in the discussion. The facts are briefly these. The Liverpool Aeademy holds an annual | | | | exhibition of pictures, to which it sends works by its own members, and invites the general body of artists to contribute also—many of the leadi works of the expiring London season thus finding their way to Li For the encouragement of art and taste, and the promotion of their own exhibition, the Academy awards a yearly prize of 50/. to the picture which the members, by a majority of votes, adjudge to be the best, In 1851 the prize was bestowed upon Mr. Holman Hunt’s picture of “ Yq. lentine and Proteus”; and in ae years, upon cher leading men of the Preraphaeclite movement—Millais, Anthony, and Madox Brown. This year Mr. Millais receives the prize for the second time, in 1852 for his “St. Bartholomew’s Eve,” now for his “ Blind Girl.” The Liverpool press, and a large section at any rate of the Liverpool public, dislike Praeraphaelitism ; and the Academy is severely taken to task for its selections, The question of principle involved is, whether an academy should act according to their own judgment as artists, having brother-artists to deal with and a public taste to form and guide, or according to the preference of the public itself. We cannot hesitate to say that, in all such cases, the course adopted by the Liverpool Academy is right, and the only right one. It is the only consistent and conscientious course which can be pursued, whether by an individual, or by a public body, whose opinions are nothing other than the opinions of individuals in the aggregate. In all the varied af- fairs of life, the rule must and can only be the same—personal convic- tion. The Parliamentary elector who votes for the candidate he does not belicve in—the Parliament which passes a statute it holds to be pernicious—the judge who wrests the law against his own conscience to serve a purpose—the doctor who treats his patient contrary to his own estimate of the case—are pronounced to have forfeited their charac- ter as honest men; and the artists who reward the art which they feel to be second-best, when the best is before them, can claim no more lenient sentence because, according to the popular supposition, the question is one rather of * taste” than of demonstration. To act otherwise than on this principle, is to act against one’s better judgment; to prostrate superior knowledge before every shifting gust of fashion or expedi- ency; and to sink from the responsible leader into the accommodating lacquey, It may be very convenient and profitable to fall in with the public taste and register its verdicts; but it is not the part of a body whose knowledge exceeds the publie’s, nor of each honest man within the body. The very rectitude and consistency of the course adopted are urged against it, however, under the name of prejudice or exclusiveness. In the case of the Liverpool Academy, it was a venial eccentricity to prefer one Prieraphaelite picture to its competitors, a grave aberration to prefer six out of seven. But the qualities which carried the decision in the first instance are the same which enforced it in the others, as preéminently distinctive of the entire school; and each successive award is a guarantee that the first was founded not on caprice but on deliberate conviction. The man who prefers one Raphacl to one Guido, one Giotto to one Carlo Dolce, one Turner to one Claude, or one Claude to one Turner, is almost certain, if he has any real opinion on the question at all, to prefer twenty. a the public, then, no controlling power in such matters? The have a very forcible one—the controlling power over themselves. they thoroughly and permanently dissent from the course pursued by their artistic purveyors, they will cease to patronize them, and will re- duce them to the alternative of honourable extinction or ignominious submission. Either way they will have gained the immediate visible victory, and, whether in the interests of true art or of false art, the fact must stand; but, if they are wise, they will prefer to overwhelm honest opponents rather than scare principle into timeserving. But we trust the result may be far different from this. We hold that the Liverpool Academy have been right, not only in their principle of action, but in the specific application of that principle ; that the Pre- raphaclite art is the vital and progressive art of the day—progressive both as rising above other cotemporary art, (and even on that its bene- ficial influence is already notably apparent,) and as being in itself the sure basis for progress from studentship to mastership; and that, the prize-pictures having been either absolutely the best in the several exhi- bitions, or at least second to none, the Academy have deserved well of their own townsmen and of the general body of artists. THE MOSELLE.* The author of this book is of opinion that the Rhine has long enough engrossed the admiration of the tourists in that part of the Continent, and that it ought to be the turn of the Moselle. This river, which “rises among the wooded mountains of the Department des Vosges, never during its whole course is otherwise than beautiful,” (which is more than can be said for the Rhine North of Cologne); and there still remain on its shores “‘ more old castles and ruins, and more curious old houses, than can elsewhere be found in a like space of Europe.” So says Mr. Rooke: if all the readers who are startled at the assertion will only go and see, the Moselle will doubtless, by that process alone, be a tolerably “used-up” stream. The author makes up a very pretty vo- lume about it, not only by his writing,—a not very solid texture of sen- timent, romantic tale ‘or heey and description,—but by the sketches which he has himself supplied to the engraver. These certainly give tempting glimpses of the scencry,—the limpid river, sweetly and richly wooded hill and dale, gentle declivity and mountain grandeur, the moonlit ripple and the sun-streaks through the trees, the picturesque cottage and the relies of lordly castles. In many of the designs there are manifest enjoyment and sweetness, combined with that individuality of material which it is scarcely possible to get in a fancy-sketch, and for which faithful portraiture is the only panacea. Much beautiful compo- sition is also to be noticed,—dependent, indeed, chiefly on the pic- turesqueness of the scenes themselves, but partly also on the intelligent selection of the designer; and, in the choicer examples, the engraving, as well asthe sketching, is extremely nice. Considerable inequality may be detected in Mr. Rooke’s designs; but we prefer to dwell only upon those in which he shines the most. ® The Life of the Moselle, from its Source in the Vosges Mountains to its Junc- tion with the Rhine at Coblence. By Octavius Rooke, Author of * The Channt s, P 1, Legendary, and Descriptive.” Illustrated with seventy En- from Original Designs by the Author; Engraved by T’, Bolton, Published ~~ — | - Ser AAA on ui >_ fe ey aco or wt uw tior mor « fall tor

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January 2, 1858.] SPECTATOR SUPPLEMENT. 27 Just "Just published, in 8vo. oan . 3s. 6d. cloth; 2s. 6d. IEUT.-COL. MAC ONAL D’S' LET- TERS ON THE BANK CHARTER ACT OF 1844, AND THE CURRENCY, in reply to * Merca- tor,” the ** Times,” and the ** Economist.” Ricnarpson, Brorners, 23, Cornhill, E.C. Of whom may be had, by the same Author, 1. THE ERRORS AND EVILS OF THE BANK CHARTER ACT OF 1844, as divulged by Lord Overstone in his Lordship’s Ev idence before the Select Committee appointed to inquire into the Causes of the Commercial Distress in the year 1847. Price 6d. 2. Mr. GEORGE COMBE’S DOCTRINES ON THE CURRENCY QUESTION EXAMINED AND REFUTED. Price 1s. Sent free, by post, price ls. (in Stamps,) 64 p HE EASY SEL F-CURE W ITHOUT MEDICINE, Inconvenience, or Expense, of all Stomach, Nervous, Bilious, Pulmonary, and Liver Complaints, by a Natural, Pleasant, Safe, and Effect- ual means, which saves Fifty Times its Cost in other Remedies. Supported by Testimonials from the celebrated Pro- fessor of Chemistry, Dr. Andrew Ure; Dr. Shorland ; Dr. Harvey; Dr. Campbell; Dr. Gattiker; Dr. Wurzer; Dr. Ingram; and many other respectable persons, whose Health has been restored by it, after al] other means of Cure had failed, London : Maxx, Nernews, 39, Cornhill; and all Booksellers in Town and C ountry. BOOKS yom RAILWAY R EADING. HE RISE OF OUR INDIAN EMPIRE, By Lord Manon, (now Earl Stanhope.) Being the History of British India from its Origin till the Peace of 1783. Extracted from his “* History of Eng- land.” ‘ ~ady, WN st Svo. Il. PEN AND PENCIL SKETCHES IN INDIA. By General Munpy, Author of “ Our An- tipodes.”” Cheap Edition. Plates. Post 8vo. Ill. LETTERS FROM HEAD-QUARTERS; or Realities of the War in the Crimea. By a Staff Officer. A Condensed Edition. Portrait and Plans. Post 8vo. 6s. Jonn Murray, NEW ILLUSTRATED WORK, Price 1/7. ls. clegantly bound, HE LIFE of the MOSELLE; from its Source in the Vosges Mountains to its Con- fluence with the Khine. Illustrated by Seventy beautifully-exeeuted Wood- Engravings from Drawings by Ocravivs Rooxr, Esq. Author of *“* The Channel Islands, Pictorial, Legend- ary, and Descriptive.” It was a happy thought of Mr. Rooke to make the Moselle the subject of an illustrated volume—the wood vignettes from his original drawings are charming.”— Atheneum. ** Picking his steps amongst flowers of poetry, prose, rhyme, and bits of landse: ape study, and looking at the pretty vignettes made from his drawings, one is sen- sible of a certain quiet satisfaction, &e., and if on had | half-formed intention of visiting the Moselle it would be streng ‘thened by the general impression derived from this volume. Globe. London: L. Boorn, 307, Regent Street, W. [PAE YT SOCIET Y, the purpose of Printing Voyages and Travels. Albemarle Street. established for ih we and Unpublished Now ready, for the Subscribers of 1857, INDIA in the FIFTEENTH CENTURY ; being a Collection of Narratives of Voyages to India in the Century preceding the Portuguese Discovery of the Cape of Good Hope, from Latin, , Russian, and Italian Sources; now first translated into English. Edited, with an Introduction, by R. H. Masor, Esq. F.8. The following are in course of preparation, and will appear shortly, A COLLECTION of DOCUMENTS form- ing a MONOGRAPH of the VOYAGE of HENRY HUDSON. To be edited by N. E. 8. A. Hamivron, Esq. of the British Museum, with an Introduction by Gronor Asner, Esq. LL.D. The VOYAGE of VASCO DE GAMA round the CAPE of GOOD HOPE in 1497, now first translated from a Contemporaneous Manuscript, accompanied by other Documents, forming a Mono- graph on the Life of De Gama. To be translated and edited by Rictarp Garyert, Esq. of the British Museum. BLACK’S SCHOOL-ATLASES. 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. 28 SPECTATOR .SUPPLEMENT. [January 2, 1858. THE ALEXANDRE HARMONIUM SIX GUINEAS. ALEXANDRE and SON have made this HARMONIUM at the lowest price possible, to bring the Instrument within the means of all classes. It is in an OAK CASE, with FOUR OCTAVES, is alike calculated for Private Houses and for CHapeis, and is INDISPENSABLE TO THE SCHOOL-ROOM. The attention of Merchants and Shipping Agents is especially invited to this Instrument. The SIX-GUINEA HARMONIUM will be taken in Exchange for any of the more expensive description, without loss or diminution, ALEXANDRE and SON obtained the sole MEDAL OF HONOUR at the Great Erhibition at Paris (1855). THEIR HARMONIUMS HAVE BEEN PRONOUNCED THE BEST BY ROSSINI, AUBER, ADAM, THALBERG, LISZT, &c. AND BY The Professors of the Conservatoire de Paris. THE MORE EXPENSIVE HARMONIUMS RANGE FROM Ten TO Firty-FIVE GUINEAS. These are brought to the greatest perfection, And are equally adapted to the CHURCH or DRAWING-ROOM, as an Accompaniment to the Voice or Pianoforte. Messrs. CHAPPELL have received a number of ALEXANDRE’S CELEBRATED HARMONIUM PIANOFORTES, WHICH COMBINE THE EXCELLENCES OF BOTH INSTRUMENTS, The two can be used in combination by the same Performer, or each Instrument is perfect in itself. Price, from FORTY to ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTY GUINEAS. AN IMMENSE STOCK OF PIANOFORTES BY THE BEST MAKERS, From TWENTY GUINEAS upwards, which can be thoroughly recommended and warranted. Messrs. CHAPPELL and Co. have OPENED A NUMBER OF NEW ROOMS FOR INSTRUMENTS Enabling the Purchaser to select a Pianoforte or Harmonium from the LARGEST STOCK IN LONDON; AND TO TRY THE MERITS OF THE VARIOUS MAKERS SIDE BY SIDE. FULL DESCRIPTIVE LISTS OF HARMONIUMS, AND OF PIANOFORTES, WILL BE SENT ON APPLICATION TO CHAPPELL AND CO. 49 and 50, New Bond Street, and 13, George Street, Hanover Square. London: Printed by Josern Crayton, of 265, Strand, in the County of Middlesex, Printer, at the office of Josrpa Cayton, 17, Bouverie Street, in the Precinct of Whitefriars, in the City of London; and Published by the aforesaid Joseru Crayton, at 9, Wellington Street, ia the Precinct of the Savoy, Strand, in the County of Middlesex.—Saturpay, 2d January 1858.