The Welshman

EARL RUSSELL OX REFORM. We are happy to reckon Earl llussell among the advocates of wise and just Reform, grieved to perceive that he still adheros to schemes which will give us a Reform without either wisdom or justice. He has just re-published his Essay on the English Government and Constitution, first issued forty years ago, and prefixed to it an introduction which is in fact a manifesto. Amid many curious scraps of i history, such as the original draft of the plan for Reform, 1with Lord Durham's annotations and the statement that but for himself the originil Bill would have included the ballot, his Lordship explains his views as to the changes still re- quired in the constitution of the House of Commons. He declares truly that there are but two bases of thought on which the suffrage can be regulated,—one, that every free man has a right to a voice in the election of his rulers; the other, that the end being good government, and the representation of the people essential to good government, that representation is best which is most complete, yet least interferes with the object for which representation is required. It is the function of the House of Commons, be says, to guard the rights and liberties of the people. It is theirs to protect every subject of their realm in the enjoy- ment of his property and his rights. It is theirs to point out to the Crown, by extending their confidence to one party and refusing it to another, by giving it to certain men and refusing it to certain other men, which is the party and who are the statesmen qualified to govern this mighty empire, to administer its laws, to preserve its honour in the face of other nations, to advise the Crown in matters of peace and war, to maintain the character of the nation unsullied, and its station neither impaired by timidity nor imperilled by rashness." It is necessary for the first two ends that repre- sentation should be full, lest the unrepresented class should be injured or oppressed, and for the third end that it should be limited, lest the nominees of the least educated and most numerous classes should form a House not qualified to per- form that most important task. There is but one class at present in England deprived of representation,-the one which works with its hands. Were they but once admitted and some larger share of power transferred from the south to the north of the Trent, the representation of Great Bri. tain would, we believe, be as perfect and as thorough as is consistent with the only real end-good government upon the principles approved by free men. Therefore, says Earl Russell, "formy part, I should be glad to see the sound morals and clear intelligence of the best of the working- classes more fully represented. They are kept out of the franchise which Ministers of the Crown have repeatedly asked for them, partly by the jealousy of the present holders of the suffrage, and partly by a vague fear that by their greater numbers they will swallow up all other classes. Both those obstacles may be removed by a judicious modification of the proposed suffrage, and by a happy sense on the part of the public that an addition of the votes of the most intelligent of the working-classes to the constituent body will form a security, and not a danger." That paragraph which, except as to the geographical remark, is a mere condensation of Earl Russell's views, con- tains the whole substance of the difference between ourselves and the advocates of democracy. They hold that the suf- frage is an end, we that it is only a means they maintain that every man has a right to be represented, we that his right is to wise and good government through the represen- tation not of all individuals, but of all classes, interests principles, and varieties of thought and impulse. We are happy to believe that the man he of all men living has done most to make English representation real agrees with the second view, that one more leading statesman acknow- ledges that the problem before us is how to make represen- tation complete, not by the creation of masses of votes all actuated by the same idea, but by the admission of the one set of ideas which has hitherto been excluded, and admission in a way which shall give them great and visible force. If that acknowledgment once beomes general among men of Earl Russell's calibre, we Aball have next Parliament a Re- form Bill which will complete the representation of the nation without throwing all holders of property and almost all thinking men into a fever of doubt and alarm. For they must in the end abandon the proposal to which Eirl Russell,-so full of the ideas of 1831 that he signs this paper on January 3, I860, "John Russell,still adheres with his old tenacity, but without his old force of argument. He still pleads for reduction in the qualification, pure and simple, but without advancing a single reason for his sup- port of a proposition four times rejected by a Parliament in which a majority of members stand pledged to some Reform It is not Earl Russell, we trust, who will call the allegation that voting by rectal is based on good old English princi- ples and in conformity with good old English notions of representation" a reason ? A coronet cannot so weigh down a brain that a man wnose whole life has been the endeavour to cope that very dogma should now acknowledge that it is 1. I- an (tunclent, sbould admit that the precedent he has defied all his life is greater than reason, holier than conviction more to be obeyed than expediency. When a Tory talks of 11 the good old English ways" we know what he means,- that he has no arguments to advance, but feds very com- fortable under the abuse attacked but Earl Russell is not yet reduced to a condition of Toryism. Yet we ?a?o p? ceive that he advances a single argument to refute the ob- j?ectiioonns whh?ich h h?av'e °? been made on fnTi e« hj, ?Principles he professes with the means he still suggests To thinking the point at issue is almost as clear as Tn th°f- i proposition. If good govern?n ? tt? as Earl Russell sa)s, to be desired, no one class must be able to monopolize representation. If the suffrage be a house. hold one the working class will be so able. Every further reduction unaccompanied by new guarantees for v.re? tends directly and quickly to household suffrage. Yet seein that clearly, aa from his own definition of principles hVmn.V t l.t;' Earl Russell still rejects with contempt all plans for eaualizing numbers and intelligence as in- Sid.lon. «h "r is even ??y to surrender his own tf n t U gre.At suggestion, the greatest perhaps in its consequences which hrft S! eL made, for ?P?s?nting minoritiea. He would still ». his own plan of giving three members and only two votes to great boroughs, but urges that it would be difficult to introduce," which is only true because he and men like him are half afraid of their own convictions, and 11 perhaps unpalatable in its first working," which is only a vague guess. We do not particularly favour Earl Russell's scheme. It is inferior to that of Earl Grey both in sim- plicity and in securing representation for considerable fractions of opinion, but .till it admits the statesmanlike principle, and even this Earl Russell is prepared to abandon. An old and severe Reformer, trusted by the Liberals of the towns, the Dissenters, and lower middle class as no other statesman is or has been trusted, elevated above the pressure of a constituency, and wise with the experience of forty years of Parliamentary success, Earl Russell could, had he chosen, have obtained a hearing for a plan which was at once a sound compromise between Radicalism and a great improvement in representation, and hIS nwnw Ce\ w knows that unless SOme leader so .tV!! nstpH will make some suggestion an advance towards simple democracy i• s inevitable, yet he adds the weight of his great authority to a plan which has no one recommendation fxcnnt « vulgar simplicity, and abdicates his own position as leader tcfaUwionnk behind Mr Baines. Because ?ne class does not enjoy the representation it ought to possess,  must run the risk of disfranchising every other classTt enough to make real Liberals, those who SrtorfuJ ufee representation of the entire nation, ZnA not of Vn y*f n of the nation, almost despair, when thP.Snt« °U8ht t0 l6ad 8hrink back so visibly ?rom Sthne e difficulties 7 to be eacountefed.—difRcuhiea which ari? imp y from this, that in England convictions however deep are never operative ti they are professed and defendedP by stutesmen ° established reputation. Earl Russell says fthheerre iis danger lest drawbacks inserted in a Reform Bill °Ulre m sweeping away some of its results, as the Cbandos Clause did, and calls on tbe "Liberal party to consent to no candid compromise, to place no weights in the ?i# against '?'?'-y, to trust to no nice tricks of states- mashif n s'j!'116 inventions of ingenious theorists, rather t? han t?o hb.e ? parties to a plausible scheme, which under the Lguuisbe b of an Pi.mprovement of the Reform Act of Lord Gre2y might sweep away half its fruits." They are rather to t?usts .Mo the great innovator Time," that is, as we understand it, to wait until some period of distress, some exaltation of feeling, some irritatioa such as that which fol- lowed the first failures of the Crimean war, shall enable them to carry a reduction u-ithout plausibility. In other words, Liberals, rather than encounter the possible risk of giving the Conservatives an advantage, are to encounter the certainty of allowing to democracy absolute and permanent power, are to disfranchise the educated altogether lest the stupider sec- tion of them should gain a little too much. Does Earl Russell mean to say that his own proposal would sweep away half the results of the Reform Bill? If he does, why did he pro- pose it ? If he does not, what does he moan by classing plain and frank suggestions made by determined Liberals for representing minorities witu insidious plans for restoring the ancient dominance of a class ? Either his proposal does tend to secure fuller representation and better government, or it does not. Ifit does not, he is false to his own avowed principles; if it does, why are all other plans similar in principle, in motive, and in result to be so summarily con- demned ? The truth is, we believe, that to Earl Russell, as to many other strong men, experience has brought wisdom without bringing inventiveness. He can see clearer and can ?P?'s better the true theory of representative government coul^ even in 1831, but the power of devising plans to r& r '26 ^8 °? ideas is deserting him. The difficulties to everl ?'"? so numerous and so formidable that, re- tainin/aMi?L- S °?'?ss as to his goal, he yet despairs of all has trodden so IODG. He can as It werecomtr.h? \??"???? ?S. He can as it ancient roads on ??' ? ?°? ? employ it upon the stead of speed < tS U8e ?'"S destruction in-

rM' ,.1 JULIUS CiESAR. I me momtcur publish** n,„ preface of the History of Julius Cccsar, written h .V18 r? Ce °' the K;11be p,u'"d  as follows Hi6tpnea! truth ought not to be less sacred than religion If the precepts of f?th ele?te our soul .bore tbø interests of this world, the lessons of history, in their turn, inspire us with the love of the beautiful and the just, with a hatred for everything which is an obstacle to the advancement of the welfare of mankind. Those lessons, to be profitable, require certain conditions. It is necessary that facts should be reproduced with rigorous exactitude, that political and social changes should be philosophically analyzed, that the piquant attraction of the details of th,3 lives of public men should not distract attention from their political task or throw their providential mission into oblivion. "The historian too often give3 us the various phases of history as spontaneous events without diving deeper into anterior facts for their real origin and natural deduction in like manner as the artist who in reproducing the accilents of nature devotes himself simply to their picturesque effect without being able in his picture to give their scientific de- monstration. The historian ought to be more t!nu a pointer • he ought, like the geologist, who explains the phenomena of the globe, to disclose the secret of the transformation of our social world. But in writing history, what are the moans to ascertain the truth ? The only way is to follow the rules of logic. Let us take it for granted at once that great results are always due to a great cause, never to a small one in other words, an accident insignificant in appearance never leads to "reat results without a pre-existing cause which has allowed° that small incident to achieve a great result. A spark does not create a great conflagration unless it falls upon combustible materials accumulated beforehand. Montesquieu confirms this idea It is not good fortune,' he says, which rules the world. There are general causes, either mortal or physical, whioh act in every monarchy, elevate it, uphold it, or ruin it. All incidents are subjected to these causes, and if the chance of a battle—that is to say, a special cause-has ruined the State, there existed a general cause which implied that that State was to perish in a single battle in fact, the chief inducements absorb all other special incidents' (1). "If, during a period of nearly 1,000 years, the Romans always issued forth triumphant from the most severe trials and from the greatest dingers, it is because there was a general cause which always rendered them superior to their enemies, and which did not suffer defeats and partial dis- asters to lead to a fall of their sway. If the Romans, after giving to the world the example of a people establishing themselves firmly and growing great by liberty, have seemed since Caesar to throw themselves blindly into serfdom, it is because there existed a general reason which fatally pre- vented the Republic from returning to the pure form of its former institutions; it is because the wants and the new interests of a society in labour required other means to be satisfied. In the same manner that logic proves to us in important events the reason why thry are imperative, in like manner we must recognise both in the long duration of an institution the proof of its worth, and in the incontest able influence of a man upon his age the proof of his genius. The task consists, then, in endeavouring to discover the vital element which constituted the strength of the institu- tion, like the predominating idea which made the man act. Following this rule we shall avoid the errors of those his- torians who collect facts transmitted by preceding ages without arranging them according to their philosophical importance; glorifying what deserves censure and leaving in the dark that which calls for light. It is not a minute analysis of the Roman organization which will make us understand the duration of so great an empire, but a deep investigation into the spirit of its institutions; it is not, moreover, a detailed narrative of the lesser acts of a superior man which wiil reveal to us the secret of his ascendancy, but a careful examination of the elevated motives of his conduct. When extraordinary facts demonstrate an eminent genius, what can be more contrary to good sense than to attribute to him all the passions and sentiments of mediocri- ty ? What more erroneous than not to recognize the pre- eminence of those privileged beinga who appear from time to time in history as brilliant beacons, dissipating the darkness of their epoch and throwing light upon the future ? To deny such pre-eminence would, moreover, be an insult to human nature, by believing it capable of submitting for a length of time and voluntarily to a domination not based upon real greatness or incontestable utility. Let us be logical, and we shall be just. Too many historians find it more easy to lower men of genius than to raise themselves by a generous inspiration to their level by penetrating their vast designs. Thus, as regards Caesar, instead of showing us Rome torn by civil wars, corrupted by wealth, treading its ancient institutions under foot, threatened by powerful nations-the Gauls, the Germams, and the Parthians,-incapable of maintaining itself without a stronger central power, more stable and more just; instead, I say, of drawing that faithful picture, tffisar is represented to us, from his very youth, meditating already upon supreme power. If he resists Sylla, if he disagrees with Cicera, if he enters into alliance with Pompey it is all the result of that farsighted cunning which has divined everything to enslave everything if he dashes into Gaul, it is to acquire wealth by pillage (2), or soldiers de- voted to his cause if he crosses the sea to carry his eagles into an unknown country, the con- quest of which will strengthen that of the Gauls (3), it was but to seek for pearls supposed to exist in the seas of Great Britain (4). If, after having vanquished the formidable enemies of Italy beyond the Alps, he meditates upon an expedition against the Parthians to avenge the defeat of Crassus, it is, say certain histori ails, because activity suited his nature, and that he enjoyed better health when in the field (0); if he accepts wi 4 gratitude a laural crown from the Senate and bears n proudly, it is to his the bald head if, finally, he is as- sassinated by the men whom he has overwhelm with his bounty, it is because he wished to make himself King as if he was not, for his contemporaries as well as for posterity much greater than any King. Since Suetonius and Plu- tarch, such are the miserable interpretations which hare been given to the noblest acts. But by what sign are we to recognize the greatness of a man ? In the sway of his ideas when his principles and his system triumph despite his death or his defeat. Is it not, in fact, the prerogative of genius to outlive destruction, and to extend its empire over future generations ? Caesar disappeared, and his influence predominates still more than during his lifetime Cicero, his adversary, is obliged to exclaim, All the acts of Cassar, his writings, his words, his promises, his thoughts, are more powerful after his death than if he were still alive (6) During centuries it has sufficed to tell the world that such was the will of Csoaar for the world to obey. That which precedes sufficiently indicates the object I have proposed to myself in writing this history. That object is to prove that when providence raises up such men as Caesar, Charlemagne, and Napoleon, it is to trace out to nations the path they ought to follow, to stamp a new era with the seal of their genius, and to accomplised in a few years the work of many centuries. Happy the nations who comprehend and follow them Woe to those who mi- understand and resist them They act like the Jews they crucify their Messiah. They are blind and guilty blind, for they see not the impotence of their efforts to suspend the final triumph of good guilty, for they only retard its progress by impeding its prompt and fertile ap- plication: "In fact, neither the assassi nation of Caesar nor the im- prisonment of St. Helena could destroy beyond revival popular causes overthrown by a league diRguising itself ?? the mask of liberty. Brutus by killing Sr P U,18ed Rome into the horrors of civil war; he did no? pre?enr rei,Ati of Augustus, but he rendered possible th? .? ? "'° and CahguLa. N or has the ostracism of Napoleon by con spu.ng Europe prevented the resuscitation of the t'l and yet how distant are we from that solute '? qUstlOns, from Ue appeased passions, from the le° .it"i'"m? satisfaction given to nations by the fir?t Empire Thus, ever since 1815 has verified itself that prophecy (rff the captive of St. Helena What struggles, what bloodshed, what years will yet be required that the good I w shed to do to mankind Diay be realised (7) ?' NAPOLEON. I P41aee of the Tuileries, March 20, 1862."

WOMEN "ASSOCIATES." The Cambridge Committee appointed to report on the examination of girls has, wo see, recommended the Senate to admit girls for the next three years to the same local examinations as lads of the same age, and to open to them the same individual distinctions, but to suppress the public class-list as inconsistent, we suppose, with the modesty of women, and also as calculated to create an emulation which is not supposed to be a desirable quality of the femiuine nature. It is, we believe, the defect of being a woman,- though we have never tried it,-that you have not only much less choice as to what you shall do, and much less d*fin.?t? in doing it, but also, at present at least, much less definite knowledge of what you could do, even if you had the amplest means of doing it. No doubt this lJt??n' rance is not altogether without compensat^ The happiest part perhaps of a man's life is that during which he is a great problem, an unspoiled potentiality as Mr Carlyle says, himself, and is fully aware that some veins of power still lie in him J unworked. When he has sunk h? shafts into them all, and knows precisely what he cannot do as well as what he can,-when he has accurately computed his practical latitude and longitude, and has nothing further to do than to keep himself to his right place in the world and resist the capricious eddies that so often attempt to force him out of it,-a great part of the fasoination of life vanishes simultaneously with its restlessness. And to women of any real force of character who never know what unworlied ore there may not be within them, this pleasur- able dream often lasts to the very end, and the restlossness with it. Still it is on the whole doubtless a disadvantage not only to be a woman, but to be subject to the additional and arti- fioial misfortune of incompetence to test fairly the calibre of yonr own powers. It is a tentative process with every one and a /n, ,tlVe process which requires a cert.in amo?t of L 1 ? n! V°Ha to pursue with any '???- Nothing c ? be iwn no«lr tK° give a girl a respectable knowledge of her c  the ordinary training in merc" accom- plishments,'8'—ofcouM e° \ve' 'Vncl ode 'th e mC.'U &CC°m[ plishments like arithmetical computation, reading and writing under the term, everything in ?ct which is of the comnletfl an,! thmen U dexterity as distinguished from a complete and thorough mastery of principles, which has ??eenti? irh? ? r th I to con8titute a first-rate education for girls. For though We, may admit that the feminine intellect is ? ? calculated to excel in art than in science,  genius will generally prefer to deal with the indiviJual case to dealing with the general principle, that it usually misses little in missing the training for abstract pursuits, yet the fact nevertheless remains that the excel- lence in art, the capacity for individual insight, the appre- hensive power of the feminine intellect is, in great measure, never fairly displayed, and even, so far as it is displayed, is (1) Montesquieu, Grandeur ct Be cadctiee des Bomain xviii. (2) Suetonius, Cassar, xxii. (3) Cæsar resolved to cross over to Britain, the people of which in every war had supported the Gauls.Cesar. Guerre des Gaules, iv., xx. (4) SuetoniuB, Ceozar, xlvii. (•5) Appian, Civil Wars, i., ex., 326, Scbweighoeuser's edition. (6( Cicero, Epislolw ad Attieum, xiv. (v.) (7) In fact, what disturbances, civil wars, and revolutions have occurred in Europe since 1815 In France, in Spain, Italy, Poland, Belgium, Hungary, Greece, and Germany. in great measure lamed, through its want of preparatory culture in the general principles at the foundation of the arts. Take, for instance, the only department of art in which women have achieved anything like an equal sueceHS with men,-prose fiction. Miss Austen and George Eliot may no doubt rank, M'ss Austen almost if not quite, George Eliot quite, in the very highest ram; of novelty. Yet in generki womJU of genius break do.i even In this their most successful sphere, not for want of power but for want of real intellectual capacity to enter. into the thoughts and a great pr of the life of ;n"n. MUi Austen avoid, tins danger only by omfinini? her sketches to the hgluer aspects Of S,ci:il life and nerer atte upting to give the sldo of a man's character which women do not at once set!. George Eliot does not avoid the danger at all,-but way r Becaii, e, as everyone knows, she ii one or the few women in England who h'>v-» entered quite deeply enough into fie abstract training of men to share many of their intellectual interest* so far as this is requisite for apprehenduu the theorem knots which occupy their thoughts, the intensity of their paMions for abstract en?. 'he forc of amV.ti nis w?ih are q.ite indepndent of v .nity or love off influent We doubt if any women can ever attain to the h?he.?t rank of novelists without having eno?h o? the ma?uhne eda.at.on to g?h?r up at sight most of the clues to the complexities of uiW- lectual character and solitary thought._ But even in other departments of art, in mu?c. ? parting, in p Jetry, the reason, we b.Heve, why w?uen so seld,)ni even to not?Sityt!s?notsomuch deftoioney in tl-it loe of nntver. sal,ity, that eye for broad and typical effects which a grasp of P nc.pte.and study of the theoretic roots of art, is abso- l?'t ly requisite t 0give. \V ???, t?.?hi, raised step if the University of Cambridge b,? spply¡ng .0?9 ??e of true elementary ed.canon or ?s. and giving their parents and teacher., some reU insist ia,o th, value of the education they have received, tnaf da some- thing at least to remove one of the artificial disadvantages of being a woman,-that absolute ignorance of the true roots of artistic anl intellectual "accomplishment which is always necessary in order to attain the highest power m them and that it may remove als), as a consequence of affording this information, that ignorance of self and of the true relative value of her own powers, from which every woman must suffer until she knows something more o' th!;ir nature than is implied in a knark, like imitative dexterity in music, or drawing, or even modern languages when learned rather by conversation than by principle. Many people assert, and very justly, that, after all, woman's highest qualification for happiness is her highest qualification to bn the companion of man. This is true no doubt, but it only strengthens the argument in favour of giving women some thorough insight into the roots of know- ledge. Strong-min led women' are o lious, but in nine cases out of ten strong-minded women are women without strong minds. That mixture of hardness with sentimen- talism which is peculiar to the strong minled troman, that boldness in doing what is unsuitable to them which they try to compensate by fdlse raptures and treacly sympathy for those on whom they lavish their unreal motlOns, the women in short whom Mr Trollope has so skilfully sketched in the picture of Mrs General Talkoys in one of his shorter tales,-would perhaps be rendered impossible, certainly diminished in number, by a little sound intellectual disci- pline enough to teach them something of their true powers and a good deal of their tru weakness. There is a foolish idea that a woman i< more feminine who rehes on tact and the feeling of the moment for such conversational opinions: as may be needed for true companionship, -for no one would wish women to be altogether silent on all subjects they do not understand, even if they think it desirable that they should not understand them. It is considered a great charm in a woman to live completely in the special and the particular, to care nothing for the universal principle, but to find her principles to suit the occasion of the hour. For our own part, we would just as soon have the sympathy of the chameleon as that of a woman who lives completely in particulars, and is quite destitute of power to appreciate a universal principle. Perhaps—such is masculine nature-a wife with more knowledge, more fixity of thought, and more general mental power than oneself might be a blessing in disiuibe." But ono who is goose enough to sympathise at random on subjects whioh she knows little or nothing, because it is feminine' to do so, is a nuisance not in dis- guise and we know nothing so likely to prevent it as a little sound teaching early in life. After all a man might do worse,—though he certainly might do better,-than chance an offer of himself as a prize for the best female competitor in the local Cambridge examination, if instead of taking geo- graphy only, as suggested by a contemporary-an alarming subject, of which as usually taught a judicious forgetfulness is rather a grace than a defect,-he took the net result of the examination. The chances are considerable that the girl in question, even though she should be fool enough to accept her offered reward, would still be better informed, and less conceited than the average of her class, and far less so than the prize she had won. There are great disadvantages in being a woman, but the disadvantages are diminished greatly by being a woman of some education. There is no such thing as a truly feminine mind without large and genuine sympathies but large and genuine sympathies are impossible without the discrimination which education inde- finitely heightens if it does not give, -Spectator. THE DEFENCE OF CANADA. The discussion on Wednesday in the Lords about the defences of Canada was in many ways a very disagreeable discussion, but we incline to think it was a very necessary one, and ended, on the whole, satisfactorily. All of us, we J'magine, feel at heart that we would rather the subject were not talked about, that it is very disobliging of Lord Lyveden to persist in probing the sore, and very ill-temper- ed of Lord Derby to be so very clear, and very indiscreet of Lord Elleoborough to be S'I exceedingly emphatic. But still, when a vote for the fortifications of Quebec is put on the estimates, somebody must ask questions, and as for indiscretion, we must accept the little evils of Parliamentary Government with the great advantages which flow from it. It was really time that the Ministry should in some way or other make it clear whether, if Canada were attacked, Canada would be defended and they did make it clear. "It is certain," said Lord Granville, that if the colony is prepared to take its share in the exertions and expenses which are necessary to its defence, the mother country is bound to give it every assistance in case of any wanton aggression by a foreign Power." Lord Russell was at least equlIv plain. "If Canada," he said, is ready to stand by thi country, then I think this country is hound in honour to stand byCanada an d if they are disposed to grant their resources to defend their soil in connection with Great Britain, we ought to be ready to expend our resources in order to defend them. That is a point not only of interest but of honour. 1 here is no mistakiug expressions like these and it vas right that they should be uttered. They undeceive the Ameriean war party as to any hope of a cheap or bloodless conquest, they give the Canadians heart for new and stronger efforts, and they warn the people of England that the present political lull may, almost at any moment, be followed by a crieis of fierce political exlg.ncy. The decision at ^bjeh the Masters have arrived is, of !couraf.aterv?noytn? one, but still people must occasion- ally in'life come to annoying decisions. Nobody in this country wa?. we suppose, to fight for Canada qua Canada, to suonend commerce and interrupt industry and mortgage the fMt in '?r to retain a tJtular authority over a vast region ?hose inhabitants w,U not even give us a low tariff 7 An American war for any^ thwing « would upon our profd.h?ice .?? ? se;ere trial, and  ?? ? a upon osutr y ptrhoe least f of uis t' kna ow tu d care I rery little about ?'???of us know and care very little about wmil VI nthine short of a calamity. But an Empire, w?outd ??be no'ttS h'? ?o ? certain duties to perform, which, if keantnd.v? cases to be inde? pendent, respected, °?" ^> one ? them to protect subjects, or r *r on in ° whn J? Bnviousto be protected. England could 110 more su £ KnndJa to be J!1vadd than an Englishman could suffer his use to be entered without his own consent. she must, however unwilling, !?e?er whK»t«B«th in the.defer of ? terntory just aSR man must so etimes place his whole fortune at ?ke m a I'.t'? ? ?r necessary to protect his person or pro- P?tyfrom!nj?y outrage To do less would be to pro- P rty from inj ?u. the powerless ones aa well ? the I claim to every color,:5? j, c po%verless ones as well as the powerful, that Cireat ?ritaill  lost the strength or the P?'?' julfil her imperial faction, that they must seek other allies I s ^oulJ one day ho at the m of the ? .?l? hes ? e? greedy claImant. It would be to inform i/s that this country might be attacked with sifety, to-i??"?rs ???/" "??- .?Srcsdoa from all uat?'? ? ?r at least for a generation the tone of the national ?irit the standard of national honour. It could not safely d°ne eTea were the subject of dispute a barren rock and to do it when three millions of English- men ar?trct?hicg their hands for help, arming themselves and?ing themselves in order to bear their part, would be a basenesS which uo amount of danger to our commerce could X As to the vote on the estimates,'tbe Ministry have acted sensibly and moderately enough. Having a house to defend they put a new lock on the door. They sent a good engin- eer officer to Canada, accepted his arifico to fortify three or four places, decided that Quebec fell to them, and asked Parliament for a very moderate vote — £ 200,000—to enable them to do their clear duty. The money will bo spent slowly because labour comes in slowly, but the work will be done as fast as may be, and when it is done the British Govern- ment will have at least one place in the interior of Canada where it can disembark, collect, and equip troops in safety. Of course it would be pleasanter and wiser to do as Lord Derby said, and gf) on fortifying silently and secretly, but that particular act of wisdom would hare been performed at a price Lord Derby would not be willing to pay, a breach of the constitution upon its fudamental poiit.-Ecoitoinist

RUSSIAN PROSPECTS. Th e Russmn Government, the Russian nobles, and the Russia" aqulre,-of Moscow, too, the most enlightened and advanced provwee of Russia,—have each made a great advanced T\e no?les, that is, the landed proprietors, b-i?e had from time immemorial the power of meeting and addressing reports or petitions to the Government. By the pew Jaw of rUlal organIzation this was confirmed. But when the other day the first use came to be made of the privilege, the great lords turned up their lioaes at the squires, and said, Considering the quantity of ground ye have been obliged to give up to your serfs, we are no longer nobles at all ye are only plain country gentlemen, and not fit company for us. Hereupon the squires, in a huff, append to tne Emperor and his Council, declaring that they were nobles, and claiming the right to sit and partici- pate with the assembly of nobles. The answer that was given makes us doubt the supreme wisdom of the Imperial Council. It declared that the squires should sit with the nobles, or the gentleman of £ 1,000 a year with the magnate of £ 6,000. Very hard this upon the nobles. But the contrary would have been hard; upon the squires. The new statute established noble, municipal, and commercial council. But where would be the squires? Suspended between heaven aud earth, and; having no status whatever. Now if the Russian smaller proprietors had the least knowledge of history, or of the science of political history, they world rejoice at their repudiation by the magnates. They should concert amongst themselves, ask to form assemblies apart, and associate with them the men of the monied and industrial interests. This is what was done in the English Parliament, and this is, in fact, the great secret of the British Constitution, The Grand Duke Constantine is an admirer of British institutions. He now presides at the Council, and we are surprised that he did not seize the opportunity of intro ducing into Russia one of the most vital and peculiar of our political principles. n so d ling he would have reduced the magistrates and their assembly, if not to insignificance, at least to a far diminished :importiace in the State. And \1 the magnates aro the great magnates of the new institution of serf-emancipation and of the domestic policy of the Go- vernment. The Ruasiari "Court, however, does not acknowledge that which the country gentleman has graven uwn his armour, viz., that all owners of 1 .n i are noble and ail others ignoble. Tile Emperor say*; Ail whom I employ are noo'e, an I those who ire not in my c-iuploy are ignoble. Both of thes dis- tinctious arcr likely to peril, n-iy, to aid iu destroying each other, unless the Court be adroit enough t) blend and equalize the true aristocracy, those of birtii and fortune, with those of high employ. A fine opportunity has been missed 'by the Russian country gentleman. It is only the magnates who meet, talk, and pe'ition. But the Russian proprietor is no longer what he was. His fathers used to run first to Court, and then over Europe, get in debt, and be at the mercy of indolent Government officers. It is not so now; he is obliged so stay at home, wat"h the changes effected by the new order of thing, and make the best of them. He can- not go on his and come home to slumber, as he used to do; He must wake and calculate, he must take care to keep up his respectability, his fortune, ani his stains. There is a geuoral struggle ia Russia for this end, the aintenance of social rank. And it cannot but greatly improve a class of the population of that great empire which greatly needed the lesson.—Examiner.

THE STATE OF THE MONEY HRKET. I two contrary, out tor the moment altnm equal agencies are now contending i.i the money mirket; etc of them tends to lower the value of mon?y, tho other to prerent its bing hwered. and it is of great importance to have a dis- tin u vie v of th2 exact nature of eari of these agencies, and as far as may b; (for sujh estimates are inevitably diffi- cult) of the relative magnitude of each. Tile first ca-ise-tlle cause that t2nii to diminish trade- is the diminution of the magnitude of our foreign trade. It is much to be regretted that the most recent figures cannot be given. The Boird of Trade at the end of the yeir are perhaps needlessly precise, anl therefore, needlessly dilatory in the publication of their monthly returns. Ample experience has proved that these returns, as issued from month to month, are quite sufficient in accuracy for the purposes of men of business. The fnrther revision suitable for statistical students may be reasonably delayed till the publication of the quarto blue-book which only such students ever consult. But the last information wa have shows our trade to have rapidly diminished in consequence of the crisis of the autumn. People then stopped doing I business-stopped transacting, and now we feet the effects. Bills are getting scarce, and the surplus money in Lom- b ird street, though not excessively large, is considerable. The figures show the reduction, and its date. Up to October this year the Board of Trade returns showed a pteady increase in tSGl over 1853. Take the three months pre- ceding- October, our exports were — 1863 18-14 £ £ July 13,648,840 14,394,304 August 14,088,814 16,274,269 September 14,542,862 14,687,JI2 But in Ootober and after, the tale is not one of compara- tive increase, but comp-trative diminution .— 1863 1S64 £ £ October 15,082,332 12,571,491 November. 12,758,323 12,065,213 December 14,354,400 12,095,437 After the crisis at the end of the year our exports dimi- nished, but up to the crisis they steadily increased. What happened in January we do not yet know, we only just know what we have set down. As to our imports we have only very defective informa- tion the only two months, during and after the crisis, with which we are officially acquainted are October and Novem- ber bat in these there is a diminution too. The figures flrft — 1863 1864 dG £ October 20,394,503 17,014,070 November. 20,309,746 16,161,570 Most probably owing to the great tail in produce the official accounts in February and March, when we receive them, will show a much greater diminution. But up to the present time we are able to say as much as this, that a very considerable reduction in the quantity of our foreign trade, whether of export or of import, is m progress, and that accordingly an almost universal diminution of foreign trade brings about a speedy diminution in the value of money. If it were not for a new cause, we should expect net only a diminution, but a very great diminution. But we have taken up a new trade, the trade of lending. England is now by a machinery more refined and effioient than it ever before had, with a regular magnitude which was never be- fore approached, lending to the industrial organisation and the Governments of foreign countries. If any one wants a large sum of money at once he comes to London for it, and if any one wants permanent capital he may ex- pect to find much of it in England if he pays an adequate interest, and gives what will be thought good seourity for it. This point was expressed with admirable precision in an important article, sailed Seven per Cent," in the Edin- l/urgh licview :Whiie numerous countries are eagerly competing for our financial assistance, now that assistance has arisen on an adequate scale by which that assistance can be rendered without excessive risk to the lender, it is clear that so long as this new system remains sufficiently popular to command, if not to entrap, the confidence of investors, the rate of interest cannot possibly, ceteris paribus fall below a point at which companies trading with foreign countries are willing to take it." These are the two antagonistic causes now in question-the diminution of trade and the increase of lending. What may be the rela- tive magnitude of these it is not possible to say in figures; but three general propositions may be hazarded. First. For the moment, the diminution of trade is likely to get the better. The rate of interest is likely to go down. The returns of the banks of England and France are both favourable. Good bills are hard to get in Lombard street, and an inevitable tendency depresses the value of money, though the largest holders, from a natural fear of un- wise speculation, would, if they could, keep it somewhat dear. Secondly. The tendency to lend to foreign countries— the cause which augments the value of money-is much less temporary than the present diminution of foreign trade. The check to commercial enterprise was caused by momen- tary occurrcncies of the autumn, but the increased wish to lend to foreign countries in good credit, of stable govern. ment, and industrial energy, arises from our augmented intelligence, and the improved state of the world. Foreign countries are better worth lending to than they were, and we know that they are better. The rate of interest tends to equalize itself throughout the world, because nations which need little borrowing ability have now more, and nations which need to have comparatively little capital that they were willing to lend, have now comparatively more. Thirdly. The lending propensity is a propensity likely to be accelerated. The value of money is likely to go down perhaps even to 4 per cent., at any rate to go down some- what, and the more we reduce money, the value of capital, j here, the greater is the bounty we give to those who wish to take it abroad. The result is, that though the causes depressing the value of money are more powerful for the moment, and the rate of discount likely to be lowered, we must not expect a permanent return to cheap money, because the agency which now reduces the value of money is essentially temporary, and there is a new cause of a lasting character at work in the market which tends, and will tend as com- pared with past ears, to increase il.-Economist.

THE FLIM-FLAMS OF CONVOCATION. I Is Convocation truly representative, not of the Church, for that embraces the laity, but of the ministerial part, the clergy ? According to the representations made in Convo- cation, esnecially by the Bishop of Oxford, the clergy are as full of griefs as a fig is full of seeds. Their minds are disquieted and alarmed by one thing, troubled by another, their consciences aggrieved by something else. The Essays and lieviews,' the Judgment of the Judicial Com- mittee of the Privy Council, the writings of Colenso, the Burial Service, the Divorce Court, all these, not to mention minor matters, are represented to be causes of the intensest affliction to the clergy; and Bishop Wilberforce pathetically asks, if not for remedies, at least for some expressions of sypmpatby to soothe the grief. But where is it to be seen ? Where are the outward and visible signs ? There are about 16,000 parishes of England and Wales, and do their respec- tive Itectors, Vicars, and Curates bear the appearance of men borne down by troubles and anxieties? Do they bear themselves like men under the peltings of a storm of cala- mities ? Do they seem as if they could not be comforted, or as if they stood in no need of comforting ? Do their appe- ties fail them ? do they waste away and do their gaiters get to large for their shrunken legs ? Johnson made appetite the test of what he called "con- secrated lies," and he refers to a disastrous event upon which every man's heart was said to beat and his eyes to fill with tears, and observes, Now we know that no man eat his dinner the worse, but there should have been all this concern, and to say there was may be reckoned a consec- rated lie." But in the instance of the alleged manifold griefs of the clergy there should not be the pretended con- cern, so that the lie loses its consecration, and what it remains then, it is not for us to say. Upon the same theme of exaggerated language, Johnson sajs, "When a butcher tells you that his heart bleeds for his country he has, in fact, no uneasy feeling," nor has the clergyman when he declares that his conscience is pained by the law of divorce. It is a mere figure of speech to express dislike, or, as Johnson would call it, a consecrated lie. But the Bishop of Oxford takes all these figments of sorrow seriously, and gravely asks Convocation to express sympathy with the complaining clergy in their grief of heart. But they have half a dozen griefs of heart,-the Essays and Reviews,' the Judicial Committee of the Privy Counsel, Colenso, the Burial Service,—and not a whit are the holy men the worse for their sorrows in body or mind. Do they sleep the worse, eat the worse, enjoy life and the good things thereof the less? Not a jot. And presently Bishop Wilberforce attributes excellence to the part of the clergy which describes itself as made miserable by the Divorce Court, as if that alone established their superiority over their brethren. But why did they not begin to be miserable a little sooner, why were their nice consciences not pained by the divorce of the rich in the House of Lords, why were not their fears for morality excited before reports of evidence related the misdoings of cheesemongers and greengrocers? for indecency existed before 1857, and if the cases were inrer they were also of a higher class of parties, which gare them more interest and piquancy for the public. Indeed, some of the divorce cases in the House of Lords surpass anything yet exhibited in the Divorce Court in point of grossness, yet the Bishops could keep their places in the House during those proceedings. The Bishop of St. David's having shrewdly suggested that they were asked to do a very foolish or a very improper thing, to bestow their sympathy without a specIfic object, or to imply that the Legislature had violated the law of the Church "The Bishop of Oxford said that what he intended to con- vey was this. It had been represented to their lordships that the alteration in the law of marriage placed several of the clergy in very difficult and painful circumstances, and their consciences were aggrieved; for, whether they were right or wrong, they found differences had been introduced between the law of the Church of which they were minis- ters, ami the law of the State to which they were bound to submit." But the Bishop of Salisbury went further, and said The relief given to the c'.ergy under the Act was of tho very slightest kind, for it merely said that while a clergyman need net break the law of G d in bis own church another cterayman might do it if tailed on for that purpose." Now this is too bad. The Act does not say that a clergyman need not break the law of God in his owa Church. The Act says nothing whatever of breaking the law of God, and the statement that ideas so is utterly false and grossly scandalous. The Bishop, it may be said, has submitted his inference of effect for the express intention of the Legislature; but he had no right in fair and decent controversy to do this, and to ascribe to a measure sanctioned by the Queen, the head of the Church, and the Lords and Commons, tile intended permission of a breach of the law of God. We doubt whether Johnson would have admitted this sort of representation into the class of figments to which he gave the indulgent name of the concentrtted. Convo cation has at least this merit, that it brings f, orwardj the better heads of the Church in contrast with the fanatical and the high-flyers, as they used to be called So as a set off to the busybody Bishop of Oxfoid, we have the learned & wise Bishop of tit Davij's, and against the weak Arch- bishop of Canterbury, there is the excellent senee and moderation of the Bishop of London. But still the sounder judgment are much outnumbered, though the minority makes up in weight of reputation for what it wants in number", and in discussion its superiority is very telling. For instance, after the Bishop of Oxford had been blowing the hugh bubble of the grief of heart of the clergy caused by the law of divorce, with the touch cf a needle's point the Bishop of SL David's reduced the bubble to its soap- suds The Bishop of St. David's said he was inclined to move as an amendment that tha House lamented that there were c ergymen whose consciences were aggrieved. To say he sympathised Nxith them would be to imply that their scruples were well founded. lie did not see that any persons should be debarred from a participation in the Holy (Communion because the clergyman happened to hold diffe- rent views." This turned the whole nonsense inside out. If the clergy were really grieving their hearts eut because of the Divorce Court, their mcrbid sen sibility would be a disorder much to be deplored, not entitled to any rational sympathy. But no one believes that any person in the land has bad a stronger feeling about the matter than the dissatisfaction which not only consists with all the enjoyments cr life, but which is itself an enjoyment to minds of a certain cast M any of us are highly contented with our discontents. It sounds a paradox, but what of that? Human nature abounds with paradox. Certain we are of this, that if there had been no Essays and Reviews co decision of the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council; no Colenso; no Divorce Court; a part of the clergy would have wanted what has contributed much to their pleasurable o cupation in the cheap and easy exercise of virtuous indignation. These in fact have all been chances, and it is absurd to talk of their pains while the pleasure is betrayed in the ardour of the pursuit. What a run Colenso has given, and how strong lies the scent of the Divorce Court. But the Bishop of Oxford spoils all by overdoing it with what looks very much like a lacqupr of hypocrisy. He will represent the clergy as the afflicted body, which all their parishioners know they are not. He will not observo that discreet maxim: Lest men believe your tale untrue, Keep probability in view. lIe exaggerates griefs, and he exaggerates causes of griefs, so that credulity turns from what is so outrageously out of proportion to truth. We have seen how with a word the Bishop of St. David's has exposed the un- reality of the first representation, and the Bishop of Peter- borough was as happy and effective in disposing of tho second. After all the tirades against divorce as sinful and contrary to the Word of God, the Bishop of Peterborough said He was not sure that divorce for the great crime of adult ry was not rather a consecration than a desecration of the state of holy matrimony." And all who have thoroughly thought the matter through will concur in this view. The holy state of matrimony can- not consist with a deadly sin, but must be dissolved by it.- Examiner.

Major-General Marcus Slade, twin-brother of the late Sir Frederick Slade, Bart., has been promoted to the rank of lieutenant-general. DEADLY EFFECTS OF THE YEW TREE.—One day lately three kyloes, pasturing in a field on the estate of Mark Sprot, Etq., of Riddell, Roxburghshire, were allowed to browse on the branches of a yew tree, and in a very short time all the animals gave symptoms of being poisoned. Shortly afterwards one of them died, and a part of the carcase was thrown into the dog kennell at Riddell, wnen one of the dogs which had eaten of the flesh was suddenly seized with illness, and died on the following day.-Edi)iq. burah Courant. HOLLO-WAY'S PILLS.—SOURCE OF STRENGTH—No deep philosophy is wanted to prove that health and vigour depend upon the purity of the blood yet how few act upon this truth, compared with the many who neglect them- selves and lay the foundations of the most formidable com- plaints, when a few doses of these purifying Pills would give them instant comfort and future health. Holloway'a is no palliative treatment, but the most searching and fundamen tal means of redreesing all wrongs in the stomach, liver, kidneys, and throughout the circulatory and nervous systems. Holloway's Pills are most admirably adapted for a family med icine, since the most youthful, delicate, and snsce ptible, may fearlessly take them, when more violent measures would be highly dangerous. A PARLIAMENTARY ANNIVERSARY.—Mr E. C. Stebbing, in a letter to The Times, says :—" Six hundred years ago Simon de Montford summoned in Henry III.'s ninic a grant council of the realm, at which not only the great barons and the two good, lawful, and discreed knights from each shire were present, but also, for the first, time, representative of the boroughs. This is, I believe, the first instance on record of the sitting of a Parliament, as we at the present time understand the term. It is true the writs were issued in 1264, but I imagine the assembly did not meet for the discussion of affairs till next year. Surely, in these days of Handel and Shakspere Tercentenaries, so great an anniversary as the present should not pass un- noticed. CARDINAL WISE-IIAN.-It is stated that Cardinal Wise- man has left a memoir on the condition of the Roman Catholic Church in England, and on his infiuenoe in deve- loping the interests of his religion in this country. At the end of the memoir are statistical tables, which are intended to show that Roman Catholicism has made continual pro- gress in England since the cardinal's arrival, and that by his direct or indirect influence 71 churches and 35 Roman Catholic convents have been built in London and its en- virons only. Also that the priests who were under the immediate orders of the cardinal numbered 1,338 in Eng- land (comprising 17 bishops), 183 in Scotland (comprising four bishops), which will give a total of 1,521 priests, showing a considerable augmentation of their numbers. In 1829 there were only 29 Roman Catholic churches in London, and one convent; in 1857 there were 46 churches and 11 convents and in 1863 there were 117 churches and 46 conveiits.Post DIVIDENDS AND TRAFFIC.—The principal dividends an- nounced this week have proved disappointing to mrny per- sons who had relied solely upon increased receipts as a test of the amount to be divided. The Great Eastern has an increase in its gross receipts of X16,000, but will pay only the same rate of difidend as for the corresponding half year of 18G3. The Great Western has an increase of nearly £ 130 000, and with it pays only an additional quarter per cent while in the last half-year the increase was about L20,000 and they were enabled to pay an additional one per cent of dividend. This uncertainty with respect to the pro- portion of gross earnings which is to be available for divi- dends exercises a considerable effect upon the market value of railway property. In the cases of the London and North- Western, the Lancashire and Yorkshire, the North-Eastern, and one or two other lines, the percentage of gross receipts which is divided is very large, while in others the proportion is either very minute or is altogether absorbed. Various explanations will no doubt be given for the small proportion of receipts thus divided. In the case of the Great Western, the forthcoming report will show that the unsatisfactory dividend is caused by increased working charges lhe loco- motive department will show an increase of Y,8,000, and the charges under the heads of carriage and waggon aaoounts and general charges will show an aggregate increase of nearly £ 40,000 over the corresponding period of last year. A large additional outlay on capital account has also tended to add considerably to the interest charges. These and some smaller items of working expenses will sufficiently account for the fact of this very small addition now made to the di vidend.-liailzcay IVetts n.- RECENT WILLS AND BEUUESTS.—lhe will ot tne non, Penelope Powys was proved in London, on the 3rd inst., under 1,9,000. The testatrix was the relict of the Hon. and Rev Littleton Powys, Rector of Titcbmarsh, who died in 1842, and was the daughter and co-heir of James Haste Esq., an d sole surviving representative of John Hasten, Eq., of Warden Park, Bencher of the Inner Temple, and Chief Clerk of the House of Commons. Her son Littleton, in 1853, took by royaljlicence the additional name of iiatseu. The testatrix has left some small charitable bequests-viz., to the Church Missionary Society, the Bible Society at Thrapstone, and St Mary's Hospital, Paddington, each £10. -The will of William Bide, Esq of Yeovil, Somersetshire, was proved in London under L70,000 personality. The exe. cutors are Henry G. Andrews, of Rimpton Francis Berry- man, of Shepton Mallet; and Henry Marsh Watts, of Yeovil To each of them there is a legacy of ?lOO? at s of wife he leaves an annuity of £1,000 and a legacy of £ 1,200., also the residue of his property, together with his residence and furniture, for her life, which, upon her decease, he beoucaths to his nephew, Thomas Wt.ham Dampier, to wbo? 1?-s an annuity of £500 and ?P"?' him re- versionary residuary legatee of both the personal and real estates, including his freeholds in the counties of Somerset and Dorset. There are annuities of £250 to each of bis two nieces, Elizabeth Bride Dampier and Mary Ann Whetham, who ara to receive X6000 each out of the residue upon the decease of the relict. The will of William Sollory Grey, Esq., merchant, of Cullam-street, Clty, d of t. Leonards-on-Sea, was proved in London under £ 45,000 personalty, the acting executors and trustees being his partners, John Alexander Russell and Timothy Ilorsman Coles, Eqrs. The other executor and trustee appointed, John Grellier, Esq., 01 the Royal Exchange, renounced. To each of the executors he leaves a legacy of X200 free of duty. To his wife he has bequeathed the sum of X20,000 and the furniture, carriage, etc., and leaves her the estate he lately purchased called Malculm Feth, at St. Leonards. He leans liberal legacies to his sister-in-law, Elizabeth Grey, and to otbi r relatives and friends aud to Ragonath Abbnjee, of Bombay, £ 200. lo the Benevolent Society of Blues, .,CIOO. The residue of his property he leaves to his brotlur-in law, the said John Alexander Hussel.-Thc late John Hayes, Esq., of Shep- herd's-bush, died intestates. His personal property was sworn under £ 30,000, and letters of admiration were granted to his nephew, the RevChailes Hayes, ofEdgingswell House, Torquay.—Illustrated London Hews.