government. We do not say that he was Statue or bust could never represent him to faultless, or that he always succeeded in the imagination. It is always a real human holding the balance even between the differ-being, a live workfellow or playfellow that ent classes of men. Indeed, his very last meets you with the quaintest, kindliest smile, aspiration was to correct an error which some takes you by the hand, looks into your face, of his writings might seem to encourage. and straightway your heart is touched to He says in the letter to Sir Robert Peel above open and let him in. In life he complained of alluded to, the last letter that he ever his cold hand; it used to be chilly as though wrote, "My physical debility finds no tonic he was so near an acquaintance of Death virtue in a steel pen, otherwise I would have that they shook hands daily. You cannot written one more paper-a forewarning one feel the cold hand now; that was put off with -against an evil, or the danger of it, arising the frail mortality. The hand he lays in from a literary movement in which I have yours is warm with life. He draws you had some share, a one-sided humanity, oppo- home to him. You must see Hood in his site to that catholic Shaksperian sympathy, home to know him: see how he touches with which felt with king as well as peasant, and something of beauty the homeliest domestic duly estimated the mortal temptations of both relationships; see how he will transmute the stations. Certain classes at the poles of so-leadenest cares into the gold of wit or poetry; ciety are already too far asunder; it should keep a continual ripple of mirth and sparkle be the duty of all writers to draw them of sunny light playing over the smiling surnearer by kindly attraction, not to aggravate the existing repulsion, and place a wider moral gulf between rich and poor, with hate on the one side and fear on the other. But I am too weak for this task, the last I had Eet myself; it is death that stops my pen, you see, and not the pension.'

Finally, II od was not one of those lofty and commanding minds that rise but once an age, on the mountain ranges of which light first smiles and last lingers. He does not keep his admirers standing at gaze in distant reverence and awe! He is no cold, polished, statuesque idol of the intellect, but one of the darlings of the English heart. You never think of Hood as dead and turned to marble.

face that hides the quiet dark deeps where the tragic life is lived unseen; from the saddest, dreariest night overhead bring out fairy worlds of exquisite fancy touched with rosiest light. And whatsoever place his name may win in the Temple of Fame, it is destined to be a household word with all who speak the English language. Though not one of the highest and most majestic amongst immortals, he will always be among those who are near and dear to the English heart for the sake of his noble pleading of the cause of the poor, and few names will call forth so tender a familiarity of affection as that of rare "Tom Hood."

The

graphs, after original water-color drawings by Robert Kretschmer, and scientia: allend will complete the work. It is to appear in large folio, and its price is fixed at about five pounds.

THE Duke of Coburg's late journey to North Africa is about to form the subject of a splendid work now in pr piration. It will be in three parts. The first will contain the journey to Egypt, the stay at Chiro and Alexandrii, a Nile journey, the journey to the Red Sea and Massana. second part, written by the duke himself, will describe hunting and travelling adventures in the mountains of Abyssinia, and will include observations on the Bogos countries and their inhabitants. The last part will contain a history of the events which befell the travelling company A PENDANT to Lessing's "Lokoon" has apat Massena, the return over Egypt, the second peared. It is also called “Lokoon,” and its hustay at Cairo, a visit of the ladies of the harem, thor is George Rathgeber, the author of "Anand the journcy home. Twenty chromo-litho-drokles, hitherto called the Borghese fighter."

GUSTAV FREITAG's novel, " Debit and Credit," has got to its tenth edition, a figure reached for the first time by a German novel in the course of the present century.

From The Spectator, 17 Oct THE SEIZURE OF THE STEAM RAMS.

equipment of the vessels in England within low water-mark; and thirdly, the connection between the equipment and the unlawful purpose, the Enlistment Act was about as operative as if already obsolete. There was literally nothing to prevent the Peninsular and Oriental Company from making war upon Egypt, under the Abyssinian flag, or the whole Irish people from bombarding Italian ports under the command of any officer

Ir the present impulses of the middle class were obeyed, England would by one and the same act, offer the United States a casus belli, surrender the right of the sovereign to prohibit private war, and establish the principle that a power without a coast may keep a fighting fleet at sea. Fortunately those impulses are, under our system, filtered by pass-nominated by the pope. The Government ing through minds hardened by the long pos- was sinking into the position of an authorsession of power, accustomed to watch the ity so discredited that it could not prevent consequences rather than the motives of pub- hostilities against powers with whom it had lic acts, and inclined in the first instance to decided to remain on friendly terms-to the distrust all popular and emotional policy. position, in fact, popularly assigned to the More fortunately still, the minister with whom Federal Cabinet with the additional aggravathe decision primarily rests is one in whom tion that the power claimed by single States the quality of pluck rises to a high political of the Union is exercised in this country by virtue, who regards responsibility not as an individual shipbuilders, and is extended by annoyance, but as the pleasantest incident of the colonies over the civilized world. There high official position. Earl Russell has sel- is nothing Indian shipbuilders would like dom done a wiser, never a braver, public act better than pillaging Batavia under the flag than the stoppage of Mr. Laird's steam rams. of the Sultan of Bruni; Mauritius owners He knows, no man better, how great will be would strike in in the quarrel between Madathe annoyance of the friends of the South, gascar and France with very decisive effect; how easy it is in England to get up a clamor and even Australia, distant as she is, could against any act, however inevitable, which in the Pacific embroil us fairly with half the bears, or can be made to bear, an appearance powers of the globe. No government with a of submission to pressure from without. To right to exist, least of all a government stop the rams was to defy three-fourths of the founded on Conservative principles, could Conservative party, to irritate the whole endure such a state of things for an hour; shipping interest, to hazard a defeat in courts and had Earl Russell been as bitter a Southof law, and to risk an explosion of nation- erner as Lord Wharncliffe he must have asality like that which in 1858 hurled Lord serted the latent power of every civilized Palmerston from his place. The Foreign state to put down anarchy of this sort, to Secretary has dared it all, and in daring it terminate the possibility of legalized filibushas saved his country from a blunder, the terism. And having the work to do, he consequences of which might have affected must, as a constitutional minister, have taken her position for generations to come. precisely the course he did take, have warned The break-down of the Foreign Enlistment the builder to keep the ships, have made the Act, under Baron Pollock's decision in the warning effectual by sending a man-of-war to case of the Alexandra, had been followed by see it obeyed, and have then awaited with this extraordinary consequence. The Gov- placid contempt for party clamor, the decision ernment of the country, even when fully of Parliament on the principle it intended in supported by Parliament, seemed no longer future to maintain. Anybody who fancies to have the power of enforcing the neutrality that Parliament once formally appealed to of its own subjects. Any filibuster who will suffer its own supreme authority to glide chose to ally himself with a belligerent from its hands into those of unauthorized power, however great or however small-individuals does not understand the House of Russia or Ecuador, the Confederate States or Buenos Ayres-was at liberty to fit out a fleet, plate it with iron, send it three miles to sea, follow it with its equipment, and then, without further warrant or entrance into his ally's port, without a belligerent crew or any belligerent claim save a piece of parchment, to ravage the seas, burn, sink, or destroy the ships of any power with whom his employers might be at war. The Enlistment Act could not prevent him; for unless the crown lawyers could prove, first, the secret intention of the builders; secondly, the

Commons. In such a contingency we can rely on Lord Robert Cecil as completely as on Lord Palmerston, and are not guilty of impudence when we expect from Mr. Laird the condemnation by vote of his own ship-yard.

The internal disgrace, the relaxation of the legitimate power of the State in favor of filibustering, is a most serious danger, but it is trifling when compared with the external one. Suppose we had allowed these rams to go. The Federal States might possibly not have declared war, for the Government of those States is wiser than its people, and the free

holders are not directly interested in the for example, would be as strong in the Pacific profits of the carrying trade; but we should without a fleet, against any power but the have risked a war in order to establish a prin- Union, as she now is with one. She could ciple absolutely fatal to the maritime system fit out in San Francisco all the ships she upon which English greatness and commerce could pay for, and the Union would not be alike depend, a principle which triples the bound to interfere. Nor is this argument force of every power on earth except our-open to the remark that England also will selves. It is possible, for example, though benefit by the new principle, for England we trust for the sake of human sanity not alone amongst the powers is seated in full probable, that we may in six months find our- defensible strength in every corner of the selves at war with the German Diet. That globe. To the possessor of Australia and as a maritime war is not at present a very British Columbia, Canada and India, of the formidable business. The Danes would soon only oak forests and the best forests of teak, open the Baltic, and the Mediterrancan fleet of the largest supplies of iron, and the most would be half ashamed of its easy victory numerous race of sailors, aid of this kind over Archduke Maximilian's much loved would be simply oppressive. No statesman squadrons. But there would be another who believes, as English statesmen of all parenemy to be considered. Germany would ties in their hearts believe, that maritime ashave a right to build iron-clads in America, cendency is essential to the status, and mariin Holland, and in Russia, to send them to time strength to the very existence of Great sea with no sailors beyond a German captain, Britain, will consent to the introduction of a and to keep them there without any port of principle which in all future maritime wars entry. From every American port over the would turn the universal seamanship of the Atlantic and throughout the Pacific German rest of the world into one vast reservoir of men-of-war would be preying upon our com- power for our antagonists. England is strong, merce, harassing the rich Indian coast, rais- but if every race which dislikes England is ing freights and insurances to a figure which at liberty to arm ships for any power which would terminate freight. The Indian trade, may choose to declare war on her, the day of the Colonial trade, the American trade, would her defeat must be fast approaching. To defy disappear, or be reduced to the dimensions a league of the maritime world might be in within which convoy is possible, and we should be forced in our own despite to declare war on America-that is, to do the very act the menace of which from the Federals seems to ourselves so insolent. The whole balance of power, the comparative strength of states in the world, would be, in fact, overset. Statesmen would have to count not only the fleets and the armies of their opponents, but the possibly hostile resources of friendly dockyards, to" conciliate" builders in Pennsylvania as well as statesmen in Paris, to count the shipwrights of California as well as the soldiers of German powers. Every war, in fact, would be a war with the maritime strength of every nation in which popular opinion did not happen to be strongly upon Every war would become a "free fight," and statesmanship be degraded into a system of guessing by rule. No power without colonies need keep distant fleets, for everywhere where ships could be built the posssession of a fleet would be a matter for the remittance of money alone, and France,

our side.

certain circumstances an act of magnificent heroism, but carefully to construct such a league in order one day to fight it is one of suicidal folly.

Yet it is this, and nothing less, which Earl Russell with his aristocratic hardihood has just now prevented. If the rams are let go, America has her precedent; if we fight to let them go she has a precedent, to which we cannot hereafter venture to demur. We cannot believe that Parliament will for the sake of the South give her such an opportunity, or that even if anxious for war with the North, the House of Commons will fail to retain to itself the right of fixing the time and the reason for a campaign. Party feeling goes down before the desire for the greatness of England, and as for the howl of the Herald over English want of courage, we have only to let it howl on. England is not careful of taunts, even when embarked in a course opposed alike to her interest and her principles, and may well bear them easily when aware that she is maintaining both.

LORD BROUGHAM ON THE AMERICAN WAR | the hollow pretext of making war to free

AND ON THE FRENCH OCCUPATION
OF MEXICO.

LORD BROUGHAM delivered an elaborate address at the opening of the Seventh Annual Meeting of the National Association for the promotion of Social Science at Edinburgh, on Oct. 8. In the course of his speech he made the following reference to the Mexican expedition, and American topics in general:

A great, and but for its success, a very unpopular expedition has resulted in the occupation of Mexico by the French Government, and the foundation of a monarchical régime, nearly upon the principles adopted in France, both as regards the power of the crown and the rights of the people. It is impossible to question the adantages derivable from the change by the Mexicans, who for so many years had suffered all the evils of alternate anarchy and the violence and plunder of pretty tyrants. Nor can any friend of humanity and of peace begrudge the influence acquired by France, or cavil at the use made of it in favor of Austria. The peace of the Continent is furthered by whatever brings these two great powers into a friendly connec

tion.

*

American slavery-her shame and her curse, as all except slave-owners admit it to be. Hollow we may call it, for those who proclaimed emancipation confess that it was a measure of hostility to the whites, and designed to produce slave insurrection, from which the much-enduring nature of the unhappy negroes saved the country. My esteemed friend, the prelate who exalts by his eloquence and his virtues the name of Wilberforce which he inherits, declared that the authors of the measure cared as little for the blacks' freedom as for the whites'; and now they call for extermination of the one race to liberate the other. But, whatever may have been the proximate cause of the contest, its continuance is the result of a national vanity without example and without bounds. Individuals subject to this failing are despised, not hated; and it is an ordinary expression respecting him who is without the weakness, that he is too proud to be vain. But when a people are seized with it, they change the name, and call it love of glory. Of the individual we often hear the remark that despicable as the weakness is, it leads to no bad actions. Nothing can be more false. It leads But the establishment of French influence to many crimes, and to that disregard of truth in Mexico is likely to produce an uneasy feel- which is the root of all offences. Certainly ing in the now unhappily dis United States of it produces none of the worse crimes. The America, and may by no remote possibility man who is a prey to vanity thirsts not för lead to an amicable intercourse with the South, the blood of his neighbor. How fearfully not perhaps against the North, but in formal otherwise is it when a nation is its slave! recognition of the secession, and in breach of Magnifying itself beyond all measure, and the blockade. The friends of humanity would despising the rest of mankind—blinded and have good cause for lamenting anything so intoxicated with self-satisfaction-persuaded manifestly tending to promote the continuance that their very crimes are proofs of greatness, of the war, and extends its mischiefs. The and believing that they are both admired and term civil war is now hardly applicable to envied, the Americans have not only not been this miserable contest. The people of the content with the destruction of half a million, South are banded against those of the North, but been vain of the slaughter. Their object exactly as any two European nations, differ-being to retain a great name among nations ing in all respects save language, have been for their extent of territory, they exulted in banded against each other-the Austrians and the wholesale bloodshed by which it must be acPrussians, for example. But give it what complished, because others were unable to make name we may, no one can doubt that it is a such a sacrifice. The struggle of above two cruel calamity to the Americans themselves, years, which loosened all the bonds which and, though in a much less degree, to the rest holds society together, and gave to millions of the world, which, with one accord, joins in the means of showing their capacity, has proreprobating their conduct while lamenting its duced no genius, civil or military; while the effects. Each party, of course, seeks to cast submission to every caprice of tyranny had been on the other the heavy blame of breaking the universal and habitual, and never interrupted peace. On one side is the wicked allegation by a single act of resistance to the most flagrant of property in human beings; on the other, infractions of personal freedom. The mischiefs