has just been done in Ceylon. Clearly this country cannot be at the expense of constantly repressing insurrections caused by mismanagement over which it has no control. The Assembly would not like that menace; and pressed, as it would be, by the "aristocracy" and the population, its consent might, we should imagine, be obtained. If not, and Parliament declines for the sake of the Anglo-Saxon colonies to assert its omnipotence, we see no prospect for Jamaica except increased discontent, diminished revenue, and greater necessity for military garrisons.

SIR MORTON PETO ON AMERICA.

merited contempt. On such a point as this Sir Morton Peto's impression is worth a good deal. The ability to pay the debt being granted, and this few doubt, — that state of the social mind to which voluntary repudiation is an impossibility, cannot well be mistaken by a shrewd man of business, and Sir Morton Peto seems to feel no kind of doubt that such is the state of the social mind in all those Northern States which he has recently visited.

Moreover, Sir Morton Peto has seen not only what convinced him that America need not, and would not; disclaim her obligations, but also what has convinced him that she will have very little difficulty in discharging her obligations. He has seen, in short, that

From The Economist 18 Nov. the war, even while it lasted, did not visibly diminish the resources of the Free States engaged in it, or produce that disposition to SIR MORTON PETO's speech at Bristol postpone every costly municipal improvelast Thursday bears important testimony to ment and curtail every list of voluntary the astonishing prosperity and almost undi- subscriptions which a war of much less magminished elasticity of the Northern States nitude would certainly have produced in of America, under the enormous burden England. In Boston, Sir Morton Peto which, as it seemed to us, has been imposed found that no less than five millions sterling upon its resources in the last few years. had been spent in improvements since the Nothing can be more clear than that those beginning of the war. And he related a who predicted before the war, that the fact which tells even more strongly on the North must win by the sheer economical condition of the North, for sometimes (as superiority of free labour, even more than was the case recently in Lancashire) muniby the numerical superiority of larger popu- cipal improvements may be undertaken on lation, have had their prediction still more loans raised to aid the people in their povwonderfully verified than they themselves erty, while voluntary subscriptions are nevexpected. The South was much more ut- er very easily raised in a time of great pressterly exhausted, and the North much fur- ure. Sir Morton Peto says that in four ther from even the verge of exhaustion than days' time Mr. George Court Stewart raised we had any idea of, when the end came. no less than 92,000 in Boston, New York, There are not very many points on which and Philadelphia for a society whose object the testimony of a traveller passing rapidly was to provide the wounded and dying men through a great country like America is before Petersburg with religious aid. These worth very much, for he sees, of course, are but slight indices, but slight indices will only a very small specimen of the society of often tell more of the real wealth of a peoany given town or State, and what he gath-ple than the legislative discussions on tax ers in conversation is, therefore, necessarily bills and expenditure, which are so much gathered from too limited an experience to influenced by political considerations. The be of any great value. But there are a few truth is, we have absolutely no idea in Engspecific points on which an intelligent man land of the wealth of a population whose of business, who knows the language and average means are probably over 100% a modes of thought of men of business, is en-year for every family in the land. With a titled to considerable respect, and amongst these is, we think, the tone of feeling in that society on which ultimately the solvency of the Union depends with regard to sustaining the national credit and good faith about the debt. "No person," says Sir Morton Peto, "who has the least information on the subject can doubt the ability of the Americans to pay their national debt, and any one who expressed a doubt of their willingness to do so would be treated with

very wealthy upper class and a very comfortable middle class, we are yet quite unable to realize the condition of a people, the great masses of whose labourers are all as comfortable as our best paid operatives in Manchester. It is the enormous multiplication of small but adequate resources in the United States which has produced that wonderful financial elasticity we are almost unable to understand. Sir Morton Peto gives us a still more striking illustration of this in de

scribing the cheerfulness with which dis- twelve years. Two years ago, after the banded officers had returned from the field emancipation of the slaves, one of my fathto their old civil duties. In a compositor's er's plantations in Louisana came into ny office Sir Morton Peto saw "a major, a cap- hands. There were 150 negroes on the tain, a lieutenant, a serjeant," all cheerfully at plantation. From that day to this I have work at their types; indeed their places had not heard an instance of difficulty among been waiting for them. Instead of the labour the workmen. The gentleman who leased market being drugged by the disbanding of the property for a series of years is a Southnearly a million men, productive occupations erner, and was a very ardent Secessionist. had all been waiting, with plenty of capital He is also a truly Christian man; he writes behind them, to spring into still greater life me that he has had no difficulty with his and energy so soon as the labour should be workmen that was not very easily arranged again at their disposal. We happen to by conversation. They have been paid know another still more remarkable illustra- regularly every month their full wages; tion of the abundance of civilian work, and their children go to school; and the work the preference of the men for it. Towards of the plantation goes on with greater alacthe end of the war, a reserve corps was rity than when the negroes were slaves. formed expressly as a sort of reward for the The same may be said of several plantamen who had conducted themselves most tions in the neighbourhood, where the gallantly. It became a question whether workmen are regularly paid and kindly this corps should or should not be disband-treated. I have no fears for the future of ed. The Government wished to reduce ex- the freed men unless they are driven by penditure and get rid of it, but hesitated, as harsh laws to array themselves against the it was composed of men who had done whites, and if the South produces less in great service and been placed in it express- the future than she has done in the past, it ly as a mode of giving them a permanent will be because she does not legislate wisely. reward for that service. The officers de- The barrenness of Jamaica is due to the cidedly objected to being disbanded, and harsh legislation which drove the negroes some of the military authorities rather from their plantation to the mountain patchwished to keep up the corps. But the es, where what they produced was their matter was decided by the universal demand own.' But I have not only my friend's eviof the men that they should be disbanded. dence, I have more. I will mention one They said they wanted no reward of this fact, and as in cases of this kind it is dekind, nor any pension," that they could do sirable that facts should be verified, I much better for themselves" than the Gov- will say that it refers to Colonel Drury, ernment could do for them, and by their who was one of the foremost men of . own urgency decided the case in favour of the South. On the day that Lee surrendisbanding. dered he called together 1,000 slaves, and said to them-You all know that I havedone my best to keep you as slaves, but you are now freemen. If you will continue to work for me I will give you as high wages. as any one else. I will put your children to school, and do what I can to make you comfortable.' I have reason to know that only three out of the 1,000 left Colonel Drury."

Sir Morton Peto's information on the state and temper of the South, and the probability of getting good work out of the negroes without any infringements of their rights, is certainly less important than what he tells us of the state of the North, as it depends upon a few individual sources of information which, though doubtless trustworthy, tell us absolutely nothing of the extent to which the dispositions described actually prevail in the South. Still, so far as his information goes, it is interesting, and shows that the cases in which the planters have accepted the abolition of slavery most frankly are also the cases in which they are least | likely to suffer. "I wrote," says Sir Morton Peto, "to a friend whom I know very well, asking him, a Southern man, what his views on this question were. I will read you his answer: Born in Lousiana on my father's sugar plantation near New Orleans, I have known slavery in all its phases, though I have had no connection with it for

We fear that these instances of complete. and humane acquiescence in the system of free labour are comparatively rare, but we may hope that they are more common in the South than in our own West India Islands after emancipation. One of the most curious modifications effected in our character by the transfer of the Anglo-. Saxon race to the American continent is a certain wonderful flexibility and adaptability to new circumstances, even in cases. certain to rouse the temper and excite the obstinacy of Englishmen. It is a most useful modification of character for the pio

neers of civilization in a new world, and though it is probably less true of the Southern character than of the Northern, we may hope it is sufficiently true of it to prevent the fearful blunders of which British planters were guilty in Jamaica.

From the Economist, 11 Nov.
THE SHENANDOAH.

many fresh captures afterwards. If it be true, as stated, that the first question put to the Liverpool pilot by Captain Waddell was "Whether the war was over?" there is a very suspicious air of theatrical innocence in the interrogation. And, should Captain Waddell's statement turn out to be false, of course the irritation already existing between the two countries will be indefinitely increased.

And yet, no doubt, the Government were placed in a very difficult position by THE Shenandoah has arrived in Liver- the arrival of a vessel the officers and crew pool, her commander has surrendered her to of which were, by common rumour, accused the British Government, and it was stated of piracy, none of the evidence for the acyesterday that her officers and crew had cusation being accessible in England. There been "unconditionally" released. What was, probably, no evidence to justify even ever are the grounds on which the Govern- a commitment, attainable in England, and ment have proceeded in the case of the therefore of course none to justify the surShenandoah, there can be no doubt that render of the accused to the United States should the charges which have been so re- Government should they have demanded peatedly urged against Captain Waddell it, and should that have seemed, which in all prove to be true, namely, that he did con- probability it would not, the proper mode of tinue to capture the New Bedford whalers procedure. The case In re Ternan and long after he had reasonable evidence of the Others has been aptly cited in an able legal disappearance of a de facto Government in article in the Pall Mall Gazette, to prove the South, the unpleasant dispute which we that if Captain Waddell and his men be have had to carry on with America concern- chargeable with piracy at all, they are liable ing the Alabama claims would be terribly to be tried in England, but not to be given aggravated by the impunity of the com- up under the Extradition treaty with the mander of the Shenandoah and his officers. Government of the United States. In that It is said that Captain Waddell asserts that case it was clearly shown that, though piracy he made his last capture on the 28th June, is mentioned in the list of crimes in our and that he did not till August 2 know for American Extradition treaty, we must precertain of the suppression of the Govern-sume that offences which are piracy by the ment of Mr. Davis. As the capture of Mr. municipal law of America but not by interDavis occurred on the 10th of May, and was national law, and there are several such, immediately telegraphed to San Francisco, - must be intended. The Extradition Act -and as the North American papers as-refers to the case of criminals "seeking an serted that the Massachusetts whalers did asylum" in the dominions of one Governnot venture to recommence their occupa- ment for crimes committed within the juristion in Behring's Straits till after the war diction of the other. But how could a man was deemed by the North completely over, "seek an asylum" in a country where he and must have carried their evidence with was liable to be tried and condemned? them, one would suppose that his first cap- And why should crimes committed within ture among that fleet might have convinced the jurisdiction of both England and AmeriCaptain Waddell that he had no longer a ca be referred to by the words " committed commission from any existing Government. within the jurisdiction of either of the_conOf course it is quite possible that Captain tracting parties." In short the case In re Waddell's statement may turn out to be Ternan and Others, seems very nearly conclustrictly true, and in that case there will not sive to show that if Captain Waddell and his only be no true ground of complaint against officers are guilty of piracy at all, they are liathe English Government, but scarcely even ble to be tried in England, but not to be a disposition to complain on the part of the given up under the Extradition treaty. United States. But it is certain that the The late Sir Cornewall Lewis, we may reimpression in the North is very different. mark, held and expressed, if not the same Already in August it was stated and be- view, one identical in result, in his pamphlet lieved there that Captain Waddell had been on the Extradition of Criminals in 1859. repeatedly informed by his victims of the "The mention of piracy," he says, "in the end of the war, and had refused to believe Ashburton treaty must refer to constructive it on any Northern authority, and had made piracy, of which there are many examples in

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our law. Piracy, properly so called, is not a territorial crime; it is a crime which each nation can punish for, itself. A person accused of piracy, in the strict sense of the term, need never be the subject of extradition." If Captain Waddell is accused of any crime, it is certainly of" piracy in the strict sense of the term." If he captured United States vessels under a flag which he believed to be the flag of no existing Government, he was clearly guilty of piracy in the strict sense of

the term.

the confidence of nations which might seriously prolong the evils-and in some respects more than the evils of war, always serious enough, beyond their natural term; for no war arouses vindictive feelings like those excited in America by the presumed, we hope it may prove mistaken, belief entertained in the Northern States concerning the conduct of Captain Waddell of the Shenandoah.

ARCTIC EXPLORATION.

And unless some very unexpected evidence proving his innocence has been brought to light, though it may be impossible, without receiving evidence from the Reform Club, Oct. 31, 1865. United States, to have him even committed Ir will be of interest to the friends of for trial, it is certainly possible and our Arctic exploration to learn that a full narduty to keep him and his officers under rative of Dr. Hayes's expedition of 1861 pretty strict surveillance, so as to prevent may be expected in the spring, and that in their escape till we know whether evidence the mean time a series of eight papers on against them exists or not. Undoubtedly, the scientific results of his further survey they are in the same position as a man of what was called "Smith's Sound" will strongly suspected by the police, on evi- be published by the Smithsonian Institution. dence which it is not yet possible to proIt will be remembered that Dr. Isaac J. duce in a legal form, of a grave crime. And Hayes took part with the late Dr. Kane in it is pretty certain that such a man would the "Grinnell Expedition" of 1853, sent be closely followed and kept in sight until out by the Americans in search of Sir John the supposed evidence could be put together Franklin, who it was hoped might be met and sifted to see whether it justified a com- with in some of the northern outlets of Bafmitment or not. It is not mainly because fin's Bay. Dr. Kane discovered that Smith's the public feeling of America is excited Sound was a frozen strait of about 200 against Captain Waddell's proceedings-miles in length, leading due north, and endand very justly excited, if their premises being in open water, with a coast line bearing true that it is important for us eventually north-west. to indict him for piracy, if there prove to be any evidence worth sending to a jury. Nor is it merely in order to disprove the absurd impression prevailing in the United States that English public opinion is so blindly prejudiced in favour of every man who struck a blow on the Southern side, that even the worst criminals who have that to say for themselves are excused their crimes. But it is because it is more important for the English nation than for any other in the world that we should not overlook private depredations on commerce committed . on the high seas. Of course, even if the accusation against Captain Waddell be true, it would, though a case of common piracy, be a case, also, of less aggravated piracy than the same crime committed without the pretence of a vindictive war feeling to palliate it. Every one would feel that the penalty ought to be less severe than the penalty on mere freebooters. Still, no country is more interested in punishing private persons for indulging their passions by carrying on war after war is really over, than England. Such conduct is a blow to

After the death of Dr. Kane, Dr. Isaac J. Hayes fitted out, by subscription, a small schooner of 200 tons, and sailed again for the same region, in the hope that, by following the north-west coast line, he might reach the Pole. His resources were not equal to this exploit (the whole party consisting of but fifteen persons), but he reached the highest latitude attained since Parry's sledge journey, viâ Spitzbergen, in 1827, viz., 81° 35'.

On his return Dr. Hayes found his country engaged in civil war. He, himself, was called immediately into active service, and placed at the head of a military hospital with 5,000 inmates. Hence the delay of his narrative.

Its now approaching publication will, I fear, dispel all hope of the possibility of forcing the passage of Smith's Strait by either ship or steamer. Dr. Hayes describes the field-ice coming down from Kennedy's Channel as of unprecedented thickness. This is met by the icebergs precipitated into the strait by the Great Humboldt Glacier (the largest in the world), and is caught

and cemented with them by the fixed ice lining the shores; the whole crushed together, by the action of wind and tides in a confined area, into a perfect wilderness of gigantic ice masses, through or round which no progress can often be made without actual quarrying. Such is its roughness for sledge travelling, that fourteen days were occupied by Dr. Hayes in effecting a journey across the ice of 40 miles. The northwest coast, for land-sledging, is not more promising. It is mountainous and interrupted by another strait, bearing west, nearly opposite the Great Humboldt Glacier, between the parallels of 79° and 80°. Dr. Hayes, however, writes with the most perfect confidence of the accessibility of the Pole, but adds his conviction to that of other navigators that the next attempt should be by way of Spitzbergen. If by sea, in the month of August, when the seas are the most open. If by sledge, in the month of March, before the ice is broken up.

Athenæum.

W. E. HICKSON.

From the Saturday Review.
MRS. .GASKELL.

method of treatment, sometimes not rising above a level which has been reached by many other English story-tellers for whose books a very moderate tenure of popularity may be predicted, sometimes one-sided in social views, sometimes indiscreet in following her personal impulses too blindly, Mrs. Gaskell has yet achieved a success which will live long after her, and in which all connected with her may well feel an honourable pride.

Fictions composed, as Mary Barton and North and South were composed, to inculcate a particular doctrine or point a definite moral for the benefit of a purblind or obstinate age, are apt to spoil their case by overstatement; and, even apart from their chances of exaggeration, they necessarily labour under a drawback, as permanent works of art, by their didactic tone. Mrs. Gaskell wisely perceived, before she had written many novels, that the highest end and aim of novel-writing was not to improve the outside world into a juster sense of the rights of the operative or any other special class, but to produce a picture of some phase of human life which should be intrinsically true. She gained the knowledge that the power of the novelist to impress a lesson lies in the perfection of the art with which the lesson, whatever it may be, is kept out THE unexpected announcement of the of sight; and in ceasing to write for an obdeath of Mrs. Gaskell will have been re-ject, she acquired a more comprehensive ceived with genuine regret by many who did not enjoy personally the pleasure of her acquaintance. It is a loss to a wide circle whenever a justly favourite writer dies in the fulness of energy and the maturity of power; and this was the position which Mrs. Gaskell occupied before the public at the time of her decease. She had written herself into a well-deserved popularity, not Cranford is, in its way, the most perfect confined to Great Britain alone; her later of Mrs. Gaskell's creations, and we do not fiction, gave no reason to fear that her imag- hesitate to say that it is the most perfect ination was wearing threadbare, or her man- little story of its kind that has been pubner growing conventional; and she seemed lished since the days of Miss Austen. It is not likely to lose for many years to come, a picture of the very small and peculiar sothe power or the inclination to write. Since cial circle of an English village, drawn with the appearance of Mary Barton some seven-minute and accurate, but never wearily mi teen years ago, few seasons have gone by without leaving some record of Mrs. Gaskell's literary industry, although she never fell under the imputation of publishing too rapidly. The list of her works given in this week's journals is not quite a complete one, but it is correct enough to remind contemporary critics how gradually and honestly the authoress had worked her way into permanent public favour. Without being unique, or in any sense extraordinarily original in her range of subjects or in her

and stronger command of the interest and sympathy of the general public. Mary Barton will be comparatively forgotten, for all its power and its pathos, when the two novels which mark as it were the opposite poles of Mrs. Gaskell's powers in writing Cranford and Sylvia's Lovers-are still eagerly read and widely admired.

croscopic, observation. The extreme quietness of the life which it describes is carefully suited with a narrative style of singular purity and simplicity, which increases its charm in reading very considerably, and will materially assist in maintaining its popularity to a later time. Of actual story there is very little; the placid movement of life in such a village as Cranford could scarcely co-exist with anything like a crisis of passionate or active interests in the minds or fortunes of the individual members of its peace