after conquered by force of arms. The great military objects of the war were completely attained, and France and England held the balance of power in their hands. But England, it must be owned, has played throughout only the second part in these great transactions; and a feeling, not indeed of jealousy or envy of our ancient rival and present ally, but rather one of baffled emulation, mars the exultation which must otherwise have attended a result so completely triumphant. It is not enough that this short campaign has ended in the full attainment of its object, while former wars, after having been dragged on for a series of years, have commonly ended by leaving matters pretty much as they found them. It is not enough that we cease from this conflict with vigour unimpaired, and hardly (so to speak) with a scratch. Our enemy, we know, has yielded from utter pros tration and inability to continue the struggle. Many a long year must elapse before that sluggish power can regain the strength which has rendered him so formidable. our gallant ally is almost exhausted by the effort he has made. But we feel that he has got more than his share of the glory, and the national pride is no doubt wounded. Hence, this peace, the substantial benefits of which cannot be gainsaid, is, and will be, coolly received. But when the first feelings of chagrin and disappointment subside, the good sense of the country will not fail to perceive that there is no just ground of complaint; and even if it were the fact that our ally had in this instance outstepped us in the race of glory, we could well afford to yield the palm.

Even

As to the details of the Treaty, we must of course reserve our remarks until we know precisely what they are. Much, no doubt, will depend upon the very words in which the articles are framed, for we have had to do with an adversary skilled in the arts of diplomacy, and more to be feared on paper than in the field. We have no right to impugn the honour of Russia, but we shall be glad to find, as we are well assured is the fact, that everyword of this Treaty has been carefully scruti

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nized by the able Minister to whom the interests of this country were confided at the recent Conference.

The small minority of thinking men whose opinions are always adopted by that good sense which lies at the bottom of public opinion in this country, after the froth and fermentation of the surface have subsided, are well satisfied that the war has had not only a successful, but a timely termination. During peace we never think about military matters, and if this war, after forty years of European tranquillity, found our armaments in a state of inefficiency, the nation itself, certainly not the Government, is to blame. For many a long year one of the most popular topics in Parliament and the country has been the reduction of our military establishments; and no Minister, whatever his authority, who has directed public affairs since 1815, could have resisted this tendency. The enemy we had to encounter always regarded military organization as the first object of his policy, and consistently so, for his mind was always steadily fixed on projects which could_be attained only by force of arms. But this was not our only or even principal disadvantage. The energy of the national character, the vastness of our resources, and the will of the people, urging on the Government, would soon have supplied the defects arising from the immediate inadequacy of military material, but we were hampered by an alliance; and we make this observation, which at first sight may seem startling, the more freely, because the loyalty, the intelligence, and the military might of our illustrious coadjutor are alike unquestionable and undoubted. But it is impossible to pronounce a judgment on the conduct of England during this war, without weighing that most material consideration; and therefore it is almost obvious that history alone can arrive at a satisfactory judgment on the great transactions of the last two years. The sensitive jealousy of the two great rivals, for the first time united against a common foe, would have been immediately alarmed if either had assumed to take the lead; and thus the late war has been wanting in the one pri

mary element of warlike operations, namely, COMMAND. If the position of the enemy had admitted of France and England acting independently upon two different quarters, the great advantages of the alliance might have been fully attained; but as it was, the union of the two flags, as might have been expected, proved a positive source of weakness. If England or France had acted alone in the Crimea, we firmly believe, and such we have reason to know is the opinion of those best qualified to judge in both countries, a successful result would have been obtained with far less expenditure of life, money, and time than has been incurred. A real inquiry into the conduct of the Crimean campaign is simply impracticable; and if such an inquiry were followed out with the view of distributing praise and blame, a rupture between the two countries would probably be the result.

The Opposition are as well advised of this truth as her Majesty's Ministers, and yet, for party pur poses, they persist in urging inquiry into matters of which the Government are precluded from affording any satisfactory explanation. The state of the hospitals at Scutari and Balaklava, the condition of the harbour of Balaklava, the neglect to provide means of communication between the base of operations and the British army,-these, we always maintained, were legitimate subjects of investigation; but the affair of Kars involves topics which do not admit of discussion. It may be very easy to censure the diplomatic and military authorities abroad, or the Government at home, on such information as can be afforded. In that case, English statesmen and generals will endure unjust inculpation, and be content to abide the time when their vindication can be made complete. In the mean time, an unscrupulous and dishonourable faction may, for aught we know, profit by the suspension of truth and justice.

This brings us to the consideration of the present peculiar and unsatisfactory state of domestic politics. From the commencement of the war, domestic legislation, no longer borne along on the tide of

public opinion, has become almost stagnant. Lord John Russell tried in vain to launch his Reform Bill, which, under other circumstances, would certainly have braved the elements, though it might never have arrived in port. Education, Church Reform, Law Amendment -the most prominent among many social questions which fully occupied the public mind at the commencement of this Parliament, have not stirred an inch, though vigorous efforts have not been wanting to give them an impulse. The attempts of independent' members have proved absolutely hopeless; and the measures brought forward by the Government, unaided by public opinion out of doors, have found in small cavils and criticisms sufficient obstacles to their progress. The people in their ill-humour— unjust, of course, and indiscriminating-lay the blame on the Government. Everything is mismanaged, nobody understands his business; it is all owing to routine; and the most popular of writers ministers to this depraved and morbid feeling by a vulgar caricature of official business. If this state of things were to last much longer, it would produce a real deterioration in the quality of public men. An English Minister who discharges his duties under public correction, and who looks for support and encouragement to public opinion alone, necessarily becomes disheartened if his best endeavours are met either with sneers or indifference. Office, at least among the higher class of politicians, is not so attractive as is generally supposed. In every government there are men, and these often the most considerable, who would willingly be relieved from the cares of office, if their places could be adequately supplied; and we hope not to see the day when public life is rendered so distasteful as to repel the opulent, the learned, and polite. The policy of this country, if it is to continue prosperous and respected, must be guided by gentlemen and men of honour. Clever adventurers, whether for their purposes they think fit to assume Tory or Radical guise, will neither seek nor understand the true interests of the nation.

THE world turns round bodily

so say our philosophers: no less true is it that it revolves morally and socially. Take the cycle of a century in our social state, and how marvellous is the revolution in all the habits, customs, and pastimes of our people! Where are our Maypoles and our morris-dancers? Where are our mummings and our maskings? Where are our wassails and our wakes? Where are the

Sports and pageantry and plays, That cheered our eves and holidays— of which Master Herrick sung? They are for the most part dead and buried: if any remain, their passing bell is tolling. Sunlit skies have been hearsed in smoke; Maypoles have been superseded by tall chimneys; flower-garlands are no longer woven, but cotton twist; our ears are not now greeted with the carols of the lark at heaven's gate, but with the whizzing of iron throstles; the language of poetry has been extruded by such terms as slubbing, roving, scutching, warping, and doubling. Deities that preside over Parnassus, shut your ears! The days of romance, in good sooth, have gone by; the iron age of facts, whether for good or evil, is upon us.

The last century has witnessed many revolutions." Thrones have been toppled over like nine-pins, and monarchs have been hustled off the stage like so many bad actors. But, so far as our country is concerned, the greatest revolutionists have been steam, machinery, and cotton. What wondrous changes have these mighty agents wrought among us! Instead of our packhorses lumbering over mountains and heaths, through bogs and quagmires, we rattle over rivers, above cities, through the bowels of the earth, at the rate of forty miles an hour; instead of

VOL. LIII. NO. CCCXVIII.

spinning cloth with the fingers, we have jennies and mules by the million, throwing off in an hour as much work as it would take all the fingers in creation to complete in a life-time; instead of hoisting up coals from the deep caverns of the earth with the sweat of man's brow, the enormous loads rise by some magic influence, while man looks on with his hands thrust into his pockets; instead of being mere feathers, tossed before wind and tide, we sail across the ocean, and, if need be, astonish an enemy's fortress with a few lively rockets, almost in defiance of the elements; instead of laborious type-printing with the hand, we can cover the surface of the globe with printed broad-sheets in a marvellously short time. Steam, machinery, cotton! mighty enchanters! ye have summoned forth populous cities in the solitudes; ye have converted fishingstations into bustling sea-ports; at your bidding the huge factory has risen, and the spacious workshop rings with the hammer. Alas! we know not how to address you, ye dread anarchs! Are ye benefactors of the human race, ye soulless, self-moving agents, or are ye the reverse? Ye have amassed gold into enormous glittering heaps for the few, but have ye blessed the many? Ye have sucked into your frightful maelstrom the inmates of many a rustic cottage who have luxuriated from infancy in the incense-breathing morn; but have ye increased the aggregate of happiness among them? Are ye three heavenly maidens scattering enjoyment, comfort, and plenty from your golden urns, or are ye the three weird sisters joining in the chorus,

Double, double, toil and trouble;
Fire burn, and cauldron bubble?

SS

Unhappy race! whom endless night invades,

Clouds the dull air, and wraps them round in shades.*

Before us stretches a vista of tall square chimneys, and stumpy round chimneys, and large buildings without chimneys at all, far as the eye can reach. The most prominent figures we see of the human species are two middle-aged women, with greasy shawls over their heads, one of whom is of broadly developed dorsal proportions, set off to advantage by a check bedgown and a linsey-wolsey petticoat. The two have just sent off their children to the school, and from their earnestness and self-satisfaction, they seem to be fully convinced that their offspring will be ornamental in the procession. Then, look at that blackguard reeling from the gin-shop with a bruised face and a black eye, unwashed and uncombed, coatless and ragged, the very picture of an irreclaimable scamp. Now that vagabond-the very burlesque of a being with a reasoning mind-might, if he were sober and industrious, earn thirty shillings a week, and make his fireside and family comfortable; and he staggers from the reeking vault into the blessed light of this sunny morning as if he were a character that need not be ashamed. Here we meet three or four little children who are looking pensive, poor things! perhaps because they cannot join the procession. They have no clothes fit to appear in, or it may be that they have never been at a Sunday-school. Are any of them the children of that drunken brute, who is just now reeling into a house close by, with an oath in his mouth, and a threatening scowl at his starving wife? Then a lurry, heavily laden with Manchester goods, rolls down the narrow street, disturbing the conference of the two ladies, and driving us up against the wall for safety.

"This is your school, is it?' I inquired, after we had proceeded a little further. Why, it is like the factory we have just passed, only it has four stories instead of eight, and is not quite so long. What a terrible hubbub and clatter! Are you quite

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sure it is safe to go in without a body of policemen ?

We enter the room for the younger boys there are some five hundred of them, dressed in a variety of fashions, and in every kind of material, from material, from the round-about jacket to the square cut of the gamekeeper, from thick clogs to genteel highlows, from rough fustian to fine broadcloth, each with his cap or hat in his hand, ready to march out at the word of command. Here we have beautiful specimens of the juvenile operative under every aspect. They are all clean; some are well-looking; many have a keen, intelligent expression of countenance, as though they had begun to fight their own way in life at an early age. See there that young tyke, with a large round head covered with red hair, that might have been scattered there with a pitch-fork, a forehead villanous low,' an undeniable squint, and a mouth like that of a cod-fish, quite ready, from his look, to have a turn-up with any boy in the class, and give him a stone. I have no great hopes of my friend: it is two to one that at some time or other he will ascend the steps of promotion on the tread-wheel, if he attain no greater elevation on the ladder of advancement. How I should like to place him under the tuition of our old friend, the Warden of St. Peter's College, Radley! Excellent raw material he would be for Sewell's experiments in moral discipline-a sort of free-born British Topsy! Ascending a flight of stairs, we come to the room of the elder boys. Here we have about the same number as below.

'From this body,' said my friend, 'you may select representatives of every trade in Manchester; there are mill-operatives, glass-blowers, painters, shoe-makers, tailors; there are accountants, salesmen, porters, railway officials, lawyers' clerks, packers; there are shopkeepers, mechanics, joiners, cabinet-makers. Fix upon a trade, and I think I can select a teacher or scholar who knows something about it.'

'Well, I rather like the look of the youths; they are somewhat too