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stereotyped. Their bitterness has been government in France, would accept any diminished by M. Thiers' sincerity in the one rather than renew a campaign which elections, and particularly by the conduct began to be surrounded with political danof his officials in declining to urge the gers. He is not, it is clear, willing to repeasantry to the polls. Left to them- tire just yet, for that, we take it, is the selves, the peasantry, either from caution meaning of his refusal to accept the inor indifference, declined to vote, and power demnity partly in gold and partly in rentes ; at the polls fell to the respectables and the but if he gets his money, or a good deal of citizens, the precise electoral end of the his money, he will hesitate to renew a war Left, the effacement of the peasantry, in which one considerable defeat might being thus secured by rigid adherence to upset half his plans. He has no particular the law. There are still 123 vacancies in reason for disliking a hard, crass, unidead the Assembly, which will be filled, like the Republic more than any of the dynastic Councils, by Moderates; and M. Thiers pretenders, and may reasonably believe calculates that with them, his own friends, that M. Thiers' ascendancy averts his whom he is securing day by day, and the greatest danger, the rise of a man of Left, he may yet be able to declare the genius to the head of France. He must Assembly, now Sovereign, constituent, have his treaty, he says, and he must have and proclaim the Republic with himself as his money; but if he advances again, his its executive chief. If he can do this, that treaty exhales and his money will be unRepublic, though over-centralized, though procurable. Requisitions are all very well stupid, though guilty of bloodshedding, as tortures to rack out concessions, but may stand for a time, as previous govern- two hundred millions are not to be obments as centralized, as stupid, as blood- tained without recourse to the future, and smeared, have stood, and it is to some such the future declines to be requisitioned. imperfect and evil, but actual result, that We can see no motive which could incline M. Thiers must, to judge from his acts, be the Germans to interfere except the rise looking forward. Who is to impede him? of a new and most attractive Republic, The Church? There is nothing in M. which might exercise a solvent influence Thiers' antecedents, or in the composition in Germany itself; and M. Thiers' Repubof the Assembly, to forbid a transaction | lic will neither be new nor attractive, will with the Church such as Napoleon must be nothing but the old order of things, have made, and though M. Thiers may not with an Assembly for master instead of a have the power to occupy Rome, he will Bonaparte, will perhaps be as weak and still have the wish. The Army? Does will clearly be as reactionary as any despot anybody feel clear that the Army cannot who might be selected to rule France. It be made the instrument of a Republic as is quite possible that with all the risks of well as of an Empire? We always think a great campaign in full view the German of the Army in France as of an army of Government may wait quietly, dun, dun, Prætorians, but an Assembly may have a dun for its money, receive large instalPrætorian guard; and it is not to be for- ments, grind Champagne severely, and gotten that 55,000 votes were thrown finally, as the situation gradually changes, against Napoleon; that Generals of repute accept its balance in Rentes and retire. obeyed Gambetta; that M. Thiers, with That is, we take it, all M. Thiers hopes to all his reported belief in his own general- do, to hammer and bother and kick till the ship -a belief very irritating to soldiers conquerors take themselves off, and if he has little trouble in finding military is stubborn enough he may very likely agents to execute his orders. The whole obtain in an inglorious way about that history of France, indeed, shows that her much satisfaction. The war will then Generals, till some one of them rises dis- leave France with a second rate, but ordertinctly out of the mass, will obey an As- ly Republican Government, with an imsembly, - find in its impersonality some-poverished treasury, and with a depressed thing very difficult to resist, more especially when it is protected by Paris. How many Generals did the Convention send to the guillotine?

The Reds, however, may oppose? On our hypothesis they are temporarily fettered. And finally, the Germans may interfere? We do not pretend to predict Prince Bismarck's action, but to judge from the speeches he is making so frequently he has no wish to build up any form of

people, to stagger along as she can until, perhaps after years, she falls under the influence of some considerable brain who will give her an impetus towards a new career. It is not an enticing, far less an ennobling prospect; but events even in France, though seldomer there than elsewhere, are sometimes strangely prosaic, and the result we have sketched is at least among the possibilities.

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WHERE eagle calls to waterfalls,
Where pines o'er chasms weep,
The rains have made a mad cascade
To thunder down the steep.

Where lilies nod their gentle heads,
Where grass is long in May,
There runs a river in the meads
Too fast it runs away.

But where the gales drive moaning sails
O'er seas that gloom and gleam,
Across a bar the waves make war
'Gainst one persistent stream.

Too far, O river, strained thy force!
Thou ne'er shalt know again
The lilies of thy middle course,
The quiet of the plain.

Dark Blue.

WHY THE ROSE IS RED. THE rose, of old, they say, was white, Till Love, one day, in wanton flight, Flirting away from flower to flower, A rose tree brushed, in evil hour. The spreading leaves concealed a thorn By which the boy-god's foot was torn.

The precious drops in plenteous flow
Fell on a rose's breast below,
And all her snow-white virgin pride
In blushing pure carnation died
To tell to future times unborn
How Love was wounded by a thorn.

Sobbing with pain and weeping dew,
The wounded boy to Venus flew;
But few the ills which boys endure
A mother's kisses cannot cure;
And for such pleasure after pain
Love would be often prick'd again!
Temple Bar.

THE WHISPER OF SPRING. WHO hears the voice of death

In the tones of genial Spring; In the sigh of the south wind's breath, So merrily whispering?

Who does not welcome life

In each budding flower and leaf With hope and beauty rife, Reckless of care or grief?

O, who can dream of death, When merrily up there swells, Gray turrets underneath,

The chime of Easter bells? Christmas mirth may wane At sight of a vacant place; But the loved ones live again In Springtide's laughing face.

For Earth is never dead;

Though Winter's sombre wing Wave her to sleep in snowy bed, She wakes again in spring. And happiness lives on,

And joy succeeds to grief,

As surely as winter snows are gone, When bursts yon emerald leaf.

So up, and join the song

Ye sang mid Yule-tide dearth, Raise it loud and long

In midst of Springtime's mirth. April passes away;

His showers are like our tears, Giving place to golden May, As in all the by-past years.

Tinsley's Magazine.

From The Quarterly Review. THE HANDWRITING OF JUNIUS PROFESSIONALLY INVESTIGATED.*

THE work, the title of which is placed at the head of the present article, possesses a value quite independent of the immediate question which it discusses. Its direct object is to prove by a minute and exhaustive examination of the Junian manuscripts and of the letters of Sir Philip Francis, that both of them were handwritten by the same person; but indirectly it supplies most valuable information and rules for guidance to those engaged in the investigation of subjects in which a comparison of handwriting is more or less involved. It owes its origin, to a great extent, to accidental circumstances, which have such an important bearing upon the investigation before us, that it is necessary to set them forth fully :

"In the Christmas season of 1770, or 1771," says Mr. Twisleton, "when Mr. Francis was on a visit to his father at Bath, he danced at the Assembly Rooms more than one evening with a young lady named Miss Giles. This lady, born in 1751, was daughter of Daniel Giles, Esq., afterwards Governor of the Bank of England; and in January, 1772, she became Mrs. King by marrying Joseph King, Esq., of Taplow. It was the custom at balls a hundred years ago for a lady to retain the same partner during the whole of the evening; so that the fact of Miss Giles having thus danced with Mr. Francis would imply more of an acquaintance than would necessarily be involved in a young lady's dancing with a gentleman at the present day. Subsequently, she received an Anonymous Note, enclosing Anonymous complimentary Verses, both of which she believed to have been sent to her by him.

"The note was in the following words:

"The inclosed paper of Verses was found this morning by Accident. The person who found them, not knowing to whom they belong, is obliged to trust to his own Judgment, and takes for granted that they could only be meant for Miss Giles.'

"The Verses were as follows:
1.

"When nature has, happily, finished her Part, There is Work enough left for the Graces;

* The Handwriting of Junius professionally Investigated. By Mr. Charles Chabot, Expert. With Preface and Collateral Evidence. By the Hon. Ed

ward Twisleton. London. 4to. 1871.

'Tis harder to keep than to conquer the Heart; We admire and forget pretty Faces.

2.

In the School of the Graces, by Venus attended,

Belinda improves ev'ry Hour; They tell her that Beauty itself may be mended,

And shew her the use of her Pow'r.

3.

They alone have instructed the fortunate Maid
In Motion, in Speech, and Address;
They gave her that wonderful Smile to per-
suade,

And the Language of Looks to express.

4.

They directed her Eye, they pointed the Dart, And have taught her a dangerous Skill; For whether she aims at the Head or the Heart,

She can wound if she pleases, or kill.

"The Verses and the Note are each written on a separate sheet of common letter paper, and the handwriting of the two is different. The

The

reason of this is obvious. The humour of the compliment required such a difference. two documents, though wholly unconnected with St. Valentine's Day, must be regarded in the light of a valentine; the essential idea of which is, that whereas certain Verses in praise of a young lady had been found by accident, Miss Giles alone merited such praise, and the Verses were therefore sent to her as to the person for whom they were intended. Hence, it would have been out of keeping with the plan of the valentine if the Verses and the Note had been in the same handwriting."

We need not for our present purpose relate how the existence of the two documents came to the knowledge of Mr. Twisleton, and how he has been enabled to make public use of them. That the two documents were really sent by Francis to Miss Giles no one can entertain any reasonable doubt after perusing Mr. Twisleton's narrative, and one circumstance, which we shall presently lay before our readers, places the fact beyond question.

The connexion of these two documents with the investigation into the handwriting of Junius arises thus. The Anonymous Note is in the handwriting of Junius. This will be at once evident, we think, to any one who compares the facsimile of the Note with the facsimiles of the Junian

Manuscripts, and is placed beyond all giving this opinion, shewed his independquestion by the Report of Mr. Netherclift, | ence by opposing the views of the person printed in the volume before us, in which by whom he was professionally employed. he proves, by detailed reasonings, that the In fact, the case which he had been called two must have been handwritten by the in to support seemed to have broken down same person. As the Anonymous Note in consequence of his evidence. Mr. was in the handwriting of Junius, and as Twisleton at once acquiesced in the proFrancis had evidently sent it, it was taken fessional opinion of Mr. Chabot; but recfor granted as a natural consequence that ollecting from the recently published “Life the Anonymous Verses were in the natu- of Francis" that his cousin and familiar ral handwriting of Francis. This was at friend, Mr. Richard Tilghman, was with first the opinion of Mr. Twisleton himself Francis at Bath when the Verses were and of many other literary and legal gen- sent to Miss Giles, it struck Mr. Twisleton tlemen to whom he showed the verses, and that Francis might possibly have availed it was confirmed by the external evidence himself of the services of Tilghman as an and the tradition among the descendants amanuensis. Fortunately, in the Letterof Mrs. King. But now comes the most Book of Francis, which was in Mr. Twisleinteresting part of the story. Mr. Twisle- ton's possession, there were six Letters ton, whose caution and love of truth are written to Francis by Tilghman. These most strikingly exhibited in every point were now submitted, together with the of the investigation, would not finally Verses, to Mr. Chabot, who expressed his adopt this conclusion till it had been veri- unhesitating conviction that the Verses fied by a professional expert: He accord- were in the handwriting of Tilghman, and ingly applied to Mr. Netherclift, who had embodied his opinion in one of the Reports previously examined the handwriting of here printed. It would seem that Francis the Anonymous Note, as we have already with his usual caution, was unwilling to said; but finding that this gentleman, in bring his own handwriting into any conconsequence of a serious illness, could not nection with that of Junius, and accordundertake the investigation, he placed the ingly wrote the Note himself in the Junian case in the hands of Mr. Chabot, another hand, employing his friend Tilghman to professional expert. Mr. Chabot, however, copy the Verses, who probably never saw after comparing the Verses with the let- the Note. ters of Francis, pronounced an opinion directly contrary to what was expected. He maintained not only that he should not be justified in stating that the Verses were in the handwriting of Francis, but he thought that he could prove the negative, viz., that Francis had not, and could not have, handwritten the Verses; and in corroboration of this opinion he pointed out numerous peculiarities in the Verses which were not in the Letters, and numerous peculiarities in the Letters which were not

in the Verses.

We have already referred our readers to Mr. Twisleton's narrative for the proof of the essential point that the Note and the Verses came from Francis; but we will now mention the circumstance to which we alluded, and which proves incon

designate lithographers, or gentlemen connected twice in their lives to express their belief that a parwith banks, who come forward as witnesses once or ticular document was or was not written by a certain individual. The word has, then, a meaning very different from that of general experts in hand

writing, recognized as such in courts of justice, like

Mr. Chabot aud Mr. Netherclift, to whom cases of

disputed writing are systematically submitted from

time to time for their professional opinion, and who are prepared to state detailed reasons for every such opinion which they give. Having taken some pains to ascertain this point, I have been assured that dur

And here we may remark, in passing, that the conduct of Mr. Chabot on this occasion should be borne in mind by those who are in the habit of indulging in insinuations against experts.* Mr. Chabot, ining the last fifty years the number of such experts

*The following observations of Mr. Twisleton on the subject of "experts" deserve to be remembered in the present investigation.—"The word expert' is often used very loosely. It is frequently used to

in London has been very few, and that there are only two such experts in London practice now. Hence, tales about experts should be received with distrust, unless names and particulars are mentioned, so that it may be ascertained in what sense the word 'expert' is used."

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