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information conveyed- the doubts dispelled the chaos reduced to order -the mastery over facts and views formerly so perplexing, and now so pleasingly imparted, that have given the book its great and universal charm, and settled it in the affections of all its worthy admirers."

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language. The author thinks he should very imperfectly execute his task if he were "merely to treat of battles and sieges, of the rise and fall of administrations, of intrigues in the palace, and of debates in the parliament.' Accordingly, he observes, "It will be my endeavor to relate the history of the people as well as the history of the government; to With regard to the political objects of the trace the progress of useful and ornamental work, and to the principles it is designed to arts; to describe the rise of religious sects, illustrate, Lord Jeffrey remarks further: —"I and the changes of literary taste; to portray take it, that it was with a view to certain the manners of successive generations; and great truths that this history was undertaken not to pass by with neglect even the revolu- and these, which I think it has made out betions which have taken place in dress, furni-yond all further contradiction, are first, the ture, repasts, and public amusements. I shall intolerable and personally hateful tyranny of cheerfully bear the reproach of having descend- the Stuarts; second, the absolute necessity of ed below the dignity of history, if I can suc- at least as radical and marked a revolution as ceed in placing before the English of the nine- was effected in 1688; and third, the singular teenth century a true picture of the life of felicity with which that revolution was saved their ancestors." from the stain of blood, and all crimes of vioWe believe it is generally admitted by the lence, by the peculiar relation in which Wilmost competent judges that, in the portion of liam stood to the dynasty, and the still more the work already published, Mr. Macaulay has peculiar character and European position of executed his difficult undertaking with extraor- that great prince. Had he not been in the dinary ability and success. It has indeed line of succession, we should have had an atbeen objected, that he has only succeeded in tempt at a new commonwealth, and another presenting his readers with a graceful and en- civil war; and had he not been partly an tertaining narrative; and that, as regards the alien, and looking more to European than suggestive and instructive uses of historical merely English interests, the victory in that delineation, the book is commonplace and su- war must have been of one section of the peoperficial. We presume that, being as it is to ple over another, with all the ranklings and a certain extent a party history, it will be aggravated antipathies which the mere presome time before its actual proportions of dominance of a sort of neutral party, or commerit and defect will be generally apprehended mon umpire, tended to suppress and extinand acknowledged. It may interest some, guish. These points I think Macaulay has however, to learn what was the opinion of made out triumphantly; and not by eloquent such a critic as the late Lord Jeffrey. "I and lively writing, but by patient and copious deny utterly," says he, "the two propositions accumulation, and lucid arrangement of facts -first, that Macaulay has aimed chiefly at and details, often separately insignificant, but interesting and entertaining his readers; and constituting at last an induction, which leaves second, that he has (either studiously or indo- no shade of doubt on the conclusion. This lently) put them on a scanty allowance of in- book, therefore, has already, in the course of struction, admonition, or suggestion. As to three little months, scattered to the winds, the last, I will maintain boldly . . . that and swept finally from the minds of all thinkno historian of any age has been so prodigal ing Englishmen, those lingerings of Jacobite of original and profound reflective suggestion, prejudice, which the eloquence and perveray, and weighty and authoritative decision, sions of Hume, and the popular talents of also, on innumerable questions of great diffi- Scott, and other writers of fiction, had reculty and general interest; though these pre-stored to our literature, and but too much cious contributions are not ostentatiously ticketed and labelled, as separate gifts to mankind, but woven, with far better grace and effect, into the net-tissue of the story. And then, as to his aiming only to interest and amuse, I say first, that though he has attained that end, it is only incidentally, and not by aiming at it as an end at all; and, second, that, in good truth, it is chiefly by his success in the higher This criticism, though of the defensive soi, object at which he did aim, that he has really may be accepted as a fair and sensible es ti delighted and interested his readers. The vi-mate of the prominent merits of the work.. vacity and color of his style may have been the first attraction of many to his volumes; but I feel assured that it is the impression of the weight, and novelty, and clearness of the

familiarized to our feelings, in the last fifty years. This is a great work, and a great triumph; and ought, I think, so to be hailed and rejoiced in. All convertible men must now be disabused of their prejudices, and all future generations grow up in a light round which no cloud can again find means to gath er."†

* Jeffrey's Life and Correspondence, vol. ii. p. 459.

Ibid, vol. ii., p. 460-1.

Through climes and ages,

Of its few inaccuracies of fact, of its occa- | Viewed under any of these several aspects, volsional dogmatism, and of the insufficiency of umes might be written upon the ring, and the the judgments given on certain questions re- amount of thought or ingenuity of fabrication specting which differences of opinion are still which, inevitable, there is nothing to be said which would be likely to profit or interest the reader. have been bestowed upon personal decoration. These are questions which demand of readers "But, madame, beyond all the rings and pera familiar acquaintance with the sources sonal ornaments which you now possess, or herewhence the materials of the history are drawn, after may become possessed of, let me refer you and may for the present be left to the consid- to the one plain gold ring which you constantly eration of those who have time and opportu- union with sacred rites can hallow any ring, a wear. I believe it to be, as far as cordial feelings in nity for minute investigation. Our object throughout has been to exhibit the leading gift far more precious than the most costly tiara of diamonds could possibly be, and more valued peculiarities of Macaulay's genius; to state the nature, and point out the most strik- as a pledge of affection than the whole collection which repose in Marie-Louise's casket." [The ing characteristics of his writings, and to pre-collection, purchased from Mr. Isaacs by Mr. pare the uninitiated to enter on the study of Croker for Lord Londesborough, in 1850, and them with an intelligent appreciation. This subsequently augmented by his lordship, is now object we have now in some sort accomplished, contained in the jewel-case of the Empress Marieand we accordingly leave the reader to extend Louise.]—Spectator. his knowledge of these writings as opportunity may admit; distinctly assuring him, that the time and attention required for their perusal will be amply repaid.

ANCIENT AND MEDIEVAL RINGS.-We have been favored with a copy of a catalogue, drawn up, for private reference, by Mr. Crofton Croker, of an interesting collection of rings and personal ornaments in the possession of Lady Londesborough. The collection consists of two hundred and fifty objects of personal ornament, the nucleus of which was formed by Mr. George Isaacs rings, bracelets, fibulæ, and gems, British, Gallic, German, Italian, Egyptian, Greek, Hebrew, and others; and Mr. Croker's notes, with their curious and entertaining information about rings-talismanic, cabalistic, episcopal, or pontifical, signet, gemmel, and betrothal rings. convey some relish of the pleasure to be derived from actual inspection of her ladyship's jewel

case.

"That objects at the first sight so apparently trivial as rings should engage the attention of the curious,' says Mr. Croker in a pleasant prefatory letter addressed to Lady Londes borough, "is not remarkable to any one who has examined the learned and instructive though incomplete work of Licetus on the subject, with the works of Gorlæus and Goria; although it must be acknowledged that they contain much more respecting the ancient gems which were set in rings than respecting the ring itself. However, so important was this branch of goldsmithery considered in the middle ages, as to invest a body of artists with the distinctive title of

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APPLICATION OF A CURIOUS PHYSIOLOGICAL DISCOVERY. - It has long been known to physiologists that certain coloring matters, if administered to animals along with their food, possess the property of entering into the system and tinging the bones. In this way the bones of swine have been tinged purple by madder, and instances are on record of other animals being No attempt, however, was similarly affected. made to turn this beautiful discovery to account until lately, when M. Roulin speculated on what might have been the consequences of administering colored articles of food to silkworms just His first experibefore spinning their cocoons. ments were conducted with indigo, which he mixed in certain proportions with the mulberry of this treatment was successful — he obtained leaves serving the worms for food. The result blue cocoons. Prosecuting still further his experiments, he sought a red coloring matter capable of being eaten by the silkworms without injury resulting. He had some difficulty to find such a coloring matter at first, but eventually alighted on the Bignonia chica. Small portions of this plant having been added to the mulberry leaves, the silkworms consumed the mixture, and produced red-colored silk. In this manner the experimenter, who is still prosecuting his researches, hopes to obtain silk as secreted by the worm of many colors. — Times.

Outlines of Scripture Geography and History; illustrating the Historical Portions of the Old and New Testaments. Designed for the use of Schools and Private Reading. By Edward Hughes, F. R. A. S., &c.

A well-executed compilation; the matter derived from the best travellers in the East, and the more remarkable descriptions quoted in their own words. The outlines, however, are rather a series of short papers on the places mentioned in Scripture, than a geography" in the school sense of the term. Perhaps the Ante-Abrahamic period is too fully gone into. - Spectator.

66

From the Economist.

nation. We have often thought of late that Englishmen were growing so lazy, so sensible, and so unsensitive, that nothing short of a slap in the face would rouse them into indignation, or win from them anything beyond a gentle and a pathetic smile. But if anything less startling could awaken us from our torpor, goad us to put forth our whole strength, and unite us all as one man to repel insult or ag

THE ASYLUM OF THE WORLD. We do not know whether there was any foundation for the assertion of the Times, that some foreign governments were about to show such a degree of futile and foolish irritation as to apply to Great Britain for the expulsion of the refugees from various countries who have sought safety on our shores; - but most assuredly, if there has been any such inten-gression, it would be a proposal on the part

tion, the firm, manly, and temperate language of Lord Palmerston in the House of Commons on Tuesday night will have sufficed to prevent its being carried into execution. In reply to an inquiry from Lord Dudley Stuart, Lord Palmerston (in the absence of Lord John Russell) said:

In answer to the question of the Noble Lord as to whether an application has been made by foreign powers to the government of this country for the expulsion of foreign refugees now living in the United Kingdom, I have to state that no such application has been made. In reply to the other question of the Noble Lord, as to what course would be pursued in the event of such an application being made, I can only repeat that which I think has been stated on former occasions in this house, that any such application would be met with a firm and decided refusal. It is, indeed, obvious that it must be so, because no such measure could be taken by the government of this country without fresh powers by Act of Parliament; and I apprehend that no government could, even if they were so inclined - and the present government are not so inclinedapply for such a power with any chance of success, inasmuch as no Alien Bill, I believe, within the course of this century has been passed ever giving to the government the power of expelling foreigners, except with reference to considerations connected with the internal safety of this country. The British government has never undertaken to provide for the internal security of other countries; it is sufficient for them to have the power to provide for the internal security of their own. But I cannot confine my answer simply to that statement. I will ask to be allowed to add, that while, on the one hand, the British laws, and the spirit of the British constitution, give to foreigners of all political opinions and of all categories, a secure and peaceful shelter within this country, I think that those foreigners who avail themselves of the hospitality of England are bound by every principle of honor, as well as by every regard, not only to international law, but to the law of this land

are bound to abstain from entering into any intrigues, or from pursuing any courses intended for the purpose of giving umbrage to foreign governments, and of disturbing the internal tranquillity of any foreign countries.

Every sentiment of this terse, vigorous, and well-considered answer will be reechoed by all ranks and classes, whatever be their party connections or political predilections. Lord Palmerston has spoken the mind of the whole

should violate the duties of hospitality towards of the triumphant autocrats of Europe that we the victims of their oppression and the fugitives from their vengeance.

The absurdity of such a demand would be With only equalled by its ungracefulness. what face could a proposal that we should refuse asylum on our shores to proscribed and outlawed politicians be made by men who have themselves sought and found protection here when the fortunes of war or of civil contest went against them? What! we have sheltered in their hour of need those whose conduct had outraged every feeling of our nature and every principle of our creed, and are we not to shelter in their turn those with whom we sympathize from the very bottom of our hearts! We have opened our doors to the escaping guilty: - are we to close them on the flying unfortunate? We have stood between the oppressor and the popular vengeance which he had long courted and at length aroused; are we not to stand between the oppressed and those who would pursue him into the sanctuary and seize him at the very horns of the altar? We received Louis Napoleon, though we could not suppress our contempt at his silly and miserable descent upon Boulogne, and though his attempt had been against the throne of a close, and then a faithful, ally. We received Charles X., though he had forfeited his throne by an attack upon that liberty of the press which we cherished as our dearest privilege. We received Louis Philippe, though he had deceived us meanly, and though the demand which upset him was "Parliamentary Reform." We offered a refuge to Metternich, though the policy which he had long pursued and for which he was compelled to fly was one which we abhorred from our inmost soul. We sheltered even Ledru Rollin with his associates, though we loathed his brutal doctrines and his sanguinary plans; we sheltered him, though the attentat for which he was obliged to fly was rather a crime against society than a mere political offence; we shelter him still, though he has repaid our hospitality by pouring out his frothy venom against our nation and our institutions. And, finally, we should again afford the protection of our island (if it were again needed) even to the Emperor of Austria and the Emperor of France.

possibly even to the Pope and the King of

Naples-though we hold the first to be a With regard to Mazzini the case is still lawless despot, and though words can do but stronger. England has shown him no symfeeble justice to the detestation with which pathy, invited him to no fêtes, cheered and the last is regarded at every English hearth. strengthened him by no popular encourageAnd having done all these things — ques-ment; it is even believed that she owes him tionable perhaps and certainly against the grain atonement for a great wrong committed some are we to abstain, at the bidding of those years ago. She has merely given him, what whom we so thanklessly served, from similar she has given to his worst and meanest enecharities, when we can render them with a mies shelter. He has lived among us in clear conscience and a ready will? Having the most profound retirement-avoiding all harbored and sinned perhaps in doing so public appearances - his very residence known the fugitives from freedom, are we to be de- only to a few intimate friends. What he barred from harboring also the fugitives from may have done in the way of correspondence, oppression and thereby atoning for our exhortation, secret planning, we know nothprevious misplaced benevolence? Are we to ing, and the Austrian government have not warn away Kossuth and Mazzini from their been able to discover. While among us he last asylum? It was natural enough that has conducted himself, in all respects and to the former reception of the Hungarian Patriot all appearances, as a peaceful and well-conin this country should have given umbrage to ducted citizen: - and this is all that we are the Austrian authorities, for it was ostenta- concerned with or have a right to inquire tious, noisy, and unprecedented in its enthu- about. If he has been the originator of the siasm and spontaneity. In that popular dis- outbreak in Lombardy, at all events he has play we did not join, nor did many of not directed it from England; he appears to the higher classes of Great Britain; for, be somewhere in or near Italy, and the Auswhile acknowledging the great powers of the trians must look after him themselves. Magyar Leader, his wonderful eloquence, his earnest patriotism, and the love and almost worship with which he is regarded by his Countrymen at home - we believed then, and believe still, that to his injudicious zeal in proclaiming the severance of Hungary from Austria and the establishment of a republic, may be traced all the calamities which have subsequently overwhelmed that unhappy country- the intestine divisions which lost their cause, the interference of Russia, the surrender of Vilagos, and the destruction of their ancient liberties. But the majority of the British people, who received Kossuth with such exuberant welcome, did not enter into these considerations; they merely knew that he was the idol of the Hungarian people, and their chosen governor; that the Emperor of Austria, by perjury and violence and foreign aid, had trodden down a constitution similar to our own, and had violated hereditary rights as sacred and as long-descended as those of which we make our boast; and that of this constitution and these rights Kossuth had been the representative and the defender. They expressed their sentiments as Englishmen are wont; and we can well imagine that their acclamations must have been gall and wormwood to the cabinet at Vienna. But that is now an old story. Since his return from America, the Magyar Chief has been silent and unnoticed keeping his own counsel, and biding his own time; and there is not the slightest evidence that he had the remotest concern either with the outbreak at Milan or with the attempted assassination at Vienna.

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While, however, we are prepared to defend the right of asylum against all assailants and impugners, we are bound to say that that right is abused and endangered by those refugees who seek our shore, not for safety, but as a fortress from which, secure themselves, they can prepare plots against our neighbors and allies. Such conduct is indelicate, ungenerous, and dangerous. Our laws and customs give us no means of watching or controlling such behavior. In case of any overt act we can and do interfere. If any of these refugees were to procure or send out arms and ammunition, or to fit out vessels for a descent upon foreign shores, we should be bound at once to arrest both the proceedings and the culprits and we should assuredly do so with the utmost promptitude. It is not alleged, however, that any of the obnoxious refugees who have found shelter with us have proceeded so far as this. Once, and once only, so far as we are aware, has anything of the sort been attempted with success

and in that instance the conspirator was the present Emperor of the French! Still, though our institutions and our feelings both forbid interference with or surveillance over those who have sought refuge with us, these fugitives ought to feel that every consideration of position, of honor, and of prudence, forbids them to make use of the shelter afforded them to carry on machinations or conspiracies against States with which we are at peace and amnity. It is hard, no doubt, that they should be prohibited from the great solace of an exile life; it is painful to feel that their hands are tied, their time wasted, and their faculties idle and rusting; it is irritating to think that they can no longer aid their fellow-country

men who have remained at home in their | the coming convulsion? The fact is, that in struggles for the common cause: - but these the universally civic organization of ancient are the tacit conditions on which a place of times, as well as of those Italian states which refuge has been afforded them. If they were occupy so large a portion of modern history, not prepared to accept it on such conditions, conspiracy was really a powerful and efficient they should not have sought it, and they mode of operation. But in our later systems should now quit it:-only on the shores of a of government, whether representative or nation at war with their oppressors, or amid merely monarchical, with populations of milthe concealments and fastnesses of their own lions to appeal to, depend upon, disgust, or land, can they honorably or conscientiously conciliate, anything like individual conspiracy plot, conspire, or levy war against the rulers must dwindle into insignificance, unless it be who have defeated them. If, from the shelter identified with that great conspiracy into of Claremont or of Brighton, Louis Philippe which a whole people silently enter without had planned and procured a counter-revolution consulting each other, and from the mere in France, or Metternich had arranged an tacit sympathy of common resentment and expedition against Hungary. -we certainly disaffection. If rulers would but look to this should have held neither of them guiltless; large conspiracy and appease it, without idly —and we are not disposed to have one rule inquiring who are its chiefs, for in fact it has for them and another for their rivals and an- no chiefs, they would be doing something tagonists. towards the consolidation of their thrones.

From the Examiner, 5th March.

THE REFUGEE QUESTION. If the great events of late years have been remarkable for the production of few material results, they may at least be considered to have established some striking and salutary truths. Of these there is none more fully demonstrated than the idleness of seeking to bring about revolution by conspiracy. From 1815 to 1848 Germany could show an interminable series of conspiracies; France was not less fertile in them; and we now know that not one of them succeeded. Premature explosion and treachery invariably disclosed such plots, which had simply the effect of implicating and causing the deaths or exile of many brave men. But if individual parties have thus proved signally powerless in bringing about great political changes or catastrophes, the unanimous sentiment of a people uniting in abhorrence of a system of government, or in detestation of a prince or of a line of princes- when a mere accident has occurred to ignite that popular combustiblehas been found to defy alike precaution or resistance, and to carry all before it, both thrones and their defenders, with a violence and fulness of destruction unexampled in ancient times.

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No better proof of the folly and futility of conspiracy could be adduced than the late outbreak at Milan. But it is at the same time a proof of the equal futility of the police system opposed to it; and these blockheads of Austrian jailers and police, who cannot do the work for which they are paid, though to do it they are empowered to tyrannize over the finest country in the world, are said to be about to come to us to ask Englishmen to perform their police work for them, and to issue edicts of proscription against Mazzini and Kossuth, as if their own miserable system of exaction and tyranny did not create Kossuths and Mazzinis in every village, or as if leaders could ever be wanting when the inevitable folly of such governments gives the signal for a starting up from oppression.

Does any one believe that either Kossuth or Mazzini at present obtain anything in England in aid of their designs beyond that gen eral protection which is extended to every exile? The mere question is preposterous. They draw no force from this country. Whatever forces or whatever resources they may have or command must come from their respective countries, not from England; and if so derived, the Austrian cabinet is answerable for it, not England. Nor do we see that the locus standi for conspiracy is better here than in America. If Mazzini sailed from London to Genoa, as is alleged, he must have If the question be asked how Charles the employed from fifteen to twenty days in the Tenth, or Louis Philippe, or King Frederic, voyage. One-half of that number of days or the Emperor Francis, could have saved would have brought him from the United themselves from the terrible revolutions which States. The exiles of European liberty there in some places definitively, in others for a time, are now, when at Boston, as near to the seat overturned their thrones- can it be answered of their exploits and to the populations over that any vigilance of police, any elimination of dangerous characters, any exile of turbulent and seditious persons, either from their own dominions or from those of their neighbors, would in the least have contributed to strengthen their position, or secure it against

whom their influence is dreaded, as thirty years ago they were when living in some humble suburb of London. Will the despots of Europe, after striving to induce England to banish from its shore every man guilty of the crime of patriotism or the heresy of constitu

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