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would seem as if the training and ex. perience of all our public men, during forty piping years of peace, had narrowed their ideas of the policy and means of government, to a scheme of party tricks and combinations, and caused them to forget that the reality of national danger has power to evoke influences before which faction must wither. The great majority of the people, in ordinary times, look with indifference, or with the placid interest of the beholder of a dramatic spectacle, upon the intrigues and even upon the honest struggles of professional politicians. Roman Catholic Emancipation, Parliamentary Reform, the Abolition of Slavery, the Repeal of Restrictive Customs' Duties, were all carried by the exertions of individual leaders, and by a skilled employment of the machinery of associations and leagues. But for such agencies, not one of those changes would have been effected at this day. While peace seemed durable, and a millennium of industrial exhibitions-veritable towers of Babel-was in course of initiation, the requirements of faction established a Peace Congress; but where is the machinery by which the country has been roused to a determination to resist Russian aggression, and to fight to the last in defence of national independence? There is no war congress, no anti-Russian league, no constitution-preservation society, with staffs of hired chairmen, clerks, and lecturers, labouring day and night to stir society to its depths of cupidity, passion, and vanity. The trading patriots and professional politicians are all of counsel for the other side; but the natural instinct of freemen, conscious of danger to their hearths and forums, has banded the whole nation together as one man, and set at nought the craftiest devices of faction. The same overruling force of public opinion that has brigaded together in the field the English Protestant, the French Roman Catholic, the excommunicated Sardinian, and the faithful follower of the Prophet, has obliterated from the popular mind of England all respect for the old distinctions of party The ancient rallying-cries of faction are no longer intelligible to the masses. Consistency is now taken to mean fidelity to the national cause in combination with any faithful associates:

inconsistency, the offence committed by Lord John Russell at Vienna, is vacillation, feebleness, or treachery in dealing with the enemy, under whatevery party-flag the operation may be conducted. If Lord Palmerston has strength of vision to enable him to penetrate the mists that surround London clubs, and cliques, and offices, and to perceive the signs of public opi nion, he will know his course; he will require resolution and a strong will to enable him to shape it safely. The obvious difficulties with which he will have to contend will be, the Parliamentary opposition of the avowed peaceparty directly, and the indirect, but much more dangerous, hostility of rival factionaries, some of them fully pledged to the Russianism of Messrs. Bright and Cobden; others riding at single anchor, and ready, at a moment's notice, to slip and hoist the flag either of Russia or England. That this category may include a large number of members of the House of Commons, will be admitted by the candid reader, who recollects the narrow escape of the country from utter disgrace, last session, by a majority of but three carrying the resolution guaranteeing the Turk, ish loan. In the anti-national minority upon that occasion, Mr. Disraeli and Mr. Walpole voted, and thereby laid the foundation of those rumours of the coalition of the first-named gentleman with Messrs. Bright and Gladstone, to which some degree of corroboration has been lent by the tone of a journal supposed to be influenced by his inspiration. Whether or not the articles of alliance have been signed between those high contracting parties will probably not be certainly known until the meeting of Parliament, and the occurrence of the first opportunity to strike a blow at the minister. It is, however, undeniable that the leader of the House of Commons, under Lord Derby's administration, did, as one of his latest acts last session, lead the opposition to the guarantee of the Turkish loan, to which the honour of the nation was pledged; and the fact demands the gravest consideration of those members of the Conservative party, who may still remain so imperfectly acquainted with the state of public opinion as to imagine that party juggling in the House of Commons will be permitted to make or unmake

a ministry. The time requires-among honest men the time always requires— plain speaking, and we feel that we should imperfectly discharge the duty we have undertaken, if we did not warn all whom it may concern of the extremely dangerous character of any such delusion. Again, we repeat, the nation requires that there shall be a Government strong enough to prosecute the war to its proper termination -a peace secured by weakening the aggressive power of Russia and pushing back her frontier to a defensible barrier line. A few election agents and local place-hunters may desire to carry Lord John Russell, or Lord Derby, into office; but the intention of the people is what we have stated, and no other. It is plain then to our mind, that the lines of duty and of self-interest coincide, as well in the case of independent members of Parliament, as in that of Lord Palmerston. Patriotism requires, and regard for their personal position ought to suggest to respectable men Conservatives, Whigs, or Radicals — that, at least so long as the nation considers the object of the war not to be attained, they should own no allegiance to any party but that of the country, and

that they should prove their fidelity to that flag, by the most scrupulous abstinence from every act of factious opposition, by the most explicit and candid statements of their views upon all proper occasions, and by a straightforward and ready support of all mea sures of the Government calculated to advance the great work in hand, or which they cannot show to be likely to retard it. Such a course would, we hope, often bring our most respected Conservative friends into the same lobby with Lord Palmerston; they may be assured that it would never lower them in the estimation of any respectable portion of their constituents. Nor should Lord Palmerston's tactics be in any respect different. He will soon learn, if he will be but true to himself and go straightforward, whether faction or patriotism prevails in the House of Commons. If it shall turn out that he cannot, by the loyal aid of the present representatives of the nation, administer public affairs in accordance with the national wish, it only remains for him to give the constituencies an opportunity of selecting wiser and honester men-he must DISSOLVE Parliament.

INDEX TO VOL. XLVI.

Ainsworth, W. Harrison, Ballads, reviewed,
227.

Alberico Porro, a Tale of the Milanese Re-
volution of 1848, by an Officer of the
Sardinian Service-Part I., 98; Part II.,
182; Part III., 360; Part IV., 469;
Part V., 566.

Alison, Sir Archibald, History of Europe
from the Fall of Napoleon, in 1815, to the
Accession of Louis Napoleon, in 1852,
Vol. IV., reviewed, 1.

Allingham, William, The Music-master, and
Day and Night Songs, reviewed, 229.
Anacreon, two Odes of, translated-I. On
the Winepress; II. On Gold and Wine,

374.

Antique Glimpses, Stanzas, 372.

Austrians, the-Postscript of a Letter to the
Editor, 253.

Ballads from the German: The Oak Har-
vest The Fire-Bell of Cologne - The
Monk of Heisterbach, 496.

Barrow, the, Part I.-Irish Rivers, No. XII.,
621; Part II.-Irish Rivers, No. XIII.,
685.

Beasts, Mystery of the, 281.
Bellot, Lieutenant, 712.

Bennett, W. C., War-Songs, reviewed, 233.
Brewster, Sir David, Memoirs of the Life,
Writings, and Discoveries of Sir Isaac
Newton, reviewed, 308.
Bunsen, C. C. J., Egypt's Place in Universal
History, Vol. II., reviewed, 273.

Canada, the Rail in, 127.
Christmas Contemplation, a, 643.
Civil Service, the, 409.

Collins, Mortimer, The Amateur Haymakers,
114; Brictric of Bristol, a Chronicle in
Rhyme, 341.

Collins, Mortimer, Idyls and Rhymes, re-
viewed, 228.

Curran, W. H., Sketches of the Irish Bar,
with Essays, Literary and Political, re-
viewed, 348.

Darkbrothers, the Old House of - Part J.,
598; Part II., 664.
Diplomacy, Old English, a Glimpse of, 321.

Dramatic Writers of Ireland, Notices of ;-
Atkinson, Joseph, 147.
Banim, John, 558.

Boyd, Rev. Henry, 147.
Carysfort, John Joshua, Earl of, 141.
Cherry, Andrew, 148.
Cooke, William, 146.
De Vere, Sir Aubrey, 449.
Griffin, Gerald, 562.
Jackman, Isaac, 144.
Lyons, Charles, 144.
Macnally, Leonard, 141.
Macready, William, 144.
Maturin, Rev. C. R., 444.
Moore, Thomas, 436.
Oulton, Walley Chamberlaine, 145.
Pilon, Frederick, 138.
Preston, William, 146.
Sheil, Richard Lalor, 548.
Sheridan, Richard Brinsley, 38.
Sullivan, William Francis, 147.
West, Rev. Matthew, 141.
Whiteley, James, 144.

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Germany, the Universities of, 82.
Glencore, the Fortunes of.

Chap. I., A
Lonely Landscape, 164; Chap. II., Glen-
core Castle, 168; Chap. III., Billy
Traynor, Poet, Pedlar, and Physician,
256; Chap. IV., A Visitor, 260; Chap.
V., Colonel Harcourt's Letter, 264; Chap.
VI., Queer Companionship, 267; Chap.
VII., A Great Diplomatist, 270; Chap.
VIII., The Great Man's Arrival, 397;
Chap. IX, A Medical Visit, 401; Chap.
X., A Disclosure, 404; Chap. XI., Some
Lights and Shadows of Diplomatic Life,
700; Chap. XII., A Night at Sea,

707.

Government, the, The Departments, and the
War, 116.

Grey, Sir George-Polynesian Mythology,
reviewed, 18.

Hawthorne, Nathaniel, 463.

Helps, Arthur-The Spanish Conquest in
America, and its relation to the History
of Slavery and to the Government of Co-
lonies, Vol. I., reviewed, 577.
Holly and Ivy, by Anthony Poplar, 635.
How I became an Egyptian, 610.
Hughes, Edward, Reading Lessons, First
Book, reviewed, 499.

Hunt, Leigh, Stories in Verse, reviewed,
226.

Irish History, a Missing Chapter of, 719.
Irish Rivers. No. XII.-The Barrow, Part

I., 621; No. XIII.-The Barrow, Part.
II., 685.

Italian Literature during the Tercento, 288.

Leatham, W. Henry, a Selection from the

Lesser Poems of, reviewed, 231.

M'Carthy, Denis Florence, The Bath of the

Streams-Stanzas, 218.

Mac Donald, George, Within or Without, a
Dramatic Poem, reviewed, 234.
Men-o'-War's Men, Our, 649.

Meredith, Owen, Clytemnestra, and Other
Poems, reviewed, 484.

Mid-day with the Muses, by Anthony Pop-
lar, 221.

Monck, Mary C. F., Lady Clare, 460.
Muller, Wolfgang, The Monk of Heister-
bach, from the German, 498.
Mystery, the, of the Beasts, 281.

Napoleon III., Les Oeuvres de, reviewed, 56.
Newton, Sir Isaac, Life of, by Brewster, re-
viewed, 308.

North-About; or, Notes of a Yacht-Cruise
from Forth to Clyde, 427.

Old House, the, of Darkbrothers, Part I.,
598; Part II., 664.

Orton, James, The Enthusiast, or the Stray-
ing Angel, reviewed, 222.
Our Allies the Austrians, 253.
Our Men-o'-War's Men, 649.

Papers relating to the Re-organisation of the
Civil Service presented to Parliament by
command of Her Majesty, reviewed, 409.
Plan, the, of the War, 383.
Poetry-The Amateur Haymakers, by Mor-
timer Collins, 114; Eighth Idyl of Theo-
critus, translated, 202; The Bath of the
Streams, by Denis Florence M'Carthy,
218; Going out of Port, by M. E. M.,

239; Sebastopol, from the German, 241;
Retrospect, by M. E. M., 242; The Vil-
lage Elm, from the French of Gresset,
244; the Mirror of Hope, by M. E. M,
245; Attributes of Virtue, from the Italian
of Folgore di San Gemignano, 247; In
Memoriam V. M., by M. E. M., 247; The
Fallen Pine, from the Greek of Zelotus,
248; The Fir-Tree, from the German,
248; On an Anniversary, by M. E. M.
249; The Lover's Lay, from the Spanish,
250; The Confession, from the Proven-
cal of Guglielmo de Bergadan, 251; The
Ruin, by M. E. M, 252; The Fall of
Day, 297; Brictric of Bristol, a Chronicle
fn Rhyme, by Mortimer Collins, 341;
Odes of Anacreon- LII. On the Wine
Press; LXV. On Gold and Wine, 374;
Lady Clare, by Mary C. F. Monck, 460;
The Oak-Harvest, from the German of
Karl Simrock, 496; The Fire-Bell of
Cologne, from the German of J. Seidl,
497; The Monk of Heisterbach, from the
German of Wolfgang Muller, 498; Sonnet
on the War, 699; Flow and Ebb, 738;
Memory, 635; The Willow, 637; The
Silver Bell of Rath Maighe, 638; De
cember, 639; The Ingle-Nook, 640.
Poetry, Papers on, No. II.-The Ballads of
Spain, their Age and Origin, 70; No.
III., Spanish Romantic and Chivalrous
Ballads, 171.

Political Horizon, a Sweep of the, 741.
Polynesia, 18.

Railroads in Canada, 127.

Reviews. History of Europe, from the Fall
of Napoleon, in 1815, to the Accession of
Louis Napoleon, in 1852, Vol. IV., 1;
Polynesian Mythology, by Sir George
Grey, 18; Les Oeuvres de Napoleon III.,
56; Wine, its Use and Taxation-an In-
quiry into the Operation of the Wine-
Duties on Consumption and Revenue, by
Sir James Emerson Tennent, 208; The
Enthusiast, or the Straying Angel, by
James Orton, 222; Lyrics of the Heart
and Mind, by Martin F. Tupper, 228;
Stories in Verse, by Leigh Hunt, 226; Bal-
lads, by W. Harrison Ainsworth, 227; Idyls
and Rhymes, by Mortimer Collins, 221;
The Music-Master, and Day and Night
Songs, by William Allingham, 229; A
Selection from lesser Poems of Mr. Henry
Leatham, 231; War-Songs, by W. C. Ben-
nett, 233; Within, or Without, a Drama-
tic Poem, by George MacDonald, 234;
Egypt's Place in Universal History, by C.
C. J. Bunsen, Vol. II., 273; Memoirs of
the Life, Writings, and Discoveries of Sir
Isaac Newton, by Sir David Brewster,
K.H., 308; Maud, and other Poems, by
Alfred Tennyson, 332; Sketches of the
Irish Bar, with Essays Literary and Poli-
tical, by W. H. Curran, Esq., 348;
Papers relating to the Re-organisation of

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