Chapter V: The Cataract of the Rocks (2)

No less to be condemned, for similar reasons, as uselessly and even deleteriously calling into life the past, was the edict of the Provisional Government, enacting that the representatives of the people in the national assembly should have a uniform costume, similar to that worn by the heroes of the Convention. This idea emanated, doubtless, from the same violent and misdirected source as the Greco-republican programme de fête: but why, it may be asked, did the more sensible and moderate majority of that government lend its hand to sign such a decree? The immense, majority, however, of the representatives of the people, who are unwilling, at the same time, to be the representatives of the ideas of '93, have, in their good sense, done justice to this edict, by their disdain of its ordinances, and their refusal to wear the costume imposed upon them. They felt the full force of the symbol they were told to adopt; they felt the dangerous importance of the sentiment that would be attached to it: they rejected the symbol; and they disavowed the sentiment. And they did well. The cocked hat with its gold-lace border, such as may be seen, in pictures, on the head or in the hand of Danton or St Just, was declared simply absurd, if nothing more: the tri-color scarf, to be bound round their waists, with its gold fringe, was thought puerile; but the celebrated white waistcoat, the fatal white waistcoat, with its broad lappels flung back upon the shoulders--that waistcoat known only under the popular names of the "_gilet à la Robespierre_,"--or the "_gilet à la guillotine_"--the new representatives of the people of a new republic, founded upon other principles, flung aside with indignation. The "_gilet à la Robespierre!_"--the very name was sufficient to excite feelings of abhorrence; and the edict, although it of course withheld the name, raised a storm of angry remonstrance and refusal. The whole affair,--the edict as the indignation,--may be considered as puerile, frivolous, and unworthy of strong feeling. But, again it must be repeated, the men who were told to don this costume knew what the sentiment would be that such a display of symbolical attire would excite; and a great importance was attached to it, which men in other countries may not understand, but which those who know the French, and their facility to be led away by the outward symbol, will entirely appreciate. It may seem ridiculous to say--and yet it may not be far off the truth--that many a representative of the people, who may now talk sage and sensible moderation, might have thundered forth the excess of democratic violence, had his bosom borne across it the "_gilet à la Robespierre_."

There are other symbols of the great watchwords of the day; those ill understood and oft misconstrued words,--those words which are so constantly put forward by the violent to mean the very contrary of what they are intended to express,--the words "_Liberté! Egalité! Fraternité!_" and these symbols men think it necessary to exhibit on all occasions. So be it. They are the rallying cry of the new republic; let them be symbolised. But let men take care how, and in what manner, it be done. In the new coins of the republic, upon which the three mystic words shine, they are strangely enough typified--the old die of the old coin of the old republic has been used; and perhaps the allegorical personages that figure on them had then another signification. As it is, the Hercules in the midst, with the two ladies by his side, may be interpreted in various ways. Curious speculators in allegories would in vain endeavour to affix each of these three personages to each of the abstractions they are supposed to represent: there are many, at all events, who decline the task. Which does Hercules typify? Liberty perchance--the liberty, then, of force. Or, if the ladies alone represent the qualities that are of the feminine gender in the French language, which of the three is absent? which of the three is excluded from being symbolised on the coins of the French republic? This would be, again, a difficult task to investigate. All the three are so constantly called in question, so continually menaced, above all, so little comprehended in general in the first steps of the French republic, that it would be hard to say which is the least recognised, although many may give their votes in favour of the first of the three good dames. But it is not alone upon the coins that the three deities find their emblems. Lithographic prints, of every species of good or bad drawing, display them in a bodily form to admiring eyes at every print-shop. Led away by pictures, as by all other outward and visible emblems, the French are easily inflamed by such productions. And, again, a protest should be entered against the character commonly given to the republican deities--against that of goddess Liberty more especially. She is almost invariably represented in an attitude of demoniacal vengeance, worthy of Mademoiselle Rachel. She has the so-called cap of liberty, of course, upon her head, but her hand always grasps a sabre, or a pike, or some such deadly weapon; her countenance is furious, angry, vengeful. Why should Liberty be represented thus, then, as a bloodthirsty angel of wrath? why should she be an object to be dreaded and not loved? Rulers of France, ye should have a care how the divinity ye proclaim is symbolised to the eyes of the people! the effect produced, in the fostering of the sentiment, may be more important than ye choose to think or to acknowledge. The same reprehension should be cast upon the greater part of those models and pictures which are exhibited in the _Ecole des beaux arts_, for the prize to be given for the best personification of the French Republic. The great majority of these models represent, once more, a perfect fury of wrath, in all the extravagance of frantic theatrical gesture. But, my good artists, this is a representation of a French Republic such as it was in the worst moments of its last reign--not of the French Republic proclaimed as the living exemplification, not only of liberty, equality, and fraternity, but of peace, and order, and love! Could you do nothing better than make bad imitations of a detestable past? It will be for the famous Minister of the Interior, probably, to decide which of these personifications is to be raised on high as the symbol of the republic. He who offered the prize will probably award it: Paris, then, will soon see what sentiment is to be taught, in the name of all France, to attach to the symbol.

There is another little trait connected with a people's sentiments that, slight as it is, may be of more influence in the direction which the violence of popular commotion may take. This little trait, although born of an evil and violent feeling, may have a tendency that not only will not be a harmful one, but may protect from harm. At the commencement of the revolution,--upon every greater or lesser demonstration of popular feeling,--the first cry, to the rich or the supposed rich, was to illuminate their houses in honour of the sovereign people, or rather of those who assumed the rank and title of sovereignty wholly to themselves. Above the cries, "_à bas les riches! à bas les aristocrats!_" prevailed the cry "_des lampions! des lampions!_" So often, and for so long a time, was this cry heard in the streets of Paris, that it has now taken the distinct form of one of those popular shouts used upon all occasions. Is the mob angry, or is it merry, it cries "_des lampions!_" Is it angry only, this cry often changes its wrath to merriment: is it impatient, it cries "_des lampions!_" is it witty, "_des lampions!_" By day as well as night, on all popular occasions, the cry is heard, and now never fails to excite a laugh. In the theatres, is a piece to be damned?--the pit and the galleries cry, "_des lampions!_" Does a declaimer in a street crowd displease the multitude?--it cries again, "_des lampions!_" The words, then, have become a popular demonstrative cry; and who can tell how much in the future this habit may efface the hideous cry of "_à la lanterne_?"--how much the cry for light may cause the people to forget the cry for the darkness of death upon the lamp-post--how much, in truth, popular sentiment may be hereafter influenced by a trait of popular habit so slight, so frivolous, so ridiculous, and yet, perhaps, so important in its results. Should it have this working, there are many who have lost their temper at the ear-rending, monotonous, irritating cry of "_des lampions_," who may bless the day when the fancy of the mob adopted this popular and almost historical cry. Who can tell, indeed, upon what a trifle may depend the direction given to a people's outbreak, to the course of a revolution, to the destinies of a country?

Since the courageous action of Lamartine gave a first stamp to the character of the revolution, by putting down a dangerous sentiment in its bloody symbol, the violent party has in vain again endeavoured, _as yet_, to assume its lost supremacy. The horizon is dark with its menace, it is true, and its thunder growls, its lightnings flash, from time to time: the storm may be dispersed, or it may break forth, and then pass away. This is for the future. But whatever men may rule the destinies of France, they should, like Lamartine, be well aware that if the French people must be amused with constant displays of symbols, those symbols must be chosen with care, as the direct, and leading, and active instigators of their sentiments.

AMERICAN FEELING TOWARDS ENGLAND.

We believe it to be impossible to overrate the importance of the triumph of order on the 10th of April in London, either as to its effects on Great Britain or on the world. The complete and signal success, and at the same time the calm working of the machinery by which the end was accomplished,--the impression of a vast power felt throughout, though purposely kept in the background, ready to act if necessary, but only in the case of necessity; the proof which it afforded of the perfect soundness of the English mind, extending even to the masses of the capital amidst the revolutionary contagion; and the contrast which it exhibited between the well-balanced and elastic strength of the English constitution, and the unsubstantial systems or crumbling governments of the Continent, formed a spectacle which no one could witness without pride, or remember without a feeling of gratitude and of increased security. It has tranquillised for many a year the fears of those who had begun to doubt whether even the strong anchor of our constitution could continue to hold fast against the strain of the revolutionary current. It has proved, if that indeed were doubtful, how essentially different are the elements of the British character from those of the fickle populations of Southern Europe, among whom revolution had found its adherents; and how deep-seated in that character is the love of order, respect for property, deference to established authority, calm and practical good sense, and that solid groundwork of moral and religious feeling, on which alone any stable form of government can ever be reared. If, since that memorable 10th of April, the Continent has begun to obtain a little truce and breathing time; and even in France the possessors of property and the friends of order are beginning to be alive at once to their own danger, and their own strength, and to the necessity of exerting the forces, moral and physical, which are at their disposal to put down the approach of anarchy in its most undisguised and hideous form--it is to the peaceful and majestic triumph of order in England that these results are to be ascribed.

It cannot but be matter of deep interest to us to learn with what feelings the danger and the escape of Great Britain were contemplated in America; a country where the experiment of a republic had been tried, and where--if the same spirit of propagandism existed which appears to be the curse of France--it might have been supposed that the chance of a democratic constitution being established in England, would have been a subject of congratulation and anticipated triumph. In Paris, upon the morning of the 12th April, nothing, we are told, but disappointment was experienced, when the peaceful, and, as they deemed it, ignominous termination of the proceedings at Kennington Common was made known. How were the news received by our Transatlantic brethren? A short extract from the letter of a valued friend in New York, and one or two from the American papers, will be interesting, we think, to our readers, as illustrating the state of feeling on the subject in America.

The tone of the American press on this question has on the whole been most creditable to the periodical literature of that country. It proves that, though many points of difference may and must exist between the two countries,--though the elder may not always have borne her faculties in the meekest way, and the younger may have often announced her pretensions with more of petulance than discretion,-- nations sprung of the same lineage, speaking the same language, cherishing the same literature, cannot be so alienated from each other by difference of political institutions, or opposition of commercial interests, as not to feel a warm and cordial interest in each other's welfare; and to lament, not from mere selfish considerations of interest, but from higher and more generous sympathies, every calamity which threatens a kindred nation, with which it feels itself united by the ties of moral and intellectual relationship.

Our correspondent thus writes:--

"_New York, May 1st, 1848._

... "The arrival of the steam-ship America at this port on
Saturday last, bringing the good news of the complete
triumph of law, liberty, and order in our Fatherland, was
hailed with a degree of joy that well became true-born
descendants of British ancestors. That arrival terminated a
week which, to myself as well as to thousands of others, had
been one of intense and painful anxiety; for although I
never dreamed of the probability of a revolution, and never
doubted the power of government to quell the threatened
insurrection of the Chartists, I did greatly fear that a
conflict was inevitable; and I trembled at the possible
results that might follow, were only a single man in the
procession to parliament to fall before the bayonets of the
soldiery. How universal was this fear the newspapers which I
send you clearly tell; and you will smile at hearing that
even bets were made that the revolution was complete, and
England a republic.

"The course pursued by government, in trusting to a
voluntary police rather than to the military, exhibited
their usual wisdom, and has greatly added to the moral
dignity of their triumph. And the result has fully verified
the remark in your letter to me in March, that 'the upper
and middle classes, as also the respectable operatives, are
most determined to maintain order and the law, irrespective
of all political differences;' and proves beyond a doubt the
truth of the proud declaration, in the last number of your
Magazine, that 'the unbought loyalty of men--the cheap
defence of nations--still, thank God, subsists among _you_.'

"Notwithstanding all the extreme excitement aroused
throughout our land by the Revolution in France, and its
astounding progress on the Continent, and the confident
predictions of many that England could not unshaken meet the
shock of Chartist rebellion,--the instant it was known that
she had met it and was unmoved--that it had passed
harmlessly by as a summer cloud, without awakening from its
slumbers the giant strength it had threatened to
overcome,--a sensation of relief, a thrill of gladness, a
feeling of thankfulness, of security, and of admiration,
seemed to be almost universal, and men greeted each other in
the streets as those might who had together feared and
together escaped a great personal calamity.

"That much of this rejoicing arose from selfishness is very
true, for so closely connected are the social and commercial
relations of the two countries, that no blow struck at the
prosperity of England could be long unfelt in these United
States. But the fact is scarcely on that account the less
striking, nor will it, I venture to hope, deprive it of its
intense significance with those who, like yourselves,
exercise so great an influence upon the opinions and the
sympathies of two great nations."

The effect produced upon the _commercial_ affairs of America by the apprehension of a revolutionary movement in Great Britain, and the restoration of confidence when the news of the peaceful termination of the demonstration of the 10th arrived, are thus given in the _Weekly Herald_ of New York:--

_Sunday, April 30--6 p.m._

"The week just closed has been one of the most intense
excitement. The most gloomy anticipations had been formed
relative to the expected news from England; and we have
never before seen such a panic growing out of a probable
event, as that which had taken possession of the public
mind. The whole thing turned upon the result of the Chartist
movement in London; and such were the hopes and fears of
those connected in any way with Great Britain, that it was
difficult to escape the general depression. Vessels
freighted for ports in England were not permitted to depart
until after the arrival of the steamer. Drawers of exchange
refused to sell any more bills on their agents; prices for
cotton were steadily drooping in anticipation of a complete
overthrow of the British government; and a thorough
derangement existed in every department of industry, and, in
fact, the greatest consternation prevailed. As soon as it
was announced that the steamer America was telegraphed, the
public mind was at once relieved, and stocks advanced, even
before the news became known. The fact that the steamer was
coming, that she had sailed on her regular day, satisfied
all that there had been no change in the government--that
the Chartist movement had not succeeded, and that, so far
as political affairs in Great Britain were concerned, every
thing was quiet. This gave a buoyancy to the market, and the
reaction upon the public mind was tremendous. When the news
was read from an _Extra Herald_ to the crowd in Wall Street,
many men shed tears, and almost a universal shaking of hands
took place. Many, who imagined they were ruined, found their
fears groundless; and the long, anxious faces which met us
at every turn in the business portion of the city during the
past week, were suddenly changed to those of joy. Vessels
which have been under an embargo, will now resume their
voyages; and produce which has been held back, will go
forward more rapidly. Trade will again move on in the usual
channels, and renewed confidence will give an impetus to
commercial transactions generally. The news by the America
is of vast importance, inasmuch as it has removed the
immense weight pressing upon the minds of mercantile men,
and given great relief to all classes; otherwise the news
does not amount to much, in a commercial point of view. The
advance in consols was the result more of the reaction in
the public mind, caused by the manner in which the Chartist
demonstration passed off, than any thing else, as the
position of affairs on the Continent kept the market very
sensitive."

The following article is from the _Morning Express_; and it is valuable for the justice of its remarks upon the anomalies which pervade the democratic American constitution, as well as our own, and which must exist under every form of government which deserves the name:--

"THE ATTEMPTED INSURRECTION IN ENGLAND.--The public mind was
gratefully relieved on Saturday, by the intelligence, flying
like wild-fire upon the arrival of the America, that the
Chartist demonstration on Kennington Common failed of its
main object--viz., that of creating an insurrection among
the two millions of London, like that which had been created
among the million of Paris. If England had swung from her
moorings, as France has, and Italy and Germany have, no one
could have foreseen the consequences, or ventured to predict
upon the probable results. Certain it is, however, that
almost every British business-doing house in the United
States would have been crushed, and the commerce of the
world would have been annihilated for a season.

"The 'six points' of the Chartists of England are no doubt
known to our readers. The petitioners pray (1) for annual
parliaments, (2) universal suffrage, (3) vote by ballot, (4)
equal electoral districts, (5) no property qualification,
and (6) the payment of members. Now, at the first blush, all
these seem reasonable enough, if the people want
them--although there is no proof that they do, but rather
proof to the contrary,--but when we remember that, in this
country, not one of these points, save the payment of
members of Congress, is universally recognised as the law of
the land, it is not for us to say a word in favour of the
Chartists of England, at least until we make their
theoretical 'points' _our_ 'points' in practice. We have no
_annual Congress_. Members of the House are elected for two
years, and members of the Senate for six years. We have no
universal suffrage. The three millions of slaves do not
vote. The negroes in the Free States do not vote (two or
three States excepted) without a property qualification. In
democratic Virginia, a man must be a freeholder to vote. In
some of the other States there are also rigid restrictions.
The vote by ballot is known nowhere in the Slave States. The
_viva voce_ is the only mode of voting, and it is not
certain that it is not the best way. Equal electoral
districts do not exist in this country. Six hundred white
men in South Carolina or Louisiana elect as many members of
Congress as six thousand in New York. The little State of
Delaware, entitled to but one member of Congress, elects as
many Senators as New York, entitled to her thirty-six
members in the Lower House. Thus, whatever evils the
Chartists groan under, if any, we groan under here in these,
their _beau-ideal_, United States. But, if we are
misgoverned here, or if misgovernment exists in England, it
is vain to deny that it is our own fault. No revolution, no
exertion of physical force, can better our condition. The
cause of order is the cause of liberty; tyrants and thieves
alone thrive by confusion. The progress of popular power is
founded on knowledge, and the best fruit of knowledge is
peace. It is kings and autocrats whose trust is in the
bayonet, and whose only faith is in the rifle and parks of
artillery. Let the people show they are worthy to be free by
practising the virtues of freemen--by a reliance on the
power of reason, on the march of intelligence, on the force
of public opinion, on the justice of their cause, and the
certain triumph of truth and right, naked and unarmed,
except in the panoply of virtue and the majestic spirit of
humanity.

"But the demonstration in London is not to be without its
effect on the map of the world. It is the first check that
the revolutionary ball has met with since it started in
Paris, and ran like a meteoric storm over continental
Europe. The British empire, at all events, is safe. Whatever
is to be achieved for Liberty and Progress there, has got to
be achieved, as such victories have been for two hundred
years past, viz., by changing the law of the land through
the constitutional action of the ballot box. It is very true
that the British government, for the first time for many
years, has manifested symptoms of alarm over a seditious
meeting,--and there was reason for it, so sudden had been
the revolutions in Paris, Berlin, Vienna, Milan, Venice,
Munich, Wirtemberg, and indeed throughout nearly all the
cities in continental Europe,--and it is very true, also,
that London, in the excitement, lost her trade and forgot
business for nearly a week, while the actual cost of the
demonstration in behalf of law and order is estimated to be
full half a million of dollars; but, as the London _Times_
well says:--

"'It is worth at least £1,000,000 in the additional value it
will give to British securities now and for good all over
the world.'

"The British character, British reverence for law and order,
British public opinion, now stand higher than ever. No
spectacle can be more beautiful than that of 200,000 special
constables qualifying from all classes of society, and
taking oath to obey the officers of the law in preserving
property and protecting the city. The Chartist multitude of
some ten, or twenty, or it may be, fifty thousand--for
authorities differ in their estimation of the number on
Kennington Common,--naturally enough quailed before such a
moral demonstration. Their courage all oozed out of their
fingers' ends, and their leaders evaporated on the trial
day, as well enough they might. The whole thing turned out a
farce, or an abortion; and the 'six points' of the Charter,
well enough in the main, now stand about as high, in London,
under such auspices, as the 'five points' in New York.

"Rejoicing, however, as we do in this suppression of a mob
demonstration in our Fatherland, we do not shut our eyes to
the fact that the British ministry must keep up with the
spirit and the intelligence of the age, in all possible or
rational meliorations of the aristocratic features of the
British constitution. There is, however, the greatest pledge
that this will be done in the very form itself of the
constitution,--for there can be scarcely a doubt, we think,
that there is now as near an approximation to universal
suffrage in the House of Commons as in our own House of
Representatives,--remembering, as we must, in the latter
body, the _numbers_ and _colours_ of its differing
constituency. The Senate of the United States is no more
based upon 'equal representation,' as all know, than the
House of Peers."

"WALL STREET ON SATURDAY LAST.--If there are any among us
who doubt the close union, social, intellectual, and
commercial, which binds in sympathy our people with those of
Great Britain,--if there are any who deemed Americans mere
passive, disinterested spectators of the revolutionary
crisis, which, previous accounts would have it, was to
provoke a civil war in England, and to submerge all the then
existing law and order there, beneath the turbulent
whirlpool of mob violence--we wish they had been in Wall
Street, or, indeed, in any of the other business
thoroughfares in the lower part of the city, on Saturday
last, about noon. We are perfectly sure that the result of
the intended-to-be belligerent demonstration in the English
metropolis, on the eventful 10th of April, was not more
anxiously awaited in Liverpool, in Edinburgh, or Glasgow,
than it was here in Transatlantic New York, albeit three
thousand miles and more away from the theatre of action.
Early in the morning, as soon as it was proclaimed on the
newspaper bulletins that the steamer was telegraphed off
Sandy Hook, men began to gather in knots at the corners of
the streets, discussing the probable character of the news
at hand,--and, for the time being, all business of
importance was at a pause. Speculation in Ohio 6's,
Pennsylvania 5's, Reading Bonds and railroad shares, was
laid aside for speculation in an anticipated fresh batch of
revolutions and dynasties overthrown. Cotton, flour, and
grain were all forgotten, and the only article thought of in
the provision line was a _Provisional Government_ in the
realms of Queen Victoria. Hanover Street, at the corner of
Wall,--that well-known rendezvous for street
operations,--was in a state of terrible suspense; and even
the stoic who superintends the dog-market in the
neighbourhood of the Custom House, concluded to suspend all
transactions in his quadrupedal profession, till the
character of the news should be divulged. The excitement on
all hands was intense; but the suspense was of short
duration, for soon the booming of cannon across the bay
announced that the New America had reached her wharf at
Jersey City. An hardly had the echoes died in the distance,
ere a 'Wilmer,' or one of the innumerable 'Extras' that now
deluged the streets, was in the hands of every body who
could read. By this time the various newspaper
establishments were in a state of actual beleaguerment. Into
some, the rush was so unceremonious and indiscriminate,
that, as the speediest means to get rid of the crowd, an
individual was delegated to ascend the desk and read aloud
the details of the intelligence. Englishman, Irishman,
German, and Frenchman, were among the eager listeners; and
according as from the reader's lips would fall some sentence
congenial to the feelings of one or the other, it amused us
to hear the involuntary ejaculations of applause that would
now and then break out. All, indeed, were patient
listeners,--the American hardly less so than the European.
And now that the Chartist bugbear had eventuated in a
contemptible abortion, many were the congratulations
exchanged--though some expressions of disappointed hope here
and there met our ear. The internal peace of England had
been undisturbed--the government had wisely allowed the
'demonstration' to take place,--it had 'all ended in
smoke,'--Parliament hadn't even been menaced with those
awful pikes,--the vast financial and commercial concerns of
the nation were not seriously affected,--in short, because
every thing now gave good assurance that the mighty
conflagration which has irresistibly swept over all
continental Europe, consuming many a regal edifice in its
march, has left unscathed the governmental fabric of
Britain, and therefore preserved all the mighty interests
which, falling with it in the general ruin, would have
immersed half the world in bankruptcy and distress--people
returned to their homes and to their places of business with
better heart. The cloud of gloom that hung over the business
world, the week past, in anticipation of sad tidings from
abroad, at once evaporated, and in the twinkling of an eye,
all was sunshine and hope again. SUCH WAS SATURDAY IN WALL
STREET."

To the sentiments expressed in these passages every British heart must respond; and we feel the more called upon to lay them before our readers from having seen some absurd and foolish ravings reprinted in this country as the verdict of the American Press upon the events which have been and are passing around us.

We do not much wonder at such passages as we allude to being quoted here, for, like many of those transatlantic extravagances which have now attained the distinctive name of "Americanisms," they certainly form rather amusing reading; but it requires only a very superficial inspection of these tirades, to see that they no more reflect the real tone of American opinions or American sympathies, than the harangues of the United Irishmen or of Conciliation Hall represent the feelings, judgments, or wishes of the Irish nation. Doubtless, among the less intelligent classes of the community, and the "Suisses" of the Press, on both sides of the Atlantic, there is abundance of rancour and bad feeling, in some cases the offspring of mere ignorance, in others of bad faith, disguised under the cloak of nationality and patriotism: but among the educated and the thoughtful portion of the public, and among the higher organs of periodical literature in both countries, a very different spirit is evidently gaining ground. A feeling of mutual respect, a spirit of cordiality is every day becoming more apparent, as the conviction of the common interest of the two countries becomes more palpable; and a union is gradually in the course of formation, which the storms that are agitating the rest of Europe will only tend, we trust, to cement and confirm. How, indeed, should it be otherwise? How, at least, should it _long continue_ to be otherwise? For what country but Great Britain has ever sent forth from its bosom such a colony as now forms the United States of America? What colony could ever look back upon a loftier lineage than America, when, comparing her own wide and thriving domains with many of the sinking empires of Europe, she remembers her British descent, and feels, in a thousand traces of blood and thoughts and habits and morals, her connexion with "the inviolate island of the sage and free."

INDEX TO VOL. LXIII.

Abercrombie, general, 430.

Aberdeen, kidnapping in, 612.

Ackland, colonel, 335, 336,
--his death, 339.

Ackland, lady Harriet, 336, _et seq._

Acre, defence of, by Sir Sidney Smith, 323.

Aids to Reflection, criticism on the, 702.

Agricultural produce, importation of, 11
--classes, present state of, 655.

Alaimo de Sentini, 592
--defence of Messina by, 595
--his death, 602.

Alba, battle of, 450.

Alexander, emperor of Russia, sketch of career of, 133, 135, _et seq._

Alfred, improvement of the English law under, 463.

Allen, Ethan, exploits of, 430.

America, periodical literature of, 106
--copyright in, 127
--feeling in, towards England, 780.

Angler's Companion, Stoddart's, review of, 673.

Armstrong, Johnny, execution of, 305.

Army, &c., Cobden on the, 261.

Arnold, Benedict, exploits of, 332, 336, 430.

Athole, earl of, murder of, 300.

Atterbury, bishop, 471.

Austria, the revolutionary movement in, 639, _et seq._ 650
--its government of Lombardy and Venice, 736, 737
--the war with Sardinia, 746.

Autobiography of a German headsman, the, 148.

Ballantyne's Hudson's Bay, review of, 369.

Bank restriction act, passing of the, and its effects, 1
--Peel's, 720.

Baring, Mr, on the income-tax, 386.

Barrow's life of Sir Sidney Smith, review of, 309.

Beatification, the, 290.

Benevento, battle of, 444.

Blackwood and copyright in America, 127.

Blairs and Drummonds, feud between, 306.

Blanc, Louis, 399.

Bolingbroke, lord, 472.

Brazil, present state of, 236.

Brest, exploit of Sir Sidney Smith at, 319.

Brougham, lord, on the present state of France, 642.

Budget the, 383.

Buffalo-hunting, sketches of, 374.

Buonaparte, Napoleon, at Toulon, 318
--defeat of, at Acre, 323.

Burgoyne, general, 331
--history of his enterprise, 333.

Buxton on the increase of the slave-trade, 7.

Byng, admiral, 482.

Bysset, Sir Walter, 300.

Canada, my route into, part. I., 328
--part II., 425.

Cannibalism, prevalence of, among the American Indians, 375.

Cara Vita, the, a scene at Rome, 287.

Carleton, Sir Guy, 332.

Carlos, Don, son of Philip II., 70.

Catechism in the Minerva, a scene at Rome, 281.

Catherine of Russia, 132, 133, 134.

Caxtons, the, a family picture; chap. I. 513
--chap. II., 514
--chap. III., 516
--chap. IV., 518
--chap. V., 522
--chap. VI., 523
--chap. VII., 525
--chap. VIII., 527
--chap. IX., 531
--chap. X., 537.
--Book II., chap. I., 685
--chap. II., My uncle Roland's discourse upon honour, 687
--chap. III., 688
--chap. IV., 691
--chap. V., 694
--chap. VI., 696
--chap. VII., My Uncle Roland's tale, 697
--chap. VIII., 700.

Cervantes, Miguel, 72.

Champlain, lake, 425.

Charles of Anjou, conquest of Naples by, 436
--revolt of Sicily from him, and his further history, 589
--his death, 603.

Charles Albert, King of Sardinia, 746, _et seq._

Charles Edward, prince, notices of, 475, _et seq._

Chartist movements in Great Britain, the, 650
--feeling in America regarding, 780.

Chartists, how to disarm the, 653.

Clermont assizes, Flechier's chronicle of, 47.

Cobden on the national defences, 261
--movement of, for extended suffrage, 655.

Coercion bill, the, and its necessity in Ireland, 3, 4
--character of Sir George Grey's, 115.

Coleridge, the philosophy of, 702.

Commerce, present condition of, 10.

Conciliation, effect of, toward Ireland 113.

Conquest of Naples, the, 436.

Conradin, sketch of the career of, 446, _et seq._

Constance, Queen of Arragon, 600.

Constantine, the grand-duke, 141.

Constantinople, early attacks of the Russians on, 130.

Corlaer, tradition regarding, 423.

Country house, building, &c., of a, 28.

Cree Indians, the, 376.

Crémieux, M., 401.

Crimes and remarkable trials in Scotland; incidents of the earlier
reigns; an inquiry into the character of Macbeth, 293
--kidnapping, Peter Williamson's case, 607.

Criticism, characteristics requisite for, 107.

Cromwell, advancement of the navy under, 309.

Crown Point, fortress of, 431.

Cuba, cost of producing sugar in, and its increased production, 229,
231, 234.

Currency system, change in the, by the bank restriction act, 1
--effects of Peel's system, 7, 20, 661.

Defences, the national, Cobden on, 261
--a military discussion regarding, 362.

Demerara, depreciation of property in, 231.

Democratic Review, the, 106, 111.

Direct taxation, evils of, 384.

Don John of Austria, 70.

Downie, captain, defeat and death of, 432.

Drummonds and Blairs, feud between the, 306.

Duncan, investigation into the alleged murder of, 294.

Durie, Lord, abduction of, 609.

Edinburgh after Flodden, 165.

Education in Wales, 540.

Edward the Confessor, improvement of the law under, 463.

Elizabeth, progress of the British navy under, 309.

Emancipation, increase of the slave-trade from, 220.

Emigration, proposed government system of, 668
--statistics of, 669.

Employment, present want of, 655.

England, American feeling toward, 780.

Escovedo, secretary to Don John of Austria, 75
--murder of, 77.

Europe, the revolutions in, 638.

Eusebius, letter to, on subjects for pictures, 176.

Evenings at sea. No. III. The Surgeon, 33.

Fall of the throne of the barricades, the, 393.

Finances of Britain, the, 383.

Finances of France, state of, since the Revolution, 404.

Flechier's chronicle of Clermont assizes, 47.

Fletcher of Salton, curious scheme of, 610.

Flodden, Edinburgh after, 165.

Forbes, the master of, conspiracy of, 303.

France, the present revolution in, 395, 638
--its symbols, 767.

Frazer, general, death of, 335.

Frederick the Hohenstauffe, notices of, 438, _et seq._

Frederick III. of Sicily, 605.

Frederick, fort, 431.

Free-trade, results of Peel's system of, 8, 21, 662.

French republic, sentiments and symbols of the, 767.

Fur-trade, sketches of, 374.

Gates, general, 329.

George II., character of, 470, 483.

German ditty, a, 419.

German Headsman, autobiography of a, 148.

Gioberti's work on Italy, influence, &c., of, 741, _et seq._

Glammis, lady, execution of, 303.

Glasgow, unemployed in, 655.

Gordon, George Huntly, two sonnets by, 420.

Green mountains, the, 431.

Greenwich time, 354.

Grey, Sir George, on the state of Ireland, 4
--character of his coercion bill, 115.

Griffiths, Mr, on education in Wales, 548.

Guesses at Truth, review of, 701.

Guiana, decline in produce of, 225.

Gustavus of Sweden, sketch of the career of, 313.

Hardwicke, lord, life and times of, 463.

Harris's life of Lord Hardwicke, review of, 463.

Havre, capture of Sir Sidney Smith at, 321.

Headsman, autobiography of a, 148.

Heigho! 572.

Herqui, exploit of Sir Sidney Smith at, 320.

Herring, archbishop of York, 477.

Hood, lord, at Toulon, 318.

How to disarm the Chartists, 653.

How we got possession of the Tuileries, chap. I. Heads or Tails? 484
--chap. II. The Ides of March, 489
--chap. III. The Barricades, 493
--chap. IV. The Tuileries, 497
--chap. V. Two provisional governments, 502
--chap. VI. A republican wedding, 506
--chap. VII. Adieu, sweet France, 511.

Howe, lord, death of, 430.

Hudson's Bay, sketches of, 369.

Huskisson, introduction of the reciprocity system by, 2.

Inca and his Bride, the, a medley, chap. I. Astley's, 751.
--chap. II. The Rubicon of Peru, 755.
--chap. III. The Children of the Sun, 758.
--chap. IV. The Hall of Fire, 762.
--chap. V. The Cataract of the Rocks, 765.

Income tax, imposition, evils, &c., of the, 384, 385.

Infant schools, remarks on, 284.

Intercepted letters, the, a tale of the bivouac, 340.

Ireland, change in the system of government of, and its effects, 3
--the famine in, and its effects, 19
--and the ministerial measures, 113
--exemption of, from the income tax, 389
--sketch illustrating the results of repeal to it, 627.

Iroquois, contests of, with the French, 426.

Italy, present state and prospects of, 101
--the revolutionary movement in, 638
--the movement and war in, 733.

Ivan, the first Czar of Russia, 131.

Jamaica, decline in the produce of, from the effects of the
emancipation act, 6, 225
--depreciation of property in, 232, 233.

James I. of Scotland, murder of, 303.

Jerusalem, by W. Sinclair, 192.

John of Austria, sketch of the life of, 70.

Johnson, Mr, on education in Wales, 548, 550, 554.

Kenneth III., tradition of the death of, 294.

Kidnapping, sketch of the history of, in Britain, and especially
in Aberdeen, 607.

Koch, Ernest, the Silver Cross, a campaigning sketch by, 564.

La Cara Vita, an Italian sketch, 287.

Lamartine, the works of, 399.

Laprairie, town of, 434.

Last Walk, the, by B. Simmons, 629.

Lauria, Ruggiero de, 598, 599.

Law of England, sketch of the history of, 463.

Lepanto, battle of, 71.

Letter to Eusebius, a, on subjects for pictures, 176.

Liberal Legislation, thirty years of, 1.

Life and Times of Lord Hardwicke, 463.

Life in the Far West, Part I. chap. I. 713
--chap. II. 717.

Longen, Mr, on Education in Wales, 546, 549, 551, 553, 555.

Lombardy and the Italian war, 733.

London, the Chartist movement in, 650.

Louis Philippe, fall of, 395
--his pusillanimity, 405, 406.

Lucera, the town and Saracens of, 439, _et seq._

Lunfanan, the death-scene of Macbeth, 297.

Macbeth, inquiry into the character and crime of, 293.

Macclesfield, the Earl of, trial of, 472.

M'Crea, Miss, murder of, 331, 334.

Macdonough, Commodore, 432.

Magna Charta, promulgation of, 465.

Mainfroy, prince of Tarento, 438, _et seq._
--his death, 445.

Man is a Featherless Biped, a tale, 631.

Manchester, unemployed in, 655.

Mansfield, Lord, character of Hardwicke by, 482.

Manufactures, depressed condition of the, 10.

Messina, city of, 590
--its revolt against the French, 594, 595.

Metternich, Prince, 137.

Military discussion, a, touching our coast defences, 362.

Mont Blanc, a sonnet, 420.

Montgomery, General, death of, 332.

Moscow, city of, 146.

Murillo, account of the battle of Lepanto by, 73.

My English Acquaintance, 194.

My route into Canada,--Part I. 328
--Part II. 425.

Naples, conquest of, by Charles of Anjou, 436.

National defences, Cobden on the, 261.

Navigation laws, threatened repeal of the, 2, 3.

Navy of England, attention paid to, by successive sovereigns, 309.

Nicholas the emperor of Russia, 134, 142, _et seq._

Night's peril, a, 83.

Norman conquest, effect of, on the law of England, 464.

Novgorod, foundation of kingdom of, 130.

Now and Then, review of, 239.

Ossian, supposed burial-place of, 299.

Our West Indian colonies, 219.

Palermo, city of, 590
--its revolt against Charles of Anjou, 594.

Paris, state of, as republican, 402, 573.

Paul, the emperor of Russia, 133.

Pedro of Arragon, conquest of Sicily by, 589.

Peel, Sir Robert, results of his banking act, 7, 20
--his administration toward Ireland, 114
--imposition of the income tax by, 384.

Peel Bog, the, 298.

Perez, Antonio, 73, 77.

Peril of a night, a, 83.

Periodical Literature of America, the, 106.

Peter the Great of Russia, 129, 132.

Philip II. of Spain, notices of, 70, _et seq._

Pictures, subjects for, a letter to Eusebius, 176.

Piedmont, the war of, with Austria, 740, _et seq._

Pius IX., the movement headed by, 101.

Plattsburg, battle of, 432.

Poetry: Edinburgh after Flodden, 165
--Jerusalem, 192
--A German ditty, 419
--Two Sonnets by George Huntly Gordon, 420
--Heigho! 572
--The Last Walk, by B. Simmons, 629.

Poland, the partitions of, 133.

Political Economists, effects of the supremacy of, 663.

Prussia, the revolutionary movement in, 638, _et seq._ 649.

Radetsky, General, 747.

Railways, general stoppage of works on, 9.

Rebellion of 1745, the, 475.

Reciprocity system, introduction of, by Huskisson, 2.

Reform Bill, effects of the passing of, 4, 663.

Reformation, influence of the, on English law, 465.

Reidesel, the Baroness, 337, _et seq._

Repealer's wish granted, the, an Irish tale, 627.

Republican Paris, 573.

Revenue, state of the, 383.

Revolution in Europe, the, 638.

Romanism in Rome: Catechism in the Minerva, 281
--La Cara Vita, 287
--the Beatification, 290.

Ruric, kingdom of, bounded, 130.

Russell, Lord John, financial statements, schemes, &c., of, 383.

Russian empire, sketch of the recent history of the, 129.

St Domingo, effects of slave emancipation on, 6.

St Jean d'Acre, siege of, 323.

St Louis, sketches of, 442.

St Priest's history of the conquest of Naples, Part I., 436
--Part II., 589.

Saratoga, battle of, 330, 335.

Sardinia, revolutionary movements in, 101.

Savings' banks, the French, effects of the revolution on, 408.

Saxon law, characteristics of, 463.

Schools, state of, in Wales, 540.

Schnitzler's secret history of Russia, review of, 129.

Schuyler, General, 329.

Scottish crimes and trials, remarkable: those of the earlier reigns, 293
--Kidnapping, and the case of Williamson, 607.

Shipping, British and Foreign, effect of the reciprocity system on, 2.

Sentiments and symbols of the French republic, 767.

Sicilian Vespers, the, 436, 493.

Sicily, conquest of, by the Spaniards, 589.

Simmons, B., the Last Walk by, 629.

Sir Sidney Smith, 309.

Silver Cross, the, a campaigning sketch, from the German of Ernest
Koch: night-quarters, 564
--In the mountains, 565
--Hidden treasure, 567
--The wine skin, 570
--The hospital, _ib._

Sinclair, William, Jerusalem, a poem by, 192.

Slave-trade, abolition of, and the subsequent emancipation of the
slaves, effects of, 5, 220, 235.

Smith, Adam, on the Navigation Laws, 2.

Smith, Sir Sidney, sketch of the life, &c., of, 309.

Something like a country house, 28.

Soto, Juan, 74.

Spaniard in Sicily, the, 589.

Stoddart and Angling, 673.

Subjects for pictures, a letter to Eusebius, 176.

Suffrage, movement for extending the, 655.

Sugar, comparative cost of free and slave grown, 229.

Sugar Act, the, and its effects, 221.

Surgeon's tale, the, 33.

Sweden, history of, under Gustavus, 313.

Switzerland and Italy, 98.

Symbols of the French republic, 767.

Symons, Mr, on education in Wales, 547, 550.

Tagliacozzo, battle of, 450.

Tenant right in Ireland, question of, 119.

Thirty years of liberal legislation, 1.

Ticonderoga, fort, 428, 429.

Timour, invasion of Russia by, 131.

To ----, a sonnet, 420.

Tocqueville on republicanism in France, 416.

Toulon, services of Sir Sidney Smith at, 317.

Toushi the Tartar, invasion of Russia by, 130.

Travelling in Taffyland, 455.

Tuileries, How we got possession of the, 484.

Tuscany, the grand-duke of, 101.

Two Sonnets, by George Huntly Gordon, 420.

Unemployed, statistics connected with the, 655.

United States, periodical literature of, 106
--copyright in, 127
--feeling in, towards England, 780.

Valery, Erard, de, 450.

Venice, the government of, by Austria, 742.

Vices, the prevalent, in Wales, 556.

Wales, travelling in, 455
--education in, 540.

Walpole, Sir Robert, 473, 475.

Warren's Now and Then, review of, 239.

Wellington, Lacretelle's character of, 144
--on the national defences, 263, 268.

West Indian colonies, the, 219
--the policy toward, 5, 659.

Whitehall, town of, 427.

Williamson, Peter, sketch of the history of, 607.

York factory, life at, 371, _et seq._

_Printed by William Blackwood and Sons, Edinburgh._