upon it. We have seen that Dr. Kane in 1855 saw open water from the northern extremity of Kennedy Channel, and our readers will scarcely need to be reminded of the evidence which Dr. Hayes' recent voyage affords of an Arctic Ocean extending far to the north of Greenland. In the year 1818, again, Barrington and Beaufoy called the attention of scientific men to the evidence of Dutch captains who asserted that they had approached within two or three degrees of the Pole, that they had there found an open sea, which was heaved by a swell that showed it to be of wide extent. From The Saturday Review. pass a fret on which the musician has placed | He did so, and saw in that direction a his finger. These tides must have been water sky." A few years later Captain born in that cold sea, having their cradle Penny found open water there, and sailed about the North Pole." Captain Maury seems, however, to have forgotten that the tidal wave of the Atlantic may have found its way into the Arctic Ocean round the north-eastern shores of Greenland, although barred off on the side of Kennedy Channel. If we were to consider the analogy of the only planet which presents any features of resemblance to our earth, we should be led to doubt whether there really exists open water round the North Pole even in summer. The two white spots which have been called by astronomers "the snowy poles of moonless Mars" are never found to vanish even in the full heat of the Martial summer. Each of them extends in summer fully ten degrees of Martial longitude on every side of the pole it corresponds to. So that if THE GLOBE EDITION OF BURNS.* similar ice-caps surround the earth's poles, there is very little hope that men will ever THE marvels in the way of good editing, attain to either — in ships at any rate. But good print, good paper, and monstrous arrangements prevail on the earth's surface cheapness which marked the Globe Shakwhich differ wholly in character from any-speare prevent the wonder one would otherthing of which we have evidence in the case wise have felt as to the combined excellence, of the planet Mars. The great Gulf Stream completeness, convenience, and cheapness which is continually pouring an enormous of the Globe Burns. Here you have for volume of water- far warmer than the three shillings and sixpence Burns' complete ocean through which it flows into the works, letters and all, admirably printed Arctic Seas, must largely affect the condi- and edited, as well as a passable prefatory tion of the North Polar regions. Where memoir by Alexander Smith, who, if he was this stream finds an outlet, and by what no great poet, had at least a nice and thorcourse its waters find their way round oughly unaffected poetic feeling. It is not a Greenland into the Baffin's Bay current, particularly easy thing to write a biographare as yet moot points among seamen. But ical preface about such a man as Burns. whatever opinion we may form on these There are so many temptations to fine wriquestions, there can be no doubt that an ting. Mr. Carlyle's incomparable essay is a enormous quantity of heat is liberated some-standing inducement to every punier creawhere in the neighbourhood of the North ture to try his hand at broad, pathetic, huPole through the agency of the Gulf Stream; and it is far from being impossible that, during summer, at any rate, the circumpolar ice-fields are wholly melted away. It is a singular fact that in whatever direction the North Pole has been approached, traces should always be noticed of a comparatively warm circumpolar sea or Polhy nia. man treatment-the truth being that no kind of treatment so decisively demands a master as this, and that no kind so easily admits of a hollow, windy, and canting imitation. Alexander Smith steered clear of the chief peril, and has written a plain and honest memoir, with a word or two of sound and sensible criticism. Sometimes, we conBaron Wrangel started northwards fess, it is not easy to go all the way with from the coast of Siberia over the vast fixed him. When he says that Burns drove ice-fields which cover the Arctic Sea there." coarseness from humour" we feel that He supposed that these extended far towards Alexander Smith's notions of coarseness the North Pole; but before long he found open water, and was compelled to abandon his attempt to reach the Pole in that direction. When De Haven went in cominand of the American expedition in search of Sir John Franklin, he was told in his letter of instructions that when he had gone far up into Wellington Channel he was to look for an open sea to the northward and westward. must have been considerably more latitudi- The Globe Edition. Edited by Alexander Smith. well as in occasional phrases or even sub- | very much read among the common people jects. Burns was in nature the very reverse in England. There is a sort of loose opinand opposite pole of coarseness; he was ion that he is the poet of the peasant and never brutally, foully, and even malignantly the artisan in all English-speaking lands. coarse, like Swift; but his social environ- But the strangeness of his dialectic vocabument made a certain superficial coarseness, lary is more powerful than the holders of both of sentiment and phrase, unavoidable. this loose opinion suppose. Poems that The only thing to be said is that, with all but need a rather voluminous glossary must be the over-squeamish and unco' refined, this something like sealed books to the general. fact does not count for much, any more than It is to be said, however, that some three or it does in Shakspeare. A man must work four of Burns' best pieces are intelligible with his instrument, and Burns' lyre now enough to anybody who can read English; and again emits grotesque sounds as from for example, his "Address to the Unco' Doric reveller's pipe. It was this frank and Guid," the "Mountain Daisy," and others. unpolished quality, after all, which brought But then the rollicking farce of the lines to his work so close to the heart of a nation. the Haggis," and even of the admirable It is a curious thing about the Scotch, that, "Tam O'Shanter," is partially veiled in the deep plunged as they are in the most terri- obscurity of an unlearned tongue. It would ble religious cant ever known in this world, be the best thing that could happen to the and systematically addicted as they are to a English lower and poorer classes if they couple of vices which they hypocritically could thoroughly assimilate the noblest part profess to hold in abhorrence, yet they have of Burns- his humanity and tenderness for the double knack, first, of producing men all animate and inanimate things. The stuwith the most wonderful gift of clear and pendous brutality which marks the very manly vision, and next, of knowing such poor English people- of course not unimen when they see them. Scotland can versally, but as a class—in dealings with raise prigs who would carry off the prize dumb animals, with children, and with wofrom the tallest specimens of that class we men, would not be what it is if the spirit of could raise in England. But, let it be said, | Burns had much of a grip upon them. The she can excel in the production of men too. cruelty of the majority of carters, cab-driPerhaps the manliest soul in the eighteenth vers, dog-trainers, and the like makes a century was Burns. Perhaps even those sensitive man shudder to think of, as Hogwho differ from him most vehemently as to garth's pictures of Cruelty make him sicken this or that specific conclusion in the politics in looking at them. The rich can be cruel of the hour, will yet agree that high among too, with their steeplechases and so forth, the manliest and most straight-seeing of all but it is not their characteristic quality. Of living writers is Mr. Carlyle. Here are no- course it would be absurd to demand from a table instances in which the great canting common ploughman that he should be stirred nation of the earth has produced two men by the turning up of a mouse's nest by his in a couple of generations with a more pro- share, in the way in which a great poet was found and absolute absence of cant in their stirred. But it would be a good sign if one minds, in any of its subtle and unconscious could see that the ploughman class recogforms, than any of the most eminent of their nised the beauty of such sentiment after contemporaries. They are both of them Burns had expressed it for their behoof: — radically free from the cardinal vice of a love of preaching, in the true and offensive sense of preaching - which, saving whiskey, is the characteristic passion of their country. I'm truly sorry man's dominion Which makes thee startle At me thy poor earth-born companion, It is only Burns' dialect, and the comparative fewness of the compositions in which he is at the high mark of his own genius, that have prevented him from being as unbound- This is just the sorrow which one wishes edly popular in England as he is alike in to see more general, as a precursor of the Scotland and among the many colonies wider restoration of nature's social union. of Scotchmen quartered all over the face of the earth. The difficulties of dialect are simple enough to educated persons, but to the common folk in this country, with only an imperfect and empirical apprehension of their own tongue, they unquestionably interpose a barrier of some account. We are much inclined to doubt whether Burns is It is this profound and all-embracing pity which, coupled with his music on the one hand and his single-eyed directness on the other, gives Burns so worthy and noble a place among poets. The famous lines to the "Wee, modest, crimson-tipped flower breathe a spirit of divine and universal pity which is not equalled in modern verse—a pity which we no more find in the school that is forever bawling forth that life is earnest, life is real, than in the subtler and more consummately varnished album-verse of the Laureate. with nature. Nature was as a grey austere mother to him. With Burns she was far otherwise, she was his friend, the sympathetic onlooker, the almost conscious participant in the mood of the hour. He, in short, was a true singer, while in his illustrious successor there was more of the pro 66 While the stock poets of his time were simpering and whining over Cupid's darts and broken hearts, Burns saw the true trag-phet or the high-priest. We are only pointedy, and was less moved by the imaginary ing out a difference, not pretending to desighs of the fine lady than by the real an- cide a question of superiority. The singer guish of a wounded hare. His verse was is the rarer of the two, the man in whom the beginning of the bringing back of the every stimulus directly awakens musical regifts of life and reality to verse. He saw sponse; but, for being the rarer, he is not the tragedy all through. His sorrow over necessarily the higher of the two. Wordsthe mouse, or the hare, or the daisy was not, worth, again, had a certain tendency to like Sterne's sorrow over the dead ass, mere write as if nature would have been all the vapid sentimentalism; it was only the com- better comrade for him if she had left men plement of his sense of the pathos, the bro- and women out of her scheme. He was no ken purpose, the interfused hope and disap- misanthropist, but he was less stirred by hupointment of human life. The unity of all man beings than by mountains and lakes; existence was not hidden from him; mouse less interested in the play of character and and man figured in his eyes as alike in the mood in men, than in the moving shadows grip of identical circumstances. And the of the hills. Burns had something of the special glory of Burns is that, with all this Shakspearian fulness of delight and interest perfect sense of the pathos of things, he is in all that men do and feel; he had an unnever anything approaching to weak or sen- alloyed and unbounded sympathy with natimental; on the contrary, he is one of the ture, because she forms the setting and enmost strong and full-blooded of men. vironment of human action and human sufThere is a splendid Rabelaisian humour fering. His anger, even, is profitable for about such a poem as the "Jolly Beggars,' an example; there is nothing sullen or luwhich is full of strength and rude force of rid or spiteful about it, nor is it prudish, the manliest sort. He is an illustration of mawkish, smouldering, such as an eminent the truth that there is the closest connexion hand recently gave us an example of in that between a capacity for pathos and a capacity incredibly poor thing, A Spiteful Letter.” for jovial and robust farcing. In all men of With the author of the Twa Herds," of the great calibre there is this stamp. Who"Holy Willie's Prayer," of the Epigrams so pathetic as Beethoven, yet who can on oc- on Lord Galloway, anger was what it should casion be so thoroughly a farceur? Burns be in a big man- sheer lightning, swift, was full-blooded and healthy on every side. decisive, and straight-hitting. Love, for example, in all his verse is as far removed from the puny conventional love of the poet of the drawing-room as it is from the blood and snakes and writhing and bitings of some poets who are excluded from the drawing-room. We have had Wordsworth since Burns, and the latter of the two has inspired most of the writers who have sought nature and plain life. The consequence has been an intense and gradually narrowing respectability which is breeding a rude reaction. And the reaction is sound enough, only do not let us go so far back as Sappho, but stay rather at Burns, the heartiest and most vigorously human of all our lyrists. Wordsworth had a far wider range of feeling for nature; he had more notes and was more fully articulate. But the friendship was august, stately, and solemn, as between two majestic potentates. There is a measure of coldness, awe, reverencecall it by a favourable or an unfavourable name as you will-in Wordsworth's intercourse 66 - 66 From The Fortnightly Review. JOHN WILKES. WHEN an exasperated London mob tore down the railings of Hyde Park, some writers blamed the Government for vacillation, while others deplored the ascendancy of the 'roughs." The majority regarded the bccurrence as unprecedented and deplorable. It was commonly asserted that, with the exception of the Gordon riots, proceedings equally lawless had not disgraced the metropolis and terrified its inhabitants since the final establishment in England of constitutional government conducted by a responsible ministry. Our forefathers, however, were not unaccustomed to see the cause of order temporarily endangered owing to the wild violence of a frenzied mob. A century ago, disorders of far greater gravity than the trifling tumult which re cently blanched the cheeks of our timid contribute more than my warmest wishes statesmen, were almost the rule in the me- for the support of his wise and excellent tropolis. Sober citizens were then com- measures, and my ambition will ever be to pelled to illuminate their houses, at the have my parliamentary conduct approved bidding of the multitude, in honour of the by the ablest minister, as well as the first popular favourite. Men of rank were character, of the age. I live in the hope obliged to shout in praise of a commoner of doing my country some small services at whom they regarded as the incarnation of least; and I am sure the only certain way everything that was detestable in politics of doing any is by a steady support of your and morals. Those who declined to obey measures." In the House he fulfilled the the summons of the rabble were punished pledge which he had voluntarily given to in their persons and property. This was the minister. He could do this the more no passing outburst, which spent its fury in heartily, because the foreign policy of Pitt, a day, and was forgotten after a week. which consisted in upholding British supreDuring fifteen years the metropolis was a macy and humbling French power, was thofrequent prey to these scandalous demon- roughly in accordance with his own views. strations. They had their origin in the vio- In cherishing a blind and unreasoning halation of law on the part of the Ministry, tred for France, Wilkes was in unison with and their justification was that they were those who at that period were regarded as open expressions of a determination on the true-born Englishmen. To humiliate France part of the people that no Englishman, was then as warmly desired by the majority whatever his faults, should be subjected to of the people as to humiliate Russia has harsh and illegal treatment by a tyrannical been advocated in our day by a fanatical Government, a venal Parliament, and a ran- minority. But it is doubtful if, at the midcorous king. The people were in the right, dle of the eighteenth century, a Frenchman and their will prevailed. Long before his was much more obnoxious than a Scotchlife closed, John Wilkes could boast that man to a haughty and boastful Englishman. he had succeeded in forcing a reluctant Gov- This aversion to the Scotch was not inexernment to acknowledge that it had over-cusable. stepped the limits of law, in persuading an unfriendly House of Commons to expunge from its journals resolutions which were framed in order to blast his memory, and in being officially received at the Court of a sovereign who had strained every nerve to punish him as a traitor. I. In July, 1757, Mr. Wilkes was returned as member of Parliament for Aylesbury. He was then in his thirtieth year. Three years previously he had unsuccessfully contested the borough of Berwick-upon-Tweed. That he failed then was not attributable to his want of daring, because he signalised himself by an effort which testified to the possession of boldness and ingenuity. The Delaval family had great influence in that borough. Some of their supporters were residents in London. They were sent to Berwick in order to record their votes, and, for reasons of economy, were sent by sea in place of by land. Wilkes bribed the captain of the vessel to land them on the coast of Norway, and thus inflicted a twofold, as well as an unexpected, loss on his opponents. His return for Aylesbury was probably facilitated by the lavishness of his expenditure, for the election cost him seven thousand pounds. His first care was to write and offer his support to Mr. Pitt, using these words: "I am very happy now to Twice since the revolution, a Scottish rebellion had embarrassed the dynasty which occupied the throne by a parliamentary title and with the express sanction of the nation. At the French Court, and among the Scotch Highlanders, the Stuarts found countenance and devoted adherents. It was felt by the enlightened section of the country that their restoration would be equivalent to the defeat of every Liberal principle, to be followed by the chastisement of every supporter of the Liberal cause. For a time it was feared that the old days of bigotry, superstition, and prerogative were about to be restored. The rising of 1745 was almost a success. The rebels were defeated at last, and they were punished with a severity which to us appears merciless, but which many then deemed necessary. It was long, however, before the thoroughness of the measures of repres sion was perceived. The dread of a renewed attempt survived the executions of rebel lords and the confiscation of rebel lands. As is common under these circumstances, the innocent were confounded with the guilty, and every Scotchman had to bear the opprobrium which but a small section of his countrymen had fairly earned. While the popular mind was animated with these sentiments, a Scottish nobleman became Prime Minister. Had the Earl of Bute been a statesman of rare foresight and proved capacity, he would have had little The Earl of Bute resigned office on the 8th of April, 1763. His place was filled by Mr. George Grenville. It was supposed that his retirement was nominal only, that he still advised the sovereign and inspired the Ministry. The publication of the North Briton was suspended for three weeks, and was resumed as soon as it became known that the ministerial changes were of the slightest possible kind, and did not promise any improvement in the system of administration. The number which attracted so chance of surmounting the obstacles strewn in his path. It was hardly possible for any man to satisfy a public that idolised Pitt. There was no surer way of exasperating the public than to run counter to Pitt's policy and undo his work. Pitt had carried on a war in which France had been worsted; Bute concluded a peace from which England reaped none of the fruits of victory. Pitt had been ostentatious in declining to soil his hands with corrupt appointments; the first act of Bute was to gratify his personal adherents at the public expense. He much notice contained comments on the systematically bestowed the most lucrative appointments on Scotchmen whose claims for advancement were no greater than his own claim to hold the highest office in the State. Who can wonder that a Minister so incompetent and a scheme of Government so detestable should have excited general discontent! speech from the throne, then recently delivered. The passages on which the prosecution of Wilkes was founded, were to the following effect, that "The King's speech has always been considered by the legislature, and by the public at large, as the speech of the Minister. It has regularly, at the beginning of every session of Parliament, been referred by both Houses to the consideration of a committee, and has been generally canvassed with the utmost freedom, when the Minister of the Crown has been obnoxious to the nation. This Wilkes became the channel through which the popular anger found vent. He founded the North Briton, with the express object of ridiculing Scotchmen and opposing Lord Bute. Imbued as he was with the worst national prejudices, he was well qualified week has given the public the most abanfor adding fuel to the indignation which doned instance of ministerial effrontery ever flamed in many breasts. Less polished attempted to be imposed on mankind. The than Addison, and less incisive than Junius, Minister's speech of last Tuesday is not to he had the art of stating a case with a clear- be paralleled in the annals of this country. ness which rendered it intelligible to every I am in doubt whether the imposition is reader, and he had the audacity requisite greater on the sovereign or on the nation. for putting in plain terms the most unpalatable truths. The Ministry was suspected of truckling to France: he furnished plausible reasons in corroboration of this opinion. The Premier was supposed to be improperly intimate with the king's mother: he treated this rumour as a fact, and made it the basis of specific denunciations. Hackwriters sold their pens to Lord Bute, but they failed in disproving the charges brought against their patron's reputation. What gave point to the denunciations of Wilkes was the undoubted weakness of the Government. Its measures were devoid of all statesmanship. The Chancellor of the Exchequer was Sir Francis Dashwood, than whom a more incompetent financier never, perhaps, undertook the high duties of his office. He was literally hooted into resignation. Like all weak men, the Ministers longed to revenge themselves on the pitiless exponent of their shortcomings. In the twenty-seventh number of the North Briton, there is an open reference to the threats of punishment which those in power had used towards its conductor. It was not, however, till after the publication of the famous Forty-fifth number that the storm burst on the doomed head of Wilkes. Every friend of his country must lament that a prince of so many great and amiable qualities, whom England truly reveres, can be brought to give the sanction of his sacred name to the most odious measures, and to the most unjustifiable public declarations, from a throne ever renowned for truth, honour, and unsullied virtue." The foregoing is a fair sample of the passages which the Attorney-General of that day selected in support of his charge of seditious libel. What strikes every impartial reader now is the comparative tameness of the whole number when contrasted with preceding ones. Neither the language nor the allusions in the inculpated number can match the virulence of tone and poignancy of rebuke with which the favourite and his master had been treated on previous occasions. It was not so much on account of the statements themselves as for the convenient handle they afforded, that proceedings were begun against the alleged author of No. 45. That Wilkes should have insinuated that a royal speech contained an untrue statement, was to give his enemies plausible grounds for raising the good cry of disloyalty. His answer that every allegation in the number was really well-founded, and that the strongest |