the pressure of the restored Southerners, most, and arrest the sale of oil, cotton, and who will be by no means too anxious to give wheat just when they begin to bring in the to the Northern section of the Republic a per-profits which are to recoup the expenditure manent, a visible, and an irresistible pre-of the struggle. National irritation may be ponderance of force. Americans, when not too strong for any of these considerations, excited by threats, or interruptions to their but they are permanent, while irritation is great dream of covering a continent, look temporary; and at all events till the South pretty keenly to their interests, and it is not has yielded, there is no reason for the alarm the interests of the seventeen millions of farm- now so visible, and which, with Englishmen, ers who go to make up the bulk of the North- is so apt to result in ill-advised or passionate ern population to avoid payment of the action. Our trade may have to sustain the scrip which they hold, and the currency terrible calamity of an American war, but they are relying on, by plunging into a that is no reason for prematurely accepting second war while the first one is barely over, the next greatest calamity, a long susto stop emigration just when it is wanted pense under the conviction.

LITTELL'S LIVING AGE.-NO. 1090.-22 APRIL, 1865.

From the London Review.
NAPOLEON UPON CESAR.

is, that the fact of a man's acquiring power proves that society was previously prepared for his sway, and in want of his guidance. THE Emperor Napoleon has shown his Had it not been so, he would not have arisusual tact and knowledge of effect in pub-en. Having once risen, success invests him lishing the preface to his history before the with a divine right to exact unquestioning history itself. He has thus given the great- obedience. Nor are his prerogatives limited est possible prominence to the leading idea to this. Mankind must not only obey, but of his work, and has taken the best security worship. They must not only refrain from in his power that it shall not be lost sight of rebellion, but from criticism. There must by those who subsequently follow the details thenceforth be no imputation of petty moof his narrative. The idea is not a new one. tives, of cunning devices, of selfish aims, or It is substantially the same which has lain of trivial weaknesses. It is impiety to doubt at the root of hero-worship in all ages. It that the hero is all heroic. is really identical with the theory on which This theory makes short work of the diffiMr. Carlyle has vindicated so many ques-culties that beset a historian who thinks that tionable reputations, and is constantly invit- a great man is not necessarily a good man, ing us to repose a blind confidence in the and doubts whether one who reduces his predestined leaders and rulers of men. The fellows to subjection is in all cases a benebiographer of Frederick the Great and the factor of his species. But, for our own part, historian of Julius Cæsar agree in recogniz- we cannot help clinging to old notions of ng force, power, and success as the main right and wrong. We do not believe in the objects of human adventure. To both it Gospel of Success. We are quite ready to serves the highest duty and the best privi- admit that, when a Cæsar or a Napoleon lege of mankind, to discover and obey the raises himself to supreme power, and finds demigods whom Providence raises up for below him willing subjects of his rule, the their guidance and protection. Neither sets way must have been, somehow prepared for any value on the individuality of the mem- him. If the nation was previously free, its bers of the common herd, or considers their vices must have betrayed it into servitude. freedom a thing worth thinking of. The The ascendency of the tyrant does in this ideal of both is a great leader and ruler, sense proceed from a general cause, and who shall embody the tendency, and, in a represents a prevailing tendency. He may rough way, the spirit, of the age, and shall then be truly called "the scourge of God." organize society according to the inspirations But it does not by any means follow that he of his genius. To society is left the humble is destined to lay the foundations of a better post of accepting the yoke of its master and order of things; still less that it is the duty ford, and taking, with wax-like plasticity, of all good men to welcome his advent, and the impress which he may choose to place become mere instruments in his hands. upon it. "When Providence," says the Born of corruption, of dissension, and of Emperor, "raises up such men as Cæsar, weakness, imperial power has more than Charlemagne, and Napoleon, it is to trace once still further corrupted nations, and out to nations the path they ought to follow, plunged them in still lower depths of weakto stamp a new era with the seal of their ness. There is, in truth, nothing permanent genius, and to accomplish in a few years the in the work of a Cæsar or a Napoleon. Inwork of many centuries. Happy the na- stead of raising, they degrade a people; tions who comprehend and follow them! woe they do not breathe into it new life, but to those who misunderstand and resist them! they crush out that which was previously They act like the Jews, - they crucify their left in it. The time of the Roman RepubMessiah. They are blind and guilty-blind, lic had, perhaps, come when Cæsar appearfor they see not the importance of their ef- ed. He may not have been guilty of deforts to suspend the final triumph of good; stroying that which had still a capacity of guilty, for they only retard its progress by existence. So far we may acquit him; but impeding its prompt and fertile application." we cannot acknowledge that the work which The main argument in favour of this view he accomplished was one of progress. So. THIRD SERIES. LIVING AGE. VOL. XXIX. 1329.

that we need not affect to misunderstand it. Under the mask of a biography of the great Roman, he is vindicating Napoleonism-remonstrating with its opponents-explaining the difficulties which beset its path, and labouring to impress on the world at large its irresistible power and inexorable predominance. But we cannot admit that there is any real analogy between the state of Rome at the downfall of the Republic and the state of France at the present time. It is possible that Roman society was worn out, that it contained within it no elements of renewed life, and that there was nothing before it but a prolonged though brilliant decline. Is that really true of France? Is it a fact, that the love of freedom, and the capacity for its enjoyment, are extinct in that country? Are we to understand that her moral and intellectual forces are spent?

far as he really affected anything, he accelerated decline, and gave definite form and permanent character to the evil tendencies which were at work. The Emperor tells us that Brutus, by killing Cæsar, plunged Rome into the horrors of civil war; that he did not prevent the reign of Augustus, but that he rendered possible those of Nero and Caligula. That is, undoubtedly, a very convenient distribution of responsibility and glory. To Cæsar are credited the glorious reigns of the good, wise, and successful emperors; upon Brutus are charged such as disgrace and befoul the Roman consuls. But it is obvious enough that this is wholly fallacious. The good and the evil of imperialism were equally inherent in it. It occasionally produced good and great rulers; in far more numerous instances it produced bad and feeble rulers. But under the one or the other under Augustus or Nero, that she can no longer govern herself, and under the Antonines or under Commodus does not even aspire to do so?-that all the Romans steadily degenerated. They that remains to her is a quiet life under a turned more and more away from serious beneficent despotism? We do not believe things and from noble thoughts; they gave this; nor do we draw such an inference from themselves up more and more to amuse- her recent history. It is not decay but lasments and to sensual pleasures; the control situde under which she suffers. It is not of a master did not teach them to live as waning vitality, but the re-action from turfreemen, but reconciled them to exist as bulence and strife, which leads her to rest slaves. Cæsarism was at once a sign, a con- for a time under the protecting ægis of an sequence, and a cause of the decay of a great arbitrary Sovereign. The eminent Frenchpeople. Supposing that Hortensius, Catu- men who stand aloof from the Tuileries do lus, Marcellus Lucullus, and Cato had ral- so in the faith that their country is not dead, lied round Cæsar, as we are told they ought but only sleeping. They wait and watch to have done, what could they have effected? for her re-awakening to a desire and a deWhat place was there for them at the foot mand for liberty. "The ostracism of Naof a throne? How would it have become poleon by conspiring Europe has not prethem to serve where they had once com- vented the resuscitation of the Empire manded? As the senators of a free state but will the resuscitation of the Empire prethey might do something; as the mere in- vent the people of France from again destruments of power they would have been manding those rights of self-government nothing and could have done nothing. It is which they formerly possessed, and which probably true that "the cause supported by they now see enjoyed by neighbouring nasuch men was doomed to perish like every- tions? We hope not. In the mean time thing else that has completed its time." But the Emperor may, as he intimates, be justiwho would not rather think of them as striv-fied in working with such tools as he can ing against overwhelming circumstances to find, because the best men vill not rally maintain the ancient institutions and liberties of Rome, than as becoming the willing instruments of a new tyranny? We deny that they, or those French statesmen of the present day who occupy a corresponding position, were or are an obstacle in the regalar march of civilization. It is simply begging the question to assume that every stage in the world's history is necessarily a stage of progress, or that every revolution is one of a kind which patriots are called upon to help onwards.

The purpose of the Emperor in writing the life of Julius Caesar is so thinly disguised

round his throne. But it is quite another thing to blame those who stand aloof because they will not support a power whose ascendency they believe to be unjust and mischievous. The Liberal Opposition in France refuse to accept Napoleonism on the distinct ground that they will not lend false strength to a system which they think intrinsically weak and bad. They may be wrong in not believing that a country which prospered for eighteen years under constitutional government is unfit for any better rule than it possesses at present. But, while this is their opinion, it is idle to taunt them with reject

ing "modern ideas, which, by moderating, ever, mainly concerns the French. But they might direct." The Emperor Napole- there is something ominous for Europe in on may desire to impose upon the world his the concluding sentences of the preface. own faith in the star of his dynasty and the Without professing to know exactly what is permanence of its sway. But those who meant, we cannot help feeling some alarm neither feel, nor find it expedient to affect, at hearing that we are still distant" from this political fatalism, are quite justified in that solution of great questions, from the treating even "the Empire" as a thing to be appeased passions, from the legitimate satisdealt with simply on its merits. faction given to nations by the first empire!" There are two practical deductions which Are we to understand Napoleon III. as rewe are sorry to be obliged to draw, partly peating in his own name the prediction of from the preface, and partly from the ex- the captive of St. Helena-"What strugtracts from the Life itself which have ap-gles, what bloodshed, what years, will yet be peared in the columns of the Times. We required, that the good I wished to do for were formerly led to believe that the Em- mankind may be realized!" The two pasperor regarded his present system of gov- sages we have quoted seem at least to everyernment as transitional; that he looked for- body a very intelligible and a very distinct ward with pleasure to the future crowning hint, that "the empire" resuscitated has, of the edifice with liberty; and that he ad- like the empire overthrown by "conspiring mitted that eventually France must and Europe," a mission to fulfil in regard to for ought to return to the constitutional princi- eign nations as well as to France. We do ple. But we gather from this work that not, of course, fear renewed wars of conthat is not the case; but that, on the con- quest, or a forcible remodelling of the map trary, he regards the change from constitu- of Europe. But it is nevertheless unpleas tional institutions to a despotism founded ant to find a powerful sovereign dreaming on universal suffrage as a development in of the "legitimate satisfaction" which his political life, as a real contribution to the dynasty is somehow or another called upon, progress of the world and the civilization of or gifted with power, to give to other namankind. At least, we can hardly attach tions. We should be much more satisfied if any other meaning to passages like that in he would confine his solicitude to his own which he dwells upon the tendency of the people. The tranquillity of the world is aldemocracy always to believe that its inter- ways in danger when there is a cosmopolitan ests are more suitably represented by a single philanthropist on the throne of France. person than by a political body. This, how

BEEF AT THREEPENCE A POUND. Respecting the introduction to this country of the jerked beef of South America, steps have been taken for turning the fact to practical account. The names of the merchants comprising the commission for the introduction of the beef will be found, with much other information, in a pamphlet on the subject published by Hedderwick and Son, of Glasgow. The wholesale agents are Messrs. James Gordon and Co., 11 Orange court, Liverpool, and Messrs. Steel, of Dixon street, Glasgow. It is sent out in cases of one hundred weight. We may repeat that the "jerked" beef is prepared from the choicest parts of the animal, and, while it is not expected to supersede the use of fresh meat, it is believed that no greater boon has been lately offered to the under-fed classes of Great Britain. The following directions for cooking the beef have been published by authority of the commission: Steep the beef for three or four hours, or wash

it well in hot water. Ist. Cut it in small pieces, about an inch square; simmer it by the fire for one and a half hours, add potatoes, pepper, and onions; and again cook slowly until ready. It will then be found a very good Irish stew. 2d. Mince, in the form of mince collops; cook it slowly, and when ready mix it up with mashed potatoes. It may then be put in a dish, and browned in the oven. 3d. Cut into pieces, and, after simmering an hour and a half, add turnips, carrots, or other vegetables, such as used in a haricot. 4th. It will also make very good pea soup; and is also used in first-class hotels for giving a delightful flavor to all kinds of soup, particularly to kidney and other similar classes. In short, a good housewife will find a hundred ways of making it available and agreeable. 5th. It can be used as mince collops, without potatoes; and a flitch is sometimes taken, rolled up and spiced in the form of a beef ham, which must be cooked slowly.

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MISS MARJORIBANKS did not leave the contralto any time to recover from her surprise; she went up to her direct where she stood, with her song arrested on her lips, as she had risen hastily from the piano. "Isment. But it would always be an advanit Rose?" said Lucilla, going forward with the most eager cordiality, and holding out both her hands; though, to be sure, she knew very well it was not Rose, who was about half the height of the singer, and was known to everybody in Mount Pleasant to be utterly innocent of a voice.

"No," said Miss Lake, who was much astonished and startled and offended, as was "My dear, a professional singer spoils unfortunately rather her custom. She was everything," said Miss Marjoribanks; "it a young woman without any of those in- changes the character of an evening altostincts of politeness which make some peo-gether. There are so few people who ple pleasant in spite of themselves; and she understand that ! When you have proadded nothing to soften this abrupt negative, fessional singers, you have to give yourself but drew her hands away from the stranger, up to music; and that is not my view in the and stood bolt upright, looking at her, with least. My great aim, as all my friends are a burning blush, caused by temper much aware, is to be a comfort to dear papa." more than by embarrassment, on her face.