From The Spectator. THE EQUIPOISE OF ENGLAND AND FRANCE IN 1863. THROUGHOUT a year which otherwise has been one of utter confusion, in which half the world has played the part most foreign to its own antecedents, in which Germany has been active and Italy calmly quiescent, Austria constitutional and Prussia given up to reaction, the movement of France and England has been distinct and traditional. On every great occasion France has been the innovating, England the Conservative power; France the motive force, England the resisting medium. Whenever an emergency has occurred, -war in America or disturbance in Europe, danger from Poles or risk from the attitude of Moldo-Wallachia, menaces from the Southern peninsula or appeals from the Northern one,-France has endeavored to act, and England to delay action, until the unavoidable hour had arrived. The entire force of Louis Napoleon has been expended on the preliminary object of getting England to move, the ontire statesmanship of Great Britain on preventing herself from motion until the hour which seemed to her opportune. Such a neutralization of power so visible and affecting so many questions, has hardly occurred in our time, and it is well to ask if the result is one the British people approve. The system began with the invasion of Mexico, which, though it commenced in 1862, has materially affected the discussions and the fortunes of 1863. The invasion, as an invasion for conquest, was wholly Napoleon's act, and the Emperor of the French has maintained bis line with unusual perseverance. He likes short and striking wars, waged for definite ends, and under the eye of Paris; but in this instance he has fought for an object not yet visible, at a distance of half the world, for more than eighteen persevering months. He bas been baffled mainly by the withdrawal of Great Britain, a wise and a just withdrawal, but one which rendered the French idea abortive. Had England adopted the secret programme, as she did tho avowed one, and pushed on with France to "regenerate" the decaying American State, Spain must have adopted it too, and the Mexicans daunted by an alliance no empire has ever withstood, would, in all human probability, have re-organized their institutions. As it is, the invasion has been almost barren, and Mexico is still in its long-continued anarchy, while the World has been spared the dangerous precedent of a Government overturned by the sword because its internal arrangements did not suit the ideas of its great allies. As a consequence flowing out of this expedition the emperor has, throughout the year, been most anxious to intervene in the American civil war. Unless the South became independent he could not hope to retain even a preponderating influence in Mexico, while the failure of cotton interrupted the "order" he maintains among working men, and the stoppage of tobacco threatened at one time to embarrass his finance. He pressed Great Britain, therefore, again and again to give up her watchful neutrality, to join him in advising, i.e., enforcing an armistice, and so to accept the burden of arranging a revolutionary peace. Earl Russell, true to his love for freedom, declined to be pressed, and the Conservatives, true to their policy of doing nothing which can by any means be avoided, refused to censure Earl Russell. Great Britain did not take any counter-action, did not assist the North, or menace consequences if Napoleon acted alone, but simply refused to stir, and the blow inflicted through a medium so dense fell on its object without effect. Steel will not cut a candle through a few inches of water, and the North did not feel the terrible stroke from which England alone had saved them. Baffled once more on this side, the emperor turned to Poland. Throughout the year that unhappy country has been given up to the executioners. In Lithuania Mouravieff has been deporting the whole of the upper classes, in Ruthenia the peasantry have been made virtual lords of the soil, in the Kingdom an expression of discontent has been treated as a capital crime. In the spring the cry of the Poles awoke a fierce sympathy in France, and the emperor, always ready for action but never for isolation, offered if England would only aid, to demand Poland's freedom. England declined to cooperate, not as injurious or ungenerous, or as contrary to international law, but on the truc Conservative ground, as involving consequences which it was not in the power of politicians to foresee. The idea of war was given up, for without British guarantees the emperor might have encountered the one external foo he dreads, a coalition of Europe, and Poland was left to struggle on. Russian Government sneered at despatches which distinctly laid down the law, while they not only provided no penalty for breach of the law, but explicitly stated that none would be exacted. Then the emperor, ever eager for action, devised a still larger scheme, announced his intention, if England would aid, of rebuilding the crumbling edifice of European society. The The world was called to council to redress all existing grievances, and substitute a new arrangement for the treaties of 1815. The first act of that council would have been to decreo the right of Poland to freedom; bat still England remained impassive. She did especially to change of which the Emperor not object to councils, or to the freedom of of the French is to be the moving force. The Poland, or to the evacuation of Rome, or to conduct of England in refusing to intervene the surrender of Venice, or to any one of the in the American civil war was not only wise changes probably included within the pro- but righteous, for intervention would even gramme; but she took her stand on the Con- now pledge us to a crusade against freedom; servative ground that any great change would but then it was not for that reason that the involve in the end a great war, and that dis- governing class abstained. They were willcussion in order to settle questions which ing enough to see the South triumphant, could only be settled by war was merely a would rejoice even now to see the Union dimode of hurrying on a host of catastrophes all vided; but any action towards that end would at once. She refused to attend; and as a have given up their idea of leaving all other Congress called without England would be nations alone. It would have been "medsimply a Congress with England as supreme dling" just as much as intervention for Poarbitrator, the project fell to the ground. land, and the one case might have been used The resisting medium had once again dead- as precedent for the other. The refusal to ened the force of the blow. Even in the last intervene yields no proof that England is question of the year the great and danger- throwing herself heartily upon the side of ous quarrel between the German people and freedom. She professes, indeed, to do it, and Denmark the two countries, while appear- her people sympathize keenly with every in ing to exchange characters, have really re-surrection raised upon intelligible ground. tained their tone. France urges Germany to But throughout the long discussion on Poaction by simply remaining passive, for if she had threatened to enforce the treaty of 1852 Germany must perforce have remained quiet within her own limits. England has been active, but only in order to prevent action, inducing Denmark and threatening Germany into comparative moderation. The single object in this case also has been the Conservative one-to preserve the peace and, so far as human passions admit, to maintain things as they are. We are not by any means sure that in this review the policy adopted by Great Britain appears to advantage beside that suggested by France. It has, indeed, one great result, which with many judgments outweighs all others-it tends to preserve the peace. Human foresight is so small, the chances of any war, however just, so infinitely great, that we are not prepared to assert this view either untenable or unjust. Had England assisted France in the matter of Poland, war might have been raging at this moment over half the world, and Europe would be in the cauldron with no statesman-Medea at hand. But apart from this grand result, the dignity of the attitude chosen by England-an attitude by which her whole strength is exhausted in merely resisting progress is fairly open to question. Earl Russell may have been right in each individual case, and, indeed, the only doubtful one is that of interference for Poland; but the history of the year seems to indicate a principle which most certainly is not sound. That principle is resistance to change under all circumstances, but more land, and the short discussion on Congress, and the strangled discussion on the Christian subjects of Turkey, her action has been, on the whole, unfavorable to the nationalities with whom her people claim to be in permanent alliance. France, with a despotic government, has freed Italy, would have freed Poland, and will, if we permit, free the white races now subjected to the rule of a bad Asiatic horde. England, with a free government and a people passionately anxious for the diffusion of freedom, criticised the enfranchisement of Lombardy, held back when a promise might have enfranchised Venice, resisted the liberation of Poland, and would actually go to war rather than suffer the bonds of the Christians in Turkey to be finally broken away. In many of these instances, taken separately, her statesmen have been in the right; in none, except that of Turkey, can they be proved to be in the wrong, but the whole taken together suggest a steady drift, which is not in accord either with our character as a Liberal power, our interests as a commercial people, or our dignity as the guardians of that tempered freedom which we alone among first-class nations for the present hour retain. Is there no policy possible which, while as free from danger as that which we now pursue, shall keep our action in straighter accord with our habitual talk? Is France always to be the power to which the hopeless look for aid, England always the power which arrests the assistance others are ready to grant? Is it our wish to be always prudent and peaceful and small? 242. 3. Mr. Kirk's History of Charles the Bold, 4. Tony Butler. Part 4, 5. Froude's Queen Elizabeth. By Prof. Kingsley, 6. Abraham Lincoln. By Mrs. H. Beecher Stowe, 7. Thackeray, Blackwood's Magazine, Reader, POETRY.-The Christian's Path, 242. Dirge for a Soldier, 242. The Alpine Horn, The Mind and the Body, 248. "Adsum," 251. Hymn, 288. From a Musical Sufferer, 288. SHORT ARTICLES.-The Pope and Jefferson Davis, 247. From Pizarro to Concha, 281. Letters of Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy, 281. NEW BOOKS. THE MONROE DOCTRINE. By Joshua Leavitt. Sinclair Tousey: New York. SECESSION IN SWITZERLAND AND IN THE UNITED STATES COMPARED. By I. Watts De Peyster. Catskill Journal. Finding that our remarks on Christmas and New Year's Gifts have received much attention, and have caused some acceptable presents to be made, we reprint them, and can still furnish the Nos. from 1st January. THE last volume of 1863 is now bound and ready to be exchanged for the Nos., on receipt of Fifty Cents for the binding. CHRISTMAS AND NEW YEAR'S GIFTS.-Does a gentleman wish to make a present to a lady which will show his own taste, compliment hers, and be long kept in remembrance by its good effects-let him send six dollars to us, and she will receive The Living Age for a year, free of postage. The same remarks, with a suitable change of motives, will apply to the following cases of persons presenting a year's subscription: 1. To a Clergyman. 2. To a Friend in the Country. 3. To a Son at School or in College. 4. To a Soldier. 5. To a Hospital. 6. To a person who has done you a kindness. We cannot enumerate all the cases to which the same remarks are applicable. It is evident that for the purposes here in view, Daughters and Sisters and Mothers and Nieces and Nephews and Cousins may stand on the same footing as Sons. Persons Engaged to be Married will need no hint from us. But we would mention one class which ought not to be forgotten - your Enemies, now Prisoners of War. To persons of larger means, or larger hearts, we suggest as presents: 1. A Complete Set of The Living Age to the end of 1863,-79 volumes,-$158. 2. A Set of the Second Series of The Living Age,-20 volumes,-$40. 3. A Set of the Third Series of The Living Age,-23 volumes,— $46. Persons to whom nobody will present a copy, may find a friend who will do it, by remitting six dollars to this office. PUBLISHED EVERY SATURDAY BY LITTELL, SON, 30 BROMFIELD STREET, BOSTON. For Six Dollars a year, in advance, remitted directly to the Publishers, the LIVING AGE will be punctually forwarded free of postage. Complete sets of the First Series, in thirty-six volumes, and of the Second Series, in twenty volumes handsomely bound, packed in neat boxes, and delivered in all the principal cities, free of expense of freight, are for sale at two dollars a volume. ANY VOLUME may be had separately, at two dollars, bound, or a dollar and a half in numbers. ANY NUMBER may be had for 13 cents; and it is well worth while for subscribers or purchasers to complete any broken volumes they may have, and thus greatly enhance their value. IN MEMORY OF GEN. PHILIP KEARNEY. CLOSE his eyes; his work is done! What to him is friend or foeman, Rise of moon, or set of sun, As man may, he fought his fight, Let him sleep in solemn night, Lay him low, lay him low, Fold him in his country's stars, Roll the drum and fire the volley! What to him are all our wars? What but death bemocking folly? From Macmillan's Magazine. "MY BEAUTIFUL LADY." This fervent and touching realism lifts the book in some degree out of the level of ordinary criticism. Reviewers, trained and eager to dart with "flaw-seeking eyes, like needlepoints," upon faulty expressions, fancied plagiarisms, tumid commonplaces, might no doubt discover such in this volume; but the mere reader, who reads for his own delight, will be carried along, heart-warm, by the mere impetus of that delight, nor pause to criticise till he has ceased to feel. nothing is done slovenly, or erratically, or hasy. Earnest, too,-and though strictly THIS is the quaint title-and there is much impersonal in its character,-yet retaining in a title of a volume of poetry, nay, we the vivid impression of the author's individumay conscientiously say a poem, which, even ality, that is, his individuality transfused if less noteworthy in itself, would have been through his imagination, so as to be able to remarkable for the circumstances of its pro- generalize, concentrate, and elevate acciduction. It is not one of the innumerable dental fact into universal poetic truth. In "lays," 66 verses, "" lyrics "the weak, plain words, no one would ever suspect Mr. crude efforts of some young scribbler thirst- Woolner of being the hero of his own poem, ing for reputation, but the one work, the yet by the power which genius alone posconcentrated, deliberate labor of love, given, sesses, he has been able so thoroughly to as the fruit of many years, by a man whose identify himself with his conception, that life-labor in another art has earned for him every one who reads his pathetic story of a reputation high enough to make poetical" love which never found its earthly close," renown of very secondary value. Thomas will feel at once that it is in one sense absoWoolner, the sculptor, has no need of the lutely true; that sublimation of literal fact, fame of a poet. And though when he leaves out of which the poet creates a universal the chisel for the pen, he must necessarily be verity. judged among pen-laborers, just as severely and accurately as if his marble-poems had never existed,—still it is curious to trace in this additional instance a confirmation of the fact, that genius has but one common root, and that its development into one of the three branches of the sister arts is often a mere accident. We could name many living men of mark, or whom chance alone appears to have decided whether they should be poets, artists, or musicians. And we need not go so far back as Da Vinci or Michael Angelo to Strongly emotional-yet with both passion find some who have excelled in all the various and fancy made subordinate to its ethical subdivisions into which branches that strange purpose, the book stands out distinctly among gift which we call the creative faculty; who all poems of late years, as the deification of have been at once painters, sculptors, engrav- Love. Love, regarded neither as the "Venus architects, musicians, poets. Though, Victrix" of the ancients, nor treated with except in rarest instances, this is a fatal ex- the sentimental chivalry of medieval times cellence. A man is far safer in having one-or the fantastic, frivolous homage of a later single settled purpose in his life, unto which age, under which lay often concealed the all his study, observation, and experience lowest form of the passion which can degrade ought to tend. It is highly to Mr. Wool- manhood or insult womanhood: but love ner's credit and doubtless to the great benefit of his fame as a sculptor-that, with all this facility of versification, and the intense delight which all who read his book must be convinced the author took therein, he has allowed himself to be, rumor says, from ten to fifteen years, in perfecting, unpublished, "My Beautiful Lady." ers, the consoler, the refiner, the purifier, the stimulator to all that is high and lovely and of good report. Love, not spread abroad among many objects—the "episode in man's life," as Byron terms it (alas! he spoke but as he knew)- -or the dream of mere fancy, like Shelly's : "In many mortal forms I rashly sought The shadow of this idol of my thought; And he has his reward. Seldom does a critic rest with such complete satisfaction on a book, which, whatever level of literary but love, strong, human, undivided, and merit it may attain, cannot but be regarded from its very singleness the more passionas being, of its kind, a pure work of art, ately pure;-the devotion of the individual careful, conscientious, complete: in which man to the individual woman, who is to him |