the most efficient means of developing their progress and augmenting their power? Do not the Scandinavian peoples, on either shore of the Sound, stretch out their hands to one another, and long to be united in closer ties? Does not the entire Polish race-does not each fragment of that long-dissevered and down-held peoplemourn and clamour and strive to regain the national unity? Do not the Germans, in their own staid slow-moving way, show themselves animated by the same spirit? While some English statesmen think only of terminating the already shadowy bond which links together the various sections of the British race, does not all Germany -we speak not of the Courts but of the people-desire with heart and soul that the lax bonds which unite the separate States of the Fatherland, should be replaced by a system which would confer on them the real boon of national unity? We need not point to Italy, where the passion for unification may be read in characters of blood; nor to Greece and the Ionian Islands, where the same passion has long been brooding, and now begins to act. But it is interesting, as a sign of the times, to remark, that in the face of those projects of substantial unification, the principle of consanguinity, even in its weakest shape, is deemed worthy of being appealed to by the sagacious ruler of France as a means of drawing together the three so-called Latin races of south-western Europe-an appeal which may not be very heartily responded to, but which, when thus advanced on the very slenderest of grounds, indisputably reveals the importance now attached to the principle upon which it is based.

Is the British race to be the only exception to this? When all the races of Europe-Poles and Scandinavians, Germans and Italians, Greek and Latin alike—are tending towards increased unity, are the British to desire only disunion and separation? When the States

of the Continent are rising into the greater magnitude and power of Race-empires, dwarfing our little isle into territorial insignificance, is England to adopt the opposite course, and cast away her natural pillars and supports? She has spread over the earth like a gigantic banyan-tree, dropping shoots in every quarter of the globe, which rival in vitality the parent stem. If the mutual connection continues, every generation will witness a fresh development of the British power. In these outlying unpeopled regions of the globe the British race increases with a rapidity beyond the reach of the Con-tinental nations; and every year is bringing closer the scattered sections of our numerous and powerful race, annihilating distances by the ever-increasing triumphs of the railway, telegraph, and steam-navigation. New Zealand, Australia, the Cape-in fact all our colonies, by the force of blood and the necessity of position, will ere long become important maritime Powers. And when all other peoples are uniting in closer bonds, why should not we look forward to the time when a similar result may be accomplished by our own race, and when the maritime power of England, soon destined to be eclipsed if England stand alone, may ac quire a new and augmented supremacy by the formation of a Confederacy of the free Anglo-Saxon Powers of the sea? Instead of thinking only of casting off our numerous colonies, why should we not seek to group them in confederacies, which would help them to stand alone, and in due time combine them all on equal terms with the mother country in the bonds of a mutual alliance? Time and experiment alone can show how far such a conception is practicable: many a good scheme breaks down in the course of realisation. But if we attempt nothing, we accomplish nothing. And surely this is a nobler project to strive for, a wiser end to keep in view, than to

think only of destroying without reconstructing, and of summarily casting off our colonies as if they were a mere useless encumbrance. It is reasonable that colonies, like children, when they come of age, should maintain themselves; but in loosening the bonds of parental control, the manner of doing so is everything. The parent, or parent State, should so act that the old bond of law, or compulsion, may be replaced by one of voluntary association, in the bonds of mutual interest and natural affection. But when we see the British Parliament, either through its committees, or by the uncombated voice of individual members, regarding the question in its narrowest and most superficial aspect, and

proposing the loosening of one tie after another which binds our colonies to the mother country, without a thought of the future-without a single suggestion, or even expression of desire, for a continuance of political connection with the other sections of our race,-chilling the instincts of nationality by leading our colonies to infer that we regard them merely as burdens, and care nothing for our common brotherhood, then we say that such a course is both a blunder and a disgrace; and that our public men, instead of quietly and discreetly preparing the way and suggesting the means for ulterior combinations, are doing their best to spoil the grandest future which ever opened before any race or country.

MR PIGEON was a heavy orator; he was a tall man, badly put to gether, with a hollow crease across his waistcoat, which looked very much as if he might be folded in two, and so laid away out of mischief. His arms moved foolishly about in the agonies of oratory, as if they did not belong to him; but he did not look absurd through Mrs Vincent's crape veil, as she sat gazing at the platform on which he stood, and taking in with eager ears every syllable that came from his lips. Mr Pigeon said it was Mr Vincent as they had come there to discuss that night. The managers had made up their minds as it was a dooty to lay things before the flock. Mr Vincent was but a young man, and most in that congregation was ready to make allowances; and as for misfortunes as might have happened to him, he wasn't a-going to lay that to the pastor's charge, nor take no mean advantages. He was for judging a man on his merits, he If they was to take Mr Vin

was.

cent on his merits without no prejudice, they would find as he hadn't carried out the expectations as was formed of him. Not as there was anything to be said against his preaching; his preaching was well enough, though it wasn't to call rousing up, which was what most folks wanted. There wasn't no desire on the part of the managers to object to his preaching: he had ought to have preached well, that was the truth, for every one as had been connected with Salem in Mr Tufton's time knew as there was a deal of difference between the new pastor and the old pastor, as far as the work of a congregation went. As for Pigeon's own feelings, he would have held his peace cheerful, if his dooty had permitted him, or if he had seen as it was for the good of the connection. But things was come to that pass in Salem as a man hadn't ought to mind his own feelings, but had to do his dooty, if he was to be took to the stake for it. And them were his circumstances,

as many a one as he had spoken to in private could say, if they was to speak up.

Mrs

To all this Mrs Vincent listened with the profoundest attention behind her veil. The schoolroom was very full of people—almost as full as on the last memorable tea-party; but the square lines of the gas-burners, coming down with two flaring lights each from the low roof, were veiled with no festoons this time, and threw an unmitigated glare upon the people, all in their dark winter dresses, without any attempt at special embellishment. Pigeon was in the foreground, on a side-bench near the platform, very visible to the minister's mother, nodding her head and giving triumphant glances around now and then to point her husband's confused sentences. Mrs Pigeon had her daughters spread out on one side of her, all in their best bonnets, and at the corner of the same seat sat little Mrs Tufton, who shook her charitable head when the poulterer's wife nodded hers, and put her handkerchief to her eyes now and then, as she gazed up at the platform, not without a certain womanly misgiving as to how her husband was going to conduct himself. The Tozers had taken up their position opposite. Mrs Tozer and her daughter had all the appearance of being in great spirits, especially Phoebe, who seemed scarcely able to contain her amusement as Mr Pigeon went on. All this Mrs Vincent saw as clearly as in a picture through the dark folds of her veil. She sat back as far as she could into the shade, and pressed her hands close together, and was noways amused, but listened with as profound an ache of anxiety in her heart as if Pigeon had been the Lord Chancellor. As for the audience in general, it showed some signs of weariness as the poulterer stumbled on through his confused speech; and not a restless gesture, not a suppressed yawn in the place, but was apparent to the minister's mother.

The heart in her troubled bosom

beat steadier as she gazed; certainly no violent sentiment actuated the good people of Salem as they sat staring with calm eyes at the speaker. Mrs Vincent knew how a congregation looked when it was thoroughly excited and up in arms against its head. She drew a long breath of relief, and suffered the tight clasp of her hands to relax a little. There was surely no popular passion there.

And then Mr Tufton got up, swaying heavily with his large uncertain old figure over the table. The old minister sawed the air with his white fat hand after he had said "My beloved brethren twice over; and little Mrs Tufton, sitting below in her impatience and anxiety lest he should not acquit himself well, dropt her handkerchief and disappeared after it, while Mrs Vincent erected herself under the shadow of her veil. Mr Tufton did his young brother no good. He was so sympathetic over the misfortunes that had befallen Vincent's family, that bitter tears came to the widow's eyes, and her hands once more tightened in a silent strain of self-support. While the old minister impressed upon his audience the duty of bearing. with his dear young brother, and being indulgent to the faults of his youth, it was all the poor mother could do to keep silent, to stifle down the indignant sob in her heart, and keep steady in her seat. Perhaps it was some breath of anguish escaping from her unawares that drew towards her the restless gleaming eyes of another strange spectator there. That restless ghost of a woman!-all shrunken, gleaming, ghastly-her eyes looking all about in an obliquity of furtive glances, fearing yet daring everything. When she found Mrs Vincent out, she fixed her suspicious desperate gaze upon the crape veil which hid the widow's face. The deacons of Salem were to Mrs Hilyard but so many wretched masquers playing a rude game among the dreadful wastes of life,

of which these poor fools were ignorant. Sometimes she watched them with a reflection of her old amusement oftener, pursued by her own tyrannical fancy and the wild restlessness which had brought her here, forgot altogether where she was. But Mrs Vincent's sigh, which breathed unutterable things-the steady fixed composure of that little figure while the old minister maundered on with his condolences, his regrets, his self-glorification over the interest he had taken in his dear young brother, and the advice he had given him-could not miss the universal scrutiny of this strange woman's eyes. She divined, with a sudden awakening of the keen intelligence which was half crazed by this time, yet vivid as ever, the state of mind in which the widow

was.

With a half-audible cry the Back Grove Street needlewoman gazed at the minister's mother; in poignant trouble, anxiety, indignant distress-clasping her tender hands together yet again to control the impatience, the resentment, the aching mortification and injury with which she heard all this maudlin pity overflowing the name of her boy-yet, ah! what a world apart from the guilty and desperate spirit which sat there gazing like Dives at Lazarus. Mrs Hilyard slid out of her seat with a rapid stealthy movement, and placed herself unseen by the widow's side. The miserable woman put forth her furtive hand and took hold of the black gown-the old black silk gown, so well worn and long preserved. Mrs Vincent started a little, looked at her, gave her a slight half-spasmodic nod of recognition, and returned to her own absorbing interest. The interruption made her raise her head a little higher under the veil, that not even this stranger might imagine Arthur's mother to be affected by what was going on. For everything else, Mrs Hilyard had disappeared out of the widow's memory. She was thinking only of her son.

As for the other minister's wife, poor Mrs Tufton's handkerchief dropped a great many times during her husband's speech. Oh, if these blundering men, who mismanage matters so, could but be made to hold their peace! Tears of vexation and distress came into the eyes of the good little woman. Mr Tufton meant to do exactly what was right; she knew he did; but to sit still and hear him making such a muddle of it all! Such penalties have to be borne by dutiful wives. She had to smile feebly, when he concluded, to somebody who turned round to congratulate her upon the minister's beautiful speech. The beautiful speech had done poor Vincent a great deal more harm than Pigeon's oration. Salem folks, being appealed to on this side, found out that they had, after all, made great allowances for their minister, and that he had not on his part shown a due sense of their indulgence. Somebody else immediately after went on in the same strain: a little commotion began to rise in the quiet meeting. "Mr Tufton's 'it it," said a malcontent near Mrs Vincent; "we've been a deal too generous, that's what we've been; and he's turned on us." "He was always too high for my fancy," said another. "It ain't the thing for a pastor to be high-minded; and them lectures and things was never nothing but vanity; and so I always said." Mrs Vincent smiled a wan smile to herself under her veil. She refused to let the long breath escape from her breast in the form of a sigh. She sat fast, upright, holding her hands clasped. Things were going against Arthur. Unseen among all his foes, with an answer, and more than an answer, to everything they said, burning in dumb restrained eloquence in her breast, his mother held up his banner. One at least was there who knew Arthur, and lifted up a dumb protest on his behalf to earth and heaven. She felt with an uneasy half-consciousness that some haunting shadow

was by her side, and was even vaguely aware of the hold upon her dress, but had no leisure in her mind for anything but the progress of this contest, and the gradual overthrow, accomplishing before her eyes, of Arthur's cause.

It was at this moment that Tozer rose up to make that famous speech which has immortalised him in the connection, and for which the Homerton students, in their enthusiasm, voted a piece of plate to the worthy butterman. The face of the Salem firmament was cloudy when Tozer rose; suggestions of discontent were surging among the audience. Heads of families were stretching over the benches to confide to each other how long it was since they had seen the minister; how he never had visited as he ought; and how desirable " a change" might prove. Spiteful glances of triumph sought poor Phoebe and her mother upon their bench, where the two began to fail in their courage, and laughed no longer. A crisis was approaching. Mrs Tufton picked up her handkerchief, and sat erect, with a frightened face; she, too, knew the symptoms of the coming

storm.

Such were the circumstances under which Tozer rose in the pastor's defence.

"Ladies and gentlemen," said Tozer," and Mr Chairman, as I ought to have said first, if this meeting had been constituted like most other meetings have been in Salem; but, my friends, we haven't met not in what I would call an honest and straightforward way, and consequently we ain't in order, not as a free assembly should be, as has met to know its own mind, and not to be dictated to by nobody. There are them as are ready to dictate in every body of men. I don't name no names; I don't make no suggestions; what I'm a-stating of is a general truth as is well known to every one as has studied philosophy. I don't come here pretending as I'm a learned man, nor one as knows better nor

my neighbours. I'm a plain man, as likes everything fair and aboveboard, and is content when I'm well off. What I've got to say to you, ladies and gentlemen, ain't no grumbling nor reflecting upon them as is absent and can't defend themselves. I've got two things to say

first, as I think you haven't been called together not in an open way; and, second, that I think us Salem folks, as ought to know better, is a-quarrelling with our bread-andbutter, and don't know when we're well off!

"Yes, ladies and gentlemen! them's my sentiments! we don't know when we're well off! and if we don't mind, we'll find out how matters really is when we've been and disgusted the pastor, and drove him to throw it all up. Such a thing ain't uncommon; many and many's the one in our connection as has come out for the ministry, meaning nothing but to stick to it, and has been drove by them as is to be found in every flock

them as is always ready to dictate-to throw it all up. My friends, the pastor as is the subject of this meeting "-here Tozer sank his voice, and looked round with a certain solemnity-" Mr Vincent, ladies and gentlemen, as has doubled the seat-holders in Salem in six months' work, and, I make bold to say, brought one-half of you as is here to be regular at chapel, and take an interest in the connectionMr Vincent, I say, as you're all collected here to knock down in the dark, if so be as you are willing to be dictated to-the same, ladies and gentlemen, as we're a-discussing of to-night- told us all, it ain't so very long ago, in the crowdedest meeting as I ever see, in the biggest public hall in Carlingford-as we weren't keeping up to the standard of the old Nonconformists, nor showing, as we ought, what a voluntary church could do. It ain't pleasant to hear of, for us as thinks a deal of ourselves; but that is what the pastor said, and there was not a man as could contradict it. Now,