end of the year sacrifice their cottages, and their gardens, and their catlike attachment to localities, rather than work with him again. He is changed from a Southern slaveholder into an English proprietor. On the other hand, the black laborer gains all the social rights of citizenship-that property in wife and home and child and income which middle-class Englishmen think such trifles till somebody threatens them among themselves, fair wages, right of choice as to service, education, and, we suspect, but do not know, political power, on the single condition of not turning vagrant, or squatter, or deserting his employer just before the annual crop has to be gathered in. The whole social dis

imported supplies, the half-emancipated slaves | ficient pay. In return, the newly emancipated needed rations nearly as much as the soldiery, man is bound to give ten hours' work a day, the sullen planters were cating up the remains under penalty of imprisonment, to be as reof their capital, too proud to beg for the labor spectful as interest makes the white employé, they had commanded, too uninventive to dis- to remain one year with one master and not pense, as New Englanders might have done, to quit the boundaries of the estate-a prowith its assistance. In their midst was a gen-vision visibly temporary. The soldiery are eral too powerful, indeed, to make overt resis- prohibited from interfering with the laborers tance safe, but hampered by a conflict of ideas or with the planters, and the overseers alone, in bis own camp and in the capital from which always the worst class in the South, are threathe had received his instructions, with unde- ened with military law. The planter thus fined powers, with daily and exhausting re- regains the command of the tillers and with sponsibilities other than social organization, it the means of making his estate profitable, with endless labor still remaining to be accom- on the single condition of paying fair wages plished, and with unsubdued armies to which for secure labor, and of so bearing himself the Louisianians are affiliated by a hundred to his "hands" that they shall not at the ties hovering upon the outskirts of the State. And then realize for one moment the course which General Banks adopted. Boldly turning upon all his difficulties, at once upon sullen planters and excited negroes, both parties in Washington and the soldiery under his own command, he set himself to the re-organization of civil society throughout Louisiana; set himself to reconcile an utter social change with perfect social order the emancipation of a slave proletariat with continued labor, a state of conquest with the Yankee arrangement of Society, the authority of a dominant army with freedom of commerce, of manufactures, and of agriculture. We do not say that he has succeeded: success in a task which would tax the most experienced of statesmen must re-organized economy is restored, and restored main to be proved by time; but we do say that he has secured the first requisite of success, has changed a slave society into one which, though free, will labor, and can march. In an order of twenty-five paragraphs he has, first of all, without naming the word emancipation," " still less splitting hairs about loyal and disloyal owners, totally abolished slavery. All its incidents are prohib- Paper decrees, however, are one thing, and ited. The lash on which it is based is abol-raising a crop by free labor in a tropical State ished. No negro can be punished by his quite another; will the two classes concerned master, or divorced from his wife, or deprived accept? General Banks thinks they will, and, of his children, or sold off the plantation, or after much reflection, we agree with him. forbidden with due notice to exchange his The negro is enormously benefited, relieved service, or debarred from education, or de- of the three grievances he always when speakprived of good food, medical attendance, and ing openly pleaded first, and which, if unhea rate of wages fixed for the moment by an roic, at least appeal to universal workman impartial though arbitrary power. All that sympathies. He cannot be struck, he cannot distinguishes the slave from the man who toils be sold away South," and he cannot be debecause without toil he would starve is abol-prived of his wages. If the provost-marshals ished, and the slave raised at once to the con- do their duty, he will be by comparison very dition of a fairly paid laborer who once a year comfortable; and the provost-marshals will may hire himself out to the best paying work be appointed and removed by the general or kindliest master at his own discretion. whose reputation depends upon the success The crop is rendered liable for his wages, of his plan. Our only dread is that the negro while, the country being divided into school will be too happy by half, too little disposed districts, a Unionist judge called provost-mar- to resent small infractions of his rights, too shal and invested with military power is ap- willing to exchange the respect which the pointed for each, before whom every black can general so strictly enjoins for his ancient sermake his complaint of ill-treatment or insuf-vility. Then, as to the planter, he has two

upon the principles which free societies accept,-a feat in the time and with the means at General Banks's disposal almost without a parallel. All the fears expressed by all parties, the dread of the negroes wandering on to the wild lands, of capital deserting the State, of the blacks being held to slavery under other forms, are all alike dispelled.

very grave motives for accepting the new plan. are not absolutely certain that this is not If he does not, he will be exiled, losing his among his plans. At all events, he does not lands under the Confiscation Act; and if he carry it out, but instead imposes oath or exdoes, the arrangement will pay him excel-ile as the only alternatives, and declares that lently well. General Banks, with a wise mod- he will treat indifference," which is his best eration, has made the contract at first bear bridge between hostility and loyalty, "as a slightly against the negro, fixing wages, for crime." A moment before, dealing with planinstance, on a scale which will give the ordi- ters like statesman, he suddenly deals with nary "field hand "food, lodging, clothing, politicians like a theologian, and actually inand about four shillings a week, or without sists on their assuming the appearance of menclothing seven shillings, and about two-thirds tal change. This is tyranny simply, of a bad of that amount for his wife. Half of this, because useless kind, and our appreciation of again, need not be paid till the end of the the first part of the order cannot blind us to year, i.e., till the crop can be hypothecated, the injurious impotence of the second. We though precautions are taken that the laborer trust that it may be reconsidered, for if not, should not be robbed in the end. Take an General Banks will find that instead of the estate of five hundred hands.. The planter al- difficult task of a true statesman the change ways had to give rations, food, and lodging, of open foes into lukewarm but quiet friendsand his only loss, therefore, is £5,000 in he will have to commence the far easier but wages, less than a third of his minimum prof- inferior work of the mere conqueror-to reits in an ordinary year, which third the dif-place a class whom he has himself made hoss ference between unwilling and willing labor will more than make up. Possessed of capital and longing for ease, the planter will not hesitate long, or, if he does, for we must look facts in the face, the esurient New Englander, hungering for hands and cotton fields and sugar-canes, will not. In twelve months we believe cultivation will be restored upon a free basis, and the planter once convinced that wages pay him as well as the negro will be careless of a return to a system really pleasant only in the household power it left within his hands. It is within doors, where the negro is no longer an animal, that the difference will be felt, and within doors that the new system will need most careful surveillance.

tile by one which is friendly, but brings him no addition to his strength. He has the New Englanders already; he should gain the planters, not merely place a New Englander where a planter stood.

From The Saturday Review.

THE FOREIGN POLICY OF ENGLAND.

SOME years ago, the Peace Society made its doctrines so odious to the English nation that its agitation became one of the indirect causes of the Russian War. Its leaders probably appreciated, to some extent, the reasons which render peace the first of negative blessings; but, in their enthusiasm for a limited and The experiment may fail, but it is one of conditional good, they used arguments which which General Banks may be proud; but we were as unpopular as they were substantially cannot say as much for the political portion immoral. Peace at any price means the perof the decrce. That temptation to over-gov-petual triumph of wrong, and the sacrifice of ern which is the besetting sin of able admin- the most sacred duties to material interests. istrators seems in this matter to have dis-Some of the fanatics of the party were not turbed an otherwise statesman-like judgment. ashamed of following out to the last extreme His position was, it is true, a difficult one, the legitimate consequences of their sordid for in circumstances which admit only of ab- assumptions. One pamphleteer made himsolute power moderated from Washington he self notorious by calculating that it would be is obliged to set up a nominally free State cheaper to submit to a French invasion than municipality. Still he might have adopted to resist it by force. A defensive war would, schemes less needlessly tyrannical than the as he showed, cost so many millions, and it -one his order seems-for one important da- was possible that the enemy, finding the tum is wanting-intended to establish. His country at his mercy, might be content with course, bound as he was in the withes of that a smaller sum by way of ransom or tribute. hopeless Constitution, was clear, either to ex- More prudent advocates dilated on the trifling act an oath of allegiance from every voter, results which have sometimes been obtained and so give himself a small but working rep- by bloody wars, and they showed to demonresentation through which to govern, wait-stration that fighting was the most expensive ing for time to change the sullen acquiescence of all human occupations. When particular of the majority into orderly if submissive sup- quarrels threatened international ruptures, port, or by admitting negroes to the suffrage the Peace Society was always ready to prove to have given himself a clear and permanent, that, on this occasion at least, England was yet not unjust, control of the polls, and we wholly in the wrong. To a certain extent,

It is

the agitators persuaded Europe that their the territorial aggrandizement of France. theories were generally accepted by their There were stronger reasons of abstract juscountrymen, and in the mean time they were tice, if not of national advantage, for assistprovoking a general irritation at home which ing the Poles in their present insurrection; could not fail to produce a practical confuta- but all parties, after forcing the Government tion of their paradoxes at the earliest oppor- to remonstrate, unanimously resolved to abtunity. The promoters of the meeting which stain from any share in a contest which was was lately held at Manchester to protest wholly unconnected with English interests. against intervention on behalf of Denmark A year ago, Lord Malmesbury, Lord Ellenadopted all the obsolete fallacies and irrele- borough, and Mr. Disraeli loudly uttered the vancies of their almost silenced teachers. indignation which Lord Russell proceeded to There was no use in proving that a war express in diplomatic communications. would be costly and dangerous, when the not surprising, and it is scarcely unfair, that only question was one of national duty and the minister should be held responsible for the honor; and bad reasons weaken even a right- necessarily abortive result of. an impulsive ful cause, because they imply that it is not and inconsistent policy, although it was urged convenient to appeal to truth and justice. If upon him alike by friends and by enemies. the English Government had been bound to resist Austria and Prussia in arms, it would have been no excuse for cowardly inaction that the Americans might probably take occasion to resent the injuries which they suppose themselves to have suffered in the matter of the Alabama.

If, however, the economical evils of war can never furnish conclusive arguments for peace, the levity which would rush inconsiderately into hostilities is not less culpable than the systematic repudiation of a possibly contingent duty. A firm resolution to fight in the last resort strengthens the converse determination not to be tempted into a quarrel on insufficient grounds. The strong man armed keeps his house in peace so long as he is exposed to no intolerable molestation. The government of a great country ought to avoid the touchiness of a duellist and the Quixotic rashness of a general redresser of wrongs. As a general rule, it may be said that words can never be a sufficient cause of war, nor should trifling wrongs produce retaliation until all other means of redress are exhausted. Above all things, a statesman ought to distinguish between natural allies and powers which, from character or circumstances, require to be watched with habitual vigilance. A war ought to have a serious object as well as a sufficient provocation, and a statesman will bear much in preference to weakening a friendly state because it has fallen into some temporary error. The more rational advocates of the war with Russia in 1854 deliberately believed that it was expedient to humble a menacing and aggressive despotism, and accordingly the ambitious projects of the Emperor Nicholas were effectually checked; but no similar justification could have been pleaded for the quarrels which have since been prudently avoided. Although the sympathies of England were almost wholly on the side of Italy in the struggle with Austria, it was impossible to take part in a war which afterwards included among its consequence

A war with the United States, though circumstances may possibly arise which would render it unavoidable, would be an unmixed evil. It is impossible to imagine a treaty of peace which, at the end of the contest, could leave England in a better position than at the beginning. The war from its commencement would be only an affair of honor, in which one of the principals at least would have come to the ground without any belief in the utility of the proceeding. In the most favorable contingency, Canada would be preserved, and it is highly probable that the ancient maritime supremacy of England would be once more vindicated; but no Englishman would wish, if it were practicable, to conquer a square mile of American ground, nor is there any balance of power to defend on the Western Continent. It is annoying that Federal orators should trade on English unwillingness to engage in war, by indulging in safe vituperation and menace, but sensible politicians are not to be talked out of a system which they have deliberately adopted. It was fortunate that the Trent outrage, occurring almost at the beginning of the war, enabled the Government and the nation to show that patience has its limits. Since the restitution of the prisoners, there has never been a time at which it would have been right even to approach to the verge of a rupture. It is probable that the pacific disposition of the country and the conciliatory language of the Government may have encouraged the expression, if not the cultivation, of the animosity which it is the pleasure of the Americans to cherish; but it is, on the whole, dignified to abstain from threatening demonstrations which are not to be followed by acts. The assailants of the Government, if they had been in office, would probably have pursued a substantially similar course, although they now naturally make their adversaries responsible for all the vexations which a long-suffering neutral endures at the hands of an angry and overbearing belligerent.

However desirable it may be to criticise of war. The decision would, indeed, be

founded on insufficient grounds, inasmuch as Mr. Disraeli himself is incapable of really committing the imprudence which he seems to recommend. Yet it might be worth his while to remember that Lord Russell's successor would, in addition to all the rebuffs which he might inherit, be compelled to retract his own ostentatious professions of magnanimity and daring.

a

CENTURY.

the language of despatches, it would be better to commit any number of diplomatic blunders than to engage in a monstrous and unnatural war with Germany at large, as well as with Prussia and Austria. In this case, also, Lord Derby, or any other responsible minister, would have had no reasonable choice but to remonstrate more or less loudly, and ultimately to acquiesce in the partial or total failure of his reclamations. No English party is yet so besotted as to give active assistance to the French spoliation of the Rhine, al- A BRIDAL BANQUET IN THE FIFTEENTH though journalists are found to defend the outrage by anticipation, and to assert that the population of the Rhine provinces is rather French than German. Neither expediency nor political tradition has entailed on the country the duty of resisting by force every act of real or seeming injustice which may be perpetrated on the Continent of Europe; and it is unworthy of a great nation to be taunted into rash engagements by rivals who affect to believe that no provocation will urge modern England into war. In the Danish controversy, the French have precisely the same obligation to interfere, although they affect to pity the failure of English diplomacy. In the long run, governments are respected as much on account of their independent control of their own policy as for their readiness to employ material force. Even if popular excitement were a sufficient reason for war, the sympathy which is felt for Denmark by no means extends to a wish for participation in the contest. Forty years ago, far juster and stronger irritation was caused by the French invasion of Spain; but, on calm retrospection, the prudent neutrality of Lord Liverpool and Mr. Canning has been universally approved.

THE building designed for this purpose was temporary structure erected in the tennis, court behind the palace. It was seventy feet in width, a hundred and forty in length, and more than sixty feet high. The ceiling was richly painted; the projecting cornices were decorated with banners and heraldic embellishments; and the walls were hung with the celebrated tapestry representing the adventures of Jason in quest of the Golden Fleece, and with similar productions of Flemish ingenuity and art. In the centre of the hall rose a buffet of enormous dimensions, supporting a prodigious quantity of plate, of which the largest, but least costly, articles were piled on the lower shelves, while goblets of embossed gold, studded with precious stones, and other articles of inestimable value, were displayed in a conspicuous manner on the summit. The apartment was lighted by chandeliers in the form of castles surrounded by forests and mountains, with revolving paths, on which serpents, dragons, and other monstrous animals seemed to roam in search of prey, spouting forth jets of flame that were reflected in huge mirrors so arranged as to catch and multiply the rays. The tables exThe separation of Belgium from Holland tended lengthways on either side of the hall, was a more complete defeat of English policy except one reserved for the ducal family and than the entire or partial failure of the inju- the guests of highest rank, which crossed it, dicious arrangements of the Great Powers in on a raised platform, at the upper end, and 1852, yet it would be impossible to find an was overhung by a canopy with curtains dehistorian or politician who now believes that scending to the floor, so as to present the apit would have been right to maintain the pearance of an open pavilion. The dishes Kingdom of the Netherlands by force. On containing the principal meats represented the whole, it is at present undesirable to go gayly-painted vessels, seven feet long, comto war with America, with Germany, or even pletely rigged, the masts and cordage gilt, with Russia, and in the unsettled condition the sails and streamers of silk, each floating of Europe, it might be well to place some re- in a silver lake between shores of verdure straint even on unofficial language. Mr. and enamelled rocks, and attended by a flect Disraeli professes his inability to decide of boats laden with lemons, olives, and other whether it would have been right to go to condiments. There were thirty of these veswar with Germany until he knows how far sels, and as many huge pasties in a castellated the Government may have previously encour-shape, with banners waving from their bataged the resistance of Denmark. The coun- tlements and towers; besides tents and patry at large, not partaking his uncertainty, vilions for the fruit, jelly-dishes of crystal, may perhaps prefer a ministry which has at supported by figures of the same material least preserved the peace to a party which dispensing streams of lavender and rose-water, appears to hold out the possible alternative and an immense profusion of gold and silver

plate. The repast was enlivened by interludes, such as were described in a former chapter; and it was three hours after midnight when the company retired.-Kirk's " Charles the Bold."

REVELATIONS OF THE MICROSCOPE.

their wars-prosecuting their amours-multiplying their species— and ending their careers; countless hosts at each tick of the clock passing out of existence, and making way for new hosts that are following in endless succession. What other field of creation may yet, by some inconceivable methods, be revealed to our knowledge?

BRUSH a little of the fuzz from the wing of a butterfly, and let it fall upon a piece of glass. It will be seen on the glass as a fine golden dust. Slide the glass under a microBOOK BY JOHN BUNYAN. scope, and each particle of the dust will reveal itself as a perfect symmetrical feather. MR. W. TURBUTT, of Crambrook, writes as Give your arm a slight prick, so as to draw a follows to the Athenæum : "In consequence small drop of blood; mix the blood with a of a very rare original piece of Mr. Bunyan's, drop of vinegar and water, and place it upon entitled Christian Behavior,' having rethe glass slide under the microscope. You cently been discovered by me, a literary friend will discover that the red matter of the blood has advised me to send you the first public is formed of innumerable globules or disks, notice thereof. Neither C. Doe, the personal which, though so small as to be separately friend of Mr. Bunyan, nor Mr. Offor, who in invisible to the naked eye, appear under the 1855 exercised the greatest care to procure microscope each larger than the letter of this the first copies of the whole of Mr. Bunyan's print. Take a drop of water from a stagnant works for republication, had any knowledge pool or ditch, or sluggish brook, dipping it that Christian Behavior' made its appearfrom among the green vegetable matter on ance from the pen of Mr. Bunyan until after the surface. On holding the water to the the author's release from prison. Mr. Offor light, it will look a little milky; but on plac-states in 1855 that the earliest known edition ing the smallest drop under the microscope, has no date, but has always been supposed you will find it swarming with hundreds of to have first appeared in 1674. The copy strange animals that are swimming about in just discovered by me has this remarkable finit with the greatest vivacity. These animal-ish to it: From my place of confinement in cules exist in such multitudes that any effort Bedford, this 17th of the 4th month, 1663.' to conceive of their numbers bewilders the This is eleven years earlier than we have yet imagination. The invisible universe of created had any knowledge of its appearance. The beings is the most wonderful of all the reve- little volume is quite perfect, and is remarklations of the microscope. During the whole able for having the author's name on the titleof a man's existence on the earth, while he page and again at the end of the Preface. It has been fighting, taming, and studying the has also an owner's name written in it the lower animals which were visible to his sight, very year it was published. It was Printed he has been surrounded by these other mul- for F. Smith, at the Elephant and Castle, titudes of the earth's inhabitants without without Temple Bar.' The title-page is more any suspicion of their existence! In endless full than in any later edition. It has always variety of form and structure they are bust-been considered the nineteenth piece Mr. Bunling through their active lives-pursuing yan wrote, but this proves it to have been their prey-defending their persons-waging the sixth.'

THE Democratic Convention for the nomination of the next President of the United States will meet at Chicago on the 4th July next. The Republicans will wait to see the result of their enemies' deliberations before they nominate their next candidate, but all the best men hope the choice will fall upon Lincoln. Not only has he been a sagacious, an impartial, a devoted, and,

above everything, an upright ruler, but his selection would avoid the enormous evil of a new change in the permanent service of the government,-an evil which all thoughtful Americans are beginning to regard as greater and greater with every new experience of its results.—Spectator, 27 Feb.