to portion out the Decalogue. The sixth and seventh commandments would of course have many candidates, but the eighth is also convenient as bringing in scenes at police courts, and without the ninth a plot could not be woven. The costermonger of the Star might covet his neighbour's ass. In this way all ranks of life would be represented, and the joint-stock novel would be complete in all its branches. From II Diritto - F orence, Feb. 24th. AFTER the withdrawal of the French troops from Rome the Roman question has been considered in Italy with much greater calmness than formerly, and this is easily explained by many reasons. We do not wish now to provoke an agita tion which we should think inopportune and dangerous in so far as it might make people suppose that Italy is not disposed to maintain her treaty engagements. But, on the other hand, it would not be less perilous to allow an illusion to continue which others endeavour to keep up, and which consists in believing that France, having retired from Rome, has grown quite disinterested in the Roman question, and disposed to allow the temporal power of the Pope to fall, when this may happen without the violation of treaties on the part of the Italian Government. It is all the more necessary to combat this allusion, because the Roman question still remaining the first and most important of our political questions, which sooner or later must be settled in the national sense, it is proper that the electors at the time when they are about to choose their representatives in Parliament should have a just idea of the state of the question, in order to use it as a guide in their choice. We quite admit that this perfection may be unnecessary for Lady Caroline's present readers. They are contented with much less, and are spoiled by that little. We see by turning to the "notices to correspondents' what it is they desire. Corrie, a brunette, aged twenty-two, of good family, but without money, would like to marry a military officer with a respectable income. Mabel May, who is eighteen, very pretty, being fair, with brown hair, and blue eyes, and also respectably connected and accomplished, thinks she deserves to be married to a fine, tall gentleman with plenty of money. Annie who is twenty-six, handsome, cheerful, and highly educated, wants to be married to a gentleman with not less than £300 a year. Daisy and Bessy are both twenty-two and good looking, the former is fond of singing and the latter has wavy brown hair. Such is lady Caroline's public. We can see that the brains of such girls must be very easily turned. The military officers, the fine, tall gentlemen with plenty of money, the curates in full orders with dark curly hair, are all taken bodily out of the novels which fill the other pages of the paper. These poor girls, lone sitting on the shores of old romance," are neglecting their daily duties and passing by the best opportunities, because they are taught by Lady Caroline & Co. that The speech of Napoleon III. at the openthe earth is full of handsome young men ing of the Corps Législatif ought to have with good incomes, who will marry them been sufficient to remove all doubt as to privately. A sort of semi-Mormonism is inculcated by the universal prevalence of bigamy in sensation novels. We seem to be on a journey to a new colony of St. Ives, on, Salt Lake principles. Every husband has two wives, every wife has two lovers, every lover has two mistresses, every mistress has two masters; masters, mistresses, lovers, wives, how many go to a house at St. Ives? For an answer to this riddle we must refer to the works of Miss Braddon. Now, whoever does not wish to obstinately shut his eyes to the light must admit that France has not only not grown disinterested in the Roman question, but now more than ever considers herself the special protectress of the temporal power of the Pope, whose preservation she wishes for at any price. this. The "Blue Book," the principal part The despatch of M. Moustier to M. Sarti- MR. J. G. BENNET, JUN., AND PRINCE ALFRED. 127 withdrawn her troops has by no means to bring about a reconciliation between the abandoned the great interests protected by her for seventeen years. The other despatches which we find in "The Yellow Book" relative to the Roman question, and which we have not space to reproduce now, are all conceived in the same spirit. From the 15th of October M. Moustier declares to the French Minister at Florence that, peace having been concluded between Austria and Italy, the relations between the latter and the Holy See must take the first place in the preoccupations of France. He explains afterwards in what way France considers the question, manifesting his desire that the Italian Government will remain faithful to the letter and the spirit of the September treaty, opposing irresistible arguments against those who would advise it to obtain territorial aggrandisement." From "The Blue Book we learn, moreover, that the renewal of negotiations with the Roman Court, interrupted since the Vegezzi mission, was owing to the initiative of France. In another despatch of the 15th of October, 1866, the Marquis de Moustier writes to Baron Mellaret, "We have been much displeased to see the negotiations commenced by Signor Vegezzi with Rome interrupted last year. Could not their renewal be brought about by sending a fresh negotiation to Rome? On the 23rd of October the French representative in Rome wrote to the Marquis de Moustier that in a conversation he had had with Pius IX., the latter had declared himself ready to receive an Italian negotia two States, but that the French Government does not, however, wish to admit the supposition that the two States sooner or later may become one. After the Convention of the 15th of September, France ought, with respect to the Roman question, to be in the position in which all the other Powers are, without any special pretension or right; she ought to respect the principle of non-intervention, leaving the question (provided treaties are reopened) to be settled by the parties interested. On the contrary, the Roman question continues to be treated in Paris more than in Florence or Rome. France continues to interfere morally in our affairs, reserving the right, if need be, of interfering by force. Such is the true state of the question, and the electors ought not to forget it, all the more when the Government endures with such singular complacency this usurpation of the national rights. From the London Review. MR. JAMES GORDON BENNET, JUN., AND PRINCE ALFRED. MR. JAMES GORDON BENNETT, JUN., is decidedly a greater man than Columbus. The latter only partially discovered the greatness of America, but Mr. Bennett has at once found the weak point of England. One was dubiously received by savages, the other welcomed by princes of royal blood. There is a story that the American Government once proposed to fit out an expedition for purposes of discovery in the Mediterranean. But Mr. Bennett, jun., has done more than his Government. He has ex We must lastly leaving unnoticed less important ones draw attention to a despatch of the French Minister in Rome, to the Marquis de Moustier, dated 5th of Feb-plored the Solent and the Southampton Water, and discovered houses which have never been open to Englishmen, however deserving. Honours formerly used to be gained by saving lives, but now they appear to be won by losing them. The great St. Bennet is famous for walking on the water to save a child's life, but Mr. J. G. Bennett's fame is mixed up with the drowning of six men. We have no wish to disparage the late American yacht race, but the lamentable loss of life on board the Fleetwing sadly dims the brightness of the achievement. Such a race, however, is in every way preferable to the steeple-chases and flat races which are now the rage in England. Such 128 MR. J. G. BENNET, JUN., AND PRINCE ALFRED. a trial of skill must bring out some of the and his publisher's fortune. Chapter II. finest qualities in our nature. Yet do not would be headed, "Mr. James Gordon Benlet us make too much of the affair. The nett, jun., in his Study." And here the annual race between the tea ships is, from novelist would find the materials all ready every point of view, a much greater test of to hand. For we are bound to say that no seamanship, and its results of far greater novelist could possibly hope to improve upon practical benefit. Yet we do not remember Mr. Bennett's style of letter-writing. There to have heard that the captain of the win- is only one fault we can discover that it ning ship had ever been feted by noblemen appears that Mr. Bennett, long before he and princes. Nor must we, as a contempo- had enjoyed the hospitality of which he rary has well observed, be led away by the speaks, had determined to make his yacht a apparent smallness of the tonnage of the present to Prince Alfred, yet wished also to three American yachts. Two hundred tons make it an acknowledgment of that hospiby American tonnage amount to nearly tality. This is certainly a happy way of three hundred by English measurement. bringing down two birds with one stone. Lastly, the Yachts were specially fitted out Chapter IV. would, of course, be, "Prince for the voyage. It is well to turn back a A. in his study." Here, too, the novelpage or two of history, and to remember the ist would find all the materials ready at three poor ill-fitted tubs with which Colum- hand. Next to dialogue, letter-writing is bus sailed from Palos, all three of them to- the most difficult part of a novel. We shall gether, probably, not amounting to the ton- not, indeed, here say a word about the nage of the Henrietta. Pluck has been Prince's composition, for the critic is lost in shown a hundred times greater than Mr. the patriot. The concluding chapter and Bennett's, but it has certainly never met dénouement would be entitled, "Mr. James with so handsome a recognition. However Gordon Bennett's Feelings." Over them, our business just now is not with the race however, we shall draw a veil. itself. We readily take for granted all that has been said about the sea-going qualities of the Henrietta, and believe that, like the "chocolat Menier," she "defies all honest competition." Our concern is with the wonderful correspondence which has taken place between Mr. Bennett and Prince Alfred. It reads more like the letters in some wild romance. In fact, a romance might be constructed out of them. The chapters, in fact, arrange themselves. Their headings would probably stand somewhat in this fashion. Chapter I. would be, "The Henrietta Laying-to in the Mid-Atlantic." Here the novelist would be able to paint the regular storm-scene, without which no novel is now perfect, and in the midst of it, Mr. James Gordon Bennett calmly pacing the deck and resolving in his mind to make a present of his yacht to Prince Alfred, "In case he should win the ocean race." Chapter II. would, of course, be headed, "A Little Dinner at Lord Lennox's." Here would be an opportunity for the novelist to show his knowledge of aristocratic life. We do not remember to have read any novel in which a real live prince figures. Such an addition to the ordinary stock of characters would certainly make any author's fame The whole affair is so pre-eminently ridiculous, that it simply deserves to be laughed at. Yet some of the traits of American character which peep out are so characteristic, that we think it worth while to notice them. The grounds upon which Mr. Bennett determined to make his yacht a present to Prince Alfred are nowhere stated except in the after-thought about hospitality. Prince Alfred seems to be in luck's way. The Greeks, or somebody, offered him not long ago a crown. There may have been some valid reason for this. But why Mr. Bennett should offer him a yacht seems inexplicable. Certainly people do strange things. A man not long ago left somewhere near a quarter of a million to the Queen. Persons, however, will put their. own construction on the offer of a present which could by no possibility be accepted. But the truly ridiculous part of the matter is the publication of the letters. They were actually, we believe, sent to America by electric telegraph. Not even the Henrietta herself could sail fast enough with so precious a freight. Nothing, we should say, but vanity could prompt their publication. Vanity, in our opinion, is at the beginning, middle, and end of the whole affair. No. 1194. Fourth Series, No. 55. 20 April, 1867. POETRY: Nemesis, 130. Subjects of Song, 130. Artemus Ward, 177. SPEECH OF RICHARD H DANA, JR., ON THE USURY LAWS-in the House of Representatives, Massachusetts. PUBLISHED EVERY SATURDAY BY .LITTELL & GAY, BOSTON. TERMS OF SUBSCRIPTION. FOR EIGHT DOLLARS, remitted directly to the Publishers, the Living Age will be punctually forwarded for a year, free of postage. But we do not prepay postage on less than a year; nor where we have to pay a commission for forwarding the money. Price of the First Series, in Cloth, 36 volumes, 90.dollars. Second The Complete work 20 68 88 80 " 66 220 Any Volume Bound, 3 dollars; Unbound, 2 dollars. The sets, or volumes, will be sent at the expense of the publishers. NEMESIS. THE SUBJECTS OF SONG. you haunt On, Muleteer!-my Muleteer! And trot through comic operas in four-and ["This Bill is in a state of crisis and of peril, and the Government along with it. We stand or fall with it, as has been declared by my noble friend Lord Russell. We stand with it now; we may fall with it a short time hence. If we do so fall, we, or others in our places, shall rise with it hereafter. I shall not attempt to measure with precision the forces that are to be arrayed against us in the coming issue. Perhaps the great division of to-night is not to be the last, but only the first of a series of divisions. At some point of the contest you may possibly succeed. You may drive us from our seats. You may slay, you may bury, the measure that we have introduced. But we will write upon I hold your dark Pepitas and your mules imits gravestone for an epitaph this line, with certain confidence in its fulfilment :- 'Exoriare aliquis nostris ex ossibus ultor.' You cannot fight against the future. Time is on our side. The great social forces which move onwards in their might and majesty, and which the tumult of these debates does not for a moment impede or disturb, those great social forces are against you; they work with us, they are marshalled in our support. And the banner which we now carry in the fight, though perhaps, at some moment of the struggle, it may droop over our sinking heads, yet will float again in the eye of Heaven, and will be borne by the firm hands of the united people of the Three Kingdoms, perhaps not to an easy, but to a certain and to a not distant victory." Gladstone's Speech on the Second Reading of Last Year's Reform Bill.] I hum The of you, and whistle too; I vainly try to banish million airs that you pervade in English, mensely dear, But you begin to bore me, oh, eternal Mule penny steamer. Your city is romantic, but your songs begin, I Nor vain the word; the wheel has come full To pall upon me sadly, oh, eternal Gondolier! round; And Time, the Avenger, makes his work complete; Disorder, quailing, see thy foes retreat Divided counsels, terror, doubt, mistrust, Still keep'st in check the falsehood of extremes; To cloud the East where yet the day star Oh, let thy presence still be strong to save, |