sincerity, that his sovereign is not responsi- but we fear an exaggerated, compliment to ble for acts which he has even vainly en- the sense of pecuniary probity among the deavored to prevent. The assumption of great nations of Europe. Unfortunately, independence by an agent or a partner is highly convenient in some exceptional circumstances. When the transaction is successfully completed, the capitalist in the background will step forward to receive the profits of a slightly contraband undertaking. Even at present, it might perhaps not be impossible to fix Sardinia with liability for the war in the south, but it is not the interest of the Neapolitan court to precipitate a quarrel, and Austria will choose her own time for the struggle which seems to be ultimately inevitable.

the United States of America would not have much difficulty at any moment in obtaining a place among the great powers if it suited American policy to do so; and at least two sovereign members of that confederacy have repudiated their debts. It is indeed not easy to say on which of the principles usually allowed to determine such questions Spain is excluded from those deliberations which settle the destinies of Europe. In population and territorial extent, in the size of her army and the amount of her revenue, she is fully entitled to admisThe prophets of evil naturally find many sion. She was not more deeply humiliated perils in the approaching accession of Naples than Prussia had been when the great treatto the Italian cause, but their warnings would ies which regulate the condition of Europe be better entitled to attention if they had were executed, and she contributed at least any reasonable alternative to propose. It is as much as any other nation to the overperfectly true that the difficulty of amalga- throw of Napoleon. It would seem as if mating a mass of provinces into a kingdom she were depressed below her natural rank may involve some danger to the cause of by a succession of small political peccadilloes constitutional government. On the other and slight domestic miscarriages rather than hand, it may be remarked, that freedom has by any serious decrepitude. The loss of her not hitherto, in the separate kingdom of South American colonies and her civil war Naples, found herself altogether on a bed of were certainly calamities when they occurred, roses. The power of self-defence is the first, but in the long run they have added to her though not the sole, condition of self-govern- resources rather than diminished them; and ment. The former states of Italy, even if even the outward humiliation which they their princes had been willing to concede occasioned was not deeper than that underconstitutional rights, were never allowed to went by at least two of the great powers in enjoy them. Austria exercised military rule 1848 and 1849. The true sources of the low at different times in Naples, in the Romagna, consideration in which Spain has hitherto in Parma, in Modena, and in Tuscany. Ital- been held seem to be the miserable characian patriots think the control over their own ter of her court, the corruption of her public front door even more indispensable than the life, and the self-seeking of her statesmen. judicious organization of the household, and At last she appears to feel conscious of nothe chances of future encroachment by na- bler springs of action, but diplomatists are tional kings must be dealt with hereafter. slow to recognize the resurrection of a comSovereign for sovereign, the loyal adminis-munity which has voluntarily submitted to trator of constitutional Piedmont offers a so much degradation.

better guarantee for the performance of his It is easier to pronounce that the admispromises than the frightened scion of the false Bourbon stock. If the brave and wise Italians who have conducted the national movement achieve a solution of their difficulties beyond their hopes and equal to their desires, they will readily allow their anxious well-wishers abroad to anticipate the worst future results.

sion of a new power to the councils of Europe would be an important event than to say what the character of the influence exercised by Spain could be. There is almost as little known about her as there was when she suddenly appeared as a powerful nation at the end of the fifteenth century. Some of the greatest disturbances of the relations of states have been occasioned by the rapid rise into strength and wealth of communities which had not been hitherto important THE Spanish Government is said to have enough to affect political calculation. Spain, recently made several attempts to get itself till the reign of Ferdinand and Isabella, did admitted into the Councils of Europe as a not stand in the European system on a great, or first-class, power. The claim has higher level than do Sweden and Denmark been rejected-on the ground, suggests the at the present moment; but fifty or sixty intelligent writer of the Times' Money Arti-years afterwards she occupied the very first cle, that Spain neglects to discharge her pub-rank, and it was probably her influence which lic money obligations. This is a natural, saved the Roman Catholic Church, and pre

From The Saturday Review.
SPAIN.

vented Protestantism from becoming the re- court is said to have adopted a life of conligion of nine-tenths of Europeans. Conse-ventual austerity, as a partial expiation of quences hardly less momentous followed the the sins of Victor Emmanuel. A little comappearance of Russia among the circle of pulsory self-denial is so desirable a lesson great states at the end of the last century. for her Spanish majesty to learn, that one is But for her sudden consolidation of re- sorry to feel that her vices are less injurious sources, Napoleon might have made himself to her subjects than her efforts to be virtupermanent master of the west; and but for ous. Sackcloth and fasting are innocent her influence in the cabinets of European enough in themselves, but, unluckily, they sovereigns, constitutional freedom would suggest to Queen Isabella the perpetual wish have spread over Europe after 1830, instead to give the holy father some more efficaof withering under the incubus of the Czar cious assistance. Hence a perpetual pressNicholas' intrigues. A part hardly less con- ure is put on O'Donnell to declare war spicuous might be played on the theatre of against Sardinia or despatch troops to Sicily; public affairs by the United States, if they but this O'Donnell positively declines to do. had not followed with tolerable consistency It is understood that he is complacent enough the policy of confining themselves to their to use in favor of the pope whatever diploown continent. It would be preposterous matic influence the Spanish government posto predict for Spain that, on her re-appear- sesses; and there is a general belief that, if ance in diplomacy, she will alter European Pius IX. is forced to quit Italy, he will take equilibrium as seriously as she did before; but still it is probable that no state has so large a fund of surprises in ambush. Immense natural wealth, hitherto entirely undeveloped, and a hardy population, hitherto virtually unemployed, are being for the first time turned to their proper objects by the latest inventions of modern science. It is not too much to say that railroads and steam machinery are restoring to the Spaniards the Peru they have lost.

refuge in Spain. But the Spanish premier is neither servile nor insane enough to embark in a war with France, and perhaps with England, for the sake of keeping his mistress' good grace. There is no doubt, therefore, that she is eager to supplant him, could she prevail on any other statesman to take office on her terms. Hitherto, she is believed to have failed in inducing even the most ultra-Catholic of Spanish politicians to accept her conditions; and, indeed, besides If these anticipations are chimerical, the the transparent folly of the policy she wishes flaw which vitiates them is certainly not to impose on her ministers, there is sometheir intrinsic baselessness. The causes thing else to deter aspirants from swallowing which may, perhaps, confine Spain to her the bait she holds out, in the probability present low degree are apparently trivial that, if driven to extremity, O'Donnell will accidents of her position-the debasement fight. Since his first elevation to power, he of her royal house being chief among them. has made a surprisingly good constitutional It happens that tranquillity and confidence statesman, displaying considerable tact in are among the first conditions of her con- the management of assemblies and much tinued improvement, and these Queen Isa- moderation in the exercise of power. But bella has the means of disturbing or destroy- still it cannot be forgotten that he was origing whenever she pleases. It is said that inally the creature of a military revolution, she is now bent on getting rid of her minis- and that, since the expedition to Morocco, ter, O'Donnell, the only statesman in Spain he has the whole of the army at his back. under whom constitutional government is It is no wonder that his rivals do not conlikely to be any thing else than a pretext for sider him quite safe to meddle with; and, anarchy. The queen is not supposed to dislike him particularly, but she and her husband are laboring under a violent, fit of devotional ecstacy, and it is believed that they consider all their hopes of salvation to depend on their succoring the pope in his extremity. The immediate instrument employed in producing this passion of superstition is an impostor whose name is great in Roman Catholic countries, the Nun Patro-ast. cinio, under whose influence the Spanish

indeed, miserable as would be a breach of the civil peace which Spain has now enjoyed for an unusual number of years, a resort to arms would be almost justified if its object were to prevent the queen of Spain from placing the fortunes of her country at the disposal of a half-mad religious adventuress, by whose side Brother Prince of the Agapemone is a respectable and harmless enthusi

From The Saturday Review.
SOMNAMBULISM.

It is now just a century since Mesmer was delighting the wondermongers of Paris with his mysterious appliances, wild theories, and extraordinary cures. A hundred years have apparently done little either to diminish the public appetite for marvels or to introduce habits of cautious and rational inquiry. Society seems as much as ever to crave after the supernatural. The rapid advance of physical discovery and an imposing succession of scientific triumphs have infected our generation with a credulity, arising less from real openness to conviction than from a lazy desire to be startled and amused. Abroad, we see a professor of mystery closeted in secret conference with a great sovereign, and enlightening the guesses of imperial sagacity with revelations from the unseen world. At home, we have the routine of a London season diversified by spiritual séances and spectral phenomena; while the Cornhill Magazine consults the appetites of its readers by a circumstantial account of tables that skip nimbly about the room, accordions which an invisible hand awakes to more than earthly harmony, blinds which pull themselves up and down of their own free will, and chairs which now hover in mid-air, now carry the sitter to the very ceiling, and now gently waft him to his original position.

every opportunity for pretentious quackeries. Men were reluctant to abandon the hazy region of the supernatural where every thing could be accounted for with a pleasing facility, and to surrender themselves to that unambitious and patient mode of investigation which, eliminating the element of the marvellous, seeks to reconcile cach newly ascertained fact with the rest of its discoveries, and which attributes apparent inconsistencies rather to the partial knowledge of the observer than to any irregularity in the economy of nature.

By degrees however, science won its way, and a long series of observations and experiments has now placed beyond all doubt the explanations which physiologists had previously suggested of the phenomena both of natural somnambulism and of the various conditions of the body which are induced by the agency of animal magnetizers, and which may conveniently be classed under the head of artificial somnambulism. In a late number of the Revue des Deux Mondes, M. Maury has given an extremely interesting account of the subject, and has summed up the results which those most entitled to speak with authority consider as attained. Both natural and artificial somnambulism are mere modifications of ordinary sleep, differing from it in proportion to a more or less intense activity of the nervous system, and It is often easy in such matters to question consequently very often accompanied by catthe reliability or good sense of a particular aleptic, hysterical, and other symptoms not witness, and to show how the very language usually present in this condition of the sysin which the statement is made bears the tem. One of the earliest and most rational marks of a mind little fitted to conduct a investigators of the whole subject of animal troublesome investigation, or to deal with magnetism was Dr. Bertrand, to whose works delicate matters of evidence. It is more M. Maury makes constant reference. Thirty satisfactory, however, to repel the sugges- years ago he demonstrated the absurdity of tion of supernatural agencies by pointing to the theory of a subtle animal-magnetic fluid, other regions of inquiry which were long the which Mesmer suggested as the explanation chosen home of darkness, mystery, and won- of the agencies which he set in motion. All der, and to see how the calm and diligent the instances of particular seizures with efforts of competent scientific inquirers have which history or his own observation supat length cleared away the last suspicion of plied him convinced Dr. Bertrand that arti any spiritual interference with the uniform ficial somnambulism, however produced, is laws of the physical world. The extrava- but a species of ecstatic catalepsy-a rare gances of Modern Spiritualism find a fit an- disease, but one sufficiently well known for swer in the history of the science of which its characteristics to be clearly ascertained, Mesmer was so daring a professor, and to and sometimes even assuming an epidemic one branch of which he had the honor of form. Starting from this point, he found no giving his name. For many years the mat- longer any difficulty in that extreme variety ter rested where he left it. It is only in of symptom and action which artificial somcomparatively recent times that any real nambulism presents, and which was irreconprogress has been made towards a philo- cilable with the agency of a uniform subsophical explanation of the phenomena which stance such as an animal-magnetic current. he produced, and of the various conditions The conditions of the nervous system are so of the nervous system of which those phe- fleeting and uncertain, and its movements nomena was the result. The reign of char- so capricious, that it is natural there should latans was long, and threatened to be eter- be a corresponding variety in the results to nal. The nature of the necessary inquiries which it contributes. Some, however, of the rendered self-deception easy, and afforded features of catalepsy are sufficiently uniform,

and may be constantly recognized in artifi- the mind. The same thing is observed in cial somnambulism. The patient becomes cases of catalepsy, and in those where anmotionless and insensible; the will ceases aesthetics are employed. The dream is a to control the limbs; and, in extreme cases, combination of ideas from within and imevery part of the frame continues to preserve pressions from without the degree in which the attitude in which it has once been placed. either preponderate differing, of course, acThe muscles seem to be alone affected; the cording to the accidents of each particular rest of the system continues in its normal case. Another proof of the close connection state; the heart beats regularly, and the between animal magnetism and the other breathing is undisturbed; the senses are recognized affections of the nervous system dulled, and sometimes this stage is preceded is, that all alike frequently commence with by attacks of delirium. All this obviously convulsive attacks. Several celebrated praccorresponds very much with the condition titioners have stated that the persons whom into which a professor of animal magnetism they threw into a condition of somnambulism throws his patient. In the same way, the very commonly suffered in this way, and the insensibility to pain produced in artificial inhalation of ether has been known to prosomnambulism presents many points of anal- duce effects of a very kindred description. ogy with the insensibility produced both by But it is from the observation of natural catalepsy and by the employment of anæs- somnambulism that M. Maury thinks that thetics, and, accordingly, offers no contradic- the most satisfactory evidence of this contion to the ordinary laws of physiology. nection will be obtained, and the careless Another characteristic of artificial som- theories of supernatural agency be most connambulism, which more than any other has clusively refuted. The peculiarities of this been employed to justify its pretences to the affection are most curious. The somnambusupernatural, is the heightened sensibility list sees-sometimes appears indifferent to and the intellectual excitement which it often light. The famous Castelli used in his sleep entails. This often shows itself in an ex- to translate from Italian into French, and traordinary power of memory, and a rapidity for this purpose to look out words in the and case of speech, quite distinct from any dictionary. Having accidentally once exfaculty ordinarily possessed, and has given tinguished his candle, he had to grope his rise to the belief in the divine or diabolic way to find the means of re-lighting it; and inspiration of the person so affected. The it has been observed that, where somnambusame thing, however, is constantly observed lists dispense with light, it is generally where in hysterical diseases, and partially in the they have been previously accustomed to the case of persons who are under the effects of locality, and so, from the mind being inether. In fact, the understanding is so tensely fixed upon it, may recall its outline closely bound up with the nervous system with accuracy, or where an exquisitely keen that, if the one is seriously affected, some sense of touch might lead them to avoid any correspondingly important result is sure to obstacles that presented themselves to their show itself in the other-very often in the progress. The concentration of thought way of some suddenly developed power. upon a particular idea seems a leading feaHence it is that madmen often astonish by ture of both natural and artificial somnamtheir force of memory, and sometimes by bulism. The magnetized somnambulist is their flow of language. A text or prayer lost to every thing but the person operating that has once fallen on the ear seems to re- upon him and the ideas which he suggests, cur with perfect distinctness to the mind of just as the ordinary sleep-walker is lost to the most ignorant and untrained person; every thing but the idea which happens to and Coleridge mentions a case of a mad ser- be supreme in his thoughts. vant who repeated sentences of a Greek Father which had accidentally been read aloud in her presence. Precisely the same sort of development of power seems often to result from somnambulism. M. Maury says that he has frequently found the same accuracy in the replies of somnambulists which he has observed in the case of hysteria, and the same curious propriety of language, sometimes amounting to eloquence. Natural somnambulism is a dream in action. The somnambulist is absorbed by some one idea, and external sensations either find a subsidiary place, or else fail altogether to reach

This theory of course involves the abandonment of many of the extravagant and fantastic notions with which the whole subject was formerly encumbered. It is no longer necessary to believe that somnambulists see out of the backs of their heads, or from the pits of their stomachs, or from their finger's ends. Neither are they gifted with the faculty of prevision, nor are they privileged to know every thing which is going on inside their own persons, nor the hour at which their illness will reach its climax, nor the remedy which is destined for its cure. All these are mere exaggerations of powers which

a heightened nervous sensibility may un-duced by violent efforts of attention, and in doubtedly in a certain degree confer. Mad the case of a girl, even by merely fixing the people, epileptic and hysterical patients, often eyes upon the sun. This fact once recogmake very good guesses as to the time when nized, all the performances of animal-magtheir attacks will take place, and ordinary netizers, electro-biologists, and the rest of sleep furnishes a most curious instance of the the tribe, are quite divested of their mystery. mind in certain states unconsciously possess- In some instances, the end is gained by the ing an extremely accurate perception of time. mere contemplation of the practitioner. In Lastly, there is nothing extraordinary in a others, the eyes are fixed upon the little person feeling at times more than usually metal plate. Invariably there is the distinct conscious of organic modifications taking and continued effort of attention. After all, place in the system, for this is common to the process professes to succeed only on a various other conditions of the body besides few, and those favored few are of course persomnambulism. sons constitutionally inclined to nervous afHaving thus placed the matter on a ra- fections. Still the result is no mere illusion, tional footing, M. Maury goes on to show but something real and tangible. To this how the processes which the professors of an- must be added the enormously powerful imal magnetism employ may very naturally agency of imitation, by which every condition be expected to produce the results which we of the nerves is inclined to propagate itself, know they do. Often, indeed, the imagina- and which even in the case of natural somtion is of itself sufficient to accomplish the nambulism is shown by well-authenticated desired end. The celebrated Abbé Faria stories to be extremely efficacious. One inused merely to place his patients in an arm-stance is recorded in which a student who chair, look fixedly at them, and exclaim, had been attending lectures on the subject "Dormez!" and by this simple means he of somnambulism became a somnambulist commonly succeeded in sending them to sleep. But frequently, there is no doubt that the result of somnolency is to be attributed to material agency without any intervention of the imagination. The well-known experiment of drawing a white line from the beak of a cock, and so leaving it unconscious and immovable, is a sufficient proof of some actual effect produced upon the brain by the eyes being thus brought to bear upon a focus; and fifteen years ago an English physician In conclusion, M. Maury enters a protest discovered that, by holding a bright object against that false and irrational sentiment before a patient's eyes, and obliging him to which would regard conditions of the body, fix his attention exclusively on that, a state such as that of somnambulism, with a reof magnetic somnambulancy might be ob- spectful and almost superstitious consideratained, beginning first with an extraordinary tion. So far from rising above himself at excitement of the faculties, and gradually such moments, man sinks below the essenverging into entire insensibility. This con- tial dignity of his nature. Reason is half trivance seems to be of great antiquity. In eclipsed; the will is extinct; the sense of the sixteenth century, the monks of Mount identity is lost. The benefits to be derived Athos would seem to have known it, when, from somnambulism are of another kind. It by fixing the sight on a single object, and throws a curious light upon the connection concentrating the attention, they found that between our physical organization and our a divine spectacle was revealed to them; and intellectual existence, and proves very forcithe phenomenon is entirely explicable by the bly the effects of a disordered frame upon the action on the brain of the flow of blood pro- imagination. In its artificial form it may duced by the steady contemplation of an ob- soothe excitement and alleviate pain. Sciject which arrests attention, and impresses ence must take it for what it is worth, and itself on the retina of the eye. Precisely especially guard it from the ignorance which similar effects are found in those instances would invest it with the mystery of the suof hysteria which take their rise from a dis- pernatural, and from the quackery which ordered condition of the circulation. In- is eager to employ it as a means of gain. stances occur in which epilepsy has been in

himself, and shortly afterwards infected the servant who was in charge of him with the same irregularity. An English writer on this subject mentions a family with an hereditary disposition to somnambulism. The various members used to roam about the house during the night-time, and, not being favored with an exceptional clairvoyance, were constantly coming into personal collisions of the most comically annoying description.