PARIS AND LONDON. results. If Mr. Bessemer's iron is to be tested properly, let it be made from the iron stone principally found in England, let it be submitted to the forge hammer; for it may pass through the rollers and seem to have a malleable body, when, if brought to the proper test, it will be found tender, brittle, and consequently unfit for mechanical purposes. Mr. Bessemer's plan is soon explained. He has a receiver for the liquid iron as derived from the iron stone, and he supplies a blast which produces a violent motion of the metal, which afterwards is considered iron or steel. Mr. Bessemer is worthy of credit for his desire to introduce an improvement in this department of manufacture. He is no doubt thoroughly sincere, and has acted perfectly right in securing to himself the benefits of his discovery in a pecuniary view, but inasmuch as public interests have to be respected, it is right to intimate that the philosopher frequently fails for want of practical experience, and that fact is the absolute and only reason why these remarks have been made. PARIS AND LONDON. WANDERING some weeks ago in the neighbourhood of Notre Dame, and passing by the front of the ancient pile, I perceived the door leading to one of the towers was left open. Some workmen were engaged in slight repairs on the roof, and I was suddenly siezed with a desire to witness from one of the towers the beautiful sunset that was coming on. I therefore mounted the narrow stairs, and was soon lost in a flood of associations, connected not only with the building on which I stood, but with the beautiful city that was outstretched like a map beneath. The pen of Victor Hugo had invested the grand old edifice with an almost magical charm, for in a dim imaginative haze the vivid situations of his striking novel rose before me. In the sweet calm of the autumn evening, and the silence of the street below, I could only for a time think of the meditative Claude Frolloabsorbed in study upon the spot where I was now standing-or, looking downward from the height, see his struggling form about to be dashed to atoms on the stones below. One carving, indeed, in my forgetfulness of present objects, seemed to assume a grotesque physiognomy, that was quite a study for the face of Quasimodo. Gradually my thoughts reverted to recent events, that had achieved their crowning significance in the solemn aisles beneath, and I wondered what history would have to say of these. Arousing from my reverie and looking forth on the towers, palaces, and domes, that stood up sharply defined in the clear, soft atmosphere, tinted gorgeously with the last rays of the sinking sun I was almost unconsciously led to think of the capital of my native land. Living in London, year after year, I had almost ceased to think of it in 55 any other light than as the most commonplace city in the world. But now, standing on the roof of Notre Dame, and taking somewhat such a view of Paris as I should take of London trom the balcony of St. Paul's, I could better realise the wonder, and even admiration, with which many foreigners regard enormous London. There was the regret, to begin with, at the difference of atmosphere-the size of Paris (being, as a lively French friend remarked a city that might dance in London)-the wood fires-the people, living so much abroad that the separate fires burning in almost every room in London are not necessary-and the absence of factories, all contribute to that clearness of the air which, to my mind, is not the least charm of a large city. Thinking of Notre Dame, by comparison with Westminster Abbey, I must, generally, prefer the latter; although the elaborate western front of the French Cathedral is, undoubtedly, very fine. But the interior is cold and barren, and wants variety. It does not impress me, in the same manner as our own ancient pile, with the feelings of Milton's glorious lines in the Penseroso. We Londoners, too, seem to have an affectionate reverence for the Abbey, very different from that of the Parisians for Notre Dame; for, undoubtedly, the most fashionable place of worship is the Madeleine - a superb building, indeed, but one where I cannot consider the Roman Catholic ceremonies appear to the best advantage. But it was not originally intended as a place of worship; indeed, it was at one time destined by Napoleon for a Temple of Victory, in which to deposit the trophies he had collected in his different campaigns. To the stay-at-home reader (if such there be in these travelling days) we can best give an idea of the Madeleine by likening it to our own Royal Exchange. There is a fine bold altarpiece in the Madeleine, which, however defective in some minor points, is certainly more in keeping (not a little merit methinks) with the general appearance of the building, than the dull, inharmonious masses of marble that seem to fill up the odd corners of St. Paul's. There is another contrast between St. Paul's and the Madeleine worth mentioning. The vault-like appearance of the central portion of our London Cathedral, unrelieved by pictures, statuary, or even groups of worshippers scattered about on the Sabbath-the few who come, partly to hear the anthem, partly to see the building, shut up between barricades, that must remind many of Drury Lane Theatre, or the Cattle show, almost make the Protestant blush for the glory of his Church, and wonderingly ask if the freedom and cheerfulness of the Madeleine, where no distinction is made between the workman in his blouse and the Countess in her diamonds, and where the worshipper kneels in any portion of the building he chooses, has not a more humanising influence than the purest creed administered in a sectarian spirit. Looking down upon the river, which flows beneath, one sees a vast difference between it and the broad-bosomed Thames (pity that it retains so little of its virgin purity). The silent highway of London has associations, historical, commercial, and domestic, to which the canal-like Seine is a stranger. I have always thought the views of London from some of the Bridges to possess much interest-and could always enter into the feelings so charmingly embodied by Wordsworth in his sonnet on a view of London from Westminster Bridge. But I have been most struck by a view of St. Paul's at sunset from Southwark Bridge. To the Cockney, born and bred within the sound of Bow bells, writing thus may seem very prosaic, but I can assure him if he is anything of an artist, that the effect of the grand central object surrounded by, it may be, a thousand leagues of cloud, gorgeously tinted an by autumn sunset, was quite Rembrandtish. The bridges of Paris though very numerous are too small to awaken much interest in the mind of a Londoner accustomed to the majestic terraces of Waterloo, or the bold yet airy span of Hungerford. One thing should be particularly noted in Parisian architecture; whatever is really beautiful is made the most of—would that it were so in London. The Parisian Houses of Parliament would not have been erected in a swamp where only a good view of them could be obtained from one of the dirtiest and least interesting localities. Compare the situation of the Arc de Triomphe with the position of any public building in London, where the only really fine site is occupied with one of the ugliest edifices that an Englishman of taste can blush for-to say nothing of it as a receptacle for high art. (It may be worth considering, en passant, what would have been done by this time for a French Turner's gift to the nation.) I should hope too, that no real artist is blind to the lamentable folly of placing a tall column in the middle of a large square; and I would quietly ask, wherein consists the appropriateness of such a column to a naval commander-I am told it is Nelson, but the cocked hat is all vouches for it at that distance. In Paris we may see, in more instances than one, how and where a column should be placed. A column, says common sense, should stand that the eye rests upon it alone, as a principal object. In Trafalgar-square the only effect produced in my mind is that it is sadly in the way. To show again the improved effect to be attained by a slight change of position-I would refer to the Marble Arch,which a French architect would most certainly have placed exactly opposite the end of the Edgeware-road, and thus it would have formed a pleasing object across the very centre of the park, and for nearly a mile down a wide road. As to hoping for Boulevards round London, that is visionary, from the high value of the ground; yet in some quarters (as, for instance, the Newroad, where a small portion of the gardens fronting the houses, would form charming promenades in the summer) the experiment might be tried without any extraordinary difficulty. As to a really handsome fountain in London, we must not look for such a marvel. In Paris we have many, quite works of art, and what can be more agreeable on a sultry day than the cool refreshing splash of a fountain. I can only regard our Railway Stations with a sigh-such lavish expenditure, such heaps of mortar, such piles of brickwork, and--so little elegance. It is quite astonishing. Of the petrified negroes that are stuck about some of our squares, I had better say nothing. Nor will I advert to those ghastly abominations, the city churchyards, for here at least, there is some ground for hope. To a much greater length these remarks might have extended, but the sun is sinking lower and lower, and the beauties of Paris are no longer visible. The workmen, also, coming forward, politely inform me that their labours are over for the day, and they are about to close the building. So, almost reluctantly even now, I descend from the towers of Notre Dame, with a feeling, not of contempt for my own capital, in its busy, bustling variety, but a desire that the vast sums expended in London architecture could be as promptly and effectively applied as in the charming city beneath me. THE PERSIANS IN HERAT AND THE RUSSIANS IN INDIA. THE geography of central Asia has long been a mythical subject in our seminaries of useful learning. Three-fourths of our people know not what or where Herat is, with any precision. The The Aral, the Araxes, even the Caspian, certainly the Oxus, and, most undoubtedly, all those chains of horrible mountains that raise rugged cliffs between the Indus and the Tigris, are names to them, and nothing more. This ignorance of common things leaves us in danger of being cheated on every hand. We are at war with the Persians, and a vast portion of our population know only that Persia was a great empire when it had Cyrus for its monarch-and they have heard of Xerxes, and Greece-of Darius and Alexander, and of Esther the Queen. Persia extends from the Caspian to the Indian Ocean. To the ports of the Caspian the Russian armies can be floated by navigable canals, or rivers, from every part of that Northern Empire in Europe -even from Finland, or the shores of the White Sea. Into the Caspian our fleet of new gun-boats can never penetrate. Around that great inland sea the Russians may build arsenals, and collect the materials of war without the dread of interruption. Upon its waters they can collect half a million of men, more easily than, perhaps, to any other part of their dominions. The Caspian is their natural basis in their expeditions to the South, now that they have been foiled in the Euxine. The former sea has the great advantage of perfect security, which the latter can never PERSIA AND HERAT. The possess, until Russia has conquered and garrisoned need to say the Euxine than Erzeroum and Kars. The purposes of Russia for a time would be promoted by the annexation of Persia, and by every step taken towards this success. The Persian Government has been long subjected to the successful diplomacy of Russia. The Shah is apparently very like the representatives of effete families everywhere. A vigorous monarch in Teheran would check Russia. A Dost Mohammed would have been a barrier for many years. Runjeet Singh, probably, could have interposed an effective resistance to the Muscovites. Mehemet Ali would have done better than either of his Asiatic contemporaries; and he might have raised. Persia from being the footstool of the Romanoffs to the rival of Russia. The magnitude of the Persian land is overlooked by many of our authorities on political combinations. It touches the Caspian on the north, and the Indian Ocean on the south. The land is said to be barren by some, and fertile by others. The surface, probably, presents abundant evidence of both statements. The Persians have long been sunk under "the anarchy of despotism." Christianity was trampled out by violence; and the land lost its hope of progress with its faith. We have no reason to suppose that the arts and sciences of the Persians are equal now to those of their ancestry. We even know that they have degenerated rapidly. Still, Persia contains many fertile regions. The late Henry Martyn wrote when upon his missionary tour in that country :— On descending into the plain of Nackshau, my attention was seized by the appearance of a hoary mountain in front, at the other end, rising so high above the rest that they sank into nothing. It was truly sublime, and the interest it excited was not less, when, on inquiring its name, I was told it was Agir, or Ararat. At four in the afternoon we set out for Shurror. The evening was pleasant; the ground over which we passed was full of rich cultivation and verdure, watered by many a stream, and containing forty villages, most of them with the usual appendage of gardens. I fancied many a spot where Noah perhaps offered his sacri 57 | fices; and the promise of God, "that seed time, and harvest should not cease" appeared to me more anxiously fulfilled in the agreeable plain where it was spoken than elsewhere, as I had not seen such fertility in any part of the Shah's dominions. the accomplished and enthusiastic missionary was He had, however, found many fertile tracts; and an observant man. A vast portion of the land is desolate, and without inhabitants-desolate because it is destitute of population; yet Persia comprises many delightful districts-each of them equal in breadth and length to a German principality. It would be very curious indeed if the land were not remarkable for its native fertility; since the great district of Eden is comprised probably within its frontiers, and the land known by that name to the ancients forms part of its provinces. The late Sir John Malcolm, in a diplomatic letter to Count Woronzoff, whom he had met in Persia, assigns the want of fertility in the Persian land as a reason why the Russians could not conveniently invade India from that quarter; but the writer referred doubtless to the districts affording the nearest road to India from the Russian frontiers, as the crow flies; but the Cossacks are not absolutely required to follow the crows. The danger arises not only from an influx of armed men over the north-western frontiers, which has occurred repeatedly, but also from the possession of the Persian Gulf by a hostile power with some maritime pretences, and at the present date, if we are correctly informed, with a naval station in the Chinese seas. Our Government, in endeavouring to promote volving an outlay of not quite £650,000, in the the Euphratean valley railway of eighty miles, infirst instance, desire to have routes from and to India. They doubt whether Egypt may be always open upon friendly terms; and if its rulers never be out of alliance with us, still, a little competition in trade is useful. Those politicians who look a little before them consider that our danger from future military movements is to be found in Persia, and on the Persian Gulf. They cannot doubt the existence of Russian influence at Teheran. It is visible in the attack upon Herat, as it has been visible in the Persian policy for many years. We are at war with Persia, and like fire, hostilities once commenced may spread. Russia promises to assist meaning, to devour Persia, and thereby to reach India. Neither Austria, nor France, care for Russian progress to the eastward of Heddekel, or Tigris, for a time. They see not that conquest there would soon be supremacy on the Mediter ranean; would soon be victory at Constantinople. They could not help Stamboul if it were assailed from the East; and it would be of little importance whether they could, or could not then help the Turk when he had nothing left to be helped in. Austria in an agony of disappointment might accept both banks of the Danube and Thessaly in order to preserve the balance of power for three years. France in the crisis of Asiatic danger, might seek a compensation in Africa; and stake against the waters of the Euphrates, those of the Nile. A British diplomatist of a determined character would seek the developement of the Euphratean Valley route, to prevent all this mischief. It brings us nearer our enemy by four weeks, or five, than even Egypt; and although some difficulties may arise for a time in passing through a neutral country, yet Turkey cannot long be neutral in this world into existence, when he acknowledged the independence of the Spanish and Portuguese colonies in South America. That world is one of growth so slow that George Canning as yet has little credit, except for intention, by the proceeding. The statesmen who may call Mesopotamia into reexistence will achieve a greater triumph, or one that will be more directly and immediately felt. The commercial advantages likely to spring from the plains of Mesopotamia under tillage, might induce the Government to favour the direction of our existing business into the old and long dry channels; for they like, Hindostan itself, require the means of cheap conveyance before they can exhibit the results of good cultivation. Although wars had ceased for ever, roads would be requisite through the deserts, before they could bloom for any good, social purpose; and over the wildernesses, ere they could rejoice in temporal matters-and the vast region having its name, like the Punjuab, from its rivers, in its present state is a loss to civilisation, and a reproach to the world, that all prudent men may desire to have once more removed. POLITICAL NARRATIVE. DOMESTIC. In DECEMBER in Europe began with weather hard as iron, or as the mill stones. In the east of Scotland the snow of November was deeper, and in the west its frosts severer, than the "oldest inhabitant" had ever experienced in that month of early winter. In the east several persons perished in the snow. In the west curlers and skaters began operations with the prospect of a long run. England several fatalities occurred by beginning too soon. Suddenly in the present month, the wind swept round in hurricanes by night, and gales by day; coming hot along the gulf stream from the American tropics, and the fret-work, the crystals, and the pearls of the frost, along with the mantle of the snow, melted away. The change has not been so complete on the continent, where unusually severe weather prevails. An early and a hard winter distinguished the season in North America. Public intelligence of a domestic character is meagre. The parliamentary recess has nearly reached its termination, and speculation regarding the future course of the ministry supplies the place of actual events. The Cabinet meet frequently, and are assiduously drilled on some subject. The plague of gout prevails in the Peers, and the want of a healthy leader for the upper house threatens inconvenience. Lord Panmure wants, like Cincinnatus, to return to the plough; and few persons with the same principality of good land to be ploughed, could resist the temptation. Lord John Russell would rather not yet ascend out of the turmoil of the Commons. He is not quite old enough. Lord Granville dislikes the labour. The Duke of Argyle likes it rather too well. The Earl of Carlisle will be withdrawn from Ireland to strengthen the position, according to some parties; but according to the Irish again, this Sassenach Earl is just the man for Ireland; and nobody else can fill his place, which must not be considered a hospital for the sick. The premier has strengthened his friends on the Episcopal Bench by judicious appointments; and at the same time disappointed the hopes of the medieval party. They imagined that their old ceremonials, incense, tapers, and other material devices had got into favour with such men as the premier, who, we suppose, had privately intimated to them that floral ecclesiasticalism was very pretty in a little place upon a small scale; but when work had to be done, and evil to be met among a large population, it was simply useless-that is to say, in his opinion, and with a profusion of civil words he keeps to his own opinion. A statue of Sir Charles Napier of Scinde has been unveiled in Trafalgar-square, during this month. The spare space around the Nelson monument is, we presume, to be occupied with a crowd of minor heroes, yet we regret that Sir Charles Napier should anywhere be overlooked. He was not a minor man. Christmas week is not one of work, and the month closed dully, therefore, in business; and more POLITICAL NARRATIVE. satisfactorily in lighter matters. The price of wheat has considerably fallen, and bread is more abundant than at the close of last year with the poorest families. The Scottish Rights question has afforded scope for articles and speeches-almost equal in number to those regarding the Heratese and Persia, in a month when topics were wanted. The subject had no immediate interest except to those who enjoy the war of words. Professor Blackie, of Edinburgh, made a "spirited speech" at a Wallace Monument meeting, which induced a rejoinder from the Times, and a multitudinous correspondence arose, without making any particular difference to the rights of Scotland, but perhaps leading to an increased number of subscriptions to the Wallace Monument. The conference at Paris is to meet soon to settle Bolgrad and the Isle of Serpents, and may probably take Neufchatel under its care. For some time active measures will not be adopted. A striking agitation has arisen upon the income tax. It has become the subject of an earnest movement, beginning in London, comprehending a multitude of towns, and extending to a number more. The people demand, first, the performance of the promise that the extra tax should cease in twelve months after the stoppage of the war; and in the second that some distinction should occur in the incidence of the tax hereafter. At present, precarious and secured incomes are equally levied. That is an inequality. Earnings are never so secure as property, and they die with the earner. They are not, therefore, so valuable, aad they should not bear the same tax. THE ADMIRALTY. The other Sir Charles Napier has been busy with the present Sir Robert Peel, in spite of the premier, who after bestowing the highest certificate of character upon his Baltic campaign, says materially that he should not "mind Peel," who attacked him "only at public meetings." Sir Charles Napier, of Southwark, however, thinks that the young gentleman, for speaking evil of an Admiral double his age, should be turned ont of the Admiralty. By an unaccountable perversion of a man's talents, Sir Robert was placed in the Admiralty. The only qualification that he possessed was the very common one of having been shipwrecked in the Mediterranean. By the way of keeping to his object, Sir Charles has written to the Grand Duke Constantine of Russia, who asserts of the Staffordshire Baronet that he had no opportunity of speaking to him except during an official introduction. As to the quarrel itself, the Admiral displayed more sagacity in the Baltic than wisdom out of it. The Admiralty requires a change of management. It wants head, and has too many skulls. What use can non-professional persons of any calibre, however small, ever be to the navy? The Duke of Cambridge works hard at the Horse Guards, and is so determined to bring the army 59 into an efficient state, that the government will be unable to resist the force of example, but be obliged to give some power to practical men over the navy. We have a high opinion of the sugar trade, and we do not think they would form the best managers of a silk business. Bad habits have drawn such politicians as Sir James Graham and Sir Robert Peel into the condemnation expressed in the Latin proverb of the shoemaker and his last. In old Saxon something of the same kind is said in regard to the beggar and his horse. Yet the beggar of this year may have been a groom or a dragoon in youth, while there is no chance whatever that a lay lord of the Admiralty ever served before the mast. CRIMES. Crimes have brought their punishments, and thus Calcraft, the executioner-in-chief of the metropolis, has been busied to a terrible extent. One person was executed at Newgate on the 15th December, for the murder of a watchmaker's shopman, at 9 o'clock of an October evening, in Parliament-street, London; done as he said, not with the view of killing, but of stupifying the shopkeeper, that he might rob the shop. This person had more than one name in use. Occasionally he was Jenkins; sometimes, Marley. He was executed, as he had been tried, under the latter name. He had been a soldier in a mounted regiment, and was distinguished during the Caffre war. He held a ticket-of-leave, and had been a felon. He confessed ultimately that the robbery was planned, and that two confederates kept the door while he carried out the project. Marley complained that he could not obtain employment, and was driven into vice by want. Some means to support tickets-of-leave by work is essentially requisite. We should be always able to say that no man needs to steal bread who is willing to work for it. Villainy should have no excuse. A father was hung at Chester on the 20th, for the murder of his two children. The case is very sad; yet no grounds had been afforded for sup posing that the man was insane. Three Italian seamen were executed at Winchester on the 22nd, for murder on the Globe, a transport ship, in the Euxine, during the war. The evidence was full and unimpeachable. Finally, they confessed the crime, and so much more guilt that even Italy might rejoice in the termination of their wickedness. Crimes vary in shading, and as assassination is more common in Italy than in some other parts of the world, the guilt, equal everywhere, becomes less in criminal opinion; yet these Italian sailors were very unfavourable specimens of a race who trust more to the knife than consists with morality. The reign of roguery is not yet closed, and the public have become accustomed to its progress. Redpath, the gigantic appropriator of Great Northern Railway dividends, and their generous disburser among poorer persons than the proprietary, is a clerk of the same company, who merely stole a |