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and over their people, not a defined and limited superiority, but an uncontrolled and unlimited one. Mr. Lincoln is, therefore, in peril from the inseparable accidents of the office he holds; he is a President under a Constitution which could give him only defined powers, and he is in a position requiring indefinite powers; he has therefore had to take his life in his hand, and violate the law. At present, popular opinion approves of what he has done; but the Republican party, of which he is the head, has many bitter enemies. If his announced aim should be successful, and he should reëstablish the Union, those enemies will be reinforced by the whole constitutional power of the whole South, bitterly hostile to their vanquisher, bitterly aggrieved at the means by which they have been vanquished. Against such a coalition of enemies it will be difficult to defend the illegal, the arbitrary, the impeachable acts (for such, in the eye of American law, they are) of which Mr. Lincoln has been guilty. We doubt much whether he can succeed in compelling the South to return to the Union; but if he should, he will have succeeded at his peril.

It is easy to sum up the results of this long discussion.. We cannot regard the American Constitution with the deference and the admiration with which all Americans used to regard it, and with which many Northern Americans still regard it. We admit that it has been beneficial to the American Republic as a bond of union; it has prevented war, it has fostered commerce, it has made them a nation to be counted with. But it always contained the seeds of disunion. There is no chance of saving such a polity when many States wish to separate from it, for the simple reason that its whole action essentially depends on the voluntary union of all, or of nearly all, the States. So far from its being wonderful that the present rupture has happened now, it is rather wonderful that it did not happen long since. It is rather surprising that a Government, which in practice, though not in theory, is dependent on the precarious consent of many distinct bodies, should have lasted so long, than that it should break asunder now. We see, too, that the American Constitution was, in its very essence, framed upon an erroneous principle. Its wise founders wished to guard against the characteristic evils of democracy; but they relied for this purpose upon ingenious devices and superficial subtilties. They left the essence of the government unchanged; they left the sovereign people, sovereign still. As has been shown in detail, the effect has been calamitous. Their ingenuities have produced painful evils, and aggravated great dangers; but they have failed of their intended purpose,-they have neither refined the polity, nor restrained the people.

BOOKS OF THE QUARTER SUITABLE FOR READING

SOCIETIES.

Memoirs to illustrate my own Time. By M. Guizot. Vol. IV. Bentley.

[Contains the negotiations concerning the intervention of France in
Spain, according to M. Guizot and his Ministry, and the Syrian quar-
rel with England.]

Irish History and Irish Character.
James Parker.

By Goldwin Smith.

J. H. and

[An admirable essay, of great graphic power, and showing a clear grasp of liberal principles.]

The Last Crusader; or, the Life and Times of Cardinal Julian, of the House of Cesarini: an Historical Sketch. By Robert C. Jenkins, M.A. Bentley.

[A learned, and on the whole impartial, though not very graphic, book.] Secret History of the Court of France under Louis XV. By Dr. Challice. Hurst and Blackett.

[A foolish defence of Madame de Pompadour on the most extraordinary pleas.]

Henri IV. and Marie de Medici. By Martha Walker Freer. 2 vols. Hurst and Blackett.

[A respectable history, and no more.]

Lives of the Bachelor Kings of England. By Agnes Strickland. Simpkin, Marshall, and Co.

[The principle of selection indicates sufficiently the nature of the work.] Longmans.

Pictures of Old England. By Dr. Pauli.

[This is the sweepings-up of a good previous book,-a collection of literary litter by a learned man, after executing a valuable work in which he was unable to use all his materials. It contains, however, some fragments of interest.]

Autobiography of Miss Cornelia Knight, Lady Companion to the Princess Charlotte. With Extracts from her Journals and Anecdote-Books. 2 vols. W. H. Allen and Co.

[An interesting recollection of Court life and gossip.]

Scepticism: a Retrogressive Movement in Theology and Philosophy, as contrasted with the Church of England, Catholic (at once) and

Books of the Quarter suitable for Reading-Societies. 495

Protestant, Stable and Progressive. Two Letters on points of present interest, addressed to the Rev. W. D. Bryan, M.A., Rector of Rodington, and the Hon. Colin Lindsay. By Lord Lindsay. Murray.

[An amiable and learned, but rather ineffectual, production. Lord Lindsay wishes to engender conviction by showing the dangerous tendencies of all views but his own,-a hopeless kind of task.]

The Letters to the Seven Churches. By R. C. Trench, D.D. Parker, Son, and Bourn.

The Prison Chaplain: a Memoir of the Rev. John Clay, B.D., late Chaplain of the Preston Gaol. By his Son, the Rev. Walter Lowe Clay, M.A. Macmillan and Co.

[Containing the materials of a most interesting book in hopeless confusion,-interspersed with endless dissertation and digression.]

Cavour: a Memoir. By Edward Dicey. Macmillan. [An extremely manly and vigorous memoir.]

Memoirs of Dr. Marshall Hall, M.D., F.R.S. By his Widow. Bentley. [The memoir of a very good man and very remarkable physiologist, spoilt by the wretched taste of strong affection.]

Recollections of A. N. Welby Pugin. By Benjamin Ferrey. Stanford.

[Valuable and interesting.]

A Saunter through the West End. By Leigh Hunt. Hurst and Blackett.

[One of Leigh Hunt's really characteristic books.]

Court Life in Naples in our own Time. By the Author of "La Cava.” 2 vols. Saunders and Otley.

Lectures on the Science of Language. By Max Müller. Longmans. [Reviewed in Article VI.]

On Food.

By Dr. Lankester. Hardwick.

[A very interesting book, popular without being shallow. The only objectionable element is the very clap-trap illustrations, usually no illustrations at all. Thus, for the chapter on "fat, oil, &c.," we have a picture of a prize-pig.]

In the Track of the Garibaldians through Italy and Sicily. By Algernon Sidney Bicknell. Manwaring.

[A clever and lively book.]

The Okavargo River: a Narrative of Travel, Exploration, and Adventure. By Charles John Andersson, Author of "Lake Ngami." With numerous Illustrations. Hurst and Blackett.

[Very interesting adventures.]

The Oxonian in Iceland. By the Rev. F. Metcalfe. Longmans.

[A vivid description of Iceland.]

Egyptian Sepulchres and Syrian Shrines; including some stay in the Lebanon, at Palmyra, and in Western Turkey. By Emily A. Beaufort. 2 vols. Longmans.

[Generally interesting.]

Social Life in Australia. By a Resident. Longmans.

Glencreggan; or, a Highland Home in Cantire. By Cuthbert Bede. 2 vols. Longmans.

[A deadly-lively book of the most ostentatious kind.]

The Silver Cord. By Shirley Brooks. 3 vols. Bradbury and Evans. [A clever novel, of that highly involved and complicated kind of plot which "A Woman in White" has rendered fashionable.]

A Hero in spite of Himself; from the French of Luis de Bellemare. By Captain Mayne Reid. 3 vols. Hurst and Blackett.

[Of some interest, but not of the same interest as Captain Mayne Reid's own works.]

Miss Gwynne of Woodford. By Garth Rivers. 2 vols. Smith and Elder.

[Contains some clever sketches, but unequal as a whole.]

Paul Foster's Daughter.

Blackett.

By Dutton Cook. 3 vols. Hurst and

My Heart's in the Highlands. By the Author of the "Nut-Brown Maids." Parker, Son, and Bourn.

[Poor.]

Great Expectations. By Charles Dickens. 3 vols. Chapman and Hall.

[The early part of this book shows Mr. Dickens's old genius; but he quickly relapses into the theatrical tone of later days. To the last, however, it has gleams of genuine humour.]

Notice to Quit. By W. G. Wills. 3 vols. Hurst and Blackett. [A novel of very considerable power.]

Edwin of Deira. By Alexander Smith.

Macmillan.

[Shows much less of the spasmodic element than Mr. Smith's early poems; but the sensation-element is not replaced by thought or poetic sentiment. It is a very poor poem, with sentences here and there of very great beauty.]

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