ance of needless expense, a great distrust of ter of introduction, and he received me in his servants, and a mean system of locking up bedroom, in the boarding-house where he and doling out, are, I am inclined to believe, lived and messed,' with the families of Mr. its general characteristics, though there, I am Henderson of Georgia, a brother senator, and satisfied, many exceptions exist. The cook is Mr. Saltonstall, a representative in Congress a very independent and irresponsible person. for one of the districts of Massachusetts. In She has none of the importance of housekeep- this first interview with Mr. Clay in his small ing, but she is without its cares; little being re- and scantily furnished chamber, I occupying quired from her, she has little to look after; the only spare chair, and he carelessly sitting the meals of the family prepared, her time is on the bedside after full two hours' talk, on her own. Between the regular hours she subjects of serious importance at that moment goes where she chooses, and if she be a per- to the United States and England, I felt that son of the least pretensions in her profession I had been in close intercourse with one of she fixes her own time for every thing, and the world's celebrities, and assuredly one of upon the slightest deviation from the arrange- the most fascinating of mankind. Daily dur ment, which might interfere with her plans for ing my stay at that period, I met Mr. Clay, going to meeting on Sunday or to lectures either in his own house-so to call the resion week days, she quits her place without no- dence shared with his equally hospitable tice, frequently while the dinner is half friends-or at the many parties which were dressed and the company waiting for it in given just then. There were no topics of pubvain." lic interest respecting which he did not afford

eastern boundary dispute, of which I have already said so much, was at that time (previous to Lord Ashburton's mission) very prominent; and the subject was pushed to a very dangerous length, by the virulent speeches of inferior men, such as Caleb Cushing, and others, with whom hatred of England was the uppermost feeling.

As bad an opinion is passed upon the emi-me great and valuable information. The Northnent men of America, as upon the Americans in general. Webster made so poor an impression on several occasions, that Mr. Grattan cannot account for it; and can only ascribe it to waning faculties. He says that "Bancroft the historian is, on account of his political tendencies, even more than his shifting and frivolous character, shunned [by the people of Boston?] as a black sheep, against whom the white sheep of the opposite party are afraid to rub." Of Story he says that his "ardent loquacity and amiable egotism made him a companion highly agreeable to meet with occasionally." Of Prescott he speaks better as being "far beyond the common run of his compatriots [and] an amiable man." He rates Channing higher than any other public man he met with except Clay; though he affirms of the great Unitarian that a prophet in our country [he] was but pamphleteer in his own." Clay, to whom he devotes a chapter, is the only man to whom he gives large and ungrudging praise for high qualities of head and heart, and wonderful powers of fascination; though the grounds of the last do not distinctly appear. There is in

terest in the first interview.

a

out to Mr. Clay the desirability of his speak"I took an early opportunity of pointing ing on the question in the Senate, and sending on his authority from the Capitol hill some words of conciliation to the excited country. The next day he spoke; I unfortunately was not aware of his intention, but corrected copy of the proof-sheets of his speech, he sent to me that same evening to my hotel a which embodied every thing that any reasonable British subject could expect such a man in such a position to put forth. I was much gratified and very grateful for this. It completely crushed for the time the paltry efforts of the mischief-makers, and prepared the public mind for the overtures of the British Government, which ended in the treaty of 1842."

More provoking books have been published on America by the Trollope school of critics, and a more sarcastic spirit may have appeared in sketches on other classes of subjects than the lady handled. A darker picture than Civilized America, we have not met; because "When I first met this eminent man in the author enters upon topics that a passing Washington, in the spring of 1840, he was in traveller would hardly discuss; there is often his sixty-third year. He was then still in his prime as a great public character, as senator, an air of philosophical inquiry about his manorator, and candidate for the office of Presi- ner; and his delineations go below manners dent; besides being the life and soul of so- or morals to those feelings of human nature, ciety, mixing familiarly with the circles he on which morals and every thing else ultiadorned, and throwing a charm over the mately depend. According to the deductions. amenities of private life. I brought him a let- from Mr. Grattan's long expositions, the real

THIRD SERIES. LIVING AGE.

239

want of the Americans as a people is want of feeling even against persons is occasionally to heart, and of humanity-not in the limited be traced. Sometimes the fallacy of his consense of mercy or kindliness, but in the gen- clusion is obvious. Take a slight instance. eral feelings, and aspirations of a sentient In America it seems "gentlemanly" is used being, in the position man is placed in. A in the sense of civil, attentive, and is consecold, calculating self-interest is the fundamen- quently applied to persons and conduct to tal trait, unredeemed by any even aberration which it would not be in England. But of passion, glow of generosity, family affec- though this may be an impropriety of diction, tions, or aspiration for national or individual it does not prove that gentlemanlike men may greatness, save of a material kind. There is not exist in America. They may have the a good deal of inflated rhetoric on such things thing, though not our word for it. it is true; but it is mere talk; as different In America itself, of course, a portraiture so from reality as the violence of excitement from the reverse of flattering will be received with the depth of genuine passion. These remarks a feeling of annoyance, and, in this case we do not of course apply to individuals, and he imagine, with more than the usual amount of admits that among the upper classes of the surprise. It is indeed true that the Americans South, there is no deficiency in warmth, hos- have been taught to expect these mementos pitality, or courtesy. Indeed his means of of English travellers; though, from the wonforming a close judgment were confined to dering annoyance they show in each fresh New England, not extending far into the case, and the readiness with which they receive South, or reaching the West at all. But he the next unpublished new-comer, it seems says the New England or Yankee element that they have not yet come to any settled is that which is gradually predominating throughout the Union, and giving its character to the whole people.

How far all this is true we cannot undertake to say. Well-known facts contradict the conclusions as to the deficiency of family affection; but Mr. Grattan may say they are individual exceptions; or that the emotional effusions of numbers are merely sudden impulse; or an illustration of one of his posi

tions, the difference between Americans as individuals, and in combination. In some of his discussions on social economy we think a

convictions on the subject. Yet there is something to challenge reflection, on both sides of the Atlantic, in an interminated succession of books in which each visitor follows his P.P.C. with a most repulsive account of his hosts. The remarkable fact certainly suggests a curious question. Englishmen claim the character of an outspeaking frankness incompatible with simulation or backbiting; yet of the destined book managed, sometimes for how is it that in so many instances the author years, to accept, and to improve, with personal advantage and smiling countenance, the hos pitalities that were to be thus requited?

CHANGE IN THE ENGLISH PRAYER-BOOK.- of Prayer with Thanksgiving" for the "unHer Majesty's government have at length re-speakable mercy wonderfully completed" in the solved to comply with the prayer which both Houses of Parliament presented in their last session, and abolish all the services for the state holidays, with the exception of that appointed for the anniversary of Her Majesty's accession. A royal warrant, under the sign manual, which we publish in another column, revokes the authority under which the "Form of Prayer with Thanksgiving" for the Deliverance of King James from the Gunpowder Plot; the "Form of Prayer with Fasting" in commemoration of the "Martyrdom" of Charles I.; and the " Form

restoration of King Charles II., have hitherto been used on the 5th of November, the 30th of January, and the 29th of May. The use of these services in the churches and chapels of the Establishment, whether parochial or collegiate, will henceforth be illegal, as violating the act of Uniformity; and is moreover expressly forbidden by the new warrant, and the prayers themselves are not henceforth to be printed and published with or annexed to the Prayer-book. London News, January 19.

From The Saturday Review, 22 Jan.
IS THE DANGER OVER.

Constitution one has sworn to preserve. The Deputy went away satisfied that the danger was over, and communicated his satisfaction to the destined occupants of the prison vans of December.

THE Times has formally announced that the danger of war is over. We should be glad to be able to endorse this most welcome announcement. But there are, unhappily,| We cordially wish that the Emperor may still facts which look in the other direction. in some measure redeem his honor and efface The preparations at Toulon are going on as his past career by keeping good faith with actively as ever. Ammunition, buscuit, and allies who have kept good faith with him, beef are being furnished in large quantities, and by giving effect to the most politic as Horses are being bought for the cavalry. Old well as the best words he ever uttered-" the ships of war are being converted into trans- Empire is peace." Nor do we believe him— ports. What does all this mean? We have unscrupulously ambitious as his notorious acts heard nothing more ominous than the report have proved him to be-to be insensible of the Times Correspondent himself, that to the attractions of an honorable name. such preparations are said by the French But he has collected and is collecting immense officials to be intended for Algeria, Senegal, means of aggressive war. "The young man or China. The same correspondent also is an honest man," says Dame Quickly. reports that among the chief persons of the "Vat shall de honest man do in my closet ?" French War Office there still prevails a confi- replies Dr. Caius. The Empire may be dent expectation of war in the spring. The design of an attack on Austria may have been abandoned, or it may never have been entertained. It may have given way before the numbers, attitude, splendid organization and masterly movements of the Austrian army in Lombardy, and the real absence of revolutionary enthusiasm which appears to exist among the Lombard population. It may have been a mere cloak for some totally different design. There can be no offence to the admirers of the French Emperor, whom we are glad to see taking full advantage of our free press, in saying that the special virtues which he displayed in making his way to supreme power were not precisely those of openness and good faith. The plea in his defence is that openness and good faith, like other commonplace moral qualities and rules, are dispensed with in the case of master spirits, bent upon high designs. That there is a darkness and reserve a tendency to achieve great results by looking one way and springing another-in the author of the coup d'état, is not and cannot be denied. Louis Napoleon is undoubtedly not looking at this country, at Malta, or at Egypt, while he carries on his preparations at Toulon. He is looking, if at anybody, at Austria. But possibly it may not be on Austria that he means, or ever meant, to spring. Among the many personal anecdotes current about the Emperor's skill as a tactician, it is said that on the eve of the coup d'état, and when suspicion of his design was rife, he met a member of the Chamber who had recently lost his mother, and condoled with him on the mournful event. It is indeed a sad thing, and one hard to bear, said the Deputy, to lose a parent to whom one has been so tenderly attached. One thing, replied the President of the Republic, is still sadder, and still harder to bear -to be suspected of plotting to overthrow a

peace; but what does an Empire which is peace mean by getting up its Toulon fleet? Sudden and extensive arming when no one threatens is in itself an aggressive measure, and one which those who profess to give a more satisfactory account of the Emperor's character and conduct are bound, for our reassurance, to explain. We are inclined to think that there are two great securities for the continuance of peace, the first of which exists, while the second unhappily has still to be provided. The first security is that the wisdom and morality of the French people are on the whole greatly superior to those of the rulers, who, on the Imperialist theory of Government, are supposed to concentrate in their own person all the wisdom and morality of the nation. The second security is a Channel fleet so powerful as to make any attempt on England as hopelessly impracticable as it would be glaringly treacherous and base. We do not press the augmentation of our armaments without deeply feeling how miserable a thing it is to increase the fiscal burdens of our people for that which will make them no return, and to convert the fruits of industry, which might themselves be fruitful of happiness and civilization, to the barren and detested purposes of war. It is but little consolation to think that the nation which menaces us through the profligate and reckless ambition of its rulers, brings upon itself heavier burdens of conscription and taxation than those which it imposes upon us. The peacemonger, who would have us to throw down our arms in the presence of a highwayman, is himself the greatest promoter of the war which he detests. But what good and right-thinking man is there who does not look forward with fervent expectation to the day when the world may free itself from the yoke of these military tyrants, and when the interest and morality of nations may be

allowed free play in reducing the cost of armaments and preserving the blessings of peace ?

long ago betrayed, for the purposes of faction, a secret dispatch to the Governor-General of India, vitally affecting the public interest in a All questions of Whig or Tory apart, it is great struggle, and who is now stirring up deplorable that at this moment, when the ut- discontent of the Ionian Islands by a mission most vigilance and firmness on the part of our obviously planned for the purpose of banishGovernment are required our diplomacy should ing from Parliament a dreaded opponent or be in the hands of a thoroughly inferior man a more dreaded friend. The taint of a perand a self-proclaimed parasite of the Em-sonal connection with the French Emperor, peror of the French. In accepting his difficult going far beyond all bounds of proper diploand momentous post, Lord Malmesbury may, matic intercourse, adheres to the leading memlike other members of the "diggings" Min- ber of the present Government, in common, istry, have shown laudable devotion to his unfortunately, with almost all our public men. party; but unfortunately Providence does The last traditions of a loftier school seem to not reward devotion to a party with a super- linger in Lord Aberdeen, whose name is now natural bestowal of qualities in which a man in the mouths of men of all parties for better is naturally defficient. In the same manner reasons, we are persuaded, than because his we have no doubt that all will be done at the age and declining health have finally removed Admiralty which zeal and good intentions can him from the rivalries of public life. England, effect; but zeal and good intentions, even when when represented by him, and by men of his united with a liberal desire to render Tory school, moved among nations as an English principles palatable to their opponents, will gentleman moves among other men, dignified not do the work of a firstrate administrator and but not haughty, conciliatory but not servile, a great master of naval affairs in getting an effi- regardful of her own interests but not grasp cient Channel Fleet rapidly to sea. Unluckily, ing, exercising an influence that was more felt too, for the firmness and dignity of England then displayed, with many friends but no acat this moment, the master spirit of the Gov- complices, showing frankness and courtesy ernment is a tactician most dangerously ad- towards all Governments, but reposing blind dicted to low and shallow intrigue, who not confidence in none.

THE bulk of the "evidence" and much of the line of argument in this volume, is similar to what has been already urged by Mr. Hepworth Dixon. The new evidence is chiefly drawn from documents in the State Paper Office, though by setting out more fully some of the printed authorities, Mr. Paget brings his case with greater distinctness before the reader. The case, too, is clearly stated, and well argued; perhaps a little too much in Macaulay's own vein. To us the question stands about where it did at the outset of the controversy. Touching the maids of Taunton we still think, as we said when the question was first raised, "that Mr. Macaulay has got hold of the wrong Penne," that it was the low broker of questionable jobs who was engaged in the affair of screwing money out of the unfortunate Taunton girls, condemned for treason in Monmouth's rebellion, not the courtier philanthropist. We do not think the suspicion that Penn was concerned in Lord Preston's Jacobite plot removed, any more than it was by Mr. Dixon. The production of fresh, or rather of evidence in fuller detail, seems to show that Penn originally interfered in the Magdalen College affair at the request of the Fellows themselves; but it seems equally clear

from Hough's letter, that Penn was endeavoring to arrange matters so as to "make things pleas ant" to James. Of "artistical" exaggeration of his authorities Mr. Paget convicts Macaulay clearly enough; but that might be done on pretty well every page he has written. The book is a good specimen of literary controversy.-Spectator.

A MR. LEES WILSON, a native of New York, is travelling through France at present with an exhibition of a most extraordinary kind. He has collected, throughout the four quarters of the globe, all the instruments of torture and death, which it was possible for him to purchase; and has thereby formed a museum, unique in its kind, illustrative of the history of criminal punishments. Among the objects is a complete guillotine, said to be the identical one which was built by the learned doctor who gave his name to the instrument, and which was erected-and had hard work-in 1793, on the Place Maupert, in Paris. The chambers of the Inquisition, and the secret prisons of the Vehmgericht, are likewise represented by a large number of hideous contrivances. The Courrier de Lyon, from which paper we get these particulars, says that Mr. L. Wilson arrived in that town a few days ago, with his exhibition packed up in two wagons of most gigantic dimensions.

From The Saturday Review, 22 Jan.

A CHANNEL FLEET.

to win a victory, but we have not the supremacy which is proof against attack.

THE pacific tidings which have followed last If war were declared to-morrow, no one week's rumors of war-unsatisfactory and un- can say that the first cannon might not be certain as they are—are almost more humiliat- fired in an attack upon one of our own aring than the menaces with which the French senals. If the existence of England depended Emperor experimented on the temper of Aus- on it, we could not for weeks, nor perhaps for tria and her allies. One day he utters a few months, institute an effective blockade of Cherpetulant or calculated words, and the shadow bourg or Toulon. Until ships came swarming of threatening war clouds every capital, fills di- home from distant stations the Channel would plomatists with eager anxiety, and disturbs the not be ours, and who can say what mischief whole course of commerce. Our own funds might ensue while the unready forces of Engfall more suddenly than they did on the proc- land were being collected to encounter the lamation of war with Russia, or even on the fleets that are always prepared to issue from first startling news of the Indian mutiny. the ports of France ? It may be that, for the Every railway company feels the Imperial in- present, the Emperor means peace, as probfluence in the depression of its stock, and the ably a fortnight ago he had more than half value of shares in the Italian lines is for the decided upon war. But our tranquillity ought moment almost annihilated. A few days later, not to depend on speculations such as these. Napoleon permits it to be whispered that he The seeming caprice which he has shown may has changed his mind, and inclines to peace. not improbably be a repetition of the deliberThe tone of his Ministers is altered. The ate policy by which he won his throne. In great regard which the Emperor feels for the the last days of the Republic, rumors were peace of Europe is intimated to remonstrant constantly set afloat of contemplated attacks allies. The Times announces that the apathy by the President on the liberty of the Assemof France has checkmated the ambition of its bly; and again and again was the public mind chief. The funds, rise on every Bourse, and re-assured by solemn declarations that the the world understands that there is to be no Prince would be faithful to his oath. The cry war. Why is it that the issues of peace and of "wolf" was repeated till men learned to war hang thus upon the breath of one un- laugh at the danger, and then the time was scrupulous man? Diplomatic complications come for the coup d'état which had been so have occurred often enough when France was long and so stealthily prepared. If repeated under other Governments than that of our alarms of war, followed by peaceful assurances, faithful ally; but England was not disturbed should lull the Powers of Europe in like manby the frown or restored to complacency by ner to sleep, they too may be awakened at the smile of any foreign Sovereign. It has last by some outrage as sudden and unscrupuat other times been our part to look on at the lous as that by which the liberties of France tangle of Continental politics, not indeed with were sacrificed. Three times within a year indifference, but with the coolness of specta-have threatening demonstrations been made tors who are conscious of the power to stand first against England, then, with more sucsafely aloof from any contest that does not cess, against Portugal, and more recently concern them, and to choose their own time against Austria. Swiftness in action, and disfor taking part in struggles that may call for simulation in word, are the special charactertheir intervention. Why is England so agi-istics of Napoleonic policy. Dissimulation, it tated now by the mere hint of a rupture be- is true, may easily be met with courteous distween France and Austria? A score of plaus- trust, and swiftness of attack will not endanger ible answers may be given; yet there is one those who are constantly prepared. that is felt more than spoken, but which all secretly acknowledge to be the true explanation of the uneasiness that has been so prevalent. France is prepared for war, and England is not; and in the presence of a neighbor ready, unscrupulous, and armed to the teeth, it is the extreme of folly to fancy ourselves secure. We do not desire to propagate alarm, and it is gratifying to see that no tinge of fear mingles with the anxiety which every prudent man feels to see the forces of this country put on such a footing as to restore to us the vantage of our insular position. It is mere vaporing to say that we retain it at this moment. We may have superiority enough

It is grievous that an attitude of armed watchfulness should be the only one possible for prudent States; but while one pretext after another is found for increasing the armaments of France, it needs a higher character for veracity than the French Emperor enjoys to beget a lively faith in the sincerity of peaceful professions made by the master of four hundred thousand bayonets, and of a fleet scarcely, if at all, inferior to our own. The army need not trouble us much, if it were twice as large, but even if Louis Napoleon were the most high-minded of princes, the strength to which his navy has attained has rendered it the duty of England, in common