little satisfaction. Mr. Cobden's hitherto untried skill in diplomacy began to be doubted. It was suspected that, in negociating the terms of the treaty, France had overreached him; and when the tariff was published, the advantages seemed altogether on the side of France. People complained that what was in name a treaty, was in effect a capitulation. It is too soon to boast; but Mr. Gladstone and his friends begin already to proclaim the success which has attended their treaty of commerce, and to augur from it the happiest results. One of the last acts of the French emperor has been to anticipate the concessions which he had bound himself to make at a future date, and so to give full play to the principles of the treaty with the least possible delay. His conduct on this point, as well as in exempting English travellers from all the annoyances of the odious passport system, shows at least his anxiety at this moment to stand well with England, and deserves a courteous acknowledgment.

The designs of France with regard to Italy were still ambiguous. Rumours of a secret understanding with Sardinia were whispered about, and uneasiness soon grew into open distrust. It was not for an "idea" that France had made war with Austria; it was not to set Italy free from the Carpathian mountains to the Alps; it was the old base motive of conquest. The suspicion was met with indignant denials by the organs of the French government, and by Count Cavour on the part of the king of Sardinia. The course, however, which France would take in Italian affairs was doubtful, and such misgivings added to the perplexities of Europe. They had almost died away, when, in the early part of February, Lord Normanby re-opened the question by a formal inquiry in the House of Lords. He wished to know whether a project was on foot for the annexation of Savoy and Nice, or any parts of Italy, to France. The English government, relying on the assurances of France, declared that the only contingencies which could render such a cession of territory possible, had not occurred and, consequently that no such project need be feared. A few weeks, however, exposed the simplicity of our diplomatists, or rather the duplicity of the French cabinet. The illusion was dispelled, and amidst the execration of Europe, Savoy and Nice became a part of France; the indignation of the country was divided between the unprincipled rapacity of Napoleon, and the treachery or cowardice of Cavour and his royal master. The ministry, which had so lately talked of confidence now began to think of defence; the land rang with the note of preparation; fortifications at an enormous cost were voted for our coast and arsenals; Armstrong guns were forged, iron-clad ships were built, and a body of Rifle Volunteers, numbering at this time about 150,000 men, started into existence. Our unanimity and promptitude have had a good effect; we have no panics at home, we have at present a peaceable neighbour across the channel, and for this we would render devout acknowledgments to Him who maketh men to be of one mind in a house.

The conduct of Napoleon towards the Pope was still, however, ambiguous. He complained that the Pope rejected his advice, and allowed himself to be controlled by Austrian counsels; and he took the opportunity of showing his regard for the sovereign pontiff, by, in the same breath, promising his protection and yet refusing his sup

port. He would not withdraw his troops from Rome, for his holiness would not be safe an hour among his own loving subjects he would not allow French troops to put down the insurrection which threatened to alienate the papal territory. Thus he retained a footing at Rome, from whence he might take advantage of whatever might arise in the still uncertain future. This thin disguise is still sustained. The emperor exercises his absolute authority in the most inconsistent manner. He pats and fondles his victim at one time, and gives it a fierce gripe at another. Whether the ecclesiastical mouse is to be released, or caged for his own special use and entertainment, is the question; the motives of Napoleon III. are more inscrutable than ever. But we anticipate the thread of our annals for the year. A tangled thread it has been, and still remains, which time only can unravel.

Early in the spring Garibaldi re-appeared. On the night of the 6th of May, he embarked at Genoa with 1800 men, in two steamers, which had been seized for the purpose. After a few hours' sail, he and his followers safely effected a landing in Sicily, though under the fire of a Neapolitan fortress and two ships of war. France and Piedmont affected to blame this audacious enterprise, but not without giving some suspicion of connivance, if not of substantial encouragement, on the part of both. On the 27th of May, Garibaldi entered Palermo in triumph, and so began that career of victories which has already united the kingdom of the two Sicilies to the great Italian kingdom, with Victor Emmanuel as its sovereign. Garibaldi has retired for the winter to his simple home on the rock of Caprera, and the ex-king of Naples lingers in the fortress of Gaëta, if indeed he is not by this time expelled from this the last spot in which he can exercise the shadow of his kingship. The forces of Victor Emmanuel a few days ago were bombarding the city, and an assault has by this time taken place. With unaccountable perversity the emperor Napoleon, who quietly looked on when he was dispossessed of his capital, now prɔtects Gaëta by the sea with two ships of war, and forbids the complete investment of the place by sea as well as by land; thus enacting the same double part with the king of Naples which he has all along been playing with the pope. What his motives may be, conjecture has wearied itself in attempting to divine. He may be very cunning; a plotter of deep-laid schemes of policy waiting for the chances of prolonged confusion, till the opportunity arrives for making them subservient to his own ambition; or he may be no more than one of those obstinate, though irresolute, men who, without a policy, baffle the speculations of the most observant, simply by following each impulse with a contemptuous disregard either of the happiness of others or of their own reputation. We believe that we do him no wrong when we suggest that his policy, such as it is, rests on no better foundation than an hereditary reliance on fate or destiny, and an unscrupulous ambition, ready to take advantage of the misfortunes of others, wherever a victim may be found too helpless to avenge the wrong.

The session of parliament was chiefly occupied from this period in matters of domestic interest; a long and tedious session was wasted in abortive measures. A reform bill was, for the third time within the

last few years, rejected. And it will be a relief to sensible men of all parties if it be finally abandoned. Some changes might be made with advantage. No sweeping measure is required; the common sense of England has delivered in this verdict, and in the present generation is not likely to be reversed.

A wet, cold summer brought an indifferent harvest. It proves to be worse than was expected. Each market-day for some weeks the average price of wheat has risen, while that of this year's produce has as steadily declined: a great part of it being scarcely fit for use. Providentially the imports are enormous; for the skies, unpropitious in England, were bright in America and northern Europe. Thus the wants of mankind are made to bind the nations of the earth in one great brotherhood. Woe to the man who lightly puts asunder those whom God has thus joined together. A winter of unusual severity has now set in, and while we sit in peace around our Christmas hearth, the sharp frost and the ringing atmosphere seem to repeat the apostolic precept, to remember the poor. Thousands of our countrymen are unemployed at Coventry. Some blame their own misconduct; others, the French treaty; but whether their own strike, which tended so much to divert and even to destroy the ribbon-trade, or the French tariff, be to blame, it is not now the time for charity to ask. Our countrymen are perishing for want of food.

Out of many subjects of considerable interest at home, our space permits us to refer to but a few. We wished to have said something on the foul murder of the little child in its cot in the nursery at Road, chiefly with a view to the coroner's inquest. We can only say in general, that coroners' inquests, as now held, are too often a disgrace to the country. The institution itself is probably, without exception, the most ancient we possess. It is a proof of the high state of civilization at which our forefathers had arrived a thousand years agoa state which no continental nation has yet attained to. Such was their love of justice, that these Anglo-Saxons, whom we are accustomed to regard as a half-savage race, could be trusted with the election of their own judges by the hundred or county; and the choice of their own jury, to whose verdict the guilt or innocence of the man suspected of murder was confided. It will be our endless disgrace if such an institution should fall into decay; and yet at present not one of our public tribunals is held, and not unjustly held, in such slight repute. We know there are exceptions, but as a rule the coroner is elected with very little regard to his fitness for the office. It is not unusual to find the coroner ignorant of the first principles of English law; he can neither examine a witness nor instruct a jury; and the jury are more ignorant than the coroner. They are selected from the lowest class of housekeepers, to whom a few shillings, the fee for their attendance, is an important object. Thus their verdict, if the case presents any difficulty, often sets common sense at nought, hushes up crime, and effectually thwarts the prosecution of the criminal. The brutal pugilistic combat in the summer has produced a rank crop of petty pugilists. We have counted up at least half-a-dozen cases in which death has been the consequence,-accidental death, of course.

In one instance, the wife of one of the combatants rushed in between them, with her infant in her arms. A blow, which one of the ruffians meant for the mother, killed the child; and this was accidental death, on the oath of twelve English jurors. In a legal point of view, the famous verdict of the Welsh jury, who found the sheep-stealer guilty of homicide, was not more preposterous. It set every principle of English law at nought. This is a great moral evil, and it is increasing. Nothing has so much tended, of late years, to diminish our English horror of spilling human blood, as the culpable levity with which coroners' inquests excuse the most abominable neglect, and sometimes even the most wilful violence. Lord Palmerston has intimated his intention of bringing in a bill to amend the law with regard to the election of coroners; and we hope he will do something at the same time to raise the standard of coroners' juries. Is it unreasonable to require that none shall be eligible for the office of coroner until he have passed an examination before the lord chief justice; and that none but persons of some education and of well-known character shall be competent to act as jurymen?

The unusually severe contest for the Boden professorship of Sanscrit, which has just occurred at Oxford, demands at least a share of our attention. Amongst the members of the university, there are those who, displeased with the repeated efforts to disturb the seat of Mr. Gladstone (whilst they deplore the fact, that a man of his unsatisfactory opinions should have been ever chosen to represent the university), are disposed to shelter themselves under the almost prescriptive right of a once-elected member to retain his seat. We have now, however, enjoyed the unwonted pleasure of witnessing a different division of opinion, and one which, if we mistake not, will do some. what to restore a healthier feeling to the university at large. New combinations have been formed, and old ones strengthened. On the one side were ranged those who appreciated great industry, high character, and success in tuition, and who respected, moreover, the voice of his ancient pupils. Mr. Williams' claims were of a high order, and it is satisfactory to know that they were the hard-earned advantages of one whose religious sentiments leave nothing for us to desire. On the other hand was put forward a man of singular grasp of intellect, deep philological erudition, and great university influence. Connected at once with two of the most important colleges in Oxford, he could not but be very powerfully supported. And there were those who gave their votes for his successful opponent who felt, as they did so, how large a debt England owes to Germany in connection with the mission field, and with whom the names of Swartz, and Gerike, and Weitbrecht seemed to plead, and with whom, moreover, such pleading would have prevailed, had sufficient evidence been at command of the soundness in the faith of him who solicited their suffrages. As it is, the university has gained the presence of Mr. Williams, and has not lost that of Mr. Müller; and most sincerely do we pray, that whilst the former may exercise at Oxford a daily increasing degree of christian influence, the latter may so consecrate his vast talents to the service of Christ's church, that the highest, holiest theme upon which human tongue can dilate, may be illustrated and enforced, although it cannot be advanced, by his lofty intellect.

The last mails have brought us strange tidings from abroad. In New Zealand, a few savages keep our troops at bay, and spread terror through the colony. In China, a few English and French regments march into Pekin, after an easy victory over the Tartar army, and dictate a peace on their own terms, in his own capital, to the sovereign who boasts himself the master of one-third of the whole human family. Of the merits of the treaty, we say nothing till more is known. A boundless field, however, seems to open, not less to British enterprise than to missionary exertions. From America the tidings are gloomy. It seems now to be almost past a doubt that some at least of the slave-holding states will secede. Nothing can exceed their violence, and we regret to say that the ministers of religion are doing their utmost to aggravate the mischief. We give an extract from a thanksgiving sermon, preached at New Orleans in the "First presbyterian church," by Dr. Palmer, on the 29th of November, as reported in the New Orleans "Witness and Sentinel," of the 1st of December. Having proved by various arguthat slavery is "a solemn trust which they are bound to conserve and perpetuate," he proceeds to say:—

"Now, in justice to myself, I must be permitted to make a remark before I close. But a few weeks ago, I counselled you, from this place, to avoid all precipitate action; but at the same time to take determined action-such action only as you felt you could take with the conscious support of reason and religion. I give that counsel still. But I am one of you. I feel as a Southerner. Southern honour is my honour-Southern degradation is my degradation. Let no man mistake my meaning, or call my words idle. As a Southerner, then, I will speak, and I give it as my firm and unhesitating belief, that nothing is now left us but secession. I do not like the word, but it is the only one to express my meaning. We do not secede -our enemies have seceded. We are on the constitution-our enemies are not on the constitution; and our language should be, if you will not go with us, we will not go with you. You may form for yourselves a constitution; but we will administer among ourselves the constitution which our fathers have left us. This should be our language and solemn determination. Such action our honour demands; such action will save the Union, if anything can. We have yet friends left us in the North, but they cannot act for us till we have acted for ourselves; and it would be as pusillanimous in us to desert our friends as to cower before our enemies. To advance, is to secure our rights; to recede, is to lay our fortunes, our honour, our liberty, under the feet of our enemies. I know that the consequences of such a course, unless guided by discretion, are perilous. Peril our fortunes, peril our lives, but, come what may, let us never peril our liberty and our honour. I am willing, at the call of my honour and my liberty, to die a freeman; but I'll never, no never, live a slave; and the alternative now presented by our enemies is secession or slavery. Let it be liberty or death!"

On the same day, Dr. Leacock, of "Christ's Episcopal Church," preaches in the same city, in the same strain; and he thus concludes. We copy from the "Daily Delta," a New Orleans paper, of the 30th of November last:

“This argument, then, which sweeps over the entire circle of our relations, touches the four cardinal points of duty to ourselves, to our slaves, to the world, and to almighty God. It establishes the nature and solemnity of our present trust, to preserve and transmit our existing system of domestic servitude, with the right, unchanged by man, to go and root itself wherever Providence and nature may carry it. This trust we will discharge in the face of the worst possible peril. Though war be the aggregation of all evils, yet, should the madness of the hour appeal to the arbitration of the sword, we will not shrink even from the baptism of fire. If modern crusaders stand in serried ranks upon some plain of Esdraelon, there shall we be in defence of our trust. Not till the last man has fallen behind