"It is not altogether an empty boast on the part of the Yankees, that

they hold all that they have ever held, and that another year or two of

such progress as they have already made will find them masters of the

Southern Confederacy. They who think independence is to be achieved by

brilliant but inconsequential victories would do well to look at the

magnitude of Yankee possessions in our country. Maryland, Kentucky, and

Missouri are claimed as constituent parts of the Confederation: they are

as much in the power of Lincoln as Maine and Minnesota. The pledge once

deemed foolish by the South, that he would 'hold, occupy, and possess'

all the forts belonging to the United States Government, has been

redeemed almost to the letter by Lincoln. Forts Pickens, [Sumter?] and

Morgan we still retain; but, with these exceptions, all the strongholds

on the seaboard, from Fortress Monroe to the Rio Grande, are in the

hands of the enemy. Very consoling and very easy to say that it was

impossible to prevent all this, and that the occupation of the outer

edge of the Republic amounts to nothing. Drowry's Bluff and Vicksburg

give the lie to the first assertion; and the onward movement of

Rosecrans towards Alabama, the presence of Grant in North Mississippi

and of Curtis in Middle Arkansas, to say nothing of Banks at New Orleans

and Baton Rouge, set at rest the silly dream that a thin strip of

sea-coast only is in possession of our foes. The truth is, the Yankees

are in great force in the very heart of the Confederacy; they swarm on

all our borders; they threaten every important city yet belonging to us;

and nearly two hundred thousand of them are within two days' march of

the Confederate capital. This is no fiction. It is a fact so positive

that no one can deny it."

But this reluctant recital by no means exhausts the record of our

successes. We have put into the field a volunteer force, fully armed and

equipped, which, whether we consider its magnitude, the rapidity with

which it has been raised, its fighting qualities, its patient endurance

of unaccustomed hardships, or its intelligent appreciation of the

principles involved in the contest, is without a counterpart in history.

And yet more, from the invention and achievements of our iron-clads

dates a new era in naval warfare, while in the value and variety of our

ordnance we have taken the lead of all civilized nations. Can you find

in all this nothing to quicken the pulse of your patriotism? Is here no

ground for encouragement, no incitement to renewed effort?

But you complain of corruption among contractors, and of knavery among

politicians. Will you point me to a single war, ever waged on the face

of the earth, where all the rulers were above reproach and all their

subordinates unselfish? But what will you do about it? Grant that many

contractors have made dishonest fortunes out of the calamities of their

country, and that there are officeholders with whom "Stand by the

Constitution!" means, Stand by the public crib from which we are

richly and regularly fed, and "Uphold the Administration!" should be

translated, Give us our full four years' enjoyment of the loaves and

fishes. What then? Shall a few worthless straws here, and a few heaps

of offal there, arrest or check the onward march of a mighty army,

the steady progression of a great principle? Away with such trumpery

considerations! Punish with the utmost severity of the law every public

plunderer whose crimes can be dragged into the light of day; send to the

Coventry of universal contempt every lagging and lukewarm official; but,

in the name of all that is holy in purpose and noble in action, _move

on!_ To hesitate is worse than folly; to delay is more than madness.

The salvation of our country trembles in the balance. The fate of free

institutions for--who shall say how long?--may hang upon the issue of

the struggle.

Your catalogue of grievances, however, is still incomplete. You are

dissatisfied with our generalship as displayed in the field, and with

the wisdom of our policy as developed by the cabinet. Unquestionably you

have a constitutional right to grumble to your heart's content; but are

you not aware that such complaints are as old as the history of the

human race? Do you believe this to be the first war that was ever

mismanaged, and that our undoubted blunders are either novel or peculiar

to Republics? There never was a greater mistake. If there were brave men

before Agamemnon, and wise counsellors before Ulysses, there certainly

have been incompetent commanders before Major-General A., and shallow

statesmen before Secretary B. We do not monopolize executive imbecility,

nor are our military blunders without parallel or precedent. To

attribute our occasional reverses and our indecisive victories, our

inaction in the field and our confusion in the cabinet, to our peculiar

form of government, is as inconsequential as it would be to trace all

our disasters to the color of President Lincoln's hair or the number of

General Halleck's children.

The enemies of free institutions, hardly yet recovered from their

astonishment at beholding an army of volunteers, superior in number

and quality to any the world ever saw, spring into existence with such

marvellous rapidity as to eclipse, in sober fact, the fabulous birth

of Minerva full-armed from the head of Jove, or their still greater

surprise at seeing the immense expenses of so gigantic a war readily met

without assistance from abroad, by large loans cheerfully made and heavy

taxation patiently borne, are reduced to the necessity of exulting over

what they term our "total want of military genius," and our "incapacity

to conduct a campaign successfully."

It is useless to deny that we may have challenged criticism and provoked

a smile by our large promise and our smaller performance. But are we the

sole and exclusive proprietors of this experience? Where in the past or

the present shall we find a great and powerful nation much addicted to

modesty or self-depreciation? Least of all, should we have expected such

venomous criticism and such unsparing ridicule from England. To be sure,

we have long since ceased to look for sympathy or even justice at her

hands. We have come to understand and appreciate the tone and temper of

her ruling classes towards this country. In addition to their inherited

antipathy to Republics, they believe in sober earnest what one of their

greatest wits said jocosely, that "the great object for which the

Anglo-Saxon race appears to have been created is the making of calico."

And whatever interferes, or threatens to interfere, with this ennobling

occupation is sure to incur their passive displeasure, if not their

active hostility. We expect nothing, therefore, from their good-will;

but we have a right to demand, as a matter of good taste, that, in

criticizing our campaigns, they shall not wholly ignore their own

military blunders, especially those so recent as to be fresh in the

recollection of every third-form school-boy in the kingdom. For, if

campaigns carried on with the smallest possible result in proportion to

the magnitude of the sacrifice of money and life,--if a succession of

incompetent generals in command,--if critical military opportunities

neglected and enormous strategic blunders committed,--if indecision,

nepotism, and red tape at home, envy, want of unity, and incapacity

among officers, and unnecessary and inexcusable hardship among the

privates,--if all this declares the decadence of a Government, then was

the sun of England hastening to its setting during the Crimean War.

We hear much said abroad about our indecisive battles, our barren

victories, our failure to take advantage of the crippled condition of

a defeated enemy, and our unaccountable disinclination to follow up a

successful attack by a prompt pursuit. Now, not for the sake of excusing

or palliating the numerous and grave errors into which we have fallen

during our own unhappy struggle, nor yet to exonerate from censure

any civil officers or military leaders who may be wholly or in part

responsible for these errors, but simply to demonstrate that they are

liable to occur under any form of government, and, indeed, have recently

befallen the very Government whose rulers now hold us to the strictest

account, and are most eager to convict us of extraordinary misconduct

and incapacity, we propose, very briefly, and without further

introduction, to examine the record of the English army during the

Crimean War.

The first important battle fought on the Peninsula was that of the Alma.

We will give, as concisely as possible, so much of the history of this

engagement, compiled from authentic English sources, as will present a

correct picture of the plans formed and the results accomplished.

"The 15th of August, 1854, was the date first fixed for the sailing of

the allied forces from Varna to the Crimea. It was postponed until the

20th, then till the 22d, then the 26th,--then successively to the 1st,

2d, and 7th of September; that is, the French fleet left Varna on the

5th, and the English sailed from the neighboring port of Baltschik

on the 7th." It is admitted that "these delays hazarded not only the

success, but even the practicability of the whole design, as between the

15th and 25th of September the great equinoctial gales sweep over the

Black Sea, and lash it into tempests of the most destructive nature."

The voyage, however, was accomplished in safety, and on the 14th of

September the Allies arrived at the Crimea, off a place called the "Old

Fort," only about thirty miles north of Sebastopol. The whole army was

composed of 27,000 English, 24,000 French, and 8,000 Turks. The landing

occupied the 14th, 15th, and 16th of September. At nine o'clock, A.M.,

of September 19th, the army began the advance, and on the evening of

the same day rested for the night within sight of the Russian forces,

strongly intrenched on the banks of the Alma, about twelve miles distant

from the "Old Fort." Early in the afternoon of the following day the

Allies attacked the stronghold of the enemy, and in less than three

hours the Russian intrenchments were successfully stormed, and the

Russian army was in full retreat. The English and French troops fought

with determined and distinguished bravery, and their victory was

complete. But what was decided by this bloody struggle? Bad generalship

on the part of the Russians, certainly; but what else? Mr. Russell

says,--"This great battle was not decisive, so far as the fate of

Sebastopol was concerned, merely because we lacked either the means or

the military genius to make it so." The victory was not followed up, the

retreating foe were not pursued, ample time was given to the enemy to

reorganize and retrieve their losses, and the evening of the eventful

20th of September found the allied forces no nearer the capture of

Sebastopol than they were before the battle.

Did "the Alma" crown the allied generals with fresh and well-earned

laurels? We appeal once more to Mr. Russell:--"I may inquire, Was there

any generalship shown by any of the allied generals at the Alma? We have

Lord Raglan painted by one of his staff, trotting in front of his army,

amid a shower of balls, 'just as if he were riding down Rotten Row,'

with a kind nod for every one, and leaving his generals to fight it

out as best they could; riding across the stream through the French

Riflemen, not knowing where he was going to, or where the enemy were,

till fate led him to a little knoll, from which he saw some of the

Russian guns on his flank; whereupon he sent an order to Turner's

battery for guns, and seemed surprised that they could not be dragged

across a stream and up a hill which presented some difficulties to an

unencumbered horseman; then cantering off to join the Guards just ere

they made their charge, and finding it all over while he was in a

hollow of the ground." Lord Raglan, let it be remembered, was the

Commander-in-Chief of the English forces. And again:--"The Light

Division was strangely handled. Sir George Brown, whose sight was so

indifferent that he had to get one of his officers to lead his horse

across the river, seemed not to know where his division was.... If the

conduct of a campaign be a succession of errors, the Crimean expedition

was certainly carried on _secundum artem_." Once more, on the same

point, and quoting from the same authority:--"All the Russian officers

with whom I have conversed, all the testimony I have heard or read,

coincide on these two points: first, that, if, on the 25th, we had moved

to Bakschiserai in pursuit of the Russians, we should have found their

army in a state of the most complete demoralization, and might have

forced the great majority of them to surrender as prisoners of war, in a

sort of _cul-de-sac,_ from which but few could have escaped; secondly,

that, had we advanced directly against Sebastopol, the town would have

surrendered, after some slight show of resistance to save the honor of

the officers." Certainly, such generalship as this did not promise very

well for the results of the campaign.

Let us follow the movements of the Allies a little farther. On the

morning of September 25th, the combined forces took up their line of

march southward. On the 26th, they reached and occupied the town of

Balaklava, about six miles distant from Sebastopol. On the 28th of the

same month, Lord Raglan wrote to the Duke of Newcastle, then Secretary

of War, "We are busily engaged in disembarking our siege-train and

provisions, and we are most desirous of undertaking the attack of

Sebastopol _without the loss of a day_." And yet it is not until October

10th that the Allies commence digging their trenches before the town.

Meanwhile the allied army was anxious and impatient. "'When will the

siege commence?' was the constant inquiry of the wearied and expectant

troops. 'To-morrow,' was the usual response, 'most probably to-morrow.'

But day after day came and went, and the Allies still rusted in

inaction, while the Russians worked day and night at strengthening their

defences." "The time dragged heavily on; still the Russians worked with

incredible industry, and still the cannon of the Allies had not yet

opened their thunders upon Sebastopol." On the 17th of October,

twenty-one days after the occupation of Balaklava, the allied forces

commenced fire by land and sea on the stronghold of the enemy. The

bombardment continued from half-past six, A.M., until nightfall, but is

conceded to have been a complete and mortifying failure. From this time

until the 5th of November, it will not be contended that any substantial

advantage was gained by the invading forces, or that material progress

was made towards the reduction of the Russian Gibraltar.

Then came the Battle of Inkerman, a gallant and desperate sortie of the

Russians, bravely and successfully resisted by the besiegers. The loss

of life on both sides was terrible. To what extent was _this_ battle

decisive? Mr. Russell shall give his own testimony on this point:--"We

had nothing to rejoice over, and almost everything to deplore, in the

Battle of Inkerman. We defeated the enemy, indeed, but had not advanced

one step nearer the citadel of Sebastopol." In other words, the Allies

had repulsed the Russians, but had barely escaped annihilation, while,

from having been the besiegers, they became the besieged, and remained

so until largely reinforced from home. "A heavy responsibility," says

Mr. Russell, "rests on those whose neglect enabled the enemy to attack

us where we were least prepared for it, and whose indifference led them

to despise precautions which, taken in time, might have saved us many

valuable lives, and have trebled the loss of the enemy." The English

not only committed the serious error of underrating the enemy, and

neglecting the most ordinary precautions against surprise, but, during

the whole of the desperate and bloody fight, they gave no proof whatever

of generalship. The stubborn, unyielding bravery of the troops was

the salvation of the army. "We owed the victory, such as it was, to

strength, not to superior intelligence and foresight. It was a soldiers'

battle, in which we were saved by the muscle, nerve, and courage of our

men." Humanity shudders and the heart sickens over the sufferings

of that gallant army of martyrs to cabinet incapacity and military

imbecility during the long and dreary winter of 1854-55.

On the 9th of April, 1855, commenced the second grand bombardment of

Sebastopol, which, though continuing for twelve days, resulted, like the

first, in mortifying failure, no serious or irreparable injuries being

caused to the main defences of the enemy. "The real strength of the

place remained unimpaired. That which was injured during the day the

Russians repaired as if by magic during the night. The particulars of

this twelve days' bombardment are wearisome. The same wasted energy, the

same night-skirmishes without effect, the same battering and repairing,

the same unwearied exertions On the part of the Allies and wonderful

endurance and resistance on the part of the Russians, together with, on

each side, the same loss of life and frightful mutilations."

Two months were passed in comparative inaction, the sad monotony being

varied only by ineffective sorties and indecisive skirmishes. On the

18th of June, the first grand assault of the Malakhoff and Redan was

attempted. The allied troops displayed the utmost gallantry, and did all

that brave men could do under disgracefully incompetent commanders, but

were repulsed with horrible slaughter. No one can read the details of

the fruitless massacre, without fully confirming the indignant testimony

of an intelligent eye-witness, writing from the camp:--

"I know not what may have been the feelings of your home public, on

reading the telegraphic news of our defeat, (for I presume the scribes

at head-quarters made no attempt to conceal the naked truth, that our

repulse was neither more nor less than a defeat,) but here mingled shame

and indignation were general throughout the camp. Officers and men alike

felt that disgrace had been incurred, and that solely in consequence

of the unredeemed mismanagement of their generals. Remembering the

confusion which characterized the commencement of our movement, and

coupling this with the murderous preparations made by the enemy, you

will be at no loss to understand that success was most improbable.

During the whole affair, Lord Raglan and Sir George Brown were ensconced

within our eight-gun battery; but, though this afforded a good view of

the scene of the struggle, and of the disorders which marked it,

they appeared to be unable to give any efficient directions for the

correction of our multiplied blunders. When the whole sad scene was

ended, our men straggled back to the camp in a state of dispirited

confusion, well in keeping with the mob-like disorder in which they had

been throughout the assault."

The final bombardment of Sebastopol took place on the 5th of September,

followed on the 8th by the renewed assault of the French on the

Malakhoff and of the English on the Redan. Skilful generalship, adequate

forces, and desperate bravery gave victory to the French, and "the key

to Sebastopol" remained in their hands. Meanwhile the English assault

upon the Redan was repulsed with frightful sacrifice of life. It will

not be contended that the French owed any part of their success to

superior good-fortune. Indeed, all the extrinsic advantages were on the

side of the English. The French were to lead off in the assault, and the

tricolor waving over the captured fortification was to be the signal for

the advance of the English. If the French succeeded, every sentiment of

personal ambition and national pride would stimulate their allies to

achieve an equal victory. If the French failed, the English had only to

remain in their trenches.

Now let us examine the comparative generalship displayed in the two

assaults. We are quite willing that English authority should draw the

contrast. "The preparations of the French were actually scientific in

their vigorous attention to every matter calculated to lead to victory:

nothing appeared to have been forgotten, nothing neglected. Even the

watches of the leading officers had been regulated, that there might not

be the smallest error with regard to time. It is a painful reflection

that this carefulness of preparation, and prescience with respect to

probabilities, was not shown by the English general and his associates

in arranging the mode of attack. When the orders were promulgated, on

the 7th, many officers shook their heads doubtingly, and observed,

in deprecating tones, 'This looks like another 18th of June.' It was

generally observed that the attacking columns were not strong enough,

that they were too far behind, and that the trenches did not afford room

for a sufficient number of men."

The signal for the French assault was given: thirty thousand men, weary

of long inactivity, and burning to add new lustre to the bright record

of their country's military glory,--drums and trumpets meanwhile

sounding the charge, and the air resounding with shouts of _"Vive

l'Empereur,"_--darted from their trenches, swarmed up the embankments,

dashed over the parapet, swept the enemy like chaff before them; and the

Malakhoff was won. Hours of the fiercest fighting found the French still

masters of the situation; at nightfall the Russian general sullenly drew

off his defeated forces, and the victory was complete.

It is painful to turn from this brilliant picture to the sombre coloring

and the dreary details of the attack on the Redan. To three thousand

doomed men was assigned the perilous undertaking. Incredible as it

may appear, in view of previous failure, there seems to have been no

adequate preparation, no intelligible plan, no competent leader. It

was simply brute force assailing brute force. The few men who actually

entered the Redan neglected to spike the guns; no reinforcements came to

their aid; everything was blind excitement, and headlong, undisciplined

haste. "The men of the different regiments became mingled together in

inextricable confusion. The Nineteenth men did not care for the officers

of the Eighty-Eighth, nor did the soldiers of the Twenty-Third heed the

command of an officer who did not belong to their regiment. The officers

could not find their men,--the men lost sight of their officers." But

why dwell on what soon became mere butchery? The loss of the storming

party, in killed, wounded, and missing, was 2447.

Considered as a military movement, it would seem to be conceded that no

grosser blunder could have been made than the selection of so small a

force for so desperate an undertaking. There was no chance of success

but by attacking simultaneously both flanks and the salient of the

Redan. The storming party was barely large enough for the assault of the

salient, thus exposing the handful of men to a murderous and fatally

destructive fire from the flanks. This was bad enough, certainly, but

worse remains behind. English critics have most severely censured

our generals for sometimes placing new recruits in posts of danger,

requiring cool heads, steady nerves, and the habit of discipline.

Perhaps they have forgotten the following incident. Among the picked men

selected out of the entire British forces as this very storming party

were raw recruits from the Ninety-Seventh Regiment, who were designated

for this perilous service as a punishment for their cowardice in a

recent skirmish!--and to make this punishment still more severe, they

were ordered to _lead off_ in the assault! An historian of the war

says,--"The inexperience of some of these recruits seems almost

incredible. One young fellow, who came to the field-hospital with a

broken arm and a bullet in his shoulder, carried his firelock with him,

but confessed that he had never fired it off, _as he was unable to do

so_. The piece, upon being examined, was found to be in perfect order.

Such poor undisciplined lads, fresh from the plough, ought never on

any occasion to have been pitted against the well-drilled soldiers of

Russia; but it was something worse than blundering to lead them on

to the assault of a formidable work like the Redan. Such generalship

recalls to our mind the remark of the Russian officer with regard to

the military force of England, that 'it was an army of lions led by

donkeys.'" Mr. Russell states that many of these recruits "had only been

enlisted a few days, and had never fired a rifle in their lives."

Now will it be believed that General Codrington, to whom was committed

the planning and directing of this ill-starred and disastrous

enterprise, succeeded Sir James Simpson as Commander-in-Chief of Her

Majesty's forces in the Crimea? How must the shade of Admiral Byng have

haunted Her Majesty's Government, unless it was a most forgiving ghost!

If General Codrington's promotion could have been delayed a little

more than eighteen months, it might have occurred appropriately on the

centennial anniversary of the death of that ill-fated naval commander,

convicted by court-martial and shot for "not doing his utmost"!

On the evening of the 8th of September, the Russians blew up their

magazines, fired the buildings, and evacuated the town. So fell

Sebastopol, after a siege of three hundred and forty-five days. It has

been considered by the English a bit of very choice pleasantry to

allude to our oft-recurring statement, that "the decisive blow had been

struck," and that "the backbone of the Rebellion was broken." It may

not be impertinent to remind them, that the report, first circulated in

France and England in the latter part of September, 1854, and fortified

by minute details, that Sebastopol--the backbone of Russian resistance

to the allied arms--had fallen, was repeated and reiterated from time to

time during the war, until the phrase, "_Sebastopol est pris_," passed

into a by-word, and did good service in relieving the cruelly overworked

Greek Kalends.

And now we come naturally to the consideration of another and an

important inquiry. Did the beginning of the war find, or did its

progress develop or create, a single English general of commanding

military capacity, competent to handle in the field even so small an

army as the British contingent in the Crimea? Of Lord Raglan Mr. Russell

says, and without doubt says truly,--"That he was a great chief, or even

a moderately able general, I have every reason to doubt, and I look in

vain for any proof of it, whilst he commanded the English army in the

Crimea." Another authority says,--"The conviction that he was not a

great general is universal and uncontradicted. He could perform the

ordinary duties of a general satisfactorily, but he was lamentably

deficient in those qualities which constitute military genius. He

possessed considerable professional experience, great application, and

remarkable powers of endurance; but he lacked the energy, vehemence,

and decision of character which are essential to the constitution of a

successful military chieftain." To his hesitation in council, and his

want of energy and promptness in action, have always been attributed, in

large measure, the ruinous delays and the fearful suffering in the army

which he commanded. Lord Raglan died in June, 1855, in his sixty-seventh

year. General Simpson succeeded him. "It was believed at the time,"

writes Mr. Russell, "and now is almost notorious, that he opposed his

own appointment, and bore testimony to his own incapacity." "He was slow

and cautious in council, and it is no wonder that where Lord Raglan

failed, General Simpson did not meet with success." The English press

and people demanded his recall. His incompetency was everywhere

acknowledged, and indeed he himself would have been the last man to

deny it. In about three months from the date of General Simpson's

appointment, "the Queen was graciously pleased to permit him to resign

the command of the army." As we have already seen, his place was filled

by General Codrington. This officer was as signally rewarded, because

he had failed, as he could have been, if he had succeeded. Mr.

Russell quotes approvingly the comment of a French officer upon this

appointment:--"If General Codrington had taken the Redan, what more

could you have done for him than to make him General, and to give him

command of the army? But he did not take it, and he is made General and

Commander-in-Chief." With equal discrimination, Sir James Simpson was

created Field-Marshal! The remainder of the campaign gave General

Codrington no further opportunity of displaying his qualities for

command. No other important action occurred before the termination of

hostilities.

Great credit is certainly due to Mr. Russell for fearlessly exposing the

errors and incompetency of the three officers successively at the head

of the English army, in spite of "much obloquy, vituperation, and

injustice," and for bearing his invariable and eloquent testimony to the

bravery, endurance, and patience of the British private soldier.

In this brief recital of English blunders during the Crimean War, we

have made no mention of the desperate and disastrous "charge of the

Light Brigade," the gross and culpable inefficiency of the Baltic fleet

under Admiral Sir Charles Napier, and other instances of military

incapacity no less monstrous. Enough, however, has been told to more

than justify the very mild summing-up of Mr. Russell, that the "war

had exposed the weakness of our military organization in the grave

emergencies of a winter campaign, and the canker of a long peace

was unmistakably manifested in our desolated camps and decimated

battalions."

Why should we add to this dismal recital the appalling sufferings of

the soldiers,--helpless victims to bad management at home and shameful

neglect in the field,--the long, freezing nights of trench-work under a

driving rain, "without warm or water-proof clothing,--the trenches two

and three feet deep with mud, snow, and half-frozen slush, so that many,

when they took off their shoes, were unable to get their swollen feet

into them again, and might be seen barefooted about the camp, the snow

half a foot deep on the ground,"--creeping for shelter into "miserable

tents pitched as it were at the bottom of a marsh, where twelve or

fourteen unhappy creatures lay soaking without change of clothing" until

they were called out again to their worse than slave-labor,--disease,

brought on by exhaustion, exposure, overwork, and deficient food,

sweeping the men off by thousands, and yet no sufficient supply of

medical stores and no adequate number of medical attendants, not a soul

seeming to care for their comfort or even for their lives,--so neglected

and ill-treated that "the wretched beggar who wandered about the streets

of London led the life of a prince compared with the British soldiers

who were fighting for their country, and who were complacently assured

by the home authorities that they were the best-appointed army in

Europe." The world knows the whole sad story by heart. And is it not

written in the volumes of evidence sworn to before the Commission

appointed by Parliament to inquire into the condition of the army?

Nor is it necessary to dwell upon the extent to which the home

administration was responsible for the general mismanagement of the war,

in its main features and its minute details,--nor the thoroughly English

stolidity with which all complaints were received by every member of the

Government, from the cabinet minister who dictated pompous and unmeaning

despatches, down to the meanest official who measured red tape,--nor the

intense and universal popular indignation which, after a year "full of

horrors," compelled the resignation of the Aberdeen Ministry. Lord Derby

did not, perhaps, overstate the verdict of the nation, when he said in

the House of Lords,--"From the very first to the very last, there has

been apparent in the course pursued by Her Majesty's Government a want

of previous preparation,--a total want of prescience; and they have

appeared to live from day to day providing for each successive exigency

_after it arose, and not before it arose_. TOO LATE have been the fatal

words applicable to the whole conduct of Her Majesty's Government in the

course of the war." The change in the Ministry, however, by no means

cured all the evils which had existed; for, although the sufferings of

the soldiers--thanks in large part to the providential appearance and

heroic conduct of Florence Nightingale--were greatly diminished, still,

as we have seen, the military blunders continued to the close of the

war.

Now, if we do not greatly mistake, the lesson which this country should

learn from the mortifying experience of the English army in the Crimea

is not one of exultation over its lamentable and unnecessary errors, but

rather of indifference to the insulting criticism of a nation which can

so ill afford to be critical, and of determination to profit in every

possible way by those blunders which might have been avoided. The

history of all wars, moreover, should teach us that now and then there

comes a time when to hold the olive-branch in one hand and the sword in

the other, especially if the olive-branch is kept in the foreground and

the sword in the background, involves not only a sad waste of energy,

but is mistaken kindness to our enemies.

Those who have read--and who has not?--the charming story of "Rab and

his Friends" will remember the incident which, for the sake of brevity,

we reluctantly condense. A small, thorough-bred terrier, after being

rudely interrupted in his encounter with a large shepherd's-dog, darts

off, fatally bent on mischief, to seek a new canine antagonist. He

discovers him in the person of a huge mastiff, quietly sauntering along

in a peaceful frame of mind, all unsuspicious of danger. The angry

terrier makes straight at him, and fastens on his throat. The rest of

the story shall be told in the graphic language of the author. "To our

astonishment, the great creature does nothing but stand still, hold

himself up, and roar,--yes, roar: a long, serious, remonstrative roar.

How is this? _He is muzzled_! The bailies had proclaimed a general

muzzling, and his master, studying strength and economy mainly, had

encompassed his huge jaws in a home-made apparatus, constructed out of

the leather of some ancient _breeching_. His mouth was open as far as it

could; his lips curled up in rage,--a sort of terrible grin; his teeth

gleaming, ready, from out the darkness; the strap across his mouth tense

as a bowstring; his whole frame stiff with indignation and surprise; his

roar asking us all round, 'Did you ever see the like of this?' He looked

a statue of anger and astonishment, done in Aberdeen granite. We soon

had a crowd; the chicken held on. 'A knife!' cried Bob; and a cobbler

gave him his knife: you know the kind of knife, worn away obliquely to

a point, and always keen. I put its edge to the tense leather; it ran

before it; and then!--one sudden jerk of that enormous head, a sort of

dirty mist about his mouth, no noise,--and the bright and fierce little

fellow is dropped, limp and dead."

If we draw a useful moral from this homely incident, it will not be the

first time that the unerring sagacity of animals has been serviceable

to man. A stealthy, cunning, unscrupulous, desperate, devilish foe has

seized the nation by the throat and threatens its life. The Government

is strong, courageous, determined, abundantly able to make a successful

resistance, and even to kill the insolent enemy; but--_it is

muzzled_: muzzled here by conservative counsels, and there by radical

complaints,--by the over-cautious policy of one general, and the

headlong haste of another,--by a too tender regard for slavery in

some States, and by a too zealous anxiety for instant emancipation in

others,--by fear of provoking opposition in one quarter, and by a blind

defiance of all obstacles in another. Now what shall be done? Shall we

hesitate, despond, despair? Never! _For Heaven's sake, take off the

muzzle._ Use every weapon which the God of Battles has placed in our

hands. Put forth all the power of the nation. Encourage and promote all

fighting generals; cashier all officers who are determined to make war

on peace principles; arm, equip, and discipline negroes, not to burn,

plunder, and massacre, but to meet their and our enemies in fair and

open fight.[B] Demonstrate to the world that we are terribly in earnest.

Waste no time in discussing the chance of foreign intervention. Postpone

Pacific railroads, international telegraphs, polygamy in Utah, African

colonization, everything, to the engrossing and emergent crisis which

now confronts the Government. Make the contest sharp, short, and

decisive. Put down the Rebellion, vindicate the majesty of the Law, the

sacredness of the Union, and the integrity of the Constitution. There

will be time enough, after this is done, to discuss all minor questions

and all collateral issues. One paramount duty lies directly before us.

Let us perform this duty fearlessly, and leave the future with God.

[Footnote B: The opposition to the employment of negro regiments, if

made by traitors North or South, can be easily comprehended,--if made by

loyal men, is wholly inexplicable. Your neighbor's house takes fire at

night. The flames, long smouldering, make rapid progress, and threaten

the comfort, certainly, if not the lives of his household, and the

total destruction of his property. The alarm is given. An engine comes

promptly to the rescue. It is just in season to save his dwelling.

The firemen spring with ready alacrity to their places. But stop! He

suddenly discovers the appalling fact that they are negroes! True,

there is not a moment to be lost. No other engine is, or can be, within

helping distance. The least delay means poverty and a houseless family.

And yet he rudely dismisses the dusky firemen, folds his arms with

Spartan stoicism, and, looking complacently on the burning building,

says, _"Better this than to rely on the assistance of niggers!"_ _Is it_

Spartan stoicism? Is it not rather stark lunacy? And would you not take

immediate measures to provide such a man with permanent quarters in a

mad-house?]

REVIEWS AND LITERARY NOTICES.

_Roba di Roma_. By WILLIAM W. STORY. 2 vols. 8vo. pp. 355, 369. London:

Chapman & Hall. 1863.

The father of the celebrated Mr. Jonathan Wild was in the habit of

saying, that "travelling was travelling in one part of the world as

well as another; it consisted in being such a time from home, and in

traversing so many leagues; and he appealed to experience whether most

of our travellers in France and Italy did not prove at their return

that they might have been sent as profitably to Norway and Greenland."

Fielding himself, the author of this sarcasm, was a very different kind

of traveller, as his Lisbon journal shows; but we think he told no more

than the truth in regard to the far greater part of those idle people

who powder themselves with dust from the highways and blur their

memories with a whirl through the galleries of Europe. They go out

empty, to come home unprofitably full. They go abroad to escape

themselves, and fail, as Goethe says they always must, in the attempt to

jump away from their own shadows. And yet even the dullest man, if he

went honestly about it, might bring home something worth having from the

dullest place. If Ovid, instead of sentimentalizing in the "Tristia,"

had left behind him a treatise on the language of the Getae which he

learned, we should have thanked him for something more truly valuable

than all his poems. Could men only learn how comfortably the world can

get along without the various information which they bring home about

themselves! Honest observation and report will long continue, we fear,

to be one of the rarest of human things, so much more easily are

spectacles to be had than eyes, so much cheaper is fine writing than

exactness. Let any one who has sincerely endeavored to get anything like

facts with regard to the battles of our civil war only consider how much

more he has learned concerning the splendid emotions of the reporter

than the events of the fight, (unless he has had the good luck of a peep

into the correspondence of some pricelessly uncultivated private,) and

he will feel that narrative, simple as it seems, can be well done by two

kinds of men only,--those of the highest genius and culture, and those

wholly without either.

It gradually becomes clear to us that the easiest things can be done

with ease only by the very fewest people, and those specially endowed to

that end. The English language, for instance, can show but one sincere

diarist, Pepys; and yet it would seem a simple matter enough to jot

down the events of every day for one's self without thinking of Mrs.

Posterity Grundy, who has a perverse way, as if she were a testatrix and

not an heir, of forgetting precisely those who pay most assiduous court

to her. One would think, too, that to travel and tell what you have seen

should be tolerably easy; but in ninety-nine books out of a hundred does

not the tourist bore us with the sensations he thinks he ought to have

experienced, instead of letting us know what he saw and felt? If authors

would only consider that the way to write an enlivening book is not by

seeing and saying just what would be expected of them, but precisely the

reverse, the public would be gainers. What tortures have we not seen the

worthiest people go through in endeavoring to get up the appropriate

emotion before some famous work in a foreign gallery, when the only

sincere feeling they had was a praiseworthy desire to escape! If one

does not like the Venus of Milo, let him not fret about it, for he may

be sure she never will.

Montaigne felt obliged to separate himself from travelling-companions

whose only notion of their function was that of putting so many leagues

a day behind them. His theory was that of Ulysses, who was not content

with seeing the cities of many men, but would learn their minds

also. And this way of taking time enough, while we think it the best

everywhere, is especially excellent in a country so much the reverse of

_ fast_ as Italy, where impressions need to steep themselves in the sun

and ripen slowly as peaches, and where _carpe diem_ should be translated

_take your own time_. But is there any particular reason why everybody

should go to Italy, or, having done so, should tell everybody else what

he supposes he ought to have seen there? Surely, there must be some

adequate cause for so constant an effect.

Boswell, in a letter to Sir Andrew Mitchell, says, that, if he could

only _see Rome_, "it would give him talk for a lifetime." The utmost

stretch of his longing is to pass "four months on classic ground," after

which he will come back to Auchinleck _uti conciva satur_,--a condition

in which we fear the poor fellow returned thither only too often, though

unhappily in no metaphorical sense. We rather think, that, apart from

the pleasure of saying he had been there, Boswell was really drawn to

Italy by the fact that it was classic ground, and this not so much by

its association with great events as with great men, for whom, with

all his weaknesses, he had an invincible predilection. But Italy has a

magnetic virtue quite peculiar to her, which compels alike steel and

straw, finding something in men of the most diverse temperaments by

which to draw them to herself. Like the Siren, she sings to every

voyager a different song, that lays hold on the special weakness of his

nature. The German goes thither because Winckelmann and Goethe went,

and because he can find there a sausage stronger than his own; the

Frenchman, that he may flavor his infidelity with a bitter dash of

Ultramontanism, or find fresher zest in his chattering boulevard

after the sombre loneliness of Rome; the Englishman, because the same

Providence that hears the young ravens when they cry is careful to

furnish prey to the courier also, and because his money will make him

a _Milor in partibus_. But to the American, especially if he be of an

imaginative temper, Italy has a deeper charm. She gives him cheaply what

gold cannot buy for him at home, a Past at once legendary and authentic,

and in which he has an equal claim with every other foreigner. In

England he is a poor relation whose right in the entail of home

traditions has been docked by revolution; of France his notions are

purely English, and he can scarce help feeling something like contempt

for a people who habitually conceal their meaning in French; but Rome is

the mother-country of every boy who has devoured Plutarch or taken his

daily doses of Florus. Italy gives us antiquity with good roads, cheap

living, and, above all, a sense of freedom from responsibility. For

him who has escaped thither there is no longer any tyranny of public

opinion; its fetters drop from his limbs when he touches that

consecrated shore, and he rejoices in the recovery of his own

individuality. He is no longer met at every turn with "Under which king,

bezonian? Speak, or die!" He is not forced to take one side or the

other about table-tipping, or the merits of General Blank, or the

constitutionality of anarchy. He has found an Eden where he need not

hide his natural self in the livery of any opinion, and may be as happy

as Adam, if he be wise enough to keep clear of the apple of High

Art. This may be very weak, but it is also very agreeable to certain

temperaments; and to be weak is to be miserable only where it is a duty

to be strong.

Coming from a country where everything seems shifting like a quicksand,

where men shed their homes as snakes their skins, where you may meet

a three-story house, or even a church, on the highway, bitten by the

universal gad-fly of bettering its position, where we have known a tree

to be cut down merely because "it had got to be so old," the sense

of permanence, unchangeableness, and repose which Italy gives us is

delightful. The oft-repeated _non è più come era prima_ may be true

enough of Rome politically, but it is not true of it in most other

respects. To be sure, gas and railroads have got in at last; but one may

still read by a _lucerna_ and travel by _vettura_, if he like, using

Alberti as a guide-book, and putting up at the Bearas a certain

keen-eyed Gascon did three centuries ago.

Mr. Story has taken Italy with due deliberation, having lived there now

some fifteen years. He has thus been enabled to let things come to him,

instead of running after them; and his sensations have had time to ripen

slowly toward the true moment of projection, without being shaken and

hurried, or huddled one atop of the other. We doubt if the picturesque

can be profitably done by the job, for in aesthetics the proverb that

half a loaf is better than no bread does not hold. An Italian _festa_,

we suspect, if you make it a matter of business, will turn its

business-side to you, and you will go away without having been admitted

to the delightful confidence of its innocent gayety and unpremeditated

charm. Tourists must often have remarked, in making an excursion to a

ruin or bit of picturesque scenery, that what chance threw in to boot

was by far the best part of their bargain, for the most beautiful

experiences come not by observation. The crumbling temple lured them

forth, but it was only to see a sunset or to hear a nightingale.

What between winters in Rome and summers in one or the other

mountain-town, with intervals of absence now at Florence and now at

Siena, Mr. Story has had such opportunities as fall to the lot of very

few foreigners. For, in studying the ways of a people, it is as with

wild animals,--you must be long enough among them to get them _wonted_,

so that you may catch them at unawares. His book is on the whole a

delightful one, and would have been so without qualification, had he

confined it to a relation of his own experiences. Where he narrates or

describes, he is always lively and interesting; where he disserts or

grows learned, he gives up his vantage-ground, and must consent to be

dull like everybody else. Anybody can be learned, anybody except Dr.

Holmes dull; but not everybody can be a poet and artist. The chapter on

the Evil Eye is a marvel of misplaced erudition. The author has hunted

all antiquity like a policeman, and arrested high and low on the least

suspicion of a squint. Horace and Jodocus Damhouder, (to whose harmless

Dam our impatience tempts us to add an _n_,) Tibullus and Johannes

Wouwerus, St. Augustine and Turnebus, with a motley mob of Jews,

Christians, Greeks, Romans, Arabians, and Lord-knows-whats, are all

thrust into the dock cheek by jowl. For ourselves, we would have taken

Mr. Story's word for it, without the attestation of these long-winded

old monsters, who wrote about charms and enchantments in a style

as potent in disenchantment as holy-water, and who bored their own

generation too thoroughly to have any claim upon the button of ours.

Every age is sure of its own fleas without poking over the rag-bag

of the past; and of all things, a superstition has the least need of

proving the antiquity of its pedigree, since its very etymology is

better than the certificate of all the Heralds' Colleges put together.

We are surprised that so clever and lively a man as Mr. Story, should

not have seen that in such matters one live fact is better than fifty

dead ones, and that even in history it is not so much the facts as what

the historian has contrived to see in them that gives life to his work.

But learning makes a small part of Mr. Story's book; only, as the

concluding chapter happens to bristle with quotations and references,

thickly as the nave of St. Peter's on a festival with bayonets, this is

the last taste left in the mouth. The really valuable parts of the book

(and they make much the larger part of it) are those in which the author

relates his own experiences. After so many volumes stuffed like a

_chiffonnier's_ basket with the shreds of ancient Rome, it is really

refreshing to come upon a book which makes us feel that Italy is still

inhabited by very human beings, and contains something more than the

tombs of the Scipios, and inscriptions interesting only to people

who think a dead Roman donkey better than a living Italian lion. The

chapters on Street-Music in Rome, on Games, on Gaffes and Theatres, on

Villeggiatura and the Vintage, on the Ghetto, the Markets, and Summer

in the City, are all of them delightful and new. They really teach us

something, while the learning, we are sorry to say, does nothing of the

kind. Several of these chapters our readers will remember enjoying in

the "Atlantic." They are good for those who have been in Italy, for

those who are going thither, and, above all, for those who must stay at

home. They contain the most cheerful and picturesque descriptions of

Italian life and scenery we have ever met with. And we cannot be too

thankful to Mr. Story that he leaves a theme so poetical in itself to

_be_ poetical, without any officious help from himself, and that, though

an artist, he does not enter on any of those disquisitions which would

have made Sir Joshua shift his trumpet. On the whole, we are inclined

to forgive him the polyglot lumber of his chapter on the Evil Eye in

consideration of the scenery and galleries which he has spared us. We

think we see symptoms that the Nature-mania which began with Rousseau

is on the decline, and that men and their ways are getting into fashion

again as worth study. The good time is perhaps coming when some gallant

fellow will out with it that he hates mountains, and will be greeted

with a shout of delight from his emancipated brethren.

Mr. Story is a person of very remarkable endowments. An accomplished

musician and poet, (we ought to have said before how remarkably good the

translations in these volumes are,) a skilful draughtsman, the author of

reputable law-books, he would seem to have been in danger of verifying

the old saw, had he not proved himself so eminently a master in

sculpture. We think the country is deeply indebted to Mr. Story for

having won so complete a triumph at the London World's Fair with his

Cleopatra and Libyan Sibyl, at a time when English statesmen and

newspapers were assuring the world that America was relapsing into

barbarism. Those statues, if we may trust the unvarying witness of

judicious persons, are conceived and executed in a style altogether

above the stone-cutting level of the day, and give proof of real

imaginative power. Mr. Story's genius and culture, with the fresh spur

of so marked a success, will, we are sure, produce other works to his

own honor and that of his country. For we feel that we have a country

still,--feel it the more deeply for our suffering, and our hope

deferred,--and out of the darkness of to-day we have still faith to see

a fairer America rising, a higher ideal of freedom, to warm the soul of

the artist and nerve the arm of the soldier.

_Hand-Book of Universal Literature._ From the Latest and Best

Authorities. By MRS. ANNE C.L. BOTTA. A New Edition. 12mo. Boston:

Ticknor and Fields. 1862.

A thing once done assumes a magical simplicity. No matter what may have

been the previous difficulty, or how much work may be involved in

the result, yet, when the work is done, the problem solved, all the

difficulty and labor promptly disappear from view, as if in dread of

being led captive in triumphal procession after the Caesar who has

mastered them. Thus, it does not seem at all strange that we should have

a book professing to guide us through all the intricacies of general

literature; indeed, now that the work is put into our hands, it seems so

easy of accomplishment that the only marvel would appear to be that we

have had none hitherto. Yet the conditions necessary to such a work are

of the rarest to be found; not so rare, indeed, when each is considered

separately, but rarely to be met with in combination.

In order even to attempt a work of this nature, its utility must first

be fully appreciated; but, unfortunately, those whose need is the

greatest, as being immediately present, would on that very account be

incompetent to supply the need, while those who by dint of patient study

have brought themselves up to the point of competency for the task no

longer realize the want,--just as men who have become rich by industry

forget the necessities of poverty, which were the earliest spurs upon

their energy.

The great majority of readers, therefore, have good reason to thank

Mrs. Botta, that, after having met a great educational need in her own

experience, she has benevolently set about supplying the same need in

the experience of others. The same motive which has led her to do

this has also made her work, from the peculiar manner in which it is

conducted, an important contribution toward a more perfect educational

system than generally prevails; though we would not do her the injustice

to imply that what she has done claims merit on this account alone or

chiefly. It _does_ claim merit in this way, and of a very high order,

because it avoids a prominent fault that vitiates most works intended to

promote the general diffusion of knowledge. The fault referred to is the

same which De Quincey, in a note to his "Political Economy," has called

the greatest vice of teaching,--namely, that the teacher does not

readily enter into, as an inheritance, the difficulties of the pupil.

Merely to have corrected this fault, to have met the popular mind

half-way and upon its own ground, was to furnish an important condition

hitherto lacking in the field chosen.

The extent of the work--embracing, as it does, the whole field of

literature--imposes other and more difficult conditions. Originality,

in any primary sense, was of course an impossibility; a single lifetime

would not suffice even for the most cursory examination of original

materials on so grand a scale. It was necessary, therefore, to select

and make use of the best authorities, critical and historical, those

whose researches have been most valuable and comprehensive, in each

particular department of the field. These authorities were to be found,

not in a single language, but in several; and even after they were

found, and the various results of their investigations put at their just

estimate, the important work of selection had then only just

commenced. Here were the master-critics and antiquaries,--the Müllers,

Champollions, and all. Some use must be made of each; but the compass,

no less than the design, of the work demanded the exclusion of all

secondary and unimportant matter, yet in such a manner that the ideal

unity should not be at all disturbed. Here was required, not merely tact

and discrimination, but a high degree of philosophical analysis; and

since this was valueless except as it was followed by comprehensive

synthesis, the power of artistic combination was no less requisite to

the complete result.

From the foregoing remarks it must not be supposed that there has been

throughout a remodelling of all the material used. On the contrary,

it is one of the most important of the features which give value and

interest to the work, that in frequent instances the material has been

presented precisely as it came to hand; a felicitous or humorous turn

of a sentence, a pointed antithesis, a happy grouping of historic

incidents, or a vigorous clinching of manifold thoughts in a single

expression, has been happily preserved where by others it might have

been ejected, or marred in the changing, for the sake of giving to the

work a factitious claim to an originality which, in such a field, is

plainly the least desirable characteristic. Our most hearty thanks are

due to Mrs. Botta that she has been willing to sacrifice what at the

best would have been a spurious claim to the purely legitimate one,

of having conquered almost insuperable difficulties, and, by the most

conscientious fidelity, elaborated a really valuable treatise, where

before there existed none at all.

So great as has been the need of this work, so great will be the

appreciation of it at the hands of the reading public. A whole has been

given where hitherto only parts had existed, and those for the most part

inaccessible to the general reader.

We have no space to enlarge upon the many particular excellences of the

book. It is vivacious in style, having none of the tedium belonging to

most works of this description. There is very much concerning ancient

religion, and concerning the classification of languages, as well

as respecting the peculiarities of each, that has never before been

presented in a popular form. We have rarely, indeed, seen so much that

was valuable, and so well digested, compressed within such limited

bounds.

_The New American Cyclopaedia_; a Popular Dictionary of General

Knowledge. Edited by GEORGE RIPLEY and CHARLES A. DANA. 16 vols. royal

8vo. New York: D. Appleton & Co.

The sixteenth and concluding volume of the "New American Cyclopaedia"

brings Messrs. Ripley and Dana to the end of one of the most laborious

and important literary works ever undertaken in this country; and

the voice of the public, we are sure, will be all but unanimous in

congratulating them upon the generally satisfactory manner in which they

have performed their task. The cost of the work, according to a New-York

journal, has been over four hundred thousand dollars. Six years have

been spent in its execution, and nearly five hundred writers have been

employed to contribute to it. Naturally, the articles are of very

unequal merit; but it is fair to remark that a high standard of

scholarship and literary polish has evidently been aimed at, from the

first volume to the last, and there is scarcely any point upon which the

"New American Cyclopaedia" may not safely challenge comparison with any

work of similar pretensions in the English language.

Practically, none of the cyclopaedia previously accessible in our

language has now much value. Such works as "Rees's," the "Edinburgh,"

the "London," and the "Penny" Cyclopaedias, the "Encyclopaedia

Metropolitana," and the excellent, though rather brief, "Encyclopedia

Americana" of Dr. Francis Lieber, the only one, except the "New

American," ever written in this country, however good in their day, have

long been entirely out of date. The "English Cyclopaedia" of Charles

Knight, and the eighth edition of the famous "Encyclopaedia Britannica,"

were completed while the work of Messrs. Ripley and Dana was yet in

progress; but they are so different from the latter in their scope and

execution, and so much more costly, that they can hardly be said

to rival it. The first-named is a revised issue of the old "Penny

Cyclopaedia" of the Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge,

and retains some of the best features of that excellent work. Its

arrangement seems to us peculiarly inconvenient; but its most

glaring defect is the lack of American subjects, and the slipshod,

unsatisfactory, and inaccurate manner in which the few that are found in

it have been treated. The "Encyclopaedia Britannica" is open to the same

objection. The first edition of this great work appeared over ninety

years ago. It contained neither historical, biographical, nor

geographical articles, and was rather a collection of treatises on the

principal arts and sciences than a cyclopaedia in the common acceptation

of the term. It has since been five times almost remodelled, arranged

alphabetically, and greatly enlarged; but it still preserves its old

distinguishing feature of treating great scientific and historical

subjects exhaustively under a single head: for instance, there are two

elaborate historical articles on "Britain" and "England," but none

on Charles I. or Charles II.; long articles on "Animal Kingdom" and

"Mammalia,"--so long, in fact, that it is almost impossible to find

anything in them without an index,--but none on the separate animals.

For the scholar, this plan, perhaps, has its advantages; but, for the

unlearned reader, who turns to his cyclopaedia to find an intelligible

account of the habits of some particular creature, without caring

greatly what its precise place may be in the zoölogical kingdom, or

looks for a name without knowing whether it belongs to a fish or a

river, no book that professes to be a manual of reference could well be

arranged on a more inconvenient principle. One of the chief duties of

a cyclopaedia is to save trouble,--to put one on the high-road to

knowledge, without unnecessary delay in finding the guide-boards. But

send a half-educated man to look for a scrap of learning in an article

of a hundred pages, and one might as well at once turn him loose into

a library. And what is worse, the unwieldy dimensions of these great

articles are out of all proportion to the information they contain. We

venture to assert that the ponderous "Encyclopaedia Britannica," with

its twenty-two quarto volumes, will tell less, for instance, about the

Horse, or about Louis XIV., than the much smaller work of Messrs. Ripley

and Dana. In the "New American Cyclopaedia" there are few articles

over twenty pages long. The leading subjects in the sciences, such as

"Anatomy," "Botany," "Physiology," etc., have from three to ten pages

each,--enough to give an outline of the principles and history of the

science. The great geographical and political divisions of the globe are

treated at somewhat greater length. Every important plant, beast, bird,

and fish, every large town, river, lake, province, and mountain, every

notable monarch, and every great battle, (not forgetting "Bull Run" and

the "Chickahominy Campaign,") is the subject of a separate article.

Next to this very convenient subdivision of topics, the most striking

merit of the new cyclopaedia is, perhaps, comprehensiveness. Among its

faults, very few faults of omission can fairly be charged; and, indeed,

it seems to us rather to err in giving too many articles, especially on

American second-rate preachers, politicians, and literary men, all of

whom are no doubt ticketed for immortality by a select circle of friends

and admirers, but in whom the public at large take the faintest possible

interest. On the other hand, the space given to such heroes is small;

and so long as they do not exclude more valuable matter, but only add a

little to the bulk of the volumes, they do no great harm, and may chance

to be useful. In the department of natural history this work is much

fuller than any other general dictionary. It is also especially complete

in technology and law, (the latter department having been under the

care of Professor Theophilus Parsons,) and sufficiently so in medicine,

theology, and other branches of science.

Among the articles upon which its success and reputation will chiefly

rest are those relating to technology. With scarcely an exception, they

are plain, practical, and full of common sense. Those on "Cotton" and

"Wool" and their manufactures, the various metals and the ways of

working them, (the article on "Zinc" is the best we have ever seen on

that subject,) "Gas," "Ship," "Railroad," "Telegraph," "Sewing-Machine,"

"Steam," and "Sugar," are compact summaries of valuable knowledge, and

will go far to commend the work to a class of persons who, except in

our own country, are not much given to reading or book-buying. They

vindicate the claims of the Cyclopaedia to be a popular dictionary, not

intended solely for the scholar's library, but directed to the wants of

the artisan and man of business. It is not too much to say of many of

them,--of "Ship," for instance, and "Telegraph,"--that, apart from

their value as records of industrial progress and invention, they are

interesting enough to furnish a very pleasant hour's occupation to the

desultory reader.

The other scientific articles are mostly written in a clear,

unpretending style, with a sparing use of technical expressions; and

so far as we have discovered, they do ample justice to all recent

discoveries. The articles by Professor Bache on the "Tides," Professor

Dalton on "Embryology," Professor J.D. Dana on "Crystallography,"

Dr. W.H. Draper on the "Nervous System," Professor James Hall on

"Palaeontology," Professor Henry, of the Smithsonian Institution,

on "Magnetism" and "Meteorology," James T. Hodge on "Earth" and

"Electricity," Frank H. Storer on "Chemistry" and kindred subjects, Dr.

Reuben on "Heat," "Light," "Vision," "Winds," etc., and the philological

contributions of Dr. Kraitsir and Professor Whitney, do the highest

credit to the work in which they appear. The forbidding appearance of

Dr. Kraitsir's articles will get more notice than their deep

learning. We cannot but regret that such valuable papers as those on

"Hieroglyphics," "Cuneiform Inscriptions," "Indian Languages," and we

may add, though belonging to another class of subjects, "Brahma" and

"Buddha," by the same author, should not have been dressed with a little

more taste, and the naked deformity of barbarous paradigms covered

with some of the ornaments of a readable style. It is the more a pity,

because the articles are well worth any care that could be spent upon

them.

The biographical articles are sufficiently numerous, and, though rigidly

condensed, are full enough for all ordinary purposes. There are few such

elaborate biographies as those contributed by Macaulay, De Quincey, and

others, to the "Encyclopaedia Britannica"; but Mr. Bancroft's "Jonathan

Edwards," Mr. Everett's "Hallam," "Washington," and "Daniel Webster,"

President Felton's "Agassiz," Professor Lowell's "Dante," Professor

Schaff's "Luther" and "Melancthon," Mr. Seward's "DeWitt Clinton," A.

W. Thayer's "Beethoven," "Handel," "Haydn," and "Mozart," Richard Grant

White's "Shakespeare," and the articles on "Patrick Henry," "Washington

Irving," "Milton," "Southey," "Schiller," "Swift," and many others we

might name, are admirable specimens of literary composition. Among

miscellaneous articles that deserve particular praise are a well-written

and elaborate history of the Jewish people and literature under the

title "Hebrews"; a picturesque account of "London"; a summary of all

that is known about "Japan"; excellent histories of "Newspapers" and

"Periodical Literature"; a brilliant article on "Athens" by the

late President Felton; a review of "Arctic Discovery"; valuable and

exceedingly interesting papers on "Army," "Artillery," "Infantry," and

"Cavalry," with one on "Gunnery" by Commodore Charles Henry Davis;

"Painting"; "Sculpture"; "Serfs"; "Slavery"; "Hungary"; and the best

published account of the "Mormons." The article on the "United States"

fills one hundred and twenty pages, including thirty-three pages of

fresh statistical tables, and gives an admirable summary of our history

down to last September; it closes with a comprehensive survey of

American literature. The supplement gives a biography of nearly every

general in the Union and Rebel armies.

The promises of the editors on the score of impartiality have been well

kept. It would be too much to expect them to satisfy everybody, or

never to be caught tripping; but in the great questions of religion and

politics, they seem to have preserved a happy mean between the outspoken

freedom of the partisan and the halting timidity of the man who never

commits himself because he never has an opinion. Their contributors

represent nearly every Christian creed, every shade of politics, and

every part of the English-speaking world, from Salt Lake City to London,

and from Mobile to Montreal.

We have only to add that the Cyclopaedia does fuller justice to our own

country than she has ever received from such a book before; that the

historical and statistical articles present the latest accessible

information; and that, so far as our opportunities of examination

permit us to judge, the book, though of course not free from errors, is

accurate to a more than ordinary degree. The labor of the editors has

been careful and conscientious; and they have produced a work which must

long endure as a valuable contribution to American literature and a

credit to American scholarship.

_Manual of Geology:_ treating of the Principles of the Science with

Special Reference to American Geological History, etc. By JAMES D. DANA.

8vo. Philadelphia: Theodore Bliss & Co. London: Trabner & Co.

No work on any science has yet been published in our language more

exhaustive of facts, more clear in statement, or more philosophical

in general character and arrangement, than Dana's "Mineralogy," as

presented in its last and revised edition.

Of course, the announcement of a "Manual of Geology" by the same author

could not fail to excite hopes that a long-felt want on the part of the

American public was to be met, a void in our scientific literature to be

filled. Nor are we disappointed in our expectations, now that the work

has appeared and time has been given for its careful perusal. On the

contrary, we feel a degree of satisfaction that might perhaps express

itself too strongly in praise, if we were not withheld by the

supposition that a proper notice of the contents of the volume would do

more for its appreciation by the reader than any language of eulogy.

What, then, is the distinctive character of the work, and wherein do the

contents so differ from previous publications as to claim our especial

notice?

In the first place, we would state, that, while it is a manual of

general geological knowledge concerning the history of the earth and of

life on its surface, and full of information concerning the strata and

geological phenomena of all parts of our globe, it is yet peculiar,

inasmuch as it treats of the principles of the science with special

reference to American Geological History. In this will be found its

great value to American students; for who of them has not had his

patience tried, and his enthusiasm often chilled, in vain attempts to

solve the questions which have sometimes arisen in his mind concerning

American geology, and has not sought their solution in the only way

open to him,--a consultation of innumerable State Reports, and other

publications, not half of which were accessible when required?

Another distinctive feature of the work is the prominence given to

Historical Geology, or that portion which treats of the successive

formation of the strata of the different periods, and of the development

and characteristics of the life upon the surface. The whole treatment of

this exhibits in a marked degree the extended research and philosophical

ability of the author.

GENERAL CONTEXTS AND DIVISIONS OF THE WORK.

_Physiographic Geology_.--This embraces a general survey of the earth's

features: its continents, oceans, lakes, river-systems, oceanic and

atmospheric currents, climates, distribution of forest-regions, deserts,

etc.

_Lithological Geology_.--This treats of the rocks, and of their

arrangement: the first embracing an account of all the important

chemical elements that enter into their constitution, the minerals and

organic materials that occur in their composition, and the kinds and

distinguishing characteristics of those that make up the earth's

surface; the second presenting the arrangement of rocks, stratified and

unstratified,--the structure due to deposition and other agencies,--the

dislocations of strata, and the consequent faults and distortions of

fossils contained in them,--together with considerations upon the age

and chronological division of all the strata of the earth's surface.

_Historical Geology_.--This third part of the volume, and that which

peculiarly characterizes the work, opens with some general remarks upon

the divisions in Geological History, and the announcement of certain

important principles to be kept in view while considering the subject.

The progress of life is then described as the basis of subdivision into

Geological Ages; and the subdivisions of geological time are presented

as follows:--

I. Azoic Time or Age.

II. Palaeozoic Time.

1. The Age of Mollusks, or Silurian.

2. The Age of Fishes, or Devonian.

3. The Age of Coal Plants, or Carboniferous.

III. Mesozoic Time.

4. The Age of Reptiles.

IV. Cenozoic Time.

5. The Age of Mammals.

V. Era of Mind.

6. The Age of Man.

And in connection with this is given a table of the further subdivision

of this history into Geological Periods, and a map showing the

distribution of the rocks of each of these periods over the surface of

the United States.

The great divisions above given are, as stated, essentially the same as

proposed by Professor Agassiz, who, however, made the era of Fishes to

embrace the first and second ages of Palaeozoic Time, the Silurian and

the Devonian, instead of restricting it, as now done, to the latter, and

calling the former the Age of Mollusks.

Following these general considerations, each great division of geologic

time is successively taken up, commencing with the Azoic. Each period

of the several divisions is treated of in order; and the rocks of

each epoch and their distribution described, first, as they exhibit

themselves in America,--then, more briefly, as they appear in Europe.

A full account of the life that manifested itself in each epoch, both

vegetable and animal, is likewise given in the same order. The igneous

and other disturbing agencies are then considered, and general remarks

added upon the geography, the character of the surface, and various

phenomena of the period.

The whole of this portion of the work is abundantly illustrated with

well-executed figures of all the characteristic species that distinguish

the several periods, mostly drawn from American examples.

_Dynamical Geology_.--This particular branch of the subject is made

less prominent than usual in geological works, but it will not be found

lacking in any point.

The subject is presented in the following order:--

1. Life as an agent in protecting, destroying, and making rocks.

2. Cohesive Attraction.

3. The Atmosphere as a mechanical agent.

4. Water as a mechanical agent.

5. Heat as an agent in volcanic phenomena, igneous eruptions,

metamorphism, veins, etc.

6. Movements of the earth's crust, plication of strata, origin of

mountains, earthquakes, etc.

7. Chemistry of Rocks.

Under the first head, we have much interesting matter concerning peat

and coral formations, coral reefs and their origin, illustrated with

figures.

Under the head of Water as an Agent, some plates are given, new to the

general reader, of the remarkable _cañons_ of the Colorado, which so

well illustrate the powerful agency of this element in wearing away

for itself deep channels in the strata. Under the same head is an

interesting essay upon Glaciers, with figures, one of which is a reduced

copy of a sketch in Agassiz's great work, representing the Glacier of

Zermatt, in the Monte-Rosa region.

Under the head of Heat as an Agent, we have, as might be expected,

interesting and valuable matter upon volcanic phenomena, and those of

metamorphism.

We have thus briefly passed in review the contents of the work, and

without criticism, too, for we would scarcely have a sentence in the

book altered or omitted. Yet we do not always concur in all the views

expressed or implied by the author. For instance, we consider the

evidence of the Jurassic age of the Ichnolitic strata of the sandstone

of the Connecticut River too strong to allow of their being any longer

classed among the Triassic. We certainly differ from him in much that is

said upon the subject of Man, as of one species. Yet we do not care to

dwell upon these points, especially the latter. Our author will not

expect to find all readers agreeing with him upon such mooted questions.

We do not think that we overestimate the value of this work, when

we express our belief that its publication will mark an era in our

geological progress. By this we do not mean to imply that its character

is such as to be of great service to those among us who are already

learned in the geology and palaeontology of our continent; but we do

mean to affirm, that, by the efficient aid which this work will be to

them, thousands and tens of thousands who have sought hitherto for

information on its great subjects, when seeking was literally "groping

in darkness," will be helped forward to a degree of knowledge respecting

the history and life of our globe which they could not otherwise have

attained.

_Elements of Military Art and History_: comprising the History and

Tactics of the Separate Arms, the Combination of the Arms, and the Minor

Operations of War. By EDWARD DE LA BARRE DUPARCQ, Captain of Engineers

in the Army of France, and Professor of the Military Art in the School

of Saint-Cyr. Translated and edited by BRIGADIER-GENERAL GEORGE W.

CULLUM, Chief of Staff of the General-in-Chief of the Armies of the

United States. 8vo. New York: D. Van Nostrand.

War has its science and its art. There is a domain of general

_principles_, which have their application in all the active operations

of war; and military _science_ is but the sum of these principles in

their theory and practice. The _art_ of war deals more directly with

the details and practical direction of military affairs, and abounds in

_rules_ of action, organization, and administration. Military science

and art are equally the results of experience in war. Principles of

strategy have grown out of the exercise of the highest military mind in

weighing the general features of campaigns, and from the perceptive and

logical recognition of those elements essential to success. The art

of war has grown up as a body of practices, traditions, and rules,

naturally resulting from the immense sum of experience in military life

and action among all nations. It is, indeed, so inwoven with military

history that the two should be studied in connection. Military art is

more mature than military science; and in war, as in the practice of

other professions and trades, definite and empirical rules for daily

guidance, based mainly on practice, serve almost to exclude science and

to keep it unprogressive. When, however, a Napoleonic mind becomes truly

imbued with vital military principles, its most successful strokes

may result from a bold disregard of rules under the lead of higher

intelligence. But as military science is very imperfect, and as

Hannibals, Fredericks, and Napoleons are not every-day products, it

behooves lesser lights to study the art of war most conscientiously, in

the hope of at least escaping the fatal category of blunders which crude

officers are forever repeating.

The publication of a really good book on Military Art and History is,

just now, a fortunate event, and its appearance two years since might

have saved us much costly and mortifying experience. Enlightened men

of all nations concede to the French school of soldiers and military

authors a certain preeminence, due partly to the genius of the people

and partly to the immense vital growth of war-craft under Napoleon.

Barre Duparcq is one of the most favorably known among recent military

writers in France. As an engineer officer and Professor of Military

Art in the famous school of Saint-Cyr, he has been led to study

fortification, military history, army-organization, and the art of war

with a methodical thoroughness, which, besides other highly valued

works, has given us its ripe fruit in the volume before us. If not the

very best, this is certainly among the best of the numerous volumes

devoted to this topic; and General Cullum's judgment in selecting this

work for translation is fully justified by the admirable system, clear

and learned, but brief exposition, and entirely trustworthy quality,

which even hasty readers must recognize. Could this book be put into the

hands and heads of our numerous intelligent, but untrained officers, it

would work a transformation supremely needed. It is lamentable to think

how many precious lives and how much national honor have been thrown

away from the lack of just that portion of military instruction which

is here offered in a single volume. Though no one book can make an

accomplished officer, we may say that no officer can read Duparcq's

Elements without positive advantage and real progress as a soldier.

The topics treated, with constant illustration from history, are,

the organization and functions of the four arms, infantry, cavalry,

artillery, and engineers; organization of active armies; marches and

battles; outposts; detachments; armed reconnoissances; passage of

rivers; convoys; partisans; redoubts; barricades; heights; roads; farms

or houses; forages; defiles; villages; and field hygiene.

General Cullum is well known as one of the most proficient students

of military science and art in our service, and is amply qualified to

prepare an original textbook on this subject. That he should have

found time to translate Duparcq's work, amid his arduous and important

services as General Halleck's chief of staff and chief engineer during

the remarkable Western campaign, shows an industry only to be explained

by his intense realization of the need of a book like this, as an

antidote to that deficient military instruction which has been so

replete with bad results. The translation is a faithful and lucid

rendering of the original, and the technical words and expressions are

generally satisfactory equivalents of the French terms.

We venture to express the hope that this painful war will lead to a

fresh and successful study of military science and art in relation to

American campaign-elements, so that future contingencies can be more

creditably met than was that which Secession suddenly precipitated on

us.

_Rejoinder to Mrs. Stowe's Reply to the Address of the Women of

England_.

Emily Faithfull, "printer and publisher in ordinary to Her Majesty," has

issued from the "Victoria Press," in London, a small pamphlet with the

above title, written at the request of a committee of British women by

Miss Frances Power Cobbe, author of "Intuitive Morals." As Mrs. Stowe's

"Reply" was first printed in this magazine, we here give the whole

"Rejoinder."

"The following Address has been written with the belief that it embodies

the general sentiments of English women on the subject of Slavery. It

has been decided to seek no signatures on the present occasion, rather

than repeat the vast undertaking of obtaining any number which should

adequately correspond with the half-million names appended to the former

Address.

"MADAM,--You have asked of the women of England a solemn question. You

have recalled the Address which half a million of us once sent you,

appealing to our sisters in America to raise their voices against

Slavery; and you demand, Where is now the spirit which dictated that

appeal? You quote the evidence of our press and our public speakers,

that the righteous indignation against Slavery which once kindled in all

English hearts has waned, if it have not died out; and you allege that

we have been wanting in generous faith and sympathy for the North in her

great struggle, and have even descended to afford countenance, if

not assistance, to the South. You challenge us to account for this

dereliction from our former ardent sentiments, and you ask wherefore it

is that _now_, when the conflict has assumed its most terrible form, and

the peaceful persuasions of philanthropists have been superseded by

the shock of contending armies spreading desolation through your

land,--_now_ we stand afar off, viewing coldly that awful contest, and

sending, instead of cheering words of sympathy and faith, only doubts

and lamentations over a 'fratricidal war,' and regrets partitioned with

strange impartiality between the sufferers in the cause of free America,

and those who have, in their own audacious words,' founded their

commonwealth on the institution of Slavery.' You retort our old appeal

in the face of these things, and you say to us, 'Sisters, you have

spoken well; we have heard you; we have heeded; we have striven in the

cause, even unto death; we have sealed our devotion by desolate hearth

and darkened homestead,--by the blood of sons, husbands, and brothers.

In many of our dwellings the very light of our lives has gone out, and

yet we accept the lifelong darkness as our own part in this great and

awful expiation, by which the bonds of wickedness shall be loosed, and

abiding peace established on the foundation of righteousness. Sisters,

what have _you_ done, and what do you mean to do? In view of the decline

of the noble anti-slavery fire in England, in view of all the facts

and admissions recited from your own papers, we beg leave, in solemn

sadness, to return to you your own words:--

"'A common origin, a common faith, and, we sincerely believe, a common

cause, urge us at the present moment to address you on the subject of

the fearful encouragement and support which is being afforded by England

to a slave-holding Confederacy. We appeal to you as sisters, as wives,

as mothers, to raise your voices to your fellow-citizens, and your

prayers to God, for the removal of this affliction and disgrace from the

Christian world.'

"Madam, in answering this solemn appeal, we do not desire to detail the

causes which may, in a measure, explain or palliate this failure in

our national sympathy, whose existence (in so far as it is true) we

profoundly deplore. Enough, and more than enough, debate has been

already held on the complicated motives which have blended in your

war, as in all other human concerns, and on the occasional acts of

questionable spirit which must inevitably attend the public policy and

sentiments of a nation engaged in deadliest conflict and bleeding at

every pore. Somewhat you may perhaps forgive to those who have withheld

their full sympathies, jealous that a most righteous cause should

be maintained with any save the most untainted motives and the most

unbending rectitude, and who have failed even yet to read in your policy

the full _desire_ to accomplish that end of universal emancipation

whereto Providence is visibly directing the course of events.

Somewhat, also, may be forgiven to those who have been misled by the

misrepresentations of a portion of our press, and offended by the

inimical spirit of your own. But, Madam, although many lips have been

closed which ought to have spoken to you words of blessing, though the

voice of England which has reached you has lacked that full tone of

heartfelt sympathy you had justly anticipated, yet believe not that

our nation is truly alienated from yours, or apostate to the great

principles of freedom which were once our glory. The heart of England is

sound at the core: Slavery is now and ever an abomination in our eyes;

nor has the dastard proposition to recognize the Confederate States

failed to call forth indignant rejection, and that even with peculiar

earnestness from those suffering operatives whose relief such a measure

might have secured. It is to assure you of this, to vindicate ourselves

from the shame of turning back in the hour of trial,--most foreign to

our common Saxon race,--that we, the Women of England, offer you this

response.

"We do not less abhor Slavery now than when your eloquent words called

out an echo of feeling throughout Europe, such as no other appeal for

the wronged or the miserable ever produced. We abhor Slavery, judging it

simply as _human beings_, and because of all the agonies and tortures it

has occasioned. We abhor it, judging it especially as _women_, because

of all the unspeakable wrongs, the hideous degradation, it has inflicted

on our sex. But we abhor it not only because of these its results, nor

with a hatred which would be withdrawn, were they disputable now or

remediable hereafter. We abhor Slavery for itself, and for its own

enormous iniquity,--even the robbing from a human being of that freedom

which it was the supreme gift of Omnipotence to bestow. We hold, that,

were it in the power of the slaveholder to make his slaves absolutely

happy, Slavery would not less be an injustice and a crime. Happiness is

not to be measured against freedom, else would God have left us brutes,

not men, and spared us all the sorrows of struggling humanity. And

whereas it has been argued that the negro is of a race inferior to his

master, and that therefore it is justifiable to enslave him, we reply,

that the right to freedom is not founded on the equality of the holder

to any other human being, else were every white man also lawfully to be

enslaved by every other stronger or wiser than himself. But the right to

freedom is founded simply and solely on the moral nature wherewith God

has endowed every man and woman of the human race, enabling them, by its

use, to attain to that virtue which is the end of their creation. And

whereas others, again, have defended Slavery on the grounds of the

supposed Divine sanction to be found for it in the Scriptures, we reply,

that we deplore the condition of those whose religion can lend itself

to the task of seeking to appeal to God for the permission of an

institution which the consciences He has made unequivocally loathe

and condemn. Nor shall we hesitate to stigmatize such an appeal as

hypocrisy, until the theologians who make it advance a step farther, and

tell us that they are prepared to represent Jesus of Nazareth as one

who, in fitting time and place, might have been a purchaser and a master

of slaves. Thus, Madam, do we still condemn and abhor Slavery, as we

have ever done, as in itself, and in its own nature, utterly evil and

utterly indefensible; and we consider its vast and terrible results of

cruelty and immorality to be only the natural fruit of so stupendous a

wrong.

"We have not withheld from your nation either the tribute of admiration

for the vast sacrifices you have made, or of sympathy for the

bereavements and sufferings you have endured. But the expression of such

admiration and sympathy from the truest hearts among us has been almost

silenced by the solemn joy wherewith we have beheld your country purging

herself, even through seas of blood, for her guilty participation in the

crimes of the past, and preparing for herself the stainless future of 'a

land wherein dwelleth righteousness.' We have rejoiced in the midst of

sorrow to know that the doom of Slavery was written by a Divine Hand,

even from the hour when its upholders dared to believe it possible in

the face of Heaven to build up a State upon an injustice. We have looked

with awe-struck consciences to this great revelation of the moral laws

which govern the nations of the earth, and show to men who sought for

God in the records of distant ages that the Living Lord still rules

on high, and is working out even before our eyes the delivery of the

captive and the punishment of the oppressor. The greatest national sin

of Christian times has wrought the greatest national overthrow. The

hidden evil of the land, which long smouldered underground, has blazed

forth at last like a volcano, bursting in sunder the most solid of human

institutions, and pouring the lava-streams of ruin and desolation even

to the remotest shores where the spoil of guilt had been partaken. But

while we behold with awe, in the present calamity, the manifestation of

Supreme Justice, we look with confident hope to the final issue to which

it must lead. In whatever mode that end may be brought out, and through

whatever struggles America may yet be doomed to pass, we are assured

that only one termination can await a conflict between a nation which

has abjured its complicity with crime and a confederation which exists

but to perpetuate that crime forever. It is not now, in the presence of

the events of the last three years, that we shall be tempted to fear

that Wrong and Robbery, and the systematic degradation of woman, may

possibly prove to be principles of stability, capable of producing the

security and consolidation of a commonwealth! Your courage in this

Titanic strife,--the lavish devotion with which the best blood of your

land has been poured out on the field, and the tears of childless

mothers shed in homes never before visited by the sorrows of war,--the

patriotic generosity with which your treasures have been cast into the

gulf opened suddenly in your busy and prosperous land, even as of old

in the forum of ancient Rome,--these noble acts of yours inspire with

confidence in you, no less than pride in the indomitable energies of

our common race. But above your valor and your patriotism, we look with

still higher hope to those moral laws whose vindication is involved in

the issue of the conflict; and we feel assured, that, while for the

Slave-Power the future can hold no possibility of enduring prosperity,

for Free America it promises the regeneration of a higher and holier

national existence, when the one great blot which marred the glory of

the past shall have been expiated and effaced forever.

"This, Madam, is the belief and these are the hopes of thousands of

Englishmen. They are, we are persuaded, even more universally the

belief and hopes of the Women of England, whose hearts the complicated

difficulties of politics and the miserable jealousies of national

rivalry do not distract from the great principles underlying the

contest. The failure of English sympathy whereof you complain is

but partial at the most, and for that partial failure we deeply and

sorrowfully grieve. But the nation at large is still true; and wherever

it has been possible to learn the feelings of the great masses, no lack

of ardent feeling has ever been found in England for the Northern cause.

Though senseless words and inhuman jests have been bandied across the

Atlantic, yet we are assured that in the heart of both our nations

survives unchanged that _kindred_ regard and respect whose property it

is, above other human feelings, to be indestructible. At this hour of

your own greatest need and direful struggle,--at this hour, when a

pirate from our ports is ravaging your shores, as you believe (albeit

erroneously) with our guilty connivance--at this very hour you have come

forward with noblest generosity, and sent us the rich vessel which has

brought food to our starving people. The _Griswold_ has been your answer

to the _Alabama_. It is a magnanimous, a sublime one; and English hearts

are not too cold to read it aright, or to cherish through all future

time the memory thereof. Scorn and hate are transient and evanescent

things; charity and love have in them the elements of immortality.

"Madam, we answer your Appeal by this rejoinder, and send this message

through your honored hands to our sisters in America: Our hearts

are with you in unchanged sympathy for your holy cause, in undying

abhorrence of Slavery, in profound sorrow for your present afflictions,

and in firmest faith in the final overthrow of that unrighteous Power

whose corner-stone is an injustice and a crime.

"IN BEHALF OF

"THE WOMEN OF ENGLAND."

* * * * *

RECENT AMERICAN PUBLICATIONS

RECEIVED BY THE EDITORS OF THE ATLANTIC MONTHLY.

The Pentateuch and Book of Joshua critically Examined. By the Right Rev.

John William Colenso, D.D., Bishop of Natal. New York. D. Appleton & Co.

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