66 ENGLAND, FRANCE, GERMANY, AND RUSSIA. From The Economist, 22d July. All this she has done, and done with uniform consistency and with consummate skill. She has played fast and loose with us till the eleventh OUR news from Vienna is both doubtful and hour. As soon as Nicholas was effectually beatunsatisfactory. Everything seems thrown back en and it seemed likely would retire within his into uncertainty, darkness, and confusion. A own dominions, she instantly proposed to refortnight ago we thought that we did know place him in the provinces he had evacuated, something at last of the intentions of our Ger- "in order to prevent further mischief." As soon "all we know as it appeared that he was not yet prepared to man friends: now, like Socrates, is, that we can know nothing." A fortnight ago retire, she pulled up and halted. He was still in we were assured on all hands that Austria was a position to throw soldiers and munitions into on the point of throwing off the mask and enter- Transylvania, and ignite the spark in Hungary ing heartily into the war: now, the impenetra- which is always ready for explosion :-hostile A action was not, therefore, safe. Then Prussia reble visor is fitted on more closely than ever. fortnight ago the Russians were in full retreat monstrated against an onward movement which towards Jassy, and the Austrians in full march Prussia's brother-in-law might interpret as a hoson Orsova: now, the former have retraced their tile one, and Austria, who cannot afford to quarrel backward steps, and the latter have counter- with anybody, at once held her hand. Now, as we have said, we do not blame Ausmanded their advance. The Czar ordered the re-occupation of Wallachia, and sent at the same tria for this, nor do we wonder at it. We do time a message to Vienna which he knew would not even regret that a semi-neutral occupation of the Principalities, which might virtually and stop the proceedings of the young Emperor :and the result has justified his confidence. A ultimately have become a hostile one, has been fortnight ago, Austria had signed a convention abandoned. All that displeases or surprises us with the Porte, in virtue of which she was to is, that we should allow, or should have allowed, occupy" the Principalities instead of Russia-the wishes or contingent conduct of so dubious It was desirable to she was to succeed her, or to supersede her: now, and inefficient an ally to exercise the smallest "influence over our course. occupy Russia intimates that she prefers to them herself, and Austria acquiesces in the have Austria on our side; it was desirable even change of purpose. A fortnight ago, the san- to neutralize her if we could;-but to have countguine and trusting minds of diplomatists be-ed on a friendship which we knew could only be lieved that the enemy might be considered as lukewarm and superficial, to have paid any price expelled from the Turkish territory, and that for a co-operation so questionable, so feeble, and the Anglo-French army would be set free for an expedition to the Crimea, and might be able to secure a good winter harbor for the fleet: this week we find that the work of expulsion is still to be done, and that we must do it for ourselves. Now, we cannot say that we are at all either surprised or grieved at this hesitation and retrogression on the part of Austria. As a prudent and self-regarding State, looking only to immediate interests and pressing dangers, her conduct could scarcely have been different from what it has been. She has had a very difficult part to play, as we have over and over again pointed out. She has had to hold both belligerents in check, by persuading each that her secret predilections and her ultimate decision were and would be what he wished. She had to satisfy France and It will be said we have pursued our own course England that she was friendly at heart, and would in the end be friendly in action also, so steadily, independent of the clear hostility of that it might be impossible for them to encour-one ally and the perplexing vacillation of anage or tacitly sanction revolutionary movements other; that we have armed and marched even in Lombardy. She had to satisfy Russia that while negotiating; and that while leaving no efshe wished her well out of the scrape, and, what- fort untried to secure the assistance of Austria, ever manifestations she might be compelled to we have acted as we should have done had we make, would do as little against her as she pos- known it was hopeless to expect it. But this is It was not so early in the To mention no sibly could, in order to prevent Russia from rais-not strictly true. ing Hungary, and thus as it were guarding her year. It is scarcely so now. own frontier by an insurrectionary force. She other exceptions:-out of deference to Austrian had also to secure the protection of Prussia friendship we prevented the formation of a Polagainst probable and perilous contingencies, by ish legion which might have rendered signal serassuring her that she would not side with the vice on the Danube; we discountenanced the emWestern Powers, unless the Czar gave her abso-ployment of Hungarian officers in the Turkish lutely no loophole for escape. Finally, she had to postpone any overt, decisive, and irrevocable step, till fortune had so plainly declared itself that she could take any step with safety. so timid, was we think regretable and unwise:to continue to do so now, would be something worse still. It is clear now,-was it ever otherwise?-that Austria dares not move boldly or strike truly without the permission of Prussia. It is clear now-it has always been so, even to our Ministers-that the King of Prussia is the mere prefect and puppet of the Czar. What mockery is it then to call Prussia "our ally!" What folly to hope for active and efficient aid from a Power which Prussia holds in leash! How difficult is it to persuade ourselves, or Europe, or our foe, that we are both earnest and competent, when it is notorious that one of our allies is directly, and the other indirectly, in the leading-strings, if not in the interest of the enemy! armies, where leaders of experience were griev ously needed; and our generals have just now, it appears, been concerting military measures with, and therefore showing their hand to, the Aus having Austrian aid is that we may enable our fleet to winter in Sebastopol: if she does not declare herself in time to make this possible, she is not worth her salt. There is a hacknied Italian proverb which it behoves us just now not to forget, which says: Da chi mi fido guardami Dio: da chi non mi fido mi guardero io. trian Commander, Count Coronini. Had we | her services,-to embody a Polish legion, and to been able to reckon on the hostility of Austria, employ Hungarian officers in training and leadwe should have early taken effectual measures ing the Turkish levies. The only object now in to paralyze her and give her enough to do in managing her own affairs. Had we been able to reckon on her cordial and active aid, we might have taken the Crimea and terminated the war ere now. Had we but felt assured that under all circumstances she would remain strictly and honorably neutral, we should have acted without fear of her siding against us, and should have wasted no sacrifices in endeavoring to make her side with us; we should have done as Russia has done-put her on one side and proceeded on our course as if she were non-existent. But by allowing her to keep us in suspense, we have inevitably enabled her to exercise an influence on the fortunes of the war which has been most potent and may yet become disastrous. Russia is now endeavoring to throw back matters into the negotiating stage, and has replied to the demand of Austria by illusory proposals (which Prussia does not deem it shameful to back, and Austria does not deem it insulting to transmit), instead of by an explicit and final an swer. That answer she will of course withhold if possible till the campaigning season draws to a close. Lord John Russell must have tried the gravity of his supporters at the morning sitting the other day, when he informed them that Lord Clarendon had officially assured him that "this answer would be either an acceptance, a refusal, or an evasion!" This, we apprehend, is about the sum total of the information possessed by our Government on this interesting point, and we must conclude that something more decisive will be waited for. We may be certain, however, that our armies will not be inactive in the meantime. They must not wait for the chance of Austria going right at last-when it may be too late to effect anything this year. But to reassure the English public something more than this will be required. The Vienna Conference must be formally and finally dissolved. It is something worse than futile-it is puerile, undignified and unsafe-to be even nominally concerting measures and consulting on answers and decisions with an ally who is an avowed friend and a notorious vassal of our enemy; whose sole object in pretending to act with us is really to thwart us; and who would openly declare against us if he dared so to outrage his own subjects, and if he did not fear France even more than he loves Russia. As for Austria-if she gives no aid in the war, she cannot complain if she has no voice in the arrangements of peace. She must share in the dangers of the battle if she is to share in the profits of the victory. If we beat Russia without her, we shall also settle the map of Europe without her. If she waits to declare against the Czar till the Czar is humbled and Hungary is safe, we may indeed use her, but we shall despise and neglect her. If she will drive Russia out of the Principalities, in the interest of Turkey. why, we may have cause to thank her and reward her. If she merely steps into the warm bed when Russia pleases to turn out, we are by no means sure that it would not be wisest to dispense with From Punch, 22d July. IMAGINARY CONVERSATION. PARTIES. His Majesty the Emperor Louis Napolcon. SCENE. The top of the Boulogne Column. 1854. The Emperor (who has been watching the troops depart by the Calais road.) So, my good friend, they are gone. And now let our adored Nicho las look out. Between the Anglo-French fleet and those brave fellows, St. Petersburg will be a pleasant locality. The Protector. Will your Majesty permit me to say one word? The Emperor. My dear Lord Punch, you can never offend me except by your silence. The Protector. The word then, your Majesty, which I would offer in reply to your observation, is simply this. BAH! The Emperor. You are incapable of incivility, my Lord, and you have a meaning for which I will trouble you. The Protector. I admire the soldiers we have just inspected, your Majesty. I admire your Majesty's fleet in the Baltic. I need not say that I admire our own. But all my admiration fails to discern any particular danger to the Emperor of Russia. Nor, permit me to say so, does your Majesty discern it. The Emperor (after a pause and in a low voice.) You are a wonderful man. The Protector (modestly.) I am so, your Majesty. The Emperor. I believe that you have fathomed a thought which I had believed unfathomable. The Protector. If my instinct is indiscreet, your Majesty, I can only regret it. The Emperor. There is no cause for regret. On the contrary, I rejoice that there is one mind in Europe to which I can freely open mine own. Punch! I am weary of this humbug war. The Protector. characterized it. Your Majesty has properly The Emperor. We are playing another act of the farce. The stage direction is "Enter several thousand French soldiers, headed by General Baraguay D'Hilliers. They parade round the ENGLAND, FRANCE, GERMANY, AND RUSSIA. stage, and march off at upper entrance left, where is a finger-post marked, To the Baltic. The Protector. And all for the good they will do, they may as well change their dresses behind yonder trees, and return to their vineyards and cornfields. The Emperor. True. Oh that we could convert this sham war into a real one. Oh for one hour of him whose title you bear. The Protector. Does your Majesty allude to a certain Chancellor of the University of Oxford, best known as Oliver Cromwell? The Emperor. Him! Were he England, I being France, where were Russia? The Protector. Slightly crumpled, I humbly conceive, your Majesty. For the jest's sake, imagine me that man, Sire, and speak your mind. Dost think the muddle- The Protector. A song that may need re-setting, if thy troops are not forwarded and helped on their way-followed, too, (for I know Frenchmen will not be preceded) by a Prussian army of 80,000 strong. Marry, there will be no mistake, for I have sent Layard, the bull-hunter, to signify as much. The Emperor. But the diplomatic negotiations that are going on The Protector. Seems to me that they will scarce continue, as I have recalled all my amThe Emperor. We should need little speak-bassadors, and as I take in no foreign letters. ing, then, my friend. A strong man armed keep- Enough of life and of lives has been lied away My Ultimatum has gone to eth his house, but take two strong men armed by such follies. (call them Oliver and Louis,) and every man's house would be theirs to keep. Answer for him, Punch. The Protector (sternly). Of a verity, King of France, there is man's work to do, and that right early. Art ready to put in thy sickle? The Emperor (admiringly). Good-good. Waiting Oliver. It is England who has been slack, or rather her Government, and its head, my lord Aberdeen. The Protector (with a grim smile). Aye. It may have been so. But I have gone something suddenly to work. Marry, I have swept cleanly. Aberdeen will hinder no longer. The Government is now certain able scribes who take my orders, and woe to him that slacketh. Moreover, I have sent two words to Dundas, touching yon Sebastopolis. He had best obey them. The Emperor. Might I guess-they are "Take it." The Protector. Thou hast it. Again I have sent the Lord Palmerston to Vienna, to deliver a message in which his jaunty soul delighteth, He will lose no syllable on the road. He is gone to tell Francis Joseph, that if there be a live Russian in Bucharest after this month is out, I shall take it upon myself to desire one Kossuth to expel the Muscovites with the aid of such Hungarians as he can raise-he has (another grim smile) some fancy that his recruiting would be speedy. By which route hast thou sent these soldiers to-day? The Emperor. By Calais. Devna. The Emperor. In Turkey my orders should be first heard. My army is the larger, my general the higher in rank. The Protector (craftily). It may be that I have not forgotten that, but have bidden Raglan and Cambridge go forth instantly, as pioneers, and clear the way fot the marshal of France-if he will give them time. The Emperor. He will not. In an hour orders shall depart that the united armies advance upon the enemy. What of Odessa? The Protector. Nicholas was so pleased with the little that was done before, that I have given him a theme for another Te Deum. Six ships were detached from the squadron, and re-visited the place. Odessa fuit. The Emperor. And the Baltic ? The Protector. I detest profane and rash swearing; yet it seemed not altogether amiss to remind Napier of a vow he made on leaving Eng. When they land. Nevertheless, I imperil no lives out of bravado, and he will await thy men. shall have arrived, Cronstadt falls, or we have no fleet in the Baltic. Verily, a work is appointed, and a fiery vengeance upon the tyrant and the oppressor, and England shall not shrink back from it, until it be utterly accomplished. The Emperor. Nor shall France. Oh, Punch, if such words were indeed spoken for England! The Protector (smilingly). In that case, please your Majesty, England would lose the inestimable advantages of enjoying the services of Lord The Protector. How! Is there no iron road to Aberdeen, a Statesman whose character, whose Konigsberg? The Emperor. That is in Prussia. The Protector. Nay, friend, we have some smattering of geography; England had as good schools in 1599 as in 1854. We have some remem experience, whose The Emperor. It is now my turn, my friend, to say-" BAH!" [The word is repeated by the echoes all along the English Coast.] THE EGYPTIAN RAILROAD.-The railway is | Cairo will soon be open. It passes through a in good working order, and answers exceedingly level and most fertile country. The Arabs do well. The trains do not run on it at present at not know what to make of it. They were dancany stated periods. It is chiefly used when Eu- ing before it sometime since, and having no ropean or Indian passengers arrive in Egypt. conception of its speed, they did not get out of English engine drivers are employed on it. The the way in time, and an Arab woman was killspeed is about twenty miles an hour. The rail-ed.-Daily News. way the whole distance between Alexandria and From the Economist, 22d July. dustry as a means of payment. Not only are the masses better fed now than in 1847, but there is a very general desire to be still better fed and better clothed, and there has been and continues to be a great stimulus to emigration, to trade, and to all kinds of industry, as well as to growing corn. The extensive consumption which has continued throughout the year, and is certain to guarantee that, however abundant the harvest may be, it will not be too much, and we shall not have prices, as in the autumn of 1847 and in some other years under restrictions, ruinously low. The general activity of trade is an indication that the level of prices abroad will continue to be as it has latterly been, considerably above the level which a few years ago was so dreadfully alarming to our Protectionists. THE harvest prospects have since the change in the weather become very favorable. In the South of France, in Spain, in Italy, in the Southern States of America, the harvest has made considerable progress, and, according to reports, is generally good. In Germany, too, the rye har-increase as the harvest is good, seems a complete vest has been begun and promises tolerably well. A very unusual breadth of land has everywhere been sown with cereals, and there is no doubt but the quantity will be large, whatever the quality may be. Wheat-growing is a very old and a very extensive art, and, from the high prices every-where prevalent in the last year, we may infer that comparatively much wheat has everywhere been grown. We may speedily look, accordingly for a general fall in the price of bread corn. Our own markets have already given way; from America prices come lower; and we must now expect an approximation to what will be the ruling price in the markets of the world. Latterly, the price in England has been very little above the price in New York. All through the year since last harvest, prices have been nearly on a level in England and France, and there have been alternately imports and exports of breadstuffs between the two countries. The price in our markets and in the markets of France have exercised great influence over the prices in other countries, and, with free trade, there will be henceforward not much greater difference in the price at different places than the coast of transport. As every part of England is easy of access, and as the expense of carriage by sea has been We see, indeed, from the large increase in the considerably reduced, and is likely, notwithstand-sales of land in America, the revenue from which ing a temporary rise of freights, to be reduced in the year ending March, 1854, was 6,310,771 hereafter, the market price in England is not dols, against 1,329,511 dols in 1853, and 2,399,likely to rule much higher than the general market 927 dols in 1852, a source of large future supprice of the civilized world. In truth, high plies. The exports of wheat and flour from the as our prices have been throughout the last year, we have already arrived at this condition, and we may expect that it will permanently continue. An inspection of the Gazette returns since last harvest shows that the average weekly price of wheat, from the middle of July, when it was about 50s, rose steadily and continuously to the end of the year, when it reached 73s, and it continued to rise gradually to the end of January, when it reached 83s 3d, the highest point. Since then it has fluctuated about that from 88 to 10s, but has kept for many weeks about that, and has latterly declined slowly and steadily week after week to the latest average of 74s 6d. In 1847 the highest price took place in the last week in May, 1028 5d, after which the price fell rapidly and continuously to the middle of September, when it was down as low as 49s 6d. In this year, then, we have had no enormous rise corresponding to that of 1847, and it is not likely that we shall now have anything like a corresponding fall. The war, too, will cut off one source of supply; but except, as it will waste and destroy, we do not anticipate that it will exercise any very great influence over the price of wheat in our market. Some of the corn from Russia, if it have an abundance, will overflow into neighboring countries, and through them some of it will find its way hither. Still the stoppage of that source may prevent a too great accumulation of grain here this autumn and the next spring, and keep prices from sinking very rapidly. While wo hail our harvest prospects with unbounded satisfaction, we entertain no fear that there will be a great revulsion in the price of corn and great ruin amongst our corn merchants and farmers, such as occurred in 1847, in 1836, and other years. United States of the harvest 1853-4 are estimated in the United States Economist at nearly 30,000,000 bushels in the year, and that immense quantity is likely to increase year after year. From the great addition to the land taken into cultivation, we may expect a very rapid increase at least in power to export, and it seems probable that the vast production of corn in that country will exercise a corresponding influence over the price of wheat throughout the commercial world. PRESCOTT AND MACAULAY. THE Royal Irish Academy has lately published the fifth volume of its proceedings, and from a copy which has been forwarded to us we copy part of the journal of 30th Nov. 1852. At a stated meeting then held, on the recommendation of the Council, Messrs. Elie de Beaumont, M. V. Regnault, and Augustine-Louis Cauchy, were elected Honorary members in the Department of Science. The whole number of Honorary Members is 60—of whom 30 are of the above department, 15 cultivators of Archeology, and 15 are scholars distinguished in polite As contradistinguished from 1847, there is in this year, notwithstanding the war, or perhaps in conjunction with it, great commercial activity, a lively demand everywhere for food and clothing, and an abundance of employment and great in-literature. MISCELLANEOUS. Woolfe; an important unpublished Historical Sept. 12. The Sutherland, at anchor off St. Nicholas :-The enemies' forces are not divided; great scarcity of provisions in the camp, and universal discontent amongst the Canadians. The second officer in command is gone to Montreal or St. John's, which gives reason to think that Governor Amherst is advancing into that colony A vigorous blow struck by the army at this juneture might determine the fate of Canada. Our troops below are ready to join us; all the light infantry and tools are embarked at the Point of Levi, and the troops will land where the enemy seems least to expect it.'" To fill the two vacancies in the last department, made by the deaths of Moore and Wordsworth, "many names (said the Secretary) were brought before the Council, but ultimately, after the most careful consideration, those of William H. Prescott and Thomas B. Macaulay were selected. * ** For me (continued he) to advocate their claims would be quite out of place. The members of the Academy know that they will do themselves honor, and increase the respect in which the Academy is held by learned bodies abroad, if they enrol among themselves men of such world-wide celebrity as these. Macaulay, the historian, the critic, the poet, the philosopher, however individuals may find fault with his history, dissent from his criticism, censure his poems, or dispute his philosophy, must still be regarded as one of the foremost literary men in the world. And when we come to consider what the other candidate has done, in spite of the obstacles raised up by a natural infirmity, we must feel constrained to double the praise which his literary works might extort from us. Early in life deprived by accident of the sight of one eye, and scarcely able to make any use of the other for many years, this persevering scholar procured from the Royal Archives of Madrid the immense mass of MSS. collected by Munoz, the historiographer of the Indies, and with the help of a secretary, whom he employed to read the documents aloud, he extracted from them the materials necessary for the composition of his Histories of the Conquest of Mexico and Peru. Then, blind as he was, he dictated, and even partly wrote, the works which have charmed and instructed so many of those whom I address. Though he afterwards obtained a partial recovery of sight, it was so incomplete that he of your correspondent's Queries in the affirmamust be numbered amongst the great blind au- tive; it being common to see in Virginia slaves, or free people who have been slaves, with names thors of the world,-with Homer, Milton, and the learned author of the Conquest of England acquired in the manner suggested: e. g., "Philip by the Normans, another blind historian of our Washington," better known in Jefferson county The President requested the Secretary to fur- as Uncle Phil.," formerly a slave of the WashCape Palmas, bore the surname of " Davenport," nish a copy of his address, that it might be in-ingtons. A large family, liberated and sent to serted in the minutes. For his own part he from the circumstance that their progenitor had thought a more judicious selection could not been owned by the Davenports. In fact, the have been made; and he derived peculiar satisare generally used as first names: e. g., John faction from the circumstance that the Council, practice is almost universal. But fancy names in making their choice, had not confined them- Randolph, Peyton, Jefferson, Fairfax, Carter, &c. selves to their own continent, but had gone A fine old body-servant of Col. Willis was called across the Atlantic. Every true friend of science Burgundy," shortened into "Uncle Gundy." must notice with pleasure the rapid advance So that "Milton," in the case mentioned, may which the Americans were making in every have been merely the homage paid to genius by branch of learning, and especially in the depart- some enthusiastic admirer of the poet.-Notes ments of Geology, Mathematics, and Astrono- and Queries. my, in the last of which sciences they were rivalling their instructors; and, therefore, it is our duty not merely to feel grateful for their co-operation, but to give them what credit may be afforded by the expression of admiration and regard, or by the due appreciation of their labors." Messrs. Prescott and Macaulay were elected. own time." MAJOR-GENERAL WOOLFE. - The following MS. is advertised for sale. Is anything known concerning it? J. BALCH. Notes and Queries. NAMES OF SLAVES.-I can answer the first ILLUSTRATION OF LONGFELLOW-" GOD'S ACRE."-Longfellow's very beautiful little poem, commencing: an "I like that ancient Saxon phrase, which calls The burial-ground God's acre," is doubtless familiar to all your readers. It may interest some of them to know, that the " cient Saxon phrase" has not yet become obsolete. I read the words "GOTTES ACKER," when at Basle last autumn, inscribed over the entrance to a modern cemetery, just outside the St. Paul's "A Copy of Orders written by Major-General | Gate of that city. |