A retrospect of the year, which closes this evening, though
not legitimately matter for triumph, is upon the whole consolatory.
We are again at peace with the world—not "armed peace," but peace without its Palmerstonian terrors. The tedious and embarrassing war in China is over—for the present; and the Plenipotentiary helped us out of the serape with as imposing a grace as possible. The disasters in Cabul could not be undone, but they have been gilded over with succeeding victories ; and Lord ELLENBOROUGH has also drawn us out of that scrape, by recalling the army within the Indus. The secondary Syrian question, the internal government of the country, approaches a tardy solution. The Servian question seems as if it would come to nothing, unless Russia conceals some very monstrous designs. Spain's last revolt is quelled: France's last fit of anger, about the Barcelona Consuls, turns out to have been a dream ; and although the European proselytism of the United States may lead to further questions about the right of search, that question will have to be discussed on a broader basis than mere diplomatic punctilio in a wrangle with France. With the United States Lord Asanuarazi has placed us in profound peace.
At home too we are at peace. The insurrection in the North has glided away into the past, and the Chartists have been quietly de- bating with Mr. STURGE and his friends at Birmingham. Trade, the long-enduring depression of which has spread even to our anti- podean colonies, revives somewhat. Workmen begin to be a little better employed ; and an abundant harvest, after three bad ones, has made bread much cheaper, just as wages have slightly ad- vanced, to prepare a merrier Christmas and a less dismal winter. The town of Paisley is a signal exception to this improvement. The Agrarian outrage in Ireland belongs not to the time, but to the permanent social condition of that country; still awaiting its remedy. Probably the most marked dissatisfaction at present is to be found among the middle class; to whom " cheap bread" is not such a vitally important matter, who are not yet quite certain how much the reduced tariff saves to them, but who are exquisitely sensitive to what the Income-tax takes from them. In the midst of that dissatisfaction Parliament will meet ; and before surchar- ging, and appealing, and paying are well over, the survey for the second year will commence. Still, even the annoyance at the mode in which the Income-tax levies money for necessary purposes, does not disguise the fact that the year 1843 will have begun under hap- pier auspices than 1842.
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