TOPICS OF THE DAY.

• THE NEW HOUSE AND ITS BUILDERS.

REPRESENTATIVE GOVERNMENT is undergoing a new stage in the trial to which it has been exposed, and constituencies as well as candidates are under judgment. Although the motives to the dissolution were questionable, and the Royal proclamation itself was somewhat precipitated, it cannot be said that the dissolution -was a surprise. Belong ago as the beginning of last November, in laying before our readers sonic means of testing Members that should seek reelection at the hands of their constituents, we observed—" The Parliament of 1852 will probably not survive the session of 1857"; and the event has confirmed our calculation.* Neither men of the Member of Parliament class nor constituencies ought to plead surprise if they should find themselves unprepared ; but if they have been unprepared to do their duty at the present stage of their trial, it must be because they are indifferent, or because they count upon the indifference of others to condone their own neglects. Should the new House of Commons net be an improvement upon the last, we must, priina facie, assume that the constituencies are not endowed with the proper capacity for choosing the National Representatives ; and in judging that capaoity, we must remember, that although the constituencies comprise only one-seventh of the manhood of the country, they are intrusted with the duty of choosing for the entire community. In the present temper of keen observation, many a "chic!" will be " takin' notes,' to ascertain whether it is a fact, or a fiction, that the select constituencies possess the requisite' qualities for exercising that trust. They will have to show, by their conduct in judging of the candidates before them, to what degree they are influenced by the convictions or wants of the whole people. , It is one incident of a limited suffrage, that by the opportunity which it affords it almost suggests, as a means of obtaining the vote, an appeal to the sectional interests of the particular class• holding the franchise, even when those interests are against the interests of other classes or of the entire country. If.overy freeman in the country possessed the franchise, it would be impossible: to make this sectional appeal, for if it were attempted with one class it would arouse the jealousy of the others ; and °raptly in proportion as a candidate obtained the favour of a fraction; he • would lose the favour of the majority. The idea of extending the suffrage has become familiarized to an classes of minds. If Moderato Reformers and Whigs, calculating their own chances, con.template some special and limited extension, there are some among • extreme Conservatives, as well as among extreme Radicals, whothink that the highest influences in the country, as well as the most popular, would be furthered by a very wide extension of thefranchise. The present election, therefore, places the constituencies upon their trial with reference to their capacity for exercising the trust in comparison with those classes who are at present excluded. We are not only free to confess that the constituencies lnbour under difficulties artificially created for them; but that „some allowance must be made for their honesty and their capacity when we estimate the results. Every effort is made to perplex -their apprehension, and to draw from them a decision upon false-isSues. The candidate strives to appear before them as that which he is not, and to obtain their authority for his entering Parliament in order to do that which they have no intention of empowering him to do. The very business of the branch Of the Legislature to. which their Members are sent increases the distraction of' mind. Bo much is done or attempted, or debated and not done, in the House of Commons, that the facts upon which the estimate of the character should rest become confusing from their number and intricacy. If a few salient votes could be taken out of the -whole number, a simple judgment might be formed ; but an imMeuse multitude of other considerations are thrust upen the elector, and he cannot entirely throw them off. Fairness to the candidate is one plea upon why:Ili-he is urged to admit diitractingt considerations. The House of Commons itself is compelled to do a groat mass of business that does not properlybelong to it. We have before us a list of about 180 private and local bills, which passed a second reading in the late short session, and stand overas a burden upon the new Parliament in their more laborious • stages,—bills with which the House of Commons ought to have as little to do as with the establishment of a railroad at Melbourne or a town-hall at Toronto. Not only is the Member distracted by subjects thus thrown upon his time and attention, but the local objects which would very properly determine the choice of dele-gates in any local council interfere with the choice of delegates to represent the whole nation in the Imperial -council ; and the electors are drawn into choosing men for controlling the administration of the empire, on the great subjects-of legislation Or foreign policy, by testa with reference to theirprobable vote about, a railway-station or a town-bridge.

Another matter for serious consideration. It is a question of interest to mon of all polities, whether or not the most eminent of the old Members shall be reelected. Everybody is poking whet* we shall see in the new House ofeommons, not only Lord Palmer= ston and Mr. Disraeli, but Lord John Russell, Sir ;lames Graham, Mr. Sidney Herbert, Mr. Cobden, Mr. John Bright, Mr. Roebuck, Sir Edward Lytton,—men with whose names we have been familiar ever since the time of the Reform Bill, or at least of Corn

• Spectator Supplement, November 1st, 1856; setting forth the Work done and the Votes of Members on the live most critical Diviaions. law repeal. There is-not a new man talked about. Mr. Lumley can bring forward Italian singers for the opera season whose "first appearance" creates some expectancy ; but there is not a single "first appearanee " for that great national theatre the -House of Commons. There may be ," mute inglorious Miltons "—forthcoming Demostheneses ; bid if so, they are perfectly unknown, and this is not a country in -which a man with thegift of -oratory reMaine as unsuspected see. violet. Thtenntural inference is, that 'there are no new men,-or only a host of average respectables, as like the general run of the Late 654 as any dozen out of that House. Even the bar has ceased to supply men cif the old proportions. We might conclude that Englishmen are less inclined to give themselves up to the ombitioa of patriotism, to public objects, and are more addicted to the pursuits of gain or individual promotion. If so; it isitprognostie of national decline ; but at all events it practically throws a new difficulty upon the constituencies. In many oases their selection is only Hobson's choice. At the close of the Seision of 1856 we anticipated, what has proved to be the fact, that Lord Palmerston would take some ..coiivenient opportunity of riding to thehustings on the British Lion and proposing hitimelf as the question for the country. But there is a further queirtionwhether be is to ride back from the hustings to the House of Ueimunens, still on the British Lion, with the vote of ." Yes or No,'-'-pitre and: simple, in hie Valise. His policy has completely answered his primary purpose. Ile has, as everybody knows by this time, seemed his majority. But there is a future after that immediate Suture. When the Parliament shall have fulfilled its Tpucticin in supporting Palmerston, what is it to do afterwards ? It cannot remain, Ithe the attendants round a beatified hero, Tor evenness "supporting Palmerston." It must have some other work. _Itiftthe.Govennuent has not provided it with that something else, nor has lord Palmerston taken any steps to prepare i strong ground for himself after the first few questions of the new session Shall be deeided: We have no detailed information as to the things for which the country is called upon to pay in the really large Estimates Of the current year ; and the necesiary •ecirelequence is, that the :Demisters themselves must -be ignorant of the way in which the new Parliament will deal with these :unknown Estimates. But it is possible that subjects 10f controversy will arise beyond the settlement of the Budget, and not very long ,after. _13.y.;thc Anodein which the Members have been-seneback-to -their eonstitfienti, the Premier has made for himself in -tbafititigelyni* More iniportant _stage of affairs, no position.On the first -few. OeCaSiOMS the Liberal majority will be called upon to fulfil its pledge -of supporting Palmerston against the Tory minority ; than will come the ordinary business of the session,in which questions will have enee_ more to be judged upontheir merits. Neeir,' throughout his own declarations in the course of this appeal to the country, Lord Palmerston has spoken at the indenendent;Libertils in a manner _which makes them sensible of.unjustimpiitations, persisted in even after Lord Palmerston's colleagues had disavowed them. He has widened the contrast between the mere Dlinisterialist and the sturdy Liberal: There Will-therefore be 0.--_seposite party, :below the gangway, watching the course el' the Gevernment, eritioizing it in ,flank, and ready to tiark.074-nyperfectly-legitimate. opportunities foe vindicating. Liberallarinciples -as distinguished from simple Ministerial subserviendy. 'Li the poutin of the ordinary business which milt .copie before both Houses,' questions will arise as to the framingofthe Estimates, thd-conduet of departments, and agaidisteth-etivatment Of such questions: by, the Rouge of Commons itself : we shall we whether the new Rouse will be prepared, in the name of its constituencies_ And of the country, to control the Administration'Were it goes wrong, and urge it where it is slow. ' Should the House .fail in executing that duty-, the very Constitution of the Represeutative Chainber itself will come practically and forcibly info question: and with the conduct of the representatives the oonduct of the constituenoies will be, perhaps not mildly, discussed.. The absence of a sufficient political motive in the Present sketion is thus likely enough to issue in the revival of strong political Snotives in the country.

WHY NOT HATE LORD DERBY ? lORD PALME.RSTON intimates that if he WOre not continued in office we should have Lord_Derby for Minister. Well, why not ? Lord Derby, like LordTalmerston, is an gnglish nobleman ; he has been, -like his rival, a dashing politician and a dashing speaker ; he is for "progressive improvement," and Lord Palmerston is for "progressive improvement," just as both are for " honourable " peace. With either for Premier we -shOuld have further reduction of the Income-tax. as soon as possible • the Parliament would continue to meet-in February ; the London season and the session would close -tibOut the same time in summer ; 'dinner-parties would be given as usual ; trade-'would go on, with increasing wealth for the .traders, increasing exports, and increasing revenue ; wages Would have the same vicissitudes; and the ratio of births, marriages, and deaths, -would recognize no difference. Why, then,not be quite ad content to have Lord Derby as Lord Palmerston? Because Derby has earned with the country the repute of being a man who thinks more of preserving the privileges and predominance of his " order " than of helping to raise other orders. Because he took office on one pretext—that he was to maintain " Protection' " and kept it on another—that he was to resist "Democracy." Because he is unreliable : he is a man of big words and little deeds. But there are stronger reasons than these why Lord Derby is unacceptable. He was once a participator in carrying Parliamentary Reform ; now he opposes all organic changes" ; and the simple fact, that he is classed among the opponents of Reform renders him odious to the great bulk of "the country." it is true that there has not been much agitation about "Reform" now for several years past, and probably will not be until the public shall undergo some severe political disappointment. But in the mean time there is, among all classes of " Liberals " from Whigs to Chartists, in all ranks from Lord John Russell to the daylabourer, an avowed conviction that Parliamentary Reform is a creed that must on no account be gainsaid. Lord Derby is an avowed renegade from that faith, an open opponent; and that is the most obvious reason why, even in these days Of fiat politics, his name is available as a bugbear, just as Wellington's was in France after the war far into the depths of peace. But neither is this the sole reason. Lord Derby perceives the general objection to him, and he endeavours to soften the dislike, to diminish the mistrust, by declaring himself in favour of "progressive improvement" "in all [to borrow the words of his rival] that concerns the welfare of the nation "; so that, to judge Lord Derby by his antecedents as Irish Secretary, and by the elasticity of his present declarations for "progressive improvement," you might almost expect him to become an acting Reformer again, if the pressure were strong enough. But that will not satisfy the great Liberal party—it wishes for political movement, and demands a man actuated by the same wish. With regard to some public men it believes that there is the same wish in their bosoms ; but whatever Lord Derby might profess, or perhaps upon compulsion do, the public shrewdly believes that in his heart there as no such wish—.that his wish and theirs are not the same.

These are the reasons that render the name of Derby a threat available for electioneering purposes. Perhaps the reasons are worth studying by some who use the threat.

HONOURS.

Drrxra digniori " cannot always be said of any honour conferred by human hands ; but seldom have honours, royal or public, fallen with such caprice as within the present year. Crown and Country seem to be as blind as Justice in the distribution of their favours. It is almost impossible to extract any principle from the practice. Lambeth has been greatly amused because one candidate had dis oovered, in the allusions of another candidate, an intimation that the Joseph Hume of the present day has been offered some kind of title, which he declined. Well, why not ? There are few Members in Parliament more respectable than Mr. William Williams ; and what is there so very laughable in the idea of making him a Baronet, or even a Lord? Have we no foolish Lords, no profligate Lords, no Lords out at elbows, and—last de

tion in this commercial county—dodging their creditors? What is there surprising in the refusal A man feels that he preserves his own dignity best by keeping to the post which best suits his own personality.

Honours may come by routine. One of the most estimable men in the country, the late Speaker of the House of Commons, has become Baron Eversley of Heckfield, with scarcely a choice on the part of himself or his Sovereign ; and there is far less distinction for him in thus drifting to a Viscounty, than in the simple act of the Members in uncovering while thanks were voted to him. Sir John M'Neill and Colonel Tulloch—those eternal represen

tatives of injustice converted to justice—performed certain services in the Crimea which were thought worthy of being received ; the reception being the only reward offered. On a second view of the subject, eighteen months afterwards, they were thought worthy of 1000/. a-piece ; so that, according to the state of the political market, a real service, executed with a great deal of trouble, ability, and judgment, may be worth 1000/. or nil. The House of Commons has suggested a third view of the subject, and it is then discovered that Colonel Tulle& is one of the fittest men to be made a Knight Commander of the Bath. Extremes meet, and the Bath is the natural correlative of throwing cold water on his services. It is at the same time discovered that Sir John 31'Neill is a suitable person to be a Privy Couneellor of the Queen. Twenty months and a little discussion make all the difference in estimating the same thing as the equivaknt of 10004, a seat at the Privy Council with the prefix of "Right Honourable" to his name, or nil. -Where is the principle here ?

The constituencies are distributing power, opportunity for pro

motion, and a title which is much coveted;' for even your Marquis or Lord by courtesy stickles for his title of " M.P. What class of people do the constituencies select to represent the power and dignity of every class, from an Edward Ellice to an E. T. Smith ? People are laughing at Bedford for hiving thought of such a thing ; but Mr. Smith has managed one "house," why not another? What can we venture to predicate of the ordinary voting-machine, except that he is capable of being driven by a Hayter or a Beresford ? It is thought a great advantage for the Peer to have served in the House of Commons, from the business habits which he acquires ; and if Mr. Smith stands for Bedford, surely he might bring into the House of Commons some useful experiences from "the other house" ; to say nothing of a third and not less public house. It is true that a Mr,. Sheridan denies being. a relative of George the Fourth's friend, although the repudiating Candidate for Dudley does call himself " Bnnsley." But perhaps the day has passed when constituencies would consent to elect an " M.P. for Drury Lane."

NEW STAGE OF THE SLAVERY QUESTION.

Tan judgment of the Supreme Court of the United States in the case of Dred Scott settles many questions besides the citizenship of the individual or even of the African race. It pronounces that men of the African race are not citizens of the United States ; that aliens cannot sue in the courts of the United States ; and that the Missouri Compromise of 1820 was a legislative act eXceeding the powers of Congress, void and of no legal effect: and probably the judgment has other legal consequences. The condemnation of the Missouri Compromise seems to be logically drawn from the mode in which the States delegate their authority to Congress. The theory of the United States is, that each separate State is sove reign and independent, only bound by the original Constitution which brought the first thirteen States together, and by which each State subsequently entering into the Federation has been

bound. There is nee compact without an equivalent and a power of enforcement; but the permanent compact into which the States enter is ()Hulked both by the equivalent and the power of enforcement. To each State at the time of its most unprotected condition the protection of the Republic is far more than an equivalent for any acquisition to the Union brought by the individual State. Thus there is a logical right in the Federation to prevent the State from retracting at a subsequent period ; and the United States have the power of preventing any one State from breaking the Union, as we saw in South Carolina. The compact of Union, therefore, is absolute and permanent ; but the powers conceded to the Federal Government and the Congress being of the nature of a delegation, must be strictly construed. Congress cannot receive by delegation a power to interfere with the sovereign rights and separate institution of each State, so long as each State is faithful to the fundamental laws of the United Republic. A "peculiar institution" was specifically recognized at the foundation of the Union. The " Territory " is the chrysalis condition of the State, and to prohibit slavery in the Territory is virtually to prohibit it in the State; which is, as we have seen, beyond the power of the Congress. The attempts to compromise dui question, as in 1820 and at other times, have always failed ; and they will always fail, partly from the knowledge that there is no power of enforcing a compact, so that either side may withdraw from it. Any questions, therefore, respecting the territorial extension of slavery, must be determined within the fundamental laws of the Republic; and it is one advantage arising out of the distinct judgment, that the advocates of freedom are deprived of false reliances, and are thrown bath upon the legitimate modes of restraining the extension of slavery and promoting the extension of freedom.

For to do both these things it is still possible, though not by means of tampering with the laws of the Union.

It is not so easy to understand how the decision that an African is not a citizen of the United States can be maintained. At the common law of international jurisdiction, if such an expression may be used, it has been held that the continued residence of an alien family from father to son confers citizenship in the third generation, leaving the resident the choice of exercising his citizenship either in the country of his adoption or the country of his ancestors. This would imply that the African in the third generation, if free, is do facto a citizen of the country in which he resides. Of course it is not for us to question the decision of the Judges in a country whose Supreme bench has rivalled that of England in the knowledge, the uprightness, and the wisdom of its Judges ; and there have been so many statutes in America bearing upon the subject of slavery that a foreigner cannot follow the law through its changes. On one ground we can easily perceive a distinction between an African and aliens of other races. It is, that the African, in common with other barbarians, does not come within the range of treaty-making relations ; and it has latterly been understood that the public law of Europe does not apply to races beyond the pale of European civilization, or beyond the bounds of those states which have been recognized by treaties among each other. The decision that an alien cannot sue in the United States seems to have an interest for others besides Africans; but we presume the right has been defined in some instances by treaty. Still it leaves the African outside the pale of any civil law, save the statute laws for his own coercion.

Such a state of things seems incompatible with Christianity, humanity, justice, or civil order. We presume, however,. that every restraint upon the civil consequences would be found in the application of the penal law, which would restrain men from murder and from any other crimes which are "mala in se." But, independently of this technical resource for the defence of the Negro against the worst forms of tyranny, it is likely that the decision will have really beneficial consequences. It will at once take the whole race and all collateral questions out of the hands of those who have been disputing, and hitherto the African has suffered as much from those who intended to benefit him as from those who have persecuted. It is well known, that in the Slave States a strong feeling has grown up against the use of extreme powers. We have been assured, and not without evidence in sup port of the assurance, that it is Abolitionism which has prevented the growth of a humaner and a wiser policy in the South. By removing the African race beyond the range of litigation at law,

the present decision really leaves public opinion an opportunity of greater freedom. The new Government at Washington begins by avowing its determination to assert the law and to maintain order : should it be successful in that resolve, the maintenance of order

will be another guarantee for the growth and enforcement of public opinion ; and that judgment which appears to take away the last scrap of right from the African race may be the commencement of a much more favourable regime.

Immediately on the morrow after one of the fiercest contests on this entangled and perilous subject, it is far too early to think of any deliberations with a view to ulterior proceedings. A " carious ' would scarcely be the proper arena for deliberation on a question of the kind. But that the subject will at once be taken up by the active mind of America, South as well as North, there can be no doubt. Should the Federal Republic succeed in maintaining order, the practical difficulty of preserving the subordination of an alien but conquered race would present itself in new forms: and it is not impossible, that if a man of sense and energy were at the head of afthirs, he might be able to revive the settlement of the subject by the separate States. For perhaps the most valuable result of . the late decision is, to show that whenever the settlement shall take place, it can only be obtained from the legislators of the independent States, and not from the Federal authorities.

NEW ROSES FOR THE BRIDAL-WREATH IN AUSTRIA. THE Roman Catholic priests of Austria are at present employed in making the people of Bohemia and other provinces under the Austrian rule feel that submission to the Emperor and the Pope involves personal insult and. disgrace for the Emperor's subjects. This is done in the most direct and practical form. It has been a reproach to the Roman Catholic Church, that its confessional is made the medium of suggestions which are either an insult to the innocent or an instigation to the uninformed : but the confessional has at once a character of sacredness and of secrecy which mitigates some of its worst abuses. The priest has now stepped out of the confessional, and is uttering those insults and instigations in the open church.

Perhaps there is no occasion of life in which the feelings are more sensitive, or more alive to any unworthy treatment, than the period of marriage. The whole prooeeding requires to be treated with the greatest delicacy. Outspeaking is one form which perfect delicacy assumes, but in that case the ideas couched in the outspoken language must in themselves be pure. The intrusion of detestable suggestions, of imputations incompatible with the very presence of purity, becomes either an impertinence to be scouted or a tyranny not to be endured without shame and resentment. The Roman Catholic priesthood have forgotten those plain rules, and have made marriage itself one of the occasions for flaunting their hideous catechisms. The bride and bridegroom are to be catechized in the presence of each other, and of the witnesses. The bridegroom is to be asked twenty-four questions : amongst them are two which the priest may put—one asking the bridegroom whether he over promised marriage to the mother or the sister of the bride ; and the other asking him, in the coarsest language, whether tho mother, sister, or first cousin of his bride, has been either his wife or his mistress. A widower is to be asked whether the bride has been his mistress during the life of his deceased wife. Nor is the bride to be spared : the same questions are to be put to her, and in addition, she is to be asked, "Are you pregnant ? and if so, does your bridegroom know that such is the case ?"

Now it is possible that persons might come before the priest who would. have to answer some of these questions in the affirmative; but the number of such persons must be very few; and it is more than probable that, oaths and penalties notwithstanding, they would equivocate so as practically to falsify their answer. In all but exceptional oases such questions would have to be answered in the negative ; but the more absolutely negative the reply. which the catechumen would have a right to give, the more burning the insult. The putting of such questions is, in fact, to render the ministration of the Roman Catholic priesthood intolerable in the most important occasions of life. The people which willingly and notoriously endures insults of this kind is humiliated in the eyes of itself and of other nations; and in undergoing these degradations the Austrian gives the Italian his revenge. Thus Austrian and French troops maintain the Pope in Italy ; and the Pope becomes, through his clergy, a nuisance and an opprobrium to the Austrians.

WITCHES.

Sons kinds of "protection," perhaps many kinds, are positively injurious to the objects which they profess to have in view. The protection of the corn culture was of that kind ; it positively diminished both stock and growth in this country, and injured the agricultural as well as the general interest ; and perhaps the protection of brains is as bad as that of corn. By the decision of the Judge and Jury in the ease of James Tunmeliffe, the public at large is informed that it may play the fool, and will be protected, in the consequences of its folly. Thomas Charlesworth, a farmer, is told by James Tunnicliffe, a beer-shop-keeper, that his mother has bewitched his house and flocks, making hiswife ill, his milk refuse to curd. Charlesworth pays Tunnioliffe money— some 301., 13/ of it in one sum—and takes him into his house to carry on his operations more completely ; which gives an opportunity of drugging the dupe and his family for the purpose of keeping up the appearance of "witchcraft. When Tunnieliffe does not succeed in his remedies, he lays it on some other person who is "working against him" ; and Charlesworth believes him. In this story the dupe cuts a worse figure than the sharper. Tun

nicliffe was knave enough not to refuse sums of money from a

willing victim ; but Charlesworth was to believe the basest and most odious misconduct in his own mother; he thought it more probable that any mishap among his cows, or the bad. making of his cheese, was ascribable to his mother's malignity than to his own clumsiness or negligence. Yet Charlesworth appears to have been in a better station of life than Tunnieliffe. The judgment therefore goes to tell the Charlesworths of Staffordshire and other counties, that they may believe anything which they hear, the law protecting them against the evil consequences. Pay a man for the lies you almost put into his mouth, and you render him responsible for your own credulity. The action at law against the witches is almost enough to make the unwary believe that witchcraft is a species of offence not simply to be ignored and treated as ridiculous ; that there may be groun.ds for believing it ; that it amounts in fact to a "false pretence," instead of no pretence at all. Not many centuries back, the law itself was punishing witches for the exercise of their calling; and the State, which so far believed in witchcraft, is now punishing witches for being believed. The Earliament and the Executive have grown more intelligent than the Rugeley farmer in the matter of witchcraft; but there are some other things perphaps in which the State would even now punish too advanced an incredulity.

If Charlesworths are to be protected against the quackery of the Tunnieliffes, it is reversing the safe rule of law " volenti non fit injuria " ; but if you apply it in one case, you should apply it in another. Inexperienced young ladies far more deserving of protection than a grown-up man, are often induced to give away themselves on pretences more impudent than any kind of " witchcraft" ; yet the law affords them very small protection. Widows, clergymen, officers, and other innocent persona, parted with their little property to sink it in railways ; yet who brought upft le witches of Capel Court ? There is a use in the Tunnieliffes of society. Their practices assist in drawing out and sharpening the wit of other classes. To abolish them by penal statute would be like preventing the wind, or bad weather,—it would enervate men by shielding them against hardening influences. It is a case in which protection, intended to prevent folly, is more likely to prevent the action of spontaneous good sense and, to breed an over-crop of folly.

AN OBJECT WORTH FIGHTING FOR.

IT all depends upon the point of view. Your manufacturer will be as great a fire-eater as Lord Ellenborough or Sir Charles Napier if you will give him the proper object to arouse his chivalry. Mr. Cobden himself is willing to give a hundred millions for war purposes "in self-defence.' Mr. Fergus, the Liberal candidate for the county of Fife, carries his chivalry further : he has a new mode of extending civilization, which he propounded to his electioneering friends at Kirkaldy the other day. The Chinese he has found to be a people "above all others the most cruel and, in many respects the most barbarous that deform the face of the earth " ; but "they are capable of civilization." Their wealth is very great indeed—enormous; proved by their doubling the exports of silk on the failure of the silk crops from France and Italy. They must have some unknown supplies of silver. But they are very corrupt. Out of the duties exacted upon English manufactures the Chinese treasury receives only five per cent, the rest is embezzled by the collectors ; and English manufactures reach the people of China in the interior at a price which they cannot afford to pay for them. The consequence is, that the hopes of developing our trade and manufactures have failed ; although, says Mr. Fergus, it has been calculated that if every man in China bought a cotton nightcap it would exhaust the whole cotton of England to supply them. The export of British manufactures to China is less than it was when the Pottinger treaty was eoneluded. "Well," said Mr. Fergus, "I think that is an object worth fighting for!" We need not stop to question whether Mr. Fergus is not confounding the gross produce of a nation with what is called "wealth"—that is, disposable produce. The aggregate commodities possessed by the Chinese—three hundred millions of people, more or less—must be enormous ; but in proportion to the number of souls holding the property, it is perhaps not much above that of the Irish peasantry. If there really were that wealthy people in the interior, ready to purchase a cotton nightcap per man, one imagines it would by this time have shown itself on the seaboard. The notion of a "false medium," of corrupt customhouse-officers keeping two great empires like the unknown Chinese empire of the interior and the universal empire of Lancashire, apart from each other, is one never witnessed yet on earth as a reality. The grand idea of Mr. Fergus is' a crusade for the purpose of carrying the cotton nightcap to the Chinese : and it is well worth the consideration of Manchester and Glasgow, of Stockport and Kirkaldy. It would perhaps require a rather larger force than five thousand men placed at the disposal of Lord Elgin; but, no doubt, conducted on commercial principles, a warfare of that kind would "pay." The demand of the grand crusader would not be "your money or your life," but "buy or die." In the time of Richard the First, crusaders u.sed to carry Christianity under the red cross. Mr. Fergus would now make the red cross the ensign for carrying to the heathen cotton manufactures. Cottons are at least more harmless than opium, and there-is enough in the very idea to fire the chivalry of the manufacturing districts.