ish commerce, on which the purse of the | ing, and that no great power can permit Madrid Government depends. If Span- them to suffer thus without interference. iards can put their pride into their pocket, Under such circumstances, it seems to as President Lincoln and Mr. Seward put us that Señor Castelar could hardly play their pride into their pocket under very a better game than to avail himself of similar circumstances when the Trent this incident for the restoration of order affair took place in 1861, the true policy in Cuba by a powerful and friendly Govfor Spain is to continue to declare in the ernment, which is very likely to play into strongest way its regret for what has oc- the hands of Spain supposing the United curred, and its determination to give the States are treated with frankness and United States any indemnity that is deference. That is, we confess, what, as practicable, and further to sanction, it seems to us, the Republican Governnegatively at least, and if possible to con- ment in Spain ought to attempt. Whether trol by concerted action, the American the unreasoning and morbid Spanish intervention now menaced. It is per- pride will admit of a policy which is so fectly true and obvious to all the world capable of a humiliating interpretation, that Spain has not the power to restore we confess that we cannot but doubt. order in Cuba, and that the United States, But we are quite sure that if it will not, if they choose, have. It is also true that far greater humiliations are in store for it, American interests are seriously suffer-and that they are by no means far off.

THE QUOTATION OF AMERICAN SECURITIES.- - We are glad to see that the Committee of the Stock Exchange proposes, from the beginning of next year, to adopt a change in the official par of exchange which has been fixed for dealing in securities expressed in American currency. The present official par is 4s 6d per dollar, which is widely different from the real par, and the consequence is that to allow for this difference the current quotations in dollars are much below what they would be if the exchange at which they were to be converted into sterling approximated more closely to the real exchange between the dollar and the pound. It is proposed, accordingly, to substitute 4s for 4s 6d, and by this change the difference will be hardly appreciable, so that the current quotations in future will represent somewhat closely the actual proportion of the price of the stocks and shares quoted to the price of issue or nominal par. As it is, American securities are at a constant apparent discount, even when they are at or above par, and the quotation is necessarily puzzling. Mr. Richardson, the Secretary of the American Treasury, whose appeal on this subject we noticed lately, will be pleased to sce that his object will be so quickly accomplished, that the improved quotation of American securities on the London Stock Exchange will commence simultaneously with the amended quotation of the New York Exchange on London, directly representing the relation of the dollar to the sterling. The persistence of the old official forms of quotation, which are now to be altered, is one of the most curious proofs of the conservatism of trade customs.

Economist.

DISCOVERY IN SWITZERLAND. Antiquaries have been of the opinion that the weapons and implements of bronze found in Switzerland have been manufactured, not in that country, but beyond the Alps, and that they had been obtained thence by the Helvetians in the way of trade. Latterly, however, a few more have been discovered in France and Germany; and very recently Dr. Gros, of Neuville, has made a discovery in the course of researches at the lake station of Meyringen, a site remarkable for the quantity and excellent condition of bronzes which have been found. Here the doctor has unearthed sundry highly interesting things, among which are crucible-beds, channels for the overflowing metal and other matters, giving evidence that a foundry had existed on the spot; besides a large number of moulds for the castings.

IN the autumn of 1843 Mr. Bright was announced to attend a public meeting in Alnwick, and these were the words in which the editor of the Newcastle Journal referred to the event: "It is stated (says the Tory editor) that Bright, the anti-Corn-law agitator, is expected to visit the wool fair which will be held at Alnwick shortly, in order to scatter the seeds of disaffection in that quarter. Should he make his appearance, which is not improbable (for the fellow has impudence for anything of this sort), it is to be hoped there may be found some stalwart yeoman ready to treat the disaffected vagabond as he deserves." This "disaffected vagabond" is now a cabinet minister, and the principles he advocated at the Alnwick wool fair in 1843 have long since I become a law.

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From The Quarterly Review.
VOLTAIRE.*

Voltaire's Ferney Patriarchate, and a critique of his philosophical and theologSINCE the character and career of Vol- ical writings, which appears to us itself taire were last reviewed in our pages (on open to criticism. M. Athanase Coqueoccasion of the appearance of the late rel fils, who has figured lately as M. Lord Brougham's "Lives of Men of Let- Guizot's "Liberal" antagonist in the deters "), much has been added, in the shape bates of the Synod of the French Reof circumstantial and accurate detail, to formed Church, contributes very usefulthe knowledge of that strange subject pre-ly, in his volume on "Jean Calas et sa viously accessible to general readers.

hibits the character, if it exaggerates the enduring effects, of his irregular onslaughts on the creed of Christendom.

Famille," to the authentic illustration of M. Gustave Desnoires terres' five vol- the most creditable and not least characumes, the last of which brings Voltaire teristic episode of Voltaire's later life to the end of his personal démêlés with his persevering and successful efforts for "thrones and dominations," and to the the reversal of an atrocious sentence, and beginning of the period facetiously dis- the rescue from ruin of the innocent famtinguished as that of his Ferney Patriar-ily of an equally innocent and legally chate, are distinguished in a remark- murdered parent. And, finally, Mr. Morable degree by minute research and ex-ley brings up the rear of recent Voltaireact citation of every accessible document literature. His Apology for Voltaire exthat can throw fresh light on his subject. They are not less distinguished by the skilful mise en scène of the motley Voltairian drama, which kept Europe amused or scandalized during its whole performance, and in which the author successively brings on the stage the minor actors in due relation and subordination to the chief performer. The recently published Voltaire-readings to the Princess Louis of Hesse and a select circle of hearers, by Dr. David Friedrich Strauss (the general tone of which provokes little recollection of the graver and more questionable antecedents of the veteran controversialist), condense so much of the results of M. Desnoiresterres' previous labours as could be brought within one small volume; and supply, in addition, a complete and entertaining narrative of the twenty years of

1. Voltaire et la Société au XVIIIme Siècle. Par Gustave Desnoiresterres. Vol. I. La Jeunesse de Voltaire. Vol. II. Voltaire à Cirey. Vol. III. Voltaire à la Cour. Vol. IV. Voltaire et Frédéric.

Vol. V. Voltaire aux Délices. Paris, 1871-3. 2. Voltaire.

Strauss. Leipzig, 1870.

M.

Biographers have differed as to both the place and the precise time of Voltaire's birth, and he himself has assigned different dates to it at different periods. As if the spirit of scepticism had been destined to beset his life from the beginning, the first exercise of it has been made at the expense of his baptismal register, which bears date 22nd November, 1694, and certifies his birth as having taken place on the day previous. Desnoiresterres' researches have fixed his birthplace at Paris about the date given by the register; and there is no reason whatever for crediting by preference any of the various fancy dates scattered about in his correspondence. The older he made himself, the less, he imagined, would the authorities dare to persecute him. “Don't say, I beg of you," he writes to D'Argental, in January, 1777 (the year before his death), "that I am only eighty-two: it is a cruel calumny. Even were it true, according

Sechs Vorträge von David Friedrich 3. Voltaire in Frankfort am Main, 1753. Denk to a cursed baptismal register, that I was würdigkeiten von K. A. Varnhagen von Ense. Achter Band. Leipzig, 1859.

4. Jean Calas et sa Famille. Etude historique d'après les Documents originaux, suivie de Pièces justificatives et des Lettres de la Sœur A.-J. Fraisse de la Visitation. Par Athanase Coquerel fils. Seconde Edition, refaite sur de nouveaux documents,

Paris,

born in November, 1694, it must still be granted me that I am in my eighty-third year."

François Marie Arouet (we shall see in the sequel how he came to assume the name of Voltaire) was almost condemned to death in the hour of birth, and, it is

'said, was ondoyé (the term employed for "The little Society of the Temple," informal sprinkling with water at home), says M. Desnoiresterres, "presided over lest there might be no time for the eccle- by the Abbé de Chaulieu, though chiefly siastical rite. He was all his life, or composed of old men, was none the more always said he was, on the point of dying, chaste, sober, or orthodox on that acand was resolved, all the while, to live as count." To these voluptuaries the nearlong as he could- and longer. ness of the tomb seemed only an additional reason for making haste to enjoy their last days of grace. It was the philosophy of Tom Moore's Regent in the "Twopenny Post Bag:

Brisk let us revel, while revel we may,
For the gay bloom of fifty soon passes away;
And then people get fat,

And infirm, and all that,

And a wig, I confess it, so clumsily sits,
That it frightens the little Loves out of their

wits.

Voltaire owed much that afterwards peculiarly distinguished him to his Jesuit college-training, notwithstanding the ridicule which he afterwards threw upon it in his "Dialogue entre un Conseiller et un ex-Jésuite." The rhetorical and poetical exercises through which he was put by the good Père Porée, not only in Latin, but in French also, and the dramatic performances, which made a conspicuous figure in all the Jesuit establishments, supplied the first aliment to his genius for poetry and the drama, to which Vincennes and the Bastille had for a he owed so much of his contemporary while avenged the sinking monarchy of celebrity throughout his career. the bacchanalian outrages of the princes, As Voltaire's father was a highly aged abbés, and adolescent acolytes of respectable notary, entrenched in his the Temple. But the death of Louis morale bourgeoise, though of eminent and XIV. instantly freed from exile or duextensive aristocratic business connec- rance vile the Chevalier (Grand Prieur) tions, it seems singular that he should de Vendôme, and the Abbé Servien, the have selected for friend of the family, and two most audacious of that audacious godfather of the infant François Marie, brotherhood. Vendôme was sincerely

a certain Abbé de Châteauneuf, whose and profoundly respected for his vigour clerical reputation chiefly lay in the line in vice by the new Regent. "I have of gallantry, and whose idea of carrying seen him," said Saint-Simon, who knew out the spiritual relation between himself him well, "in perpetual admiration of the and his god-child was first decisively Grand Prior, who for forty years had illustrated by introducing young Arouet every night gone to bed drunk, always to the old Aspasia of French hetairism, publicly kept mistresses, and never ran Ninon de l'Enclos, who was then turned dry of sallies of impiety and irreligion." eighty. The lively lad found favour in Amongst these débauchés à outrance, the eyes of the lively old lady, who left says M. Desnoiresterres, "of whom him 2000 francs in her will to buy books Chaulieu was the patriarch, the prejudice with. Godfather Châteauneuf introduced of age no more existed than any other. his youthful charge into worse company | Greybeards retained all the gaiety and than old Ninon's, exceedingly good com- vigour of adolescence; the lapse of years pany indeed in the sense of the day. was ignored altogether; they glided by While yet a pupil of the Jesuit college, like river-water, leaving no trace behind. he was taken into the so-called Société du If they developed embonpoint, that only Temple, where, during the last dreary increased the resemblance to Anacreon years of hypocritical devotion of the and Silenus, the saints held most in honGrand Monarque's reign, princes and our of the Bacchic Olympus." Their dukes solaced themselves with gallant ranks indeed were ever and anon thinned and poetical abbés for their compelled by death. Godfather Châteauneuf was gravity at court by the most unrestrained carried off amongst others. But new derision of religion and morality alto- guests instantly filled the place of the gether. old; and the religion, or rather philos