between this country and France. At the same time I must say it is not my opinion that the government of the Emperor of the French will attempt to annex the island of Sardinia, seeing the grave consequences that would ensue. . . . Sir, I admit-one must admit that in the present state of Europe, and seeing what has passed during the last three or four years, it would be very unwise in the Government of this country, very unwise also in the Parliament of this country, to rest in a blind confidence that there would be no aggressions, no annexations, no ambitious projects entertained. The Emperor of the French is very powerful. Every body sees the great power that he has. But, at the same time, if it was his intention, as I believe it is his intention, to preserve the peace of Europe and remain upon the most friendly terms with England, I am not at all sure, I cannot rest in any perfect confidence, that the state of public opinion in France, that the state of opinion in the French Chambers or in the French army, might not in a most sudden manner alter the whole policy of the Government... .. It is a great misfortune for England, and it is a great misfortune for Europe, that such costly armaments should be kept up in time of peace; but we should not remedy that if we were to disarm, and to leave other nations to increase their preparations. I trust that no shortsighted view of our interests, no narrow spirit of saving with regard to any particular tax, will induce this country, in the present state of Europe and the world, to maintain a navy and army which are not adequate in all respects to the position we ought to occupy. Not merely the greatness, but the very safety of this country is concerned in her state of preparation."

Sir George C. Lewis became Secretary for War; Sir George Grey Home Secretary; Mr. Cardwell Chancellor of the Duchy; Sir Robert Peel, whose Liberalism contains less of true liberality than that of almost any other public man, became Irish Secretary; Mr. Layard became Under-Secretary for Foreign Affairs, for which he is at least qualified by a knowledge of foreign countries. These changes seriously damaged the Government;

but the greatest loss was the death of Lord Herbert, August 2d. He had sought relief for his failing health in the repose of the House of Lords, where he did not attempt to sustain his reputation as an orator, and had ceased during nearly the whole session to be personally before the public. As a statesman, he had no other serious fault but his popularity. The long ostracism of the followers of Peel, the obloquy which was incurred by the opponents of the Ecclesiastical Titles Bill, and the outcry against the management of the Crimean War, his lofty spirit could easily bear. But the ease with which men were won by the charm of his manner accustomed him to aim at conciliation, and to seek the utmost gratification from his natural advantages. This was the source of that want of decision and of energy which was the gravest fault imputed to him, and which appeared still graver because the consciousness of his great faculties did not conceal from him the limits of his knowledge. He redeemed these defects by extraordinary merits. He reluctantly consented, under the influence of Mr. Gladstone, to resign his office on the Crimean inquiry; but the political union of the two men came to an end after what occurred on that occasion, and Mr. Herbert held aloof when the Tories so nearly succeeded in obtaining the services of Mr. Gladstone. Whilst Mr. Gladstone supported Lord Derby's Government with his vote, both in the division on their Reform Bill and in the division which expelled them from office, Mr. Herbert was one of the most vehement of their opponents. In consequence of this difference he made that remarkable declaration, in a speech which was soon after quoted in these pages for the truest exposition of Catholic policy, that the political ostracism of the Peelite party had not been unjust, but that the Peelites existed as a party no longer. In the administration which followed, he was the soul of that policy of armed defence and distrust of France by which he created the Volunteers, and carried, in spite of the obstinate resistance and public opposition of the Chancellor of the Exchequer, the measure for the fortification of the coasts. On foreign questions he differed widely

from his more popular colleague, and shared as little his enthusiasm for the Italian Revolution as for the despotism of Napoleon. In exact harmony with the liberality of his speeches on Catholic affairs, and with his care of Catholic interests in the administration of the army, he understood that it was the duty and the interest of England to defend the independence of the Holy See. For all these reasons he was better qualified for the first than for the second rank; and he would have been, not perhaps more successful, but more fully understood, and still more deeply esteemed, if he had become Prime Minister. It may be that no minister would have the power to do for the Church all that policy and justice require to be done on the Continent and at home; but if there was one of our statesmen who knew that duty, and would have tried to discharge it, it was the man who so distinctly foresaw, and so vigorously prepared for, impending war with France, and who knew that it would be the signal for an altered policy, and for the revival of public principles which have been too long forgotten.

Parliament was prorogued by commission August 6th. The only important paragraphs of the Queen's speech were the following:

"Her Majesty commands us to inform you that her relations with foreign powers are friendly and satisfactory, and her Majesty trusts there is no danger of any disturbance of the peace of Europe.

"The progress of events in Italy has led to the union of the greater part of the peninsula in one monarchy under King Victor Emmanuel. Her Majesty has throughout abstained from any act of interference in the transactions which have led to this result, and her earnest wish as to these affairs is, that they may be settled in the manner best suited to the welfare and happiness of the Italian people.

"The dissensions which arose, some months ago, in the United States of North America have, unfortunately, assumed the character of open war. Her Majesty, deeply lamenting this calamitous result, has determined, in common with the other powers of Europe, to preserve a strict neutrality between the contending parties.

"Her Majesty commands us to inform you that the measures adopted for the restoration of order and tranquillity in Syria, in virtue of conventions between her Majesty, the Emperor of Austria, the Emperor of the French, the King of Prussia, the Emperor of Russia, and the Sultan, having accomplished their purpose, the European troops which, in pursuance of those conventions, were for a time stationed in Syria to coöperate with the troops and authorities of the Sultan, have been withdrawn; and her Majesty trusts that the arrangements which have been made for the administration of the districts which had been disturbed will henceforward secure their internal tranquillity."

Austria and Hungary. The problem which has occupied the efforts of the Austrian Government since February is the most complicated, the most extensive, and the most difficult that could fall to the lot of a civilised community. It is the reconstruction of a legitimate order where a long period of absolutism has crushed the institutions and broken off the traditions of history; the application of a system in harmony with the irresistible exigencies of modern opinion to a society

preserving many of the forms and much of the spirit of a remote age; and the establishment of a fair equipoise between the concentration of authority and the claims of autonomy, and between necessities of a highly developed state and the rights of dissimilar nationalities. No modern power has ever attempted so much, or has ever accomplished any one of these objects. The difficulty is increased by the coincidence that the same public calamities which have compelled the Emperor to commence the enterprise have so far lowered the prestige

of his authority as to give courage and confidence to the opponents of his design; but the real difficulty, which would make success problematical even without the Hungarian opposition, is the diversity of opinions and interests among the public men of the empire.

Since the misfortunes of 1859 and the retirement of Bach, who was identified in the public mind with the Concordat and the bureaucratic system of administration, the advanced Liberal party have risen in importance, and have regarded each succes.. sive change as a concession to their views. They represent what is emphatically understood by modern ideas. They are not democrats, and would deny that they are revolutionists. According to their theory, the government ought to be founded on the will of the people, expressed by a representative assembly elected with the lowest franchise consistent with the security of property; the nobility should sit in an Upper House, without real influence; the parliamentary majority should be supreme in the land, by means of a responsible ministry, and a highly developed system of administration. Individual liberty should be carefully protected against every authority and every limitation but that of the state; while freedom of settlement would disengage men from all local restraint, freedom of conscience would abrogate religious disabilities and ecclesiastical authority, freedom of trade would open out unrestricted competition, and remove all the antiquated and unpopular remnants of an imperfect civilisation. Centralisation would thus remain unimpaired, but controlled by Parliament. The State would lose none of its authority, but it would be exercised by the people's representatives. Local and provincial self-government, the visible action of religion, and every kind of intolerance but that which is directed against bodies accused of intolerance, are the special objects of their antipathy. These

views, not very remote from those entertained in England by a party of which we may take Lord Russell as the type, prevail in the middle class in Vienna, and are defended by the majority of the newspapers. These were, until last year, the ex

clusive organs and guides of public opinion; and since the commencement of constitutional life, the editors have become conspicuous parliamentary leaders. One of the most influential of these is Kuranda, editor of the Ost Deutsche Post, and a Jew; for the papers are almost entirely bought, or conducted, or written by Jews; and the influence both of their capitalists and writers is very great. Hence a particular feature of Vienna liberalism is hostility to the Church, even in her own sphere, which takes the shape of attacks on the Concordat. For the hatred which the common people feel for the Jews is as strong as in the reign of King John, and their emancipation has been retarded almost as much by the fear of an outbreak against them as by the fear of the influence they would obtain. In the course of this year their unpopularity has shown itself ominously on several occasions in Hungary, in Galicia, and at Prague. Consequently, while they are stronger in Austria than in any other country, they live nowhere in so much danger or so much alarm. The terror is constantly before them that in a revolution they would be the victims of the popular fury. Against this peril they endeavour to provide in two ways-by attacking the clergy and by attacking religion. From a demoralised and irreligious people they have nothing to fear; on the other hand, they hope to save themselves by directing popular feeling against the priesthood. For this purpose every species of calumny and ridicule is brought to bear on the priests; and the Jews reckon upon it that in a moment of revolution they will be able to lead the mob against them. For these reasons they are stronger and less unpopular in the capital than in the provinces, for the inhabitants of Vienna are the most demoralised of the Austrians, and they are moreover in league with the Jews in favour of centralisation. Of these two elements, the Viennese Liberals and the Jews, the Centralist party is composed. "I have seen,' says Sainte- Foi,

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some who leaned towards the future like men who wish to grasp an object; and the world applauded them, for it said: These are men of progress and of action. But they

had nothing behind them; the past humiliated them, the future flattered them, and none were more selfish than they."

A party less powerful than this, but gradually gaining ground under the influence of Hungary, is the Centrifugal party in Bohemia and the Slavonic provinces. Their head is Palacky, one of the first of living historians, and the greatest scholar of the Slavonic world. Their Parliamentary leader is Rieger. Three elements combine to make up their peculiar view. The first is a reaction against the centralisation and constant interference of the Austrian Government, which was oppressive under Joseph and Francis, but which became intolerable after the revolution of 1848 had enabled Bach to organise a new and more vigorous bureaucratic system. From this point of view the parliamentary centralisation is as hateful as the absolutist, and the predominance of a German majority as the authority of a German minister; for a special jealousy of the Germans is another element of this opinion. Bohemia maintained for centuries a contest for independence against the empire, and its princes were long the rivals of the Habsburgs. In the fifteenth century their patriotism was strengthened by the rise of a national heresy; and the memory of the Hussite days, and of the wars of extermination carried on with the Germans, is still living and powerful among them, and is the great topic of Palacky's works. Again, in the seventeenth,they renewed-with the assistance of Protestantism-the old rebellion, and gave the signal of the Thirty Years' War. The tremendous execution which followed the victory of Tilly extinguished Protestantism for a time, but made the old animosity more bitter, and there is consequently a strong Protestant feeling mixed up with the national tendencies of the Czechs. Thirdly, the Panslavist intrigues have been at work, and Russia gains all the sympathies that Austria loses among them. This party forms a small minority in the Reichsrath, but sympathises with Hungary.

or

The absolute Conservatives anti-constitutional party, have lost the day and are no longer powerful; but they were responsible for the delay

which has proved so nearly fatal to the state. They are represented in the Reichsrath by some of the great nobles, such as Clam-Gallas, who was formerly an intense admirer of Bonapartism, and who bears much of the reproach of the disaster of Magenta. Many of them, despairing of their country, have refused to take part in the new order of things. The most distinguished of these was Prince Frederic Schwarzenberg, who published, 14th April, his farewell to public life. These men look with horror at all that modern liberalism destroys to make way for its own short-lived creations, and they discern democracy and irreligion in the wake of liberalism. A representative government, the irresistible instrument of popular opinion, the prerogative of the crown taken away, and the privileges of the various orders sequestrated; the Church despoiled, insulted, and oppressed, the rights of the provinces crushed by centralisation and a new distribution of property following with distant but inevitable certainty the new distribution of power,-this is the picture of the future which drives many honourable and high-minded men to bury themselves in the ruins of the past. Among them, too, there are many to whom the words apply: "I have seen men whose mind and whose heart were turned towards the past; and the world admired them, and said, See how constant and how faithful they are. But their past had been propitious, the present was hostile to them, and the future threatening; and they threw themselves on the past as on a couch, because they were indolent, and cared only for themselves."

Equally remote from each of these fractions, a small and unpopular party stands, to whom, if the state survives, its future government will probably be committed. These are the advocates of self-government on the basis of historical tradition, the party of organism and of autonomy. They wish each province to preserve its individuality and its rights, and desire to revive every where, as far as possible, the remains of the old representative institutions, modifying them according to the altered condition of the time. They demand full municipal

liberties, and accept only so much of centralisation and unity as political necessity requires. They are not, therefore, zealous for an imperial parliament, but hold to the authority of the crown, limiting and fencing it by an improved system of provincial estates. Parliamentary government is a necessary evil, wrong in theory, founded on popular sovereignty, and closely allied to revolutionary principles. But this they deem only a reason to adapt themselves to the new circumstances, and to use the institutions they do not heartily approve for the good of the state They are the Conservatives of the Reichsrath, small in number, and powerful only by means of a perilous coalition with the Centrifugal party, and by the rising ability and influence of Count Clam - Martinitz their leader.

This

distinguished man, the son of Fieldmarshal Clam, who, but for his early death, was designated as Metternich's successor, and of an English mother, is only thirty-five, and has come prominently forward only within the last two years. He began public life as the confidential adviser of Count Stadion, in the ministry that gave the constitution of March 1849, and many of the documents which the government issued in connection with that ill-planned and ill-fated scheme proceeded from his pen. He rose rapidly in the public service, and became civil governor of Cracow in 1856. When Bach's administration was shattered by the defeat in Italy, the Emperor sent for Clam-Martinitz, and offered him the ministry of the interior. But he refused, in consequence, it is said, of his disagreement with Bruck,—and, determined to watch his opportunity, resigned his office in Poland. In conjunction with several of the great nobles, he set about organising a party, of which the Vaterland became the organ in the press, and in which he obtained the support of the houses of Lichtenstein, Schwarzenberg, and Wolkenstein. His great achievement has been to convert the aristocracy from a party of resistance into partisans of a definite scheme of progress, and to commit the Austrian Conservatives to

a policy of reform. Yet it is hardly conceivable that with such materials his design should succeed. He will be called upon to do battle with the

revolution, and consequently with the perpetual temptation to seek safety from democratic encroachment in stagnation, to identify change with innovation, and Conservatism with im mobility. Judging from his conduct in the enlarged Reichsrath of last year, he is personally free from this tendency. By demanding the restoration of the political rights of each historic unit in the empire, he obtained the cooperation of the Hungarians, led by Count Szechen, with the enemies of centralisation, and thus secured the majority. A minority insisted on a central parliament without provincial assemblies, and unfortunately no combination of the two views was possible. A national representation was the proper and necessary complement of that system of provincial autonomy advocated by Clam-Martinitz. But the Hungarians would not accept a scheme which gave unity to the empire, and the Liberals were opposed to the local self-government of the provinces. The result was, that constitution of October which restored local rights without saving the unity of the state, and therefore placed Hungary in an exceptional and privileged position, from which she has refused to recede. the beginning of the restoration, the first political writer of the day undertook to show that the constitution was no security for freedom without those institutions which belong to the programme of the Austrian Conservatives. "Municipal power," says Fiévée, "and provincial power are the basis of the liberties of the monarchy. They cannot embarrass the action of the government; that is, they cannot prevent it from making peace, or from making war, or from managing and commanding the army, or from appointing to the great offices, or from balancing and conciliating the interests of the various classes of society. But they annoy the government as universal administrator

At

The municipal and the provincial power once established, and similar interests united under the name of orders, or of corporations, whether you add two Houses or recognise three estates, you will have as much liberty as the times will bear. Two

Houses, or what is now called the representative system, is the complement of the other institutions favourable to liberty. For my part I see no ad