much to Quakerism and philanthropy, we shall cease to be Englishmen of the old imperial stamp. Governor Eyre is a man who bears the highest character, and doubtless he now regrets much which took place in Jamaica. He has been, however, most severely tried and punished already; and we doubt the expediency, at any rate, of the Government bringing him to trial for the murder of Mr. Gordon. Mrs. Gordon, we know, in the most Christian spirit, renounces all intention to do so; and it only remains for Mr. Mill and the Jamaica Committee to vindicate, if they like, offended justice. Meanwhile the effect of the discussion of the subject, and the condemnation of the cruelty of the officials by public opinion in England, will have a great effect, and make our authorities abroad justly careful in the exercise of power placed in their hands.

At last the Atlantic cable has been successfully laid, and the Old World and the New are placed in instantaneous communication. Great as are the advantages to us on this side of the water, they are still greater to the inhabitants of the new hemisphere. The Old World has still a vast influence on the New; and for science, literature, the arts, as well as trade and commerce, they are more dependent upon us than we upon them. The writer was pr sent at New York in 1858, when for a moment it was thought that telegraphic communication across the water was permanently established. It is impossible to describe the enthusiasm and delight of the American population at that event— the processions, the banquets, and the joyous ovation to which Cyrus Field was treated. The pleasing sentiment was in everybody's lips that henceforth misunderstandings between England and America would be impossible, on the principle, we suppose, that more knowledge would bring more liking, that quarrels originate from a false impression of what are the true sentiments of those we consider our adversaries.

The laying of the cable is a triumph of perseverance and energy, of the highest practical skill and science devoted to a noble end, and w emay hope that those who now for the third time have sunk such vast sums at the bottom of the Atlantic will reap the reward of patient trust.

A second cable will shortly be laid to render communication secure, and the time is rapidly approaching when the electric wire will encircle the earth. The Russians have long ago carried it from St. Petersburg to China, across the wilds of Siberia, and are now continuing it across Behring's Straits, and down the coast of Russian America, we believe, to Vancouver's Island. On the other side, emigration has pushed up from the States as far as the Red River settlement, and even beyond it, so that there will shortly only remain the space from Fort Garry to British Columbia, across which the British Government might be asked to lay and maintain the wires in order to complete the circle of the globe. The other, and possibly the more easy, completion of the system may be to lay the wire from Vancouver's Island down to San Francisco instead of to Fort Garry.

THE reports from AUSTRIA represent the state of that country in a very melancholy light, and confirm the views we expressed in our last number on the future of the empire, which might, perhaps, have appeared to some too despairing. Since then, the state of siege has been extended over Vienna and the whole of lower Austria; the most loyal journals are no longer able openly to express their opinions, and the most respectable of them all, the Ost Deutsche Post, has announced that it would cease to appear until "more liberal times;"

the Emperor can no longer show himself in the suburbs without hearing the ugly word "abdicate" constantly thrown in his teeth by the public; the Austrian Germans await, with ill-suppressed indignation, the time when the less civilised elements of the monarchy will dictate laws to them; the Slavonian rejoices that the German régime has brought matters to so lamentable a conclusion, and the Magyar hopes, more than ever, that the centre of gravity of the State will fall in the direction of Pesth, as Bismarck had warned Count Karolyi that it would a year ago. How a happy future can emerge from this sea of contradictions and hatreds it is difficult to say.

The only event, besides their two victories by sea and land over the Italians, on which the Austrians have of late been able to congratulate themselves, was the fact that Kossuth's appeal to his countrymen found no echo in their breasts. We can now point with satisfaction to what we said on this subject a month ago. When, at that time, the Prussian and Italian papers already talked of a Hungarian insurrection as imminent, we declared that such an insurrection would only be possible if the war was prolonged, and even then only if the generals of the Hungarian emigration could break into their country by the side of a strong body of either Prussian or Italian regular troops. With the Hungarian legion alone nothing was to be accomplished, as it would have been speedily dispersed by the Austrian garrisons; and as regards the Garibaldians, who it was said were to march from Fiume, or some other point on the coast, through Croatia and Slavonia in order to assist the revolutionary party in Hungary, they ought heartily to congratulate themselves that they have been spared an expedition which could only have been fatal to them. The moderate-liberal party of Hungary, which is now, under the leadership of Déak, predominant in the Diet. and the country, did very wisely in maintaining a passive attitude with regard to the appeal of the emigration; nay more-in bringing all its influence to bear in opposition to their efforts. This, too, we predicted would be the case, for what object would the Hungarians have in making a bloody revolution just at the moment when they have arrived so much nearer to the fulfilment of their wishes without any bloodshed at all? Why should they risk a war to force the government at Vienna to comply with their demands when the Prussians have already done their work for them? Why should they endanger their lives and properties in attacking the Austrian regiments on the Waag, when the latter have laid down their arms on the Danube before the Prussian conditions of peace? The party in Hungary which still dreams of separation from Austria is small, without any distinguished talent, and is chiefly composed of young men, for whom no plan can be too rash or adventurous. On the other hand, men of more advanced age, in whose memories the sorrows of the revolutionary war of 1848 are still fresh, do not wish them to fall upon their country a second time, and, far from believing in the practical possibility of establishing an independent Magyar State, as they did after their brilliant victories over the imperial armies in 1849, they now only think of wresting out of the hands of the humiliated House of Hapsburg their old constitutional liberties, and of meeting the hitherto preponderant German element, if not on a superior, at least on an equal footing. As for the establishment of a Magyar kingdom, which, even if it comprised Croatia, Slavonia, Transylvania, and the Militärgrenze, would still, being surrounded by strong States, always remain a third-rate Power whose existence would be in constant danger, neither Déak, nor Andrassy, nor any of the other well-known leaders dream of such a thing. And they are right, for the days of the small States of Europe are numbered. In an age

whose mission it seems to be to put an end to the numerous German principalities, even though their existence is guaranteed by treaties and their sovereigns are related to the ruling families of all the great European States, it would be an inconsistency to found another small State which would contain from its birth the seeds of dissolution in the diversity and hostility of the races comprising it. This would be an anachronism, of which the sensible statesmen of Hungary will not be guilty so long as the obstinacy of the government of Vienna does not drive them to despair. Such a feeling would, no doubt, make them blind, but despair is an element which cannot be admitted into any political calculation. We must be satisfied with recognising the fact that Hungary will first endeavour to obtain its demands in a peaceful way; that the Cabinet of Vienna has, under the pressure of a bitter necessity, made proposals for a compromise; and that these proposals have been again rejected by the Hungarian leaders as insufficient. As regards Klapka and his volunteers, who have been armed by Prussia with the cannon and muskets she has won from the Austrians, it will be sufficient to mention that the rumour spread by the Vienna papers that both he and Kossuth had made an unsuccessful attempt to enter Hungarian territory has no foundation. When Prussia is again at peace with Austria, Klapka will do wisely to bid Germany a hasty farewell, for he will soon find himself under a single powerful master, not only from a military and diplomatic, but also from a police point of view. Formerly when any one was so unfavourably regarded by the Prussian police that he had good reason to fear making its nearer acquaintance, he used to escape to Saxony or Bavaria. Liberals from Würtemberg and Hanover have often fled to Baden or Coburg, and vice versa, so as at least to remain on German ground, if the police forbade them with its flaming sword from treading the paradise of their more restricted German fatherland. The best men of Germany have often been driven in this way by the police from one small State to another; and it was only when they were considered so dangerous that none of these States would give them shelter that they fled either to the Swiss mountains, the Boulevards des Italiens, the purlieus of Leicester Square, or the virgin forests of America. This advantage-to be expelled by the police of one's own small fatherland, Nassau or Darmstadt, for instance, without necessarily being obliged to turn one's back on the universal German fatherland, must come to an end, unfortunately perhaps for some very worthy and liberal-minded men, as soon as the smaller States are absorbed by Prussia. In this point at least the system of small States in Germany was beneficial to the liberal cause. But on the other hand it can never be seriously believed that the German people will fall into a state of political apathy only because they have been deprived of the advantage of having thirty-six different police establishments and as many court theatres. All smaller considerations must necessarily yield in the end to the greater one.

To return to Austria, it is to be remarked that hitherto all the reports that have been in circulation of an approaching ministerial crisis have rather been based on the wishes of the population than on any settled facts. There can, indeed, be no doubt that the Emperor will be obliged to obtain either a new or a considerably modified cabinet, and we think it probable that if it become necessary to give the Hungarians a ministry of their own, the Emperor, in order to appease the other principal non-German nationalities of the State, will give a place in his councils to a Polish and a Czech statesman. Already are MM. Rieger, Palatzky, and Goluchowski named as candidates for the future portfolios; but the negotiations have not yet come to a conclusion, which indeed

it is hardly possible they should do so long as the relations of Hungary with the rest of the Empire are not regulated. For the present it is the most pressing care of the Government to get rid of its unwelcome Prussian guests as speedily as possible, as Bohemia, Moravia, and Silesia are being eaten up by them, to say nothing of the fact that it is by no means pleasant to know that the enemy is so near to one's gates that he may be clearly seen from the highest points of the capital. The money with which the Emperor will pay for the departure of the Prussians has already been provided in bankers' bills: the National Bank will issue on these bills the stipulated sum of £2,000,000 in silver, and when the treaty of peace is signed, which will probably be done at Carlsbad, to which place the King of Prussia is about to go for three weeks, the money will at once be paid, and the Prussian army will return to its country which it has in a few weeks so marvellously enlarged.

How far this enlargement will extend no one can, as yet, say for certain, except perhaps Count Bismarck, who is to obtain the title of prince or duke as soon as the treaty of peace is signed. Not only to the Italians, but to the Prussians, too, does " l'appétit vient en mangeant;" and it comes the more strongly to the latter, and, be it added, with the more right, that they have honourably deserved it by their brilliant victories. From each of the smaller German States, where there is a Prussian party-and such a party, whether great or small, exists in each of them-comes the appeal to the Prussian Government not to stop half-way, and to annex as much as possible. King William is urged not to allow the Elector of Hesse-Cassel and the King of Hanover to cross the thresholds of their respective states, and Count Bismarck's organs in the Berlin and provincial papers are not wanting in exhortations to a radical policy of annexation. After the way in which Prussia has recklessly begun and conducted the war, it seems to us that a thorough policy of annexation is really the only sensible one she could adopt. A fortnight ago we wrote as follows on this subject :-“ King William's conscientious scruples may be deserving of respect, and his pride in having royal vassals who are entirely dependent on his will at Hanover and Dresden, is intelligible; but looking at the matter from an exclusively political point of view, it must be confessed that Bismarck's programme was the wiser one. When one has gone so far, it is a mistake to stop half-way. If Prussia is to be mistress of Germany, it is as well she should be so in name as well as in reality. Why replace old fictions with new? Although the diplomatic representation of the whole of Northern Germany, as well as its army, is in future to be placed in the hands of Prussia, she will yet have to struggle against much active and passive opposition from the reluctantly obedient courts of the countries under her supremacy, which will be unpleasant, and in the end intolerable. It would therefore have been wiser to do now what must be done in any case before long." What we said then we adhere to still, and the more so because many German and English papers have since adopted the same view. The organs of the Prussian Government, for the present, only speak of incorporations in the north of Germany, which are to extend in the south down to Frankfort and Mayence at the farthest; but this so-called moderation should not deceive any one.

In due course of time Prussia will exert such pressure on the States of the South (Baden especially) that they will find it necessary to conclude conventions with her which will make their independence a mere fiction, like that of Saxony, whose king is only enabled to retain his throne in consequence of the urgent representations of Austria and France. The action of the Zollverein

alone would be sufficient to drive the whole of the industrial population of Southern Germany into the Prussian camp, to say nothing of the circumstance that Bavaria, Würtemberg, and Baden, even together with the German provinces of Austria, would constitute but a very weak political and military confederation of States, in presence of a North Germany under the supremacy of Prussia. There would be but one means of avoiding the predominance or absorption of Prussia, and that is, to lean on France, and to a certain extent accept a French protectorate. How dangerous such a step, which would touch the national feeling of Germany in its tenderest point, would be, has only lately appeared from the fact that the appeal of Austria to the intervention of France instantly deprived the former power of all the sympathy of the German people. If the kings of Bavaria and Würtemberg now comfort themselves with the thought that they may ensure the preservation of their crowns by leaning on France, they would do much better to sell them for cash or throw them into the sea. We are convinced that there will be no permanent peace in central Europe so long as the north and south of Germany stand in opposition to each other, and we do not share in the general belief that Europe will obtain guarantees, at the conclusion of the peace negociations which will soon begin at Carlsbad, for a solid peace which will last to the end of the present century. It seems to us that within the next few years there will be at least either a great war, in which France will no longer be a spectator, but the principal agent, or a chronic state of tension which will be no less oppressive than a real war.

The Prussian people do not in any way deceive themselves as to the future. Great storms are felt to be impending, but they are anticipated with calmness and confidence in the victories which have just been won, and the additional strength which will be given to the army by the annexations in Northern Germany. There may be a little national conceit in this, but who would at this moment find fault with the Prussians for such a feeling? They are just now puffed up with the belief that they can do everything, and that the Government would support them in every rash enterprise. The latter, on its side, has considered the moment favourable to address the representatives of the people for the first time for many years in words of conciliation. In his speech from the throne, the King has at length admitted that the régime without a budget, which the Premier has hitherto refused to regard as unconstitutional, was not in accordance with the law, and has declared that the Government would therefore ask the Chamber for a bill of indemnity. The bridge of reconciliation has thus been constructed, and the means of an understanding provided. As, moreover, the Chamber will to all appearance represent by its majority the principle of the Liberal-Conservative party, the constitutional machine ought for some time to do its work regularly. How long this will go on, is quite another question. A victorious general of the character of the present Prussian King, and a Premier who, thanks to the orderly state of the finances, has found it possible to rule without a budget, and make war without increasing the taxes or contracting loans, are the last persons to yield before the opposition of the Chamber. The latter will have to behave with great moderation and tact if it wishes to avoid the treatment which has hitherto been the fate of all the Parliaments that have assembled under the Bismarck Ministry. The same may be said of the universal German Parliament whose meeting seems to have been again postponed. As matters now stand, a universal parliament of this kind would be an anachronism; for those who are to be