ling to say; and instead of feeling any grudge against the man who was thus in every respect to take her father's place, so sweet are the softening influences of time and personal well-being, that Lucilla, who was always so good-natured, made many little arrangements for their comfort, and even left the carpets, which was a thing nobody could have expected of her, and which aunt Jemima did not scruple to condemn. "They are all fitted," Lucilla said, "and if they were taken up they would be spoiled; and besides, we could have no use for them at Marchbank." It was a very kind thing to do, and simplified matters very much for the Riders, who were not rich. But aunt Jemima, in the back-ground, could not but pull Lucilla's sleeve, and mutter indistinct remarks about a valuation, which nobody paid any particular attention to at the moment, as there were so many things much more important to think of and to do.

way. "And there are members for counties to her, and even, with a sigh, to call her atas well," Lucilla, in the depths of her soul, tention to the bell which hung over the said to herself. Then there rose up before Doctor's bedroom door. "It breaks my her a vision of a parish saved, a village re- heart to hear it," Miss Marjoribanks said; formed, a county reorganised, and a trium-" but still Dr. Rider will find it a great conphant election at the end, the recompense venience." It was a very nice house; and and crown of all, which should put the gov- so the new Doctor's wife, who had not been ernment of the country itself, to a certain used to anything so spacious, was very wilextent, into competent hands. This was the celestial vision which floated before Miss Marjoribanks's eyes as she drove into Carlingford, and recollected, notwithstanding occasional moments of discouragement, the successful work she had done, and the good she had achieved in her native town. It was but the natural culmination of her career that transferred her from the town to the County, and held out to her the glorious task of serving her generation in a twofold way, among the poor and among the rich. If a momentary sigh for Grange Lane, which was about to lose her, breathed from her lips, it was sweetened by a smile of satisfaction for the county which was about to gain her. The lighter preface of life was past, and Lucilla had the comfort of feeling that its course had been full of benefit to her fellow-creatures; and now a larger sphere opened before her feet, and Lucilla felt that the arrangements of Providence were on the whole full of discrimination, and that all was And the presents that came pouring in for the best, and she had not lived in vain. from every quarter were enough to have This being the case, perhaps it is not nec- made up for twenty carpets. Lucilla got essary to go much further into detail. Mr. testimonials, so to speak, from every side, Ashburton never said anything about his and all Carlingford interested itself, as has disappointment, as might have been expect- been said, in all the details of the marriage, When he did mention that eventful day as if it had been a daughter of its own. at all, he said that he had happened acci-" And yet it is odd to think that, after all, dentally to be calling on Miss Marjoribanks I never shall be anything but Lucilla Marthe day her cousin came home, and saw at joribanks," she said, in the midst of all her once the state of affairs; and he sent her a very nice present when she was married. After all, it was not her fault. If Providence had ordained that it was to be Tom, how could Lucilla fly in the face of such an ordinance; and, at the same time, there was to both parties the consoling reflection, that whatever might happen to them as individuals, the best man had been chosen for Carlingford, which was an abiding benefit to all concerned. Under all the circumstances, it was to be looked for that Miss Marjoribanks's spirits should improve even in her mourning, and that the tenacity with which she clung to her father's house should yield to the changed state of affairs. This was so much the case, that Lucilla took heart to show Mrs. Rider all over her childhood's all it was Tom. home, and to point out all the conveniences

ed.

triumphs, with a certain pensiveness. If there could be any name that would have suited her better, or is surrounded by more touching associations, we leave it to her other friends to find out; for at the moment of taking leave of her, there is something consoling to our own mind in the thought that Lucilla can now suffer no change of name. As she was in the first freshness of her youthful daring, when she rose like the sun upon the chaos of society in Carlingford, so is she now as she goes forth into the County to carry light and progress there. And in this reflection there is surely comfort for the few remaining malcontents, whom not even his own excellent qualities, and Lucilla's happiness can reconcile to the fact that after

THE END.

From The Spectator, 31 March.
THE FENIANS IN CANADA.

66

have to traverse is out of the question. The Fenians would be plundering for their sup port in a week, and would be accounted for by the farmers without expense to Canada. THE Fenian menaces against Canada The commissariat even of ten thousand would be important in one case, and one men is a serious affair, one which cannot be case only, if they were secretly favoured by provided for by all the subscriptions all the the Government of the United States. Of Pats and Biddies in the Union could afford. themselves the Fenians can do nothing, Imagine that number, however, across the except, it may be, produce a riot in Mon-frontier, and what are they to do? Stocktreal. People who talk of their "levies," ade themselves, says General Sweeny, after and "revenue," and "fleet,” as if they were the fashion of New Zealand and the Far serious things, are simply blinding themselves West, and die in brave defence, while their by their own use of big words. Even on countrymen and the disbanded soldiers of their own statement of their own resources the North flock in masses to their aid. Securely entrenched in Upper Canada," Well, the Fenians are powerless to upset any Government whatever, much less one like they are to do wonderful things. that of Canada, which can dispose of twenty Irishmen die bravely, no doubt, particularly or thirty thousand very good troops, and when fighting on the British side, but in has behind it one of the great empires of this case something beyond bravery seems the world. It is quite possible, as the Feni- to be required. Dinner, for example, is an leaders say, that there are 300,000 per- essential to courage, and whence are the sons in America who have some sort of heroic ten thousand to get the needful connection with the Society, for Irishmen, bread, bacon, and potheen? They cannot like all imaginative races, have a love of get them in Canada without dispersing into conspiracy in their blood; and in America knots of undisciplined stragglers, whom the it is very pleasant and even beneficial to farmers, threatened in their homesteads, belong to a large organization, or brother- would shoot down one by one. They canhood, or "historic society," which can car- not carry them on their march without carts, ry arms without being ridiculous and offer and draught animals, and drivers, and arto local leaders a considerable vote. Even rangements which no power but that of a the President may think that, should the regular government ever succeeds in getdispute between himself and the Republi- ting together. They would be starved out cans ever come to blows, a Fenian "army," in a week, and in a fortnight ready to surwhich would also be a democratic and strongly pro-slavery army, might be a very useful nucleus for his party. Fernando Wood clearly thinks that, and so does the Board of Aldermen of New York, which, mainly supported by the Irish emigration, has just declared war by resolution on the Government of Great Britain. It is also possible that of these 300,000 men 30,000, or 10 per cent., may be men with sufficient recklessness, ignorance, and faith in their leaders' secret assurances of favour at Washington to organize, and drill, and even, on opportunity offering, to commence a march. But supposing all that to be true, and a grand strategical plan to be formed and published for British benefit, what is there actually to be done? The thirty thousand volunteers may exist, but they must be got together, and when together they must be fed, and when fed they must be provided with artillery, and not one of these things can be done without the consent of the United States. A mere order from the President would close all the lines of railway leading northward, and marching over distances such as the Fenian army would

render to the first body of regular troops which made its appearance in front of their stockades. We may, and many among us do, exaggerate the proposition that war is now a science, but it is quite certain that the organization of an army, so that it can be fed twice a day without plunder, is an art, and one which requires certain conditions. Either the army must be able to communicate with certain depôts previously filled, or it must have the sympathy of a tolerably dense population, both of them conditions totally wanting to the Fenians. On the other hand, the Canadian Government has 6,500 regular troops sure to be well provided, 20,000 volunteers, with no commissariat difficulties, and otherwise quite as good as Fenians, and the ultimate aid of about 600,000 grown men, all resolute not to endure marauding under political pretences.

These considerations must be as clear to the Fenian leaders as to any outsiders, indeed much clearer, for they know, and we do not, how much of all their tall talking is baseless. If they are, no Fenian lives will be wasted in any inroad at all, while if they are not, the failure of the at

tempt is assured beforehand by the leaders' folly and want of brain.

would regard a successful inroad of Fenians as an inexpiable insult, as an offence from people to people which rendered friendship, in this generation at least, a demoralizing humiliation. To join in the Union might be advantageous, to be conquered by it endurable, but to be annexed by gangs of armed Irish labourers, moved solely by hatred of England - the Canadians will sooner retreat into the wilderness. Nothing but this feeling could have brought those volunteer farmers so sharply up to the front. It is not worth while to be ruined rather than exchange Ottawa for Washington, but

But the Americans may be secretly fostering the movement? Of course they may, and then the Fenians are only formidable as part of the strength of the United States. They are not more formidable than any other section of the American population, not half so formidable, if persistency counts for anything, as an equal number of New Englanders. But there are at least three reasons why the American Government will not foster the movement, except for certain domestic purposes, to which it may readily be applied. One is the dislike enter- it is worth while to die rather than be ruled tained by all born Americans, and especially American yeomen, i. e., three-fourths of the population, to all Irishmen, and to Fenians as Irishmen distilled. It is difficult to express the degree of this dislike, which pervades all classes, from men like Emerson, who declared that there "was a great deal of guano in the Irishman's destiny," i. e., that his main use was to die and so fertilize the soil, to the Yankee "boss," who deliberately calculates that an Irishman costs little more wages than a negro, and is rather more convenient to feed. Those, however, who happen to have any knowledge of the kind of feeling entertained in Yorkshire towards the Irish colonies settled there may form some inadequate idea of American sentiment - a sentiment intensified almost beyond reason by the scenes enacted during the riots of 1865 in New York. The second reason is that the American Government knows perfectly well that a war with Great Britain will be a maritime war, in which Irishmen, who can do anything in the world except make sailors, will be of no possible use, and will therefore, unless attacked, begin by organizing naval preparations, not by tempting a valuable class of labourers to fling away life in imbecile raids upon a wilderness. Great Governments sometimes conspire, but free Governments know perfectly well that conspiracy is merely a hindrance, a worry such as a theatrical cloak would be to a champion of the ring. And lastly, American statesmen, one and all, are penetrated with the desire to secure Canada, if at all, by the consent of the Canadians. They want Canada, it may be, but they do not want three millions of hostile white people within their northern border- do not want a new, and brave, and well armed population to keep down. They know perfectly well that Canadians, though they might endure conquest by the mighty Republic,

for five minutes by triumphant Teague.
American statesmen know this feeling per-
fectly well, and though they may not object
to gentle pressure such as the abolition of
the Reciprocity Treaty, or to keep up a
panic which checks prosperity and suggests
the security the Union would confer, they
will not break for ever with the Canadians.
It is not of course convenient for a Presi-
dent who is founding a new party to quarrel
with his extreme right wing, the ultra-demo-
crats to whom the Irishmen belong, sooner
than he can help, or to weaken his al-
lies in a city like New York, or to affront
the devotees of State rights by a needless
exertion of Federal power. But the mo-
ment the menaces become real the Govern-
ment will act, and those who think the
Fenians can resist its action simply know
nothing of the United States. The old
"Know-Nothing" party, the only party
in the Union which ever developed itself
spontaneously without leader or organiza-
tion,- want nothing but such a chance.
Only let there be a cry for a day that the
Irish are disloyal, and in every State of the
Union the suffrage will be confined to men
born within its limits, and the Irish power,
such as it is, extinguished for ever.
Irish will run no such risk, and the Fenian
movement in America as well as Europe
will, we believe, end in nothing but a slight
increase to the unhappiness of a race as
gifted and as unfortunate as any which his-
tory records - a people which by some
wonderful perversity of circumstances is at
home less stained by crime than any exist-
ing nation, yet is believed in America as
well as in England to be hopelessly turbulent
and unruly, which has won every battle it
ever fought except its battles of indepen-
dence, and has succeeded in every kind of
effort except that of making a happy and
contented home.

The

From The Economist, 7th April. THE DANGEROUS CRISIS IN GERMANY.

ONE of the many difficulties of this German dispute, perhaps the one which most embarrasses outsiders, is the absence of a pivot. Usually nations when seriously opposed select some one point, often very insignificant, as the centre of argument, and their determination and power can be tested by the way in which they approach or recede from that central trifle. In the revolutionary war the point was the opening of the Scheldt. Nobody cared particularly about the Scheldt, but everybody understood that if France opened" it she meant war, and if not that she was still within diplomatic range. In the Crimean war the pivot was first the keys of the Holy Sepulchre, then the entry into Moldo-Wallachia, and then the Protectorate of Greek Christians, and as Russian demands on these points were advanced or modified the world understood the obstinacy or the vacillation of the different Cabinets engaged. In this German struggle there is unfortunately for outsiders no such pivot. There was one, the legal meaning of condominium, that is in simpler English the question whether the King of Prussia had by the convention of Gastein surrendered his share of legislative power in Holstein, or only of administrative power. The King held that he had only given up the latter, and acted on his views by issuing a decree applicable to both Duchies, visiting advocacy of the claims put forward by the Duke of Augustenburg with penal servitude. The Kaiser held that both had been sur rendered, and acted on his views by refusing to surrender Dr. May, convicted par contumace of insulting Prussia. The struggle seemed likely to range round this point, but it has been abandoned, and the pivot now forming seems to be this. Shall the matter be left to the Diet or not? Austria saying yes, but Prussia affirming that the Confederate system is only manageable when the two great Powers are in harmony, demanding a reform which will imply absorption, and treating each State of Germany as a separate sovereignty. The selection of this arena for the diplomatic struggle would make it endless, but that the Government of Berlin, while writing long despatches about it, acts also as a great Power, treats armaments in Austria as menaces, and in the latest despatch published informs the outside Powers that in face of such threats she may not be able to avoid the appearance of aggression.

The real points at issue remain, however, what they were before. The Prussian Premier, and in the main the King, are determined that they will have the Danish Duchies as a compensation to the Prussian people for depriving them of their constitutional liberties. Upon this point we conceive their minds are made up, and they will not in any event recede. They will pay Austria cash for her share, or suggest other schemes of compensation, but the Duchies they will have, though it should cost a war. But if the last alternative is accepted, they think the opportunity a good one for settling the German question once for all by absorbing Germany North of the Maine, or at least establishing, as Count von Bismark is reported to have said, a free trade in States. From this design they may be induced to recede, as, for example, by French resistance, but the temptation is very great. The design, to begin with, paralyses the minor States. The majority of persons in North Germany are not willing to see Prussia aggrandised, if they are not included in Prussia, because they know that they will, under those circumstances, have all the disadvantages of independence without its reality. But if Prussia intends to unify North Germany, then they are willing, because they will then be citizens of a very mighty State of their own blood and language, which they hope very soon to convert into a free and constitutional, though carefully armed monarchy. They will not support their Princes in resisting that revolution, and the Princes are therefore paralysed, for the marked peculiarity of these States is, that while their Courts are despotic in small things, they are in great things completely under the control of opinion. Moreover, to do the statesmen of Prussia justice, they really wish, according to their lights, to make Germany great, and see very clearly that if North Germany can be united without suffering severe enough to create intestine hatreds, the new monarchy will be very great indeed, quite equal to France, and able, by protecting Sweden and Denmark, to make of the Baltic a German instead of a Russian lake. Naturally the Austrian Government does not approve this design. Its head is heir of a house which for generations has given Emperors to Germany, and he cannot forget the immense prize which always seems at once so near and so distant. Austrian statesmen, moreover, though not wholly sharing that sentiment still perceive that the Hereditary States are the basis of Austrian power, and, fear if Prussia be

enemy whose

comes an Empire, those States may gravi- ful enemy in Italy, an tate towards her, and Austria thus be flung mere existence adds without cost 200,completely to the Eastward, be in fact re- 000 men to the Prussian army. That duced to Hungary, with certain dependen- army, again, is in high spirits and comcies clinging to her skirts. Austria, there- plete organisation, possessed in particular fore ready to fight rather than be ordered of an artillery which Austria cannot rival, out of Holstein, is prepared to fight rather but may, if this opportunity is lost, rival than see the sovereignty of Germany trans- in a few years. The Government is also ferred to Prussia, and has therefore armed, not we think to coerce Prussia, but to prevent her from either seizing Holstein, or reforming the Confederation her own way. Prussia affecting alarm, or it may be feeling it, for nations have traditions, and the superiority of Austria is in all German States traditional, — has armed also, and it now rests with her to take the next step. War or peace depends upon her absolutely. Austria certainly will not attack, and if Prussia does nothing, the situation will simply last until some entirely new event alters the complexion of affairs.

for the hour a dictatorship in the hands of a very strong dictator, a circumstance convenient for war. It has a reserve treasure of considerable amount, and it has the means of securing, if not the alliance, at least the neutrality of France. All these are circumstances which point strongly to war, while there are two others which seem very greatly opposed to peace. If Prussia withdraws, the King is face to face again with a disappointed people and a disappointed army, a position no Sovereign claiming absolutism can approve, while Berlin loses altogether her control over the minor Cabinets. They are always hostile, and the moment it is known that Prussia is not prepared to fight, even for unity, the feeling among the people which restrains the lesser Courts will disappear. They are not anxious about the Duchies, but about German unity. The balance of evidence therefore is that this lull will not last, that Austria cannot give way, and Prussia will not; and that, therefore eliminating the unknown quantities, they will come to blows. But then those unknown quantities may at any moment become known, and so alter the whole aspect of a problem which unfortunately concerns Europe very gravely.

The question for Europe, therefore, is which line the Cabinet of Berlin will now adopt? Will the King-for this is the truth stripped of diplomatic verbiage risk a great war for a great Empire, or will he fear so very great an enterprise? The speculation is one upon which no publicist not inconceivably rash will give a final opinion, for he cannot know the three essential but unknown quantities in the game, the personal wish of King Frederick William, the policy of the Czar Alexander, and the determination of the Emperor Napoleon. Each may intervene at the last moment with decisive effect. All he is justified in saying is that the balance of We have taken little account in this probabilities inclines towards war for these statement of the despatches exchanged bereasons. Prussia is governed by a man of tween Berlin and Vienna repudiating the very unusual firmness and audacity, whose idea of attack, for they are very meaningheart is set on making her an Empire, who less. Nations in modern times never do has contemplated this war as ultimately attack, they only defend themselves by an inevitable, and who, if he shrinks at the aggressive movement. It is a great point eleventh hour, is a beaten statesman. We always with statesmen to enlist the national look to it as certain that Count von Bis- sentiment of honour by saying the country mark will not recede, and the King will be is threatened, for the masses do not undermost disinclined to face an angry people, stand policy, and do quite understand deprived alike of his prestige, of his expect- national independence. Even if she deed territory, and of his great Premier. cides on war Prussia will probably not atMoreover, he is quite as resolved as his tack. She will only do some act in HolsMinister to establish Prussian ascendancy tein which she will assert to be legal, and some day or other, and the opportunity which Austria must resist, the resistance seems to be very favourable. Austria is raising in the Prussian mind the idea that decidedly weaker than she has been for the country is being deprived of the reward years, weaker by far than she will be as of Duppel. Or she will, as a measure of soon as her free-trade policy has restored necessary precaution, occupy Saxony, and her revenue, weaker by far than she will so compel Austria without direct attack be when Hungary has been conciliated and either to resign her position as protector Venetia surrendered. She has no friend- of the smaller States or to declare war, the ship with France, and she has a very dead-onus of which will not appear to the Prusly, and as it may prove, a very power- Isian people to rest upon Berlin.