The Press.
London, England, 1856-04-19 00:00:00

PERIODICAL LITERATURE.

IN the Westminster the most interesting article is on
" Scandinavia, Past and Present." After a brief but
lucid sketch of the wars and alliances of the two
Baltic kingdoms, the reviewer proceeds to consider
their present relations with Russia. He is in doubt
whether the union of Denmark and Sweden into one
kingdom would or would not render them a more
powerful bulwark against Russia, but he comments
with great severity on the treaty of 1852, to which
Lord Palmerston was a party, by which the ultimate
succession to the throne of Denmark is secured
to the house of Romanoff. This is no visionary
danger :

Let Russia, then, complete her railways. Let her be
able to bring down in a iew days her countless hordes from
Tartary, Siberia, and the very borders of China; let her
once possess Denmark, eornmand Hamburg, Lubeck, and
Bremen, the Eyder, the Weser, and the Elbe, hacked and
supported by nympathisin,,a Prussia, and lesser German
States; and Eurape will be prostrated at her feet. This
may appear, as M. Thiers has remarked, a chimerical idea,
but everything in the history of Russia for the last hun-
dred years warrants us in believing with him that it may
become a terrible reality ; and we contend that every pos-
sible exertion should be made at this important crisis to
guard against such a contingency. For this, it is not
enough that we have made a defensive alliance with
Sweden ; we ought on no account to give back the Aland
Isles, and it should be made a sine qua non that Russia
should renounce the claims ceded to her in the protocol
of Warsaw, and confirmed in the treaty of 185% on Den-
mark and the Duchies.

" Sunday in Great Britain " is, we think, in the
main, a just article. There can be no doubt that
Sunday is a festival ; but then, before we determine
whether its original character can be fully carried
out not, we must award careful consideration to
the altered conditions of society. At a period when
saints' days were days of religious worship for the
whole community, there was obviously less necessity
for the strict appropriation of Sunday to that pur-
pose. " The Congress of Vienna" is a vary interest-
ing and lively article : we have amusing sketches
of all the celebrities engaged at it, and the host of
famous visitors which so great, an occasion brought
together from all parts of Europe. The summary of
contemporary literature in this Review is always
good, and the current number is fully up to the
mark.

The present is a fair number of the London Quar-
terly Review, though perhaps a little heavy. " Our
Peninsular Heroes" is a readable analysis of Mr.
Cole's work. "The Cathedral Commission" seems,
as far as we can judge, to be a temperate statement
of abuses ; and the review of Macaulay's " History
of England" to be intelligent and accurate.
"Christian Theism" and "Religion in Common
Life " are two substantial essays : Mr. Caird's ser-
mon is judged not to be anything very remarkable,
nor likely to have attracted the attention of the
public had it not been for the royal command.
The National Review contains an article upon
Mr. Macaulay which is, in our opinion, the best
which has - written upon that author. It is

which has yet bee'
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