The Sun.
London, England, 1864-07-25 00:00:00

THE SUN, LONDON, MONDAY EVENING, JULY 25, 1864.

The Late Lieutenant-Colonel Brewster.

On Wednesday last was buried, at the Bomptom Ceme-
tery, Lieut.-Colonel Brewster, late of the Inns of Court Rifle
Volunteers, who, to the deep sorrow of his family and
friends, and to the heavy loss of the Volunteer service, has
been cut off in the flower of life after a few months' illness.
His body was escorted to its last resting place by the regi-
ment which he so efficiently commanded, and all the simple
and touching rites of a soldier's funeral were performed with
affectionate respect over one who was in heart a soldier. If
we might venture to guess what would have been Colonel
Brewster's wish, we should say that, as Providence forbade
his finding a grave on the Crimean battlefields, he would have
chosen the place and manner of interment which his friends
adopted. Both in the church of Warwick-square, Pimlico,
and at the Brompton Cemetery, the ceremonial was faultless
in arrangement and execution. The Burial Service of the
Church only needs to be read audibly and reverently to speak
to every heart, and the " Dead March in Saul" is in another
way equally impressive. After the last prayer had been
read, a party of the Inns of Court Volunteers fired three
volleys over the grave, and,having quitted the cemetery, the
corps marched homewards with its band playing a lively
tune which was a special favourite of the deceased colonel.
This is the usual practice of military funerals, and it is
dictated by that reason—
which still hath cried,
From the first corpse till he that died to-day,
This must be so.
But, although other duties claim attention and other
thoughts occupy the mind, it will be long before the Inns
of Court Rifles replace, and still longer before they forget,
their lamented colonel. He was the model of an officer
adapted to command a regiment of intelligent and educated
voluntees, and the loss of Colonel Brewster will be felt
throughout the volunteer service, and not merely by his
own corps. He showed what could be done in a short
value of his assistance was understood by Colonel
timemw u towardsrdo,t volunteers efficient, and the
the
Inspector-General of Volunteers,
who was among the friends who followed him
to the grave. Colonel Brewster gave the impression of
a man equal to any emergency of actual service, and for the
training and leadership of the Inns of Court corps he pos-
sessed special advantages of birth and education, as well as
the pre-eminent qualification of thoroughly understanding
the work he had to do. Being the son of Mr Brewster,
Q.C., formerly Attorney-General for Ireland, he had an
hereditary claim to the esteem of a corps of lawyers. Further,
ho had graduated at Oxford before entering the army, and
thus he was well acquainted with the feelings of members
of the universities, of whom he had many under his com-
mand. Twenty years ago the number of men who went
to Oxford or Cambridge as a preparation for the army
was even smaller than it is now. The advantage of
such a preparation is indisputable, but unfortunately
commissions are usually obtained before the age at which
degrees are taken. It happened, however, that Colonel
Brewster's youth fell on a time when applicants were kept
waiting almost beyond endurance for commissions, and
he turned this period, which is too often one of mental va-
cancy or weariness, to excellent account by reading for a
degree at Oxford. And, besides reading for a degree, he
acquired in various ways a reputation at Oxford which en-
sured his popularity with the Inns of Court of Volunteers,
and inspired in that corps a well-founded belief of his great
capacity as an officer. Ho was noted as an undergraduate at
St. John's College for being good across country with
hounds, and good upon a coach-box with four-in-hand, but
it was as an oarsman that he gained his most enduring
fame. In 1842 there was a boat race between Oxford and
Cambridge over the old course from Westminster to
Putney, which Oxford won. and No, 4 in the winning boat
was Brewster of St. John's. Next year, at Henley, there
were entered, for the Grand Challenge Cup, the Oxford
University boat and the Cambridge Subscription Rooms'
boat. Oa the day of the race, the stroke of the Oxford
beat was taken ill, and as the Cambridge men ob-
jected, as in strictness they were entitled to do, to
a substitute, the Oxonians started with seven oars, and won
the race. Brewster at his old place, No. 4, bore his full share
in achieving one of the most remarkable of aquatic victories.
In 1816 he took his degree, and soon afterwards entered the
Ist battalion of the Rifle Brigade. He was made adjutant of
the battalion in 1843, and in the same year went out to the
Cape of Good Hope. He served in the Kaffir war of 1852-3,
and received a medal. The exposure to climate and hard-
ships which he underwent in theca campaigns brought on
severe attacks of rheumatic fever, and doubtless laid the
foundation of the disease of which he died. When the
battalion of the Rifle Brigade to which he belonged
was ordered to the Crimea, he marched with it as far
as Portsmouth, hoping against hope that he might be
permitted to display his military ability and experience
upon a European field of warfare. He had the reputation
of being one of the beit adjutants of a regiment ever
known,. and his friends would have confidently expected
to see him attain high distinction if Providence had allowed
him to enjoy health and opportunity. But the decision of
a medical board forbade his embarkation for the Crimea,
and, although he continued to hope for improvement, he
hoped in vain. The adjutancy of the battalion was kept
open for him as long as there appeared any possibility of
his satisfying medical requisitions, but ho was reluctantly
compelled to abandon his life's most cherished hopes. A
few years aiterwarde ne determined to retire from a position
which must be beyond expression irksome to one who feels
intellectual capacity for service which his bodily health re-
strains from undertaking. He is remembered in the Rifle
Brigade as one of the most popular officers of his time.
There was nothing that his men would not do for him or
with him, and iu bush-fighting against the Kaffirs he was
very active in finding work for them. To all qualities which
are deemed peculiarly soldier-like ha added piety of heart
and purity and sobriety of life. He left the army in 1858,
having attained the rank of captain, and ho married a few
weeks afterwards.

The beginning of the volunteer movement found Mr.
Brewster unemployed, having had ample experience of a
kind of war well calculated to teach one who had the gift of
learning how to discriminate between those parts of the
English military system which are essential, and those
which owe their existence to custom or caprice. Here was
exactly the man to instruct volunteers in what they ought
to do and how to do it, and besides he possessed special
qualifications for managing the corps of which, by a fortune
happy alike for commanded and commander, he became
lieutenant-colonel, having no colonel over him. Under his
direction, the Inns of Court Rifles took part in all the prin-
cipal reviews and field days of the volunteer force which
have been held since its formation. Having good material
to work upon, ho soon produced a valuable result. His aim
was rapidity of movement rather than that precision which
is only likely to be attained by devoting to drill a much
larger portion of time than volunteers generally can spare
a mind capable of appreciating modern changes in its con-
from experience what war is, and having
fdoirtioitn.s,lhiellogwavinegalways a practical, business-like character
to the training of
his corps. Emphatically, there was ao
nonsense about Colonel Brewster, and having learned to
obey while learning to command, he possessed what
must have been in the eyes of the military authorities no
inconsiderable merit
merit, nawely, he did what he was told to
do and gavo no trouble. If he had his men out for a field-
day, he did not after one movement allow them to waste
time in dressing their
line, but immediately called upon
them for another,
On more than one occasion, competent
observers have expressed astonishment at the number of
evolutions which ho n
Put his corps through in a given time,
and it was truly said
that he could turn that corps inside
out, and do what else he liked with it. Whether it was a
single battalion or a
brigade that he commanded Col. Brew-
ster handled his force with a firm and unerring grasp.
His management of any command which left him a pretty
wide discretion was always such as to show that he tho-
roughly understood his business ;and in particular his con-
duct of the force which represented the enemy at the
Brighton reviews was admirable. He fully gained the
confideace of those who had time to become acquainted
with him, and even a body of men who were suddenly
placed under his orders would have discovered from his
first look and word that Colonel Brewster knew what he
was about.
And this, after all, is the most valuable
quality which a leader can possess. For we must always
suppose it possible that the Volunteers mey one day be
called upon to perform the duties for which they have
undertaken to hold themselves prepared. That is a con-
tingency i wh
—eh may be regarded with various feelings,
according to the position in life, habits, and tastes of those
who turn their minds towards it. Theoreticallb, we all
desire that—
Under his own vine what he
Every man shall eat in safety
' ,hbours.
Bat still it
merry songs of peace to all his neighbours.
plants, and sing
The
may be suspected that among men of pacific life
and conversation lateat seintillula forsan; and even in the
depths of minds well-stored with legal rules and prece-
dents, and penetrated with a sense of social and family
obligations, there may yet lurk unconfessed a hankering
after an untried sensation, and a feeling that a taste—just
one little:
taste—of the certaminis gaudium would be very
Tll
pleasant.
.. the Inns of Court corps in past years some
men may have thought of such a day, with joy, and all
certainly without fear ; and always the belief must have
been universal, that if they had Colonel Brewster to corn-
man()) and they were ready to obey, their blcod would not
be spent in vain.
Thus far we have spoken of what we conceive to be a
ng,
public loss. But there were between seven and eight hun-
dred members of the Inns of Court Rifle Corps to whom
the same event was the death of a dear friend, They will
have thought many times during the
past week of all that
their late Colonel did for them, and of how he did it.
Considerate of everybody but himself, always at his post,
instructing, advisi
and encouraging, knowing exactly
under all circtunstences what to do, prompt to repair the
errors of subordinates and almost incapable himself of
error, with a neble look and bearing, a light heart and a
cheerful voice, he banished the sense of fatigue from others
and seemed unable to feel fatigue himself. Such was the
commander whom the Inns of Court of Rifles, attended
to his last resting-place in the Brompton Cemetery. The
sight of the oak coffin recalled the memory of that stature
which rose above every crowd, and of that length of limb
which gave to
which rested
one of the oars of the Oxford University
boat a far-reaching and victor;ous sweep. The sword
upon the coffin, with the simple unplumed
cap which was part of its late wearer's own conception of
a dress suitable tor a rifleman who meant imeMus, recalled

the last public occasion on which he wore that sword and
cap. It was the Volunteer Review at Wimbledon, which
will be a year ago next Saturday. lle said that a cold
caught upon that day was the beginning of his illness.
Deeply will his corps feel the want of him at the next of
thesa annual reviews, and often and sadly will they think
that he is gone, and the place which knew him shall know
him no more.

To say that Colonel Brewster died in the prime of life is
almost equivalent to saying that ho fell a victim to one of
the varieties of that terrible malady, consumption. It may
be, although we would not willingly think so, that his con-
stitution suffered something by the gallant aquatic feats
of his early years at Oxford. But he endured in Southern
Africa enough of hardship and exposure to lay the seeds
of the disease which in the 45th year of his age attained
its fatal ripeness. He has died a soldier's death as much
as if he had fallen by steel or shot, and because he was
worthy, therefore was he so soon taken; for, as one of the
warrior-poets of Greece has said

116XEp05 ols.)3v'civail 6d.,..
alpei roviipc'i, axxa rovs xpqcrrolis ad.

SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS,

THE " SATURDAY REVIEW" ON THE AMERICAN
WAR,—The military operations in America are
almost as confusing as the Federal finances. It
seems at first eight almost paradoxical that General
Grant should be summoning Petersburg to surren•
der, while General Ewell is approaching Baltimore,
after defeating the Federal army of Maryland. The
correspondents and commentators of the Northern
Journals carefully abstain from any attempt to elu-
cidate the warlike movements which furnish them
only with materials for triumph and congratula-
tion. Like preachers they make it their business
not to explain their text, but to decorate or darken
it by fluent expositions of their own preconceived
opinions. A careful and credulous study of their
columns has probably convinced their indigenous
readers that Grant was successively in the best
positions on the Rapidan, at Spottsylvania, at
White House, at Chickahominy, on the north bank
of the James River, and at City Point. It is not
impossible that the last conclusion may be acciden-
tally just, but observers at a distance would be
grateful for more definite information, especially if
some distinction were occasionally made between
defeats and victories. The public instructors of
New York are highly gratified with the success of
General Wilson, who escaped with the loss of his
trains, of his artillery, and of a large portion of his
force; and their enthusiasm is stilt more strongly
excited by General Hunter's advance on Lynch-
burg, followed by his retreat with the loss of seve-
ral guns, and involving the subsequent abandon,
went of Harper's Ferry, and the passage of the
Potomac by the Confederates. Those who wish
to understand in some degree the progress of the
campaign must whoily disregard the ebullitions
of sanguine patriotism. It is not even safe to
assume that the Federal cause is hopeless because
its supporters habitually disregard all truth and
probaitility. General Grant is not a newspaper
correspondent, and he is responsible for the
safety of his army. His pertinacity in threatening
Petersburg, and in disturbing the Southern commu-
nications of Richmond, implies his belief in the pos-
sibility of inflicting a heavy blow on the enemy,
even if he -fails to occupy the Confederate capital.
The defences of Petersburg have been found too
strong for assault ; but siege artillery will now be
brought into play for the first time in the present
campaign. Scarcely any fortifications are impreg-
nable, if they are regularly approached by a supee
rior army. If Gen. Beauregard is conscious of his
inability to encounter Grant in the field, he will
probably, afterprolonging the defence of Petersburg
to the best of his ability, retire to some other posie
tion. Gen. Lee has judged wisely in entrusting the
command of the garrison to the best engineer in the
Confederate service. The position of the Federal
army, in some respects, resembles that of the French
and English armies before Sebastopol. In both eases
the assailants were linable to invest the enemy's
stronghold, and Gen. Grant's demonstrations on his
left flank against the Confederate communications
are perhaps as effective as the menaces of the allied
fleets against the Russian line of supply by the
isthmus of Perekop. The Federal army has the
great advantage of depending on the sea for its
communications, and, since Gen. Grant has blocked
the upper channel of the James River, City Point
is as unassailable as Balaklava. The:Government
which he serves, notwithstanding its financial em-
barrassments, still possesses a vast superiority of
wealth and material resources ; and if it thinks fit
to persevere in its enterprise, and if it can defend
its own territory without recalling troops from Vir-
ginia, it may hold for an indefinite time the
ground which its forces occupy on the James
River. On the other hand, the Confederates are
not, like the Russians, separated by hundreds of
miles from their centres of operation. The seat of
government is in the immediate neighbourhood
of the scene of action, and Richmond is connected
by railroads with every portion of the Confederacy.
Their principal danger arises from their unaccount-
able weakness in cavalry, and from the consequent
facility with which the Federal columns can disturb
their communications. If the invader were strong
enough to extend himself across the two principal
lines of railway, General Leo might possibly be
compelled to retire to the South-West, leaving
Richmond in charge of a garrison. It is, per-
haps, partly for the purpose of sparing
his magazines that he has detached a considerable
force througn the Shenandoah Valley to the coun-
try beyond the Potomac. If he could afford to
diminish his own army in the presence of Grant,
the expedition involved little difficulty or risk.
The presence of Sigel at harper'e Ferry of itself
invited attack. The unlucky German leader is
familiar with defeat, and in Western Virginia espea
cially his troops resemble Hudibras's connoisseurs
in suffering

Some have been beaten till they know
What wood a cudgel's of, by the blow.
Some have been kicked till they know whether
A shoe's of Spanish or neat's leather.
Sigel must be able to judge, as soon as skirmishing
commences, whether Breckenridge or Lcngstreet or
Ewell is about to administer the accustomed chas-
tisement.

TUE " SPECTATOR" ON THE LORD CHANCEL-
' LOR'S SPEECH ON CONVOCATION.—No doubt a
certain contemptuousness, a certain cynical insolen.
tia, has always been of the very essence of Lord
Westbury's nature, so that the exuberant overflow
of it in his thoughts and speech can, in one sense,
scarcely bo said to be of that secondary and merely
auxiliary character which we have ascribed to
all true unctuousness. It may be said, however,
not only of his recent outbreak against the clerical
bench, but of his raillery in general, in the words
of the Psalm, "The words of his mouth were softer
than butter, having war in his heart; his words
were smoother than oil, yet be they very swords,"
and it is this power of summoning a milky manner
to his aid in order to second the effect of his thrusts,
this redundancy of soft phrase in which he sheathes
the sting of his remarks,—this "saponaceous" slip-
periness of sentiment through which he eta his real
drift glide like an electric eel,—that justly entitles
him to the epithet " unctuous." No doubt the Lord
Chancellor has in him all the qualifications for
an unctuous preacher, if he needed to use them
in that direction. We remember his address to
the Young Men's Christian Association at Wolver-
hampton which showed very high capacity of that
kind, and many of his official congratulatory
speeches to Lord Mayors and others have disguised
almost completely the scornful and cynical superio-
rity which just gleams for a moment and is gone.
It is but fair, then, to conclude that if he now uses
his great command of gentle phrase only to silver a
dangerous weapon, he has all the capacity to use it
for its own sake, if once he could feel that it would
be of more use for its own sake than by way of
contrast. He has been too successful to find any
suppression of his own overbearing intellectual per-
sonality needful or desirable,—but not the less he
shines pre-eminent in the capacity to tincture his
speech with a rich fatty substance not properly
either intellectual or moral, but expressing a sort of
voluptuous desire to indulge unduly, and even riot,
in the mood of the moment. Instead of going
straight to his object he contrives for himself, as all
unctuous speakers do, opportunities of wallowing
in the sentiment he is expressing; he whips up his
thoughts upon it into a rich, creamy, saponaceous
lather, and this none the less that his thoughts are
now not at all the kind of Bishop-of-Oxford-
thoughts he expressed to the Young Men's Christian
Association at "Wolverhampton, but rather of a
directly opposite and even scoffing tendency. No-
thing could be more remarkable than the excessive
indulgence of Lord Westbury in this sort of volup-
tuous enjoyment in his epeoch yesterday week in
the House of Lords, which, by a sort of poetical
justice, was directed against n master in the art,
though on the other side of the art, the Bishop of
Oxford. After describing in his peculiar lisp the
" three modes" of dealing with Convocation, " first
when they are harmlessly busy to take no notice
of their proceedings; next, when they seem
likely to get into mischief, to prorogue and put
an end to their proceedings ; thirdly, when they
have done something cloarly beyond their
powers to bring them before a Court of Justice, and
punish them, and thus laid a good basis for the
vitriolic lather, which he was about to mix. and
apply with a leisurely but cruel hand--Lord West-
bury entered fairly on the intemperate and almost
sensual enjoyment of his sneech. The mode in
which he dilated upon applying the penalties of a
pranzuntre to the episcopal bench—the gloating
language in which he discussed the advantages to.
the Exchequer of sequestrating the incomes of all i
the bishops, deans, urchcleacou9, and other cbgin, j

taries, who voted for the condemnation of "Essays
and Reviews," reminded one almost painfully of
another somewhat cruel person who had all Lord
Westbury's unctuous pleasure in giving pain, Mr.
Whackford Squeers. " ' Here's fleshAcried Squeers,
turning the boy about end indicating the plumpest
parts of his figure with divers pokes and punches
to the great discomposure of his son and heir.
' Here's firmness, here's solidness; why, you can
hardly get up enough of him between your finger
and thumb to pinch him anywhere. . . . You
couldn't shut a bit of him in a door when he's had
his dinner. Look at them tears, sir,' said Squeers,
with a triumphant air, as Master Whackford wiped
his eyes with the cuff of his jacket,' there's oili-
ness.'" Lord Westbury's proceedings with the
bench of bishops, but more especially with the
Bishop of Oxford, are painfully similar, He "pokes
them and punches them in the plumpest parts of
their figure," he makes the Bishop of Oxford cry
with the pain, and then he says virtually in his
reply, with a triumphant air, " Look at those tears,
my Lords, there's oiliness." First he does his best
to hurt all the bishops, and observes in effect,
" Here's firmness, here's solidness," or in Lord West-
bury's own words, "Imagine, my Lords, what an
opportunity it would be for my right hon-
ourable friend the Chancellor of the Exche-
quer to spread his net, and in one haul take
in £30,000 from the highest dignitary, not to
speak of the of rroXXoe, the Bishops, Deans, Arch-
deacons, Canons, Vicars" (and observe the artistic
incidental poke of calling such dignitaries the
of sroXXot " the mob"), " all included in one common
crime, all subject to oue common penalty"—and then
after these more distributed and general tweaks and
twinges, he applies himself more especially to his
own chosen adversary, Bishop Wilberforce. "I am
extremely anxious to know what the thing is, called
a synodical judgment. . . . Assuming that the re-
port of the judgment I have read is a correct one, I
am happy to tell your lordships that what is called
a synodical judgment is simply a series of well-
lubricated terms, a sentence so oily and so sapona-
ceous that no one could grasp it. Like an eel it slips
through your fingers—it is simply nothing, and I
am happy to tell my noble friend (Lord Houghton)
that it is literally no judgment at all." This is what
we call positively rioting in the indulgence of pinch-
ing, like Mr Squeers, rich and high .led natures, the
more so that we do not know that there was any
particular reason for referring the wording of the
sentence of condemnation to the Bishop of Oxford,
beyond the Lord Chancellor's quick perception of the
opportunity he should thus gain of giving a little
additional pain by these playful allusions to that
prelate's well known soubriquet. Towards the end
of his speech, Lord Westbury even ventured so far
as to affect the solemnity of clerical warning and
illustration, in a way that assures us, no less than his
more serious efforts in the same line, that had he
entered the Church he might easily have be-
come a " most reverend" prelate, if he could
but so far have subdued his native arrogance of
mind as to persuade himself to act through life
a part that he can easily assume to perfection either
for a light or serious purpose. When he earnestly ads
vised the bishops and other members of Convocation
that "if there be any attempt to carry Convocation
beyond its proper limits, their best plan will be.
after protesting, to gather up their garments and
leave the place—remembering, the pillar of salt, and
resolving not to cast a look behind," he carried the
mock solemnity of his allusions beyond the verge of
decorum, and almost lost some of his cruel advan-
tage by this open display of his feelings towards
the Bible. It must have been a triumphant moment
for Lord Westbury when the Bishop of Oxford gave
vent to the cry of pain which Lord Westbury's tor-
ture extracted. The Bishop directly admitted that
Lord Westbury's words had blistered those on
whom they fell, and consoled himself by explaining
to the House of Lords what he should have felt on
his deathbed if he had not laid himself open to this
persecution. Lord Westbury's delight was evidently
unbounded. " The right revere nd prelate," he says,
" has in that excited manner which characterised
the greater portion of his speech—and at which, 1
beg to say, that I was not at all surprised—with
much licence of language, charged me with misre-
presenting a passage in an act of Parliament. His
apology, I think, must be that he himself does not
quite understand it." Squeers' triumphant eLcla-
mation when Master Whackford wiped his eyes
with the cuff of his jacket, "Look at them tears,
sir—there's oiliness !" was humanity itself compared
with the exultation of Lord Westbury. As a mere
literary effect no doubt the unctuous style has much
mere to recommend it when it just gilds the intel-
lectual cruelty of such cold vivisection as Lord West-
bury, but we wish it were wholly left to those
whose words, though "softer than butter," speak
the " war in their heart," and strike like swords
though they be " smoother than oil." The
Psalmist who wrote those words was a very different
man, we take it, from the Bishop of Oxford, but we
feel sure he had some adversary who was the anti.
type of Lord Westbury.
THE "EXAMINER" ON BISMARK,—The offer, said
to have been made by Prince John of Glucksburg,
of Denmark's joining the German Confederation,
was a derisiee one. The great monarchs of Vienna
and Berlin do not want a democratic associate, and 1
Denmark can be no other than democratic. Its
aristocracy has died away, and the last monarch of
Denmark, quite a Jacobin in his line, helped the
remains of the national noblesse to extinction. We
have heard a good deal of the hardship of German
SchleswigtHolsteiners being ruled by Danes. Bat
the Danes had similar objections to being ruled by
Schleswig-Holsteiners. The latter have a noblesse,
nay, a feudal noblesse, just the stuff of which
Ministers are made. And King Christian has
nominated one of them, Count Moltke. a Holsteiner,
to be Prime Minister of Denmark. He may use-
fully serve to drive the nail, in other words, con-
clude a peace. But ho could not long govern Den-
mark as it was, much less as it is, in that feudal
and reactionary manner which it seems that Bis-
mark and Rechberg require. The attempt to
govern in Copenhagen according to their behests
will produce the inevitable result of a popular in-
surrection. The efforts of the two worthies,
Rechberg and Biatnark, in Schleswig-Holstein, are
of the same tendency, and will produce similar
results. They refuse to recognise the Duke of
Augustenburg, because he declares that, owing
his success to the attachment and choice of the
people of these Duchies, ha must impart
to them a liberal constitution. In that case
you shall not be Duke, said Bismark. The
King of Prussia looks to the Sultan of North Ger-
many, as the Emperor of Austria is to be the Sul-
tan of South Germany, and minor Powers must
consent to occupy the position of Hospodars. We
need not say that the pretension excites the utmost
resentment and disgust. The minor Powers and
Princes of Germany, excluded from the negotia-
tions at Vienna, will meet at Frankfort or elsewhere,
when a formidable schism will be the consequence,
with the Confederation of the Rhine looming in the
distance. There are, however, certain complica-
tions, as all the minor Powers are not liberal, and
do not favour liberal constitutions. And Napoleon
himself, however ready to patronise a Confederation
of minor Powers against Austria and Prussia, does
not like constitutons after the Ecglish fashion—
that is, with liberty of representation, of speech,
and of printing. A prince therefore must be found,
and the Duke of Oldenburg has been pitched upon
by Prussia, less with the idea of installing him than
of forcing the Diet to consent to the terms of Prus-
sia. The Duke of Oldenburg, however, has not the
shadow of a rightful claim. If he had, we should
have heard of it, and have seen it expounded before
now. Prasslan bayonets have held Slesvig, and
Prussian bayonets may undertake to dispose of it.
If so, there will be an insurrection there too. And
if . Bismark turn his bayonets on the Slesvig-
Holsteihere, what will Fatherland get next
from the absolutism of a statesman who
seems to have undertaken the task of rendering
Prussia in everything the antagonist of Germany ?
The worst of Bismark's policy is that he loves to
weave schemes, and he has by some underhand
policy induced the cautious Austrian Government
to adopt, in this respect, his views. He pushed the
war with Denmark to the verge of war with Eng-
land. And having succeeded in carrying his point
without incurring the dangerous alternative, he is
now bold enough for anything. And his aim seems
to be now to provoke the Liberal party in Germany
to insurrection. He is convinced that he will get
the better of it by bayonets, and that he can do-
minate not only to Prussia, but North Germany.
Perhaps, if the German people were to be let alone
in this agitation, the military might prevail. But
there is another potentate who certainly will have
his finger in the pie, and that is the French Em-
peror. Nor are we prepared to blame him. He
cannot allow a military power like Prussia to ag-
grandise herself as to become his equal. The pros-
pect is that a German insurrection might make a
war undertaken by France necessary to aid the
popular party. This is the Italian campaign over
again, fought on the Rhine and Elbe, not the Pe.
Austrian despots, we pre2uree, may remain neutral.
11,r ho can doubt that the enormous aggrandisement
of France would follow such an outburst ? And this
is what Bismark is riskiug, gratuitously risking,
by keeping the question of the Duchies open, and
striving to extract some personal advantage out of
it.liii
the
g Leopold has undertaken the task of re-
presenting; danger of Bismarit's madness to the
Emperor at Vichtt. But often that potentate
seem; to be so ani.iised and tickled by the Prussian
statesman's frenzy that ho is almost inclined to I
patronise it.

THE "LONDON REVIEW" ON THE DANISH WAR.
`—'lllo War between Denmark and Germany is over.
A eus,pension of lio3tilities by land and sea, from the
26th to tha 31st ic.stant) hes bran egrcedupon, Eta d

there is every reason to expect that within that 111'
terval negotiations conducted directly between n.
Northern Power on the one hand and Austria and
Prussia on the other, will convert the truce into
treaty of peace. On what terms, and at what sacra
flee, on the part of Denmark, a final arrangement-i
"
,
may be come to between the belligerents, it s tit,
less to conjecture with our present means of ku°w_t
ledge. The neutral Powers have hr their condo
forfeited any right to be informed of what is Viriff
on, and they will have only themselves to bla.ele._
the result is one detrimental to their interests orluL
juriously affecting the balance of power. Alth ouiT,
we know nothing positively, we are inclined to t hint;
that Christian IX. has really made an offer to cute,
the Germanic Confederation with the whole ofpalli:
mark. Whether he is in earnest in such a prop(/' 1
tion, or whether he has thrown it out merely viii'
a view of sowing dissension between the Gorta%
Powers and exciting the alarm of France, it i 1 11°s
easy to say; but if the latter ho his object, be lja,
probably succeeded as completely on °ll
point as he certainly has on the other. Atiosi
tria may well look with favour on the accession
of
Denmark to the Bund. For, while the strengihrar
the whole body would be increased, the pocuilbe
influence of Prussia would be diminished by tt
presence in North Germany of a state independellof
—to say the least—of the influence of the Court
Berlin. For that very reason M. von Bismarck d
probably set himself against the scheme attributell
to the new Danish Ministry ; and in this he !iv(
have the support of Russia, which can hardly 14ee
with indifference so marked an addition to tue.
strength of Germany on the Baltic. How Fratttea
regards such a combination we are at no lose ine
conjecture. The official organs, no doubt under t'le
immediate inspiration of the Foreign Office, have
been denouncing it during the past week in
which sufficiently indicate the irritation and slar4
which it has excited in the mind of their iroPerl't
master. Beneath their affectation of disbelief than
any proposition of the kind has been made, one °fist
readily perceive a very substantial uneasiness irio
in some form or other it should be accepted. It s
not impcssible that by this time the Emperor '
convinced that he has made a mistake in leavill
Denmark to her fate ; and that even at the to
moment his interposition may somewhat soften Pei.
fall. Bat we cannot pretend to calculate upon t:131
action of any of the Powers with whom the deeis',°",
r
of the question now rests. Having no real basis 1°
the formation of an opinion it is better not to er.
press one. Considering the conduct of her Mois
tv's Government., which has now by the vote efttßo,
House of Commons become that of the country, lee
Englishmen will desire to say more ths,b
is absolutely necessary on a subject so fraught
painful and self-accusing reflections.
THE " TABLET" ON THE HOPLEY CABrowning'----S111„e°
Canning wrote the parody on Martha Browning'
Who whipped two female prentices to death
And hid them in the coal hole ; for her mind
Framed schemes of sagest discipline. . . • • el
there has been nothing like Sir James Wild
euphuistic allusion to Mr Hopley's peccadillo f(if
which he was sentenced to four years of penal Bet:,
vitude: "It was a prominent fact in the case',
said Sir James, " that in 1860 the respondent e°,--b,;
mitted some act which brought him within
grasp of the law." [lle only beat one of his PuP",,y
•
the poor boy Cancellor, to death. 7ant
,11°$if
Cancellor 1] " and very heavily," continue°. di
James, " did the hand of the law fall on him;Ae-sf;
a man of education and refinement" (so refil'e"l
to collect a large amount of saliva in his mouth ti•:0
spit in his wife's face for beckoning her childre9tl,,
upon a cold snowy day), " of great natural eibilTs:
and with a great many noble though visionary "pa
pirations, was taken from his home and imprisc'eic,
for three years." No man, said Sir James, ";La
had heard Mr Hopley, could say he was warl7,
in warm affection and in proper religious feeb°,7,l3t
but he was plainly a man whose opinion orris pat
in harmony with the rest of the world, And,„`-nill
want of harmony was likely to produce a colit'Th
jangle—and he had thought so much on cert6of
subjects, particularly that of the bringing 1313 r
young children that he was extravagant, not t°,,;lci
more, in many of his views. The husband
no doubt learn a lesson from this case, an',. net
I
would know that if he ever lifted his hand ga:h-or
her she would be entitled to protection. the
were separated the children must be dePr''
either of a father or a mother. If they lived tegfor
ther again there might be better things in store 0,
them. The husband had hitherto been
wrong-headed man, but seeing how other Peelo
r r
viewed his conduct, ho might surrey for
some of his opinions. His wife had taken hill/
better or worse. Even if a decree were granted,
doubted whether that devoted woman would bee ewo
tent to settle down with her children and her °OO
family, and see her husband struggling with es,
world apart from them" We have given these ;0
tracts from the learned judge's summing up, 02:0
a correct summary or abridgment of it, for t"r;
was much more of which no one could comPle,,',",i,
and we think that few will differ from the Pl 3
and jury in holding, both that Mr.HopleY had be
guilty of cruelty, and also that the wife's condone,
tion of that cruelty was clearly
judge told the jury that unless they believed ikirt
Hopley to have perjured herself which be did pat
her husband had undoubtedly been guilty of ';relit
cruelty, and they should say so; still if they thoqoic
that condonation had been proved (and he did thrilbe
shown. The learns
that it had) they were also bound to sag bas
jury found accordingly, and, so far, no injustlehe ice
been done. But bow did those passages Yvh,i'their
have quoted and of which we complain, find • 811
way into the summing up which they so grief
disfigure ? In the mouth of an advocate they °Olt
be understood, as instances of the rhetorical% a
with which a lawyer often seeks to work n13°,104
jury, by the introduction of irrelevent topics; If
by appealing to sentiment instead of to reason' bad
the prevailing feeling in Sir Jame Wilde'a rnirli,4rnad
been, this man is a great brute and a savage, be','„'" 11 of
with pride and pedantry, fanatical theories,
religious cant and fulsome self-conceit, and ri°,,t
capable of, but actually guilty of, shocking berur,"big
to a woman who is his own wife, to a baby wii° still
own child, to a schoolboy who was his pupil
justice is justice, and law is law, and duty is l'in-eso
and he is entitled to his rights, and it is my buss
to influence the jury to find a verdict for hire °ll.fid;
plea of condonation, no body could have cornPl,isi-not
But in that case the summing up would Sur",,ted•
have contained the passages which we have (111"