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upils by Mr. Alderman Gardner, Mr. 'I
d the Rev. L Holmes, the

?roceedini

were brought to a close in the usual manner, by singing
God save the Queen." The schools will be re-opened on

children in the Corporation South Schools

Cuuncu.—The collectio:
charities. at the above Church. on Si

iNQUESTS.—There were only three held before the
ironer last week. In the preceding; week there were

twenty-seven

Eistar.y of E
1815, to th
1852

sideration but its nicely-adjusted proportion to the
offence, and the unerring certainty of its aim. Evi-
dences of this impartiality are numerous through-
out his history, but we shall content ourselves with
quoting the remarks by which he concludes the
present volume ; they have immediate reference to

THE FRENCH INVASION OP SPAIN IN 1823

No doubt can now remain that the French invasion of
Spain, against which public feeling in this country was so
strongly excited at the time, was not only a wise measure
on the part of the Bourbon government, but fully justifia-
ble on the best principles of international law. The
strength of this case is to be found, not in the absurdity
and peril of the Spanish constitution, or even the immi-
hazard to which it exposed the royal family in that
and the entire liberties and property of the
-it is to be found in the violent inroads which
e Spanish revolutionists and their allies to the north of
Pyrenees were making on France itself, and the

country

ne hazard to which it; institutions were exposed in
consequence of their machinations. Ever since the Spanish
revolution broke out, France had been kept in a continual
ferment : the second in succession to the throne had been
murdered, and his consort, when enceinte of an heir to the
monarchy, attempted to be murdered, by political fanatics :
military conspiracies in great numbers had been got up to
imitate the example of the soldiers in the Isle of Leon,
and overturned the government ; Paris had been convulsed

by an attempted revolution ; France was covered with
secret societies, having Lafayette, Benjamin Constant,
Manuel, and all the Liberal leaders in the Chamber of
Deputies, at their head, the object of which was to over-
throw the government by means of murder, treason, and
revolt ; and a band of desperadoes had been collected on
the Pyrenees. under the tricolour flag. who onenlv invited

the french soldiers to fraternise with them, throw off the
yoke of the Bourbons, and rally round the standard of
Napoleon 11. When such measures were in progress, it
was evident that the safety of France, and the preservation
of its institutions, were seriously menaced, and that its
government was warranted in taking steps to extinguish
so perilous a volcano in the neighbouring state, by the
strongest of all reasons—that of self-preservation.

It is more difficult to find grounds to vindicate the
intervention of England in favour of the insurgent
colonies in South America, which was done in so efficacious
a manner, and from the success of which consequences of
such incalculable importance have ensued to both hemi-
spheres. Nothing can he clearer, indeed, than that when
the colonies of Spain had become de facto independent,
and Spain was obviously unable to reassert her dominion
over them, we were warranted in treating with them as
independent powers, and sending consuls to their chief
towns to guard British mercantile interests. If our inter-

vention had been limited to thi
public morality could not have ob
sued. But we not only did thi

s, the most scrupulous
jected to the course pur-
s—we did a great deal

more, and of a much more questionable character. We
repealed the lawss against foreign enlistments ; permitted
expeditions of eight and ten thousand men, many of them
Wellington's veterans, to sail from the Thames under the

government

advance(

immense sums

loan, to enable the insurgent states to prolong the contest.
It was by these means, and these alone, that the conflict
was ultimately decided in favour of the colonies, and
against the mother country. The decisive battle of Cara-
bobo was gained entirely by British battalions and a charge
of the British bayonet.
What was the justification for this armed and powerful
. .

intervention? Was the freedom of England menaced by
the re-establishment of Spanish authority in South
America ? Confessedly it was not : the hope of commer-
cial advantages, the vision of a vast trade with the insur-
gent states, was the ruling motive. But commercial

dvantages will not constitute legal right, or vindicate
As of injustice, any more than the acquisition of pro-
vinces will justify an unprovoked invasion. It sounds
well to say you will call a new world into existence to
lance of the old ; but if that new world is to
of the dominions of an allied and friendly
tis better to leave it to itself. England saw very
early the iniquity of this insidious mode of proceeding
when it was applied to herself, when Louis XVI. allowed
covert succours to the American insurgents to sail from
the French harbours, and the Americans sent some thou-
sand sympathisers to aid the Canadian revolt in 1837. She
loudly denounced it when the Americans allowed an expe-
dition to sail from New Orleans, in 1852, to revolutionise-
Cuba; and she exclaimed against the Irish democrats, who,
petitioned the French revolutionary government, in 1848,
to recognise a Hibernian republic in the Emerald Isle.
Bat what were the two last but following her example ?

redress the b

be carved of

She sees the mote in her neighbour's eye, but cannot dis-
cover the beam in her own. It will appear in the sequel
of this history whether England in fact derived any
benefit, even in a commercial point of view, from this
great act of disguised aggression ; whether the cause of
freedom and the interests of humanity were really ad-
vanced by it ; and whether the greatest calamities, public
and private, its inhabitants have ever undergone may not
be distinctly traced to its consequences.
To aver that so great a task as that undertaken
by Sir Archibald Alison, has been executed, even
hitherto, without error or blemish, would be to
affirm what cannot be sustained, and what ought
never to be expected of any human work ; but, to
state that by his European History he has earned for
himself a renown, more lasting than could be con-
ferred by the dedication of statues, and which shall
perish only with the language in which the work has
been written, is to do no more than echo the general
opinion of civilized man. To rejoice in the success
which has waited on his labour—to wish perennial
verdure to the wreath which encircles his manly
brow—and to congratulate him on the honour
conferred on him by his Sovereign, in token of his
worth and of his intellectual powers, is but to ex-
press in weak words the loudly-proclaimed senti-
ments of his admiring country. To thank him for
the additional lustre he has bestowed on the
character of English intellect by his labour, is the
duty of his countrymen. To ensure the resonance
of his achieved fame will become the willing duty
of their posterity. ---

Criticisms

By the Rev. John W. Lester, B.A.

London i Longman, Brown, and Co.

This is a very tastefully got up reprint, it being
the third edition of Mr. Lester's brief but spirited
commentaries on several of the most popular
authors of the day, illustrated by select passages
from-tlieir works. The criticisms are rather expo-
sitions of beauties than analytical examinations,
and as, such form pleasing annotations on our most
generally admired writers. The specimens are well
seleckd, and the remarks show a fine perception of
their beauties. The volume being very handsomely
got up in all respects, and containing as it does
choice selections from the favourite literature of
the day, it is happily suited for a presentation
memento.

The Poetical Works of Alexander Pope. Edited
by Robert Carruthers. London :N. Cooke.
The third volume of this beautiful and cheap
edition of Pope's works, which, through some inad-
vertence of the publisher's, we presume, did not
reachus forreview,has just been published. Its con-
tents arealmostlimitedtotheDunciad,andthe Essay
on Man ; the last two pages being devoted to the
" Universal Prayer." The first of these, the most
pungent as well as the most elaborate of English
satires, is profusely annotated,andonits preparation
the editor has bestowed much pains, and no small
amount of judgment, united to good taste. The
volume is copiously illustrated by clever engrav-
ings, and as a whole the set, when completed, will
form a beautiful library edition of the works of the
great English moral poet.

The Ecclesiastical History of Socrates. London.
Henry G. Bohn. _ _

This volume forms"one s one of Bohn's interesting
series, the " Ecclesiastical Library," and embraces
the history of the Church from the accession otCon-
stantine in A.D. 305 to the thirty-eighth year of the
reign of the Emperor Theodosius 11.,—a period of
one hundred and forty years. The time named
will at once remove any misapprehension as to the
authorship being in any way connected with the re-
nowned Greek sage and moralist, the prestige of
whose appellative scarcely seems to have fallen on-
this compiler of the Church's annals.. To the
student of ecclesiastical history the volume will
prove highly acceptable. It treats of an impor-
tant epoch_ in the affairs of the Christian Church,

on which it throws much light. The volume is
prefaced by a brief biographical notice of the
•