England as in France? It is not that ability or energy is wanting amongst our neighbours. It is in great measure because in France art is 'protected' by the Government. Surtout point de zèle-the most salutary and the most neglected political axiom ever uttered in France, should be the motto of every government towards science, art, and literature:-as nihil quod tangit non depravat is the unfailing moral and epitaph of its interference. These considerations are (it is hoped) sufficiently clear; nor is it needful to dwell on the value of vivid and visible illustrations of English history in an age which has prosecuted historical research with a zeal and a success rarely equalled. No one would call that nation dead to its own or its cognate antecedents which within one half century has seen and fairly appreciated Scott, Thirlwall, Grote, Merivale, Froude, Carlyle, Milman, Hallam, and Macaulay. This marvellous growth of historical inquiry would probably have had its parallel in art but for the existing tone of popular feeling. The causes of this it has been attempted to trace in the foregoing remarks; but one result of our ignorance and apathy should not be passed over. For it is certain that art in every branch almost uniformly follows, in place of forming, the dominant public taste: that it stands to public taste in the relation not of cause, but effect-a phenomenon occasioned mainly by the cast of mind common amongst artists, rather receptive than creative, and more capable of realization than of originality. Thus whilst our men of taste, critics or buyers, are ignorant either of what painting has effected in this lofty sphere, or of what it should aim at effecting, whilst spectators at large are indifferent, whilst, in a word, there is no demand, not only will the supply not be produced, but the powers which might produce it will not be called into being. Many are the lost arts which have thus shared the fate of extinction notorious in the domain of ani mal life. All honour, then, to those who, like Maclise, or the painter whose loss has been so little felt, have struggled against the meaner influences of their day, and in face of the indifference of the rich, the frivolity of fashion, the superficiality of the critic, or the hostility of the rival, through labour and want, have produced works worthy immortality. But it is of little use or pleasure placing laurels on the grave: better that we should take to our hearts the moral of such a history. A long life of uninterrupted painting would not have exhausted the scenes of the past which Cross saw with the inner eye and longed to fix on canvas; but after his first success, although displaying a continual advance in art, so little encouragement did he find, that this man, who might have done so much for us, had to paint his few great works in his scanty leisure between the lessons to children by which alone he could maintain himself. What a tragedy in brief is here! what waste of lofty gifts-what wreck of farseeing intentions! Yet here too the consolation is not absent with which high aims and the noble devotion to truth and duty bless the life-long service of the faithful. Death may come before they have realized the vision and the dream, or half accomplished the great purposes which inspired them: their country may lose or mis-esteem the treasures with which they were eager to endow her: but their place will be where the successful of the hour have no portionamongst those who have done the State service, and played their part AN ANGLER'S IDYLL; ADDRESSED FROM CAMBRIDGE TO AN OLD FISHER FRIEND AT TRIED friend and true, best comrade of my sports! Where scarce two boats abreast can hold their own,- And oh how jocund on the eager ear While through the fluttered woodlands far away, That in the high blue heaven are scattering song, Such wealth the woodland showers. While on the air Pied moths, and all fair things that love the light Are up and busy. Many and many a time Can I remember when we sat us down On you The every spoil that every hour had won. That in the passing sunshine danced and sang, Trinity Hall, Cambridge, A. H. H. CHRONICLE OF CURRENT HISTORY. THE civil war in America is far the greatest event that has occurred in the memory of Englishmen who cannot go back to the contest between Napoleon and the Allies. It absorbs our attention; it suggests reflections; it awakens hopes and fears in a way and to a degree without parallel. The enthusiasm and the spirit with which the North has rushed to arms have taken England by surprise. The extreme indifference with which all foreign politics are regarded in England, and the impatience with which all contests are viewed of which we do not see a definite and probable issue favourable to English interests, were displayed in the form of a lazy approbation of an imaginary arrangement, by which the South were to have all they want, were to form a strong cottongrowing republic, and keep the mills of Manchester in full work. The retention of Fort Sumter was treated as a foolish bravado, and its bloodless surrender was hailed as a new cause for merriment at the expense of America; but it is one thing to judge from a distance, and another to be exposed to the immediate and direct consequences of hostile action. The North was literally electrified at the news that Federal troops had been fired on, that a Federal fortress had been forced to surrender, and that the President and the capital were in danger of an immediate attack. In a day the whole complexion of American politics was changed. All Northerners, whether Democrats or Republicans, were united in a determination to defend their country, and the most prodigious efforts were made to place the safety of Washington beyond doubt. Directly he received intelligence of the evacuation of Fort Sumter, the President made a call for seventy thousand men. In all the Northern States this call was responded to with the greatest alacrity, and the citizens vied with each other in contributing men and money to the common cause. VOL. LXIII. NO. CCCLXXVIII. Eleven millions of dollars have been placed at the disposal of the Executive Government by voluntary gift; and so strong was the desire to enlist, that the State of New York alone has sent more than ten thousand men to the defence of Washington. The forces of the North have rapidly reached a very imposing number. Forty thousand volunteers have been enlisted for three years; seventy-five thousand have been enrolled for an indefinite time. The regular army has been raised to twenty-five thousand, and lists have been opened for the enrolment of eighteen thousand sailors. The deficiency of arms which naturally prevails among men who, two months ago, never dreamed of war, will soon be provided for by the vast importation of weapons of all kinds which have been ordered from Europe. The sea is open to the North and closed to the South, and the Federal Government is engaged in purchasing every ship it can get hold of in order to make the blockade of the Southern ports effectual. Mr Seward has announced that foreign vessels cannot be allowed to load cotton at a port of a seceded State even for foreign countries; and the diplomatic representatives of the United States in Europe have been instructed to announce that the Federal Government will never allow the dissolution of the Union. The effect of the fall of Fort Sumter and of the call to arms made by the President, was equally great in the South. The doubtful and doubting States have been forced to put an end to neutrality, and have arrayed themselves, with few exceptions, on the side of secession. North Carolina, Arkansas, Virginia, and Tennessee, are no longer in the Union; and as the Virginians signalized their secession by an attempt to seize the Federal Arsenal at Harper's Ferry, and the Federal navy yard at Norfolk, the officers in charge of the stores and vessels were obliged to destroy a large quantity of the most valuable material, in order to 3 G prevent its falling into the hands of the South. On the other hand, Kentucky remains neutral; Western Virginia has intimated that it would prefer to remain in the Union. Delaware has no wish to secede, and although the mob at Baltimore, which is habitually so riotous and violent as to attract notice even in America, attempted to interfere with the passage of the Federal troops on their way to Washington, the mass of the agricultural population of Maryland is said to be disinclined to secede. The possession of Baltimore is absolutely necessary if the North is to retain Washington, and Federal troops have occupied it, as serious obstacles were thrown in the way of their military communications. The President of the Southern Confederacy, Mr. Davis, after having driven the North into a course that determined the Border States to join the South, has since affected moderation, and a desire only to act on the defensive. But he has done all that he can to prepare for the contest. Letters of marque have been issued, by which privateers will be enabled to act against the mercantile marine of the North, and large levies have been raised for the purpose, as it is supposed, of capturing Washington. Thus the combatants have now taken their places; and it is known who are on the one side and who on the other. Speaking roughly, it may be said that the prize of the first campaign is to be the retention or the seizure of Washington, and that a force of at least sixty thousand men on each side is being rapidly collected to ensure the defence or to make the attack. The theory that the Americans, and especially the Northerners, are fighting for nothing, or at most for a little plunder in the way of territory, is still held in England; and the preparations of both sides are regarded as tainted with the folly that attends on all meaningless and purposeless efforts. It might, however, shake the confidence of those who adhere to this theory, if they would remember that the most intelligent and the most mo derate Americans have always been of opinion that it was not possible that separation should take place without war. The very question of the territories is one which it is most unfair to class among the disputes which the thirst for mere conquest and mere power has raised up in so many parts of the world. The North and South are divided by one of the very greatest differences that can divide two bodies of men. The North protest that they cannot suffer the South to carry the curse of slavery into the unoccupied regions of Northern America; the South resents this as an unjustifiable limitation of an institution excellent, beneficial, and in harmony with the designs of Providence. The difference is one of principle, as much as any difference that ever divided the religious or political parties of the Old World. There are also a hundred minor questions which can only be determined by a knowledge of the relative strength of the two parties. The possession of Washington is one of them, and the liberty of Western Virginia to join the North is another. There might also be endless quarrels about fugitive slaves, and about the command of the Potomac and the Mississippi, which drain the Free States, but flow into the sea in the Slave States; and these quarrels can only be avoided by the one party or the other acknowledging its comparative weakness. It is probable, however, that the real reason why the North is blamed for taking up arms, is not that Englishmen think their cause bad, but that they think that the success of the South is more profitable to England than the success of the North. The great function of America is to give us cotton, and if the South are displeased with us, or are at all embarrassed by the conflict, they will, it is feared, cease to send us cotton. This is, we believe, a pure mistake. The South will always grow as much cotton as they can, and will sell it to their best customers; and it is the North, and not the South, that can prevent the cotton that is grown from coming to Europe. The sym |