eigns and Free Towns in Council, 16 have | is so democratic in its methods of election, only one vote each, and are in a military so closely bound up with the dominant sense absolutely powerless - mere nobles member of the Federation, and invested or towns of Prussia- while the chance with such extensive powers, should remain that Bavaria with her 6 votes, Saxony within the paper limits of its authority, with her 4, Würtemberg with her 4, Baden more especially when its legal rivals are and Hesse with their 3, and Brunswick anxious that it should not remain within and Mecklenburgh with their 2 each, them. The Prussian Liberals would most should all unite, and then carry half of gladly merge their Parliament in the Centhe powerless Princes with them, is so re- tral one, thus getting rid at once and for mote as to be in practice inappreciable. ever of their tiresome and Conservative Moreover, in the extreme and most im- House of Squires, and Hesse and Würprobable case of a vote on war carried temberg are equally desirous to be rid of against the Emperor, he could, as King of the pressure exercised by their Courts. Prussia, declare war for himself, he alone Würtemberg has just elected a Chamber retaining that separate right as King of a of the most centralist opinions, and except great power, and thus compel his allies in Bavaria, where the Ultramontanes are either to declare war on him, which would powerful, there is scarcely a party in the be impossible, or to remain neutral and Empire disposed to stand up for State see the representative of German milita- rights. The drift of opinion, of events, ry honour defeated in battle with the and of material interests is towards a Sovforeigner. For the Emperor, except in Ba-ereign Parliament seated in Berlin,— varia, is Commander-in-Chief through- towards a legislative unity which would in a out Germany; appoints all General officers; is, in fact, military service being universal, master of all men from the Princes downwards. Bavaria, it is true, retains her separate army, and may appoint diplomatists if she likes; but that State partly excepted, the Empire is for all military and diplomatic purposes one and indivisible.

year or two reduce the States to provinces with hereditary Lord-Lieutenants at their head, and highly dignified municipal Councils to manage local affairs, including, it may be, education and the control of religious establishments. Prussia alone can resist this tendency, and the interest of Prussia is to profit to the uttermost by her If the Unionists had secured only this numerical preponderance,- that is, to much they would have been very success- widen in every direction the attributes of ful, but they have secured a great deal the legislature in which her children are more, have manufactured a weapon which supreme. It should be noted that the Immay prove infinitely more potent than all perial Parliament has in this very Act extheir treaties. The local Parliaments lose erted the highest form of sovereign power, absolutely all control, whether in theory making its will override all the inter-State or fact, over external politics or military treaties of 1856, and expressly reserves to organization, and are reduced from Parlia- itself in future this limitless authority, by ments into mere provincial legislatures bestowing in a separate clause a right of which as we see in America need not im- vetoing constitutional changes on onepede unity, but they do not receive in re-fourth of the Imperial Council. The veto turn the powers retained by Massachusetts is not, of course, dangerous, for Prussia or Illinois. On the contrary, the central already has it from her superior power, Legislature, elected by universal suffrage, and to exercise it against her, Bavaria, and completely dominated by Prussia, Würtemberg, and Hesse must unite and which returns almost two-thirds of the induce one or other Prince or Princeling members, has, when in harmony with the to join them. Moreover, the Parliament Council, complete power over all criminal appears to claim a still more definite legislation, tariffs, excise, coinage and paper power, that of dethroning any German issues, commercial and banking laws, pat- prince it pleases, for the motion to declare ent laws, copyright laws, navigation laws, the Duke of Cumberland's right of succeslaws of judicial procedure, hygienic laws, sion to Brunswick null and void, he having press laws, trades-union laws, and every as Pretender to Hanover levied troops kind of law affecting intercommunication, against the Fatherland, was not, so far as with the two bizarre exceptions that Bava- we gather, resisted by any argument of ria and Würtemberg fix the taxes on their illegality. Discussion on it was only deown beer, and Bavaria can still compel ferred by the prorogation. strangers from other provinces to sue for a permit of residence. It is scarcely conceivable that a Parliament of which one House

weaknesses

Nevertheless, there are within this Constitution which do not to our minds promise it a very long term of

life. In the first place, absolute power is and whose number cannot be increased. not lodged anywhere, either in the Kaiser, Each member is protected by immunities or the Parliament, or the subordinate leg- such as no noble ever possessed-is, in islatures, or the mass of the people, and fact, avowedly beyond the law, whether lothe necessity for such absolute power is cal or Imperial - cannot be menaced withperpetually recurring. Had it existed any-out treason, or severely criticised without where in the American Constitution, the danger of the law which punishes incivil war might have been averted, or at all sult to German Sovereigns. The immense events the obvious illegality of the insur- strength of the American Senate when oprection must have cost the seceders hosts posed to the House of Representatives is of supporters. It may be needful yet, in the most striking feature in American polunforeseen contingencies, to override the itics, and its strength is derived from the Kaiser, or a State, or a combination of fact that its members represent States inStates, while still acting within their legal stead of districts. So will the Imperial powers, and there is no power within the Councillors, while they will enjoy in addiConstitution left to do it legally. Nor is tion the advantages of their Royal rank, there any provision for the reception and their influence, sure to be great over of the new States which may yet come in, local elections. Should they rally round and may fatally derange a system just now their chief, instead of quarrelling with him, carefully arranged to give to the State as they are very likely to do, they will form which has made Germany its natural as- a Conservative power against which the cendency. The absence of legal propor- tide of popular feeling may break for tion, again, between the weight of Prussia years in vain. We all remember King in the Council and in the Chamber may on William's struggle of years against the occasion be most inconvenient, as, for ex- majority of his own Parliament; and the ample, during a long minority, when the Council, if united, will be King William Council, uninfluenced by a child Kaiser, plus all the Princes of the Fatherland, promight sway one way and the Deputies tected from individual responsibility, and another. These are perhaps trifles, inter- wielding powers secured to them by treaties esting only to those who study Constitu- as well as by the Constitution and by Partions; but there is another peculiarity in liamentary vote. We shall be curious to the arrangements which may yet produce see if, whenever the hour of resistance areffects which will not be popular in Ger-rives, the Council can be overborne or simany. No House of Lords so powerful lenced without an insurrection. Practiwas ever yet constructed. It is a co-ordi- cally, we presume, the Kaiser would yield nate branch of the Central Legislature, before matters arrived at that point, and and it is filled by men who must be Con- draw with him the majority of Councillors; servative, who cannot be without follow- but they may, without incurring that danings, who are all men in high military com-ger, delay reforms for years, and concenmand, who have prestige such as can never trate on themselves the odium which in belong to mere nobles, who debate in secret other countries is borne by the aristocracy.

THE Swiss Federal Council has issued a mes- | to give the subject its special attention. As to sage to the Federal Assembly, in which it points the belief which has repeatedly been expressed out the injury which would be caused to Switz- in Switzerland that the annexation of Alsace and erland by the annexation of Alsace and Lor- Lorraine would lead to a claim for the Swiss raine to Germany. The effect of this annexa- districts on the right bank of the Rhine, intion would be, it says, to make Basle an enclave cluding Schaffhausen and Little Basle, the in German territory, as Geneva now is in French Council says it has no anxiety on this point. territory; the direct communication between" It is scarcely credible that Germany should Basle and France would thus be made much more difficult, and its important banking connection with Mulhouse would be entirely destroyed. Notwithstanding this the Council does not consider that at this moment, when there is still great uncertainty as to the result of the war, it would be proper to enter upon any diplomatic action in the matter. It will, however, continue

ever bring forward the principle that the Rhine should form her frontier on the south-west, and not on the west and north-west. Such a logical absurdity cannot be accepted ever in politics, and we have not the smallest ground for believing that any such plan is contemplated by the German authorities."

Pall Mall Gazette.

ATTENTION is now directed in an unusual degree to the subject of military religion; there fore the following remarks of Prince Eugène, written shortly before his death, may be of some use to the young inquirer :—

I have been happy (says Prince Eugène) in this life, and I wish to be so in the other. There are old dragoons who will pray to Heaven for me, and I have more faith in their prayers than in those of all the old women of the court and of the city clergy. The fine music, whether simple or more obstreperous, of the divine service delights me. The one has something religious, which awes the soul; the other reminds me by the flourish of trumpets and kettledrums, which so often led my soldiers to victory, of the God of Hosts who has blessed our arms. I have scarcely had time to sin; but I have set a bad example, perhaps, without knowing it, by my negligence of the forms of religion, in which I have, however, invariably believed. I have some times spoken evil of people, but only when I thought myself obliged to do so; and have said, "Such a one is a coward, and such a one is a scoundrel." I have sometimes given way to passion; but who could help swearing to see a general or a regiment that did not do their duty, or an adjutant who did not understand one? I have been careless as a soldier, and lived like a philosopher. I wish to die as a Christian. I never liked swaggerers either in war or religion. Pall Mall Gazette.

of the cliffs are very apparent. When we reach
the chalk base nearer to Flamborough the rock
decays and yields up; nevertheless, it is certain
that the sea gains. The small islands or isolat-
ed columns of chalk which stand up in the sea
off Flamborough Head, have no doubt once been
joined to the mainland. Spurn Point, or Head,
on which stands the lighthouse, owes its safety
to a curious balance of forces. It stands at the
mouth of the Humber, at the extreme south-east
extremity of Yorkshire, and is a long, narrow,
crescent-shaped bank. On the south side it is
often wasted by the currents; but fresh mate-
rials are continually brought to it on the other
side by the tide from the cliffs further north, as
they gradually crumble away into the sea. To
quote Professor Phillips, "it is out of the ruin
of Holderness that the Spurn is constituted and
maintained." On the other hand it is stated
that the sea is receding on our western coast.
If this double action continues, it may be in the
future that Liverpool will find itself an inland
town, with a dried-up harbour, when Hornsea,
Bridlington, and Whitby are only names of the
past.
Pall Mall Gazette.

THE last great land slip at Whitby occurred NILE travellers, says a letter from Cairo, are in 1787, and the present one is only the contin- not as yet very numerous, nor probably will uation of a process which has been going on for they come if the war continues. The way many hundreds of years. The sea is steadily through France by Marseilles being shut up has gaining on the land of the east coast of England, probably something to do with it. People shrink especially where the geological formation is not from the sea voyage from Southampton, and the of a kind that offers great resistance. But in its necessity of taking their passage weeks beforeattacks on high rocky coasts, such as Whitby hand; and the Brindisi route is looked upon as presents, after a long period of gradual under- a doubtful sort of experiment — the long railway mining, a sudden catastrophe ensues. The journey, and the possible bad boat, were always land cracks at the base, the houses on it slip deterring causes; now few of the people even down, and the rock above cracks and topples who have some knowledge of continental travelover or sinks abruptly, leaving a vast fissure or ling know how to get to Brindisi. The mails depression. From Hull nearly up to Flam- by that route continue to arrive very punctuborough the coast is like a bank composed of ally. There can be hardly any doubt that unsand, pebbles, &c., and village after village has der no circumstances will they ever again go by been silently swept away. According to Pro- Marseilles. The English Government will fessor Phillips, this waste has been calculated probably enforce the clause in their contract as going on at a rate of about "two and a half with the Peninsular and Oriental Company, by yards in the year, which upon thirty-six miles of which the latter are obliged, with three months' coast would amount to thirty acres. One mile notice, to commence running steamers from in breadth has been lost since the Norman con- Brindisi. Two well-known people here are at quest, and two miles since the Romans occupied present taking their share in the defence of Eburacum." Kilusca finally disappeared in Paris M. de Lesseps and M. Mariette. Stu1836 Ravenspurm and Outhorne, with its dents of Egyptian antiquities will regret the abchurch and burial ground, have vanished. On sence of the latter, as all exploration and disold Yorkshire maps the words are still to be covery is at a standstill, and the museum at seen -"Here stood Auburn, which was washed Boolak is shorn of its chief beauty- the magaway by the sea; Hartburn, washed away nificent collection of gold ornaments, placed by the sea; Hyde, lost in the sea." In safely under lock and key by M. Mariette beancient documents mention is made of other fore leaving for his usual summer visit to places-Frismerk, Tharlesthorpe, Redmayr, France. Mr Rogers, the consul here, has been Pennysmerk. Upsal, Pottersfleet. None of them fortunate enough to obtain permission to have a are to be seen at the present day. Hornsea, cast taken of the trilingual stone found by M. which now overlooks the sea, was once, accord- Mariette two or three years ago at Sân, the aning to tradition, ten miles distant from it. At cient Tanis. It is to be sent to the British MuBridlington, the gradual waste and breakdown! seum very shortly.

99 66

Pall Mall Gazette.

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