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little cause of uneasines in its external relations, or as little cause for interference in its internal affairs, as Great Britain has done for the last 100 years, or is likely to do for 100 years to come. Now, there is no nation on the continent to whom we would accede more readily the government of such a state than Prussia, because there is no other which has displayed more aptitude for directing the energies of large masses of people to useful ends; more skill in reconciling the greatest liberty of individual action with the loftiest requirements which can be exacted from its subjects by a state; more generosity in sharing with those subjects the sacrifices demanded, or supporting the burdens which are imposed for the good of the community. The welfare of the state is so identified with that of the subject, that a man cannot perform the duties he owes to the Government without advancing his own interests, just as he cannot discharge the duties he owes to himself without advancing those of the common weal. We have no fears at beholding Prussia take her place in the vanguard of political power, because she is already in the vanguard of civilization. She is the only country which has obtained empire without contracting debt, or which can maintain the ascendency of a great military nation at the expenditure of a small one, because she has solved the problem of the maximum of political strength with the minimum of standing armies. Even the men whom she has under arms, she makes the best behaved portion of the community, by turning them into the most industrial. Looking at these results, we are half inclined to endure the infamy with which Prussia has covered herself in rising to her present pitch of greatness. We welcome the advent of Prussia to the front rank, not with unmitigated pæans of gladness, but just as we would welcome the advent of a man who has achieved greatness by means which, if generally followed, would be highly prejudicial to society, but who is content to spend what he has plundered from individuals upon advancing their corporate prosperity.

For it cannot be overlooked, whatever advantages Prussia has bestowed or may be destined to bestow upon Europe, that the example she has more recently set of the wanton infringement of the law of nations, her utter scorn of treaties when they stood in the way of her selfish purposes, her masking of private cupidity under the cloak of patriotic ends, has introduced further lawlessness of action into international statecraft, and inclined each kingdom to its own selfish ends, irrespective of its past engagements or its present obligations.

Russia, seeing that no regard is paid to treaties, that each nation is allowed to follow whatever course is conducive to its

interest, has openly avowed that it also feels itself, in the promotion of its own designs, as unshackled as its neighbour. Now this silence, with the guns of Candia booming in our ears, is a harbinger of future mischief, not less to be attributed to the success of Prussian spoliation, than to our indifference as to whatever State should turn up the trump card on the Continent. We have openly avowed, or at least the present ministry have done so for us, that we have no concern with the political transformations on the European Continent, but that quite secure in our rock-built isle, we are alone concerned with the guardianship of our Indo-Colonial dependencies. This appears to us only a general invitation to any European State which harbours mischief, to carry its plans into effect without the slightest prospect of armed intervention on our part, even where we are bound to interfere, not merely by moral obligations, but by the solemn stipulations of treaties. Now, though the English nation may permit evil to be done, when certain good is to result from it, we cannot think it desirable to permit evil to be done where our interests are concerned, when greater mischief is certain to result from it. To act up to the full extent of the doctrine of non-intervention would be as effectually to shut ourselves out from European, as Austria has excluded herself from German confederacies; for our presence therein would not be of the slightest account, if it be trumpeted forth that there is no possible readjustment of European territory, no matter by what means brought about, which would warrant us in unsheathing the sword. But even apart from our special interests, we have an interest, in company with all well-meaning States, in the general preservation of peace, and in punishing any maurauder who endeavours to interrupt the general harmony for the gratification of his own rapacious purposes. Instead, therefore, of abandoning the field of European politics at this turning-point in a new era of diplomacy, it behoves us to enter into those alliances which will enable us to resist lawless aggression, to build up an equitable system of federative law in Europe, and to assist the development of nationalities upon the basis of representative institutions. We have long since made the advancement of our material interests one of the vital constituents of modern progress. France is also rapidly acquiring the conviction that she can have no prosperity apart from the European common weal. Unity of ends ought to inspire mutual confidence and support. If the newly-constructed nationalities will act in unison with two such powerful nations, a confederacy of European States would no longer be a chimera, but a reality, which would render war only a remote possibility, and disencumber modern communities of those vast armaments which are a disgrace to their civilization.

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CONTEMPORARY LITERATURE.

HISTORY, BIOGRAPHY, AND TRAVELS.

The Oberland and its Glaciers; Explored and Illustrated with IceAxe and Camera. By H. B. GEORGE, M.A., F.R.G.S., Editor of the Alpine Journal.' With Seventy-eight Photographic Illustrations, by ERNEST EDWARDS, D.A.; and a Map of the Oberland. London: Alfred W. Bennett.

It is a primary article of faith with the Alpine Club, that mountains were made to be climbed, and that it would be almost a reflection upon Providence to suppose that any mountain had been created without a path to its summit, a faith which has been wonderfully strengthened since the ascent of the Matterhorn. This granite obelisk successfully scaled, what peak can call itself invincible?

All the great monarchs of the ice world, Mont Blanc, Monte Rosa, the Matterhorn, the Jung Frau, are now vanquished, and the detailed exploration of their respective territories is all that is left to the enterprise of Alpine heroes; and assuredly they will not rest so long as a snow fortress holds out against them, or an ice cave remains unknown. Judging from the progress of the last quarter of a century, long before our coal fields are exhausted, every district of the Alps will be as familiar and commonplace as Snowdonia. A new Alp will be as rare as an old Dodo; even the Dolomites will have become household words; the salt of the Alpine Club will have lost its savour, and one shudders to think of the ambitious Alpine adventurer, moodily eating his own heart, and weeping at the London Bridge Station because there are no worlds left for him to conquer. Happily, there are the Himalayas and the Andes, which may then be relatively as accessible as Switzerland was half a century ago, and Chimborazo and Dhawalagiri will be to us what Mont Blanc and Monte Rosa are now.

Mr. George selected the Bernese Oberland for his campaign in 1865; a district yielding to none in Switzerland in sublimity, and perhaps, surpassing all others in beauty; and despising the mystery and pretence of great achievement, he organised a party of eight or ten persons,some of them ladies,-half pic-nic, half scientific. They assailed the country with appliances, which achieved for them what the needle-gun achieved for the Prussians. Christian Aylmer was guide, photographic apparatus was provided, and the camera was successfully carried wherever they went. Grindelwald was made head quarters; the Jung Frau was ascended, also the Esmeer, the Lauteraar Joch, the Eschner See, the Bell Alp, and the Nest Horn,-the latter, a virgin peak, perhaps the last in the Oberland of any importance,-and the territories which they ruled were explored. The Oberland, therefore, is now used up as far as Alpine adventurers are concerned, and will soon have to be left to Cockneys. The Lauteraar Joch will soon have as many visitors as the Mer de Glace.

In the scientific portion of his work, Mr. George gives in his adhesion to Professor Tyndall, and in a pleasant, popular way, reproduces his theories of glacier formation and laws. He skilfully blends scientific information with personal incidents. His book, therefore, is addressed

to a large circle of readers, whom it will both interest and instruct. The photographic illustrations are not large, but they are very artistic and beautiful. They are illustrative rather than scenic, and enable untravelled readers to realise in a very vivid way the characteristics and marvels of the ice world. Often, only a little bit is selected, but it exhibits as nothing else could exhibit, what ice needles, ice falls, moraines, and moulins are.. It is difficult to say whether the text is intended to be illustrative of the photographs, or the photographs of the text. The text is sufficiently vigorous, informing, and picturesque to justify itself. The photographs are sufficiently artistic and novel to form a most interesting Swiss album. The volume is a very attractive one; it will greatly delight those, to whom the Oberland is familiar, while it will read like a fairy tale of ice palaces to those who are not. It is thoroughly scientific; but it is science popularized; it will, therefore, be equally welcome in the study and the drawing-room. In publishing it just before the summer time, Mr. Bennett provides an admirable Christmas book, for those who seek Christmas scenes and sensations in August.

The Life and Death of Jeanne D'Arc, called The Maid. By HARRIET PARR, Author of 'In the Silver Age.' 2 vols. London: Smith & Elder.

There are problems connected with Jeanne D'Arc's character, achievements and martyrdom, which it is, perhaps, impossible now to solve. What was the inspiration under which she acted? What the secret of her marvellous success? Who were chiefly guilty in her death? These are questions of which only a partial solution is possible; and, in our conclusions concerning them, we must necessarily be greatly influenced by the sympathies of her biographer, and the colouring given to her narrative. The careful collection, in five volumes, of all known authentic documents connected with her history, by La Societé l'Histoire de France, has greatly facilitated the task of her biographer; and Miss Parr has been fortunate enough to be the first English writer to bring their results before English readers. This she has done with great conscientiousness and skill. Resolutely excluding all secondary representations, she has sought to delineate Jeanne in the simple light of these important state papers. The result is a portraiture singularly beautiful and heroic-and in one sense original. The Jeanne of Miss Parr's volumes is neither the prejudiced conception of Shakspere, the imaginative creation of Schiller, nor the statuesque goddess of Southey; least of all is she the vile courtesan of Voltaire,-the unclean credulity which accepted La Pucelle as even an approximation to the truth, being but the reflection of an immoral age, and an expression of its inability to believe in what was nobler than itself.

Miss Parr has, we think, for the first time, at any rate to English readers, embodied the simple humanity, the goodness, unselfishness, and heroism of Jeanne's remarkable character; her own womanly instincts have interpreted for her the purity and perfect womanliness of her heroine. Simply and gracefully written, her volumes have all the seriousness of history, all the interest of romance, and all the charm of a work of successful literary art.

Whatever the secret of Jeanne's inspiration, every record, and every impression concerning her, attests the most perfect sincerity, goodness, and nobleness. Always, and in everything a woman, she was yet a woman of heroic mould; she was endowed with considerable physical

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beauty, agility, and strength, with intellectual abilities of a very high order, clear and decisive judgment, single and indomitable purpose, remarkable eloquence, and a voice singularly rich and beautiful. Indications of these are seen throughout her history;-in her clear penetration of character, her almost instinctive perception of the thing to be done, her great power of reticence, and her determined perseverance when she was opposed,-first by her relatives at Domeroy, next by the counsellors of the king, and by the generals of the army. Whatever her inspiration it was purely her own; for a long time no one believed in it, and to the last it was made use of rather than credited. So far from being an instrument employed by the Armagnac party, her constant complaint was of opposition. At her trial she expressly affirmed that she alone was responsible for what she had done, and only a few moments before her death, she exonerated Charles by declaring that it was not he who had counselled her.

In a character of the 15th century, her hallucination is not so difficult to understand; her heated imagination no doubt interpreted as Divine intimations many things that to another temperament, or in a subsequent age, would have had no significance. She followed her voices with simple implicitness-not as a policy but as a faith. Her enemies did not question her inspiration, only they attributed it to witchcraft. What but a malign power could oppose them! With the mass of her countrymen she obtained a ready credence; and her convictions tended to justify themselves.

Her work was simple, patriotic and noble; sublimely indifferent to personal interests, she was intent only on the deliverance of her country from the English. The only peace for them is that they begone into their own country.' Her efforts to reunite the alienated Burgundians and the king, were untiring and very noble. She urged the latter to the freest and most generous forgiveness.

The noblest men in the French army-those who became the great commanders of their age-and the most virtuous women, were her firmest friends; she won respect and love in every household-from matrons and little children alike. Her achievements prove that success in war depends upon much more than needle-guns. The English were the finest archers in the world; no soldiers could struggle more bravely, and yet they could not resist the enthusiasm which Jeanne inspired.

Her trial and death are one of the most disgraceful chapters in history. The chief guilt rests, not with the English, whose culpability consisted mainly in delivering her over to the ecclesiastical tribunals, but with her own countrymen-with the University of Paris, who instigated itwith the oily, treacherous, and unscrupulous Bishop of Beauvais, who conducted it. who denied her all legal assistance, with diabolical ingenuity sought to entangle her in the casuistry of forty or fifty ecclesiastical assessors, plotted to destroy her by perversion of the forms of law, and brutally denied to her the consolation of praying before a church on her way to the court; and above all, with her dastardly and ungrateful sovereign and the Armagnac party, who heartlessly abandoned her to her enemies, and who did not move a finger or utter a word on her behalf; the indolent poltroonery of Charles, always her greatest obstacle, had here its crowning shame. Neither Charles nor France was worthy of the heroine, whose exploits crowned the one and delivered the other.