hardly content itself with "making het again" the pseudo-science of the past.

oppressed friend, Mr. Herbert Spencer, compelled to speak with bated breath' In the course of these observations I certainly for the first time in my thirtyhave already had occasion to express odd years' acquaintance with him!" my appreciation of the copious and My alarm and horror at the supposition perfervid eloquence which enriches the that, while I had been fiddling (or at Duke of Argyll's pages. I am almost any rate physicking), my beloved ashamed that a constitutional insensi- Rome had been burning, in this bility to the Sirenian charms of rhetoric fashion, may be imagined. has permitted me, in wandering I am sure the Duke of Argyll will be through these flowery meads, to be glad to hear that the anxiety he attracted almost exclusively to the bare created was of extremely short duraplaces of fallacy and the stony grounds tion. It is my privilege to have access of deficient information which are to the best sources of information, and disguised, though not concealed, by nobody in the scientific world can tell these floral decorations. But, in his concluding sentences, the Duke soars into a Tyrtæan strain which roused even my dull soul.

me anything about either the Reign of Terror or the Revolt. In fact, the scientific world laughs most indecorously at the notion of the existence of either; and some are so lost to the "It was high time, indeed, that some revolt should be raised against that Reign of Terror sense of the scientific dignity, that which had come to be established in the scien- they descend to the use of transatlantic tific world under the abuse of a great name. slang, and call it a "bogus scare." As Professor Huxley has not joined this revolt to my friend Mr. Herbert Spencer, I openly, for as yet, indeed, it is only beginning have every reason to know that, in the to raise its head. But more than once-and very lately-he has uttered a warning voice Factors of Organic Evolution, he has against the shallow dogmatism that has pro- said exactly what was in his mind, voked it. The time is coming when that revolt without any particular deference to the will be carried further. Higher interpretations opinions of the person whom he is will be established. Unless I am much mis- pleased to regard as his most dangerous taken, they are already coming in sight." critic and Devil's Advocate-General, and still less of any one else.

I do not know whether the Duke of

I have been living very much out of the world for the last two or three years, and when I read this denun- Argyll pictures himself as the Tallien ciatory outburst, as of one filled with of this imaginary revolt against a no the spirit of prophecy, I said to myself, less imaginary Reign of Terror. But "Mercy upon us, what has happened? if so, I most respectfully but firmly Can it be that X. and Y. (it would be decline to join his forces. It is only a wrong to mention the names of the few weeks since I happened to read vigorous young friends which occurred over again the first article which I ever to me) are playing Danton and Robes- wrote (now twenty-seven years ago) on pierre; and that a guillotine is erected the Origin of Species, and I found in the courtyard of Burlington House nothing that I wished to modify in the for the benefit of all anti-Darwinian opinions that are there expressed, Fellows of the Royal Society? Where though the subsequent vast accumulaare the secret conspirators against this tion of evidence in favor of Mr. tyranny, whom I am supposed to favor, Darwin's views would give me much and yet not have the courage to join to add. As is the case with all new openly? And to think of my poor doctrines, so with that of Evolution,

THE EMPEROR WILLIAM.*

the enthusiasm of advocates has some- questions about which we older men times tended to degenerate into fanati- had to fight, in the teeth of fierce cism, and mere speculation has, at times, public opposition and obloquy - of threatened to shoot beyond its legiti- something which might almost justify mate bounds. have occasionally even the grandiloquent epithet of a thought it wise to warn the more Reign of Terror-before our excellent adventurous spirits among us against successors had left school. these dangers, in sufficiently plain It would appear that the spirit of language; and I have sometimes jest- pseudo-science has impregnated even ingly said that I expected, if I lived the imagination of the Duke of Argyll. long enough, to be looked on as a reac- The scientific imagination always tionary by some of my more ardent restrains itself within the limits of friends. But nothing short of mid- probability.-T. H. HUXLEY, in The summer madness can account for the Nineteenth Century. fiction that I am waiting till it is safe to join openly a revolt, hatched by some person or persons unknown, against an intellectual movement with which I am in the most entire and hearty sympathy. It is a great many Impartially conceived, well written, years since, at the outset of my career, and well translated, we hail with I had to think seriously what life had special satisfaction this biography of to offer that was worth having. I the man who has been for fifteen years, came to the conclusion that the chief and must continue till his death, the good, for me, was freedom to learn, prominent actor in living history. think, and say what I pleased, when I Fortuna, sævo læta negotio, was pleased. I have acted on that convic- lavish of her frolicsome malignity tion and have availed myself of the when she cast the Emperor William's "rara temporum felicitas ubi sentire horoscope. A feeble and delicate youth, quæ velis, et quæ sentias dicere licet," he was to become the most vigorous which is now enjoyable, to the best nonagenarian on record. Unpopular of my ability; and though strongly, beyond precedent through middle age, and perhaps wisely, warned that he was to be the best-beloved Sovereign should probably come to grief, I am entirely satisfied with the results of the line of action I have adopted.

in his country's annals. A passionate defe der of the divine right of Kings, he has planted his Imperial throne on My career is at an end-"I have the wrecks of hereditary monarchies. warmed both hands at the fire of life;" A bitter foe to popular claims, he has and nothing is left me, before I depart, established universal suffrage in his but to help, or at any rate to abstain dominions.

taken

Deeply and habitually

from hindering, the younger generation religious, he has broken more treaties, of men of science in doing better service to the cause we have at heart, than I have been able to render.

And yet, forsooth, I am supposed to be waiting for the signal of "revolt," which some fiery spirits among these young men are to raise before I dare express my real opinions concerning

more territories, shed more blood, than any scourge of humanity in modern times except the first Napoleon.

He entered the Army at ten years old, during the most disastrous period

"The Emperor William and his Reign." From the French of Edouard Simon, 1886.

of Prussian history; his family was in he was to be aided by a greater than

either, Herr von Bismarck. To these three men belong the diplomatic and military triumphs of his reign; to himself, the sagacity which selected and the firmness which upheld them. The duel with the Chamber of Deputies continued for four years. In the stormy debates, the assertion of constitutional rights on one side, the reprimands, dissolutions, illegal exactions of subsidies on the other, we seem to have gone back three centuries, and to be in the presence of the Stuart

exile, his country prostrate and insulted. Equipped by Nature with a narrow intelligence and an iron will, he drew from prolonged adversity the principles which have governed his whole life and afford the key to his actions-hatred of democracy, hatred of Napoleonic France, implicit faith in militarism. When, in 1845, his brother, King Frederick William, granted a Representative Assembly, the Prince of Prussia, as he was then called, opposed the measure as ruinous to throne and country, exciting so much Parliaments. But there was no Pym bitterness against himself, that in 1848 he left Prussia by the King's desire, returning, after some months of banishment, to withdraw from public life and take no part in politics.

in the Prussian Chamber; the Prussian Cromwell was on the monarch's side, and the Prussian Strafford was fighting for a master whom he could trust.

Even thus the King and his Minister The Convention of Olmütz in 1850 would have been beaten, had not revealed the military inferiority of domestic politics been superseded by a Prussia; the reconstruction of the foreign war. The death of the King Army became of prime national of Denmark in 1863 created two rival importance, and was committed by the claimants for the Duchies of Schleswig King to his brother, who threw into it and Holstein, hitherto part of the all his energies. He was eager to take Danish Kingdom; the succession of part against Russia in the war of 1854, the new King Christian had been and resented the neutrality on which guaranteed by the Treaty of London in the King insisted, not knowing in what 1852, to which Prussia and Austria stead the gratitude of Russia, purchased were parties; the pretensions of the by that abstention, would stand to Duke of Augustenburg were supported himself in later years. In 1857 he by the German Confederacy and by the became Regent, in 1861 King, announc- inhabitants of Schleswig-Holstein. ing the programme of his reign with a Bismarck saw his chance: to annex the frankness which is characteristic of his Duchies to Prussia would popularize nature, and perhaps one cause of his the King, checkmate the Parliament, success. He would resist Parliamen- flesh the newly organized army, give tary encroachments, he would create Prussia an extended seaboard, increase the most powerful army on the Con- her influence in the Confederacy, tinent, using it to construct a German undermine the power of Austria. Empire in which Prussia should be The obstacles were serious; the Treaty paramount and Austria of no impor- pledges of Prussia, the hostility of tance. In choosing agents for these Austria, at that time stronger than her great aims, he was equally fortunate and well-judging. He committed the reorganization of the army to Von Roon, its strategic leadership to Von Moltke: in conflict with his Parliament

neighbor, the reluctance of the Confederate States, not least the conscientious misgivings of the King. The steps by which these difficulties were overcome are not pleasant reading;

they include all the devices of trickery | over, Nassau, Hesse-Cassel, Frankfort, and dissimulation-promises made to the Elbe Duchies, into the Prussian be broken, concessions offered to gain Kingdom, the Confederation of the time, demands advanced without North completed, the rebellious Parintention of maintaining them, pro- liament submissive and reconciled to fessions discarded when they have the King. The success of Prussia was served their turn, which have made the viewed in England without suspicion. word "diplomacy" synonymous in or displeasure; very different was the general estimation with "immorality." feeling in France. Napoleon III., Austria was hoodwinked, the Confed- already uneasy on his throne, sought erate Pact dissolved, the Duke of to recover popularity by extorting an Angustenburg installed in the Duchies, accession of French territory equivalent then expelled on the pretence that a to the German annexation. He asked fresh claimant had appeared; finally, for the left bank of the Rhine; his by the Convention of Gastein, Austria request was not even entertained. Biswas enthroned in Holstein, Prussia in marck offered to assist him in seizing Schleswig. This Convention Bismarck Belgium, a proposal which from had no intention of observing; but he unwillingness to make an enemy of required time to perfect the Prussian England, he declined. He demanded. Army, and to seek European alliances Luxemburg, a neutral Duchy, but against the breach with Austria, which garrisoned by Prussian troops; on that he intended, when ready, to provoke. too being refused, he used threatening He counted on the connivance of and warlike language; the passions of Russia, still mindful of the Crimean the two nations were aroused, and war War; he secured the neutrality of was imminent; but the Great Powers, Napoleon, who hoped that the two led by England, intervened, and German Powers would exhaust each Prussia evacuated Luxemburg, which other, and leave him dictator of West- was declared an independent State ern Europe; he concluded an alliance under the collective guarantee of with Italy, eager for the Venetian Europe. The danger was averted, provinces; most amazing feat of all, he peace was made, Kings and Emperors overcame the scruples which were part flocked to the Paris Exhibition; but of his master's nature; persuaded him Bismarck felt war to be inevitable, and to break with his oldest friend, to ally the monster cannon exhibited by Prussia himself with all that he most hated in on the Champs Elysées was typical of revolutionary Italy and Napoleonic the purpose of its rulers. Three years France; to annul the Federal Pact of of armed and suspicious watchfulness 1815, in order to reconstitute Germany were followed by the Hohenzollern with a Universal Suffrage Parliament. Candidature. The incident need not The conditions were secured and the have led to war; it was fomented and mask was dropped. Many of us accentuated by Bismarck. Now, as remember the stunned amazement with before, the Prussian Monarch was which Europe witnessed the events unwilling to draw the sword; but the that followed-the Prussian declaration violence of the Duc de Grammont of war, issued on the anniversary and the tone of the French Press made of Waterloo; the crushing Austrian it easy for the Premier to excite defeats on four successive days, the German feeling; and in a paroxysm of disive victory of Sadowa, the Peace passion, calculated on his part, genuine of Nikolsburg, the absorption of Han- everywhere else, both at Paris and

Berlin, the two great nations rushed and armies was powerless against religinto the war of 1870. The German ious sentiment; and the Kulturkampf army was prepared, the French was ended with the discomfiture of Bisnot. The French offensive plan had marck and his master, a discomfiture to be suddenly changed into a hastily which did not disarm the Ultramontane schemed defence. The Germans were Center of the Chamber. Even keener led by a single mind; the French uneasiness was caused by the Socialist Emperor was personally unfit for lead- agitation; measures emanating from ership, and further disqualified by the the Government for the relief of the agonies of disease. Sedan fell, the suffering artisan classes have been Emperor was a prisoner, Metz surren- accepted by them as an installment, dered, King William's head-quarters not as a satisfaction, of their claims; were at Versailles. In vain M. Thiers in Germany, as in France and England, besought all the European Cabinets to the strife between capital and labor mediate; in vain M. Gambetta raised rises black and menacing above the an army of defence; disaster followed near horizon. The national dislike to disaster throughout that dreadful further extension of the army has been winter Paris was bombarded and overcome only by dissolution of the capitulated, Alsace-Lorraine was given Reichstag, menace of war, unstinted use up, the German Army was reviewed on of the Emperor's personal influence; the race-course of Longchamps; the while the hair of the Western Samson Emperor William, wearing the crown has grown again. France of the Repubof Charlemagne by the unanimous lic is stronger than France of the election of the German Kings, returned Empire, and will soon be stronger than to Berlin in triumph, "ascribing his Germany; the conqueror of Metz and successes to Providence, and giving glory to the God of Hosts."

over.

Strasburg, fearing that his prey may be torn from him, rivets the Triple Civil discord, suppressed in the face Alliance, adds to his two million troops, of war, breaks forth again when war is proclaims with brutal frankness that a The conqueror of Königgrätz new French war is inevitable, and may and Gravelotte has found his sixteen be imminent. Meanwhile, the Emperor years of empire a period of continuous is ninety years of age, and must soon conflict-in one instance of signal enter into the presence of a Tribunal defeat. The Liberalism of the Prus- whose verdict on the deeds of his long sian bourgeoisie was swift to reassert life none of us would venture to anticiitself; the combat between Constitu pate.-The Spectator. tionalism and Absolutism is as lively now as in the days of 1847. The absorbed States represented in the Prussian Chamber-the Guelph group from Hanover, the Danes from Northern Schleswig, the Poles of Posen and of East Prussia-form a small irreconcilable opposition, and are ranked by So long as the English language is the Government among the enemies spoken and Christian congregations of the Empire. The struggle with the gather together to sing in it their Catholics was perhaps the one political hymns of praise the name of Ray blunder of the Emperor's reign. The Palmer will be held in loving honor. arm which could prostrate Empires He was, without doubt, the greatest

RAY PALMER.

[Born in 1808, Died in 1887.]