cans-it is to be observed that every vessel that leaves a Southern port laden with cotton, whether captured or not, is equally available to Europe. If she gets off scot-free, the cargo is sold in the Liverpool market for the benefit of the owner:-if she is detained and forfeited, the cargo is sold for the benefit of the captor;-but in either case the cotton goes into consumption, and pro tanto supplies the manufacturer and lowers the price. If we could be sure that all or half of the crop would leave the shores of the confederate states in hopes of crossing the Atlantic, its subsequent fate (unless it should be shipwrecked) would be a matter of perfect indifference to us, as far as concerns its bearing on the present question. moral sense, of any reverence for the memory of the great founder of their liberties, of any hopes or interests beyond the passions or appetites of the hour. And President Lincoln bears proud and solemn witness that in truth "the plain people" know well “that this is essentially a people's contest." The secessional oligarchy deliberately "press out of view the rights of men and the authority of the people." Their elections are held in military camps, their state papers are eloquent on the rights of minorities. On the side of the Union the struggle is felt to be one for "maintaining a form and substance of government" under which the condition of the whole people has been elevated an I improved beyond example in the world. And All these things considered, the unrea- thus the largest army of volunteers ever soning confidence of the Manchester and known, and comprising many regiments of Liverpool merchants, to which we made ref- which every common soldier is a man of erence last week-"that the cotton would high culture and attainments, has rushed to come forward somehow"-is not wholly un- the standard of the Union. If some othicers warranted. The practical question is, "How in the land and sea services have deserted much will filter through the cordon in these their colors, they were the creatures of favor several ways? Our fear is that-consid- or of fortune; of the common soldiers and ering the strange temper of both North and sailors not one has failed for a moment in South, the cost and difficulties of land car- loyalty, even in the face of treacherous riage to new ports, and the high price which commanders. With such support as this, must be reached before the heavy expenses President Lincoln is prepared to prove that and the enormous risks we have described "those who can fairly carry an election can will be encountered on any great scale also suppress a rebellion." There is not a a much smaller propotion of the crop will reach us through these illegitimate channels than sanugine men anticipate. free people, or a people aspiring to freedom throughout the world-much less is there a people with Anglo-Saxon blood in its veins that is not concerned in the momentous States describes, in the simplest words, as "a great lesson of peace, teaching men that what they cannot take by an election, neither can they take by war." No lesson, it should be remembered in England, can be more conservative, in the best and only true sense, than this. We have now, we believe, laid before our readers a complete view of this serious ques-crisis, which the President of the United tion as it stands at present; and the summary of the whole appears to be this. A very high price of cotton will bring us a large increase in the supply from India, a moderate increase from Egypt, and some portion at least of the crop from America. This high price will curtail the demand for the manufactured article at the same time that The American civil war, then, is a quesit enhances the supply of the raw material; tion of extending the area of slavery, of reand will thus tend to equalize the two. But viving the slave trade; but it is more than this beneficially high price will only be reach-all this for the New World, and for the Old; ed when, and as fast as, the parties more im- it is a question, indeed, of "peace, safety, mediately concerned shall become convinced and prosperity," nay, of national existence, of the reality and the extent of the dearth to that American Union which the genius with which they are threatened. From The London Daily News, July 19. IT seems impossible that this plain, unvarnished speech of the Republican President should not sink deep into the hearts and consciences of a people possessed of any and goodness of a Washington created for "God's most perfect instrument From The Saturday Review. pettiness which even his partial biographer cannot conceal, that we look with some curi partisans of some new régime will reveal to us what the archives have to tell of Jerome's cowardice as well of his courage. In all else he was a weak-brained coxcomb. His head was turned with his brother's renown. He was always asserting his dignity as younger brother of the most successful man of his age, by displays of pert but unsuccessful bravado. A slight anecdote that is told of his first performance at Paris, when he was brought there for the first time by his brother, is strongly illustrative of this feature of his character: It would be unreasonable to look for im-osity for the next revolution, when the partiality in a biography written with the ready pen of a panegyrist of the French Empire. Biographers have never been conspicuous for that virtue, even in the freest countries; and if one of them were so far to depart from the nature of his tribe as to wish to tell plain truths of a lost friend, he would hardly find the "fissures of the law," in France, as calked by M. de Perisgny, large enough to allow him to apply that candor to so delicate a subject as the reputation of one of the rois fainéants of the first empire. In a biography published under such auspices as this, we must be content with something very far short of simple truth. We must regard it much as we regard a fashionable portrait-painter's picture of a great man. We know that the negative evidence furnished by the portrait as to whether the said great man squinted, or was knock-kneed, or had a head of carrotcolored hair, would be worth just nothing at all. But it would serve to convey to us a general idealized outline of his figure, and a notion of what his expression of face would look like to a short-sighted woman who was foolishly in love with him. With much the same sort of qualification must we receive an imperial biography of Jerome. The book, so far as it has gone-for the present volume only reaches to the year 1806-is agreeably written, and contains much incidental information of a valuable kind. After each chapter comes a selection of letters in illustration, many of which are new. This arrangement acts as a strong cheek upon the author, and precludes all the more extravagant flights of invention which usually deform the writings of Bonapartist historians. But it is obvious that Jerome must fare better in these pages than he will ever fare again. 6 "On day the young schoolboy escapes from the Tuileries. He goes and walks on the Boulevards, finds out the richest shop, goes in and examines the various articles set out for show. Finding nothing fine enough for his taste, he asks to be shown the most wonderful thing they possess, both for magnificence and as an object of art. The shopman, astonished at the child's coolness, with some hesitation shows him a box worth sixteen thousand francs. Very well,' said Jerome, send it to the Tuileries, the aide-de-camp of the First Consul will pay for it.' With these words he leaves. The box is sent to the Tuileries. Duroc, fancying that General Bonaparte bad bought the article, pays for it, and next day enters the sixteen thousand francs upon the account presented cach day to the First Consul. The latter, much astonished, asks what it can mean. Duroc relates what has happened. On sending to the shop everything is explained. At dinner the First Consul comes into the drawing-room, where the are already assembled, taking Jerome by the ears, says, 'It's you, company then, sir, is it! pray, who gave you leave to buy boxes at the price of sixteen thousand francs?' Ah!' said the child, not the least disconcerted, that's my way; I only like pretty things.' and This was exactly the spirit he afterwards Even viewed through these friendly carried into active life. He was always showglasses, he does not present a very attrac-ing off; and was never disconcerted with the tive image. The best part of his character is that he was constitutionally fearless. In that word all his positive merits are summed up. It is the only quality that redeems his character from utter triviality. In fact, it is so inconsistent with the other traits of * Mémoires du Roi Jérome et de la Reine Cathe-was cruising with Admiral Villeneuve in the rine. Tome Premier, Paris: Dentu. rebuffs which his attempts invariably brought upon him. During the brief interval of peace which succeeded the treaty of Amiens, he was promoted to the rank of lieutenant in the navy at the age of eighteen, and intrusted with the command of a brig-of-war, which West Indies. As long as he remained in company with the admiral, this piece of favor- cerned, sent dispatches home to Talleyrand, itism came to no harm. But unluckily it was quoted an abundance of French law, and thought prudent, as soon as the permanence threatened the utmost wrath of the great of peace became doubtful, to send him and elder brother. He appears to have warned his brig back to France as fast as possible. the Paterson family very distinctly that, withScarcely was he out of sight than he met an out the proper consents, Jerome, being a English ship-of-war, which he took for a mer-minor, could not marry validly according to chantman. To show his dignity, he hailed the law of France. But it was to no purpose. her to lie to, and on her disregarding the The father hung back, but the young lady's summons, sent a shot through one of her sails. ambition was not to be so easily deterred; A prompt apology appears to have saved him and Jerome, as his custom was, did exactly from the immediate punishment due to this as he was told by the person whose infludisplay of grandeur. But his ill-fated sojourn ence was for the moment in the ascendant. in America, with the consequences that ex- The marriage took place five months after tended from it even to our day, was its direct his arrival in America. Of course, when, result. He returned forthwith to the harbor after many difficulties, he succeeded in eludhe had left, in order to report the occurrence; ing the English cruisers, and landed again in and then, when it came to the question of his Europe, he found Napoleon fully resolved not starting again, and running the gauntlet of to recognize the marriage. Unfortunately, the English cruisers with a declaration of war once within the clutch of the French police, rapidly approaching, he did not feel his nerves Miss Paterson was not able to keep Jerome equal to the undertaking. Accordingly, he by her side. He was at once sent on to the preferred to slip over in a pilot boat to the emperor, while she was stopped at the fronUnited States, and to take his chance of smug- tier. He yielded to the strong will of his gling himself back to Europe on board some brother as pliantly as he had yielded to the neutral trader. In July, 1803, he landed in strong will of the American beauty; and havVirginia. But here his evil demon of perting relieved his conscience by sending to her presumption still pursued him. The French the most fervent professions of unalterable consul wished to give him some advice as to attachment, he easily resigned himself to the the manners and customs of the natives, and necessity of never seeing her again. It is cuthe peculiarities of American society. An rious that these frequent stumbles had in no appetite for the friendship of distinguished degree cured the tendency which in the vulstrangers was not an unknown transatlantic gar tongue would be termed bumptiousness. virtue even in those primitive days, and the Hardly had he scrambled out of one scrape French consul wished to help Jerome in than it lured him into another. To give him choosing his acquaintance. He even warned employment, the emperor charged him with him of the character of one or two disrepu- the duty of drilling the crews of some vessels table parasites into whose hands he had fallen. that were cruising in the Genoese waters. JeBut Jerome's dignity was infinitely insulted rome's dignity seems, as usual, to have been by the suggestion that he was not fit to be his very much on the alert. He thought that it own master at all times and in all places. The would be consulted by a promotion in his naconsul received a sharp rebuff for his pains; val rank. Accordingly, without further refand the young lieutenant gave himself up to erence to any sort of authority, he dubbed all the bliss of being the pink of fashion in the himself post-captain on the spot, and prosociety of Baltimore. The result was natural ceeded to confer lieutenancies on such of his enough. He was absolutely without employ-personal friends as he thought deserving of ment, and Baltimore young ladies are remark- that rank. The only result of this impertiably pretty. It was not so difficult then to nence naturally was to draw down from his induce young men to propose as it has unhap-powerful brother a sharp reproof and an pily been found to be in our days. Miss Betsy order to strip off his stolen plumes without Paterson, the reigning beauty of Baltimore, delay. But though it came to nothing, it may brought matters to an issue with the inflam- serve as a good specimen of the only quality mable sailor in little more than two months. in which Jerome can be said to have been The French consul was in despair. He pre-eminent. wrote frantic letters to all the parties con- The darkest blot in his character, so far as this first part of his life is concerned, is once at sea, seem to have had no other his conduct towards Miss Paterson. It was thought or care than this-to escape the marked by a meanness to which none but a English in the first place, and the weather thoroughly worthless nature could have in the second. If, however, they were put stooped. The marriage was only permitted to the choice, they generally preferred the by the Patersons on the solemn promise tender mercies of the weather to those of the given by Jerome that he would never leave English. They always appear to have left America till it had been recognized in harbor with the conviction that their function France. He not only broke this promise, was to keep out of the way as much as they and afterwards cast off as illegitimate the could, and to return unhurt if possible-an wife whom he had obtained by means of it, aspiration which was very seldom fulfilled. but he had the inexpressible impudence to Jerome was witness, in America, of a strikgo on for several years writing to her affec-ing illustration of the difference between the tionate letters, and assuring her that she had maritime spirit of the two nations. There no truer friend on earth than himself. He was a French frigate in the harbor of New even went so far as to propose that she should hand over to him their son, to be brought up by the wife whom he had subsequently, and, in the eyes of the Patersons, fraudulently married-Catherine of Wurtemberg. But shame was a weakness against which few of the Bonapartes have ever had to guard, and Jerome least of all. This book, including as it does the whole of Jerome's naval career, gives occasional glimpses of the maritime affairs of France before her navy was swept away at Trafalgar, which will be read with interest. What appears pretty clearly is, that the French enjoyed all the advantages then, which are claimed for them now. They seem to have had better ships, and a more complete machinery for manning them. The difficulty appears always to have been in the commanders. However perfect the instrument provided might be, it was impossible to find men who knew how to handle them with skill and daring. Napoleon, who was always aware of his own weak points, admits the difficulty very plainly in a letter written to Jerome in May, 1805, just when he was gathering up all his strength for his final maritime effort: 66 York in which he was anxious to sail for self near Sandy Hook, in order to watch In conclusion, the author deserves the tribute of having kept his pen remarkably free from the rancor against the English which, in historians, is generally inseparable My brother, I send you a letter from from Bonapartist partialities. In measurthe Minister of Marine; you will see how ing the relative powers and performances of much good you may do to my fleets if you the two countries, he does not show more conduct yourself well. I have no lack of bias towards his own than writers of all naships or sailors, nor of a great number of tions would naturally feel. He indulges in zealous officers; but what I do lack is chiefs no aspirations for the revenge of Waterloo, who have talent, character, and energy.” and abstains for the present from boasting that, thanks to the ship-building activity of France, the empire of the seas has changed hands. This fact is abundantly plain, even in the short descriptions of Jerome's cruises that are given. The French commanders, when From The Spectator. in the case of a meteor which was last observed with the imperfect astronomical apparatus of 1556. No doubt when sufficient time has been allowed to compute accurately the elements of the present orbit, and to allow for all other disturbing influences, we shall be able to determine pretty accurately the date of its last appearance near the sun. These erratic bodies, with their enormous tails, sweeping a distance of from five million to two hundred million miles, constitute, as we have said, the dream-land of astronomers, and it is very pleasant to turn to the chap throw the reins upon the neck of speculation, and career away into the boundless field of extravagant hypothesis. In the first place, there is a delightful difficulty about a new comet. There are always three courses open to it, as to a statesman, before it starts upon its career, and a good many modifications afterwards. It may be merely a planetary body, revolving in thin ellipses, and as regular in its movements as the earth or Jupiter itself. Such is Halley's celebrated seventy-year comet. Or it may be moving in either a parabolic or hyperbolic orbit, in neither of which cases can it ever return again to the same place, but must forever explore new fields of space. But the diffi EVEN the astronomers are still permitted the refreshing emotions of excitement and surprise. There is one field of unlimited possibility open to them in which their speculations are as purely imaginative as the events of M. Alexandre Dumas' novels. Comets are still left to utter a brilliant protest against routine in the very field in which it is sometimes said that routine is absolute. Splendid comets that no astronomer expected are discovered suddenly by casual ladies as they retire to rest. Others, which are ex-ters in which these usually rigid reasoners pected, and whose return has been confidently predicted, entirely fail to keep their appointment. And concerning one comet again (Lexell's) carefully observed, and whose orbit was closely computed, it remains an entirely open question whether it has been wholly absorbed and appropriated by the planet Jupiter, or has gone off into infinite space never to return, or whether we are still at intervals beholding it without recognizing its identity. Even the comet on which astronomers have now been gazing for some six successive nights is a doubtful character. Some of them-as for example M. Babinet-believe that it is the same which in 1264 looked down upon the amazed English barons during their first efforts to secure par-culty lies here, that it is an extremely deliliamentary rights under the auspices of Simon de Montfort, in the reign of Henry III., and which took its second glance at us in Mary Tudor's reign, two years before the accession of Elizabeth, when it accelerated Charles V.'s intention of abdicating in favor of his still more fanatical son. Mr. Hind, however, who had computed this comet's return for 1858, when nothing was seen of it, vehemently denies that this is the belated meteor in question; and M. Leverrier is of the same mind. M. Bomme, a geometer of the Netherlands, predicted some time ago that Charles the Fifth's comet, as it is called, would be delayed by planetary interferences till 1860, and Halley had anticipated its return for the same year. We venture no opinion upon so difficult a subject, but we must observe that the interferences of planetary attractions upon these erratic and illobserved orbits are so very vaguely estimated, and have often brought astronomers into so much error, that personal identity is not either established or overthrown in a moment, cate matter to distinguish accurately, from a single set of observations, between a comet moving in a very elongated ellipse of many hundred years' period, and one moving in an absolutely infinite curve; so that it is even yet doubted whether there are any, strictly speaking, of the latter kind. But the puzzles to which the mere orbits of the comets have given rise, are nothing compared with the amusing speculations to which their physical constitution has given rise. Astronomers have discussed with the most opposite results the speculations, — whether a comet has ever struck the earth; if it has, whether it has changed the seasons and altered the latitudes of the different places on our globe; whether passing through the tail of a comet would be preju dicial to us, and in what way;-whether it would be possible for a new comet to carry off the earth with it as a satellite-and whether such an effect would be fatal to human arrangements or not. All these questions open up a delightful field of specula |