against a country whose only fault is to have ers must be politically masters, or their ingiven no cause of offence. As between the North and ourselves, their views may remain unchanged, but as between the North and South discussion must come to an end. There is not a Tory in England, except, perhaps, Mr. Beresford Hope, who, once convinced that the issue is as Mr. Forster has stated it, will not abstain from crippling the side through which the "principle of freedom on the whole continent of America is to be made predominant." stitution will be upset by the majority, who, not being owners, will, sooner or later, resent the competition of unpaid labor. It matters nothing whether the Slave States are part of the free community, or occupy only its border line. The owners must attack freedom and conquer it, or see their institution slowly perish. They must demand and secure by conquest a fugitive slave law from their allies, and so deprive them of the right of asylum, or see their property deprived of half its value. They must prohibit free communication or abolitionists may settle among them, and attack the foundation of their society. They must prohibit free contact, or the opinions they dread will spread among them as fast as water filters through sand. They must, in fact, by the necessity of their position, be able to enforce their own will on their neighbors in all emergencies, and as the emergencies increase in gravity from the increasing number of their people, the increased infusion of white blood in the slaves, and the increased spread of a hunger for freedom, they must make this coercion yearly more onerous and searching and permanent. But, say the advocates of the South, political freedom is not involved in the struggle, for political freedom can exist even though domestic slavery continue. Were not the Athenians free, though Cleon would have disdained to interfere for slaves, or the carly Romans, though slavery was aggravated by equality of race between the slaves and their lords? A reply could scarcely be shorter or more perfect than that which Mr. Forster has given. Slavery in modern times cannot co-exist with political freedom: "If men would learn the very alphabet of freedom they would see that wherever there is domestic slavery, wherever the first political right-a right even above and beyond all politics-the right of man to The free community must, in fact, live the disposal of his own body and the govern- under a permanent danger-a danger infinitement of his own soul, where that is denied by ly greater than we, for instance, should sufthe law, political liberty is not safe. If it be fer were France mistress of the Continent, or possessed by the master class, that class can-America mistress of the seas. Yet who blames not keep it in safety, and the very words' po- our statesmen for averting movements which litical liberty' are a farce and a delusion. may, even in the far future, lead to those History proves that it was because the old re- results, at any cost in treasure, or energy, or publicans of Rome allowed themselves to be human lives? We fought the Crimear camcorrupted into domestic slavery that the mas-paign to avert a danger which, was, at least, ter class lost their own liberty, and we find a generation distant, and which, when it arthat in the South, where the slaveholder had rived, would have been less than the one power to use Mr. Carlyle's expression-to which the North would have to encounter at hire their negro fellow-countrymen for lifenot merely hiring their labor, but hiring the chastity of the women and the souls and brains of the men-that is, to do what they would with that honor, mind, brain, and soul-when they did that to one class they at the same time deprived their white fellow-citizens of the freedom of speech, the freedom of the press, and almost of the freedom of thought." It is this, and not the philanthropic quesNo man, whatever his character, can in a slave tion, which the governing classes of Great state be permitted to attack slavery, or to de- Britain have so steadily refused to see, and nounce cruelty, or to teach the slaves; for if this which our public speakers have in so he is, there will as surely be insurrection as many instances failed to bring before them. there will be fire if oil is touched by flame. Mr. Forster has supplied the deficiency, and Self-preservation forbids the admission of free while acknowledging, as all but fanatics must, discussion, or free education, or free speech, the valor and conduct of the South, while exor free parliamentary debate, or even free lo- pressing a just conviction that it is very comotion, or free internal trade-neither li- difficult for men, even in a bad cause, to subquor, nor arms, nor books, nor newspapers, mit to the sacrifices and self-denial which nor good clothes, can possibly be sold to slaves, many men in the South have undergone, --and yet without these rights freedom is a without coming out of it purified and better mere phrase. Indeed, nominally free institu- than when they went in," he still expresses tions are very nearly impossible, for the own- | his faith that out of all the horrors and the once. If a State can have a right to provide for its own security in the future as well as the present, to maintain its own creed, its own laws, its own social life, without interference from without, then the North had a right to prevent, if necessary by arms, the formation of a great slave empire along its own border line. From The Spectator, 26 Sept. NAPOLEON IN POLAND. bloodshed and the misery the world will emerge with this compensation, that on the continent of America," which is as much part of the domain of civilization as if it touched WEARILY, though without despair, we once the Mediterranean," the power and princi- more call the attention of our readers to that ples of freedom will rule, and not the power strange series of battles, manifestoes, inand principles of slavery." And as the cor- trigues, diplomatic struggles, and political ollary to this great lesson, he urges upon the failures which is called shortly" the Polish nation a fair and just estimate of the mighty affair." Events have occurred during the struggle they now witness with such impa- week, some of which may prove of importience. The member for Bradford does not, tance, and all of which, tending as they do to of course, endorse the unreasonable complaints a single definite end, deserve something more in which the American press indulge, for he than a passing comment. For the past six does not belong to the school which prefers months this journal, which on American afAmerica to England, and is disposed, like fairs has the ill fortune to find itself wholly most Englishmen, to meet menace with a very opposed to the sympathies of the class to clear defiance. He does not forget either, as whom it appeals, has on the Polish question it suits Mr. Charles Sumner to do, that, on been as widely at variance with that class's the whole, the English masses have been on conviction. The educated million, wishing the Northern side, and have endured suffering always the independence of Poland, believe caused by Northern blockades because freedom that it cannot be secured without intervenwas at stake; that the Government has been tion, and that intervention is hopeless. We throughout studiously patient and fair; that believe, on the contrary, that apart from coneven the governing class, when called upon tingencies like the death of Lord Palmerston for action, shrank from aiding the men they or the Emperor of the French, intervention liked at the cost of the principle they had al- is, to say no more, the most probable of many ways maintained. But he calls upon the na- improbabilities. In spite of the growing lastion not to forget the magnitude of the issues situde of the English public mind, of the disat stake, and, remembering them, to forgive persion of the half-dozen men who really gova natural though unreasonable irritation, and ern Europe in search of recreation, of the support their Government in a just interpre- slow but visible decline in the military power tation of international law. That just inter- of the rebellion-a decline confirmed by propretation will, the speaker believes, prohibit nounced Liberals who have quitted Warsaw the despatch of more Alabamas. For, and within the week-and of the advanced season, the point is a new as well as a striking one, that opinion still seems to us the only one there is this marked difference between sell- which thoughtful men are justified in accepting arms to a belligerent and selling ships of ing. It is based on two leading ideas-that war: The arms are useless till they arrive, Russia prefers battle to any concession in the and the power which professes to blockade matter, and that Louis Napoleon will accept lets them in by its own defect of vigilance battle rather than a final diplomatic defeat and power. But men-of-war can be used be- on a subject which his people, partly from fore they arrive, and there is no way of stop-noble and partly from selfish motives, have ping them, except by war on the selling nation. If, therefore, the Enlistment Act were passed to avoide causes of war, it must cover, or be so improved that it can be made to cover, acts which can only be checked by the war that measure was passed to prevent. The British Government has accepted the responsibility, and the country has now to support them in their decision, or clearly resolve that they do not wish the principle of freedom to predominate on the continent of America." There is no escape from the issue, and, so stated, there cannot be a doubt of the ultimate decision; but it would come all the sooner if Liberal members would argue out the question with as great a preference for England, and as little fear of social clamor, as the member for Bradford displayed before the people of Leeds. taken so deeply to heart. The events of the week, whatever their ultimate meaning, at least tend in a high degree to confirm both those impressions. The Russian answers to the three powers have been published at length, and amount in the aggregate to a polite refusal to tolerate and full of the formal suavity one sees in its further discussion. Curt to the last degree, full perfection only in a lawyer's letter, they are to the full as menacing as the most truculent American despatch or the haughtiest English ultimatum. Prince Gortschakoff plays to all the part of Medea, and insists on cutting up the living body before applying must precede the concession of the intended the elixir of youth. Pacification, he says, reforms. In other words, the czar intends to subjugate Poland utterly before he discusses treaties, and, as Le Nord triumphantly boasts, he has withdrawn his brother as representa tive of those clement ideas which are but self-government, and their exemption from "illusions," and which it is necessary" to exceptional or heavy taxation. It is necesterminate by a vigorous military action, which sary to soothe them, and accordingly the may re-assure the peaceable population, and czar, whose family for forty-five years have re-establish in the country order, safety, and broken all the stipulations framed when the calm." A nation is to be put to death, and Grand Duchy was ceded to protect the Finns, then the executioner will discuss, if it be his has suddenly bethought himself of the hispleasure, the justice of the sentence and the toric rights of the province. He has called dignified mercy of the judge. This is ad- together the Diet, and on the 18th inst., he dressed to all Europe, but to France Prince opened it in person, in a speech which reads Gortschakoff adds something more. M. in parts like that of a constitutional monDrouyn de Lhuys, in language which, when arch. The Estates, of course, are invested a Bonaparte utters it, has force, had claimed with no power whatever, as the initiative for France full liberty, and left to Russia the and the veto are both reserved to the soverresponsibility of her actions. Prince Gort-eign, and loans will continue to be raised schakoff calmly accepts the covert menace, without sanction should "an unexpected invaand in language which, if full of arrogance, sion of the enemy, or any other unlooked-for is not devoid of dignity, throws it back upon misfortune," make more money necessary. France. "Toleration of the plans of the But still the Diet is assembled, and if it is Revolution," says the Russian minister, "is" very dignified, very moderate, and very only to be feared from those powers which calm in discussion," if, in short, it obeys ormay be determined to pursue, under an ap- ders, why that pleasing course of conduct pearance of diplomatic action within the lim-"will furnish a new motive for re-assemits of international engagements, the realization of the most extreme desires of the Polish Revolution and the subversion of the European equilibrium." bling it" three years hence. For, says the czar, with that grandly impressive vagueness which the despots of Europe have caught from the one competent man among them, The notion of equilibrium is explained by under such circumstances, "liberal institua menorandum in which Prince Gortscha- tions, so far from being a danger, become koff re-asserts that Russia in 1812 held Po- guarantees of order and prosperity." The land by right of conquest, and that the trea- Diet is not a Parliament evidently, and its ties of 1815 could give to the western powers acts will probably be confined to a new vote no right of interference in her internal af- of taxes; but words like these do not chill fairs. In short, 1815 notwithstanding, the the aspirations of the few who aspire, and kingdom of Poland is an integral part of the meeting of notables with some right of Russia, and as much beyond external criti- speech however restricted, some claim howcism as the courts of justice in Moscow or ever theoretical to refuse their sovereign's rethe administration of the mines in Siberia. quests, would never have been sanctioned by Language like this would never have been the Government had not the external danger employed had not the Russian Government Leen extreme. Conciliation is so opposed to finally made up its mind. Apparent conces- the first principles of the Russian régime, a sions are so easy and great states so placa- Diet of any sort at Helsingfors establishes so ble, when placability will avoid war, that impressive a precedent for Moscow, that they Prince Gortschakoff under other circum- are of themselves sufficient proof that the stances would, at least, have argued. He Government anticipates dangers which mere now only announces that argument is at an force may not be sufficient to repel. Those end. It is with the same resolution that the Government, with its finances still in disorder, hurries on works which defend nobody against the Poles, but will protect the coast against any sudden descent, and that the czar has sanctioned an extraordinary innovation. Under any menace from France, the weak point of Russia is not so much Warsaw as Finland, for France must always seek to use Sweden as her base, and Finland is and must be the Bernadotte's price. Were the province certainly loyal, à descent made even by a power like France might not be a very formidable affair; but there is discontent in Finland. The Finns regret the old connection, the freedom and cheerful life which they see across the Baltic, their old rights of dangers are clearly intimated in the allusion to the contingencies under which loans will be raised for Finland without asking Finnish consent. That those dangers are real seems evident from the events of the week in France. It is not in French nature to sit down calmly under a defeat so complete as that which Prince Gortschakoff has inflicted. It was, therefore, at first announced that M. Drouyn de Lhuys would reply in a note having the force of an ultimatum. The spring, however, is still distant, French armies cannot move over ice, and the cool brain which rules France has devised ad interim a much more effectual reply. The National Government has just published and circulated a despatch 1 intended to express its own views on the tion, and that she has withdrawn the one man From The Spectator. HEROES AND THEIR LIKENESSES. WE doubt whether we, "the heirs of all the ages," have invented any new pleasure by which we shall swell the permanent inheritance of our children much more substantial than that art which enables us, for a few pence, to individualize at a single glance our notions of the exterior form and features of half a hundred distinguished men, whose names are daily before our eyes and achievements upon our lips. There is a set-off to the advantage of railways and telegraphs. They, no doubt, enlarge the opportunities, but for that very reason they sadly increase the fuss and turmoil, of life. But to buy for sixpence a card which gives distinctness to our notions of upwards of fifty distinguished men, who are scattered over a whole contiThe events of the winter must, if we are nent, living in tents in the tropics, making rightly informed, greatly increase this incli- their head-quarters behind fiercely assaulted nation. The insurrection will not, it is true, batteries, leading cavalry raids into hostile wholly cease, for life in Poland just now is so countries, bending their careworn heads over little worth having, that mere personal mis- politicians' desks, firing off their random oraery will furnish to the insurgents recruits. tory from pulpits, or concocting their sensaWhen a mourning dress involves Siberia and tion telegrams in newspaper offices, is cerevery man is liable to blows; when the best tainly a limited, but also a real enjoyment, and ablest are deported in thousands and the which carries no corresponding labor with it. right to landed property has virtually ceased whether it is a privilege in any other sense to exist; when a foreign soldier is posted as a than a literary pleasure is, perhaps, doubtful. spy in every concierge and every household is What we gain beyond an agreeable satisfacinfested with Cossacks covered with lice, there tion of the imagination by seeing, for instance, will be no lack of men who prefer a picnic that the man who gained the battle of Murending in death, but rendered pleasant at least freesborough, and who has just crossed the by vengeance. But it is nearly certain that Tennessee and occupied Chattanooga, is a the Russian military position is daily becom- handsome soldier, with a long straight nose ing stronger, that she can, if she will, com- that descends directly in the line of the foremence the course which ends in extermina-head, and a mouth about which there is a pleasant play of military gallantry, it is not light which left the earth when Abraham easy to say. But that it is gratifying to sub- was buying the cave of Machpelah must at stitute this individual face in our minds for the present moment be arriving in some fixed the unknown quantity which we had hitherto star a few trillion miles away, and might, been obliged to connect with the nine letters therefore, with sufficiently sensitive materials, of Rosecranz's name, when we hear of that be made to yield a photographic group of general's exploits, is unquestionable. Who that transaction. And, if that were anyhow does not feel that "Rosecranz has taken attainable here, instead of only in remote conChattanooga" gives us a livelier interest, afstellations, it cannot be doubted one would ter the first word had been translated into a read history with a new relish. But what certain limited amount of visual significance, do we learn by connecting a specific face with than while both the subject and the predicate a catalogue of actions, more than we should of the sentence remained in blank for us, or, know in any case? Even if the photograph at least, only connected themselves in our be a true likeness of the face, will the face minds with a number of other propositions necessarily add to our knowledge of the man? concerning each, as equally without impres- Most men, judging by their own intimacies, sion for the retina? It may be laid down as would answer in the affirmative; but very a certainty that a piece of personal news is often what we call the expression of familiar interesting in proportion to the number and faces is mere association that we have learned freshness of our mental associations with the to attach to facial movements, only as we subject of it,-much more interesting, even if learn to attach ideas of electricity to the we have once brushed against him in the street sound of thunder. We know that one friend or seen his back as he turned a corner, or frowns when he is thinking hard, and with only so much as succeeded him in a morning him we associate a frown with embarrassed call, so as to say to ourselves," He was in the thought; another frowns when he is nervous, house a few minutes before I entered it,”—and in him the frown denotes shy or sensitive than if the track of our life has never in any way approached his own. And though it would be hard to say that it is instructive to have once seen the hat and umbrella of the Duke of Wellington vanishing in the distance, the time will, no doubt, come when men who have done so, will read and speak of him with far deeper interest than if they had only read his praises. feeling—and then we call those lines in their forehead expressive. Yet they are not really expressive originally at all, but only become so by long habit. The first sight of this frown in either face would probably mislead instead of instructing us; we should think it a sign of anger. And thus it is often exceedingly questionable whether the mere vision of a public man's face, not previously or otherStill more, of course, do photographs of wise known to us, is likely to add to our pos eminent men add to the pleasure of reading itive knowledge of him, or rather to give us of their achievements. Do they add much to a false impression about him. Here, for the real meaning of history? We have before example, is a photograph of a three-quarter us, in a single portrait-carte, fifty-two photo- face, contemplative, serene, Shakspearian, graphic heads of modern American generals with the collars turned back, with mousand civilians, some Northern, some Southern, tache but no beard, exceedingly like the with Washington's calm, old-fashioned face, better likenesses of Shakspeare in its upper looking gravely out of the eighteenth century portion, showing a placid brow and heavy at us, in the centre. Here, within the space brooding eyelids, only a thinner and, perhaps, of an ordinary carte, are congregated the ungenial mouth. To which of the Ameriheads that have brewed this storm, so that, can generals do our readers suppose that it sitting quietly at home, we can pierce at fifty- belongs? To General Lee or General Mctwo distinct points the white mist of words Clellan? No; but to General Butler. And, and names which hangs over that American supposing the photograph true, will it add chaos. It is not easy at first to define our anything to our instruction to remember that gain, and yet every one knows how eagerly the tyrant of New Orleans, whose military a like set of authentic portraits of the Pelo- severities were even less discreditable than ponnesian generals and statesmen, a good his private gains, has a musing, refined, anphotographic group of David and his associ- tique, literary face, with, perhaps, a flavor ates in the cave at Ziklag, or even one com- of hard and forbidding lines lurking under manding head belonging to one and the same the shadow of the moustache? Again, here race in each generation since the Christian is a civilian face, solemn, didactic, important, era, so as to show the gradual fashioning of time, would be coveted. There are, indeed, spots in the universe where such photographs might still by bare possibility be taken. Some one pointed out, not long ago, that rays of still young, but going in for "judiciousness," the kind of face which one is accustomed to see in men who deprecate indiscreet theories, and school those still younger, telling them that they will learn by sad experience to take |