she finds her marriage to be invalid, she is anxious to recover her position on the pension list of the Patriotic Fund. Faithfully yours, No date. C. E. MANSFIELD, Captain 33rd Regiment, No address. No date. We should like to see the date. We may presume, however, that it was before she was put on half allowance, as the Captain says "she lost her pension." Could it be possible that this half allowance had anything to do with the petition of the 10th January, 1857, requesting admission for her child to the "London Infant Home?" January 30th, another petition to the same effect, was forwarded by Major Ormsby to Captain Fishbourne, and on the 2nd February, a letter came from Captain Fishbourne, couched in the following terms : 66 SIR, London, &c. 2nd February, 1857. In compliance with Mrs. Norris's request, her daughter will be placed in the Soldiers' Infant Home at Hampstead. Will you have the goodness to pay the mother and child's expenses to this office, and also the expense of Mrs Norris in returning to Dublin. Major Ormsby, I have the honour, &c. &c., E. GARDINER FISHBOURNE. District Staff Office, Dublin." No necessity for "presentation forms." Everything is now smooth. Landed at last. A hard struggle, well and skilfully played, Captain. Oh, what rapture fills your breast. We wish you joy, but for all that, we would not like to be in your place. Mrs. Norris died, and so the matter ends. The letters of Major Ormsby to the Archbishop, are em bodied in the Report, but the letter of the Archbishop to Major Ormsby, dated 1st January, 1858, is omitted. With reference to the observation made by the Commissioners, that" Dr. Cullen," produced only two cases to sustain his charges, we must say that it was not from a want of instances of proselytism, which are alas too numerous, but through a wish not to cumber his pages with the "old old story." Should the Commissioners desire it, we have no doubt His Grace will give them more examples than they would wish to have known. We have only now to say, that the Report is most satisfactory, affording as it does "confirmation strong" of the charges brought by the Most Rev. Dr. Cullen against the Patriotic Commission, and proving beyond question the necessity there existed for obtaining in regard to the "Indian Relief Fund," some further assurance of impartial distribution, than that which had been already found insufficient. We regret we were not able to enter more minutely into the Report: but as far as we went, we have proved that even taking their own onesided and partial statement, the accusations of the Archbishop have been fully corroborated. It is to be hoped that on an early day, the reasons which induced Mr. Ball to refrain from signing the Report, will be made public. It is somewhat striking, that of the two Catholics on the Commission one withheld his name, and that of two Irishmen one refused to sign. In the first page of our paper we have attributed to the "Sepoys," outrages which we then believed to have taken place. Information which we have since received, unfortunately too late for insertion in its proper place, has induced us to modify our opinion considerably, and to regard the reports of these atrocities as somewhat exaggerated. ART. V.-THE SCOTCH HISTORIAN. History of Europe, from the fall of Napoleon in 1815, to the Accession of Louis Napoleon in 1852, by Sir Archibald Alison, Bert. D.C.L. vol. VII. William Blackwood and Sons, Edinburgh and London, 1858. A very strange opinion respecting the merits of historiographers generally has been attributed to Dr. Johnson, by his friend and biographer, Bozzy. The doctor is said to have held, that writers of history are nothing better than mere retailers of facts and events occurring on the surface of the earth during a certain number of years, and that their only merit consisted in making a good compilation. Another opinion of the great lexicographer was of a somewhat similar character; that if the names of all persons of the two sexes in the kingdom were thrown into two separate hats, and drawn ont in couples to be mated, the matches so made would prove as happy as any that are made in the usual way, with all the care of parents, or dictated by the impulses of affection. In fact Dr. Johnson did not believe either in those marriages, which are said to be made in heaven, nor in that strange animal a philosophical historian. If he had lived to the present day it is very hard to conceive, what value he would have set upon the labours of Lord Macaulay or Sir Archibald Alison, the characteristics of whose works are so diametrically opposed in point of matter and composition, the one crammed with facts, the other with logic. It must be admitted, however, that the great lexicographer's opinion in this matter is somewhat extravagant, and at variance with his usual sagacious views. A writer of history should not only properly arrange his events, not merely in chronological order, but also according to their natural connection, otherwise his work will be garbled, split up into fragments of a heterogeneous nature, without consecutiveness upon the face of it. He must shew by a concise and clear chain of reasoning, how certain events followed from particular causes, or produced certain effects, so that the future generations of the human race may profit by the often too dear bought experience of those who went before them. Herein resides the greatest sagacity of the good historian, herein he shews his knowledge of human policy, and applies the principles of philosophy to the actions of nations, in order to instruct his fellowmen. But all men are not of the same studious habit, nor equally inclined to investigate the dry course of events during a series of years, and in order to draw them on to a perusal of pages, which may lead to their enlightenment, it is necessary that a certain amount of interesting incident should be clothed in harmony of language. To do all these things well without too great a crowding of facts, too tedious an array of argument, or too florid a description of trifling events foreign to the subject, must require a mind well educated in the science of reason, a judgment capable of discriminating the great and the useful in the events of successive years, and a power of expression in writing equal to the decds he has to pourtray. Let us see how Alison has fulfilled these conditions. The volume before us is replete with some of the most important events which have occurred in these countries, and in France since the battle of Waterloo. It relates the Temper ance movement and Repeal agitation in Ireland-the passing of the Bank Charter Act by Sir Robert Peel in 1811-the Railway Mania-the Anti-Corn Law agitation, and the establishment of free-trade-the Irish famine of 1546-7-the Chartist movement, and the attempt at Rebellion in Ireland during 1848. The occurrences in France and on the continent during the same period are no less interesting, comprising the growth of revolutionary opinions in that country for many years, and the attempts of the Government for their suppression -the revolt of Abdel Kader in Algeria-the celebrated ques tion of the Spanish marriages-the Accession of Pius IX, and the revolution in Rome-and the final catastrophe ending in the expulsion of Louis Philippe from the soil of France. Such are the multifarious subjects which swell the pages of this thick octavo; it is impossible that we can deal with each and all of them, we shall content ourselves, therefore with the consideration of those which have a more especial interest or relation to our own country and people. Sir Archibald Alison has never been very happy in his al lusions to Irish affairs, whether it is that he does not understand the temper of the people of this country, or that the fogs of his own northern land have obfuscated his vision of its affairs at this side of the channel; at all events he hazards the most unfounded hypothesis respecting their causes and effects. He dedicates to the Temperance movement, and Repeal agitation, which fermented in this island during six years, and well nigh threatened to provoke rebellion, just twelve pages of his verbose letter-press, without giving any intelligible account of progress or development. According to his first surmise the Temperance movement was "veiled under the guise of philanthropy," in order "to divert the funds hitherto wasted in the public-house, into the coffers of the Repeal Association." Has the most fertile brain of the greatest enemy of O'Connell, even the Times' Commissioner himself, ever invented such an absurd origin for the apostolic labours of Father Mathew? It is very true that the liberator made use of the spread of Teetotalism, to induce the lower orders to contribute their mite to the support of the Repeal question, and even on one occasion stated that "Teetotalism was the sublimest effluence of human reason," and that if he were going into battle, he should wish to be surrounded by the followers of the Apostle of Temperance, but a more absurd invention could not be foisted on posterity as fact, if Sir Archibald wishes to go down to future ages as a truthtelling historian, than that Daniel O'Connell had anything to do with the origin of the Temperance movement. It was all due to the untiring labours, the patient self-sacrifice of that man, whom Alison calls "a monk of ardent disposition, nervous eloquence, and enthusiastic philanthropy." Here also is the narrator at fault; the spirit of the priest was meek, his language calm and persuasive, and Irishmen should never forget that he immolated himself for his fellow-countrymen, the pension which he received from Government being scarcely sufficient to keep alive the policies on his life to secure debts incurred in carrying out his mission of benevolence. Another strange passage in this account now meets the eye. It runs thus: "it has been often remarked, that whenever the people give over fighting at fairs in Ireland, you may be sure that some serious outbreak is in contemplation, and government will do well to stand on their guard." In other words, that when the people are most orderly and well-behaved, Her Majesty must at once dread a rebellion, and send over an overwhelming force of military. Oh! wisest of writers on human |