Gloriously fine as had been the morning, it was only the prelude to a dismal afternoon. About two o'clock, P. M., large murky clouds rolled uneasily across the sun's course, obscuring his light, and dropping at intervals from their gloomy folds those distinct globules of rain which ever indicate the approach of a heavy shower. I sighed at the change of day; and as I looked upon the heavens, I could not help comparing them to a young weeping widow, that had just drawn a thick crape veil over her lovely face, through which burst the tears, that will not admit of restraint. About three o'clock the floodgates appeared to have been opened, and it rained so heavily and incessantly, that we seemed to have passed within the last hour into another season, and a less cheerful climate. The change was anything but a pleasant one, and, as I saw that my fellow-travellers were inclined to the moody and unamiable, I composed myself as comfortably as circumstances would permit, in my corner, and soon fell fast asleep.

Now, for the benefit of the uninitiated, I feel myself bound to say, that the first sleep enjoyed, or rather endured, by a novice in a railway carriage, is by no means of a soothing nature. It enervates, rather than strengthens; correctly speaking, sleep is not its proper name,-sleep is mental and bodily repose; torpor would be more near its true character, for that it most resembles. It is a species of cataleptic trance, where the eyes are closed, some of the functions prostrated, whilst the mind is terribly alive to the distempered stories conveyed by the ears, which are certain to act as false interpreters. So felt I, during my first doze. Strange noises were around me; people seemed to converse more loudly and confusedly than occasion required, one incessant burr being the monotonous accompaniment; my visions were disjointed and unpleasant, without beginning or ending-ever in a whirl, ever moving on-they were doubtless some of those that are reserved by destiny for the especial torment of the wicked, the shadows of which are permitted to fall as useful lessons upon the dronish senses of all young sleepy-headed railway travellers.

Thus dreamt I.-"Vauxhall Gardens, and the band playing. Waiters and warm brandy, dancers and masked devils, passing and repassing, here, there, everywhere, in one continuous maze, myself the pivot upon which they all turned. Anon tight-ropes, balloons, poses plastiques, dryades, naiades, and Hibernians diversified the scene; then singing, laughter, and a ticklish sensation about the lips, followed by a ride in Hyde Park, coquettes and cockneys, chariots and costermongers' carts, Jews and Jerusalem ponies, mingling in one unaccountable labyrinth; bathers in the Serpentine, myself in the midst, with my best coat on, giving chase to my hat, that ever evaded my pursuit. A boat seemed pulling towards me, the rowers blind; I could not get out of their way; I strove to call out, but the water stifled my cry. Terrific were my struggles as I saw it drawing nearer; horror stricken my feelings, as I beheld the never-to-be-mistaken face of Myles Riordan, in conjunction with the polished bottom of his flask,

turned up towards the skies, whilst the neglected rudder lay unused beside him. A shock came, my head submerged, sensation oppressive in the extreme; unholy and unwelcome was the approximation of the monsters of the muddy water. I saw the drags of the inhumane society, a grappling iron under my chin, a hand grasping my shoulder tightly, and a groan from my water-logged lungs at once awakened me." I opened my eyes in terror, only to fix them upon the hard-hearted individual of my dream, whose hand was busily engaged in shaking my shoulder, and whose mellow voice was loudly exclaiming :

"Wake up, man alive, and don't sit groaning there, with the window open by your cheek, and the rain pelting in your face." "Hey, why, what 's the matter?" I inquired, arousing myself. Everything is the matter, take a drop of this, and cheat the

doctors."

I thanked him as I accepted his proffered flask, for I felt chilled. As I returned it to him, I inquired whether we were far from Liverpool.

"Far!" he cried, elevating his eyebrows in astonishment; "why we're in it already-don't you hear the engine screaming for joy, as it tells your hotel folk that you are coming?"

"I've been asleep, I think," I remarked.

"Well, if you were not, you looked mighty like it for the last two hours," he returned laughingly.

"You've lost all the fun to boot," said a person present.

"I'm very sorry to hear that, indeed," I answered, "but as I'm altogether unaccustomed to—”

"Of course, of course," interrupted Riordan, "we know all about that; it was only a story of mine. Should we ever meet again, you shall hear it, and welcome."

"I'm much obliged to you for that promise;" I rejoined, "pray, what was its purport?"

"Only a boating party on the Slaney, and my venerated uncle diving with his clothes on. There, the door is open--out with you. May I ask you where you put up?" as we stood side by side upon the platform.

66 At the

Hotel."

"Strange coincidence-the same I've used, since my grandfather played with his first go-cart. We may as well have a cab between us; it will take us down in a twinkling, and we'll just have time to toss, the best three out of five, to see which of us will have the honour of paying for the accommodation of both." "What! at the Hotel?" I asked in surprise.

"Oh no! but for the use of our chariot, and the services of Nimrod.'

The cab was called, our baggage placed upon the roof, and in a few moments we were safely set down at the door of our hotel.

OUR POLICY TOWARDS PRUSSIA AND AUSTRIA.

THE most important question of the political world at the present moment is, without any doubt, the attitude of Prussia. The event of the war, every one is now pretty well aware, cannot be speedily decisive. Fleets cannot conquer empires, above all, an empire like Russia, that is vast and poor, and which touches merely inlets of the sea at its two extremities. There can be no doubt that two powers like France and England, if they persevere, can reduce Russia at least to surrender recent conquests, and shut herself up in her own solitudes. But a more serious consideration

is the result of the war and its continuance upon the rest of Europe, and upon the relations of its several great states amongst each other.

With respect to Prussia, we must beg to differ with the politicians, or rather with the journalists, who have broached their opinions on the subject. It cannot be said that the Government has done anything; we are not aware of what diplomatic effort has been employed at Berlin. But if we are to place credit in the sentiments and the tone of those prints which enjoy the confidence of Downing Street, we must believe that no effort has been spared to make Prussia join, even as a belligerent, in a quadruple alliance against Russia, so that the latter power might be forced, by a general European league, to abate of, or abandon her pretensions.

For our part, we have all along considered it as a hopeless attempt, that of persuading Prussia to go to war, and to mortally offend a powerful neighbour, merely for the sake of preserving the status quo in the East. The truth is, that the East is nothing to Prussia. It is very nearly the same to her, which power shall possess Constantinople. But as Prussia is far more fearful and jealous of Austria than of Russia, any extension of the empire of the Czar across the Danube would be much more agreeable to Prussia, than an increase of Austrian power. Russian extension in the East, too, or in the Levant, especially around shores so difficult to keep, and requiring such care and policy to guard, as those which surround the Black Sea and protrude into the Mediterranean-the possession of such territories as these would rather distract Russian ambition and interference from Germany; whilst the German court, which Russia might favour and support there, would have the best chance of gaining supremacy in Germany. This last has been the sole, the great aim of Prussia. Austria aims at dominion over extensive races; she would embrace the Sclavonian as well as the Italian in her empire, but Prussia merely desires to be German.

It has always struck us as the interest of Russia to favour Prussia more than Austria, and to seek to dominate Germany

through Berlin, rather than through Vienna. The Court of Vienna is far more independent, far more led by ideas of its own. Then it is southern, and European, and Italian; whereas Prussia is a northern and a Baltic state, with far more affinities for Russian policy and alliance than Austria. Hence it was a matter of surprise that the Czar should have preferred Austria to Prussia, and should have given to Prince Schwartzenberg the sceptre of Germany, at which Prussia was grasping. Prussia no doubt grasped at it by popular favour, and by uniting Germany in a popular and liberal league. Prussia could not be supported by the Czar in this; and he put down the attempt. But this is no reason why he should now turn back Prussia and oppose it in the attempt to establish its supremacy in Germany on the basis of absolutism, which he would not countenance its attempting in alliance with liberal or constitutional principles.

But Russia has a bribe for Prussia, which is, of all others, the most temping to that power. Russia is the only power that could or would enable Prussia to take the lead in Germany; and therefore Russia is the ally that Prussia would prefer to any other, provided Russia estranged herself from Austria, and gave up her influence and her support to Prussia. The alliance and mutual understanding between Russia and Prussia is so natural, so much in the nature of things, so much the interest of the two reigning families, already bound together by marriage, that we may well expect the King and Manteuffel to fall into it. This they seem to have done.

There is nothing, however, to be gained for monarchs, no more than for individuals, without risk. The Russo-Prussian alliance has its prizes and its value for both countries. For Russia, it covers Poland; for Prussia, it gives her supremacy in Germany. But it exposes Prussia to the hostility of France. It moreover exposes the Trans-Rhenan provinces of Prussia to be invaded and annexed by France. The Catholic population of these provinces, as well as the intelligent citizens of the towns, prefer France to Prussia. The latter power, therefore, risks the loss of these provinces by openly espousing the cause of Russia; and it is too remote for the Czar ever to send again his Cossacks to the Rhine. Hanover, and the rest of Saxony, would, however, at any time compensate Prussia; and it would suit Russia admirably to gratify France by not disputing those provinces, whilst the transfer of Hanover and of Dresden would be retributive punishments upon England and upon Austria.

In all this there is no mystery, no revelation. There is even not much of conjecture. For everything stated is so obvious, so much in the course of things, and so consonant to the known wishes and ideas of the respective courts, that we may look upon attempts to accomplish these changes as amongst the probabilities of the future. All must resolve, no doubt, in war, and a very general war; and it will no doubt be thought that England, Austria, and France, are more than a match for Russia and Prussia. But the internal enemies of Austria are to be taken into account. It is

to be thought, what is to become of Italy, and of Hungary, countries not so easily occupied and crushed as Greece.

It is very remarkable that the division of Europe into two sides -the alliance of England, France, and Austria, against Russia and Prussia-was actually formed and concluded in the month of February, 1814. It was then that Russia, insisting on keeping all Poland, and Prussia determining to keep all Saxony, and vowing to support each other's pretensions, compelled Metternich, Castlereagh, and Talleyrand to form a counter-alliance; and it was agreed, that each power should put on foot an army of 150,000 men to resist the exorbitant pretensions of Alexander and of Frederic. Whether those potentates got wind of the counteralliance, or whether Napoleon's intrigues in Italy, foreshadowing his return from Elba, alarmed the robber-powers of the north, they abated their pretensions. Each black eagle took one half of its destined prey; Russia took the greater portion of the Duchy of Warsaw, and Prussia was contented with the northern half of Saxony. The agreement was patched up by Castlereagh, and all thoughts of the European powers going to loggerheads for territory were quashed by the events of 1815.

The traditional policy of Prussia's adhering to Russia would evidently have been that of the late King, if he had survived, and it is the policy, no doubt, recommended by his friends. Opposite to this school of Prussian Toryism is that of the more or less liberal Prussians, and the Constitutionalists, the opinions of Bunsen, and of Radowitz, and of Schwerin, who deem that Prussia can only rise by identifying itself with German feeling, and making itself the representative of German interests. The misfortune is, that the King tried the men of this party, and went a certain distance with their policy; but the policy failed him and the Constitutionalists too. When the King of Prussia, after the events of 1848, appointed a ministry of moderate and constitutional opinions, they were unable to control the democrats. They were unable to keep the throne of Prussia itself unshaken, much less raise it into a German instead of a Russian throne. Its efforts to make the King of Prussia supreme head of Germany were ludicrous failures. And the subsequent attempts of the same party under Radowitz, to resist Austria by means of the smaller powers of Germany, were also failures. There is a strong popular party in Germany-a party full of national feeling and national force; but it is neither moderate nor monarchic; it is still a young party, prone to expend its fever and its sentiment in an hurrah. It is not a party that a monarch like Frederic could depend upon.

There is, indeed, another party in Prussia, apart from the constitutional one, which is not very much attached to the development of popular or even civil liberties, but which has a strong sense of national honour, and a strong love for national independence, and which cannot tolerate the idea of the country of the great Frederic existing on the sufferance or under the patronage of Russia. This is the military party, that of the Prince of Prussia, of General Bonin, and a host of spirited and influential

VOL. XXXV.

3 B