not acceptable to the nation; and the eminent personage to whom the throne has been tendered declines its acceptance unless the offer be sanctioned by the suffrages of the people. In either event, therefore, we may confidently expect the continuance of those peaceful relations which have been maintained on the frontier, and even a large development of the commerce already existing to the mutual advantage of the two countries.

"The state of the public finances is such as to demand your earliest and most earnest attention. I need hardly say that a prompt and efficacious remedy for the present condition of the currency is necessary to the successful performance of the functions of Government. Fortunately, the resources of our country are so ample, and the spirit of our people so devoted to its cause, that they are ready to make any necessary contribution. Relief is thus entirely within our reach if we have the wisdom to legislate in such manner as to render available the means at our disposal.

"At the commencement of the war we were far from anticipating the magnitude and duration of the struggle in which we were engaged. The most sagacious foresight could not have predicted that the passions of the Northern people would lead them blindly to the sacrifice of life, treasure, and liberty, in so vain a hope as that of subjugating thirteen independent States, inhabited by many millions of people, whose birthright of freedom is dearer to them than life. A long exemption from direct taxation by the general Government had created an aversion to its raising revenue by any other means than by duties on imports, and it was supposed that these duties would be ample for current peace expenditures, while the means for conducting the war could be raised almost exclusively by the use of the public credit."

The Message then recapitulated the various measures of taxation that had been taken to raise the requisite revenue, and pointed out the causes and manner of their failure. "The issue of treasury notes has been increased until the currency in circulation amounts to more than 600 millions of dollars, or more than threefold the amount required by the business of the country." The Message proceeded :

"Whenever it shall be possible to execute our duty in all its parts, we must do so in exact compliance with the whole letter and spirit of the Constitution. Until that period shall arrive, we must execute so much of it as our condition renders practicable. Whenever the withdrawal of the enemy shall place it in our power to make a census and apportionment of direct taxes, any other mode of levying them will be contrary to the will of the lawgiver, and incompatible with our obligation to obey that will; until that period, the alternative left is to obey the paramount precept, and to execute it according to the only other rule provided, which is to make the tax uniform throughout the Confederate States."" The President concluded thus:

"The hope last year entertained of an early termination of the

war has not been realized. Could carnage have satisfied the appetite of our enemy for the destruction of human life, or grief have appeased their wanton desire to inflict human suffering, there has been bloodshed enough on both sides, and two lands have been sufficiently darkened by the weeds of mourning to induce a disposition for peace.

"If unanimity in a people could dispel delusion, it has been displayed too unmistakeably not to have silenced the pretence that the Southern States were merely disturbed by a factious insurrection, and it must long since have been admitted that they were but exercising their reserved right to modify their own Government in such manner as would best secure their own happiness. But these considerations have been powerless to allay the unchristian hate of those who, long accustomed to draw large profits from a union with us, cannot control the rage excited by the conviction that they have, by their own folly, destroyed the richest sources of their prosperity. They refuse even to listen to proposals for the only peace possible between us-a peace which, recognizing the impassable gulf which divides us, may leave the two peoples separately to recover from the injuries inflicted on both by the causeless war now waged against us. Having begun the war in direct violation of their constitution, which forbade the attempt to coerce a State, they have been hardened by crime, until they no longer attempt to veil their purpose to destroy the institutions and subvert the sovereignty and independence of these States. We now know that the only reliable hope for peace is in the vigour of our resistance, as the cessation of their hostility is only to be expected from the pressure of their necessities.

"The patriotism of the people has proved equal to every sacrifice demanded by their country's need. We have been united as a people never were united under like circumstances before. God has blessed us with success disproportionate to our means, and, under His divine favour, our labours must at last be crowned with the reward due to men who have given all they possessed to the righteous defence of their inalienable rights-their homes and their altars."

The close of the year, therefore, found the Confederates as resolute as ever to assert and achieve their independence. Their reverses only nerved them to fresh exertions, and to a still sterner determination not to yield in submission to the North. But the North appears to be equally resolved to pursue the contest to the bitter end; and the reconstruction of the Union is the object at which it perseveringly and unflinchingly aims. We believe that it will be disappointed, and that the result of the struggle will be the final separation of the United States into two great Republics, and the admission of the Confederate States into the family of nations.

RETROSPECT

OF

LITERATURE, ART, AND SCIENCE, IN 1863.

It is our object to present in the following pages an abstract and brief chronicle of Literature, Art, and Science during the year 1863, and our limits being narrow, only the most salient objects can find a place in our sketch. Literary production, like most other achievements of man in our days, has assumed gigantic proportions, and the tribe of critics and reviewers, whose business it is to watch the ever-rolling torrent of books issuing from the press, and to keep the public informed of what sort of matters the great stream brings down, have enough to do to fulfil their task with any thing like completeness. The artists are not behind the scribes in activity of production, and it is a puzzle to know what becomes of the mass of pictures which are yearly exhibited. The labours of science too are ceaseless, and are perpetually rewarded by the discovery of new wonders. All these things are recorded in detail in the periodical publications of the day, both those of a miscellaneous character and those which are devoted to special branches of knowledge, and these records are treasured up in many a library where they will be accessible to the curious of future generations. Our business now is but to skim lightly over the performances of the past year, fixing, if we can, upon those points by which it is most likely to be remembered.

Literature takes the first place, and we find from the "Publisher's Circular" that the number of new publications issued from the press during 1863 was 3878, falling short, but to a trifling extent only, of the issue of 1862, which was 3913. These numbers include the most insignificant as well as the most costly publications, the penny pamphlet and the gorgeously illustrated work whose price is counted in guineas. A large portion of this mass of printing must necessarily be ephemeral, and destined to be utterly forgotten and mostly destroyed when it has answered the temporary purpose for which it was designed.

Works of a scientific character may have before them a career of usefulness,

longer or shorter, but even these will have to make way at length for others more advanced. A few works of artistic construction, historical, romantic, or poetical, may be destined for immortality, or something approaching to it. But as it is not our business to prophesy, but to record, we shall content ourselves with endeavouring to mark out a few which, from the eminence of their writers or the novelty of their contents, have chiefly attracted attention, and which may be considered as characterizing the year 1863. We shall extract a few passages from the criticisms of the day, rather for the sake of recording the impression produced by these works upon contemporaries, than of defining the value which the mature judgment of posterity may hereafter place upon them.

Mr. Kinglake's "Invasion of the Crimea was perhaps the most notable book of the year 1863, having rapidly passed through four editions. This work, which was known to be in preparation by the author of "Eöthen," had long been expected with anxiety, and it was eagerly read when it appeared. The book was soon the object of fierce attack from reviewers. The sarcastic tone which pervades it naturally roused hostility, and certain peculiarities of treatment applied to persons who were not favourites of the author were generally voted to be in bad taste. The public expressed its own opinion of the work in its own way, namely, by diligent perusal and incessant demand for copies at the reading libraries. The fourth edition contains no change in the original text, but some notes are added by way of rectification, the effect being to show how small an amount of correction the author has considered necessary, after running the gauntlet of hostile criticism. The materials on which this work is based are summed up as follows by a reviewer: "Ever since 1856 Mr. Kinglake has had in his hands the whole mass of the papers which Lord Raglan had with him at the time of his death, including the leading military reports of the officers serving under him, his official and private correspondence with sovereigns, ambassadors, ministers, generals, admirals, public functionaries, wild adventurers, and faithful friends. In addition to the knowledge derived from all this invaluable store of material, Mr. Kinglake has been greatly aided by the conversation and correspondence of English statesmen, and eminent soldiers and sailors, on the business of the war; men honourably distinguished by that noble freedom of speech which rests on the assumption that what is best for the repute of England is the truth.' He has further been aided by information obtained from Russian sources, information tending to uplift the repute of the far-famed Russian infantry;' and if we object that the authorities of the French war department have not availed themselves of Mr. Kinglake's overtures, we must not omit to give the due credit to every French commander whom he addressed, for the courteous, clear, and abundant answer accorded to every inquiry. Thus prepared and provided, the author of Eöthen' has, in part, written a History of the Invasion of the Crimea,'- -a history which is destined, we think, to take its place on the book-shelf as a classical or permanent work, provided that the startling disclosures which it contains be ultimately accepted as true, and the interpreting commentary which it supplies finally adjudged to be philosophically sound. Of the literary merit of the book there can hardly be two opinions, though whether the sarcastic spirit which animates its pages is the fitting spirit in which such a book should be written, will perhaps be a question that a serious mind here and there will put to itself. The style of composition, if occasionally diffuse or tending to monotony, is characteristically fine; the language is lucid and pure, and, if we may so say, rather sculpturesque than picturesque. There is a sort of marble placidity in Mr. Kinglake's present

ments of things or persons that shows an artist-like power of conception as well as workmanship. Sometimes, as in the description of the battle of the Alma, the multiplicity of detail, or the change of the point of view in the recital, may weaken the effect, or impair the integrity of impression; but, in general, the execution is that of a master in the art of letters."

Mr. Kinglake's unceremonious treatment of the great politicians and actors of the time has lent to the book an element of sensation which operates strongly for the moment. The Emperor of the French is handled in the severest manner, and with a warmth of indignation which is perhaps no longer shared by the English public. Some of the facts stated in reference to the conduct of British statesmen are so startling that much scepticism has prevailed as to their accuracy. "Discussion and careful rigorous examination must precede the acceptance of some of his revelations, and perhaps many of his conclusions, for his 'History' is in great part an indictment of the ministers and people of England, as well as of the legitimate despot of Russia, or the usurping tyrant of France, the evil providence who, for his own ambitious purposes, favoured the war, contrived the alliance, imposed his own judgment on a British Cabinet, seduced the powerful volition of the lustiest man of those days' in England, and made our peaceful conservative nation the servile and unconscious instrument of his own astute and unprincipled ambition."

The tenth volume of the Duke of Wellington's "Supplementary Despatches, Correspondence and Memoranda," is one of great importance as containing documents relating to the transactions of Waterloo, the campaign in France, and the capitulation of Paris. Among the correspondents of the Duke are Lord Castlereagh, Lord Bathurst, Sir Charles Stewart, Sir H. Torrens, the Comte de Lally Tollendal, the Prince of Orange, the Duke of Orleans, the Duke of Otranto, and the Prince Regent. The volume contains two memoranda of the Duke, one on the plan of the battle of Waterloo, written in October, 1836, and one on the same battle, written in September, 1842, after the Duke had read the statements of General Clausewitz. "Without the aid of this work," says a notice, "it may be regarded as impossible to understand the campaign of 1815, and, above all, the battle of Waterloo." "In the despatches, letters and memoranda brought together, and arranged with remarkable care and ability by the present Duke of Wellington, we possess one of the most extraordinary pictures ever presented to the public for the use of historians."

"The Life and Times of St. Bernard, Abbot of Clairvaux," by J. C. Morison, takes rank as a work of accurate research and artistic execution. "It has all those merits which flow from a complete study of the original sources of information. The reader has the rare satisfaction of feeling at every page that he is brought face to face with the evidence of the times themselves, and that he is nowhere deluded by second-hand theories. Indeed, were it possible to despatch a special correspondent seven hundred years backward in the stream of time as easily as he can be sent as many thousands across the intervals of space, such a life as this of St. Bernard is what we might expect at his hands." "As an animated panorama of the first half of the twelfth century, this life of St. Bernard has few if any equals. The laborious study which the author has devoted to his subject has left no trace on his style, which is free, animated, and flowing, and carries the reader pleasantly along without calling attention to itself. The numerous translations from St. Bernard's hortatory works are admirably done, and are most valuable, giving as they do the compass and tendency of his mind."