take as this need enlightenment. They need it not more to all appearance than does their chief, who, in the House of Lords, courted a signal defeat in an endeavour to reverse that decision joined in by so many of his partisans in the House of Commons, with respect to the admission of Dissenters to the University to which we have already referred. We must not dismiss this topic without recording the fact, that some of the truest, and most consistent, and most prominent of our Irish Conservative members kept themselves clear of the blunder into which the occupants of the first Opposition bench would have led them, and, upon the two occasions of Mr. Heywood's amendment and the committal of the Russian Securities Bill, took their places manfully upon the broad Protestant and British platform, and in opposition to the Pope, the Czar, and their own leaders.

Does any one ask for illustrations of the influence upon the Opposition leaders of the magic formula, “Something must be done;" or of their faint-heartedness, " letting I dare not wait upon I would "?

They

may be found, passim, throughout the pages of Hansard; and very modern instances present themselves, in connexion with the vote for the expenses of the new Secretary for War's office, and with that of credit for three millions. Upon both these occasions, arising so near the end of the session, it was formally announced that something must be done, and the party was called together, but no fight was made upon either vote. On the

occasion of the latter, Lord Dudley Stuart was very shabbily deserted, after he had been, as we have good reason for believing, encouraged to propose an amendment to pledge the Government to convene Parliament in the autumn, and thus in effect to refuse to them the confidence of the House of Commons in relation to the conduct of the war.

It is very far indeed from our object to find fault unnecessarily with the Opposition leaders, or to multiply our animadversions upon their proceedings, beyond that point at which it may be hoped that useful knowledge will be communicated, and wrong impressions as to the state of public opinion removed. It is with pleasure, therefore, we turn to other occurrences of the

session, in reference to which we can express a more favourable judgment. Upon two points of the Opposition policy the public exponents of the hopes and fears of the Ministry have pressed very constantly and closely upon every possible occasion. They have never ceased to hold up to public odium the conduct of those who ventured to question the soundness of the ministerial foreign policy, or to inquire as to the course and conduct of the war; and they have also re-echoed, with cuckoo perseverance, the puerile challenge to a vote of want of confidence, so often repeated by the Ministers. In reference to both these points we conceive the course taken by the Opposition was the right one, and we do not doubt that such is the general opinion of the country. Those who can be properly called Opposition leaders in both houses, have most carefully abstained as indeed we may say have all independent members-from questioning Ministers on matters of practical strategy. If there have been indiscreet revelations made of the designs of our generals and admirals, the blame lies not at the door of non-official members of parliament. It was in the columns of the Government morning journal an announcement was semi-officially made of a plan of attack upon Sebastopol: it was a Lord of the Admiralty who disclosed Sir Charles Napier's opinion, that he was unable to cope with Russia in the Baltic. On the other hand we maintain, that it was no more than the duty of every member of Parliament to do what in him lay to obtain for the nation full information as to the diplomatic intrigues of the Government; and if any fault has been committed, it has been in the inefficiency and unnecessary delicacy with which that duty has been performed. But if so, it may be asked it has been asked-why was not a vote of want of confidence proposed? Certainly not because it was not often enough solicited. Brother Jack was not more importunate in his entreaties for a 66 basting" than were the Ministers, and, no doubt, from like motives. Had Mr. Disraeli or Lord Derby responded to those urgent entreaties, we should have had terrible accounts of what had been undergone for the public good.

"Observe this stroke," said Jack, showing his bare shoulders; "a plaguy janissary gave it me this very morn

Had a broken head been inflicted upon the Coalition, the demand for plasters would have known no end. Had a vote of want of confidence been carried in the front of the foreign enemy, what sort of fair play would the successors to office have had in their future conduct of the war? For an answer to this inquiry, we may advantageously look back to the manner in which Mr. Disraeli's attempt to raise a revenue by the way of direct taxation, in the only mode in which taxes can be directly levied with any approach to fairness - viz., by a housetax-was dealt with. No; it is time enough to rid those gentlemen of the responsibility and difficulties of managing a war which their own imbecility has brought upon the country, when their ability for the work shall have been proved by the result of at least one campaign; and the Opposition leaders were right in so determining.

And now the session of '54 is at an

end, and the Treasury Bench is no longer paraded daily in bodily presence before the nation. Impertinent questioning is stopped. "All the Talents" are set free to work out the salvation of the kingdom, according to their own ways and means. They have obtained every aid and comfort they asked for from Parliament. Their start is a fair one, and we may hope shortly to catch a glimpse of some indication or sign of the course they mean to pursue of the end they aim at attaining. At the time at which we write, the 25th of August, all is uncertainty abroad; at home there is the dead certainty of heavy taxes, and the dreary prospect that they will be heavier. But we shall see. On the other hand, it is not to be denied that "both parties are perceptibly weaker, and the plot of the political drama seems as far from its catastrophe as ever." The Opposition leaders are in a position which they cannot much longer continue to occupy. They must push on towards some definite point, or they must witness the disbanding of their forces, simply from the weariness of inaction, or attracted to a standard bearing more decided colours. Again, we shall see what the recess will give birth to. In the meantime, we must wait and hope.

THEY are all bare, the corn-fields, that for so many months have been full of beauty and promise; first, with the silky verdure that, rising above the ground, whispered and moved in the genial breeze, like a summer sea; next, with the greenish silver of the filling ears, looking "white unto harvest;" and last, crowned with the highly-burnished gold of their matured honours. They are all bare now. Even the trophy-like piles of sheaves are carried away; trophy-like we may well call them, for they seemed as though built up to signalise the glory of the noble corn that had survived the assaults of its enemies, bird and insect, blast, blight, and mildew. But the trophies are gone-gone like many far more solid and durable (but not more valuable) of earth's monuments. And the wild flowers that relieved the somewhat monotonous majesty of the teeming fields, blossoming on the headlands, peeping between the ridges, or garlanding the hedges, they have nearly all withered. And the busy, merry groups of reapers, gleaners, and har vesters, they have all departed: the scenes lately so cheerful, so animated, so abundant, so lovely, now stripped of their wealth and their beauty, are left silent and deserted-it is a picture of human life.

Still all is not utter desolation; something yet remains, however little. The wild birds still find scattered grains and seeds; and the sedulous searcher may still gather a few chance gleanings a neglected car or two; and here or there a late-lingering flower; or at least the leaves, and

stalks, and seed-swoln heads of those that have faded. And to supply, in some degree, the loss of the harvesters' cheerful voices, the solitary gleaner may repeat some trait, some ancedote to Memory, the constant associate of the lonely; and sometimes murmur (half sung, half said) a scrap of desultory song.

WHEAT may be truly termed an universal blessing. It has been widely diffused in all places, and in all ages: we read of it as a staple article of human food in the earliest records. The ancient Romans were so convinced of its inestimable value, that they fancied a great number of divinities must be necessary to bless the labour of its cultivators, and to watch over and protect it in all its stages. And the priests (and of course the poets assisting) invented a crowd of Arval deities as the special guardians of the corn crops. The names and occupations of these dii minores furnish a curious list. Sterquilinus presided over the manuring of the land for the reception of the seed; Occator over the harrowing; Sator over the sowing; Runcina over the weeding; Spinosus over the plucking up of thorns; Seia protected the seed in the ground; Segetia preserved the blade when it appeared; Volusia (or Volutina) folded the blade round the young ear; Proserpine guarded the stalk when forming; Flora presided over the blossoms; Patelina over the green ear; and Lacturtia over the car when it was milky; while Matura was the goddess of the ripened ear; Hostilina was invoked when the beard and ear were of equal length.* The god

VOL. XLIV.NO. CCLXII.

2 D