Christmas, when I was, as usual, at Dunbarrow, quite on the other side of the county, so that I could not, as I intended, ride over and pay an immediate visit of congratulation. Philip, however, wrote to me in a strain that would take no denial, urging my coming to stay with him whenever I should have fulfilled my previous engagements. He conjured me, by the love I had borne to his father and mother, to come and be a friend to their son; but amid this exuberance of kindness, there was little indeed of the joy of a bridegroom. There was something in the words of this short gloomy epistle, which haunted me painfully amid the placid stillness of Dunbarrow, and it was a knell which all the joyous tumult of Thornley could not drown. It was, therefore, with a deep presentiment of sorrow that I went to meet this bridal party at my paternal

mansion.

It was a chill foggy afternoon when I drove up the old-fashioned straight avenue, and there would have been something very cheering in the blaze of lights which streamed from almost every window of the mansion, had I not encountered its master, his back turned to the festive scene, pacing, wrapped in his travelling pelisse, up and down the approach. I stopped the carriage, and springing out, embraced the son of Arthur and Caroline with parental affection. The likeness to his mother, even in the imperfect light, was such that I should have recognized him anywhere. He was moved, far beyond what I supposed our mere relationship could call forth; and, anxious to give a more cheerful turn to the interview, I put my arm within his, and begged to be conducted to his bride.

"She is riding, or walking, or something," said he, "with the rest of them. You will see her by and by." We now entered the drawing-room, and in the full light it afforded, I gazed on the slender, elegant, almost feminine-looking youth, whose pensive and eloquent countenance bespoke him as quick to feel as he was perhaps unequal to struggle with the inevitable disappointments and evils of life. There was an expression of settled dejection on his fine features which made me shudder; and it contrasted so with his position as a recent

bridegroom, and returned heir, that it shocked me the more.

"We have made the old Chateau tolerably comfortable, I hope, nephew," said I.

"I believe they find it so," said he negligently; "as for me, I know too little of what English comforts are, to be sensible of their absence. Your winter," added he, shivering, "is sadly gloomy, and I feel a want of sunshine which all your coal fires cannot compensate."

"Don't let it affect your spirits, my dear nephew," said I; we have many things besides coal fires to make sunshine within doors in England. The smiles of a wife, for instance."

"Cold as your northern suns!" was the muttered reply, in a tone of bitterness which really frightened me. "I am as bad a judge of English smiles as of everything else, I suppose," added he, in a softened accent "I have been spoilt for them too I fear."

Just then a loud sound of talking and laughter announced the return of the equestrians, and my painful curiosity to see my new niece, was gratified. I had heard that she was handsome! She was more-she was dazzlingly beautiful her tall fine figure, set off by her riding dress, and her complexion, heightened by exercise, struck me with admiration; and I wondered what Philip could mean by "cold smiles," when with one of irresistible frankness, she bade me welcome to Westerton. She made some lively remarks on their ride, and joined cheerfully in the chit-chat around. I looked at my nephew, to whom she had not spoken; and he, probably reading my astonishment, rose as with an effort, and approaching us, asked her in a tone of tender interest, if she felt fatigued? As if all her animation had been suddenly chilled by a painful recollection, she coldly and gravely answered, “Not in the least;" and rising with ungracious haste, left the room to dress. must be something at the bottom of this," thought I, as my nephew, shaking his head sorrowfully, led me, with the rest of the gentlemen, to my room.

"There

When we met at dinner, I was much struck with the contrast between the plain substantial meals which in my childhood covered my

father's board, and the perfectly foreign air which, under the superintendence of an Italian major-domo, the table had now assumed. The party who seemed about equally made up of mere sportsmen who despised, and dashers who criticised, their entertainment and host-provoked me by alternately devouring and disparaging everything before them; while Philip, a stranger to their local wit, and disgusted with their selfishness, sat nearly silent by my side; and Lady Jane, more radiant than ever, listened complacently, if not encouragingly, to the small talk of her privileged cousin, the puppy of the set.

I never in my life saw such an illassorted party. There were one or two ladies, meet helpmates for their foxhunting or blackleg lords, silly, insipid, or worse; and it was impossible not to pity a poor foreigner thrown by his hard fate among such a specimen of British bon ton. On the guests I could scarce waste a thought; but Lady Jane cost me much painful rumination. She was certainly clever and accomplished; she must despise the beings around her; nay, I saw she did, by the smile which curled her beautiful lip, when their absurdity out-Heroded itself. It was scarce possible she should dislike her handsome, refined, deeply interesting husband; she did not." Thank God!" ejaculated I mentally more than once, when I detected her large blue eyes fixed with a softened expression on his face. "I will know the true his tory of all this," said I to myself; "two young hearts shall not misunderstand each other, if I can help it." There was in the party one individual whom I could not help regarding as the evil genius of the pair -the cousin of Lady Jane, who had been acquainted abroad with Philip, and whose mutual representations had greatly conduced to make the match. This young man, who was certainly of a cold calculating disposition, but in whose glances I could not avoid occasionally suspecting a warmer sentiment towards his fair cousin, seemed to exercise over her uncommon influence; and before the evening was over, I fancied she took advantage of his absence to address a few words of more than common kindness to her lord. He returned and found them

sitting together; and his supercilious look of reproach gave me, as I supposed, a key of which I determined to avail myself.

A few days placed me on a footing of privileged intimacy with my niece, who seemed to indemnify herself by kindness to me for her restraint elsewhere; and taking her arm within mine for a long walk, one bright frosty morning, I ventured to hint that I did not think the air of England seemed altogether to agree with her husband. I was delighted to feel the start with which she received this observation.

"Do you really think so?" said she, stopping and looking earnestly up in my face.

"Oh! perhaps," said I, wishing to touch another chord, "it may be only something on his spirits; he is certainly not so happy, as, with all he has to make him so," kindly pressing her arm, "methinks he ought

to be !"

My fair companion grew very pale; and her lips were compressed as with the effort of one, determined to be silent, coute qui coute.

"I seek not to intrude on your confidence, my dear niece," said I; "mine is, alas! no idle curiosity. Philip is my only brother's only son, and his mother was once the object of a boyish passion, which it nearly cost me life to subdue."

"His mother!" exclaimed Lady Jane, scarce conscious of the abruptness of her interruption; " I always thought," then suddenly aware of the delicate ground on which she was treading, the sweet girl blushed, and hesitatingly added "I had understood the object of your youthful affection was removed to a better world."

"You heard but the truth, my dear niece," replied I, with a sigh. "She to whom my heart has ever remained indissolubly united, is indeed no more; but the attachment I felt for her was but enhanced and deepened by contrast with the meteor blaze of passion which preceded it."

"Did you really love twice-and so soon? For you were but young, I have heard, when you lost your intended bride?"-And this recently married young creature hung on my reply as if worlds depended on its tenor.

"I did, indeed, Lady Jane, if love's

sacred name could be usurped by idle, frantic, unrequited passion! But such as it was, it melted before a steadier and holier flame, as a feverish dream flies before morning's fresh invigorating breeze."

"There is hope for me yet, then !" exclaimed my young companion, no longer repressing the tears which injured pride had long forbidden to flow.

"Hope!" said I," and of what?" for I could not yet divine where lurked the demon fatal to her peace.

"That Philip may love me in time, in spite of his early and mad attachment to the Italian girl his mother rescued from taking the veil, and whom, but for her and my cousin Charles, he would have married."

The whole mystery, as it regarded my niece, was now unravelled; jealousy accounted for all her dissembled coldness, but whether any trace of entanglement still combated, in my nephew's breast, his evident attachment to his bride, I could not be quite certain. I, however, felt sufficiently confident of the contrary, to cheer her heart with assurances of the genuine and unfeigned affection I had remarked in his condnet towards her.

66 Oh, he is very, very kind; but when, some weeks after our marriage, I received the cruel Vittoria's letter, invoking curses on my head, and boasting of the indelible hold she possessed over Philip's perjured heart, I thought I should have died. I flew and upbraided my cousin with his knowledge of this prior attachment; he confessed it, but, while he gloried in having assisted to break it off, and affected to treat it with scorn, he warned me how I revived a slumbering spark by any sentimental allusions or unguarded disclosure; assuring me, from his knowledge of Philip's temper, that I could only acquire or maintain a hold on his affections by a dignified reserve, the most opposite to the jealous transports which had at length weaned him from my foreign rival. He told me my husband was romantic to excess, and that romance in a wife would be the bane of his happiness and hers; that amusement and dissipation were the only cure for his melancholy, and seeing me admired by others, the likeliest mode of fixing his truant affections on myself." "Poor child!" said I, almost unconsciously, as this highly born and

highly gifted creature wept in agony on my shoulder, "by what machinations has thy peace been invaded and thy innocence endangered! Such invidious counsel could have had but one object, to estrange thee from the most affectionate of hearts, and cast thee for comfort on the most artful of seducers !"

Just then, I saw approaching, but at the further extremity of the long avenue we were entering, the husband so nearly about to become a prey to this deep-laid plot against his peace. Burning to dispel, without the loss of a moment, the remaining clouds of misapprehension between two young and amiable beings, I requested my niece to step aside, and pursue her walk, screened from observation behind the high yew hedge of the approach, while I went forward alone to meet my nephew. I quickened my pace, and joined him almost instantly. "Philip," said I, "am I right in supposing that your evident dejection is occasioned by doubts of your young bride's affection ?"-He looked up, and sighed assent.

"What, then, if I inform you that her coldness proceeds from far better founded misgivings; lest, in offering her your hand, a heart should not have been yours to bestow ?—I need only name Vittoria, and say that Lady Jane knows all, to account at once for her injured pride and wounded feelings!"

"Does she indeed know all ?" said Philip, looking up with the air of one rather relieved than disconcerted. “It was not my fault she knew not from the first that I once childishly imagined loveliness of mind and person must be found united; and woke from the delusion to bless my escape from the toils of an incarnate fiend.”

As he spoke, I caught a glimpse of a white veil, and, by an emphatic cough, warned my fair neighbour to remain, justly supposing that to overhear such unsuspected testimony to her sole empire in her husband's heart, would be worth volumes of direct assurances.

"Would I were as sure," continued he," of my place in Lady Jane's pure and spotless bosom, as that mine has long ceased to feel aught but contempt or pity for the shameless being, whose own rude hand dispelled the illusion, which a romantic history, a fair form,

and consummate art, had cast around rashness, levity, and, I fear, guilt!"

"Thank God! it is, as I hoped, my dear Philip, on your side," said I; "and I think I may venture to assure you that half what you have told me will suffice to give to the smiles of your bride a warmth and sunshine, amid which that of Italy will never be missed."

He shook his head incredulously, and sighing, exclaimed, "What would I not give to see them on her own dear lips!"

We were near an opening in the old rugged yew hedge; I suddenly drew my nephew within it, and the fair listener stood confessed. The tears of joy, irradiated by such a blush, and such a smile as I have seldom seen but on the cheek of a daughter of England. "Give her your confidence, Philip," said I; "can you doubt further?"

"Give me your pardon, my dear husband," said she, as he flew towards her, "for being an involuntary, but oh a blessed listener!—It was your uncle"

"Who has made me the happiest of men!" cried Philip, his whole expression absolutely changed by the

transition from despondence to ecstasy. I took a hand of each in mine, and ratified this solemn union of hearts with a truly parental blessing.

"Uncle," said Philip, in a tone of manly firmness, "you will assist me to get civilly rid of yonder host of idlers, and the false friend who hoped, by their means, to disgust me with my country, and estrange me from my bride. You shall make me an Englishman after your own heart."

"Uncle," whispered Lady Jane, with the most insinuating softness, "you will invite us to your cottage, won't you, till a few more comforts are added to our home, to make it all that an English home should be ?"

I carried them with me in triumph. I introduced them at Dunbarrow to the worthy and the wise among their compatriots. I saw at my own tranquil fireside their once threatened wedded bliss assume the imperishable hues of eternity. I saw, not only without reluctance, but with delight, a youthful figure in my mother's sacred chair, and a second Emma beneath the picture of my sainted bride. They staid, only to grow too dear; they left me, at length, to know, for the first time, what it truly is TO BE ALONE.

THIS country has long been a proud one; and on nothing has she prided herself more, than on her unsullied honour, and her reverence for the law of nations. She did not indulge this pride, until the right of indulgence was nobly earned. Until recently the lofty spirit of her sons shone in the acts of her rulers; and she stood at the head of the world, as a splendid example of all that could be upright and chivalrous-as the only nation incapable of violating its faith, and staining its integrity. She disregarded provocation, and disdained seduction; she endured injuries, and incurred losses, in maintaining inviolate the sacred principles of national right and justice. During the war, France and other nations trampled upon everything that had previously borne the name of public law-her existence was in danger-she was threatened with extinction by a confederacy alike VOL. XXIII.

powerful and lawless-public law towards herself was annihilated-and all this only rendered her integrity the more scrupulous and magnanimous. On various occasions she disregarded the most tempting opportunities of adding largely to her trade, wealth, and power, not because her availing herself of them would have been unjust, but because the justice of it was not wholly above question. Public law found defenders alike in her Courts of Justice, her Legislature, and her fleets and armies in her learning, her eloquence, her treasure, and her blood. She was its champion, preserver, expounder, and enforcer.

Such, we say, was the case with this proud country until recently. In her late changes, nothing has been spared, and she has reversed her principles and conduct touching national law and right. The cnduct she is following in respect of Turkey

D

examining the grounds on which the interference is defended.

and Greece, is directly opposed to everything she previously professed and practised; and it is utterly subversive of every obligation which, in right and justice, one nation owes to another.

That Turkey obtained Greece in the same manner in which this country obtained various of her possessions, will be denied by no one. In respect of the means of acquisition, Greece is as much the right of Turkey, as British India, British America, and Ireland, are the right of Britain.

On this point, the right of Turkey is not disputed by the most romantic and unscrupulous friend of Greece. But it is not argued, but asserted, that Turkey destroyed the right given her by conquest, by the manner in which she governed her Greek subjects. If this be admitted, there cannot be any such right as that of conquest. Public law has nothing to do with forms of government; it divides not the subject from the ruler, it treats the nation as a whole; and it attaches to the right of conquest no conditions as to manner of governing. We of course say this with reference to the interference of one nation with another. Turkey had a clear right to govern her Greek subjects according to her own mode, so far as other nations were concerned, provided there was nothing in this mode which affected the rights of other nations. It is not even asserted that the rights of other nations were injured by the manner in which Greece was governed. We are not inquiring whether the Greeks were justified in revolting, for this has nothing to do with the question before us.

When, therefore, the Greeks revolted, they were, in public law, as much the subjects of Turkey as the inhabitants of British possessions are the subjects of Britain. However just their grounds for appealing to arms might be to themselves, they were still, in such law, neither more nor less than subjects rebelling against their lawful government. Other nations had not the smallest right to interfere.

We will now ask, has anything taken place during the contest to change the character it bore at its commencement, and to justify the interference of other nations? We shall gain the most satisfactory answer, by

Before the monstrous league between Britain, France, and Russia was formed, the most zealous partizans of Greece, men capable of asserting anything that was calculated to benefit their cause, never once ventured to say, that the lawful rights and interests of other nations were injured by the contest. They called on other nations to interfere, not for their own sake, but for the sake of the Greekson account of the origin and religion of the Greeks, and of the manner in which the latter had been treated by Turkey.

On the point of origin, it cannot be necessary for us to speak. To say that national law and right ought to be trampled on in favour of the Greeks, because their ancestors, ages ago, were renowned in arts and arms, is to say what common sense and common honesty alike brand with reprobation. It is doctrine which all must abhor, save maniacs and robbers. If it were adopted, what would it lead to? The great powers ought immediately to give independence to Italy; they ought to re-establish the Jews in their long-lost country. The great Catholic nations ought to liberate the Irish Catholics from what the latter and their champions call the tyranny of England; and to restore to the Romish Church of Ireland its lost, possessions and splendour. Almost every atrocity that a nation, or a combination of nations, could commit, might be easily justified by this doctrine. When it is remembered what ancient Greece was in her glory, it ought likewise to be remembered what she was in her fall; if the present Greeks be the descendants of her heroes and sages, they are likewise the descendants of her demagogues, tyrants, traitors, and profligates. The absurd nonsense touching "classical recollections" calls for no farther notice.

In regard to religion, have the Turks made war on the Greeks for professing Christianity? No, must be the answer of all. The religion of the Greeks never had anything to do with the contest; they did not at the outset take up arms to defend it, and it has never since been the object of attack: they were allowed to profess it, and they knew that. if they were subdued,