From The Examiner. Rabid denunciations of M. Bismarck and M. Benedetti, for having done what NesIr would be amusing, if it were not selrode and Metternich, Talleyrand and bumiliating, to note the novel tones of vir- Castlereagh, Gortschakoff and Schwartzentuous indignation in which the disclosure berg, Cavour and Walewski, did before of another secret scheme of forcible annex- them, without a phrase or word of censure ation is denounced by our political prudes to which any one can now point as a matter and hypocrites. As if nothing of the kind of record, is, we maintain, empty and idle. had ever been heard of before; as if we We do not like discovering that Belgium had not winked at and sanctioned similar and Holland (for the two must stand or fall plans again and again on the part of every together) were in danger lately of being one of the sovereigns whom we have been surprised while we slept; and we do not accustomed to call our best allies; as if relish the notion that they may be in danger the history of European diplomacy were when we fall asleep again. That would be not literally crowded with such devices, a very good reason for our adopting a new unrealized, partly executed, or completely system of foreign policy, based on the funfulfilled. What is the meaning of these damental principle that under no circumsudden heroics about negotiating in the stances would we consent any more to be dark, and proposing to appropriate territo- participes criminis in schemes of forcible ries and populations without their consent? annexation. Where communities, of their From the first partition of Poland, to which own free will think fit to join their fortunes, the Government of England was a consent-let them join. We would no more fight for ing party, to the projet de traité for the the present anomalous and whimsical map reciprocal aggrandisement of Prussia and of boundaries, merely because it happens France, there might be enumerated a score to be the last agreed on by the great of schemes identical in spirit, though vary-Powers, than we would attempt to keep the ing in the extent of their objects, each of various trees of a wood all at their present which has, of course, been denounced at the height. The existing boundaries of Prustime by those who did not profit by them, sia were traced with the point of the sword but not one of which has ever been branded only four years ago; but if the populations with the reprobation of collective Europe of North Germany are really content with in any way or in any sense calculated to annexation, it is no business of ours to murdeter unscrupulous statesmen from follow-mur at the change. And if to-morrow the ing the course of precedent as established. Belgians, as a nation, freely chose to be What, then, is the use of affecting looks of united with the French, or if the Dutch destartled innocence, and exclaiming at every clared that they preferred absorption in corner Who would have thought it ? North Germany, we should not raise a hand Who? Why, every trained diplomatist in protest or a voice in any other accent and courtly politician has been brought up than that of friendly warning. But it is in the school where men are taught how quite another matter if, without their knowlthese things are done; how, while imma-edge or the pretence of their assent, two ture, they are best kept hidden, and how neighbouring military monarchies decree it is politic to commit your accomplices their national death, and, by anticipation, step by step, lest at some unexpected turn part their garments between them. It is they should hark back, and, when you have just the difference between right and wrong, got on the top of the wall, throw down the between independence and subjugation, ladder, and cry, "Thieves." Let any one between liberty and bondage. By all take a series of correct maps of Europe, means let us make up our minds once and for showing the altered confines of great Pow-all that we will neither actively nor passiveers at intervals of twenty years, all of ly assent to any more transfers of countries which maps our own Government has be- or populations without their free choice. fore the fact or after the fact endorsed and By all means let us tell the secondary States ratified; and then let him, if he can, wipe of Europe that, as far as England is conhis lips and say, "We have done no wick-cerned, we shall never acknowledge their edness." At all events, let us have no reduction into vassalage; but that, on the more vain palaver about our national con- contrary, we shall make it part of our science being stung, and our national hon-standing policy to help and aid, whenever our affronted, by that which we have perfectly well known to be part and parcel of the established practices of absolutism, and which we have never taken the slightest pains to baffle or bring to an end. and as far as circumstances permit, their resistance to overbearing force, and their emancipation whenever opportunity shall offer. By all means let us manfully set ourselves in time to come against the main tenance of armies of aggrandisement, and | Genoa to Piedmont, and Venice and Milan to against aggrandisement, wherever and by Austria; we were parties to handing back whomsoever accomplished, by the mere Sicily to the Neapolitan Bourbons, under brute force of armies. But unless and until circumstances of peculiar shame; we conwe make up our minds to do this, let us not nived at the i vasion and conquest of Hunplay the unworthy part of scolding particu- gary by Russia; we were parties to the triple lar allies, whom the whole of our past history invasion of Mexico, from which we only rehas warranted to believe that we had as ceded when we found we had made a bad barlittle conscience in these matters as them- gain. And what shall be said of our acquisiselves. We assented to the three partitions tions in the East, or in Southern Africa? of Poland; we were parties to the taking of Truly it ill becomes us, while o r old policy Finland by Russia from Sweden; we were of violence remains unrepudiated, to take parties to the taking of Norway from Den- romantic airs about secret treaties, or the mark; we were parties to the surrendering sudden use of aggressive force. cylinder by means of delicate wires, and the registering is effected by means of electricity. In both cases the figure of 8 and wave movements, originally described and figured by Dr. Pettigrew, are faithfully reproduced. The way of a wing in the air has hitherto been regarded as a physiological puzzle of great magnitude; and well it might be, since some insects (the common fly for example) vibrate their wings at the almost inconceivable speed of 300 strokes per second, that is, 18,000 times in a minute! FLIGHT. FIGURE OF 8 WAVE THEORY OF Own movements, and has establisbed, by an WING MOVEMENTS. In the Proceedings of the actual experimentum crucis, the absolute corRoyal Institution of Great Britain for March rectness of Dr. Pettigrew's views. Professor 1867, Dr. J. Bell Pettigrew, F.R.S., the distin- Marey's mode of registering displays much guished curator of the museum of the Royal ingenuity, and is briefly as follows:-"A College of Surgeons of Edinburgh, announced cylinder revolving at a given speed is enveloped the startling discovery that all wings whatever by a sheet of thin paper smeared with lamp - those of the insect, bat, or bird were black, and to this the tip of the rapidly vibratwisted upon themselves structurally, and that ting wing of the insect is applied in such a manthey twisted and untwisted during their action ner as to cause it to brush out its track on the that in short they formed mobile helices or blackened paper, which it readily does. A screws. In June of the same year (1867), Dr. similar result is obtained in the bird by fixing a Pettigrew, following up his admirable re-registering apparatus to the wing and causing searches, read an elaborate memoir "On the the bird to fly in a chamber. In this case the Mechanism of Flight" before the Linnean registering apparatus is connected with the Society of London, wherein he conclusively proves, by a large number of dissections and experiments, in which he greatly excels, that not only is the wing a screw structurally and physiologically, but further that it is a reciprocating screw. He shows, in fact, that the wing, during its oscillations, describes a figure of 8 track similar in some respects to those described by an oar in sculling. This holds true of the vibrating wing of the insect, bat and bird, when the bodies of these animals are artificially fixed. When, however, the creatures are liberated, and flying at a high horizontal speed, the figure of 8, as he points out, is curiously enough converted into a wave track, from the wing being carried forward by the body, and from its consequently never being permitted to complete more than a single curve of the 8. This is an entirely new view of the structure and functions of the wing, and one fraught with the deepest possible interest to the aeronautical world. It promises to solve everything. Dr. Pettigrew's remarkable discovery has received an unlookedfor confirmation within the last few months at the hand of Professor Marey, of the College of France, Paris. This gentleman, whose skill in applying the graphic method to physiological inquiry is unequalled, has succeeded in causing the wings of the insect and bird to register their It should be added that though Professor Marey endorses Dr. Pettigrew's view as to a figure of 8 movement, and has recently admitted his priority in that observation, he is yet by no means of the same opinion as Pettigrew as to the explanation of the mechanical effect of the movements and the influence of the bird's weight. Pettigrew maintains that the wings act as inclined planes in such a way that the bird actually rises by its own weight. Dr. Marey will not admit this at all, and is at issue with the Scotch anatomist on some other matters of moment, as he recently informed the writer. The beautiful and ingenious experiments which Dr. Marey is now carrying on will place these matters beyond conjecture by the light of experiment. Nature. NUMBERS OF THE LIVING AGE WANTED. The publishers are in want of Nos. 1179 and 1180 (dated respectively Jan. 5th and Jan. 12th, 1867) of THE LIVING AGE. To subscribers, or others, who will do us the favor to send us either or both of those numbers, we will return an equivalent, either in our publications or in cash, until our wants are supplied. JUST PUBLISHED AT THIS OFFICE: THE PORTRAIT IN MY UNCLE'S DINING-ROOM, AND OTHER TALES. CONTENTS: The Portrait in my Uncle's Dining-Room; Olivia's Favour, A Tale of Hallowe'en; Mrs. Merridew's Fortune; Little Miss Deane; Late for the Train. 1 vol. Price 38 cents. PUBLISHED EVERY SATURDAY BY LITTELL & GAY, BOSTON. FOR EIGHT DOLLARS, remitted directly to the Publishers, the LIVING AGE will be punctually for warded for a year, free of postage. But we do not prepay postage on less than a year, nor where we have to vay commission for forwarding the money. Price of the First Series, in Cloth, 36 volumes, 90 dollars. Any Volume Bound, 3 dollars; Unbound, 2 dollars. The sets, or volumes, will be sent at the expense of the publishers. PREMIUMS FOR CLUBS. For 5 new subscribers ($40.), a sixth copy; or a set of HORNE'S INTRODUCTION TO THE BIBLE, unabridged, in 4 large volumes, cloth, price $10; or any 5 of the back volumes of the LIVING AGE, in numbers, price $10. From Macmillan's Magazine. THE ENGLISH REVOLUTION OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY. BY PROFESSOR SEELEY. I. IF I were required to say at what exact date the age of English history in which we are now living began, I should be disposed to mention the year 1829. Certainly about that time began an order of things which seems not yet to have closed. It is true that the Reform Bill of 1867 was of magnitude enough to form the commencement of a new period; and some years hence, when we look back, it is possible that we shall see that it actually did so. But this is not visible yet; that measure remains as yet a cause without consequences; something has happened, we do not yet know what; we have seen the flash, but the report has not yet reached us. Meanwhile we may still regard ourselves as moving under the impulse of the great events that took place forty years ago. At that epoch two or three great events came in quick succession; but I select Catholic Emancipation as the critical one. It was not the first, for the Repeal of the Test and Corporation Acts happened a year earlier; nor was it so striking an event as the Reform Act, which came two years later. But the Repeal of the Test and Corporation Acts was rather ominous than very important; it was the begin ning of the end, rather than the end itself. The Reform Bill would make, no doubt, a very good era. It was the installation of the new power. On the other hand, Catholic Emancipation was the abdication of the old one. When, not by hostile majorities in Parliament, but by sheer inability to carry on any longer the government of the empire, the dominant party were forced to surrender the post they had defended so long, and to tell their supporters that the distinctive principle of their rule was incompatible with the safety of life and property, - at that moment a Power passed away, a Reign ended. At that moment, rather than later, the Revolution took place in the public mind. There was far more noise and commotion in '31, and it was in '31 that the great constitutional change was proposed; but the true moment of revolution is not so much that in which the new legislation takes place as that in which the conviction becomes universal that a change must come. It is the moment when the balance decidedly inclines to the side of innovation, when a simultaneous despair seizes upon the defenders of the existing régime; when they begin to resist rather for honour than for victory; when they plainly recognize their inferiority; when they begin to accustom their thoughts to a new condition of things, and to prepare for the inevitable change. It is not in every revolution that such a moment can be distinguished, and there are sudden political changes which are preceded by no such moment. But when it comes, when it can be discovered, that is the true moment of revolution. It is then that the shock is felt; then comes on the agony of amazement and dismay. Then it is that men's imaginations are shaken, and the time is felt to be out of joint. And in looking back upon the change through which the country passed forty years ago, I seem to find the true revolutionary moment, not when the Reform Bill was brought forward, or when it was passed, but when the Wellington Ministry conceded Catholic Emancipation to avoid civil war. Let us take this moment as the beginning of the present age, and let us try to discover the principal differences between this age and that which preceded it immediately, or the other great ages of England. There will come a time when this age, too, will belong entirely to history. Another leaf will have been turned in the book of time, and our own age will appear clearly marked, limited, and characterized among the other ages of the life of the nation. What character will it then bear? How will men describe it? Some periods of history are characterized by repose, and others by activity. How little material do the reigns of the first two Georges, and even the first years of the reign of George III., afford to the historian compared to the corresponding period of the 17th century! - the earlier period fertile of remarkable men and memorable deeds, the later barren of both. But, again, there are periods of activity that are are not periods of progress or even of change. No part of English history is more |