security as can be given in this uncertain world against future expeditions from the sea-coast of Scandinavia.

Not only has the national will imparted energy to the government, but it has manifested its serious purpose in the payment of heavy taxes and in noble free-will offerings. A fund for the benefit of the wives and children of soldiers

absent on active service now amounts to upwards of 112,000l.; and on the 16th of November the Patriotic Fund had risen to 1,296,2821.; at which period it was relieving 2544 soldiers' widows, and 3119 orphans, at an annual expenditure of 65,000l.

Amidst these stern realities, its Industrial Exhibition has given Paris a six-months' holiday, and England has rejoiced in royal visits. The Sovereigns of France, Belgium, Portugal, and Sardinia, and the Crown-Prince of Prussia, have all been the guests of Queen Victoria.

And in our own favoured isle we trust that the work of internal improvement has not been standing still. Fresh efforts have been made to bring Christianity into contact with the working classes; and the encouragement which attended the open-air preaching of last summer will doubtless lead to more extended services next season. In Scotland, mainly owing to the Act which closes public-houses on Sunday, the consumption of whisky has been reduced nearly a million of gallons below the yearly average; or from an average of 6,914,308 to 5,991,870. And although a formidable assault is threatened on the sanctity of our Sabbaths, it is to be hoped that a policy, at once more holy and more humane, may triumph, and that more week-day leisure conceded to the sons of industry may remove the chief pretext for Sabbath-breaking.

The year '55 is fraught with hallowed recollections in the history of English Protestantism. It was on the 16th of October, 1555, that Latimer and Ridley were burnt at

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Oxford; and both there and at Latimer's birthplace, Thur.. caston in Leicestershire, the tri-centenary was suitably observed. Those who have visited the tomb of "the tenth it was on the 26th of October, 1555, that Olympia Morata muse" at Heidelberg, may be interested to remember that died. And it was in 1655 that the massacre in Piedmont occurred which drew forth Milton's famous sonnet, and led to Cromwell's brave interposition on behalf of the Waldenses. How remarkable that this centenary should have seen the Sovereign of Piedmont received in England as a champion of civil and religious liberty!

Whether the great cause of human improvement has made any material progress throughout the world within the closing year, it would be hard to say.

We hope it has:

for although the Emperor of Austria has, in the most abject fashion, placed his dominions and his crown beneath the foot of the Popedom, Spain by the sale of its churchproperty, and Sardinia by the suppression of its convents, have shown that they no longer dread the spectre in the Vatican. The remarkable revival among the Armenian Christians, and the extensive circulation of the Scriptures among the French and Sardinian soldiery, and even among the Turks, show how the kingdom of peace and righteousspread amid scenes of bloodshed and confusion. And if the letters sent home by common soldiers, and the dying testimonies of British officers, may be accepted as an index, there is a prodigious advancement in the intelligence of the English commonalty within the present generation, and a still more cheering progress in the piety of the upper classes.

ness can

The lights that have ascended into our intellectual firmament it is not easy to enumerate; for there is a dimness in the eastern horizon with which genius has usually for awhile to struggle, and it is seldom that we can mark the

moment when a master-spirit flashes into view. It is easier to record their setting. And if few first magnitudes have disappeared, some familiar stars are missing. Archdeacon Hare is gone, the vindicator of Luther, and the learned, thoughtful author of "The Mission of the Comforter,”—a man who did much to modernise the Fathers and to naturalise German exotics on the soil of English theology; and Dr. Gilly, who worked for his Waldensian friends so faithfully, and whose "Life of Neff" has taught so many noble lessons; and Professor J. J. Blunt, who applied to the Pentateuch and the Gospels with skill, not less than Paley's, the prin ciple of the "Hora Paulina." Science has to deplore the loss of De la Beche and Greenough, the geologists; Dr. George Johnston, the enthusiastic student of marine zoology; Professor Johnston, whose charming papers had gone so far to render popular and amusing the "Chemistry of Common Life;" and the greatest of Polar voyagers, Sir Edward Parry. And the year, which began with the death of Mary Russell Mitford, closes with the exit from the scene of Samuel Rogers.

From time to time "Excelsior" has recorded the most notable publications which fell in its way. The departments in which the year has been richest are History and Poetry. Now that the twelfth volume is ready, Mr. Grote has completed his colossal "History of Greece;" and, as the result of seven years' labour, Mr. Macaulay has given us seven years of King William; Mr. Prescott has produced two volumes on Philip II. of Spain, as clear and unaffected, and almost as romantic, as any of his previous narratives; and whilst Mr. Massey has rendered the tale of last century distinct and accessible, Dr. Doran has made it diverting. And just as a loud talker or a noisy piano sets caged canaries a-singing, the cannonades of the Crimea would appear to have excited our minstrels to a perfect tempest of song. Of the many volumes we have read, those

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which we have most enjoyed are, Macdonald's "Within and Without," and Longfellow's "Hiawatha." And without entering into further details, we may commend to the bookclubs of Melbourne and Montreal, and to the Mudies of Cape Town and Calcutta, such works as the following:

Buchanan's "Faith in God and Modern Atheism;" Walker's "God Revealed in Creation and in Jesus Christ;" Young's "Christ of History;" Guthrie's "Ezekiel;" Stanley on Corinthians; Birks's "Treasures of Wisdom;" "Life of Alderman Kelly;" "Memoir of Adelaide Newton;" Muirhead's "Life and Inventions of James Watt;" Peacock's "Life of Dr. Young;" Brewster's "Life of Sir Isaac Newton;" Stanley's "Memorials of Canterbury;" Kingsley's "Glaucus;" Maurice's "Learning and Working;" Trench's "English Past and Present;" and Stirling's "Velasquez."

REVIEW OF THE MONTH.

THE close of the year has brought its usual profusion of books,-projected serials which blossom at the same time as the ivy, and autumnal lucubrations which ripen along with the holly.

The pencil of Birket Foster has found appropriate themes in Herbert's "Poems," in Goldsmith's "Traveller," and in the landscape of "The Rhine." For the latter, Henry Mayhew has furnished description and narration, lively, cheerful, and natural, whilst the engravings are exquisite ; and of the former, it is enough to say that the pure gem never appeared in a lovelier setting. The truth, the brightness, and occasionally the quaintness, of "holy Herbert," appear absolutely to have overflowed into the pictures of his congenial illustrator.

To Mr. Porter we are indebted for invaluable additions to sacred topography in his "Five Years in Damascus," which must now be the standard authority as regards the regions beyond the Jordan. "God Revealed in the Process of Creation and by the Manifestation of the Lord Jesus," admirable for original and independent thought, and clear and vigorous language, is a book altogether worthy of the author of "The Philosophy of the Plan of Salvation." In "Man and his Money," Dr. Tweedie has brought a mass of impressive facts and earnest reasonings to bear on the stewardship of earthly possessions; in "The Home School," with eminent sense, directness, and warmth of affection, Mr. Norman Macleod has furnished "Hints on Home Education," for which many parents will thank him; and in his "Scripture Studies," Mr. Drew has given a masterly sketch of Old Testament history, with a conspectus of the successive contributions to the records of Inspiration made by the sacred writers. "Hints on the Culture of Character" are compiled from Croly, Villiers, Dale, and authors whose names are ample recommendation; and "The Beauty of Holiness" we should have liked much better had it not quoted so largely from the Apocrypha. "The Cripple of Antioch," and its companion stories, are a sequel to "Tales and Sketches of Christian Life" in early times, and are a wonderful reproduction of those departed days with which the writer exhibits an intimacy so minute and loving. And the "Memoir of Adelaide Newton" is a record of Scriptural piety worthy to rank beside the "Memorials of Two Sisters" and the "Life of Mary Jane Grahame.”

Embellished with beautiful coloured lithographs, we have Mr. White's "Popular History of Birds," into which, like the bower-bird he describes, the writer has gathered no end of matter, rare and curious, selected from his own inexhaustible stores. In "The Wonders of Science; or, Young