guishes tribe from tribe, from either of the other two. The three tribes dwell now in the homes of their forefathers, in the same order in which they are described by Bede, viz., the Angli, or Germanic people, between the Juti and the Frisi.'-p. 5. Mr. Laing's visit was immediately after the termination of the Schleswig-Holstein war, in which the Frankfort Assembly, nominally representing the New Germany' which was to be, demonstrated its disregard of the highest moral obligations, and sought to carry into practical effect its own visionary scheme. The origin of this disgraceful struggle is traced with distinctness, and severe censures are passed on its abettors.-The drama,' says our author, was composed at Frankfort; but here, in Holstein and Sleswick, was the theatre on which it was played out; and here only can its wisdom, its practical application, its suitableness to the wants, social state, and well-being of the people for whom it was composed, be examined and judged of.' 6 It is not our purpose to enter on a discussion of the various points raised by the contest. Many of our countrymen were, for a time, misled concerning it. More reflection, however, and better information, have rectified their mistake, and few now fail to rejoice in the issue of the war. The total population of Denmark does not exceed one million and a half; and these were called to contend against forty millions of the German people, or rather against an assembly which arrogated both the legislative and the executive functions of this vast body. For a time the result was doubtful. The faithless policy of Prussia appeared likely to triumph, and would probably have done so, had not Austrian jealousy intervened, and had not Russia been alive to the danger of permitting a military power to acquire a naval station on the Baltic. It is evident,' says Mr. Laing, that the great object of the secret policy of Prussia, of her intrigues and hidden action under the cloak of the Frankfort Parliament, and of her fomenting and aiding with men, money, officers of all ranks, and artillery of all kinds, the war against Denmark after she had ostensibly concluded a peace with that Power, was to obtain directly, or indirectly, by her own means, or through the agency and by using the name of the Frankfort Parliament, what she so much covets, and really wants a strong naval port and station in the Baltic. The annexation of Sleswick to Holstein as a German not a Danish territory, was the first and indispensable step to be taken. This secret object explains the intrigues, frequent tergiversation, and extreme reluctance, even to the present hour, of the Prussian government, in admitting that the Eyder is the boundary of the German Empire, and that the duchy of Sleswick belongs entirely to the kingdom of Denmark.'-p. 24. The bay of Kiel furnishes, in truth, the real explanation of the intrigues and manoeuvres of Prussia, and her design might have been effected, had it not clashed with the interests of Austria and Russia. Happily, justice went hand in hand, in this case, with true policy. What was expedient for the two emperors was coincident with what was due to Denmark. This is not always the case; and we are, therefore, gratified-in the absence of the generous and high-mindedthat self-interest availed to rescue the weaker from the grasp of the stronger. We dismiss this subject with the following extract, which, coming from such an authority, is well entitled to consideration: govern It cannot be said, that any class in the five or six hundred thousand inhabitants of Holstein and Sleswick-labourers, cottars, small proprietors, verpachters, or large landowners,-had any real grievance or oppression to throw off in their own social condition when their insurrection broke out in March, 1848. They were unquestionably better off than the inhabitants of any other part of Germany, and the provisional government then established neither stated any evil nor proposed any reform in their material condition. Few individuals, and certainly no class, were living in destitution of the necessaries of life. Taxes were light, poor-rates trifling, employment abundant in all the ordinary occupations of the people. The military service was much easier than it could have been under the ment of the "new Germany," for the landwehr were not sent to serve beyond the limits of their own small provinces, unless when the quota of Holstein was called upon, by the general diet of the German empire established in 1816, to join, as Holstein was a member of the Empire, the contingents of the other members in the north of Germany, for inspection and review. No unnecessary military force was kept up; substitutes were allowed for those who could not serve in person. People were free to come and go through the country without the passport grievance. In many parts of Holstein, as in Ditmarsh, along the Elbe, the Eyder, and on the west coast, the people had the administration of their own affairs in their own hands more entirely than they have in England; for the old institutions, by which the people had a voice in the management of their local affairs and funds, had been respected during five centuries by their nominally despotic Danish rulers. It would be gratifying if any German writer would name any spot in Germany in which the people enjoyed so much of civil liberty, had the management of their own interests so much in their own hands, had so little to complain of from the acts of their government, and were so generally well off.'-p. 57. The subject of education is frequently recurred to by our author, and his remarks, founded on close and extensive observation, are worthy of notice. It is one of the themes to which his attention was continually directed, and his views are recorded without ambiguity or reserve. In the present state of the educational question amongst ourselves, it is gratifying to have the testimony of so acute and philosophical an observer; and an impartial consideration of it will aid in solving some knotty points which now agitate the public mind of England. So far as our national experience has gone, the diffusion of education has been accompanied-to say the least-by a deeper religious spirit. Much more than this might be alleged, and our criminal statistics would bear it out. Crime has diminished as education has progressed, and we say this without questioning the efficacy of other causes which have been in operation. Nor is this connexion observable amongst the lowest classes only. It is seen also amongst those above them, as the improved tone, greater purity, and more religious air, of our popular literature shows. Our most distinguished men in the various walks of literature and science, are certainly not less religious than were the same class some fifty years since. Such is one of the effects of our educational system. It has undoubtedly its short-comings. It may not be all which the philanthropist desires. It may not accomplish all which society needs; but it has, nevertheless, strengthened, rather than otherwise, the religious sentiment of the community; and we are consequently now, after the system has been in operation for many years, nearer the ideal of a Christian people than we were at the time of its origination. The case, however, is vastly different where an opposite system has been tried.— The tendency of education on the continent has been the very reverse. The more educated the people have become, they have become the less religious. The highly educated and philosophic have run into mysticism, or into rationalism, or have fallen, with the great mass of the population they educate, or influence, into a state of apathy with regard to religion.' As the result of his observation, Mr. Laing informs us, and we are not surprised at his conclusion, that 'free-trade in education, as in every other employment, freedom to the parent to clothe the mind as he clothes the body of his child, according to the means and social position he holds, would have produced a more wholesome social state on the Continent.' It is with a nation as with an individual-what is superinduced by government control is comparatively worthless. It destroys mental independence, generates the habit of relying on that which is without, and thus closes up the source of human energy, and gives a diminished value to the boon acquired. The false encouragement given to education and learning in Germany -by connecting government function, political station, and even the ordinary occupations of the land surveyor, the forest bailiff, the country schoolmaster, the village farrier, with examinations and degrees by boards of to have the testimony of so acute and philosophical an observer; and an impartial consideration of it will aid in solving some knotty points which now agitate the public mind of England. So far as our national experience has gone, the diffusion of education has been accompanied-to say the least-by a deeper religious spirit. Much more than this might be alleged, and our criminal statistics would bear it out. Crime has dimi nished as education has progressed, and we say this without questioning the efficacy of other causes which have been in operation. Nor is this connexion observable amongst the lowest classes only. It is seen also amongst those above them, as the improved tone, greater purity, and more religious air, of our popular literature shows. Our most distinguished men in the various walks of literature and science, are certainly not less religious than were the same class some fifty years since. Such is one of the effects of our educational system. It has undoubtedly its short-comings. It may not be all which the philanthropist desires. It may not accomplish all which society needs; but it has, nevertheless, strengthened, rather than otherwise, the religious sentiment of the community; and we are consequently now, after the system has been in operation for many years, nearer the ideal of a Christian people than we were at the time of its origination. The case, however, is vastly different where an opposite system has been tried.— 'The tendency of education on the continent has been the very reverse. The more educated the people have become, they have become the less religious. The highly educated and philosophic have run into mysticism, or into rationalism, or have fallen, with the great mass of the population they educate, or influence, into a state of apathy with regard to religion.' As the result of his observation, Mr. Laing informs us, and we are not surprised at his conclusion, that 'free-trade in education, as in every other employment, freedom to the parent to clothe the mind as he clothes the body of his child, according to the means and social position he holds, would have produced a more wholesome social state on the Continent.' It is with a nation as with an individual-what is superinduced by government control is comparatively worthless. It destroys mental independence, generates the habit of relying on that which is without, and thus closes up the source of human energy, and gives a diminished value to the boon acquired. The false encouragement given to education and learning in Germany -by connecting government function, political station, and even the ordinary occupations of the land surveyor, the forest bailiff, the country schoolmaster, the village farrier, with examinations and degrees by boards of |