it, and also because the letters were curiously formed. The illegible letters without strokes were scored in thusM.

-as a foreigner writes the capital

letter M. Not until we reached Khar

toom did we find out for certain who His

this traveller must have been.

name was MIANI (Miani), a native of Venice, who has protested against our Nile being the proper Nile, because we have placed his tree in a position of latitude and longitude (obtained by daily observations) different to what he made it, without scientific instruments. His assertion is bold, considering the above evidence; but as M. Miani is trying to organise another expedition, I have no doubt he will discover, and perhaps ultimately acknowledge, his

error. In the mean time, Mr S. Baker will in all likelihood have passed the spot, and taken the exact position of the tree and river."

A case must be bad indeed when it is sought to discredit a great achievement and the veracity of those who accomplished it by resorting for a champion to this unknown Italian, and making the dispute turn upon the exact position of a tree upon which he had cut his name.

We have now brought our travellers to within a week's march of their immediate destination, Gondokoro, where they were cheered by finding Baker waiting with open arms to receive them. Captain Grant devotes three or four lines to defending the memory of his friend against the violent attack made upon him with reference to his complaint of Petherick's conduct, which it is quite unnecessary for us to allude to farther than to say, that in this book of Captain Burton's no less than forty pages are devoted, not so much to defending Mr Petherick for not having succoured Speke and Grant, as to abusing Speke for having represented in England the failure on the part of Petherick to adhere to his engagements with the subscribers to the Speke and Grant relief fund. As to the money question between Mr Petherick and the Geographical Society, which is also fully dis

cussed in 'The Nile Basin,' with which it has nothing to do, we have no doubt that that learned body is quite capable of taking care of itself, and we have no desire to prejudice the opinion of the public upon the matter. Our only object has been to contrast the spirit in which Captain Grant's book is written with that which pervades Captain Burton's, and to assure our readers that they will find nothing in the former to offend their sense of propriety; while the ill-natured tone of the latter is certainly not compensated for by its logic. "I will conclude," says Captain Burton,

66 with a statement which to some may seem paradoxical, namely, that the real sources of the Nilethe great Nile problem-so far from being settled for ever by the late exploration, are thrown farther from discovery than ever." Now we will conclude with a statement which to Captain Burton may seem paradoxical-that he could not possibly have written a book more conclusively settling the great Nile problem in exactly the opposite way to the one he intends, than that which he has now placed before us. Before it was written there was just a possibility that the river Captain Speke had discovered might flow away to the westward or southward into the heart of Africa; but, with a degree of simplicity which we should have scarcely thought compatible with Captain Burton's character, he brings a river of his own down from the southward and westward, cutting off all escape for Captain Speke's river in that direction, and positively compelling it to be one of the main sources of the Nile. We challenge him to take the map and produce any other alternative, except that of forcing it to disappear altogether in a tunnel. We confess to feeling but little pity for Captain Burton, when we take our last look at him, impaled upon the horns of that dilemma which, with the assistance of Mr M'Queen, he has so ingeniously contrived.

Finally, it is a satisfaction to receive, in closing Captain Grant's book, the same impression of the thorough honesty and veracity of the author, which was so striking a feature in the works of his lamented companion. It may be that the books of both these gentlemen are open to literary criticism, and it is more than probable that some of those hypotheses which have been based upon their discoveries may turn out to be erroneous. Nay, more, we are ready to admit that, with every desire to be accurate, some of their observations, made with imperfect instruments and under great difficulties, may be faulty; but the highest qualities,

not merely of explorers, but of valuable public servants, both these gentlemen possess; and it is impossible to read the record of their experiences without feeling that it is the reflection of minds singularly pure and guileless, that they have performed their duty with unflinching courage and endurance, and with the conscientious desire scrupulously to present to their countrymen, on their return, an exact and true picture of the unknown countries they had visited. It is this strict accuracy which imparts to their works their highest value, and constitutes their authors' strongest claim to the admiration and gratitude of their countrymen.

THE year 1864, which opened somewhat stormily, has come to a peaceful close; nor, so far as outward appearances would seem to indicate to the superficial observer, is there any reason to suppose that the year 1865 will be even so pregnant with events of political interest as the one which has departed. Croakers are always ready to call a calm, the lull which precedes the storm; and it must be admitted, that if the period of the duration of the lull is not specified, they are always right, for without the repose which forms the contrast, we should not know what a storm was. So for the last three years we have been having the lull, and if the force of the storm, when it comes, is to be calculated by the time it takes brewing, it will be more of the nature of a typhoon than a squall. Meantime, in order to form some estimate of the elements at work, and of the dangers which are likely to trouble the peace of Europe, it will be necessary to take a political retrospect of the year which will bring us up to the latest phase of politics, as connected with the principal countries of Europe. On the 1st of last January, the two biggest clouds upon the political horizon were the Polish and the Schleswig-Holstein questions--the one was in its last, the other in its first (active) stage. The only Government which really understood how to utilise these two questions, was that of which Herr Von Bismarck is not merely the head, but the body and soul. In the autumn of the year before last, the first-class Power lowest in the scale of political estimation in Europe was Prussia; that we should in so short a space of time have been able to change places and occupy the position which Prussia has abdicated, shows almost as much ingenuity on the part

SITUATION.

of Lord Russell as of Herr Von Bismarck. To succeed in a few short months in seriously depreciating an influence and a prestige which it has been the labour of our ablest statesmen for years to cherish and confirm, and yet to retain himself at the head of the foreign affairs of the country while it is placidly contemplating its own political decadence, is a more wonderful tour de force on the part of our Foreign Minister than any which even his illustrious rival at Berlin has yet achieved. Had these remarkable talents only been exerted in a different direction, that greatness which has been forced upon him might have been forced upon the country. Herr Von Bismarck, however, seeing the opening, passed up, while we went down to the bottom of the class.

The political state of Germany at this time was fully described in our columns; and we pointed out how, in order to thwart the policy of the Prussian Minister, we might have allied ourselves with his political enemies at home, and thus have averted the Schleswig-Holstein war which was then impending, secured the greater part of Schleswig to Denmark, and paralysed the policy of the Berlin Cabinet. As this, however, involved a certain knowledge of the state of parties in Germany, a very limited amount of foresight, and the immediate recognition of Prince Frederick of Augustenbourg as Duke of Holstein, our views were not shared in by any, either of those writers or orators who proclaimed in the same breath their incapacity to understand the question, and their decided opinion upon its merits.

The consequence is, that now, exactly twelve months too late, our Government is exerting what little influence and diplomatic skill it possesses to secure the throne of

at the Mansion-House, that he had raised the prestige of England to a higher pitch than it had ever achieved. A sort of epidemy of swagger seemed to have invaded those who had least excuse for it. The whole German nation became intolerable about their military achievements; even the fact that neither the Prussian nor the Danish armies had ever seen a shot fired in anger in their lives before the war, was scarcely enough to account for the extraordinary ignorance displayed on both sides-on the part of the Danes of the art of war, on the part of the Prussians of the experiences of it. These latter managed, with the greatest difficulty, in a campaign lasting five months, to lose nearly three thousand men in killed and wounded-an ordinary morning's amusement to Generals Grant and Lee. And to hear them talk now, one would imagine they knew what fighting meant. All which would not matter if it were confined to the army alone; but the effect of these military successes upon the German mind has been, to intoxicate those sober classes who formed the constitutional and Liberal party in the country. The consequence is, that for a time the movement of the Liberal opposition has been utterly crushed. Bismarck has surrounded himself with a halo of glory, which has temporarily blinded his opponents. He took the bit between his teeth in this Schleswig-Holstein affair, and carried out the national programme with a vengeance. There is no denying it, the Germans wanted the Duchies taken from Denmark, and it has been done, but not in the way they wanted; and there is nothing left for them but to bouder and manifest a sort of sullen gratitude to their enemy. Had they voted the money for the Schleswig-Holstein war, and said, "Herr Von Bismarck, go and make war, and take the Duchies," they would have had a vantage-ground; but they refused

him the money, and protested against his making the war after his own fashion, so he made it in spite of them, and has dazzled them with military glory. Not contented with this, success has rendered him bold. He finds many of his old antagonists softened and conciliatory, and rather disposed to abandon their strict German principles for a more selfish policy. The vanity of some of the Prussian Liberals has been tickled by the idea of the annexation of the Duchies, and ever since the conclusion of the war, the one object of Mr Von Bismarck has been to bring this annexation about. With this view he has caused the negotiations, which only terminated the other day at Vienna, to be prolonged to an extent trying even to German patience; with this view he has staved off all consideration by the Diet at Frankfort of the Duke of Augustenbourg's claims, though they have been waiting the decision of that body for many months. With this view he intrigued with Russia to put forward the Duke of Oldenburg as a paper candidate, whose claims will be found, as Mr Von Bismarck very well knows, not worth the paper they are written on. With this view the Prussian Minister caused it to be inserted in the preamble of the treaty with Denmark just concluded, that the King of Denmark conceded all those rights over the Duchies which he had never possessed, so determined was he to ignore the rights of the Augustenbourg line. In a word, though some months have elapsed since the Duchies have been conquered from Denmark, their fate remains still unsettled, because Bismarck has not relinquished the hope of wearing out the patience of the Duke, of the Schleswig-Holsteiners, and of the political section of Germany which is identified with his cause. There can be little doubt that if the fate of the Duchies depended only upon their German sympathisers, their chances of indepen