trading with the people. Let the commissioners console themselves in the reflection on the sincerity and good faith in which those promises were made, and on the fact that their non-fulfilment is in no degree chargeable on any want of zeal, enterprise, or perseverance on their part. We especially commend to the attention of all, and they are many, who are interested in the subject, the remarks on the slave trade; convinced as we are, from much communication with officers employed to put it down, that the views propounded in the chapter to which we refer are sound, at variance though they be with those of the philanthropists of the day. That a traffic, to which no epithet sufficiently expressive of its enormity can be applied, should be put down by all and every means, we strenuously maintain; but we are as fully convinced that the present system, carried on at an incalculable expense of blood and treasure, only tends to aggravate the suffering it seeks to subdue. We should be wanting in justice to the authors of the volumes which we reluctantly close did we withhold the tribute of our warmest praise to the clear, manly, straightforward, in a word, sailor-like style, in which they are written; nor must we omit to call attention to the highly graphic and artistical character of the numerous illustrations, on metal and wood, from the pencil of Captain William Allen, whose spirited sketches of Ascension, Fernando Po, and of the Niger (taken at his former visit), as well as his Academy pictures, have already gained for him considerable reputation as an artist. ART. VI.-Panslavism and Germanism. By Count VALERIAN KRASINSKI, author of the "Reformation in Poland." London: Newby. 1848. "PANSLAVISM (as M. Krasinski observes) is a term which means the union of all the Slavonic nations into one empire or confederation, and is as yet little known in England. It has, however, already produced a strong sensation in Germany, and has been discussed in France." It is much the same with us in respect to any great continental idea as it is with our fashions: we are behind our neighbours-we do not originate and we do not adopt till that which is new to us has ceased to to be a novelty with them. But the very caution of the English character has its advantages. If it renders us slow to receive any thing, the full value of which we have not ascertained, it also enables us to hold it with tenacity after it is acquired, and makes us skilful in discovering its real uses. Hence, when once we master the meaning of any leading and characteristic term, we are sometimes better able to understand its true signification and more important bearing than those from whom we derive it. The word "Panslavism" expresses an idea which must shortly exercise a very powerful influence in the settlement of the great political questions of the day. It is receiving a striking interpretation at the present moment in the Danubian provinces, and must therefore, before long, engage the thoughts and energies of English writers and statesmen. This is the excuse, apart from the merit of the work itself, which we have for introducing to our readers the subject of which it treatsa subject which at first sight appears so dry, and which has hardly been fairly represented by those who have professed to understand it. Misled by feeble or tiresome expositions, even intelligent persons have seen in it hitherto nothing but an Urquhart hallucination, and have dismissed it with a sneer at Russophobia. It is not the less a truth, however, because it is within the cognizance of a gentleman who depreciates the value of the information which he really possesses by the tediousness of his parliamentary expositions and the bitterness of his political animosities; and it will soon, from its very importance, command more attention than has already been given to it. We have had occasion to introduce the subject more or less to the notice of our readers in two of our recent Reviews, and we are very glad of the opportunity afforded to us, by the timely and able publication before us, of treating the matter more at large. It is impossible for any thinking man not to perceive that small ideas and petty interests are daily giving place in the policy of States to enlarged notions of unity and comprehensive schemes of general utility. That point in the destiny of nations seems to have been reached where it becomes necessary that the several tribes of which they are composed should resolve themselves into the primary divisions of the great family of man. We have been hitherto accustomed to the idea suggested by the word "nationality;" but are now called, by the mighty events which are daily occurring around us, to understand the larger signification of the word "race." There is an evident impulsive influence upon men to disruption and re-con * We must except from this remark Col. Buller, whose work on "The Reaction of the Slavonians," and Ranke's "History of Servia," furnished the matter for the two reviews, to which we, in a few lines lower down than the above paragraph, allude. stitution-disruption of the bonds which have hitherto held men together, and re-constitution into other forms of society. Newly awakened sympathies which have been dormant for ages, long forgotten associations re-called to remembrance, are proving more powerful than the claims of nationality; and empires are breaking to pieces that the several elements of which they have been composed may be re-formed upon a broader scale and the simpler principles of a common origin, a common language, and common generic characteristics. Two instalments towards the ultimate result of this general tendency are in course of payment. Austria will shortly cease to be an empire through the process of abstraction, and Germany is aiming at a mighty confederation by the absorption of individual kingdoms into the so-called "Vater-land." It is difficult to account for this tendency so widely manifested, unless we see in it one of those great steps which must be attained in the progression of mankind to its great and final destiny. The taste for antiquity which has so recently sprung up, and the enlarged spheres in which philosophical speculations, both reflective and prospective, are carried on, may be secondary causes, as they are certainly symptoms, of the tendency to which we have alluded; but they will hardly be deemed sufficient to constitute its source. The learned delight to trace out the history of tribes to their origin, and to show the distinctive marks by which the several branches of the family of man, however scattered over the surface of the globe, may be recognised. The philosopher looks to the past progress of the mental and moral characteristics of mankind, classifies and arranges them into theories, and prognosticates their ultimate development. Philanthropists ask for extended regions, and more comprehensive subjects, for the exercise of their benevolence; whilst men of enthusiastic minds endeavour to break up old forms as too narrow for the increasing energies of mankind. In every class there is an aspiration for something more than is possessed, the want of which is felt, but the way to which is not known. These causes combined may account for the fact that the highly intellectual are contemplating in theory the reformation of society on the broader basis of a community of race as both possible and desirable; but they will hardly account for another fact, that what the intellectual hold in theory the unthinking masses are putting into practice. Driven onwards by an impulse which has a deeper source than we can at present fathom, and an ultimate tendency which we cannot predicate, men are tracing out the origin of their existence as tribes, and calling upon all whom they can recognise as brethren to break the bonds of nationalities which separate them, in deference to the higher claims of a kindred blood, and in order that they may associate on the basis of a generic affinity. We see this in the convulsions that are shaking the States of Christendom to their centre. The German and the Pole, reviving their ancient animosities, stand fiercely apart from each other because one is a Teuton and the other a Slave: the Slave urges the tribes around him, by the ties of common descent, to aid him in his deadly strife with the Magyar: the Dane reminds the Swede of their common Scandinavian origin; and even Irish agitators excite their unhappy countrymen to phrenzy and violence by a constant reference to the distinctive differences between the Celt and the Saxon. At the present moment the nations of Christendom are not committed to war one with another. How soon such may be the case no one can tell. It would seem to be the time spoken of in the twenty-fifth chapter of Jeremiah :-" Thus saith the Lord God of Israel unto me: Take the wine cup of this fury at my hand, and cause all the nations, to whom I send thee, to drink it, and they shall drink and be moved, and be mad, because of the sword that I will send among them......and it shall be if they refuse to take the cup at thine hand to drink, then shalt thou say unto them, YE SHALL CERTAINLY DRINK." The enumeration of nations in this prophecy is very striking, and the manner in which it is receiving its fulfilment too remarkable to escape the observation of those who have an intelligent faith in the Scriptures as the word of God. The cup has been repeatedly offered and refused with loathing: again, it is presented to the lips of the nations-it remains to be seen whether it will again be refused. The nations of Europe have been many times on the eve of a general conflict, yet by mutual consent they have shrunk from the catastrophe. Causes of offence on every hand have existed, one tithe of which would in former times have set the world in a flame; yet they have been set aside by sacrifices of such a nature as testified at once to the imminence of the crisis and the reluctance to precipitate. There have been "wars and rumours of wars"-partial and sanguinary conflicts hastily terminated, to be succeeded by fresh alarms and terrible suspense; but the hour must come-it cannot be finally avoidedit is only postponed. The cup is in the trembling hand-terror and dread are in the heart-and the moment is awaited in deep anxiety when it must be drained to the dregs. Though, however, there is a general apprehension, there is for the time being a doubtful peace. We have just so much respite as will enable us to speculate on the quarter from whence the evil will come. upon With the exception of the unprincipled attack of Sardinia Austria, and the equally unprincipled assault of Germany upon Denmark, the sanguinary struggles which have taken place have been hitherto between rulers and subjects. They will probably henceforth be generally between nation and nation, and arise from such causes as will defy a speedy accommodation. The elements of a formidable warfare between opposing races are collecting together, and the certainty of the outbreak is but a question of time. A battle-cry is at this moment heard in Hungary, which will probably ere long wake a responsive echo in each of the leading nations of the continent. The flame that is flickering in the Danubian provinces will find materials in the Slavonian ramifications of the northern dynasties, and become a conflagration threatening the peace of the world. The attitude of every greater State is that of painful and expectant watchfulness: the question is not so much, will any blow be struck, as who will first strike it? Russia is merely waiting for a fitting opportunity: Germany is preparing for the conflict: France is only restrained by the energy of one man, to whom her miserable dissensions have given a transitory authority; whilst reluctant and peace-loving England, hardly daring to hope that she can stand neutral in the general strife, looks out with nervous apprehension for the quarter from whence it shall arise. To use the language of the world, we are at the mercy of an accident. A single false step may precipitate the general calamity, and against this we have no safeguard but the common necessity of refraining from it. This is but a sorry guarantee when we remember that the passions of men are so much stronger than their principles-a truth which has received of late some very fearful demonstrations. A forward movement on the part of Russia, and Germany must take arms: an act of treachery on the part of Charles Albert, and Austria will advance; in either case France, eager for action, will enter on the field; and England, trammelled with treaties, unless she gives them and her honour to the wind, will find herself compelled to listen to the cry for help which one or other of the combatants will address to her. If the calamity of war be happily delayed, we can hardly hope that it will be ultimately avoided. Even if the Italian question ́is capable of a peaceful solution, which is very doubtful-seeing that the claims of a conqueror, the notorious treachery of a defeated monarch, and the impracticability of a boastful and turbulent population have to be adjusted into such a treaty as shall satisfy all-there are the proverbial restlessness of France and the threatening nature to existing dynasties of the Pansla |