PASSING EVENTS RE-EDITED. At the commencement of the past two-ously closed out the light, as if a corpse had mooned month of December, 1861, the question been borne over each of their own thresholdsof a war with America was the absorbing topic or that the people symbolize their respect and of national interest and national anxiety. The sorrow by the outward and visible signs of such insult offered to the flag of England by the mourning; but in the universal expression of forcible abduction from an unarmed ship of pas- manly regret, that has gone up like a grateful sengers under its protection, thoroughly aroused prayer in memory of the good Prince Albert, the indignation of our countrymen; and one and in the tear-wet eyes of women from end to smiled when the fiery men of Bilston, who have end of these isles, remembering only the sisterbeen shooting at the butts to such good pur- hood of a common sorrow-the Queen a widow pose at Brown-hills this summer, took the and her children fatherless! Hitherto the sunny initiative in offering their loyal services if reign of Victoria has moved on for the most needed; and every handful of the naval reserve part to the soft rhythm of peaceful progress, took up the cry, and showed that, whenever the or the strident notes of military triumphs-her dire alternative, which in the name of Chris- very name a happy augury of prosperity, in tianity and civilisation should be so hardly which the nation has prospered. Suddenly she thrust upon us, became imperative-"ready, is made acquainted with grief in its most intiaye, ready!" will be the watchword of every mate and severest form; for, though the death Briton. The contingency, still undecided, hangs of the Duchess of Kent must have been deeply in the balance; and it may be that the first week felt, it is in the common course of nature for in the New Year, to which we had been looking children to outlive their parents. But the death forward so hopefully to atone for the disappoint- of the Prince Consort, in the full vigour of his ments and short-comings of the last, may find manhood and matured intellect, and at an imus involved in all the public responsibility and pending crisis of her Majesty's reign, doubles all the private sacrifice and suffering of war- the calamity (the greatest of all, in a domestic a war the most unnatural, and surely the most sense) with coming cares of state. Thus the uncalled-for, between men of the same race and nursing of her grief is denied her. The country language as ourselves. claims her Majesty's attention, and with a resolution that savours to us more of the exaltation and strength of over-wrought feeling (for as yet, we fear the Queen has scarcely realized her loss) than the calm determination to quell private sorrows in the stern performance of public duty, Her Majesty has expressed her desire to attend immediately to the affairs of State. May the Prince of Wales, in this period of trial, prove But in the meantime even this grave probability has been lost sight of, and merged, with every other event of the past month, in the sad and unlooked-for calamity, that at one blow has bereaved the Queen of husband, friend, and counsellor; and has plunged, not in the conventional meaning of the phrase, but in its most solemn reality, the whole nation into mourning. It is not that pub-equal to the emergency in which he is placed, as lic bodies and societies have prepared addresses of condolence wherever such societies existthat minute-guns have rolled their solemn thunders, and muffled peals sounded from steeple to steeple through the land-that the flags of a forest of ships have hung at half-mast highthat on the 23rd ultimo almost every house in every town and village of England spontane the representative of his honoured, virtuous, and accomplished father, and the supporter of his august mother. With this hope fulfilled, the New Year may yet prove a happy one in the tempered sense of the phrase; and which of us, who has arrived at middle age (some of us even before) and has taken his degrees in the school of life's-teaching, looks for more?—C. A. W. ANSWERS TO CORRESPONDENTS. - "Jas. S. B.," Islington. We never return verses. Authors are requested to keep copies of short papers. The value of those offered to us is nil. In reply to the other propositions of this correspondent, we beg to inform him, with thanks, that our staff of paid contributors is complete. "E. G.," Leicester Road, &c.-We shall always be glad to hear from this correspondent; but we would rather not suggest papers, which rarely turn out as happy as those which prompt themselves. COMMUNICATIONS received, with thanks.-From "Joven," ," "Merlin," "J. J." and others will be replied to in a day or two. THE WORK-TABLE.-New arrangements have obliged us to omit (at least for this month) our usual article on this subject. Printed by Rogerson and Tuxford, 246, Strand, London. |