be satisfied with this change is, at least, somewhat dubious. Nous

verrons.

Meanwhile we can only express our sympathy with Mr Buchanan, and our regret that any such course should have been adopted by the proprietors of the Courant. The policy of neutrality is at once dangerous and cowardly. It is true that by such, enemies may be avoided, but on the other hand, friends cannot be made. In a crisis therefore its advocates are unsupported, and their machinery necessarily fails. The pusillanimity of the course is peculiarly offensive to every man of honesty and principle. Its inutility is made clear as the light by Mr Buchanan :

"These very excellent judges, 'my most approved good masters,' the proprietors of the Courant, in whose estimation views acquire such enchantment from distance, that they think editors must be better for coming from afar, and that writing, like Sherry, is improved by a voyage, will appreciate my complaisance, when I borrow the pen of another, who must be superlatively excellent since he comes from a greater distance even than London. I imagine they will thank me for quoting a foreigner, surely not unknown to them, so well do they seem to have studied and embodied the sentiment of his verses. Gratified and charmed with his touches of nature, and above all with the fine perception of that aurea mediocritas, which some ancients, and moderns too, not forgetting the proprietors of the Courant, consider the glory of politics-without doing violence to the classic taste of these accomplished men, I may treat the phrase as law latin, and render it somewhat literally the mediocrity that makes money,' or, 'the mean course which pays'-charmed, I say, with a genius who so accurately gives expression to their thoughts, they ought to have the following extracts framed and hung round their office, that future editors may be rightly inspired with 'the great sublime he draws.'

"It is to the BIGLOW PAPERS I refer, a perfect manual for the guidance of 'mild' politicians.* What, for example, could be a better golden rule than this:

'I'm willin' a man should go tollable strong

Agin wrong in the abstract, for that kind o' wrong
Is ollers unpop'lar and never gits pitied,

Because it's a crime no one never committed;

But he mustn't be hard on partickler sins,

Coz then he'll be kickin' the peoples' own shins.'

"What a fine recipe for pleasing all, and hurting nobody! Not even a Liberal reeking with corruption from Wakefield or Gloucester, or from perpetrating a small job in Edinburgh, could object to such very 'mild' journalism as that! Or, again, how profoundly subtle the following reason for not being too pronounced' in opinion. It might have been drawn by a 'mild' Conservative lawyer, looking out for a Whig appointment for himself, son, nephew, or other relative:

'Ain't principle precious? Then who's goin' to use it,
Wen there's resk o' some chap's gitting up to abuse it?

I can't tell the wy on't, but nothin' is so sure
Ez thet principle kind o' gits spiled by exposure;
A man that lets all sort of folks git a sight on't

"This exquisite satire is from the pen of Mr Russell Lowell, of Massachussetts. It is descriptive of a large section of American politicians, and very faithfully, too, of some Edinburgh ones."

Ough' to have it all took right away every mite o'nt;
Ef he can't keep it all to himself, wen it's wise to,
He aint one it's fit to trust nothing so nice to!'

"We cannot conceive that even the Scotsman would object to such gentle antagonism. It must so delightfully remind him of the good old times of a' once respectable contemporary! Or what could equal the following for an accurate' appreciation of duty of the right sort? It is by no less than a 'pious editor' too :

'I do believe in bein' this

Or that, ez it may happeen
One way or t'other hendiest is
To ketch the people nappin';
It ain't by princerples or men
My preudent course is steadied-
1 scent which pays the best,

And then go into it bald-headed!'

"But the following is possibly even more suitable. It has the advantage of saying so much and meaning nothing at all, it might almost rival even a certain committee; and is, moreover, philosophic in its phraseology :

'I'm an eclectic; ez to choosin'

"Twixt this and that, I'm plaguy lauth;

I leave a side that looks like loosin',
But (wile there's doubt) I stick to both;

I stan' upon the Constitution,

Ez preudens statesmen say, who've planned
A way to git the most profusion

O' chances ez to ware they'll stand ?'

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"The latter lines are so finely turned, they might have been intended to meet the views of a very mild' patriot, who had some difficulty about openly consorting with Conservatives, although none whatever in taking a post from them. But, perhaps, better still is the following, which represents a mind in that delightful state of unprejudiced innocence, which Locke declared to be the primitive condition of all human minds, compared to a sheet of blank paper. What a capital motto, then, or prospectus it might be for a new and improved issue of the Courant as a carefully prepared blank !' How prepossessingly promising it looks!—

Ez to my principles, I glory
In hevin' nothing of the sort;
I ain't a Whig, I ain't a Tory,
I'm jest a Candidate in short.
Thet's fair and square and perpendicler;
But of the Public cares a fig

To hev me an' thin' in particler,

Wy, I'm a kind o' periwig.'

Spectatum admissi, risum teneatis amici? I am foolish enough to think that they who imagine that this kind of honesty is the best policy, are miserably deceived in the business of a newspaper, or any other, particu larly if a newspaper is to assume the position or wield the influence of a political organ. Frankness, courage, and the consistency which only conviction gives, will, after all, carry farther than the little dexterities of political dodgers.' The public soon detects cowardice and tires of see-saw. It abominates deceit. Boldness and decision it likes for their own sake, no matter on what side they appear. Even political opponents respect them, and listen, when they would turn away with indifference from the opposite qualities. The neutral tactics, which may do well enough for a journal

་

whose position is already established, will never suit one whose position is yet to make; and amid all the blunders the Courant proprietors have com mitted, they will find their proposed change of policy, apart from other considerations, to be the worst proof of the short-sightedness of their calcu lation. The sphere of quasi-Liberalism is already too much occupied to admit another journal in Edinburgh which tries merely to play a mild tenor to the Scotsman. It will never be heard. To put the matter differently. The Scotsman has washed out its early Radicalism, it has now only to abate its extreme orthodoxy a little, to get near enough that 'neutral' tint which will please all who do not wish to be troubled with a principle on any subject. The journal that would secure a position in competition with it, must look for some other grouud; and no journal deserves to get that position which starts upon its course with any other than the deliberate resolution, earnestly adhered to, of honourably standing to its engagements with the Party it professes to serve, and the public it seeks fairly to address.”

With the import of these strictures we cordially concur. The notion that the editor of a party organ can be a kind of juggling cabalist, with one leg upon Whig and the other upon Tory territory, is a mere absurdity. The day for success on such ground has for ever gone by. No man, however able and ingenious, can long continue to amuse his readers by a species of generalization which shall keep them midway between paradise and pandemonium, without access to either. The post of a writer who has to play the part of a rope-dancer and balance political doctrines like a pole, lest he should stumble and fall, is one which is not very likely to be coveted by any but a man who is unhampered by principles, unbound by conscience, and who cares nothing either for the weal or woe of any party whatever. Do the proprietors of the Courant want such a person? Apparently they want a tender editor who will act as a quiet Tender to their now whig rival but, in prospect, friend. They want homopathic doses of cleaverly balanced criticism to which not even the friends of the Scotsman will object. They want an editor sufficiently " downy" to drop every one he assails upon down, and make both friends and foes imagine themselves constantly upon velvet.

Will they get such a man? Mr Buchanan refused to mix water with the milk upon which the Conservatives of Edinburgh were to thrive, and for this he has been ruthlessly and illegally dismissed. Are the men by whom he has been consigned to the gallows for this capital offence, to supervise and tone down his successor? It is said their journal is to be managed editorially by Mr Robertson and Mr Hannay. Truly the success of the former in extracting a "place" from their political foes should inspire them with hope as to the happy issue, under his auspices, of their present design. Of Mr Hannay, we can, of course, say nothing; but that he is a gentleman whose laurels as a political writer have yet to grow. We are not aware that he has exhibited hitherto any remarkable aptitude for political journalism, or that he has ever occupied a position in which he would have been likely to acquire a vast store of information about Scotch affairs, either general or local. Nevertheless, in those days of mesmerism and clairvoyance nothing should surprise us, and, after all, the new arrangement may be "a great success."

It has certainly been rather unfortunate for Mr Buchanan that he has been connected with managers who could not discriminate between a molehill and a mountain-between a pimple and a festering sore -between pinchbeck and gold-between failure and success. Their ideas of leader-writing are curious. They have a classic purity of taste which leads them to dislike Mr Buchanan's style. They love a balance of qualities, like even-handed nature, and dislike his one-sided and heavy assaults. They adore mental equanimity, being aware that the tear and worry of existence, are hurrying numbers to an untimely grave. With a considerate regard for the comfort of families into which their journal is received, they would refrain from the insertion of anything that would be calculated to frighten the infants. A sensation too violent in the neighbourhood of breakfast might disturb the equilibrium of a dyspeptic old lady, and lose them a subscriber. Had they revised the sheets of the Iliad, they would have excised the passage in which Hector is depicted, pale and gory, dragged behind the triumphal chariot of Achilles, around the walls of Troy.

The dismissal of Mr Buchanan is entirely beyond our comprehension. He was highly respected for his public spirit before he was brought to Edinburgh, and although the editor of a country paper, well known and esteemed by many of the leaders of his party. A year has not yet elapsed, since the whole country recognised his efforts to utilise the demonstration at the Burns' Centenary, by raising a fund for the neices of the Poet. Contributions in aid of this Fund were received from the whole British dominions, and the scheme was originated and worked out to a successful termination by Mr Buchanan himself.

But it is not so much with his philanthropy or social usefulness that we have here to do. These are beyond dispute. The point at issue is his political and literary ability. Upon this little need be added. His articles were keen, and polished, and convincing. His range of information unusually great. He was well acquainted with the history of his country, and ardently attached to its excellent and venerable institutions. His style was popular-his illustrations felicitous-his method logical and persuasive. His recent article, e.g., on the Review in the Queen's Park, appears to have been generally regarded as a master-piece of descriptive power. It may be that his successor has all these qualities and others to boot. But we desiderate proof. Till that be forth-coming, we refuse to believe him a more eligible editor of the Courant, or a more able representative and advocate of the principles and policy of the Conservatives of Scotland.

A word to the gentlemen connected with the press, and we are done. This, after all, is their question as much as Mr Buchanan's. How is it that in France the social status of the journalist is so high, and that in this country it is so equivocal? Simply because here literary men are not true to each other, and do not respect those rules of honour and courtesy which the members of other professional bodies recognise. Needy men too often lend themselves to be the instruments of such treatment as we have just been describing. Grasping proprie

tors are not slow to take advantage of the facilities thus afforded them, and, as a consequence, the gentlemen of the fourth estate fall into a condition of dependence, compared with which the situation of a footman or a day-waiter is enviable.

ECCLESIASTICAL INTELLIGENCE.

A Crown presentation has been ordered to issue in favour of the Rev. James Blackwood (petitioned for by the congregation), to the parish of Scoonie in the Presbytery of Kirkcaldy.

Appointment. Mr Crombie, Lecturer on History in the Normal Institution of the Church of Scotland, has been appointed Chaplain to the Consular Chapel, Paris.

Died, at Southerness, on the 6th instant, the Rev. James Boe, minister of Dunblane.