his own way, the Colonel bought two fine Shetland boats, and fixed a price upon them which no one could afford to give, and the result is, that we saw these craft lying rotten on the beach at Barra! When we visited Barra there was not a single herring net on the island. The Barra boatmen are the most expert, daring fishers imaginable, and only require reasonable encouragement to be a thriving race. But penuriousness so prevails on the part of the ruined Colonel, that every part of his property is shamefully neglected. We noticed this distressingly in the case of a charming family whom to name would be to praise. In a house tenanted from Colonel Gordon, we found the repairs so defective, that a universally-esteemed old lady, the sister of England's AdjutantGeneral (who has lost the use of her limbs from rheumatism), was lodged in a bed-chamber, down the walls of which the rain and moisture ran in pailfuls! The excellent functionary at the Horse Guards is not to blame for this; but he might whisper to the Colonel to invite a slater and plasterer to Barra! We observed some capital grazing land on this little island; and a medical farmer was prescribing very successfully for his lot of arable land. Of South Uist we can speak very cheeringly in despite of the Colonel's pecuniary dumps. There is a great deal of good land, and some of it (Mr Chisholm's and Mr Maclelland's farm) in capital condition. We saw Scotch barley which, as a luxuriant crop, would have rejoiced the heart of a Mid-Lothianer! The people are poor, but they are not without commodities, which would soon increase in value, and be multiplied, if a market were opened by means of better communication with Glasgow. Loch Boisdale, where there is now a respectable wharf and pier (through the outlay of the Highland Destitution Board), would soon become a point for import and export-the same might be affirmed of Lochmaddy in North Uist, and it would be only needful to make known the stated arrivals of a steam-boat, in order to ensure a plentiful supply of such articles of produce as the islands afford. Neglected as this region has been, there are not wanting men of intelligence, who would cordially concur in giving effect to a steamboat speculation. Mr Young, Colonel Gordon's factor, has excellent intentions, and only requires the fiat of his employer to render good service to all parties. Sheriff Shaw, and the Rev. Mr Macrae, are convinced of the absolute necessity of steam com

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munication to and from the Long Island; and the southern and western part of Skye might be included in the benefits of such an arrangement. Prudent Glasgow shipowners would, we are aware, like to have some foundation to rest a scheme upon, more tangible and solid than a newspaper recommendation to lay out money in a steam-boat speculation. To such we say, take a trip to the islands mentioned-make suitable enquiries, and then judge for yourselves. We do not invoke your aid as patriotic philanthropists—we simply stimulate you to seek out a new line of traffic; and our conviction is strong, that whosoever shall vigorously embark in the undertaking will certainly succeed.

PART VII.

LITERARY ARTICLES.

THE VANISHED YEAR, 1849!

Time is the measure of a creature's duration-an awful interposition between two eternities-if such a form of speech can be properly permitted. Days, and weeks, and months gather into what we are accustomed to call a year, and after a brief but solemn, and it may be salutary pause, we re-commence a fresh course of computation.

We avail ourselves of such a pause, on entering the new year, to take a rapid review of the year just closed, and to mark with a measure of emphasis some of the events which, in our humble judgment, will continue to influence the incidents of years yet to come; for there is a seed-time in human affairs which, at the ordered period, is sure to spring and ripen into social weal or wo. Nations, like individuals, infallibly reap what they sow; and if we had sufficient clearness of vision to behold the wondrous system of righteous retribution that over-rules all worldly aims, we should read history with altered eyes, and more enlightened understandings.

The year which ushered in the last was one of portentous change throughout the Continent of Europe. The social disorganization (for it lay far deeper than political disorder) commenced, as was meet, in the fitting cradle of atheistic anarchy-France. Many

ardent-minded men hailed with wild gratulation the revolution which, in a few hours, jerked Louis Philippe from his ill-poised throne; but we never participated in those democratic delusions. That the D'Orleans dynasty of usurpation should be finally overthrown by other usurpers, appeared to us to be a very just reaction; but to dream of good-any positive benefit really resulting in the way of direct emanation from French revolutionists-is the frenzied figment of a morbid mind. What mankind truly require is regulated restraint to keep their passions within due bounds. What the Parisian insurrectionists demand is demoniacal license, under the lying pretexts of liberty and equality! Lamartine and his tri-color colleagues we deemed to be a pack of impostors, void of all principles-new or old—and filling merely the function of scene-shifters, until the proper actors in the military melodrame were quite ready to come upon the stage. General Cavaignac soon brushed away the trumpery civilians, and established himself for a short season, as an efficient soldier-sovereign-the only sovereignty suited for France—and this move made way for the presidency of Louis Napoleon. The qualifications of this young man for his high office were, first of all, his name, which is a household word with the lack-witted lovers of martial glory; and, secondly, his own dedication to the profession of arms; for, apart from these recommendations, the poor president had no more claims to rulership than his agreeable friend and London reveller-the clever moulder of statuettes-Count D'Orsay. But the opening year 1849 saw Louis Napoleon installed in the Elysee; and, upon the whole, he has played his part of republican monarch with a considerable share of shrewdness and firmness, although his time of trial has not fully arrived. The only remarkable piece of policy which has signalized his year of government is the French intervention in behalf of Pope Pio Nono, which being quite amicable, after the French fraternal manner, led, as every one knows, to the siege and surrender of Rome. But although Oudinot could possess himself of the metropolitan city of Roman Catholic superstition, neither bombs nor bayonets could re-enfeof the anti-Christian power of the papacy, for the Pope had unwittingly uprooted the foundations of the popedom. The true papal principle on which Romanism entirely rested was blind submission to the arrogated infallibility of the so-styled Holy See, to the utter exclusion of all popular or democratic influences; for freedom of enquiry or

liberty of institutions are fatal to the supremacy of a false, dogmatic religion. To the surprise of all Europe, Pio Nono was hardly ensconced in the Vatican, when he manifested himself a reformer of the deepest dye-throwing into the shade even the recollections of Rienzi. The Italian socialists and communists were enchanted to see the fabled successor of St Peter transformed into a sort of pontifical Jacobin; and the French Jacobins themselves-who had (representatively) decreed a national denial of the Deity-voted death to be an eternal sleep-and who had levelled Romish altars, and guillotined half the Romish hierarchy -these same followers of Marat and Robespierre were in extacies on recognizing a bonnet rouge-a thorough-going sans culotte, topped with a tiara, and clothed with the gorgeous vestments of a fraudulent priesthood-in the grand conservator of Roman Catholicity! The poor, blind Pope made short, suicidal work of it. Constitutional concessions, popular privileges, freedom of the press, freedom of speech, freedom of every thing, came showering down from the ultra-liberal keeper of the keys! when lo! one fine day his Prime Minister is assassinated for not being sufficiently democratic, and the triple-crowned potentate of Rome sees no chance of escaping martyrdom but by casing his sacred person in a footman's livery, and taking the shortest cut to Gaeta! We consider this fortunate flight to be essentially the end of the Papacy. Other Popes have fled from Rome, and fixed themselves provisionally in safer quarters; but these were cases in which the papal throne was contended for by rival candidates, each zealously enforcing the principles of Romanism; whereas Pio Nono's sceptre has slipped from his self-destroying hand, and the prestige of crowned popery is gone for ever! In order to recover his lost position, he has, however, canvassed for the suffrages of his clergy to enable him to establish the doctrine of the Immaculate Conception of the Virgin Mary-the boldest of all the wicked blasphemies that ever issued from the Romish Church! To the clear, calm perception of a Christian, the race of the Popedom is run. Pio Nono may linger at Portici—he may even try his luck at Rome, under the protection of French fusiliers, laughing at the ecclesiastical servant of servants; but our conviction is strong, that the clay and iron of the papacy are broken to pieces, and, with all other forms of antichristian power and domination, will soon become like the chaff of the summer threshing floors.

The internal condition of France during the past year may be characterised by a comparative quietude, or rather political apathy on the part of the people. The truth is, that there exists in France á tolerable diffusion of property, so as to create that species of conservatism which allies itself with money and money's worth; and much of the vaunted tranquillity of the Gallic republic may be accounted for in this commonplace way. The national guard is composed of tradesmen and proprietaires, whose interests are blended with something like stability of government. The Executive that commands the sword is the safest for buyers and sellers, in a country where a vast portion of the population is indoctrinated with communist views; and thus the sway of the soldier prevents the impunity of the robber. But to talk of the permanency of the institutions of France, is to patronise the babbling of idiots. The country is a cauldron of infidel anarchy, and it cools or bubbles just as Providential restraints are presently applied or penally withdrawn. What guarantees for peaceful progress can be looked for in a land where the field of erring thought is occupied partly by daring irreligion, and partly by diluted popery! Alas for France !

The annals of Austria are of great importance, for they include the destinies of Italy and Hungary. In January 1849 the Piedmontese suffered a total defeat by the Austrian army. Charles Albert immediately abdicated the throne of Sardinia in favour of his son Victor Emmanuel, and all resistance to Radetski on the side of Italian insurrectionists became utterly hopeless. But the house of Hapsburg had still more formidable foes in its Hungarian subjects, whose ancient loyalty formed in better days the firmest bulwark of the Austrian throne. There is considerable difficulty in ascertaining the true causes of the Hungarian defection. The diversity of races, giving a political prominence to the Magyar population, is much dwelt on by speculative writers, but we think without sufficient grounds. Hungary had a representative assembly, which of late years obtained an infusion of popular influence, energy, and eloquence; and this suffices to explain almost all that has occurred. The Kossuth party, and other classes of defiant demagogues, stirred up the national spirit, professedly against alleged encroachments of the Crown, but in reality for the purpose of introducing republican institutions. The struggle, therefore, became an internecine conflict between monarchical and democratic