army. It was probably never a reasonable fear, the resistance of the Hungarians having been from the first a passive resistance, and perhaps on that account all the more difficult to overcome. A remarkable unanimity prevailed among the Hungarians on the matter, to which the only notable exception of which we have heard is the pamphlet whose title we have quoted at the head of this article, Die Wahre Richtung der National Politik, and which, published in the Magyar language and afterwards in German, was said to have been written by one of the old Hungarian leaders. It takes ground in favor of a compromise, and urges the people of Hungary to sacrifice all objections which are merely formal, and to meet the Austrian government in a conciliatory spirit. The author defends the Constitution from the charge of insincerity, saying,

"It was clear that, instead of being a concession wrung from the monarch by circumstances, it was simply the result of a twelve years' reign; and a proof of a resolve to break with absolutism, and call forth constitutional institutions throughout the monarchy."

The appeal was a solitary one, and was quite unavailing. The Hungarians remained inflexible to the close of the session, and the troublesome question will again arise to vex the spirit and embarrass the legislation of the next session of the Reichsrath.

Meanwhile, that portion of the present Reichsrath which came together at the call of the Emperor, and of which the lower house never numbered more than one hundred and fifty out of the three hundred and forty-three members of which it was to consist, was naturally embarrassed and hindered in all its efforts. As the session wore on, however the awkwardness incident to a first appearance as lawgivers gradually disappeared, and before the first year had passed the delegates had acquired in great measure the easy and confident air of legislators under older constitutions. This confidence was strengthened and justified by several indications on the part of the government of a willingness to conciliate the liberal members. Thus, on the 1st of May, the anniversary of the convocation of the Reichsrath, a message was received in the lower house from the Emperor, expressly recognizing

the principle of the responsibility of the Ministers to the representatives of the people; which was received with great enthusiasm. A week later, Count Rechberg, the Foreign Minister, acknowledged, in the course of a debate, that the intermeddling of Austria in the affairs of Italy "had been attended with the most unpleasant results," and affirming that the policy of the Cabinet, "since the unfortunate war of 1859, had been defensive, and in no sense offensive." Again, the lower house having passed a resolution requesting the Ministers to do all in their power to make the Reichsrath complete, the Minister of State, Von Schmerling, expressed the desire of the administration to use every means to reconcile the opposing provinces, but avowing at the same time that no compromise would be agreed to on the part of the government which failed to recognize the validity of the Constitution of February 26.

On the other hand, it became quite evident, as the session advanced, that a very wide difference of opinion and feeling existed between the two houses, on all questions involving a liberal or conservative principle. The upper house was too closely bound in interest with the Emperor, and too largely made up of members of his selection and appointment, to sympathize with any expression, either in words or acts, of a desire to bestow a full measure of civil or religious liberty on the people. For instance, after an excited debate in the lower house on the subject of the Concordat, during which that instrument was denounced, with almost Anglo-Saxon vehemence and freedom, as a calamity for the Austrian people and an offence against common sense, a vote was obtained by which the salary of Baron Bach, the Austrian envoy at Rome, who was regarded as the author of the more objectionable provisions of the treaty, was reduced by one quarter, or from nearly eighty thousand florins to somewhat less than sixty thousand. But the upper house, under the direction of Count Rechberg, refused indignantly to agree to any such measure, and insisted on the full salary. The Deputies were forced to recede. There was also some clashing on several occasions between the two houses on the subject of finance bills, and frequent hints from the Lords, that, if the Deputies

should become refractory, they might cause themselves to be sent to their homes.

After all abatements, however, it must be allowed that the general tenor of the session, with the exception of the absence of the majority of Deputies, was more satisfactory than had been anticipated, and quite as much so as there was any right to expect. Much tedious business, relating to the dull details of general and local administration, had been patiently despatched; considerable freedom of debate had been allowed and exercised; a large reduction of the army had been effected; some important bills, touching nearly the personal freedom of the subject, were signed by the Emperor without visible hesitation; and on the 18th of December last, the Emperor prorogued the Reichsrath with a speech which was certainly extremely liberal and manly,-"expressing his satisfaction that the confidence which he had placed in the nation by granting the Diplomas of October and February had been justified; hoping that the blessings of peace would continue to exert a beneficent influence; and requesting the Deputies, on their return to their homes, to promulgate constitutional principles among their constituencies, with a view to their better and fuller accomplishment.”

Governments do not reform all at once; yet we should have enjoyed these fine words more completely, could we have forgotten the characteristic fact, that, at the moment of their utterance from the throne, several journalists, who had been so imprudent as to assert too freely in their newspapers that the February Constitution was not in accordance with the Diploma of October, were suffering an imprisonment already protracted in the common jail of Vienna, in cells so noisome that they were forced to keep their windows open night and day, sleeping on straw, and eating black bread and soup. Long habit may explain this severity on the part of an Austrian Emperor, but the dignity of his position as the introducer of constitutional government would be increased by a more thorough consistency. Let us hope that, before the next session of the Reichsrath, the Cabinet will have succeeded in coming to some terms with Hungary and the sister kingdoms, by which those important portions of the great

Empire will be enabled to take their place in the assembly whose noble task it may then be to raise one of the fairest regions of Europe from an abject despotism into the blessing and dignity of free government.

On the great field of European politics new complications are incessantly multiplying. On every hand, the air seems heavy with coming storm; and wherever the tempest shall break, it cannot be far from an Austrian frontier. It may well happen, strange as it would seem, that the government which above all others has earned and received the execration of the world for its brutal and heartless tyranny, will find itself for the first time sheltered from the fury of the revolutionary storm behind the strong bulwarks of free institutions.

1. A System of Logic, Ratiocinative and Inductive: being a connected View of the Principles of Evidence and the Methods of Investigation. By JOHN STUART MILL. London: Parker Son and Bourne. 2 vols. 5th ed. 1862.

2. A System of Philosophy. By HERBERT SPENCER. Vol. I. First Principles. Vol. II. The Principles of Biology. New York: D. Appleton & Co. 1863.

(First Part.)

THERE is a species of spiritual timidity which is to be most widely distinguished from moral and intellectual cowardice. Not seldom does it characterize men who are eminently and nobly courageous both to think and to declare their thought. It is a fear of being credulous, of believing in respect to the highest matters too much and too well. Our time abounds in men of ability, and of high ethical feeling, who are habitually suspicious of all inward and spiritual intimation, of all broad spiritual philosophy. Or rather, to state the case more exactly, one should say that on the side of duty they can lend to inward suggestion a most willing and credent ear; it is only upon coming to questions of truth that they are suddenly beset with

a suspicion that the soul can furnish only fancies, that the senses alone afford a safe foothold. Numbers of those who never surrender to these apprehensions are still never able to conquer them. Ever and anon intrudes upon them the chilling question, whether it be not a weakness to rely upon aught but the testimony of the senses; whether the persuasions that afford them strength and solace are not toys and childish dreams. Within them a voice too often whispers, "What you can see with your own eyes, or take hold of with your ten fingers, that you may be sure of; but upon mere ideas and sentiments how can one depend?" Mere ideas and sentiments! Half this world's disease is in that one misplaced adjective.

In the history of the last four centuries there has been much to foster this erroneous feeling. The discovery of America by Columbus was so vast a success in a particular direction, as to captivate the imagination of mankind, and bind it to the car of physical discovery. The telescope and microscope have had an influence perhaps not less powerful. These enabled the eye to voyage on its own account; and the immediate results of this visual exploration were so striking and splendid, that the fancy of mankind was laid under new fascination. The wide mind, humane heart, and regal rhetoric of Bacon were first commanded by this enthusiasm of our epoch, and then gave it majesty and authority. Newton's success was, indeed, really obtained by an emancipation from the senses, and by an intrepid reference to the laws of his own understanding; yet, as the result was simply a co-ordination of physical phenomena, and as the chord of connection with man's spirit was not struck, the glory of it went over to the senses, enhancing the impression of their empire.

Accordingly, it has come to be widely assumed that nothing is worthy of belief which cannot be proved from data furnished by the senses. It has been further argued, that merely from sensible phenomena the argument is always invalid to first and final causes. Auguste Comte, frankly accepting this consequence of that assumption, declares that of first and final causes we may childishly dream what we will, but can have occasion for believing nothing. Again, as the senses do not