XLIV.-PASSING EVENTS.

THE entrance of Victor Emanuel into Naples, and the glorious retirement of Garibaldi, with all the pros and cons of "official intelligence" and "special" correspondents," have been fruitful themes during the month. But they are at last both faits accomplis, and while the King of Italy enters upon his work, Garibaldi retires to his island home to repose awhile on the noble laurels he has won, and the love and respect of all true souls, but ready at a moment's notice to answer the call of his country, and to lead his armies again to the conquest of freedom for that small but important portion of Italy still under despotic rule. Despotism is approaching its doom, for as the ex-King of Naples is physically driven to his last stronghold, so, spiritually, the Austrian Emperor is beggared in despotic resources, and even whispers of his approaching abdication are among the rumors of the day.

The Daily News, in an able leader of the 21st instant, calls attention to the position of the queens and female sovereigns of Europe; and it is a significant fact that our own beloved Sovereign is the one solitary exception among them who "has fulfilled every rational anticipation of twenty years ago, both as to her conduct and her experience the one happy queen.'

The Queen of Spain heads the list of unfortunate sovereigns: "surrounded through childhood by civil war and personal danger, though her kingdom is advancing in prosperity, if not in consideration, she is bitterly grieving over the march of opinions and events in Europe, resenting the position of the Pope and the princes, with whom, though a constitutional sovereign, she sympathizes most, and refuses to be comforted for their adversity by any consideration of the popular benefits which may arise from their humiliation."

The Queen of Sardinia, the Queen of Portugal, the Queen of the Belgians, have all died prematurely, to whom we may add the Duchess of Orleans, who, "if baulked of her supposed destiny, was regarded as first the wife, and then the mother of a Sovereign of France.”

The late Empress of Russia "never knew peace of mind from the day of the accession of the Emperor Nicholas, and has died worn out, a keen sufferer from the humiliation and exhaustion of her adopted country, and from perpetual apprehension of danger to its ruler. The Queen of Prussia is surviving her husband in another way, and is suffering more, perhaps, than her late sister-in-law in a different way. The Queens of Sweden and of Greece are as opposite in their condition and their aims as their respective countries are in aspect and prospect. The thoughtful and quiet Scandinavian Queen studied the means of popular reforms from the first moment when it was likely that the King would be able to carry them through; and, if on some points the King is more liberal than his people, it is believed that he has sympathy at least from his wife. The romantic little German girl who had a fond dream fulfilled in becoming Queen of Greece, cannot get the rest of her dream fulfilled. She might do much, and win some glory by devoting her energies to the welfare of Greece in a rational way; but she rests her hopes on Russia, and since the Crimean war she has suffered from something more than being disappointed of glory. Her life is clouded by humiliation and European disgrace."

Here follows an eloquent and graphic account of the "three young sisters from Bavaria, who have implicated their lives with the fortunes of despotism at the moment when despotism can no longer hold its ground. The Empress of Austria, having shed lapfuls of tears over the prospects of the empire and domestic griefs of the keenest sorts, is setting out on her wanderings in search of health. Pale and wasted, she moves all who see her to tender pity. Her two sisters are shut up in Gaeta-one being the unhappy wife of the last Bourbon King of Naples, and the other of his brother, the Count of Trani. Calamity has overtaken them early, and, having married as they did, nobody can help them."

Had our space allowed, we would have given this article in full. It is a masterly sketch of the Royal ladies of Europe, and is, we suspect, from the pen, and inspired by the heart and brain of a woman.

The allusion to the prolonged voyage of the Prince of Wales, with its attendant anxiety, is surely the allusion of a woman :

"The sense of the lesson afforded by looking round the Courts of Europe, and seeing what the Royal ladies are doing or suffering there, may have been quickened just now by the rising anxiety for our own Sovereign, which so happily passed away last week. Her happiness has been, for a Royal lady, so unusual in degree and duration, as to make superstitious people talk of trembling to think of it. Husband and children are all preserved to her, and she has not had to mourn death, nor evils worse than death, in her family, as so many royal parents have. When during a few days of anxiety about the long absence of her son the imagination of such a loss first occurred, a new sense of her unusual happiness spread among us; it was natural that we should be more touched than we might otherwise have been by the contrast presented in the Courts of other countries. The most superficial

survey of the Royal ladies of Europe will show how much of their woe is of direct political origin, and severe in proportion to the despotism amidst which they dwell. Sickness and early death may be anticipated in due proportion, and must be borne in that rank as in every other; but the welfare of Royal as of other personages depends essentially on the harmony which they establish between their own aims and the freedom and happiness of society at large."

As we write, the Empress of the French is among us, travelling privately, with a small suite, and for motives which at present baffle the public curiosity, and give rise to a thousand rumors. The reception of the Empress at Edinburgh, whither she at once proceeded, appears to have given her much gratification, and in answer to a short address by the Lord Provost, she took occasion to dwell upon Louis Napoleon's cordial desire to encourage and cement a good understanding between England and France.

The Divorce Court opened on the 9th instant with 160 trials on the list, either for dissolution of marriage, or nullity of marriage, independent of the causes for judicial separation.

This Court is at present the scene of a trial which will take its place among the causes celèbres of the country. It is a question of legitimacy, Shedden versus Shedden, and the peculiarity of it is, that the Petitioner, being now an inmate of the Queen's Bench, for costs incurred in former litigation of the case, his daughter, Miss Shedden, has taken the position her father previously held, and, at the last moment, having failed to secure the services of eminent counsel, was herself obliged to open and conduct her case. For eight entire days she has been before the Court, speaking at times for five consecutive hours, and examining witnesses, as the Law Times says, "with the tact and discretion of the most experienced counsel." The same journal says:-"The Probate Court has presented the singular spectacle of a young lady conducting her own, or rather her father's cause, not only with extraordinary ability, but with such perfect modesty, and quiet, ladylike dignity, as instantly to remove from the mind of the spectator all sense of impropriety or unfitShe sits within the bar, with her papers arranged in the most orderly manner before her, and without betraying the slightest nervousness or timidity, she asserts the claims of legitimacy for her father, narrating a complicated history with admirable clearness, and even eloquence."

ness.

It is stated that there were five counsel engaged on the part of Miss Shedden, viz., Sir Hugh Cairns, Mr. Macaulay, Dr. Phillimore, Mr. Beasley, and Mr. Stevens, to whom fees of not much less than £1000 had been paid. The case was called, but the Petitioner's counsel were not ready, and pleaded that they had not had time to make themselves masters of the case. Court rejected the plea, and pointed out that the counsel for the defence, who had had the same time and the same documents to peruse, were quite

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prepared. The five gentlemen however walked out of Court with their briefs, and it was in this emergency that Miss Shedden opened and conducted the case herself. As a cotemporary observes—“Her cause may be good or it may not, but every one must admire the moral courage of a woman who, when apparently deserted by all the world, fought against such odds as were arrayed on the opposite side, in the persons of Mr. Rolt, Mr. Bovill, Dr. Dean and Mr. Anderson. Whether Miss Shedden succeeds or not, she will carry with her the admiration of the public, never loath to give praise where it is really due."

We are glad to note that Miss Burdett Coutts has evinced her appreciation of Miss Shedden's courage and ability, by a letter of sympathy and encouragement, enclosing a cheque for £200 towards the expenses.

The Earl of Dundonald and Sir Charles Napier are among the illustrious deceased of the month.

*

We desire to call the attention of our readers to an advertisement in the current number of the Journal, and to a letter in Open Council upon the same subject, i.e., an addition to the valuable annuities of the Governesses Benevolent Institution, by a special fund, to be raised by donations and small annual subscriptions. It is proposed that ten years of a five shilling annual subscription shall qualify the subscriber as a candidate, no votes being required. Annuities not to be granted under fifty years of age, and to be granted according to the date of subscription. This X. Y. Z. fund will be specially and exclusively devoted to annuities of £25 for Governess Subscribers and we are particularly requested to note, that though this plan is approved by the Committee of the Governesses Benevolent Institution, and Mr. Gilpin has consented to receive donations and subscriptions at the office of the Institution, 32, Sackville Street, the plan did not originate with them. Now it is well known that by means of co-operation, in the form of Friendly Societies, &c., working men obtain relief and assistance in sickness and old age by the provident payment of small weekly or monthly sums while in health and vigor. Among the many lamentable causes of the difficulties and sufferings which mark the career of women destined to work for their living, whether by hands or brain, are two which cannot be too strongly set forth or commented upon by those who, like ourselves, are brought into constant contact with them-thoughtless improvidence in the hour of prosperity, and an almost entire lack of esprit de corps. Men organize and associate to carry out their aims and views, and the day of more extended co-operation, even among men, is dawning. Man, single-handed, can do little; woman, single-handed, can do nothing. Associated and organized, there is scarcely anything which cannot be accomplished either in amelioration or reform. Unity is strength, and so soon as women take this to heart and act upon it themselves, they will find many an evil redressed, many an obstacle overcome before which they have hitherto sat down in impotent despair. Here is an opportunity on a small scale, and we would urgently impress upon governesses themselves, and upon the friends of governesses also, a speedy and sustained response to this admirable expedient for alleviating the sufferings to which their class is peculiarly liable.

A LECTURE DELIVERED IN GLASGOW, OCTOBER 7, 1860.

BY THE REV. H. W. C.

"Whosoever shall do the will of my Father which is in heaven, the same is my brother, and sister, and mother."-MATTHEW Xii. 50.

As in the character of God, and in Jesus Christ, there is a mingling of the two elements we term masculine and feminine, so in every just human character these same elements must be blended; the true man must have much within him that is "pure womanly," the true woman must have much within her that is manly.

For the perfecting our very thought of God, we need as an essential element the woman's heart-those attributes peculiarly feminine are those peculiarly worshipful. I suppose, most of us in childhood, in our transgressions have confessed to our mother first; in our misfortunes have run first to her knee; in our fears have cried first to her name; wakening in the terrible dark, have refused to be pacified, save by her voice. I imagine most of us, fathers, have felt a slight impatience when baby would not let us quiet him; resisting our caresses, struggling against our attentions; but was still in a moment when mamma took him in her arms.

In our sins and struggles; in our wilfulness and waywardness; in our weariness and dreaming; it is just this mother's heart the soul seeks for in its God-just this mother's heart. The man, with his intense passions, his stern struggles, his weary wanderings, his benighted dreams, craves still his mother in heaven-in whose presence he can rest without a fear, and whose smile can still the anguish of his cry-into whose unslumbering ear he can pour the tale of a broken life, assured of no scornful contempt,-whose eye will note the lineaments of childhood's fairness beneath the wrinkles of manhood's cares; and whose judgments will look more to the possibilities of the future than to the degradation of the past.

If those elements which in human speech we term masculine and feminine are blended in the loftiest conception of God; and the soul in its fondest trust clings unto Him as mother and father in one

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heart-so in Jesus Christ we find the union of the masculine and the feminine; the blending of the man's strength with the woman's tenderness.

He who cried, "Woe unto ye, scribes, Pharisees, hypocrites!" took little children upon His knee and blessed them.

He who cried, "Get thee behind me, Satan;" pardoned her that was a sinner, because she loved much.

He who cried, "If thy right eye offend thee, pluck it out;" prayed, "Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do."

"If thy soul is to go on into higher spiritual blessedness," writes F. W. Newman, "it must become a woman; yes, however manly thou be among men. It must learn to love being dependent; and must lean on God not solely from distress or alarm, but because it does not like independence or solitude. It must not have recourse to Him merely as a friend in need under the strain of duty, the battering of affliction, and the failure of human sympathy; but it must press towards Him when there is no need. It must love to pour out its thoughts to Him for the pleasure of pouring them out." ("The Soul," p. 99.)

And so the most independent men are independent because they depend upon a mightier power; and so the strongest men are strong because they lean on a mightier strength, not in distress and alarm, but in trust and love.

Thus also the noble woman has within her the spirit of the independent man. A noble woman keeps her own being sacred. Love in its most absolute dependence can never forfeit the sanctities of the individual soul, without ceasing to be love. The very joy that any true man has in a woman's love is, that it is the gift of her independent heart. And so the dependence of woman in its most loving form is only sweet in proportion to the free "manliness" of her independence itself.

arm.

Nay; the dependence of man upon woman is at least as great as that of woman upon man. Sometimes the world speaks as though it were woman in her weakness who is compelled to seek man's stronger My brethren, how often in life is it the man in his weakness who is compelled to seek woman in her strength! Man in his weakness in his dull doubts and cynical despairs, in his hard selfishness and rude despotism-man in his weakness, who has to renew his life at the fountain of a woman's love.

The highest thought of God, then, includes the blending of those elements typified on earth by the existence of men and women.

The highest human characters include the blending of these selfsame elements-the true man having within him somewhat of the noble woman, and the noble woman somewhat of the true man.

I conclude, therefore, that what is true for the highest thought of God, and true for the highest human characters, is also true for the world at large; and that in the world, in the State, and the Church, in the various occupations of life, the spirit and power of woman