a retrograde step, and the indefinite post- | federation, and Federalists governing ponement of the election of the Constit-only by the favour of the masses, and uent Cortes. They have been beaten in without any power to enforce their will fair fight, and Señor Castelar and his friends remain at the head of affairs, and intend to convoke the Constituent Cortes for the 1st of June, when there seems at present little doubt that the idea of a Federal Republic will be broached, and probably command the votes of a majority of the members.

concerning any matter on which the masses do not regard it with complacency, it seems to us more than likely that Spain is on the way to a complete dissolution of her political unity into its elements.

But though we see, or think we see, signs of a much longer interval than we had hoped before civil order can be reBut to our minds, it matters far less established in Spain, we are disposed to what kind of government is to rule at think that the very process of disinteMadrid, than what sort of authority that gration itself is as likely as not to overgovernment is to exercise. The reason come that strong municipal feeling, that we look upon the crisis at Madrid as a new preference for the authority of local junstage in a slowly-developing revolution, is tas and the federal idea, which is now for that hitherto at every change in the political the moment clearly in the ascendant. kaleidoscope since the death of General History seems to show that a despotic Prim, there has been clear loss of admin- monarchy, while it admits of something istrative force to the Government. Ama- very like practical federation under it, deo found little, and that little ebbed without endangering the outward form of gradually away, during his short reign. national unity, has very little tendency to The Republic which succeeded Amadeo inherited a very small remnant of authority, but even that it has wasted through the fear of incurring unpopularity. It cannot maintain any of its Captains in Catalonia, but removes one after the other for their unpopular measures for restoring discipline to the demoralized Army. The last report, not yet confirmed before the news came of the struggle in Madrid, was that General Velarde was about to resign because his measures of discipline against the mutinous soldiers were not supported by his civil superiors. Of course it is the special danger of a Federal Government to yield too much to local opinion on all political matters. But a Federal Government without a central army to depend upon is not really a Government at all, it is only a Board for hearing complaints from all sides on which it has no power to take action. With the Northern provinces overrun by the Carlists, with secret Alfonsists clothed in whatever military prestige may be left to the officers of the Army, with Radicals dreading the break-up of Spain into a

produce such ardent popular love of national unity as we have seen prevalent in Europe of late years. But it seems also to show that the inevitable tendency of popular revolutions like that which is now progressing in Spain is to bring about,through much grief, through tribulation and anguish, and perhaps much blood, — that sense of mutual need and mutual dependence out of which true national unity grows. Revolution on the large scale,-on such a scale as Spain seems but too likely to undergo,—is a terrible fire; but it does frequently seem to fuse the component elements of national life as nothing else fuses them, and this in spite of the bitter party animosities it is apt to excite. We fear the Federal Republic in Spain is little more than a name for a period of revolution; but we should expect to find that the Federal idea itself would hardly survive the chaos into which it will probably plunge Spain, and that Spanish unity will mean a much more solid thing after the chaos than it did before.

ONE reason why Christianity has so little success in the world is because professing Christians subordinate it to so many other considerations. Local residence, occupation, friendship, marriage, are settled, and the question of religion goes for little or nothing. It is compromised, and a compromise is close to a surrender. Were it the ruling principle with

Christians, it would be on the sure way to the world's throne, though it might be through suffering. "Art thou a King then? He an swered, Thou sayest. To this end was I born, and for this cause came I into the world, that ĺ should bear witness unto the truth."

Thoughts by the Way.

MISUSE OF WORDS. It is amusing, if not | poets and some other writers, the word was something pitiable, to see how a simple Eng- employed to signify 'both,' it did not in this lish word, the word either, is systematically case before the court." Though such was the misunderstood and misapplied. The real decision, we do not expect that the misuse of meaning of the word is, "one or the other; "either will be dropped. In comparison with just as, in a negative sense, neither signifies, each, the word is thought pretty, and it will not one nor the other." Shakespeare, in An- doubtless continue to be misapplied, both in tony and Cleopatra, uses both words correctly: speaking and writing; though, perhaps, testators have received a salutary lesson on the Lepidus flatters both, subject.

Of both is flattered; but he neither loves,
Nor either cares for him.

From a strange freak, the term either has been
very commonly employed to signify each of
two, or both. For example, "there stood a
pillar on either side of the gateway;" or, "they,
were seated on either side of the fireplace;
or to take two examples from Lord Lytton's
last novel, "A pleasant greensward bordered
it on either side"-"the mouth singularly
beautiful, with a dimple on either side," the
meaning in each case being "both sides; " or,
to go a peg lower in the literary scale, and
quote from the comic song of the Bear-skin
Coat:

Fine pockets, large and wide,
Stood out from either side.

The error

We might present other instances of the inveterate misuse of words, but content ourselves with drawing attention to one of daily occurrence. We refer to the word none, which one," and is accordingly to be used in applicais simply a contraction of "no one," or "not tion to only one thing. Instead, however, of speaking of it in the singular, as "none is,” or "not one is," or "not one was," it is almost constantly pluralized; writers saying, “none are," or "none were." They might just as well say "no one were," which they would hardly think of doing. As the English language is a precious inheritance, it would surely be worth while to avoid such a petty misuse of a very simple class of terms. Chambers' Journal.

This misuse of either is not new. occurs several times in the authorized version of the New Testament. Two instances may be given. "They crucified two other with him, on either side one," St. John xix. 18. AMONG other evils which the world seems "On either side of the river was there the tree destined to endure until it comes to an end is of life," Rev. xxii. 2. It says little for the Greek brigandage. It was confidently asserted scholarship of the translators that they should a short time ago that arrangements had been have perpetuated this abuse of our vernacular, entered into between the Greek and Turkish and sanctioned an error so inveterate as to be Governments by which brigandage on the now almost past correction. Perhaps sound Greco-Turkish frontiers was to be extirpated, has had something to do with the improper but it appears that the proposed convention use of either. Consisting of two syllables, it remains in abeyance. In consequence of the may be considered to be more fluent and ele- recent change of the Ottoman Foreign Minisgant than the little word each; in which way ter, the Porte, says the Levant Herald, has not sound is probably preferred to sense. Fashion, yet communicated to the Hellenic Legation however, cannot be permitted to alter the the proposal it desires to substitute for that plain meaning of the English language, and suggested by the Greek Government for the we are glad that, according to the newspaper establishment of a neutral zone of a considerreport, the correct definition of either was able extent on the border, within which the lately vindicated in a suit in Chancery. We Greek and Turkish troops, either alone or in give the matter briefly, as it is related. "A concert, should be free to pursue or otherwise certain testator left property, the disposition operate against the brigands without restricof which was affected by the death of either' tion. The Seraskierate, it is understood, obof two persons. One learned counsel con- jects that this intermediary frontier belt of tended that the word 'either' meant both; in support of this view he quoted Richardson, Webster, Chaucer, Dryden, Southey, the history of the crucifixion, and a passage from Revelation. The learned judge suggested that there was an old song in the Beggars' Opera, known to all, which took the opposite view:

How happy could I be with either,

Were t'other dear charmer away.

In pronouncing judgment, the judge dissented entirely from the argument of the learned counsel. Either' meant one of two, and did not mean 'both.' Though occasionally, by

some twenty-two miles in extent would embrace the Turkish town and fortress of Arta, and a number of Turkish villages and castles in the mountain ranges of Otrys and Agraphi, and it presumably does not altogether favour a plan which would give Greek troops a free range in those places. It seems nevertheless rather hard on those who are robbed and mur. dered by the brigands that the two Governments, whose duty it is to preserve order and prevent crime on their frontiers, should have any difficulty in coming to an understanding on this question. In the meantime how the brigands must chuckle!

Pall Mall

et marvel of our existence. e of the numerous inook heedlessly upon e habitual to us, but litary or infrequent jects of admiration or with careless eye on of the Sun through the idnight magnificence of Our wonder and awe are comet or the eclipse. flowing and ebbing of the tides at their calculated or indifferent to the fact ges express the action of w of the universe. Travelad, we look with idle eyes i wire lines, traversing the , which at the very moment currents of electricity under ng the instantaneous transhuman language and thought. and speak, we see and hear, d walk, indifferent as to the these marvellous functions, or unceasing work is carried on. it is for our happiness, and for rity of the functions themselves, should be so. The mere act of attention to any one of them, is to alter or disturb its natural ac- a fact of supreme importance in 1 physiology.

this is eminently true as regards the ct before us. An habitual indifferto the phenomena of sleep is found much among men of general intellice as in the mass of the unthinking rld. Assembled in the morning round breakfast-table, we laugh and jest er tales of the dreams of the night; not flecting that these wild and entangled agaries illusions as to persons, time, and place are part and parcel of that continuous personal identity, which at other times manifests itself in acts of reason, discourse, and deliberate functions of the will. We are jesting here upon things which have perplexed the S philosophy of all ages. No less a probto lem than the intimate nature of the human soul is concerned in these phenomeWhere more than a fourth part of life, even in its adult and healthiest

ED ..on.

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shows that

OH, Barbara dear, you'll come with me,
And Siss will go with Bly;
We're off to the blueberry frolic to-day,
With hay-cart, buggy, and fly.

In the North-Eastern States, and in New Bruns-
wick and Nova Scotia, there are extensive tracts, called
"Barrens," over which fires have swept that have
burned up the very soil itself, and have left nothing be-
hind them but bare rocks, lofty rampikes (the blackened
At the end of
stems of pine-trees), and blucherries.
August all creation begins to think that blueberries taste
nice. The bears camp out on the barrens, and grow
fat and saucy. Clouds of wild pigeons cluster on the
old rampikes as thick as blackberries; and the boys and
girls hitch their horses into hay-waggons half filled with
hay, and off they go "a-berryin'," and pick barrels of
blueberries, which mother afterwards dries and pre-
serves for winter's use. It's great fun, I tell you. Boys,
girls, birds, and bears-all nature goes in for one big
blueberry frolic;" and if they haven't a good time,
just want to know.-S.S., Jr.

Old Jake's to the fore, with his fiddle and bow,
And Jonathan brings his horn;

We'll end with a dance at the room in the mill,
Then home at the peep of dawn.

Then come, come, come!
Though Margery, Bess, and Sue,
Jenny, and Kate, will all be there,
They ain't a touch to you!

My sakes! you'd make an angel cuss,
You've got such a lot of airs;
Mebbe the Governor's good enough,

If we're such small affairs.

I'm blessed if I don't ask Bella to come,
She'd give her eyes to go;

Her eyes ain't bad-you know they ain't—
And her neck is like the snow.

Then come, come, come!

Though Margery, Bess, and Sue,
Jenny, and Kate, will all be there,
They ain't a touch to you!

Now don't you cry! I only joked:

I knew yer meant to go.

It's 'cause I love you, Barbara dear,
I sometimes hate you so.

Come, let's get spliced; its time, I guess :
Let's drop these pets for life.

I'd like some pets of a different sort,
With Barbara for my wife.

Then come, come, come!
Though Margery, Bess, and Sue,
Jenny, and Kate, will all be there,
They ain't a touch to you!

From The Edinburgh Review. MAURY ON SLEEP AND DREAMS.*

the greatest marvel of our existence. This, indeed, is one of the numerous inWE place M. Maury's volume at the stances where we look heedlessly upon head of this article, as one of the most phenomena become habitual to us, but recent and remarkable on the phenomena which, seen as solitary or infrequent of Sleep and Dreams. He is among the events, are the subjects of admiration or few authors who have made them the terror. We gaze with careless eye on subject of experiment as well as of sim- the daily march of the Sun through the ple observation. But in reviewing his heavens, on the midnight magnificence of work we shall have occasion to refer to the starry sky. Our wonder and awe are several others, in which these phenomena reserved for the comet or the eclipse. are treated of, either especially or as a We witness the flowing and ebbing of the part of human physiology; many of them ocean and river tides at their calculated works of much intrinsic value, though times, ignorant or indifferent to the fact not, as we think, wholly exhausting the that these changes express the action of subject. Attention has been somewhat the greatest law of the universe. Traveltoo exclusively given to the physical ling by railroad, we look with idle eyes causes and conditions of sleep, without on those thin wire lines, traversing the adequate notice of the wonderful charac-air beside us, which at the very moment ters which connect it with the other por- are carrying currents of electricity under tion of our existence; rendering it, human bidding. the instantaneous transthrough dreams, an interpreter of many mitters of human language and thought. of those complex relations of mind and We think and speak, we see and hear, body which have perplexed philosophy in breathe and walk, indifferent as to the every age of the world. Sleep and dreams nature of these marvellous functions, or may justly be deemed one of the great how their unceasing work is carried on. mysteries of our nature. Our knowledge And well it is for our happiness, and for of them is far from having reached the the integrity of the functions themselves, realities of a science. Many of the prob- that it should be so. The mere act of lems, physical and psychological, they in- mental attention to any one of them, is volve, are among the most profound in enough to alter or disturb its natural acmental philosophy, and meet us at the tion - a fact of supreme importance in very threshold of the inquiry. And if human physiology. some of these questions do admit of solution, others are so deeply hidden in the ultimate mystery of the mind itself, as to be wholly inscrutable by any means human reason can apply to them.

All this is eminently true as regards the subject before us. An habitual indifference to the phenomena of sleep is found as much among men of general intelligence as in the mass of the unthinking It may seem strange to many of our world. Assembled in the morning round readers, that we should preface the sub- the breakfast-table, we laugh and jest ject of Sleep and Dreams by phrases thus over tales of the dreams of the night; not grave and forbidding in their tenor. Acts reflecting that these wild and entangled so familiar, and periodically habitual in vagaries - illusions as to persons, time, our lives, might be thought of easy inter-and place - are part and parcel of that pretation. The sleep of the rocking- continuous personal identity, which at cradle, of the bed, of the arm-chair or car- other times manifests itself in acts of riage, witnessed in their ever-recurring reason, discourse, and deliberate funcroutine, would seem to tell all that can tions of the will. We are jesting here or need be known on these subjects. But upon things which have perplexed the it is this very familiarity which disguises philosophy of all ages. No less a probtheir nature, and begets indifference to lem than the intimate nature of the human soul is concerned in these phenomeWhere more than a fourth part of life, even in its adult and healthiest

Le Sommeil et les Rêves. Par L. F. ALFRED MAURY, Membre de l'Institut. Troisième Edition. Paris: 1865.

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