madden the worst passions of war—that the suspense in which the English people passed from the old to the new year was perfectly awful. The great emotion of the popular mind cannot be gathered from the jarring utterances of the public Press. In every man's face there were the consanguineous signs of uneasiness and a confused grief, and it seemed as if the millions were all looking with the same sorrowful sternness of purpose towards the West. To slightly vary the immortal words of Campbell—
"The nation held its breath
For a time!"
This fearful gloom is passed away, but the public mind is still troubled and restless. It is enough to confound the strongest mind to see the all-reaching strife of blood which is devastating the proud republic of North America, and pronounce where it will end. Let sectional politicians say what they may, the welfare of England is so closely interwoven with the peaceful progress of America, that they cannot be separated without doing violence to the laws of nature. All men whose English feeling rises above their political
