ther European monarch could have
been in the midst of an army of an hundred thousand men. Such are some
of the wonderful events which have set their stamp on the year now at
its close.

We regard the old state of things as gone for ever. The foundations
have broken up on which the ancient despotisms were founded. It
would seem as if 'the stone cut out without hands' had fallen during
the past year on the feet of the great image, and ground down into
worthless rubbish the 'iron, the clay, the brass, the silver, and the
gold.' And 'the wind,' though not yet risen to its height, seems fast
rising, which will sweep them all away, 'like the chaff of the
summer thrashing-floor;' so that 'there shall be no place found for
them.' But while we can entertain no hope for the old decrepit
despotisms, we cannot see in the infidel liberalism--alike unwise
and immoral--by which they are in the course of being supplanted,
other than a disorganizing element, out of which no settled order of
things can possibly arise. It takes the character, not of a reforming
principle destined to bless, but of an instrument of punishment,
with which vengeance is to be taken for the crimes and errors of the
past; and, so far at least, a time when we need expect to witness but
the struggles of the two principles--the old and the new--as they
act and react against each other, stronger and weaker by turns, as
they disgust and alienate by their atrocities in their hour of
power such of the more moderate classes as had taken part with them
in their hour of weakness. It is the grand error of our leading
statesmen, that they fail to appreciate the real character of the
crisis, and would fain deal with the consequent existing difficulties
in that petty style of diplomatic manoeuvre with which it was
their wont to meet the comparatively light demands of the past. It
would seem as if we had arrived at a stage in the world's history in
which statesmanship after this style is to be tolerated no longer.
How instructive, for instance, the mode in which, for the present at
least, an all-governing Providence has terminated the negotiations
of this country with the Pope! Contrary to the wishes and principles
of the sound-hearted portion of the British people, our leading
statesmen open up by statute their diplomatic relations with the
Pope, palpably with the desire of governing Ireland through the
influence of that utterly corrupt religion which has made that
unhappy