Is the War discarded by all, we are quite at a loss to imagine. Office credulous enough to believe that the kilt, being the national dress of Scotland, is therefore popular with Scotchmen? It had well-nigh ceased to be heard of beyond the Grampians, it was virtually unknown in the Lowlands, till the Court established itself at Balmoral and the game of clan-gathering was revived. And as to the so-called Highland soldier, is he ever seen, except when in full dress for walking out, or for duty, in the barrackyard, in the canteen, in the recreation room, in any other nether garment than the trews? And if the kilt be barbarous, the feather bonnet is at once ridiculous and uncomforable. Watch a Highland regiment advancing in line against a strong head wind, and observe how sorely the men are put to it to keep their bonnets from being blown off-an accident which, in spite of chin-straps, is apt to befal them. Besides, you have only to turn up the engravings in Grose's 'Military Antiquities,' to satisfy yourself that when the Black Watch was first formed, and for half a century after, the round blue bonnet, or scone, was worn without any ornamentation except the single eagle's feather which distinguished the head-gear of the officer from that of the private. This surely is a case in which the Great Wizard, who created our interest in the Highlands, may claim to be heard: 'Rob Roy remained for some time standing on the rock . . . conspicuous by his long gun, waving tartans, and the single plume in his cap, which in those days denoted the Highland gentleman and soldier; although I observe that the present military taste has decorated the Highland bonnet with a quantity of black plumage resembling that which is borne before funerals.' Here, however, we must stop, not without feeling that a very imperfect work has been done by touching, as we have touched, only the fringe of a subject, the importance of which, in a national point of view, cannot be over-estimated. ART. IX.-1. More Leaves from the Fournal of a Life in the 2. Alice, Gross-Herzogin von Hessen und bei Rhein, Prinzessin von Gross-Britannien und Irland. Mittheilungen aus ihrem Leben und aus ihren Briefen. Darmstadt, 1883. WE article, because there is in them an affinity of subject have placed these two volumes at the head of this as well as of authorship. They both unconsciously portray, in the most vivid manner, though by very different methods, the home life, the simple human characteristics of our Queen and her children, and make us better understand the devotion felt for them by those who live within the immediate range of their influence, and how it is that the loyalty of which they are the object among the great body of the people to whom they are but names, has its roots in a genuine human sympathy and regard. Kindly, sympathetic, considerate in themselves, they are looked at from without with kindly, sympathetic, and tender eyes. Their ways are watched with interest; the manifestations of the strong affection that binds them together awaken a kindred feeling in the highest no less than in the humblest homes; their sorrows become our sorrows, and to see them happy brings happiness to us. Of the Queen as queen the world has seen enough to know how admirably she discharges the higher duties of her state. She has established for herself an influence at every Court in Europe and throughout the republic of America, which was only to be won by the knowledge that, throughout the anxious and critical years of her long reign, she has on all occasions shown a thorough appreciation of the changing circumstances of an age which is peculiarly one of transition, a clear eye to see on what the strength of her great empire is founded, and a firm will to maintain its titles to respect. When the veilpartially lifted in Sir Theodore Martin's 'Life of the Prince Consort'-shall in fitting season be still further raised, there can be little doubt that Her Majesty's name will stand as high for political sagacity as it has long done for domestic virtue and womanly worth. What the Sovereign may do in England, and what she may not do, has always been so well understood by Her Majesty, that not even the most captious have been able to establish the favourite Radical complaint of encroachment in the use of the Royal Prerogative. But at the same time the legitimate influence of a sovereign, whose eye has watched closely and with critical insight all those movements abroad as well as at home that have gone to make the history of our time, has not been unfelt by the wisest statesmen, neither has it failed to command on many occasions their grateful recognition. Her Majesty's journals and correspondence will probably prove a valuable mine to the future student of our social and political history. That contemporary curiosity should long to have glimpses of their contents is natural enough. But a moment's reflection makes it put aside this desire, remembering that the same impartiality, which is preserved by the Sovereign towards the rival parties in the State, demands that her Majesty's views and opinions on men and on political movements shall be buried in silence, until the pen shall have dropped for ever from the hand that traced them. From the first the Queen has loved her people, and her people have answered to that love. When the great sorrow of her life fell upon her, they requited their sovereign's love in an abundant measure. What wonder that her heart was deeply moved by the sympathy which has ever since been hers, and that in the 'lonely splendour' of a widow's throne she should have thought to show them, by the unstudied records of her daily life, how great was the happiness of which she had been bereft, and how she had striven through the years that followed to find consolation and strength amid scenes, where the perennial beauty and grandeur of nature soothe while they rebuke the passionate griefs of our transitory life, and in objects of interest which made her for the time forget her own isolation in the story of past generations, or in the patient endurance of her humbler subjects under privation and trial and bereavement? It is to this feeling, plainly enough, that we owed the publication of Her Majesty's first volume, and that we now owe the 'More Leaves from a Journal' which have for the last few weeks been in everybody's hands. However those, whose taste has been pampered by excitement and who have lost the relish for simplicity, may complain that the records thus given to the world are in many respects trivial and unimportant, such is manifestly not the prevailing feeling. The later volume has been welcomed with no less avidity than its predecessor, of which the best evidence is the sale of nearly twenty thousand copies within a few weeks, and the widespread expression of an interest in its contents, for which mere curiosity will not account. Nor is this interest confined to our own country merely. It extends to every country in Europe. Already translations of the volume have, we understand, appeared, or are in preparation, in France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Norway, and Sweden, while America has diffused the coveted volume throughout its vast continent with more than its wonted piratical activity. Whatever cavil the volume may have provoked among us at home, our republican cousins across the Atlantic have appreciated its scope and purpose with an unerring instinct. It delights them to see that a Queen can keep her true womanly heart unspoiled amid the splendours and the obsequiousness of a Court; that she can cherish through the changes of years the memory of her husband; can look after her children; is frank, helpful, and. considerate, to her friends; appreciates her servants; has nothing but kind thoughts and words for the poor and suffering. To one of their critics there appears 'something very touching in the fact, that fifty years of royalty, in a household where her. lightest word is law, where even an invitation from her is. a command, have not yet taught this gentle Queen to accept a glass of water from a menial without considering the service. a favour.' The concluding verdict of the same critic is, that 'the book is one to give the simple pleasure which was all that the royal author expected it to give, while at the same time it deepens our respect and sympathy for a Queen who through fifty. years of sovereignty has retained simplicity; who has learned from fifty years of deference to herself to be deferent to others, and who has not yet learned, after fifty years of absolute sway in her household, to accept any service as a matter-of-course.' In the feeling here expressed we must look for the explanation of the interest which this book has created. The very absence of anything like literary effort makes part, and no small part, of its charm. The impressions it records find their way into the simplest words. What the Queen saw and felt, the reader is also made to see and to feel. There is no straining after effect; the sincerity of the writer's nature is stamped upon every page, and little touches are scattered here and there of that nature 'which makes the whole world kin.' Sir Arthur Helps, in his preface to the Queen's former volume, in calling attention to that peculiar memory for persons, and that recognition of personal attachment, which have been very noticeable in our sovereigns,' remarked that 'perhaps there is no person in these realms who takes a more deep and abiding interest in the welfare of the household committed to her charge than our gracious Queen does in hers, or who feels more keenly what are the reciprocal duties of masters and servants.' This characteristic is even more strongly impressed upon the present volume. How strong it is, may be seen in the dedication to her Majesty's 'Loyal Highlanders,' and to her 'devoted personal attendant and faithful friend, the late John Brown.' The exuberance of grateful feeling which inspires such a dedication is to many of us hard to understand. We look upon the loyalty and devotion of the personal retinue of Her Majesty as a matter of course, knowing that loyal devotion and service must ever be profusely at the command of such a mistress. Thousands there are as true and as loyal, whose lives would gladly be spent in such service; and at first we feel some surprise that thanks so warm should be paid for what is merely duty. And yet how natural is the feeling by which the Queen's language has been prompted! The woman is more than the Queen. It is not of what she might command that Her Majesty has thought, but of what has been actually given. Those she has seen and known have been true and helpful and devoted; others might be the same, but they are not these. They have been much to her; that they have been bounteously rewarded is nothing; a tie has been established between their mistress and themselves founded upon personal regard, and a naturę so frank and generous as that of their Royal Lady has apparently seen no reason why it should not be acknowledged. It would be out of place to make extracts from a volume which has already become so widely known, otherwise we should have gladly called attention to strokes of simple pathos and artless outbreaks of natural feeling on which the mind dwells with pleasure. Again and again in reading its pages have we been reminded of the words addressed by Horace to Mæcenas: 'Plerumque gratæ divitibus vices, Mundæque parvo sub lare pauperum Sollicitam explicuere frontem.' It is the rich who relish best To dwell at times from state aloof, Have smoothed ere now the brow of care.' A scrambling luncheon on a hillside,-tea in a hollow by the roadside, the homely fare of a farmhouse, are spoken of with all the relish which might be expected from the lady of simple tastes to whom the 'fastidiosa copia' of a palace is oppressive. 1 How naïve is such a passage as this! The Queen is visiting the Dowager Duchess of Athole at Dunkeld :-'Excellent breakfasts, such splendid cream and butter! The Duchess has a very good cook, a Scotchwoman, and I thought how dear Albert would have liked it all. He always said things tasted better in smaller houses.' Here we have Horace's thought |