208 Notes of the Month on Affairs in General. [FEB. 



marriage he became his own nephew-in-law. Ferdinand's brother Don 

 Carlos, and his uncle Don Antonio, are both married to daughters of 

 John VI. of Portugal ; which has made his brother and his uncle also 

 his brothers-in-law. Finally, Ferdinand has married the daughter of 

 Francis I. his brother-in-law, and one of his sisters that sister being 

 the niece of his first wife, and whose brother, Don Francisco di Paulo, 

 married the eldest sister ; thus Ferdinand has become at once the uncle, 

 the uncle-in-law, and the brother-in-law of the last named Prince. 



The Attorney-General has not brought forward any libel prosecutions 

 " since the holidays," the fated period for which he announced that he 

 had suspended his vengeance. A sense of the public feeling should 

 make its way at last within the varnished doors of the Cabinet. The 

 personal attacks on character have been disposed of. Let the visitation 

 and the vengeance rest there. But if the ministerial character is to be 

 defended only by prosecutions, it must perish. The public indignation 

 will be roused by the proof of vindictiveness against the public freedom 

 of speech ; and the prosecutions and the prosecutors will be overthrown 

 together. 



Nothing but the idlest misconception can think that the Standard, one 

 of the most manly, sober, and able publications, that distinguish the 

 history of the public press, has ever had national evil, or even ministe- 

 rial obloquy, in its contemplation. Admiring, as we do, the eloquence 

 and literature of its columns, we have felt our chief tribute demanded by 

 the spirit of sincerity, the honest patriotism, the solemn and unadul- 

 terated zeal for the constitution in church and state, that have still more 

 conspicuously distinguished this masterly journal. To suppose that 

 exertions of such an order could be created by the feeble gratification 

 of stinging a minister, would argue an absurd ignorance of human 

 nature. But to suppose that the spirit which sustains such exertions 

 can be extinguished by the pressure of ministerial vindictive prosecution, 

 is to argue an equally absurd ignorance of the course of human things. 

 By paltry revenge, by gross oppression, by an unrighteous use of power, 

 the noblest natures have been, at times, embittered into dangerous and 

 irreconcilable hostility. But genius and virtue can never be broken 

 down into the slave, nor terrified into the apostate, nor made to hug 

 the chain, but with the solemn determination to beat it into the 

 sword ! 



A new weekly journal, " The Foreign Literary Gazette/' has just 

 appeared. Its purpose is to give the most immediate intelligence of 

 foreign publications; and the numbers already given to the public 

 fully sustain the promise implied in the name of the principal conductor, 

 who is, we understand, the very able and active editor of the London 

 Literary Gazette. The articles are intelligent, various, and interesting, 

 and from our respect for the individual, and our feeling of the necessity 

 of some such performance, we both wish it well, and augur its rapid 

 and extensive celebrity. 



