ruler. From the date of his triumph at Queretaro down to the moment of his death, Juarez had to deal with a succession of revolts and conspiracies. In fact, a more than usually dangerous rebellion in the Eastern States, simultaneously with a new intrigue of the clerical faction under the lead of the Chief Justice Tejada, had been suppressed only just before his death; and Juarez had appointed a new Ministry, with sanguine hopes of real improvement henceforth in the troublesome state of the country. Señor Lerdo de Tejada was unanimously elected President in his place. The pacification of the country was reported as complete before the close of the year, and Porfirio Diaz, the rebel leader, had accepted the amnesty proffered him.

HONDURAS.

Honduras was the theatre of a civil war between the ex-President Medina and the Provisional Government appointed to succeed him. A battle was fought on the 26th of July, when Medina was completely routed, and his forces dispersed.

BRAZIL.

Towards the end of the year a treaty was concluded between the Government of Brazil and General Mitre on the part of the Paraguayan Republic. The Brazilian Government engaged to give its moral support to the Oriental and Argentine Governments in aid of their also negotiating with Paraguay separate Treaties of Commerce and Navigation, and in the case of the consideration of limits. Should any difficulty arise, the three allies to come to an understanding thereon in accordance with the Treaty of 1865. The three allies to be on an equal footing as regards the payment of the war indemnity by Paraguay.

PERU.

A revolution, marked by circumstances of great atrocity, took place in Peru this summer. During the late summer the results of the local elections had been adverse to the Conservative or Clerical party. President Balta, approaching the end of his Presidential term, foresaw the probability of being succeeded by a leader of the opposite faction, and was prepared, as it seems, to acquiesce in the verdict of the people. But Colonel Gutierrez, his Minister for War, did not understand the meaning of so peaceable a settlement. It is asserted that for a time his dangerous arguments overpowered the better judgment of the President, and induced him to assent to

a forcible usurpation of the supreme power. But, before the critical moment came, Colonel Balta shrank from the responsibility of once more outraging the law. Gutierrez thereupon resolved to seize it by forcible means. On the 22nd of July the square facing the Govern ment Palace was filled with troops and artillery, the President was arrested, martial law was proclaimed, and Gutierrez, sole master of Lima, declared himself Supreme Chief and Dictator of the Republic. His grasp of power, however, was from the first uncertain; nor was his conduct during his brief tenure of the Dictatorship such as to conciliate the neutral interests of the country. Gutierrez had no real hold over the army. He found it necessary to purchase the fidelity of the troops with gifts of money; and to obtain the means he resorted to what are called "forced loans" from the principal banks of the Peruvian capital. This reckless expedient drove the commercial classes into open revolt against him, and the people of Lima, whose sympathies were with the Liberal party, were soon encouraged by the news of resistance at Callao and in the fleet, to rise and revolt against this wanton usurpation. The forces of Gutierrez melted away, and his brother, his Minister for War, was killed in a street fight. Then the Dictator committed an atrocious and unpardonable act of ferocity. He sent a party of his bravoes to murder President Balta in his prison, and shut himself up with such of his soldiery as were still purchasable in one of the fortresses of the capital. Lima, freed from Gutierrez and his troops, rallied at once to the legitimate Government, under the Vice-President, and Gutierrez, in despair, attempting to escape from his refuge, was captured and killed by the mob. The most horrible part of the popular vengeance remains to be told. The naked corpses, it is said, of Gutierrez and his brothers were dragged from the lamp-posts, where they had been hung, to the cathedral tower of Lima, were hoisted a hundred feet into the air, and, having been rubbed with kerosene, were burnt in the sight of a furious and applauding multitude. Such was the conclusion of this sanguinary and purposeless coup d'état. In four days, it is estimated, it cost more than 200 lives. The reins of power were quietly handed over to Colonel Zevallos, the Vice-President, by whom they were, on the 2nd of August, resigned to Don Manuel Pardo, the Liberal candidate for the Presidency.

BOLIVIA.

Another South American President was assassinated on the 24th of November. This was Morales, President of Bolivia, who fell a victim to the political animosity entertained against him by his nephew, Colonel La Fayé. On his death the reins of government were assumed by Tomas Frias, but for the interval only, pending a new Presidential election.

CHINA.

The young Emperor of China was married on the 16th of October. The name of his Empress is Aluté; she is a Mongol by descent. The ceremonies and superstitions attendant on the marriage were largely chronicled in the current literature of the day. The chief significance of the marriage, as concerns the foreign politics of China, is that the Emperor will have to assume the reins of power henceforth, and that one of the first questions he will have to decide on his own responsibility is the admittance of foreign ambassadors to audience.

One important political transaction had been accomplished this year by China in the treaty and trade regulations concluded with Japan, which, though showing progress in some ideas of civilization, still exhibited much of the jealously restrictive policy usual among these Eastern nations.

JAPAN.

In Japan, meanwhile, a very remarkable spirit of reform and progression in Western ideas has been manifesting itself. The Embassy which was sent by the Mikado, or Emperor of Japan, to visit the seats of Government in Europe and America, had it in charge, it is said, among other things, to collect materials for the elaboration of a new religion, to be prepared, with the sovereign's supervision and sanction, for the acceptance of his people!

On the 12th of June a railway, the first constructed in Japan, was opened between Yokohama and Shinagawa. Among other things, the Mikado has devoted much of his attention to education. It is said that he has established in Yedo alone five colleges, each containing from 1500 to 3000 pupils, and a new military academy. Among the subjects taught at these institutions are all the branches of science and several foreign languages. Twenty-three French professors have been engaged for the military academy, and ten English professors for the naval school; and twenty Bavarian shoemakers and ten brewers are to be employed as teachers in the industrial establishments.

X

RETROSPECT

OF

LITERATURE, ART, AND SCIENCE IN 1872.

LITERATURE.

THE whole number of books published in the United Kingdom this year, according to the "Publishers' Circular," amounted to 4814, of which 3424 were new books, 1100 new editions, and 290 American importations. Of new works in theology there were 590; of novels, tales, and works of fiction, 468; of poetry and the drama, 272; of voyages, travels, and geographical research, 172. We shall proceed to mention some of the works which attracted most attention from the public, or which seem otherwise to have special claims to notice-basing our report in great measure on the current criticism of the journals. And first for biography.

The literary gossip of the London drawing-rooms during the early weeks of this year found a pleasant topic in the "Recollections of a Past Life,” published, after it had been three years in private circulation, by the octogenarian physician, Sir Henry Holland, whose title to notoriety has long rested not more upon his professional ministrations among the upper ten thousand, than upon his active interest in science and literature, and his indefatigable energy as a traveller over almost every visitable portion of the earth's surface. His life commenced before the first French Revolution, and, directly or indirectly, he became mixed up with the historical events of his era, and with almost all the personages who made it famous. In the course of his long professional life he made it a rule to spend two months of every year in foreign travel. One of his early tours on the Continent was made in the capacity of physician to the Princess of Wales, afterwards Queen Caroline. In the course of time he visited every capital of Europe, most of them repeatedly, made eight voyages to the United States, travelling over more than 26,000 miles of the American Continent, one voyage to Jamaica and other West Indian islands, was four times in the East, twice in Iceland, twice in Russia, repeatedly in Spain, Portugal, and Italy, besides making voyages to the Canary Isles, Madeira, &c., " and other excursions which it would be tedious to enumerate." So far from injuring him professionally, Sir Henry Holland says he found these yearly excursions beneficial in every way, and he notes how of late years, by the aid of the telegraph, he had been able to make engagements for the very hour of his return :

"On the day, or even hour, of reaching home from long and distant journeys I have generally resumed my wonted professional work. . . . I recollect having found a patient waiting in my room when I came back from those mountain heights-not more than 200 miles from the frontiers of Persia where the 10,000 Greeks uttered their joyous cry on the sudden sight of the Euxine. The same thing once happened to me in returning from Egypt and Syria, when I found a carriage waiting my arrival at London-bridge, to take me to a consultation in Sussex-square, the communication in each case being made from points on my homeward journey. More than once, in returning from America, I have begun a round of visits from the Euston Station."

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As may be supposed, he was often brought into connexion with incidents more or less curious in an historical point of view. He was in the Peninsula when the Duke of Wellington was preparing the campaign which won the battle of Salamanca and carried the English army to Madrid;" and while in Portugal he had the advantage of being ranked and provided for as a major on the commissariat list. When in Turkey he was summoned almost daily to the palace by Ali Pasha, who on one occasion asked him whether he knew of any poison which, put on the mouthpiece of a pipe or given in coffee, might slowly and silently kill, leaving no note behind. "The instant and short answer I gave," says Sir Henry, "that as a physician I had studied how to save life, not to destroy it,' was probably, as I judged from his face, faithfully translated to him. He quitted the subject abruptly, and never afterwards reverted to it." Sir Henry was at Madrid when the news arrived of the great victory of Vittoria, and a fortnight later he visited the battle-field. Once at Naples he was at a great ball given by Count Mosburg to the Neapolitan Court, the Princess of Wales, and many foreigners, when intelligence came of the escape of Napoleon from Elba. He was at Genoa when Pope Pius VII. landed under English protection and passed to the palace prepared for him guarded by files of English soldiers. He was at Prague when the first news reached him of the battle of Waterloo, and was afterwards present at the church thanksgivings for the victory held in the Prussian capital; and he saw Paris for the first time when it was garrisoned by the English and Prussian armies. In later life the writer's interest in the events of the day and in foreign travel continued unabated. He relates how he was twice in Algeria during the French war of conquest there, "on one occasion joining at Blidah the march of a corps under Marshal Bugeaud against certain Arab tribes near Medeah;" how at the age of seventy-five he was an active spectator of the great civil war in America; how, when on the verge of his eighty-second year, he again visited the States, and travelled in five weeks more than 3500 miles; and how, in 1871, he visited Iceland for the second time, and was able to ride for nearly twenty miles. Nor when at home has Sir Henry's life touched at fewer points of interest. He attended professionally six English Prime Ministers. Of Canning he says:—

"On my return to London I hastened to Lord Liverpool, to report to him on what he himself strongly expressed to me as a matter vital to his Government. Having satisfied his inquiries as to Mr. Canning, he begged me to feel his own pulse-the first time I had ever done so. Without giving details, I may say that I found it such as to lead me to suggest an immediate