this plan will be received favourably by Spain. Should the negotiations be concluded, he will communicate the fact to Congress, inviting its action on the subject.

The President regrets that the San Domingo Annexation Treaty failed of ratification by the Senate, and says that as soon as it is known that the United States have abandoned the project of annexing that island a free port there will be negotiated for by European nations. He still strongly urges its acquisition by the United States as desirable, devoting a large portion of his Message to the subject.

A pending question with regard to a boundary-line between one point of the United States territory and that of Canada is thus noticed :

"In April last, whilst engaged in locating a military reservation near Pembina, a corps of engineers discovered that the commonlyreceived boundary-line between the United States and the British possessions at that place is about 4700 feet south of the true position of the forty-ninth parallel, and that the line, when run on what is now supposed to be the true position of that parallel, would leave the fort of the Hudson's Bay Company at Pembina within the territory of the United States. This information being communicated to the British Government, I was requested to consent, and did consent, that the British occupation of the fort of the Hudson's Bay Company should continue for the present. I deem it important, however, that this part of the boundary-line should be definitely fixed by a joint commission of the two Governments, and I submit herewith estimates of the expense of such a commission on the part of the United States, and recommend that an appropriation be made for that purpose. The land boundary has already been fixed and marked from the summit of the Rocky Mountains to the Georgian Bay. It should now be, in like manner, marked from the Lake of the Woods to the summit of the Rocky Mountains."

On the subjects of currency and the tariff, the President said :"The average value of gold, as compared with national currency, for the whole of the year 1869, was about 134, and for eleven months of 1870, the same relative value has been about 115. The approach to a specie basis is very gratifying, but the fact cannot be denied that the instability of the value of our currency is prejudicial to our prosperity, and tends to keep up prices to the detriment of trade. The evils of a depreciated and fluctuating currency are so great that now, when the premium on gold has fallen so much, it would seem that the time has arrived when by wise and prudent legislation Congress should look to a policy which would place our currency at par with gold at no distant day.

"The tax collected from the people has been reduced more than 80,000,000 of dollars per annum. By steadiness in our present course, there is no reason why, in a few short years, the national tax-gatherer may not disappear from the door of the citizen almost entirely. With the revenue stamp dispensed by postmasters in every community; a tax upon liquors of all sorts, and tobacco in

all its forms; and by a wise adjustment of the tariff, which will put a duty only upon those articles which we could dispense with, known as luxuries, and on those which we use more of than we produce, revenue enough may be raised, after a few years of peace and consequent reduction of indebtedness, to fulfil all our obligations. A further reduction of expenses, in addition to a reduction of interest account, may be relied on to make this practicable. Revenue reform, if it means this, has my hearty support. If it implies a collection of all the revenue for the support of Government, for the payment of principal and interest of the public debt, pensions, &c., by directly taxing the people, then I am against revenue reform, and confidently believe the people are with me. If it means failure to provide the necessary means to defray all the expenses of Government, and thereby repudiation of the public debt and pensions, then I am still more opposed to such kind of revenue reform. Revenue reform has not been defined by any of its advocates to my knowledge, but seems to be accepted as something which is to supply every man's wants without any cost or effort on his part. "A true revenue reform cannot be made in a day, but must be the work of national legislation and of time. As soon as the revenue can be dispensed with, all duty should be removed from coffee, tea, and other articles of universal use not produced by ourselves. The necessities of the country compel us to collect revenue from our imports. An army of assessors and collectors is not a pleasant sight to the citizen, but that or a tariff for revenue is necessary. Such a tariff, so far as it acts as an encouragement to home production, affords employment to labour at living wages, in contrast to the pauper labour of the Old World, and also in the development of home resources."

Congress adjourned on December 22nd till the 4th of January. Before it broke up, the Senate, in spite of a vehement Opposition speech from Mr. Sumner, passed a resolution, by 31 votes against 9, authorizing the President to appoint three Commissioners to proceed on a visit to San Domingo, in order to make inquiry into its political condition, and report the terms on which its annexation to the United States was desired.

Before the close of the year, the post of Minister to Great Britain, which after the recall of Mr. Motley had been offered in succession to several statesmen, and declined by them, possibly in view of the unsatisfactory conditions and onerous complications of the "Alabama" question, was accepted by General Schenck.

The death of the famous Southern General, Robert Lee, at Lexington, on the 24th of October, was mourned with national honours.

CHINA.

A horrible outrage took place on the 21st of June at Tientsin, near Pekin, when the French Consulate, the Catholic Mission, and the Hospital of the French Sisters of Charity, were attacked by a

Chinese mob, and the Sisters massacred with the utmost cruelty. M. Fontaine, the French Consul, was also put to death, and some priests and merchants, French and Russian, shared his fate. The children in the hospital were burned, together with the building. Chung How, the Chinese Governor of the city, was appealed to by M. Fontaine, when the outrage commenced, but neglected to take any measures to put a stop to it.

The popular motive for this outrage would seem to have been fanatical dislike to the missionaries of Christianity, founded mainly on fabricated tales of their evil practices in the way of kidnapping and torturing. Directly after the event, an investigation was set on foot by the Chinese authorities; but it was so managed that the question turned not upon with whom the guilt of murdering the Sisters of Charity lay, but upon what cause the Sisters had given for the hatred against them. The powerlessness of the French representative at Pekin, under the circumstance of the European War, to take decisive action in the name of his country, encouraged the Chinese authorities in their temporizing course; but at last the serious threats of England, and the appearance of a naval force at Chefoo, had some effect. On the 16th of October, sixteen men were executed as accomplices in the plot; but it was the comparatively innocent only on whom the hand of justice seized: the real instigators were persons of more social and political consideration, and probably had other motives for the deed than those which actuated their underlings, and these were spared.

A money indemnity of 500,000 taels was paid to the French.

PARAGUAY.

The war between Paraguay and Brazil was brought to a close by the defeat and death of the Dictator Lopez on the 1st of March. Notwithstanding the triple alliance that had been brought to bear against him, for the Argentine and Uruguay Republics had both made common cause with Brazil, he had retreated to the mountains of the North West, and prevailed on a body of 5000 Indians to join him. The last contest took place on the banks of the Aquidibaniqui river. The forces of Lopez were routed, and he was himself killed in the mêlée, having refused the quarter offered him. The war had lasted just five years.

RETROSPECT

OF

LITERATURE, ART, AND SCIENCE IN 1870.

We propose adopting in our Retrospect for 1870, a somewhat similar plan to that we made use of in the preceding year, and to group what we think more especially worthy of notice under certain leading heads. Thus we shall take1. Works relating to History, more strictly so called, including therein Notices of Public Records; 2. Biographical Sketches of Eminent Personages, for the most part recently deceased; 3. Miscellaneous Literature, including Travels, Novels, Poetry, &c.; 4. A notice of the Royal Academy and of works relating to the Fine Arts; 5. Science-including Notices of the British Associationand of works relating thereto,

I. HISTORY,

1. To take first documents relating to History, the public is indebted to that well-known and laborious antiquary Mr. John Gough Nichols for a very interesting and exhaustive account of the MS. historical treasures preserved at Beaumanor, the seat of Mr. Percy Herrick, the majority of which were collected and placed in the chests in which Mr. Nichols found them, by one of the present owner's ancestors, Sir William Herrick, who was for seven years one of the Tellers of the Exchequer. The existence of these treasures was well known in Leicestershire, and a considerable number of them had been made use of by the historian of Leicestershire some sixty years ago; to Mr. J. G. Nichols we owe, however, their complete examination-and the arranging and binding of them so that they may be accessible in future to other students.

The documents preserved may be briefly stated to be as follows: 1. A thin folio volume belonging to the time of Sir W. Bowyer, who preceded Sir W. Herrick in his Exchequer Office, and containing certificates from September 1608 to August 1616. 2. A great ledger for the whole time of Sir W. Herrick being in office from 1616 to 1623, preserved in the original calf binding with the Royal arms in gold on its sides. 3. Five other similar volumes in folio, being receipts and payments of the Exchequer during the same period. 4. Twenty other volumes, in modern binding, containing Debenture Orders on the Exchequer, and receipts for the same, the latter bearing the signatures of many eminent personages, as Ben Jonson, Inigo Jones, and others of their contemporaries—though not, as Mr. Nichols fondly hoped, that of Shakespere. There are eleven other folio volumes containing many matters of great interest, which Mr. Nichols has

arranged as follows: 5. Matters of business public and private from 1571 to 1714, with a short series of MS. news letters, 2 vols. 6. Matters of account, 1 vol. 7. Family letters, together with some poetry and literary fragments, 3 vols. 8. Papers relating to the five sons of Sir W. Herrick, 1 vol. 9. Papers relating to the estates of Sir W. Herrick, in 3 vols. ; the first, relating to Beaumanor, the second to the town and county of Leicester; the third, to Richmond in Surrey, London, and other places. It should be added that, inter alia, were letters and other documents relating to the poet Robert Herrick, who was a nephew of Sir William Herrick. Many other miscellaneous documents were discovered, as, for instance, two rolls of the new-year gifts at court, one of the reign of Queen Mary and one of Queen Elizabeth in 1599;-many letters patent under the great seals of Elizabeth and James I. ;—a plan on vellum of Beaumanor Park, made in 1621; -a court roll of the 21st Edward IV., when this manor was in the hands of Katherine Duchess of Norfolk, one of the King's maternal aunts ;—a rent roll of 32 Henry VIII., the admission to a tenement, bearing the autograph signatures of the Lady Frances Duchess of Suffolk and of her then husband Adrian Stocks; --and, after Sir William Herrick acquired the manor, a nearly complete series of court rolls to the present time. There are besides four other very old rolls: 1. The "compotus" of Thomas Hemeri, serviens of Beaumanor, 5-6 Edward I., A.D. 1275-1276. 2. The "compotus" of Henry del Peeke, serviens of Beaumanoyr, 8-9 Edward III., A.D. 1314-1315, which mentions among other things the building of the stone wall which separates the parks of Beaumanor and Loughborough. 3. The " compotus" of John Godewyn, bailiff, 7-8 Henry IV., A.D. 1405-6. 4. The "compotus" of Mr. John Kirkeby, bailiff, 3-4 Henry VI, A.D. 1424-1425. We think that the public are greatly indebted to Mr. Percy Herrick for having taken such care of these valuable ancestral and historical documents, and for having permitted Mr. J. G. Nichols to give so full an account of them. He has set an example which other owners of MS. treasure would do well to imitate. We should add that, among other curiosities at Beaumanor, Mr. Herrick has the bed on which Richard III. slept the night before the battle of Bosworth Field, 1485.

The report recently laid before the Common Council of London "On the Municipal Archives of London," is most interesting, as showing what an enormous collection of muniments are still in existence in the City. They may be arranged under certain distinct heads as follows:-1. The Bridge House Records, being deeds, &c., in ten books bound in vellum, and commencing with Fitz-Ailwyn, mayor in the reign of Richard Cœur de Lion, A.D. 1189, many of these documents bearing his seal. Among them are title-deeds, grants, copies of wills, &c. Some of these deeds have the City seal attached to them, as it existed prior to its alteration by order of the Court of Common Council in 1539. On the reverse is the figure of St. Thomas à Becket, which was then ordered to be destroyed. There is also a large folio volume containing a transcript of nearly all these deeds, which must have been made early in the sixteenth century. 2. Bridge House Accounts containing the rolls of the receipts and payments of the bridge-masters, being the weekly receipts of the payments of fishmongers, butchers, &c. for standings in "Stocks Market," the rents of the property belonging to the Bridge House, and of the tolls payable at the bridge-together with a weekly account of the payments to workmen, and the priests and officers of the chapel of St. Thomas on the bridge from A. D. 1382 to A.D. 1405. Besides these are the Rentals, commencing in 1404;-miscellaneous Books of Payments from 1404 to 1697;- Corn and Granary books from 1568 to 1714;-Passage Tolls,