of England is a schismatic body, still she is not altogether outside the fold; we cannot dare to say that all her members are hopelessly wrong. Let us hope the best for poor misguided Ellen, and pray for her."

And then he did pray for her in loud and burning words, which carried all his hearers with him, even Edgar Mulleyns. But Ellen showed no change of sentiment, and from that day became a staunch member of the Church of England. Outwardly, there was but little change in her; she still kept fasts and feasts, though she attended Divine Service in another building than the accustomed one. And though the trial to the Cavanaghs was great and heavy, yet they could make no difference in their treatment of the girl whom they considered to be erring so widely, and Clement sometimes felt a kind of wonder that his fervent prayers on her behalf did not restore her to his mother Church. But he knew that prayers are seldom visibly answered.

Ellen lived among the Cavanaghs hardly as one of them; and her life for some years was anything but happy; she felt as an alien, and had hard work to keep herself in subjection to her parents and on good terms with her brothers and sisters, who were beginning to grow up and to understand the family affairs.

Ellen went to the Christmas Eve service, and, as she came out, Esmé said to her, "This has been a thanksgiving service to me; do you know what has happened to me?"

"I can guess."

"Guess then, dear Ellen."

"You are engaged to Mr. Sutton. I knew it was coming, and I am

sure you will be happy."

"Girls always expect to be happy," said Miss Trevor.

"So they are sometimes," said Miss Bella.

"Esmé will be happy, I am sure," Miss Trevor said.

"I do not know that," was Miss Bella's reply.

"It will be her own fault if she is not happy," said Miss Trevor, to end the subject.

"On the contrary," rejoined Miss Bella, "if they are not happy it will certainly be Mr. Sutton's fault."

THE LUXEMBURG QUESTION.

THE Luxemburg question is one of such a delicate and complicated character, and one in which so many interests are involved, that common sense at once decides that it never could have been mooted but for a motive for some object which lay beneath the surface, and which, in as far as the question itself was concerned, was not allowed to stand prominent. The position of Luxemburg has partaken, from remote times, of the same uncertainty as belongs to it in the present day. Count Sigefroi, who was possessed in the middle ages of a large portion of the Ardennes, was Lord of Lutzelburg, also written Luzelinburhut, the Luciliburgum of the Romans, and the modern Luxemburg. Conrad II., Count of Luxemburg, dying without issue in 1136, Henry I., Count of Namur, inherited the county as nearest of kin, and his daughter Harmesinde conferred it on her first husband, Theobald, Count of Bar, and at his death to her second husband, Waleran, Duke of Limburg, and the elder son of the latter founded the second branch of the Counts of Luxemburg, from whom sprang emperors, kings, and dukes. His grandson, Henry IV., became Emperor of Germany, under the title of Henry VIII. John, his son, was King of Bohemia, and Wenceslas I., son of John, was created first Duke of Luxemburg by his brother, the Emperor Charles IV. Wenceslas dying without issue, he bequeathed the duchy to his nephew, Wenceslas, King of Bohemia and King of the Romans (elect), who conferred the duchy on the Princess Elisabeth, daughter of John of Luxemburg, Duke of Görlitz, his brother, in lieu of a dowry of 120,000 florins, which he had promised her. This princess, who wedded Antony, Duke of Burgundy, and afterwards John of Bavaria, ceded the duchy in 1444 to Philip the Good, Duke of Burgundy, with reserve as to the claims of Uladislas, King of Hungary, and his descendants. For some time the Duchy of Luxemburg experienced the same vicissitudes as the Netherlands; but the French took the fortress four times-in 1541, 1543, 1684, and again in 1702. The French also captured the stronghold of Thionville from the Spaniards in 1558, restoring it subsequently to the duchy; but having reoccupied it after the battle of Rocroy, in 1645, it was ceded to France by the treaty of the Pyrenees, with a large portion of the adjoining country, comprising the provostships of Thionville, Danvilliers, Marville, and Arancey, and Montmedy and Chauvancy. This region, which is designated as "Luxemburg-Français," was the scene of conflict between the Austro-Prussian division and the French republicans in 1792, when two detachments were sent from Longwy to invest Montmedy and Thionville, whilst the main body advanced on Verdun. This campaign gives some idea of the strategic importance of the region in question, whether invaded from the Meuse, the Moselle, or the Sarre. "The defiles of the Argonne," Dumouriez said on that occasion, "are the Thermopyla of France." The other portions of Luxemburg, which are now incorporated with Belgium, were not ceded till long afterwards, and constituted a subject of dispute between Belgium and Holland up to 1839, when the King of the Netherlands became Grand-Duke of Luxemburg, and as such a member of the Germanic

Confederation, Luxemburg belonging to the Germanic Confederation, in virtue of the treaties made at the Congress of Vienna in 1814. Holland and Prussia further concluded in 1816 and 1819 particular treaties or covenants, stipulating that the federal fortress of Luxemburg should be occupied in common, Prussia furnishing three parts of the garrison, and Holland the fourth part. Subsequently also to the appointment of the King of Holland as Grand-Duke of Luxemburg, the king ceded to the King of Prussia the right of appointing the military governor of the fortress, which right had been especially given by congress to the King of Holland.

When Prussia broke off her relations with the Diet of Frankfort, the cabinet of Holland is said to have inquired at Berlin if Prussia intended maintaining her troops in the fortress. Count Perponcher, minister of Prussia to the Hague, answered that henceforth the Prussian troops would garrison Luxemburg, not in a federal quality, but in virtue of the international treaties of 1816 and 1819. Prussia virtually maintained and kept the fortress in repair from 1816 to 1820, after which it was maintained by the Germanic Confederation until 1866, when the Diet having been absolved, and the old Germanic Confederation transferred from Frankfort to Berlin, the interests of Prussia and of the Confedera tion became identical, and their policy the same. Nassau, Hesse-Cassel, and Hesse-Darmstadt no longer belong to the old Germanic Confederation, but they are not the less, under their own princes, a part of the new North Prusso-Germanic Confederation. Luxemburg stands unquestionably in a somewhat different position, as it belongs to an independent monarchy; but the King of Holland was a member of the Germanic Confederation in virtue of his holding the Duchy of Luxemburg, and although it may have appeared at the first blush to the cabinet at the Hague that the position of the king was altered by the extinction of the old Germanic Confederation, it could scarcely appear so after the fragments constituting that confederation were gathered together under the folds of the Prussian eagle. It is questionable then if Prussia, instead of relying upon the treaties of 1816 and 1819, had simply replied that the question of Luxemburg remained one of the Germanic Confederation, whose interests they were bound to maintain as much as ever, whether they would not have been perfectly in the right. The interests of Nassau by family connexion, and those of Bavaria politically and geographically, and in the latter sense those of Oldenburg and Saxe-Coburg, are indeed almost as much concerned in the question of Luxemburg as those of Prussia, France, Holland, or Belgium. Prussia, however, so totally overlooked the interests of the old Germanic Confederation in the Holstein-Schleswig affair-proceeding to the extremities of war rather than concede her right to interfere that it is probable that it had some similar policy in view when it preferred relying upon the treaties of '16 and '19 for garrisoning Luxemburg, than upon the claims of the North German Confederation. Many have surmised, not without a certain show of probability, that an understanding was arrived at in the interview between the Emperor Napoleon and Count Bismarck, which took place at Biarritz before the Austro-Prussian war; that circumstances being favourable, Luxemburg would be ceded to France in return for her neutrality, or as a placebo for the aggrandisement of Prussia. If so, we must presume that the united

voice of all Germany-and we have shown that other German states have an interest in the question besides Prussia-baffled this little diplomatic compromise.

There is nothing in the extent or resources of modern Luxemburg that renders it of any importance to the great and compact territory of France. The old duchy has been so far shorn of its mediæval proportions-by Belgium on the one side, and by France on the other that in extent it is rivalled by the smallest department in the latter country. It is, at the same time, so far removed from Holland, occupied by Prussian troops, and held as a fief or duchy constituting part of a confederation, that there is no wonder, no matter from whom the suggestion may have originated-albeit even that is a matter of diplomatic controversy-that Holland should have been happy to part with the coveted fortress for an equivalent in money. The tenure of Luxemburg is of no strategic importance to the Netherlands, which will have enough to do to arrange the vexed questions connected with Limburg should they also be brought within the sphere of the diplomacy of aggrandisement. While France covets the possession of Luxemburg for strategic reasons, Prussia equally covets that of Maestricht and of the right bank of the Meuse, as a protection to the lowlands of the Rhine.

But, in an economical point of view, the old Arduennæ Silvæ of Cæsar and Tacitus are sterile and little productive. There are vast heaths and extensive marshes, which can only be approached in the three driest months of the year. These heaths are called " Fagnes," and the most elevated part of the region on the south-east is called "les Hautes Fagnes." There are also extensive forests-the well-known huntinggrounds of the middle and even of later ages-of oak and beech, more rarely of alder, ash, and birch. Pines and firs occur but seldom. The people of Belgium call the country Neur Pai-that is, Noir Pays, or "Black Country"-because of its bogs, its containing no limestone, and its growing only rye, potatoes, and dwarf oats. In the best part of the Ardennes, which now constitutes the French department of Ardennes, there is only about a third of the land in cultivation. The rearing of cattle, sheep, and horses-the latter of a small and valuable breed—is, however, carried on to a great extent, and the mutton is celebrated for its excellence. There is also scarcely a family by whom swine are not bred and reared. In Luxemburg Proper, not only do the lower lands yield abundant crops of flax, hemp, wheat, mangel-wurzel, and all kinds of legumes, but the vine is also cultivated on the banks of the Moselle and of the Sarre, and 1,661,066 gallons of wine of an inferior quality have been produced in the year. The branches of industry, not agricultural, pursued in Luxemburg, besides distilling, are those of iron-works, slate-quarries, potteries, tanneries, cloth-mills, and paper-mills. number of inhabitants is estimated at about 400,000, chiefly Roman Catholics, who were formerly as varied in their ecclesiastical allegiance as they still are in their political relations, some being under the archiepiscopacy of Trèves, others of the bishops of Rheims, Liège, Toul, Verdun, Metz, and Namur. Even the abbey of Saint Maximin, primate of the states, is in the episcopacy of Trèves. The renowned old Benedictine abbey and place of pilgrimage, St. Hubert, is in Belgium. Old writers used to divide the duchy into three parts, according as the

German, Wallon, and French languages were spoken. Luxemburg Proper belonged to the first category, Belgian Luxemburg to the second, and French Luxemburg to the third.

The

The town or city of Luxemburg is situated at the junction of the Elze and the Petreuse. It is divided into an upper and lower town. first is septangular, and is built in greater part on a plain, but in part on a rock; the second is built in the ravines, and comprises what is called the Gründ and the Pfaffenthal. The town, though small, is well built, has four churches, barracks, a military hospital, and a commodious market-place. There was formerly a college of Jesuits, to which were attached the priories of Chiny, Ayvaille, Vau les Moines, and Useldange, and other convents, among which Münster, a Benedictine abbey founded in 1083. The population is estimated at about 12,000. Luxemburg, ancient Luciliburgum, was fortified by Count Sigefroi, and was SO strengthened at various epochs-more especially in the time of Louis XIV., who levelled the fortifications of Arlon, and other strong places in the neighbourhood-that it has become renowned as one of the strongest places in that part of Europe. It is surrounded on every side by strong walls and deep ditches and ravines, the approaches to which are defended at every point by nature as well as by art, and the upper town has a double line of outworks in the form of a heptagon. How far these ancient fortifications are calculated to resist modern artillery is of little importance, for in case of war the fate of Luxemburg would not be decided within or without its own walls, but it would stay, or at all events control to a certain extent, the march of an army on either side; and while Prussia and France cannot, by the terms of the treaty of 1814, assemble an army on the frontiers of Rhenish Prussia, or of Champagne and Lorraine, the governor of Luxemburg can summon a division for the protection of the place without being challenged for an explanation by any rival political power. It is this which gives to the appointment of General Goben, who distinguished himself so much in the war on the Maine against the Bavarians and the 7th federal corps, a peculiar significancy.

It is true that in modern times we have seen three Prussian army corps march through Saxony and Bohemia, and advance, as the result of successful engagements, to the neighbourhood of Vienna and Prestburg without regard to the strong places, and yet achieve the objects for which war was undertaken; but, on the other hand, when the King of Italy tried to play the same game, and to pass through the Quadrilateral to join Cialdini's army corps on the Adige, the battle of Custoza, proved that such a proceeding is, as has been hitherto generally admitted in military tactics, not always a safe one.

It is to be observed that Luxemburg stands, in a geographical and strategical point of view, in a different position in regard to France than it does to Rhenish Prussia. With France it is a position essentially of offence-a point of departure for aggressive movements; with Prussia it partakes more of a defensive character. France has many strongholds on the frontier, as Charleville, Mezières, Montmedy, Longwy, Thionville, Metz, Verdun, and others; whilst Prussia has very few. The valley of the Sarre is well defended, but not so the valley of the Moselle. France in possession of Luxemburg would meet with few obstacles, ex