the political crisis seem to indicate that | tion and concession. Lord Aberdeen, in the same causes are leading to a recur- particular, was unable to believe that Rusrence of the same consequences. Under sia, whom he had long regarded as one these circumstances we think that it may of the great guardians of the peace of be useful to recall briefly the circum- Europe, could have so far changed her stances which led to the Crimean war, character as to have become an aggres. and to observe the points in which they sive power. "Aberdeen," says the prince resemble or differ from the present situa- consort, in a letter to Baron Stockmar, tion of the Afghan question. "is quite right, and is to be honored and applauded for maintaining as he does that we must deal with our enemies as honorable men; but that is no reason why we should think and maintain that they are so in fact: this is what he does, and maintains that he is right in doing so." Hence the English statesmen who, if they had really represented their country, would have breathed a spirit of determination into the European concert, continued to act with a simplicity and timidity that hardened the Russians in their aggressive designs. "Aberdeen," says the prince consort again, "has unfortunately made concessions which bring us nearer war."

In 1853 Russia based her quarrel on her right to a protectorate over all Eastern Christians subject to the Porte. She grounded her claims on the treaty of Kainardji. When the Porte declined to acknowledge her claims, she crossed the Pruth and occupied Moldavia.

The object of English, and, indeed, of European diplomacy was to induce Russia to withdraw from the principalities. Many circumstances conspired to render it probable that diplomacy would be successful. The European concert was agreed in regarding the invasion of Turkish territory by Russia as unjustifiable, and all of the powers were interested in various degrees in resisting her encroachments. Had they insisted with a common voice that she should evacuate the positions she had occupied before her claims under the treaty were considered in a European conclave, it is unlikely that she could have resisted the pressure brought to bear upon

her.

What were the causes that led to the failure of diplomatic influences?

If, then, turning from the past to the present, we substitute Afghanistan for Turkey, we see that, as far as Russia is concerned, her conduct in the present crisis is precisely what might be expected from her antecedents. Her divine mission is now not the protection of Eastern Christians, but the preservation of order in central Asia. So long as she confines herself to keeping the robber Turkomans in order she will carry with her our best wishes for her success. But why should she come into Afghan territory in the ac

Everything the evidence of language; the evidence of maps, Russian as well as our own; the evidence of diplomatic agreement — shows that she has no more business there than she had in the prin cipalities in 1853. The only question is, how far do her boundaries extend? And before we can settle how far her boundaries extend, old experience proves that she ought to be required to withdraw from the positions she has wrongfully occupied. Why, then, is she suffered to remain in them precisely as she was on the eve of the Crimean War?

First, no doubt, the divided counsels of the German powers. Austria, the power most interested in the withdrawal of Rus-complishment of her self-appointed task? sia from the principalities, was also the one which was least disposed to resist her infraction of the public law of Europe. Secondly, Russian delusion as to the state of public opinion in England. Though England was less immediately interested in the quarrel than any other power, the warlike spirit of the people was high, and sympathy with the Turk was general. The czar, on the other hand, believed that we really had become at last a nation of tradesmen whom nothing would ever rouse to fight, and he was encouraged in his mistake by the mission to St. Petersburg of the peace party, which he regarded as a message from the English people.

Thirdly, the characters of Lord Aberdeen, Mr. Gladstone, and other statesmen at the head of affairs in England. These, instead of making use of the warlike spirit of the country to force Russia to withdraw from her unjust pretensions, were bent upon preserving peace by concilia

The answer is, that the man who was Lord Aberdeen's chancellor of the exchequer, who shared his opinions, who sympathized with his temper, is now the prime minister of England. Mr. Glad stone is determined to have peace for the moment, at any price. He knows perfectly well that Russia has invaded the territories of an ally whose dominions we are bound in honor to defend, and he has feebly sug

gested to her that it would be advisable for | afraid to vote as their consciences bid her to withdraw from them, pending nego. tiations. Russia, however, has declined to do anything of the kind, and England, in the person of her prime minister, has pleaded humbly for an "arrangement" that there shall be no further advance on "the debatable or debated ground " till the boundary has been settled by agree

ment.

Russia, then, is the same as she was in 1853; Mr. Gladstone is the same; the great question is, Is England different? We are richer and more numerous than we were then; are we as great, as honest, as courageous? It must be admitted that, at least in public esteem, we scarcely stand where we did before the Crimean War. Then we were, by common admission, the leading power in the European concert. Now, estranged by Mr. Gladstone's offensive conduct from our natural allies, in constant antagonism with the power for whose friendship we have made so many sacrifices, we occupy a position of complete isolation, and suffer almost every day insults and contumely that humiliate our national self respect. In 1853 we rejected with indignation proposals from the czar for the partition of the Turkish empire; to-day Russia seems to think that we ourselves may be regarded as the sick man, and that the British empire is in a state of dissolution.

them, lest they should let in the Tories! Their opponents seem to be deficient in that plainness of speech which made the nation in 1854 turn to Lord Palmerston as the man who showed himself ready to assume responsibility. Added to which there is a natural reluctance in the people and in Parliament to weaken their gov ernment in a great crisis, which they have indeed brought about by their own folly, but which they make some show of meeting with firmness at the eleventh hour. The ministry have called out the reserves. So far good; good, that is to say, if, by this step they mean to show Russia that she must either retire at once from the "debatable or debated" territory or fight England. But if it means anything short of this, it is not good. It may be only a device to gain time. At the very moment that he is making this display of vigor, Mr. Gladstone has forced Parliament to accept a Convention which will, in two years' time, allow Europe the right of interference in the affairs of Egypt. He has, in fact, surrendered to France. Will he surrender to Russia in the same way by consenting to negotiate with her on the principle beati possidentes? If so, in two years' time we shall have to fight Russia with Afghanistan as our enemy instead of our ally, and with our road to the East barred by the interposition of a hostile power.

From Nature.

THE ACTION OF VERY MINUTE PARTICLES

ON LIGHT.

What, then, is the difference between ourselves and the Englishmen of the last generation? In 1853 public opinion was represented in a free Parliament, and ministers felt themselves to be really responsible to the country. But in 1880, under the influence of an epidemic of party spirit, the nation returned to Parliament a majority pledged to follow blindly THE action upon transmitted light of the lead of the single man who was able very minute particles suspended in a transto hold them together, and, ever since, parent medium is very well known, thanks the foreign policy of England has been to the investigations of Brücke, Tyndall, the sport of the nerveless hand and the and others, up to a certain point. That vacillating will of the prime minister. is to say, that white light, passing through Without an object in view, without a prin- varying depths of a medium with such ciple to guide their course, the govern- particles more or less thickly interspersed, ment have drifted into dishonor in South is known to emerge colored yellow, orAfrica, into anarchy in Egypt, and are ange, or red, according to the extent of now drifting steadily towards war in Af- the action in question. Wishing to illusghanistan. In 1853 ten governments of trate this phenomenon experimentally, I such a character would have fallen; to-day employed a very dilute solution of sodium the ministry have ten times been saved thiosulphate (hyposulphite), which was from defeat by the servile fidelity of their acidified with hydrochloric or sulphuric party. acid, and then allowed to stand, observ There seems to be some want of manli-ing from time to time the appearances ness in the people and their leaders, which prevents them from ridding themselves of their elected despot. The majority are

when examined by transmitted light. The solution mentioned is admirably adapted for the purpose, inasmuch as the precipi

tation of the sulphur proceeds gradually; | dark bars of the framework fell, appeared and, according to the greater or less dilu- of a fine crimson color; after the neutral tion at starting, the completion of the re- point had been passed, and the bright action can be spread over a long period parts appeared pink, the dark portion of of time, in some of my experiments occu- the image appeared a brilliant emerald pying more than forty eight hours. For green. In either of these stages a part a while no turbidity whatever is visible; of the solution transformed to a tall but then a faint opalescence makes its appear narrow glass cylinder, had not sufficient ance, and these exceedingly minute parti- depth to show any perceptible color when cles grow gradually in size, remaining, viewed by transmitted light, but placed however, quite uniformly suspended for a on a dark background below a window, considerable period, until a dimension is showed a crimson or green glow respecreached which causes them to settle out tively when viewed at a certain angle, and of the liquid. In this way I observed a complementary glow when seen at a with unfailing regularity, and in unvary different angle (by raising or lowering the ing order, though with various degrees of level of the eye, the cylinder remaining rapidity, an extension of the series of col- stationary). ors, which, so far as I am aware, had not previously been noticed, or at any rate published. From orange, the tint passed successively through rose red, purplish rose, to a full purple; then by insensible gradations to a fine violet, blue, green, greenish yellow, neutral tint, etc.

The solution was contained in spherical or pear-shaped flasks, or in cells with flat and parallel sides. A solution which was strong enough to give well-marked yellow, orange, and red tints, was not well adapted for the subsequent stages, as it soon became white and opaque, so that the later colors were almost entirely masked. A half-litre flask filled with a solution so dilute, that ten minutes or more elapsed after acidifying before opalescence was first visible, gave very feeble yellow and orange; the rose and rose-purple, though decidedly weak, reminded me in tint of the colors seen towards the upper margin of the recent sky glows; but when the full purple, violet, and blue were reached, the colors were very strong and well marked. A gas or candle flame, viewed through the solution, which was violet by transmitted daylight, appeared emerald green. After passing the blue stage, the colors through green and yellow were much weaker, until, as before mentioned, a neutral tint was reached. Beyond this, with such a dilution, nothing further could be satisfactorily observed; but by taking a much more capacious flask, and using a solution only one-half or one-third the former strength, faint orange and pink were. again observed after passing the neutral point. And with these more dilute solutions, very strongly marked secondary effects were noticed after once passing the "blue stage." A distorted image of a window was formed in the flask, and while the bright portions appeared greenish, those parts where the

With the solution in any given stage of development, the effect of increasing the depth of the column through which the light passed was to increase the satura tion of the color to a large extent, and to alter its tint (apparently in the direction of the less refrangible end of the spectrum) to a much smaller degree. That the color observed at any given stage was owing mainly to the size of the individual particles rather than to their greater or less proximity, was shown by the fact that, on pouring away half or two-thirds of the contents of the vessel, and filling with water, the color, although much thinner, was nearly of the same tint.

I am not able to give the proportion by weight of the salt in the solutions experimented with; but I think about one gramme or less to the litre will be found to give good results. One or two trials, however, would soon indicate the appropriate strength.

The character of the colors and the whole nature of the phenomena led me to infer that they were in all probability caused by the interference of light; but as I could not see my way to a rationale of the mode of action, I deferred publica tion in the hope that by further investigation their exact nature and true cause might be more clearly worked out. The description in Nature (p. 439) of Prof. Kiessling's ingenious "cloud-glow apparatus," by which somewhat similar results have been obtained with steam and salammoniac fumes, induces me to publish my own observations, in the hope that some more competent physicist and mathematician may furnish a satisfactory theoretical elucidation. Lord Rayleigh, I find, has carefully examined the properties of the light reflected from an acidified solu. tion of thiosulphate; but its action upon transmitted light appears to have escaped

his attention. While Prof. Kiessling's | ture of the action, and the ease with which, method affords an independent confirma- by altering the strength of solution and tion of the phenomena in question, the the depth of the layer interposed, the cir thiosulphate solution lends itself much cumstances can be adapted to the most more readily to a study of the successive favorable observation of any portion of phases, owing to the slow and steady na- the series. J. SPEAR PArker.

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