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throughout the length and breadth of the land ; but twelve thousand copies sold in a week , —the announcement made by the publishers , —prove the interest the great body of the people take in the struggle between civilization and barbarism ; and this last epithet we

are warranted in adopting , as we well know that the only two potentates who forbid Freemasonry in their dominions are the Pope and the Emperor of Russia . From a volume , the contents of which are so well known , it is difficult to select a passage for quotation , but the author ' s foresight is exhibited in the communication from Narva Bay , Sept . 4 , 1854 : —

u The embarkation of our army may now be said to have terminated . Every available man almost is on board his ship . Sir George Catheart has arrived in the Himalaya out from England , and took the command of his division on Friday . " It would appear that the place of disembarkation has not yet been fixed on , for the very good reason that they will be landed where there is the least appearance of successful opposition . Lord Raglan is close to a degree . He consults none of his generals , save perhaps that he takes into his confidence Sir Greorge Brown , who knows how to keep a secret as well as his chief .

" However , nearly every one looks with confidence to the result , and places full reliance on Lord Raglan ' s soundness of head and clearness of judgment . It is probable that the landing will take place at a considerable distance from Sebastopol , and I am firmly persuaded that the patience of people at home who are hungering and thirsting for ' the fall of Sebastopol' will be severely tried , and that

the chances are a little against the incidents of its capture being ready by Christmas for repetition at Astley ' s . It is certain the Russians are in force at or near all our pet places of landing ; and , although Sir E . Lyons guarantees the army against any fear of attack within one mile of the beach , it is scarcely to be expected that with forces inferior to the garrison of the town , we can be in a fit state to invest at once such a fortress as Sebastopol .

u It is late , very late in the year , for such a siege as there is before us , and I should not be surprised if we were forced to content ourselves with the occupation of a portion of the Crimea , which might become the basis of larger and more successful operations next year . This army has already lost close upon seven hundred men by the cholera alone , and fever promises to do its work . Then to this must be added the loss by ordinary sickness , and the average of invaliding , which is

swelled by the unhealthiness of the climate to a larger per centage than it is at home , and it will be seen that with the shock to its 'morale arising from depressed spirits , inactivity , and the spectacle of sudden 'death , the army is not by any means in the condition in which it landed . In truth , it may be taken as an actual fact that , physically and morally , each division of the army has been weakened by nearly one regiment , and that the division of Sir George Cathcart does little more than raise the force to its original strength . "

Independent of its value as the History of the War in the Crimea , the volume is deserving of the highest praise for style . And then comes a melancholy picture : — " If any of our great geologists want to test the truth of their theories respecting the appearance of the primeval world , or are desirous of ascertaining what sort of view Noah might have had when he looked out of the Ark from Ararat , they

cannot do better than come out here at once . The whole plateau on which stands ' the Camp before Sebastopol '—the entire of the angle of land from Balaklava round to Kherson , and thence to the valley of Inkermann—is fitted at this moment for the reception and delectation of any number of ichthyosauri , sauri , and crocodiles—it is a vast black dreary wilderness of mud , dotted with little locks of foul water , and seamed by dirty brownish and tawny-colon red streams running down