BLACKWOOD'S EDINBURGH MAGAZINE. NO. CCCCXXXVIII. APRIL, 1852. VOL. LXXI. CONTENTS. THE EARL OF DERBY, 387 MY NOVEL; OR, VARIETIES IN ENGLISH LIFE. PART XX., 410 AMERICAN MILITARY RECONNOISSANCES, 448 OUR LONDON COMMISSIONER, 460 THE COMMERCIAL DISASTERS OF 1851, 473 THE MOTHER'S LEGACY TO HER UNBORN CHILD, 491 THE APPEAL TO THE COUNTRY, 498 * * * * * EDINBURGH: WILLIAM BLACKWOOD & SONS, 45 GEORGE STREET; AND 37 PATERNOSTER ROW, LONDON. _To whom all communications (post paid) must be addressed._ SOLD BY ALL THE BOOKSELLERS IN THE UNITED KINGDOM. PRINTED BY WILLIAM BLACKWOOD AND SONS, EDINBURGH. BLACKWOOD'S EDINBURGH MAGAZINE. NO. CCCCXXXVIII. APRIL, 1852. VOL. LXXI. THE EARL OF DERBY. "----And marvelling went away To muse on scene, and actor, each the other Befitting gracefully. O, good my lord, I would the Lieges had been there, to see Such shining chivalry."--_The Royal Stranger._ On Friday evening, the 27th February 1852, the House of Lords presented a magnificent and profoundly interesting spectacle. Vanishing daylight was being succeeded by that artificial illumination which gradually gave a new aspect to the gorgeous fabric, vivid with innumerable heraldic emblazonments, within which was about to be enacted a scene of vital concernment to the greatest empire upon earth. And the interest of that scene was centred in one individual, not yet within the House, and whose arrival all were awaiting with anxiety and expectation. A nobleman of ancient lineage, of chivalrous honour, of uncompromising character and commanding abilities, the acknowledged leader of the most powerful party in the country, and fresh from the presence of his Royal Mistress, who had cheerfully intrusted to him the direction of public affairs at a momentous crisis, was about to indicate the principles on which his policy would be based. He was to do this in the presence of fervent friends and fierce opponents; of persons representing all the great interests of the country, and professing to regard, and many sincerely, the very existence of those interests as in jeopardy; exponents of every shade of political opinion; the representatives of all the leading civilised nations of the earth, between some of the greatest of whom and ourselves, relations were at that moment delicate, and even precarious. Every syllable, moreover, that he was to utter, would, as it fell from his lips, be then and there exactly and irrevocably recorded, and within an hour or two flying far and wide on the wings of the lightning! to be instantly subjected to jealous scrutiny; exciting alike hopes and fears, reasonable and unreasonable, calling forth admiration, or provoking