to pledge him irrevocably to that wavering policy, more to be dreaded for him than the projects of assassination about which, right or wrong, so much noise has been made.  Nevertheless, this evil has its bounds marked out in advance; he whom God guards is well guarded.  If you wish to know what the Presidency of Mr. Lincoln will be in the end, see in what manner and under what auspices it was inaugurated; listen to the words that fell from the lips of the new President as he quitted his native town:  “The task that devolves upon me is greater, perhaps, than that which has devolved on any other man since the days of Washington.  I hope that you, my friends, will all pray that I may receive that assistance from on high, without which I cannot succeed, but with which success is certain.”  “Yes, yes; we will pray for you!” Such was the response of the inhabitants of Springfield, who, weeping, and with uncovered heads, witnessed the departure of their fellow-citizen.  What a debut for a government!  Have there been many inaugurations here below of such thrilling solemnity?  Do uniforms and plumes, the roar of cannon, triumphal arches, and vague appeals to Providence, equal these simple words:  “Pray for me!” “We will pray for you”!  Ah! courage, Lincoln! the friends of freedom and of America are with you.  Courage! you hold in your hands the destinies of a great principle and a great people.  Courage!  You have to resist your friends and to face your foes; it is the fate of all who seek to do good on earth.  Courage!  You will have need of it to-morrow, in a year, to the end; you will have need of it in peace and in war; you will have need of it to avert the compromise in peace or war of that noble progress which it is your charge to accomplish, more than in conquests of slavery.  Courage! your role, as you have said, may be inferior to no other, not even to that of Washington:  to raise up the United States will not be less glorious than to have founded them.

It is doubtless from a distance that we express these sympathies, but there are things which are judged better from a distance than near at hand.  Europe is well situated to estimate the present crisis.  The opinion of France, especially, should have some weight with the United States:  independently of our old alliances, we are, of all nations, perhaps, the most interested in the success of the Confederation.  They are friendly voices which, here and elsewhere, in our reviews and our journals, bear to it the cordial expression of our wishes.  In wishing the final triumph of the North, we wish the salvation of the North and South, their common greatness and their lasting prosperity.

But the South disquiets us; we cannot disguise it.  It is in bad hands.  A sort of terror reigns there; important but moderate men are forced to bow the head, or to feel that it will be necessary to do so ere long.  The planters must see already that, in seeking to put away what they call the yoke of the North, they are preparing for themselves other masters.  Business is suspended, money for cultivation is lacking, credit is everywhere refused, the ensuing harvest is mortgaged, the loans which it is sought to issue find no takers outside the extreme South.  The resources of revolution remain, and they will be used unsparingly.