man, who died in 1781, had the unmanageable name of Brodnax for his patronymic. This name, early in life, he changed for that of May; and afterwards, by a statute of 9th George II, he took the name of Knight, which occasioned a facetious member of the House to get up, and propose a general Bill, to enable that gentleman to take what name he pleased.' Had this 'facetious member' been alive to represent a constituency in the present Parliament, he might find between forty and fifty honourable occupants of the seats about him who were qualified by change of name to be subjects of his pertinent or impertinent proposals. Forty-two, a learned statistician has informed us, is the exact number of members of the house who have adopted a name other than that they began the world with; and of these several have experienced more than one substitution.

The anecdote immediately foregoing has brought us very close to the law of the subject; and to this we shall devote a few lines, after transcribing from Mr. Bowditch's 'Suffolk Surnames,' an anecdote or two prefaced by a sentence in which we get a glimpse of the American law. Very many names were annually changed by authority of the general court, sometimes decidedly for the better, but often with little or no improvement. It is a remarkable circumstance, that since the jurisdiction of this matter has been given to the judges of probate in the respective counties, so that sufferers in name can no longer claim the sympathy of the whole commonwealth, the number of those who apply to the law for relief is very small. A mere abstract of the names changed by the legislature would be very amusing. Thus we find Broadbrooks, 1805; Snupe, 1806; Bumside,* 1807; Linkhornew,

A distinguised lawyer of Middlesex County, named Burnside, disliking his Christian name, in 1807, applied for leave to change it; and as he wrote a bad hand, it was supposed that he also wished to alter his surname into Bumside. The change was made accordingly; and, after suffering a year's penance, it became again necessary

1808; Frickey, 1824; Tink, 1826; Slates, 1827; Crouch, 1832; Turn, 1837; Peachem, 1845; Pedder, 1847; &c. Mr. Pepper Mixer, in 1810, retained his surname, while he parted with his Christian name. Mr. Thode Coats, in 1814, followed his example. Samuel Quince Whitefoot, on the contrary, in 1833, liked his Christian name, and merely dropped the foot. An entire family of Corporal, in 1847, laid aside that dignity; and a very numerous family of Vest divested themselves in 1848. Mr. Thomas Jest, in 1850, decided that it was no joke to retain such a name any longer. Mr. Gest, of Cincinnati, however, as lately as 1857, subscribed for Agassiz's work. Mr. Mock, in this mode, escaped from the mockeries of his friends.'

'A western rhymester, manifestly a native American, has attempted,' said the correspondent of the Standard, a few weeks ago, 'to sing of the peculiarities of Chicago.' Change of name, and that for not the best of purposes, seems to be one of the phenomena of that illustrious city. Says the poet :

If you never have altered your name in your life,

Nor ever did up to the bar go,

Or else run away with another man's wife,
They won't let you live in Chicago.
There the infants are fed on whiskey direct,
For liquor they all to their Ma go,

And the Mully cows give, as a man might
expect,

Milk punch in the town of Chicago.

Yet it cannot be said that their morals are
bad,

Or that they too much below par go;
For the devil a moral the folks ever had,
Who live in the town of Chicago.'

At the present time, when an advertisement of the change or adoption of a surname is, on the average, of weekly occurrence in the second column of the Times; and when it is possible that some even of our male readers may be contemplating an alteration, it is of some interest to ascertain what is the legal position of persons adopt

to ask legislative aid. Indeed, he did not fully become himself again until after two more acts of the legislature, November 17, 1808, and March 4, 1809.

ing such a course.

There are two ways of effecting a change of name, the validity of which is beyond discussion-a licence from the crown, and an act of parliament. But either of these processes involves expense; and a question arises, Is this expense necessary? or is a change of name valid and lawful without its incurrence?

In cases where a testator, leaving property contingent on the adoption of a certain name by the devisee or legatee, stipulates also for a royal licence or an act of parliament to give sanction to the proposed substitution, there is no alternative, and the expense of one or other of these instruments must be incurred by the terms of the will. But this expense is no other than a fine gratuitously inflicted by the testator upon his heirs. Apart from such a direction, legal opinion and authority are unanimous that a change of name may be lawfully made by simple assumption and publicity on the part of the person changing, conjoined with such recognition on the part of others as to constitute a reputation. The only qualification is, that the change be made bonâ fide, and without fraudulent intention. A change of name, to be effectual, should be such as to enable the party adopting it to use it with effect on these several occasions :Granting and taking under grants, suing and being sued, contracting marriage, and lastly, taking under a devise or bequest conditioned for bearing a particular surname either additional or substitutionary. These are the principal, if not the only occasions, on which the legality of the change can be called in question; and for each one simple assumption of the desired name by ordinary publicity, and the continued use of it, as effectually add the name, or substitute it for the original one, as either an act of parliament or a royal licence. Cases

and precedents might be cited ad libitum in support of this position. It is recommended as advisable, although not strictly necessary, that the change should be made as public as possible, and that a record should be preserved of it; and for this purVOL. XVIII.-NO CVIII.

pose it is well that the change should be notified in the London Gazette, and such other public papers as may be thought expedient.

'Children so commonly bear the surname of their father, that they are ordinarily addressed and spoken of by the family name. Thus they acquire a surname; but it is a surname gained simply by reputation: it is not a quality vesting in them by birth. No right or claim exists previously to the building up of the the reputation.'

There is a grievance in this facility for the adoption of names. 'If names,' very reasonably demands a writer to the Times a year or two ago-'if names are to be shaken off for a mere whim, at least shield families from the discomfort of having their names appropriated by men who have no motive to keep them untarnished,' It is certainly hard that the sacred garment of a name may be put on by clowns, or fools, or scoundrels, who have been nurtured not only without, but in antagonism to, its spirit and traditions. A name which is to-day the expression of a thousand years of virtue, valour, wisdom, and patriotism, has no legal defence against the mud of vulgarity or idiotcy. Serjeant Manning, of whose authority, with that of others, we avail ourselves in venturing on the delicate ground of legality, quotes with deserved approval the 'invariable rule' of the Heralds' College, to communicate with the head of a family when any proposal is made by an outsider to assume the name of that family. And leave to assume is not granted by the college if the consent of the head of the family be withheld. But the learned serjeant desiderates a tribunal which should take universal cognizance of proposed alterations of name; and we think that he will have the sympathies of every one whose name is a chief part of his estate, in the following proposal for doing away with that communism which, if extended, would have the effect of distributing that dearest of possessions, a spotless and historic name, amongst a crowd of unknown, un

2 P

tried, and therefore possibly unworthy appropriators. Upon the whole, perhaps it would be desirable that there should be some tribunal before which every application for a licence to change a surname should be brought. That tribunal might be invested with the discretionary power, upon a full consideration of the circumstances of each case, of advising the crown to grant, or to refuse, a licence for the proposed change. The effects of

the licence, when obtained, would, as now, be not to accomplish an actual change, but simply to authorise the use of the proposed name if the applicant should think fit to avail himself of the licence by publicly assuming the name.

The inquiry might, it would seem, be not improperly referred to the Heralds' College, the investigation to be conducted publicly or otherwise, according to circumstances.'

A. H. G.

WHEN the war first broke out,

W there was considerable appre

hension lest we might be dragged into it. We were on the edge of the storm, and the thunder-cloud might burst upon our own head. We were amid the whirr and clash of machinery, and our skirts were in the teeth of the wheels. The next house was on fire, and we might soon share the fate of Ucalegon. We voted our two millions and our twenty thousand men; but at the present moment we do not know whether the men have enlisted and the money has been spent. We renewed our guarantee to Belgium, relieving a brave, honest people from a position of intolerable anxiety. Thanks to the secret treaty, we had faith in none but ourselves. Then we watched, and waited, and prayed for the dawn. We asked ourselves if we were armed, and we devised . plans of army organisation. We thought that any week, any day, we might stand committed to the war. English people were a little excited, a little nervous, a little inclined to be precipitate in judgments and conclusions. Latterly a more cheerful view of our position has been taken everywhere. From our insular cliffs we watch in safety all the vast commotion. We think we have been spared, perhaps, in consequence of our superior merits,

from the curses of the Continent. We do not now hear very much about our defences. We think we have taken a new lease of security, and that for us peace is prolonged for half a century. The fact is, that the pendulum has been oscillating between two extremes. We have fallen into exaggerations, but we should arbitrate between them, and try and strike some kind of balance. We yielded at first to panic, but we may now be more perilously yielding to over-confidence.

For

To some extent, Prussia has really been fighting the battle of England. To England, and to England alone, were Cherbourg and the French warmarine a standing menace. years it was doubtful whether the Emperor's next great war would be against Prussia or against England. No casus belli would be wanted if a Napoleonic idea could stard in its stead. Downtrodden Ireland might serve for a cry: 'Ireland for the Irish,' as much as Italy for the Italians, or Poland for the Poles. That peril is passed. Moreover, if the French had been victorious, we are afraid that the traditions of the Empire would have been followed to the extent of seizing Belgium, in defiance of the faith of treaties. If our statesmen imagine that they can make Belgium an Arcadia, cxempt from war, they are making a huge

mistake; they might as well abolish a law of nature. Our only hope is that Belgium, having long been 'the cock-pit of Europe,' she may be now allowed an interval of repose. The issue of the war, as most clearsighted men perceived, has gone against France. In sacrifices of valuable lives, perhaps the sum total is much against the Prussians. Educated, honest men, with a stake in their country, have fallen as plentifully as the dregs of an army from whom the Imperial Guard had been drafted, in order to survive, when others fell. But the conquest threatens to become subjugation as absolute as the first Napoleon inflicted for seven years upon Prussia -perhaps as absolute as William the Conqueror inflicted upon England. Our danger on the side of France appears to be indefinitely postponed.

Neither are we alarmists on the side of Germany. We hear people talk of possibilities and combinations, which at times remind us of nothing so much as the speculations of Addison's Political Upholsterer. But for all that, we dread the thunderbolt from a clear sky. There is a strong burglar instinct in nations -the instinct which made France covet German territory, while she unconscionably refuses to part with a single inch of her own.

What a city for a sack!' said old Blucher, as he rode through London; and English towns and counties would furnish very desirable subjects for requisitions. We cannot but respect our German cousins, as peace-loving, as law-loving as we can be. We especially respect their king, who is not ashamed to thank God for his victories. We think, too, that when the Germans have peace, there may be a contest to wage with the Liberal element of the Landwehr, which may tax all the resources of the Prussian administration at home. Again, if a nation is led by its successes beyond the legitimate line of conquest, it enters that downward path which eventuates in coalition of allies and in vengeance. So far from the Germans being actuated by any vulgar and detestable lust of gain, we trust that they are inaugurating

a better kind of international relations in war and peace than publicists have ever dreamed of. Still, there are complications and perplexities. As in America, so with Prussia, our neutrality brings us into trouble, and it is not a good thing that a country should have these questions suspended over it. In the letter of public law, Earl Granville is doubtless right, though we are afraid that Prussian diplomatists consider the despatches of our Foreign Office as so much waste paper, as they undisguisedly said of Lord Russell's in the Danish business. But the country would have endorsed the act of the Government if they had attended to the spirit rather than the letter of public law, and had prohibited at the outset the sale of arms. Then there is the danger that Prussia, desiring to become a neutral power, and having gained a great haven from Denmark, may seek to incorporate Holland within her widely-extending arms. The astute Dutch are forecasting the probabilities; and here would be as nice a national quarrel as could be desired. Then that shadowy Eastern question looms larger than Iever in the distance. Public faith in the treaties of 1856 is thoroughly shaken. For ourselves, although the present Sultan is a great improvement on all his predecessors, we believe that it would be an immense gain to civilisation if Turkey belonged to a Christian power, and Christians were released from their thraldom to the Turks. But it is not for our interest to aggrandise the Colossus; nor yet for our honour to be faithless to our treaties and traditions. A violent solution will probably be yet found for that problem. Already we hear the rumour that there is a complicity between Russia and Prussia. While we revise these lines there comes the news of the Circular from the court of St. Petersburg, the gravity of which it is impossible to over estimate. That cloud in the East, which seemed hardly bigger than a man's hand, has suddenly overspread and darkened our horizon. Our intangible fears begin to assume shape.

Our war of the future may not after all proceed from any of these causes; or any of these may prove a root of bitterness. It has been said, rather hastily, that the war has tolled the knell of standing armies. A great country like England, that owns India, and has a belt of colonies round the globe, must have men whose business it is to go where they are wanted to go, and to fight where they are wanted to fight. At the same time it is quite clear that no standing army can withstand the irruption of a nation in arms. We are under new conditions as respects war, and, while an ample respite and breathing-time is allowed us, we may make the preparations which, humanly speaking, may make us safe. The sea is our first line:

I say again, Heaven bless the narrow seas;
I wish they were the whole Atlantic broad.'

Our fleet is now in a very high state of efficiency; and we trust that not the loss of the 'Captain,' nor any number of Captains,' will hinder us from seizing what is really good in their construction, and keeping the navy at the highest attainable point of perfection. We think, however, that we have perhaps had too many paroxysms of congratulation over the narrow seas. Mr. Gladstone's article in the 'Edinburgh'-if, indeed, it be his-unhappily ignores all dangers except possible invasion. We are safe against invasion, in the first place, but we are not safe against a continental war in which defeat would lay us open to invasion. Our regular army, if we had one in existence, would probably be a match for as many as could force our navy, our first line, and effect a landing. It is conceivable that the second line, our regular army, might be inadequate or non-existent. We could then fall back on our third line, a nation in arms. That line at present is simply a farce, when our Volunteers have not got the Snyder, and our probable management and commissariat would be below contempt. Our only positive assurance of safety, under possible contingencies, lies in a system of the

compulsory military education resembling the Prussian organisation. We have followed Prussia in civil education; we shall have to follow her in military education. The dreaded contingencies may not happen; and to train the population in arms would be for us all a bore of frightful magnitude. Still we must pay a premium for insurance but no premium would be too heavy for the preservation of our national life and its tremendous, multitudinous interests.

THE AURORA BOREALIS.

Looking out through a window the other night upon the sky-the sky then was framed, as might be a picture, by the window-there was a deep lurid glare upon the heavens, a deep red blaze of lurid light. Only once before had I ever seen such a lurid glare. Once before when residing ten miles from town I long watched such a light in the heavens, and next day I heard of that great fire near London Bridge, the greatest fire that London had known for years. I do not wonder if country people in the neighbourof great towns thought that there was a city a-blaze, nor yet at the Ichild who asked me if these were 'the signs' spoken of in the Book as belonging to the last days. When we went into the open air and carefully looked upon the meteoric light we saw, by its extent and character, that we were gazing upon an aurora borealis of unprecedented grandeur in these islands. There was a very brilliant red as if the sky had caught fire. The ruddy glow was broken in places by silvery streams which shot up at times, flashing across the sky like rays from a setting sun, only these were white instead of scarlet. For some nights there had been auroral lights in the sky. They culminated that memorable Monday night, and the fiery tints brought out the fireengines in hot haste. Next night there was for hours a patch of red light in the sky, and shortly after sunset there was a very remarkable display at the zenith for a few minutes, streamers of white and