NEWS OF THE WEEK.
THE Queen has returned from her visit to Scotland. It might be a hazardous experiment to try, but such is the loyal attach- ment awakened by her presence among the Highlanders, that one almost wishes the same influence could be tried upon the Celts of Ireland. It might have a pacifying effect. No sove- reign has evoked a more genuine enthusiasm than the daughter of Brunswick has among the hereditary Jacobites. The reasons are sufficiently obvious, and not discreditable to any party. The succession is so far settled now, that even among the stanchest clans, the claims of Charles Edward are but a poetical tradition, possessing no kind of antagonism to the fair representative of King George. The fact that the Queen upon the throne is a young lady, may have helped to win over the last of the ad- berents of the old dynasty ; and it is most certain that if Charles Albert of Sardinia, or even a veritable Stuart, were to appear to the Highlanders, he would not find a man to rise against Queen Victoria. As to the Lowlanders !—they have conceived a real, hearty, personal interest in their fair visiter.
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But in some respects the Sovereign is even better situated than the holder of the same dignity was in the days of the Stuarts. The Sovereign of our day "reigns, but does not govern"; represents the majesty and power of the State, but not its tyranny or meddling. Released from undue personal responsibility in public affairs, the Sovereign is the freer to cultivate social relations ; and the heartiness and good taste with which the Queen has adapted herself to life in the Highlands has quite won the hearts of the Scots. It has had the tact of Alcibiades among the Spartans, only not arrogantly ostentatious of the stoicism ; the fascinations of Mary Queen of Scots, only respectable and decorous; the affa- bility of Charles Edward, only disinterested and genuine.
