accident; and here occurred an event which may seem somewhat sudden, compared with the leisurely way of managing such matters prevalent at home. We all went and spent the spare time on shore, as a matter of course; and when we returned on board a change had occurred in the condition of two of the party, Meredith and Florence being man and wife. The colonel very sensibly remarked, that if the persons mainly concerned saw no reason for delay, there was no occasion for others to start difficulties, so his consent was easily obtained; while Mrs. Merton was really so solicitous for her daughter's happiness, that she offered no opposition beyond a few conventional scruples, which were easily overruled.

Our voyage came to an end without further incident. Mrs. Meredith has never had a return of the old symptoms, and the last time I saw her was at the Zoological Gardens; so you may guess that she is not much disturbed by ideas in which wild-beasts are concerned. She was then in perfect health, and looking more beautiful than ever. Meredith did not return to India, after all, but resigned the service for more pleasant and profitable employment at home. His friends all agree, that if he is not a happy man, he must be hard to please. It is satisfactory, too, to be able to add, that Mrs. Meredith has her ball-dresses made after the same fashion as other ladies, and that no traces of a reason exist for her wearing them, as formerly, high up in the throat.

I should not omit to mention the nature of the incident which decided Meredith upon returning to India before his leave was up. It was a dream; and this is how he described it to me one night when I had been dining at his house. Mrs. Meredith had retired early; and when we were left to ourselves, our conversation took a serious turn:

"I dreamed," said Meredith, "that I was standing alone in the midst of a wild Indian jungle. I had lost my way. I knew not whither to turn, and was considering how I might shape my course by the sun, which was then sinking in the west, when I heard a sudden rustling in some bushes close by. I had scarcely time to turn, when a young tiger sprang towards me with a bound. I drew back, to place myself on my guard; but the tiger, instead of showing any signs of ferocity, seemed as timid as a hare, crouched at my feet, and plainly sought my protection against some supposed danger. I stooped and stroked its neck, and soothed it as one would a favourite dog. Still it was not pacified, but cried out with fear, shrinking, and trembling in every limb. As I renewed my caresses, in order to assure it of my sympathy, the face of the animal changed, and in its place I distinctly saw the features of Florence, her eyes wet with tears, and showing unmistakable signs of distress and terror. The vision disappeared while I was trying to speak to it, and then I woke with a start. But it remained so strongly impressed upon my mind as to decide me upon returning to India.

"I did not mention to you at the time, by the way,-I did not men

tion it to any body, indeed, but the colonel,—that the tiger we killed on board the Hoogley was the same as the one that had attacked poor Florence when she was a child. The Shergotty one could not have been more than a couple of years old, and the apparent age of the one they were bringing home would correspond exactly with the time that has since elapsed. Moreover, I have another proof. I superintended the operation of taking that rug off him."

(I was sitting with my feet on a tiger-skin rug-preserved with the skull and claws on, in a very sportsman-like manner-before Meredith's study-fire.)

"Well," continued Meredith, "if you look at the skin, you will find a bullet-hole in the shoulder; and here is the bullet I took from the flesh underneath. I always carry it about with me-there may be a charm in it."

And as he spoke he took from a little bag which he wore round his neck a rifle-bullet of a conical shape, somewhat flattened near the point, as it might be had it come in contact with a hard substance like a bone.

I did not like to make the remark, but I could not help remembering that conical bullets were not used at the time when the Shergotty adventure came to pass. Meredith, however, anticipated my objection.

"The shape of the bullet," said he, "I consider conclusive evidence. This one, you will observe, although conical, does not altogether resemble those now in use. Its peculiarities enable me to identify it as one of a batch that I had cast by way of experiment; for it occurred to me, as it did to many other men, years ago, that the spherical-shaped bullet was not the most effective. Moreover, this bullet fits the rifle which I used at the time perfectly."

After these facts I was not disposed to make any objection as to the identity of the tiger. But the remembrance of the strange story in which it was concerned set me thinking. However, I did no more than make a vague remark to the effect that the circumstances which had been recalled to my recollection were of a 66 very curious" character.

"Very curious, indeed," echoed Meredith musingly. "Of course every circumstance, from the adventure at Shergotty to the death of the tiger on board the Hoogley, can be accounted for by purely natural causes. What more natural than that I, being out prowling for prey, should come across my future wife, who was playing truant from the camp? What more natural than that, for the little service I was able to render her, she should be very grateful to me as a child, and very loving to me as a woman? What more natural than that she should pine away and grow wild when she thought I had jilted her? What more natural than that she should be revived by the excitement of going home, and fail in strength as the excitement wore off? What more natural than that she should recover under my professional attendance?-my non-professional presence having, I will admit, just a little to do with it. And as for my

dream, nothing could be more natural than that. All of my mind that was not full of Florence was occupied with tigers; and when I dreamed in earnest, of course I dreamed of both. It may be that there were other influences at work, and that the relations between Florence and the tiger and myself were of a less comprehensible character. But it is of no use talking about things that we don't understand, and I think we shall both sleep more pleasantly to-night if we agree to consider the whole affair as nothing more than a striking adventure, a mental shock, and a couple of curious coincidences."

Working Men's Clubs.

As the world grows older, men grow wiser. Knowledge belonged to the ancients; but the ancients, it must be candidly confessed, were unacquainted with that desirable knowledge which made the rest sterling, -the art of applying what they knew. Even till within a very brief period, we moderns have been groping about in gross darkness; a thick veil has covered our eyes. In matters relating to health, private and public, in matters connected with the domestic comfort of the million, in matters affecting the material well-being of the community, we have been sadly ignorant. Our rulers and law-makers, from emperors down to beadles, from parliaments to vestries, have taken a world of trouble to maintain order and tranquillity; but they have hitherto cared little to encourage the development of those principles which conduce to the happiness of the masses. Political economy has been so little understood, that our sapient Solons have generally begun at the wrong end, and created evils which it has taken generations to undo. For example, Industry, Trade, and Commerce have, in their very infancy, been laden with a weight of fetters which so cramped their natural action as to render them unable to realise all the benefits for mankind which mankind had a right to expect from them. Again, people loved to dwell huddled together in narrow, overhanging, gloomy, undrained streets, in towns hermetically sealed by high and ponderous walls, and marvelled that Plague and Pestilence should come amongst them and decimate their families. Justice avenged herself upon the criminal with hideous ferocity, instead of endeavouring, in a spirit of equity and mercy, to reform him. Labour seized her victims, and worked men, women, and children to death without the least reflection; without calculating that nature requires renovation, and that a moderate demand upon physical strength yields a multiplied harvest.

The greatest change, however, is visible in the social and intellectual ideas of the age. It is nowadays graciously conceded that ignorance is not a blessing, and does not make the poor happier or more religious. Hence a new theory has arisen, that if ignorance is to be displaced by education, education must be rightly directed. Large and powerful was the army of obstructors; but it has been defeated by the few zealous, earnest, intelligent, prayerful, and devoted workers in the cause of intellectual and social improvement. The labouring classes, instead of being allowed to rot and fester beneath the cold shade of indifferentism, have been regarded as a part, and an essential part, of the body politic, and their claims to consideration been recognised by the philanthropist. Within the last few years the Social Science Association has been formed, with the direct purpose of discovering and making known the way in which principles too long recognised in an abstract form may be practi

cally applied to our work-a-day life, and promote the well-being of the humbler classes.

As in the region of morality there are offences which no law can take cognisance of, so in the social world there is good to be effected which no legislation can achieve. It is to supply this deficiency that the individual members of the community must of themselves labour; and bravely has the work been taken in hand. In our Ragged Schools, Industrial Homes, Free Libraries, Public Reading-Rooms, and Working Men's Clubs, we have an excellent illustration of the kind of labour to which we particularly allude, though it is our intention at present to deal only with the last.

When Dr. Birkbeck established the Mechanics' Institutions, great were the expectations formed of them. It was in an age of great mental excitement, when the mind of the multitude was awakening from the sleep of centuries. No doubt the worthy founder's project was an excellent one; but either from internal or extraneous defects in its organisation, it has been a comparative failure. The "Mechanics' Institute" belongs no longer to the mechanic; it has been taken possession of by the middle classes, and the shopkeeper instead of the artisan is to be found on its Board of Directors, with a sprinkling of clergymen and gentry as presidents and vice-presidents to give it an air of aristocracy, and to take care that this ark of knowledge did not drift away into the stormy waters of Democracy and Irreligion. Hence those for whom the Institute was originally designed have been left stranded upon the shoals and quicksands of a seductive world; and the result has been, that the working classes remain, to a very large extent, in their former state of ignorance and vice-intemperance, improvidence, and a religious indifference prevailing largely amongst them.

To remedy this crying evil great and laudable efforts have been recently made to establish Working Men's Clubs and Institutes. The word club is, in our opinion, preferable to that of institute; for though one of the main objects is to afford opportunities for mental improvement, recreation, and mutual helpfulness, not the least is to enable the working men of the locality in which it is established to enjoy rational social intercourse with each other. In fact, they are intended to impart to the industrial classes that which they have not yet known,-social life. By social life is meant, in the first place, pleasant company, but not this only or chiefly; it is intended to include the feelings and habits, and all the various forms of activity, appropriate to the whole range of working men, or at least to all those who would realise their actual position of living together as fellowworkers, as neighbours, as citizens, and as men. But the promoters of these institutions have a still higher object than merely making them places where men can come to get a little amusement or a little instruction, a cup of coffee or a pleasant chat. They desire,-and this is an important aim,—that the members should be led to feel an interest in one another's welfare, and be anxious to promote the common good. This