guishable, indeed, till fractured); but it is no longer heard of. Genuine whalebone is often made white and used with garments of muslin or the like, not being seen through these so easily as the dark sort. The newest application of whalebone is that to hats; it is cut into fine strips and interlaced with straw. Such hats are very dear. Another novelty is "whalebone riband." For this white whalebone is generally used, and the shaving is so thin that ordinary print can be read through it. It is often coloured blue, red, or green, and used by saddlers in making rosettes. Walking-sticks of whalebone are also in good demand. The exceptionally thick strips cut for this purpose are rounded by being drawn through holes in a steel plate. Billiard pads of whalebone must be very smooth, and cut of a certain exact thickness. Fishing-rods are made of two carefully worked strips of whalebone, with thick silk thread wound round them. Penholders and other small articles are made of whalebone at the lathe. The hair cut off the raw whalebone was formerly used for brushes, but it is now mostly replaced by other materials. It is largely crisped and used as a filling for mattresses. This list by no means exhausts the uses of whalebone, which is continually being applied in new

ways.

Sad Rubbish.-Dean Gaisford, who induced the Clarendon Press to spend £2,000 in an edition of Plotinus, had comparatively little regard for theological learning. The classics were in those days everything at Oxford. Showing Christchurch Library one day to a visitor, he walked rapidly past all the Fathers. Waving his hand he said, "Sad rubbish!" and that was all he had to say.-Mozley's Reminiscences.

Domestic Servants.-An amusing, if not always useful, correspondence and discussion recently appeared in one of the "Society journals." From one of the letters written by a servant we give an extract: "I am sorry to say we have now a great number of gentry who have sprung from nothing, who have not a drop of gentle blood, and have not even had a good training-not as good a bringing-up as many servants -but by some freak of fortune they have gained money, and, with money, friends and influence, and a certain position. Those are the people who don't know how to treat servants, and yet expect their domestics to serve them well and faithfully. It is an old saying, and a true one, that servants are the best judges of who are true ladies and gentlemen, and I am happy to say that I have always had the good fortune to serve ladies and gentlemen." The remark is still more applicable to the treatment of tutors and governesses, who are always best treated where their employers are themselves educated and cultured. At the same time, with regard to all grades of service, the truth is that no statement as to employers or employed can be accepted in general terms, and that the treatment given or received is usually dependent upon personal and individual temper or character.

Selfishness in Children.-It has been truly said by Miss Sewell, author of an excellent work on education, that "Unselfish mothers make selfish children." This may seem startling, but the truth is, that the mother who is continually giving up her own time, money, strength, and pleasure for the gratification of her children teaches them to expect it always. They learn to be importunate in their demands, and to expect more and more. If the mother wears an old dress that her daughter may have a new one, if she works that her daughter may play, she is helping to make her vain, selfish, and ignorant, and very likely she will be ungrateful and disrespectful, and this is equally true of the husband and other members of the family. Unselfish wives make selfish husbands.

Robinson Crusoe; Fac-Simile Reprint of the First Edition.-A hundred years ago, Dr. Johnson said that "Nobody ever laid down this book without wishing it were longer. It has lost none of that popularity which, unlike most other classic English works, it obtained at its first appearance. The editions have been innumerable, and now there is added a fac-simile reprint of the first edition (Elliot Stock). volume was an octavo of 364 pages, and the title, accurately reproduced in this reprint, ran as follows:-"The Life and Strange Surprising Adventures of Robinson Crusoe, of York, Mariner who lived eight-and-twenty years all alone in an uninhabited island on the coast of America, near the mouth

The

of the great river of Oroonoque; having been cast on shore by shipwreck, wherein all the men perished but himself.

With an account how he was at last as strangely delivered by pirates. Written by himself." Four editions were called for in the first year. The original frontispiece, of which we give a reduced fac-simile, has been the conventional portrait of Crusoe in all pictorial editions. Copies of the original edition are very scarce, and bring large prices when sold at public auction. Many lovers of the book will be glad to possess this fac-simile, which is sold to subscribers for 7s. 6d., and in the open market at half-a-guinea. For large paper copies, of which only a small number has been issued, the price is thirty shillings.

66

The Workhouse Girl.-The Rev. Mr. Warner in his Literary Recollections" relates the following romantic story:-Mrs. Hackman's garden, in which she found particular pleasure, stood in need, as mest gardens do in the spring season, of a weeder; and John the footman was sent to the workhouse to select a little pauper girl for the performance of this necessary labour; and having been recommended to a diminutive little body of eight or nine years of age, he pointed out the humble task in which she was to employ herself. The child, as she was at work among the flowers, began to warble her native wood-notes wild in tones of more than common sweetness. Mrs. Hackman's chamber-window happened to be thrown up one morning, when she heard the little weeder's solitary song, and was so struck with the rich tones of the voice of the singer, that she inquired from whence they proceeded. "From Nancy Bere the poor-house girl,"was the answer. Mrs. Hackman immediately gave orders that the songster should be brought into that lady's apartment, and she was so much pleased with her naïveté, intelligence, and apparently amiable disposition, that she determined to remove the little warbling Nancy from the workhouse, and attach her to her own kitchen establishment. The little maiden, however, was too good and attractive to be permitted to remain long in the kitchen. So Mrs. Hackman soon preferred her to the office of her own waiting-maid, and had her instructed carefully in all the elementary branches of education. The intimate intercourse that now subsisted between the patroness and the protégée quickly ripened into the warmest affection on the one part, and the most grateful attachment on the other. Nancy Bere was attractively lovely, and still more irresistible from an uncommon sweetness of temper and gentleness of disposition, added to which was a feminine softness of character; and Mrs. Hackman,

whose regard for Nancy daily increased, proposed at length to her complying husband that they should adopt the pauper orphan as their own daughter, having no children themselves. Every possible attention was henceforth paid to the education of Miss Bere, and with doubtless the best success, as I have always understood that she became a highly accomplished young lady. Her humility and modesty, however, never forsook her, and her exaltation to Mrs. Hackman's family seemed only to strengthen her gratitude to her partial and generous benefactress. Shortly after this alteration in the fortunes of the workhouse girl, a clergyman of respectable appearance had taken lodgings at Lymington for the purpose of recruiting his health and for partridge shooting. The hospitable Mr. Hackman called on the stranger, and they went out shooting together, and Mr. Hackman invited him to his house. The invitations were frequently repeated and accepted as long as the shooting days lasted; nor had many visits taken place ere their natural effect on a young unmarried clerk was produced. He became deeply enamoured of Miss Bere, and offered her his hand. She, for aught we know, might have been nothing loth to change the condition of a recluse for the more active position of a clergyman's wife; but as the gentleman had no other possessions save his small living, and as Mr. Hackman could not out of a life estate confer upon Miss Bere a fortune, it was judged prudent, under these pecuniary disabilties, that she should decline the honour of the alliance. A year elapsed without the parties having met again, and it was generally supposed that absence had obliterated from their minds the remembrance or the desire to renew the acquaintance. But such does not appear to have been the case with the gentleman. At the ensuing partridge shooting season he paid another visit to Lymington, and with the dignity of "very reverend" prefixed to his name-for he had in the interim obtained a deanery-he once more repeated his solicitations, and was accepted by Miss Bere, and after a reasonable time they were married; and they lived for many years sincerely attached to each other -much respected and esteemed, and loved by all around them. The death of the husband, however, dissolved at length the happy connection. The lady survived his loss for many years; and at last the little warbling pauper girl, Nancy Bere, of Lymington Workhouse, quitted this life for a better, the universally lamented widow of the Right Rev. Thomas Thurloe, Palatine Bishop of Durham !

The use

Singular Obtuseness.-Mrs. Partington wondered why single-handed gardeners or single-handed men-servants were sometimes wanted by advertisers. Two hands, she thought, were in general few enough for the work required. of the word single as opposed to married does not seem to have occurred to the writer of the following paragraph in the Brighton Guardian": "I am a trifle perplexed at an advertisement in one of our papers. It commences'Wanted, by a single farmer's son,' etc. Now what is a single farmer's son? It cannot mean the son of a single farmer, because single farmers don't have sons; at any rate, they wouldn't advertise the fact. So perhaps it means the single son of a farmer, in contradistinction to a twin son; although, for that matter, why the public should feel interested in the son being a 'single' or a 'twin' I cannot exactly

see.

Altogether, it seems a very single-r piece of composi tion." Transpose the words "single" and "farmer," and and the puzzle resolves itself into a farmer's son, single, or "without incumbrance," as the phrase goes.

Charles Darwin on Slavery.-On the 19th of August we finally left the shores of Brazil. I thank God I shall never again visit a slave-country. To this day, if I hear a distant scream, it recalls with painful vividness my feelings when, passing a house near Pernambuco, I heard the most pitiable moans, and could not but suspect that some poor slave was being tortured, yet knew that I was as powerless as a child even to remonstrate. I suspected that these moans were from a tortured slave, for I was told that this was the case in another instance. Near Rio de Janeiro I lived opposite to an old lady who kept screws to crush the fingers of her female slaves. I have stayed in a house where a young household mulatto, daily and hourly, was reviled, beaten, and persecuted enough to break the spirit of the lowest animal. have seen a little boy six or seven years old struck thrice with a horsewhip, before I could interfere, on his naked head,

for having handed me a glass of water not quite clean. I saw his father tremble at a mere glance from his master's eye. These latter cruelties were witnessed by me in a Spanish colony, in which it has always been said that slaves are better treated than by the Portuguese, English, or other European nations. I have seen at Rio Janeiro a powerful negro afraid to. ward off a blow directed, as he thought, at his face. I was present when a kind-hearted man was on the point of separating for ever the men, women, and little children of a large number of families who had long lived together. I will not even allude to the many heart-sickening atrocities which I authentically heard of, nor would I have mentioned the above revolting details had I not met with several people so blinded by the constitutional gaiety of the negro as to speak of slavery as a tolerable evil. Such people have generally visited at the houses of the upper classes, where the domestic slaves are usually well treated, and they have not, like myself, lived amongst the lower classes. Such inquirers will ask slaves about their condition; they forget that the slave must, indeed, be dull who does not calculate on the chance of his answer reaching his master's ears. It is argued that selfinterest will prevent excessive cruelty-as if self-interest protected our domestic animals, which are far less likely than degraded slaves to stir up the rage of their savage masters. It is an argument long since protested against with noble feeling, and strikingly exemplified by the ever illustrious Humboldt. It is often attempted to palliate slavery by comparing the state of slaves with our poorer countrymen. If the misery of our poor be caused not by the laws of nature, but by our institutions, great is our sin. But how this bears on slavery I cannot see; as well might the use of the thumb-screw be defended in one land by showing that men in another land suffered from some dreadful disease. Those who look tenderly at the slave-owners and with a cold heart at the slave never seem to put themselves into the position of the latter. What a cheerless prospect, with not even a hope of change! Picture to yourself the chance ever hanging over you of your wife and your little children-those objects which nature urges even the slave to call his own-being torn from you and sold like beasts to the first bidder! And these deeds are done and palliated by men who profess to love their neighbours as themselves, who believe in God, and pray that His will be done on earth!-Naturalist's Voyage.

New River Company's Shares.-These shares are usually sold in fractions by public auction. The last registered sale was, for an Adventurer's share, at the rate of £96,048; for a King's share, at the rate of 93,549. According to the report of the Government Auditor, the receipts for the year amounted to £457,373. The dividends for several years have been above 11. The original shares, as established by Charter, are freehold, one moiety on thirty-six parts being held by the Incorporated "Adventurers, " and the other moiety on thirty-six parts being originally held by King James I, and subsequently by persons named King's Shareholders, who are not incorporated with the Adventurers. Both these moieties are again subdivided, and held by numerous persons, and, being real estate, are subject to entail and to trusts for minors. Each holder of a fraction of a share of adequate value has a vote for Middlesex and Hertfordshire. Only holders of Adventurers' shares are eligible to the Direction.-Burdett's Official Intelligence for 1883.

Coronation of the Czar.-It is on the platform of the nave of the Upenski Cathedral that Czars of Russia, ever since the days of Ivan the Terrible, have been crowned; and on that platform may be set the ivory throne brought in 1472 from Constantinople by Sofia Palæologos on her marriage with the Czar Ivan III. This curious relic is decorated with bas-reliefs which represent the story of Orpheus, and which are probably of much greater antiquity than the latter days of the Lower Empire; but many of the panels were uncouthly replaced in the seventeenth century, and the entire throne was restored for the coronation of Alexander II seven-and-twenty years ago. There is another throne in the Kremlin which may be appropriated to the use of the Empress. This gorgeous chair of State was a present from a Shah of Persia to the Czar Alexis, and was brought to Moscow in 1660. It is a very gorgeous piece of furniture, thickly encrusted with diamonds, rubies, turquoises, and pearls. From his ivory throne the Czar will be visible to the entire auditory

filling the chapel-like cathedral. On the platform of the nave he may place the Imperial crown on his own head, and the remaining ceremonies-such as the public recitation of the orthodox confession of faith, the kneeling of the sovereign alone to offer up the prayer of intercession for the Empire-may be wholly or partially seen by the congregation; but the Czar must be concealed from their view when his Imperial Majesty enters the sacred door of the innermost sanctuary to take from the altar the elements of bread and wine. The high altar in a Russo-Greek Church is shut off from the worshippers in the nave by the painted screen called the Ikonostast, the doors of which are only opened at intervals during the celebration of mass. The altar-screen in the cathedral of Moscow is covered with pictures for which the Russians entertain the profoundest veneration, one of them being ascribed to the hand of the Metropolitan Peter, while another was sent from Constantinople by the Greek Emperor Manuel, and a third was brought by the Czar Vladimir from Kherson. Now, when a Catholic or a Protestant sovereign is crowned the administration of the Communion is coram populo. At the coronation of Queen Victoria her Majesty took the sacrament in front of the altar in Westminster Abbey, in the presence of thousands of spectators. At the Upenski Sobor the coronation of Alexander III can be witnessed only by a few hundreds of spectators; while the ceremonial in the sanctuary can be visible only to the officiating clergy.-Daily Telegraph.

Cruelty to Animals in Egypt.-Mrs. Burton, from Trieste, writes a kindly and earnest letter about the cruelties witnessed in Egypt to donkeys and other animals. Mrs. Burton suggests prizes for the boys who use their donkeys and other animals well, and-stick being out of date in this philanthropic age except for poor animals-fines for the really bad. The Khedive is extremely favourable to such forms of charity; all that is needed is to secure the support of the various Khedivial princes and princesses, the harem, the most influential natives, and such Englishmen as Lord Dufferin and Sir Edward Malet. Having made the society the fashion and popular, the Khedive should be asked to issue a proclamation to all governors and kaim-makàms to levy half a piastre fine on all owners of animals found with sores or marks of illusage; the fine to be increased to a whole piastre (twopence) for hidden wounds under the saddle or trappings, or the use of the cruel strap behind, or for the mouth being gagged open while the animal stands still, or for the use of pointed sticks or goads, or for torturing pariah dogs and pups. The co. operation of the Shayhk-el-Islam would be most valuable. Prizes ought to be given annually. Mrs. Burton complains of the English, American, and Australian passengers who land, get tipsy, and maltreat the donkeys so as to horrify even the donkey-boys.

Italian Wine.-With every advantage of soil and climate, the culture of the vine is at a low ebb in Italy; from Sicily alone is the quantity exported of any account. This seems strange seeing that Italian wines were so renowned in classic antiquity. Sir Edward Barry, in his valuable work published in 1775 on the wines of the ancients, gives a high place to the Falernian. "Pliny," he says, "mentions three different kinds of wines produced from the Mons Falernus, the one of a strong, rough kind, another of a sweet and milder, and a third which was light and weaker." This shows that there was a great difference then, as now, in the quality and character of the wine produced in a given neighbourhood, and he adds, "the principal Falernian so universally celebrated was that of the rough, strong kind." It is evident that this wine required many years of keeping before it arrived at its maturity, and some put it at from ten to fifteen and even twenty years before it was fit for drinking. There must have been many varieties of wine in Italy. Some, indeed, appear to have been esteemed for their light yet grateful qualities. The vinum setinum was particularly esteemed for its light, grateful, and permanent qualities, and Pliny, says Barry, among other praises which he bestows upon it, says it was "the favourite wine of Augustus; nor is it impossible," he adds, "that this is the wine (medicinally) recommended by Paul to Timothy for strengthening the stomach, as these vineyards were but a small distance from the Appii Forum, and the ruins of the tavern where he first met his friends from Rome." What the strength of these wines may have been

it is difficult to say, but, according to a table published at the beginning of the present century, the Italian show a larger percentage of alcohol than the French. It is a fact also worth mentioning that for the last hundred years no separate place among the statistics of importation is given to Italian wines. France, Spain, Portugal, Madeira, the Rhine, and the Cape of Good Hope have their statistical place, but Italy is included in the "wines of all other sorts," show. ing that their importation has been of only a limited character. Light wines have increased in consumption in this country very largely during the last twenty years. In 1860 the quantity of French wine upon which duty was paid was about 630,000 gallons. The quantity from France alone is now more than ten times this amount. The best Italian wines are grown on the estates of the late Baron Ricasoli, who devoted himself to agriculture after retiring from public life. In most parts of Italy the culture of the vine is very rude, and the making of wine understood by few. A recent writer says: "Central Italy is par excellence fitted for the vine culture, and yet the vine in no section is properly cultivated, if we except two or three points where progress has lately begun. Not only is the vine allowed to swing between the trees, but the fruit is never thinned nor any selection of stock made. In a hundred yards of this garlandage you may find half a dozen varieties of grape, some ripening earlier, some later; so that between this inequality and the overbearing of the vines you may often see in the common vintage bunches of grapes still perfectly green go into the basket with others beginning to decay, and all go together to make the thin and sour beverage which the Greek hostages derided and the modern traveller rejects, or drinks only at thirstiest need. And it generally happens that the years of extraordinary bountiful production produce the worst wine, for the vines, being unable to ripen perfectly so great a quantity of fruit, the vintage time finds a large proportion of it still quite unfit for any use. The idea of thinning the clusters as soon as the fruit has set never enters the wine-grower's head —it would be a sacrifice of the bounty of heaven. Naturally, under these circumstances, the advantages of Italy as a wine. growing country in relation to other countries are lost.

H. R. W.

Biblical Language Natural.-The expressions-rising, setting, and travelling of the sun, the fixity and foundations of the earth, though the only intelligible language, have been found fault with. We are told "Scripture really speaks of a flat earth; and of the sky as a watery vault in which the sun, moon, and stars set; of the firmament as a solid arch, literally something beaten or hammered out; and of the Almighty as a gigantic man." Really such fault-making displays neither intelligence nor candour; if opponents would remember that no science is involved here, that these are the i every-day statements of all ages, and if they discriminate as to what is fact, and what figure, where literal accuracy is ta be looked for, and where a poetic thought, they will be pre served from an infinity of folly. The firmament is that ta which, in our eyes, sun and stars do set, and is, indeed, a space for waters. The earth, in common consideration, is ever spoken of as a plane. In a higher sense even than is stated, the sun does go forth as a giant to run a race.-" The Supernatural in Nature," by Prebendary Reynolds.

Mrs. Carlyle and Father Mathew.-"The crowd was all in front of a narrow scaffolding, from which an American captain was then haranguing it, and Father Mathew stood beside him, so good and simple-looking. Of course, we could not push our way to the front of his scaffold, where steps led up to it; so we went to one end where there were no steps or other visible means of access, and handed up our letter of introduction to a policeman. He took it and returned presently, saying that Father Mathew was coming. And he came and reached down his hand to me, and I grasped it ; but the boards were higher than my head, and it seemed that our communication must stop there. But I have told you that I was in a moment of enthusiasm: I felt the need of getting near that good man. I saw a bit of rope, hanging in the form of a festoon from the end of the boards; I put my foot in it, held still by Father Mathew's hand, seized the end of the boards with the other, and in some, to myself, up to this moment, incomprehensible way flung myself hori zontally on to the scaffolding at Father Mathew's feet.

He

uttered a scream, for he thought, I suppose, I must fall back. But not at all. I jumped to my feet, shook hands with him, and said-what? 'God only knows.' There were

faces, both of men and women, that will haunt me while I live faces exhibiting such concentrated wretchedness, making, you would have said, its last deadly struggle with the powers of darkness. There was one man in particular, with a baby in his arms, and a young girl that seemed of the 'unfortunate' sort, that gave me an insight into the lot of humanity that I still wanted. And in the face of Father Mathew, when one looked from them to him, the mercy of Heaven seemed to be laid bare. Of course I cried, but I longed to lay my head down on the good man's shoulder and take a hearty cry there before the great multitude. He said to me one such nice thing. I dare not be absent for an hour,' he said; 'I think always if some dreadful drunkard were to come, and me away, he might never muster determination, perhaps, to come again in all his life, and there would be a man lost.'"-Letters and Journal of Mrs. Carlyle.

Home for Asiatics.-No Asiatic stranger need perish for the want of a friend in London now. The Home will receive him, and for a very moderate sum-which he may easily pay either from the wages due to him from the ship he leaves, or by the note advanced by the owners whose ship he joins -feed and lodge him, and spare no trouble to restore him to his own country. Hence, to a large extent, the institution contributes to its own support. But the charges it makes are so small, the losses it incurs through the new allotment or bonus notes are so frequent, and the cases of absolute destitution it deals with so numerous, that it is bound to continue to be dependent upon outside help to a certain extent; and I believe that no one who has any knowledge of the work it is doing, no one with sympathy for the helpless of his own species, but will admit that there is not an institution in existence that better deserves the gifts of the charitable than this Home for Asiatic Strangers.-Daily Telegraph.

Snakes and Wild Beasts in India.-A writer in the current number of the "Revue Scientifique" has collected a mass of interesting figures relating to the above. He says that as many as twenty thousand deaths occur annually in India from snake-bites, and that since 1870 from a hundred and fifty thousand to two hundred thousand persons have perished in this way. India possesses more deadly snakes than any other country, and the bite of the cobra is often fatal within half an hour. In the year 1880 212,776 serpents of all kinds were destroyed, and rewards, amounting in all to 11,663 rupees, were paid to their destroyers. In the North-West Provinces and in Oude a body of Kanjars has been formed for the especial purpose of killing off the venomous reptiles of those districts. The men receive two rupees per month, and if a man is so fortunate as to destroy more than twenty snakes during that period he is paid the equivalent of about threepence per head for all in excess of that number. In 1881 wild beasts caused the death of 2,757 persons, as against 2,810 in 1880, and the number of animals killed by them every year is enormous. The leopards are perhaps the farmers' worst foes, and the tigers rank next; but the wolves are but little less destructive. In 1881 1,557 tigers and 3,397 leopards were killed.

Wellington Monument in St. Paul's.-Mr. Fergusson says: "To my mind, the great defect of the monument, as it now stands, is its truncated appearance, in consequence of its most important crowning member never having been sup plied. It is well known that Stevens designed the present structure mainly as a pedestal to support an equestrian statue of the duke, on which he was at work, and had completed in clay at the time of his death. That model has since then been cast, and is now in the crypt of the cathedral-in rather a dilapidated state, it must be confessed-but it could easily be repaired and completed, and erected in the position which it was originally intended to occupy, at an expense certainly not exceeding 200, probably considerably less. If this were done the public would then be in a position to judge of what really was intended to be the effect of the monument as designed by Mr. Stevens. If it was a success, surely the £1,000 or £1,500 could be found to cast it in bronze and place it in position, while if the effect is not pleasing it could easily be knocked away, and an urn or some sort of funereal

trophy be substituted. Anything would be better than leaving it in the truncated and unfinished state in which it at present stands."-[The erection of an equestrian statue would be a bigger blunder than that on the top of the arch at Hyde Park Corner, now happily removed. The real remedy would be the removal of all the florid ornament now forming the top of the memorial, leaving the recumbent statue in its simple grandeur.]

Indian Railways.-At the end of the year 1882-3 there were open for traffic 10,251 miles of railway, and in course of construction 2,332 miles. There has been during the year an addition of 290 miles of completed line, and an increase of the railways sanctioned or actually begun of 1,030 miles. When we take into account the vast extent and teeming population of India, and compare the figures just given with those of the railway system in any European country, they do not appear very impressive. But if we bear in mind the conditions of life in that great territory at the time when we began to construct railways, and consider the rate of progress in the face of difficulties entirely unknown in European experience, we shall have to admit that in no part of this continent has any change been effected at all comparable to that indicated by Indian railway statistics. In the year 1860 the Indian railways carried under four millions of passengers; in 1881 they carried over fifty-two millions. In 1860 the merchandise carried was 632,613 tons; in 1881 it had risen to 11,637,000 tons. The traffic receipts in the earlier year were £586,000; in the later they were £13,726,000.

French Schools and Playgrounds.-Political accidents have combined in an odd way to check all athletic tendencies among the youth of the State Schools in France. Most of the lycées were in old time richly-endowed schools under monastic rule; they had large playgrounds, and in those days French boys were adepts in all sorts of games. But when the Church lands were confiscated in 1792 the great schools temporarily collapsed, and the revolutionary Government, being in straits, sold the large playing-fields. The mischief thus done could never be remedied, and it has had farreaching consequences. When Napoleon I reorganised the educational system by instituting lycées under State management, he could not buy back the playgrounds; and since then, whenever new lycées have been built, the Public Instruction Department, having but a slender budget, has been compelled by the rising price of land to content itself with little space. The boys in lycées, therefore, spend their recreation hours in dusty, crowded yards, where they cannot learn to play; and their enjoyment when they are turned loose on leave consists in what would be thought for English boys low dissipation. They become precocious smokers, they tipple absinthe and beer in the cafés, and they read the worst novels. As for discipline, they seem to be at continual war with ushers, whom they hate and despise.

Trained Visiting Nurses.-Miss Nightingale says::-The beginning has been made of a truly "national" undertaking to bring real nursing, trained nursing, to the bedsides of cases wanting real nursing among the London sick poor, in the only way in which real nurses can be so brought to the sick poor; and this is by providing a real home within reach of their work, for the nurses to live in-a home which gives what real family homes are supposed to give-materially, a bedroom for each, dining and sitting-rooms in common, all meals prepared and eaten in the home; morally, direction. support, sympathy in a common work; further training and instruction in it; proper rest and recreation; and a head of the home, who is also pre-eminently trained and skilled head of the nursing; in short, a home where any good mother, of whatever class, would be willing to let her daughter, however attractive or highly educated, live. Every district nurse of this association was required to pass (1) a month's trial in district work; (2) a year's training in hospital nursing; (3) six months' training in district nursing, combined with attendance at a special course of instruction given at the central home by qualified medical men, and tested by written and vivâ voce examinations at the end of each course. Since the association was founded in 1875 hundreds of ladies have applied to be received as probationers, but they did not all possess the requisite capacities, nor could the association train yearly more than a limited number.

ONTRADICTIONS in character are so fre

CON

quent that it needs but little experience of life to familiarise us with them. The new position in which Etta Lacy found herself possessed few of the sweets so fondly anticipated. Her eyes were opening upon a fresh world. With the long-desired situation came a feeling of dismay at the demands that would be made upon her. The self-importance of ignorant childhood fell from her as an ill-fitting garment. All she desired had come to pass; she was rich and independent of control, yet was she more fearful than glad. Something deep down in her heart whispered that if left alone she would have more trouble than enjoyment. Miss Matty would go away and Ernest also. If they would but stay and let things go on comfortably. She did not put her wishes into definite shape. What she wanted was that they should remain as her guests, giving her the support of their presence and advice if she needed it. Miss Matty had tended her in illness, for which she now felt grateful, and Ernest she really

She

liked. The sound of his voice was pleasant to her ear, and the sight of him to her eye. would be so glad to accept his friendship if he would offer it, and also to give him a portion of her fortune, whatever Mr. Nash thought proper. Further she could not go.

All this had passed through her mind and settled down by the time Dr. Philips paid his expected visit. Far from taking Miss Matty's view, that illness of some sort was latent in her system, he thought her going on very well, and said the more she exerted herself in reason the better she would be. She was to go downstairs and to go out and to forget the invalid as much as possible.

Etta joined the others at dinner, which was at the usual early hour, though she intended to change it as soon as she began to exercise her authority. All was as customary, except that, instead of Miss Matty and Ernest sitting down to table when she was unpunctual, as they were in the habit of doing, they waited for her.

At her appearance Ernest, whom she had not