THE YOUNG ENGLISHWOMAN (Google Books)

HE Young Englishwoman of the days of the first two Georges, whatever poets

I might write of them in sentimental love-verses, were by no means as beautiful,

innocent and pure as could be desired. Poor dear girls, the fault was not theirs

—it was the fault of their training—or want of it But few of our Georgian ladies

were bookishly disposed, even amongst the cream of the upper ten. If they did read,

the books were sure to be of the naughtiest, and they made no disguise about it; they

indulged in all kinds of vagaries, told stories of the most barefaced kind, and listened

to them, with unblushing effrontery. Religion was a word never to be mentioned to

polite ears—it was only fit for cobblers and washerwomen, the good ladies never

listened to anything of the sort—it bored them; they liked to lounge in the fashionable

parks on Sunday mornings, and to have card-parties in the evening, and they did not

play for love, but staked heavily, and were the veriest of gamblers. They liked monkeys

they liked parrots, they liked lap-dogs, and French milliners and hair-dressers, and they

liked to frequent the theatres whenever anything particularly distasteful to morality

was put on the stage.

To carry on clandestine correspondence with forbidden swains, to play upon the foibles and outwit the vigilance of parents and guardians, to imitate as closely as might be practicable the execrable example of some heroine of play or story-book, to learn all sorts of trickery, all kinds of coquetry, and finally to get married by a drunken parson in the Fleet prison—this was the species of life led by many Young Englishwomen, and nothing very serious was thought about it.

What my young ladies did was, of course, closely imitated by the maids. There was high life below stairs, and pretty times they had of it. Not only my ladies and my ladies’ maids, but honest traders’ daughters followed the mode, and when they could tea/o paterfamilias into allowing them a chair to go to a party in, would swell into very fine ladies indeed, and almost made themselves believe that the bearers were their own retainers.

All through Society there was the leaven of lax morality. There was very little of maiden modesty, and as to the men, they were made to match the women. Ranelagh was in all its glory; the Folly, on the Thames, drew large numbers to eat fruit, drink wine, and listen to music, and thither the young ladies delighted to flock, liking it a good deal better than the Gato of Mr. Secretary Addison, or the grave acting of Mr. Garrick.

As to what the ladies wore, there is an amusing skit in the London Magazine for October, 1732, which describes the introduction of a young girl from the country to a party of fashionables. Her lady aunt is dressed in a robe-de-chambre, on her right sits a married lady in a close habit resembling a weed; next to her is a widow out of her first year, in a sarsnet hood and a loose round gown; on her left sits an elderly lady in a riding-hood, and another in a short cloak and apron; next there appears an agreeable young creature in a hat exactly what is worn by old women in the north, with some abatement in the dimensions; there is another in a velvet cap, with the black flap let down upon her shoulders, exactly resembling what we call fantails. Before the party breaks up two young ladies arrive who have been out for an airing. One of these has her hair tucked up under the laced beaver and feather; the other has

70 YOUNG ENGLISHWOMAN’S PROGRESS. F^gSZSPf^S”*

an upright plume, with her hair dangling to her waist; and, in short, the head-dm?e with the peaks, lappets, and roundings, and the several habits with the sleeves, robinrs. pleats, lacings, embroideries, and other ornaments, are so various in their cut and shape that the young girl from the country imagines herself in an assembly of the wives and daughters of the foreign ministers then resident in town, and when their language undeceived her, as readily concluded her aunt had appointed a solemn massquerade with a general exception to visors.

A good many ladies—young ladies, and even some elderly parties—went in for simplicity. A charming thing is simplicity when people are their own natural selves, ac; dress according to a simple taste. But our Young Englishwomen who paraded their simplicity in the days of the Georges were only conspicuous for offensive dandyism They were Sylvias, they were milkmaids, they were shepherdesses, they played a mow pastoral, and were as far from innocence as anything that is quite the opposite of another. In doggerel rhymes the surprise of an old gentleman from the country is ■set forth at sight of the new-fangled fashions:

“Look! yonder comes a pleasant crew,

With high-crowned hats ; long aprons too;

Good, pretty girls, I vow, and swear—

But wherefore do they hide their ware?”
“Ware! what d’ye mean? What is’t yon tell?”
“Why, don’t they eggs and butter sell?”

“Alas! no; you’re mistaken quite:
She on the left hand, dressed in white,

Is Lady C !her spouse, B knight;

And for the other lovely three,
They all right-honourables be.”

Oh, they were nice times! We condemn our own, and with the sharpest steel pen —or goose-quill on foolscap—write down the Girls of the Period. Are they worse than their great-great-grandmothers when they were girls? I trow not.

Mr. Spectator directed his eloquent and polished wit to criticising the dress of the ladies, and declared seriously he thought of establishing an officer to be called the Censor of Small Wares, because, he says, ” To speak truly, the young people of both sexes are so wonderfully apt to shoot out into long swords or sweeping trains, bushy head-dresses or full-bottomed periwigs, with several other encumbrances of dress, that they stand in need of being pruned very frequently, lest they should be oppressed witt ornaments and over-run with the luxuriancy of their habits.” He tells us that b received a letter desiring him to be very satirical upon the little muff then in fashion; and another sends him a heavy complaint against ” fringed gloves.” He devotes a whole paper to the subject of ladies’ head-dresses, commencing with a declaration that “there is not so variable a thing in nature”; adding, ” within my own memory I hare known it rise and fall above thirty degrees. About ten years ago it shot up to a very great height, insomuch that the female part of our species were much taller than the men. I remember several ladies that were once very nearly seven feet high that at present want some inches of five.” Then came the startling novelty of the hooppetticoat and the tight-lacing, whereon a reviewer in a weekly journal speaks his mind freely. Says he, “Nothing can be imagined more unnatural and, consequently, less agreeable. When a slender virgin stands upon a basis so exorbitantly wide, she resembles the funnel, a figure of no great elegancy; and I have seen many fine ladies of a low stature, who, when they sail in their hoops about an apartment, look like children in go-carts.” Mr. Spectator tells his readers of being in a country church on the borders of Cornwall, when, in the midst of the service, a lady, ” who is the chief woman of the place, and had passed the winter in London with her husband, entered

Xn* s&Srt^&?m”\] YOUNG ENGLISHWOMAN’S PROGRESS. 471

the congregation in a little head-dress and a hooped petticoat. The people, who were wonderfully startled at such a sight, all rose up. Some stared at the prodigious bottom, and some at the little top of this strange dress. In the meantime the lady of the manor filled the area of the church, and walked up to the pew with unspeakable satisfaction, amidst the whispers, conjectures, and astonishments of the whole congregation.”

Hogarth depicts not only the dress but the habits of fashionable life—and they are habits which we do not envy. The novelists show us a good deal of what was going on; and if the Stage is the mirror of nature, the artificial nature of that period must have been far from beautiful. With all their affectation of refinement and simplicity, the Young Englishwomen were schooled in very loose morality; and whatever may be said of the ” fast” young ladies of the present time, there is that about them which contrasts very favourably with the mock heroics and simulated modesty of their predecessors of the early Georgian age.

FIDELE.

When I am living out of view,
And minister no more to you,
But tarry still beyond my date,
You will not question much my fate.
When I achieve my earthly end,
You will not sorrow long, my menu.
There is no widow but hath smiled;
A toy diverts my sobbing child;
My debtor is released of me;
My creditor avenged would be;
My comrade puts me wholly by;
My foe sneers at me where I lie ;
And equally, upon my fall,
My house is open to them all;
My bird sings daily as of yore,
Some other hand repairs his store;
My roses blossom in the sun,
They do not miss me, any one;
My ships, unvaried in their speed,
One little death will scarcely heed;
Though well applauded, widely famed,
How soon a name may be unnamed.
Yet, faint with hunger, wild with fear,
Because my step she cannot hear,
And knows no other voice than mine,
With ceaseless wail and piteous whine,
With tearless eyes, with grief possessed
And anguish gnawing in her breast,
Yet spurning every power to save,
My hound will starve upon my grave.

A world full of carnivorous humans

I think I’ve been thinking a lot about it but to give you an outline carnivorous humans might not process starch much or effectively so. If they were to use fruits and plants in general at all, they’d normally use it to make soaps, dyes (especially the rinds), fabrics, medicines and livestock feed out of. Being carnivorous, though they can farm and raise livestock it’s not so much where their lifestyles might be comparable to actual pastoralists and hunter-gatherers such as Inuit, Sami and Maasai. They could even do similar things like those of Maasai.

One might parsimoniously assume that there might be already humans already adapting to taking advantage of meat such as the Inuit but it’s largely due to their arctic lifestyle where there’s really no use for them to grow vegetables in snow and ice. Like I said, Inuit might already be using plants to make clothing and dyes out of. It’s not necessarily a healthier diet but practically the one they’re stuck with given the environment they’re in for a long time.

(Maybe similar for Maasai but I simply don’t know.)

Humanoids based on felids and wolves/dogs (especially those that can’t process starch at all) might be closer to hunter-gatherers like Inuit and pastoralists like Maasai with slight modifications for the former being obligate carnivores. It’s not that they wouldn’t use plants at all but they won’t use it for food and if they were to consume it themselves (as these would double as livestock feed), it’d be consumed as medicine.

Abusing pharmaceutical drugs can be addictive and unhealthy when done frequently and that’s like asking why don’t regular human beings eat indigo and madder.

Wolves into dogs

A bunch of people were trying to find somewhere nice to bury the dead. Digging up something to conceal the body and then as they leave, wolves dig up to eat the body. The following week, two people died. Still trying to find somewhere to bury them with, they ended up dumping their bodies in rivers where wolves eventually ate them. In that same place but in another orientation, people were using it to defecate and urinate with.

After they leave, wolves eat those up. Eventually more and more wolves came to eat faeces and corpses strewn everywhere and anywhere, becoming more accustomed to humans. Some went on begging for food which others gave them, others were annoyed and went on stoning them. A few adopted dogs but even then they got mocked for being too affectionate.

Eventually the wolves started looking different but some remain suspicious of those animals. Even those who used them for hunting don’t trust them much, not allowing them inside for long. Sometimes starving them to hunt, socialising them with other wolves to hunt vermin and even then they hunted animals themselves to the chagrin of others.

Some people were so wary of dogs that they sometimes believed evil spirits and witches would either use or appear as them. Thus either avoiding them or hurting them though some cared for their wounds and kept on feeding them. Their howls and barking would sometimes pester people so wolves were excluded from houses again.

Several years later, though some have changed some of these animals still roam in countrysides with some visitors wondering if they’ve been abandoned or not.

Illustrated London News (Google Books)

The Illustrated London News, Volume 9
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stand lengthwise of the stream. It stands on a centre pier, twentytwo feet square, composed of thirty-seven piles, thirteen inches square, driven down into the solid ground, and capped with two thicknesses of 6-inch planking ; leaving between this and the approach on either side an opening of 40 feet for ship tratiic.

The Bridge itself consists of a bottom roller-path (or large circle), of 17 feet diameter, weighing about 12 tons, securely fastened to the_top of the centre pier; on this is placed a ring of cast iron, being a sort of frame or roller ring, containing the rollers on which the Bridge turns: these are sixteen in number, and 18 inches diameter by 12 inches wide. On these is placed the top roller-path, of a similar diameter to the bottom one; and upon them the girders, which are very strong, and ornamented on their sides with mouldings, 8m. Each girder is in two pieces, bolted and dowelled together, the joint being covered up with a shield-plate, on which the initials of the company (S.E.R.) are twisted into an ornamental monogram. L’pon these girders come two large standards in the Moorish style of architecture, weighing about eight tons each; and upon the top of these are placed two large plummer blocks, with the bearing of a six-inch pin of wrought iron. on which are two joint-plates that contain the nuts for the end of the tie-bars. This not is cut right-handed, and the one in the tie-rod lefl-handed, so that the screw which connects the two, being turned by means of a wrench, either tightens or slackens the tie-rod; a very

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necessary appliance, as the difl’ereuce of temperature considerably affects so long a rod of wrought iron. These tie-rods are principally used when the Bridge is swung, as they then support the girders by being attached tothem underneath, by means of a ‘IQ-inch pin. They are twelve in number, and are double thicknesses of 6 inches wide by 1 inch thick of wrought iron. The top ends of these, and the standard-heads, are covered up by a large ornamental cap, on the front of which is emblazoned the Cinque Ports arms, Rye being one of the towns under the Lord Warden. was!

The swinging of the Bridge is accomplished by means of spur and bevil-wheels: two men can swing ,it easily in about two minutes and a half.

The adiourned meeting of the Committee for the Cambridge Military Asylum was held on Saturday last, at the Freemasons‘ Tavern, Lord Robcrt Grosvenor, MR, in the chair. to consider a report of the dual arrangements for the erection of this asylum about to be submitted to the general body of subscrihers. Among the subscriptions announced was that of the Duke of Norfolk of £50; and an intimation was given that his Majesty the King of Hanover felt disposed to honour this most excellent object with a munitlcent donation.

It is said that one of the measures of economy which is contemplated by the Government is the consolidation of the duties of colonial treasurer and of the commissariat once: in charge of the military chest.

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N A TIONAL ILLUSTRATED LIBRARY,
IN MONTHLY VOLUMES ;
Each containing THREE HUNDRED and TWENTY PAGES, and from THIRTY to l
HUNDRED EXURAVINGS.
Prion llALF-A-CROWN, BEAUTIFULLY BOUND. .

The again which we livu is essentially of a PRACTICAL character, and the prodorulnant principlu lntlurilclng all classes is a marked dcsini for cunt-sass. Chcapuose. ‘ vv . is too ofll-n found without nxcsllenco. and hence this proposition to supply a dcdeiancy at present existing in [M popular literature of this country.

For somo time put the projectors of tho present undertaking have felt interested in watching thu result of an experiment simultaneously made by the London. Edinburgh. and Dublin Book Trades, and, having seen that chcap, and occasionally indiflsrunt Illa-razors, “got up” in a most inforlor manner, will sell. thoy fuel aaaurvd thtlt good and judiciously selrcwl works, having the additional advantagc of COPIOL’s ILLUSTRATION, hoing nocd with tho utmost alwntlon to general clcrllent‘c, and published at tho moderate p on had upon. cannot full to locum eatr-naivo patronage from the Reading Public. The principle upon whit-h they can uudertako to supply good books at a low ram is. that. being I ‘ the At’Tl‘AL PRODUL‘ERS, they are cnabled to save the public tho expense of all INI‘IMKDIATI PROFIT.

As is practical explanation of the above vim, it is, therefore, pro d to uhllah. on the list of March nuxt, THREE SAMPLE VOLUMES of tho “ NAT UNAL I .LUSTRATEI) LIBRARY.” These “oluruel will but widely dill’urt-nt In character, in order that the public may form some idea of the extent and variety of the series gent-rally. Afterwards, one ‘v’olume will he issued Monthly. Each Volume will contain at least ill) crown octavo pages, illustrated, “cording to the requircmt-nta ofthe auhjcct matter, by from 50 to I00 illustrations. and will ho strongly bound in ornamental cloth boards. Thus. for thirty shillings a your, in the course of a short period. a Library of gn-at cstent and intent-st may be hrrncd, which ahall furnish materials for instruction and amusement during the course or a on; lifh.

The chi-sf advantngoa which this Serica of \Vorks will present ovcr al 0! MP‘ monumcllllly the ciosi-ly printed double column editions, and the uaw-f’ushioard, though equally el> jectinnahls, Shilling Ilooka, with their numerous errors, thin paper, and flimsy binding-are I-bu follow

l. A aarufhlly Revised Text.
2. .Iudicioua Explanatory l-‘ooFNolas. 5. Good Paps-r and Printing.
8. Engravlngs really illustrating the Text. a Strong and neat Binding.

A portion of tho Works lnlcndod to be publlshod nudur the title of the ” Narloxar. luvsTRATLII Llttltartv” will consist of can-fully oditod rvprlnta of such writl-rll as present a true vitality in their pay”. including many of thme gruat masterpieces of the human mind, which, having survived til-yond the gt-neraticn for which they worn wrlttcn, art: now universally rccogniu-d as Wurlhy to flourish so long as the English language is spoltrn. and an aoquaintanco with which is indi-pounahly ncoomary to all who prctend to a tum for English literature.

Tho lwrles will llso comprise original works. espncially WHllPn llv competent authors, upon all rullil’btl of general interest. extending to those arising out of political nlovrmeula, or from aocisl lulvuneouwnt. which so froqunutly eugrou the national attention. Than latter toplu will I» promptly trcaled of, that the purchasers of this Ubrary may be placed at ones on a level with thuao who lit-vote themlelvcs to this gathering such information. In issuing tho aarioa. thorn will he no formal ment; but volumes on general llteratura, history, biography, travels. popular acic-noe, an fiction will follow each other ; the whole compriain‘ such a variety of Illustrated War- as shall firm a oomplde and codtpandious Library for the Insulin Public.

lianlfamong those to whom this prospectus is addressed must have observed that am gmt baton; oftha rcaent period is the conveyance of instruction by appealing to the e s. It will be readily untferntood that whole pages of narrative and long a truss descri onaniaybe comic-hand into an Illustration to his wnlpruhcndod at a glsncu. I‘irtures fix indnlihly on the mind circumstoncoa that might rlrhorwim escape the memory: and a livrllmsss of attention is thus vaulted. and a relief afl’ordvd to the mental faculties which is aa rocablc to adults as lochildrvn. Thorn can be tlollouht that the pencil ladrstined fur the tum to perform as prominent a part in our popular literature as tho pan, or that the dilfinion of knowladgu haa aln-lnly lawn greatly augmented by its powers.

it‘ it be thought that the ton-going pmll-saiona are too diffuse and too difficult of accomplishment. it may be said, that the prusent idea is strictly in accordanq: with the operation of the general progress of Literature. sinus it will he found that evcry generation has had its wants similarly for. The pruaant undlrrtakl . howevor. is wider in its. scope, more profound in its aim, and mom profuse of its amboll htnents. lllmtrarlons, and editing, than any fonncr projl-ct. and is strictly in accordance with the amazing prvu’rr- that has hon their machanlml devulopmsnts, during

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made in cvory do uncut at‘ Lisrrature and An. and the last portion 0 this half-century.

In carrvinl: out their undertaking, it will be the endeavour of the projectors to bostow upoa Half-crown Vulumva for this IASY tho srlmo typographical accuracy. and the saint: artistic abilitv, hitherto almost exclusively dovou-d to high-priced books yr lhs rlw. Supported n this c’o-opvvrlltion of the Reading Public, no pains will be apart- to providc evcry Engli home with a complete treasury of knowledge and cntertaiumcut in the volumes of the NATIONAL ILLUSTRATED IIIRARY.

Oillea of the lLLtls’l’an’lu D0300! Nll’s, 1%, Strand. London.

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TII’E Papal Aggression Bill introduced by the Government does not appear to give complete satisfaction to any party in the State or the Church. To those friends of civil and religious liberty to whom all religions are alike, it appears to go too far, and to savour of persecution; to that portion of the Sectarisn community who dislike the Church of England almost as much as they hate the Church of Rome, it is also unplcasing, not because it is severe against Rome-for in that respect no measure could exceed what they would consider a just and fitting amount of punishment—but because a victory obtained by the State and the law over the Church of Rome would be the triumph of the Protcnant Church Establishment. A third party, composed of the sincere adherents of that inoffensive Church of Englund,which has been so wantorlly assailed, incline to the opinion that the measure of the Government is not sufllcieutly stringent to cope with the evil; and that I’opcry, by an insuflicient enactment, will only be encouraged to further insult and aggression. We trust, when the bill is printed, and its details better known than they are at present, that it will be found effectual for its purpose, and that the Roman Catholic Bishops, Archbishops, and Cardinals will discover that they cannot be allowed to invade the privileges of the Church of England, and the rights of the Sovereign, by the assumption of territorial titles, without incurring and receiving punishment. The friends of civil and religious liberty, including the foremost statesmen of our time, in conceding to the Roman Catholics of England and Ireland the fullest enjoyment of every privilege enjoyed by the other citizens of this great empire, imagined, as Lord John Russell has confessed he did, that Rome had ceased to be aggressive ; and that, in attaining equality, it would be satisfied, without striving for superiority. In that expectation they have been deceived; and Rome, having taken the first step, and presumed so far upon toleration as to show intolerance, and to affront the State by whose active interference, and the Church by whose passive acquiescence, she was raised from a position of inferiority before the law, must now be taught, once for all, to know her true position in this country. At present it would appear that the mildrless of the Ministerial measure has but stirred the priests of the Roman Catholic Church to further insolcrlce. Dr. Ullathorue, of Birmingham, and the famous “ John of Tuam,” have both rushed into print, with letters of which it is diflicult to characterise with sufiicient severity the bad taste and the bad spirit. Dr. Ullatllorrle boldly asserts that the Bishops of his Church will disobey the law if passed, and asks, “ is it wise, and in the spirit of a profound legislation, to put the religious teachers of a large body of her Majesty’s subjects in conscientious opposition to the law, to force them to put the principle of Divine law in opposition to a human enactment ?” Dr. M‘IIale-—wll0 seems to concentrate in his own person as much. pride, ambition, and unscrupulousness as exist in the whole bod of the Propaganda, the Pope included-hurls defiance against the nglish Church, in his characteristic epistle to the Premier ; and talks with rabid glee of the “falling ramparts of the Protestant establishment,” and of the day, which he considers to be close at hand, when Roman Catholics, more especially the Hibernian section of them, shall “fill our cities, towns, fields, armies, and Senate,” leaving nothing but the “convcnticles” to the Protestant English. The raving of this ecclesiustic shows the animus of that portion of the Romish clergy who have instigated the unhappy Pope to attack the Queen and the Church of England, and becomes of importance for that reason. But the unlock! with which this fierce aggressor taunts the Minister with neglecting weighticr affairs in order to discuss theology in the House of Commons is not a little amusing; and would be more so, were it not for the indignation which must mingle with the laughter of those who peruse his invcctive. “Is the condition of the people of the United Kingdom so comfortable and satisfactory,” he asks, “us to release its Prime Minister from all solicitude respecting their physical sufferings and privutiorls, and to allow him full leisure to turn the House of Commons into a scene of theological dobam, displaying but little of its light, and much of its noisy strife, while warring against the shadowy phantom of Papal Aggression ?” Dr. M‘Hale knows full well, that, for the mischievous result which he affects to deplore, the Pope and such men as himself‘, and not the Protestant ministers of Protestant England, are to blame ; and he also knows that the aggression of his party is not a phantom, but an ungrateful and wicked reality. The country is far more sick than the priests can be of the theological strife which the pretensions of the Ultramontane zealots have

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raised; and sincerely regrets, which we can scarcely believe Dr. M‘Hale to do, that the progress of many urgent and essential measures of public improvement should have been retarded by discussions, of which every day’s continuance is a nuisance and an evil.

We trust that, once for all, b the issue of this business, the Pope and his advisers will be tsug t to look at home. There are signs and portcnts that the Italian revolution is not crushed-that the [love of Italian freedom burns brightly in the hearts of the Italian people, who scorn the temporal as well as the spiritual power of the Pope, and that M. Mazzini runs no bad chance of being once more a triumvir, or the President of an Italian Republic. Were it not for the soldiers of the French Government, a mouth would, in all probability, not elapse before the Pope would be once more in Naples in trembling exile, or safe in Avignon, like some of his pre— dcccssors, and M. Muzzini supreme in Rome. However this may be, the Pope must be taught to keep his hands off the Church of England; and no fear of being accused of persecution must be permitted to interfere with the determination of the British Govern~ ment to repel an aggression which it did not provoke, and from

‘ which its tolerant and enlightened policy towards the conscientious

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jTHE Legislative Assembly of’ the new. Republic has rejected

the dotation of the President, and consigned Louis Napoleon to poverty for the remainder of his term of office. The circumstances under which this act has been committed are by no means creditable to the Assembly, and have gone far to destroy the small

‘ remaining vestiges of its popularity. The President, on the con

trary, with his usual tact and good feeling, has made use of the ciris position, and to found a new claim to the regard of the country. A public subscription was mentioned by his friends as the means, not only of relieving him from the embarrassment caused by the expenditure of his allies, but of gaining a triumph over the Assembly ; and there is no doubt that, if both objects had been thought desirable, he could easily have accomplished them. But he has looked deeper into futurity, and sacrificed the small successes of to-day for the more brilliant triumphs of to-morrow, by declining and forbidding any subscriptions. Already this wise self-denial has igaiued him adherentsin every quarter, and once more he is the master of the position.

There remains another great and all-important question for solution by the Assembly ; and, judging from the temper it has displayed upon the Dotation project, it is not likely to settle it in a manner in accordance with the personal necessities of the President, or with the openly avowed wishes of those millions of French citizcns who made him what. he is. That uestion is, the revision of’ the Constitution of 1848, and the uboition of the clause which prohibits the immediate re-election of the President after the expil’y of his four years of officc. That will be the great battle of parties in the Assembly and in the country, and the real crisis of the fate of the Republic. Come when it may, all Europe will watch the result with the strongest interest and curiosity, and the sinccrest hope that it will be settled without convulsion.

COURT AND HAUT TO.V.

THE COURT AT BL’CKINGHAM PALACE.

The Queen and Prince Albert. accompanied by their Royal Highnesses the Prince of Wales and the Princess Royal, with Prince Alfred. Prince Arthur, and tha Princesses Alice, Helena. and Louisa,arrivcd at Buckingham Palace at a quarter before live o’clock on Wednssday afieruoon, from Windsor Castle. The Royal party travelled byaspecial train on the Great Western Railway. vrers mortod from the station by an escort of the lGth Lanceers. and received at Buckingham Palacc by the Countess of Mount Edgcumbe, the Master of the Horse, the Lord Chamberlain, Lord George Lenuos, Colonel Wylds, and the Master of the ilouaehold.

Itiacapected that her Majesty will remain in town for the scammgy‘tfla exception of a short ajour in the Isle of Wight during the Easter recess.

The proceedings of the Court during the week which has just closed have not been without interest, and may be thus briefl chronicled :

On Friday the Marquis of Westminster as rd Steward had an audience of the Queen to present an address from the House of Lords, in reply to the Speech from the Throne. On the same day (is: Right lion. W. S. Lascelles. M.P., comptroller of the Household, had an audience of her Majesty, and presented the address from the House of Commons on the same subject.

On Saturday, his Royal Highness Prince Albert came to London and presided at a meetlutt of the Royal Commission for the Promotion of the Exhibition of l85l. His Royal Highness returned to Windsor in the afternoon. The Duchess of Kent dined with the Royal circle on Saturday.

On Sunday the Court attended divine service in the private chapel of the Castle. Her Royal Highness the Duchess of Kent was also present.

On Monday, the Queen, with the Prince of Walcs and the Princess Royal, drove out in a pony phacton in Windsor Park, accompanied by his Royal Righness Prince Albert on horseback. The Duchess of Kent lunched with her Majesty on Monday morning, and on the same day the Queen gave an evening party, to which a select circle bad the honour of ruceiving invitations. Her Majesty’s private band, with several eminent artistes from the Orchestras of tho Philharmonic Concerts and Iloyalfsnd Italian Operas, at’ollded, and performcd, under the direction of Mr. Andcrsou, a variety of favourite moruauz.

On Tuesday the Queen held a court and Privy Council.

On Wednesday the Court returned to town.

On Thursday, the Queen and Prince Albert honoured the Lyceum Theatre with their presence. The Royal suite consisted of the Countess of Mount Edgcurnbc, the lion. Matilda Pallet. Lord Duflerin, Lord Charles Fitzroy. and Liontenant-Colonel the lion. Alexander Gordon. His Royal Highness the Duke of Cambridge visited Prince Albert at Buckingham Palace.

The Countess of Mount Edgcurnbe has relieved the Vlscountess Jocelyn in her duties as Lady in Waiting to her Majesty.

THE QUEEN’S COURT, kc.

The Queen held a Court and Privy Council on Tuesday, at half-past two o’clock, at Windsor Castle.

At the Council her Majesty prlckcd the list of Sheriffs for the dlfl’erent countics of England and Wales for the pram: year.

The Duke of Newcastle had an audience of the Queen, and delivered to her Majesty the insignia of the most noble Order of the Garter, worn by his father the late Duke of Newcastle.

The Marquis of Lansdowne (Lord President) had an audience of the Queen.

Lord John Russell had also an interview with her Majesty.

Lord Lovat, Lord Dormer. and Lord You: of Harrowdeu, three Roman Cstholic peers, had an audience of her Majesty.

Her Majesty having been pleased to appoint Sir R. Williams Bulkeiey to be Lord-Lieutenant of the county of Caernlu-von. the oaths appointed to be taken thereupon were administered to the hon. Baronet.

A deputation of Protestant Dissenting Ministers, of the three denominations, had an audience of the Queen to present an address to her Majesty on the Papal Aggression. The deputation was introduced by the Right lion. Sir George Grey, her Majesty’s Principal Secretary of State for the Home Department.

Her Majesty was attended by Lord Dufferin, Lord in Waiting, and IneuL-Col Hon. R. Boyle, Groom in Waiting.

A dzjeaner was served in the Castle to the Ministers and Oflicers of State present atlshtzxcourt, and also to the Protestant Dissenting Ministers of the threc denom a one. _

Her Royal Hlghnsssthe Duchess of Kent, attended by Lady Fanny Howard, Baroness dc Speth. and Sir George Coupcr, arrived in town on Thursday afternoon, from her residence at I-‘rogmorc. Her Royal Highness visited the Duchess of Gloucester on her way to Clarence House, St. James’s.

Their Royal Highnesses the Duchess of Cambridge and the Princess Mary left l-‘rogmore, the residence of her Royal Highness the Duchess of Kent, on Saturday momlng. travelled to town by the Great Western Railway, attended by Baron Knssebock. and paid a vialt to her- Royal Hilzhnc-‘s the Duchess of Gloucester, at Gloucester House. In the afternoon the Duchess of Cambridge and the Princess Mary roceetied to Row.

Ills R0 al igbness the Duke of Cambridge, Knight Grand Cross of Sr. Mic l and St. George. has been nominated by her Majesty Grand gtashter of that distlngulahod Order, in the room of Ills Royal Iiighuess’s lab

er.

The Marchioness of Ailesbul-y had a soirée on Tuesday evening, at the family mansion in Glusvanur-square. Her Lsdysllip has issued invitaitions ‘for two more “receptions ” on Tuesday next, and on Tuesday the 26th nsian .

Lad Trllro had a wide on Thursday evening, which was very numerous y and fashionably attended.

At the annual meeting of the Royal Dublin Society, held on Monday, his Excellency the Lord-Lieutenant distributed the premiums among tbs successful pupils of ” the School of Dsngu.’_’_

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CHURCH, UNIVERSITIES, g-c.
OXFORD.

Arrangements have been made, by permission of the Curators of the Taylor
Institution, for exhibiting Mr. Hope’s Entomological Collection to members of
the University, and strangers introduced by them (free of charge), on Mondays,
Wednesdays. and Fridays, during the Academical Term, between the hours of
two and three, until further notice.

The examination and election of a Craven Scholar terminated on Saturday afternoon, in the election of Mr. George Ridding, Commoner of Baliol. There were no less than 28 candidates, of whom it is understood that Mr. Abrahal, of Baliol also. protri’me acrurif.

There will be an election at Queen’s College on Tlmrsday, the 20th March, of two ekhibitioners; one on the foundation of Kean Fitzgerald, Esq, for natives of Middlcsex; the other on that of Sir Francis Bridgman, for natives of Lancashire. Cheshire, or Wiltshlre. Candidates for the Fitzgerald exhibition must have attained their fifteenth and not exceeded the twentieth year of their age; and, if members of the University, must not have been matriculated more than twelve calendar months. Candidates must present to the Provost. on the Saturd~.iy before the election, certificates of their baptism, and testimonials of good con-lnct from their college or school.

The number of members on the books of the several colleges and halls amounted, on the lst of January in the present year, to 6060; at the same period last year the number was mm. The members of convocation have increased

during the same time by 58.

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Fuvi’rs or run UNIVFR’ITY Cossnrssrorn-A corres ndent says: -” The Greek professor at Ca bridge proposes to lecture on hucydides, and that admission to those lectures should be free-for the first time. it is to be hoped they will be well attended, for though probably they may neither be profound nor very ingenious, they will assuredly be instructive and useful to the ordinary student. This first fruit of the University Commission will, it is trusted, be followed by other reforms in ‘ institutions so perfect that they needed no reform at all.’ ”

We learn that the whole issue of the first edition of “ Dr. Pusey’s
Le’ter to the Bishop of London” was exhausted in two days, so great was
the demand ; and that a cheaper edition is about to be issued. The reverend
Doctor has also another reply to a rejoinder of Mr. Dolsworth’s in the press.

Mn. iiitnivm‘s Cuna’rits.—Testimonials, chiefly from the poorer members of the congregation, have been presented to the three curates of St. Barnabas. Mr. De Gex and Sir F. Ousely are about proceeding,through Spain and Portugal to the Holy Land; Mr. Fylfe remains as.the sole curate in charge.

Two beautifully carved oak Glastonbury chairs for the communion table, the gift of Edward Colston, Esq, have just been placed in Southbroom Church, Devizes. They are from the manufactory of Mr. Reeve, of that town, and are executed in a style that would do credit to the first house in the kingdom. They bear the following inscriptlon—“ tiuic Ecclesiie, Edvardus Colston, D.D.D.. A.D. MDCCCLI.” . _ ,

A Nouns Conrosurc-The Earl of Wilton has in the press a collection of hymns, chants, and responses, of his own arrangement, and which are by permission, dedicated to the Queen.

Accordin to the )Iorm’ng Post, one of the churchwardens of Wallsend, Mr. Coo , who. with his man servant, entered the church of that parish under cover of the night, two or three weeks ago, and sacrileglously carried oi!

the candlesticks from the altar, and placed them in an auction-room in the town for sale, has received a letter from the Bishop of Durham, commanding him to replace them. _ ‘

There is no foundation for the report that the Bishop of hewfoundland was about to be translated to the vacant see of Nqa Scotla. No appointment has as yet been made to the latter bishopric.

PRRFERMENTS AND Arrornrsranm-Ths following preferments and appointments have been recently made:-Rev. J. A. Ewing, to Westmill, Hcrts; value £474. and residence; patron, Countess of Mexborough. Rev. J. H. Gandy, to Old Cleeve Vicarage, Somerset; value £466, and residence; patron. Rev. A. Liittrell. Rev. G. J. Garton, to Beighton Curacy, Derbyshire. Rev. J. S. Hall, to Dalby Rectory, Yorkshire; value £26l, and residence; patron, the Rev. Canon Grey. Rev. J. G. E. Hasluclt, to Little Sodbury Rectory, Gloucestcrshire; value £235, and residence; patron, W. H. H. Hartley, Esq. Rev. F. Hewlett, to Winster Perpetual Curacy, Westmoreland; value £6l, and residence; patron, Vicar of Kendal. Rev. T. S. Polehampton, to the Second Mastershlp of Crewkerne Grammar School,Somerset~hiro. Rev. R. Roe, to Broadway and Rincombe Curacy, Dorset. Rev. J. S. Uptvon (Rector of Tan. kersley), to Doneaster Deanery House, archdiocese York. . Watson, B.A., to the Mastership of Peterborough Grammar School. Rev. J. R. Anderson, to Town Barnlngham Rectory, Norfolk, on the presentation of John Thomas Mott. Esq, of Town Barningham Hall, in the said county. .

Vacancies-Rams: Borrisokane, diocese of Killaloe; patron, Bishop of Killaloe; Rev. T. Walker, promoted. Halkin. Flintshine, diocese of St. Asaph; value £3l‘2, with residence; patron, Bishop of St. Asaph ; Rev. W. M. Williams, promoted. Llyswen, Brecknockshire, diocese of St. David, value £l45; patron, Joseph Bailey, Esq, M.P.; Rev. W. M. Williams, promoted,

Vicar-ages .- Waldershare, Kent, archdiocese of Canterbury, value £133; pug-on. Archbishop of Canterbury; Rev. 8. L. Jacob. deceased. Wooliivington win; Puritan Vicarage, Somerset, diocese of Bath and Wells, value £352 with restdence; patrons, Dean and Chapter of Windsor; Rev. 8. L. Jacob, dueuc¢ ‘UH-it“ :rlll-goch Vicarage, county of Merioneth, diocese of St. Asaph, “the led, with residence; patron. bishop of the diocese; Rev. E. Edwards, deceased. Perpetual Camera.- London, St. Peter, Charlotte-street, Pimllco; it”, T, by Harper. acceded. Whitfield, or Beauxileld, Kent, archdiocese of Canterbury, value £l09; patron, Archbishop of Canterbury; Rev. 8. L. Jacob, deccuem Newmarket Perpetual Curacy, county of Flint, diocese of St- Asaph ; Rev. Edw. Evans promoted ; value £90, with residence; patron, Bishop of the diocese.

‘l‘nsrrsromars-The following clergyman have lately received testimonials of esteem and affection :–The Rev. John James Webster Harris, curate of New Alresford, Rants, from the parishioners; the Rev. W. H. Cantrel’, curate of Shardlow,from the parishioners; the Rev. Henry Veale, curate of Walcot, Somerset, on his resignation; the Rev. W. F. Taylor, from the congregation of Claughtou, Cheshire.

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S’r. Mauvutnoxn GENERAL DisPEnsAnY.—The annual meeting of this charity was held at the dispensary, in Wclbrook-street, on Wednesday, Mr. E. J. Rudgc presiding. The report stated, that, during the past year, ., legacy of £l00, free of income-tax, had been received. According to the rules of the society, that amount ought to have been funded; but, owing to their limited means, the committee had felt obliged to use it, in some measure to liquidate the debt of the dispensary. so as not too much to encroach on the resources of the past year. Owing to the large number of charities now existing, and the claims, therefore, coming on the benevolent being more frequent than formerly, their resources were much diminished; but the committee were sure, it was only necessary for the public to know that their doors were always open for the relief of the sick and sudering poor, for them to obtain the support they required. The total receipts for the past year (including the £100 legacy) amounted to £622 2s. 9d.,and the expenditure to £58.’: l0s. l0d.; leaving a balance of £36 lls. lld., which had been applied in reduction of the debt due to the tree. surer, which now stood at £71 6s. 10d. The report was adopted, and some routine business having been transacted, the meeting separated.

RnYAL Loxnos OPHTHALMIC HosPi’rAi..—On Monday, the annual general meeting of the subscribers to this institution took place at the hospital, in Bloomfield-street, Mooriields; the Rev. Dr. Russell in the chair The report stated that the total number of patients relieved during the past year amounted to 9437, of whom 9204 were out-patients, the remaining ‘233 being all cases (with the exception of two) requiring operations in the establishment. Since the opening of the institution, in l806, upwards of 200,000 patients had been relieved, and the numbers were still gradually increasing. The expenses for the last year amounted to £903 l0s. 9d, whilst the income was only £66! l’ls. 3d., leavluga deficiency of £241 lSs. 6d. The report was adopted, and a committee and auditors for the ensuing year were appointed.

SCO’l‘TlSH Smmrnz-A meeting of the members of this society was held on Tuesday afternoon at the Freemasons’ Tavern, Great Queen-streetLord Drumlanrig in the chair-for the purpose of taking into consideration the affairs of the society, and of determining upon the propriety of continuing the annual Scottish flu at Holland Park. Mr. Fox Maule tted deeply that the affairs of the society were in so ruinous a condition, and that there had been so much division of opinion among the members. That there was any loss attending the gatherings of the society in Iss9 and i860, he attributed entirely to mismg. nagement ; and, this being the case, he did not think that they ought for a moment to debate upon the propriety of continuing these most attractive Scottish gatherings. But, in order that the arrangements might be satisfactorily carried out, he considered that it was necessary to reform the managing committee, and he eloquently appealed to all the members of the society, as Scotsmen and friends, to forget all their supposed grievances, and to unite earnestly and enthusisstlcally in forwarding, by every means, the objects of the society. He was ready to pledge himself to his utmost to enable the society to merit the high

ronage which it enjoyed, and in this, the year of the Great Exhibition, he

oped they would show the world what Scotsmen could do. The right honourable gentleman then moved, “ That the society should continue to hold their annual file at Holland Park. Cluny M‘Pheraon, chief of the clan Chattan, seconded the motion, and expressed his hearty concurrence with all that had been said by his right honourable friend, Mr. Fox Maule. The motion was then carried unanimously. A committee of management was then formed. Mr. C. R. M’hcnzie was appointed honorary secretary of the society. A committee was nominated to draw up a series of new rules for the societ , and a finance committee was appointed. A vote of thanks to the noble dish-man concluded the proceedings.

CONGREGATIONAL CHAPELS IN Lonoorc-From the second annual report of the Congregational Chapel-building Society, it appears that no fewer than eight new chapels, in London and its vicinity, were commenced or completed during the past year. Four of these have been undertaken or aided by this society, and four have been built without its assistance. The report further states, that “the entire number of new congregational chapels in London :iulltibuilding,iigdprojectfdmduging the last three years, amounts to at least wen y, e no cost 0 w c cannot be estimated at a c M ‘mo’ooo’n mu h smaller amount

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METROPOLITAN NE W8.

ROYAL Acannsnz-On Monday, the 10th instant, a General Assembly of the Academicians was held at the Royal Academy of Arts,in Trafalgar-square, when Sir John Watson Gordon, Thomas Creswick, Richard Redgrave, and Francis Grant, Esqs., were elected Academicians, in the room of William Etty, Esq., Sir William Allan, John Peter Deerlng, Esq, and Sir Martin Archer Sbee deceased.

Guitar \ ‘its’raitx Rarawar-The half-yearly meeting of this company was held on Thursday, at Paddington; Mr. C. Russell in the chair. The report stated that the receipts for the last half-year would give a dividend at the rate of four per cent. per annum to the shareholders, and leave a balance of £l9,660 to be carried forward. A traffic agreement for mutual working had been entered into with the two Shrewsbury companies, by which the interests of both companies would be served; and the Great Western Company proposed, as early as possible, to complete their line through Birming d Wolverhampton. A modification had been effected in the agreement for the lease of the Dean l-‘orest line, which was deemed advantageous to both parties; and it was proposed to expend £50,000 in increasing their station accommodation at Paddington, and working stock. The report was adopted, the dividend declared, and avariety of resolutions in accordance with the report carried. A resolution against Sunday excursion trains was negatived by a large majority.

EASTERN COUNTIES, NORFOLK, AND EASTERN UNION RAILwavs-On Thursday special meetings of each of these companies were held, to consider a provisional agreement entered into for an amalgamation or joint working of these three lines. in the Eastern Counties Company a committee was appointed toconfer with the directors on the terms of the agreement, but the other two companies after long discussions a proved of it.

Fnanxasoxun-The first anniversary estival in aid of the Royal Masonic Benevolent institution for aged Freemasons and their Widows, was held on Wednesday evening at the Freemasons‘ Hall. The Right Hon. the Earl of Zetland, the Grand Master of the Order, was to have presided; but, in consequence of lndisposition. his Lordship was unable to attend, and the chair was most ably filled by B. B. Cabbell, Esq. A very large party sat down to dinner. In the course of the evening it was stated that this excellent institution was now in a most flourishing state, and that the aged and widows were enjoying the benefits afforded them through the benevolence and kindness of the members of the craft. The subscriptions in the room amounted to nearly £900. A large assemblage of ladies graced the gallery. It was particularly announced, that, in consequence of the girls’-school dinner having been fixed for a day which turns out to be the Derby-day, an alteration had taken place, and another time will be appointed.

SUPPRESSION or STREET Bnooino.-On Thursday, a public meeting was held at Willis’s Rooms, under the presidency of Mr. Cabbell, M .P., for the purpose of hearin a plan propoundcd b the Leicester-square Soup Kitchen, for suppressing men icity in the metropo is. The plan, which was cordially adopted, is toestablish I00 “ hospices and lavatories” throughout the metropolis, at a cat of £200 each, for the nightly reception of from fifteen to twenty distressed persons, who will be provided with food, a bed,and the most ample means of cleansing their bodies. The ” hospices ” are proposed to be erected by public subscription, and to be sustained by gifts of fo-id which would otherwise be wasted; and all under the management of the clergy of the locality, anda committee of ladies and gentlemen. The entire cost willbe£l0,000. Good soup will be supplied to all the deserving poor, whose characters will be investigated and registered. A registry of persons seeking employment will also be kept at each institution. Instead, therefore, of aims being given in the streets, tickets for food are proposed to be given, ” payable on demand.” It is expected that this plan will suppress street begging entirely.

Taxes on CARRIAGE8.—A deputation of coachmakers throughout the kingdom waited on the Chancellor of the Exchequer on Wednesday, respecting amoditication of the tax upon carriages; and, after alluding to the depressed state of the trade, and showing the decreased revenue yearly derived, and the continually decreasing number of coachmakers, the deputation suggested, that, instead of the present high rate of taxation levied on upwards of twelve classes, all carriages should be placed under three classes, at reduced rates, commencing with £3 for the highest, £2 for the next, and £l for the lowest class, doing away altogether with the exemptions, and levying upon those now exempt the lowest rate of duty. This arrangement, the deputation stated, in consequence of the immense number not included in the returns, would not materiall decrease the revenue, and would give an impetus to the trade.

EARLY LOSING Assocrarrosn-A meeting in connexion with this association was held in the Whitechapel Society’s School-room, on Monday evening last. The building, which is capable of containing about 1000 persons, was crowded to the door. The Rev. W. W. Champneys, rector of the parish, preaided. and opened the proceedings by prayer. The Rev. Hugh Allen, of St. Jude’s Church, proposed, in an able speech, and Mr. Poupard (an employer) seconded, the following resolution, which was unanimously carried :-“ That this meeting is of opinion that the Lite hour system. as existing in this country, is opposed to the will of the Almighty, detrimental to the best interests of society, and a blot on our boasted freedom and civilisation.” Other relolutions of similar import were moved and seconded by the following gentlemen z-The Rev. Mr. Weir (Scotch Church), Messrs. Kerry and Smith (both employers), and Mr. Lilwall, the secretary to the association.

SOCIETY FOR PROMOTING THE AMENDMENT or ‘riiir. Lam-On Monday evening, a meeting of the members of this society took place at the oftices,9l, Regent-street; Mr. W. liawcs in the chair. Mr. James Stewart called the attention of the meeting to certain reports of the society relative to the laws of property, which had either been adopted by Parliament at different periods or were likely to become embodied in the laws of the country. Four of these reports had already passed into law; another bore a strong resemblance to that which had been recommended by the conveyancing and registration commissioners in their report of the lst of July, i850; and the remainder were in a fair way of becoming law in the course of a very short time. Mr. Stewart concluded by moving, ” That the report of the committee on the law of property, and the answers of the judges of the County Courts to the inquiry relative to the examination of parties to suits in County Courts, as witnesses in those suits, be communicated to the Secretary of State for the Home Department, with reference to the measures now pending and likely to be introduced into Parliament.” Mr. Vansittart Neale seconded the motion, which was carried unanimously. Mr. Neale then introduced the report of the committee appointed to consider whether it would not be possible to organize an improved system fir making landed property available as a security for advances of money. it appeared from this report, which was read at the last meeting of the society, that the committee proposed that a self-supporting institution should be established, with the object of interposing between the borrower and lender of money on landed property, to guarantee to the lender the punctual payment of the interest on capital at such stated periods as might be agreed upon ; and to prevent the borrower from being harassed by those frequent transfers which now took place in consequence of the lender wishing to call in his money. After some little discussion the report was received. The next question for consideration was that of the report of the special committee on the law of patents; but, in consequence of the time occupied by the preceding business, it was postponed until the next meeting.

M a’mor-ou’ran Cosmissioiv or Snwans-On Saturday, a deputation from the metropolitan parishes waited upon Sir George Grey, the Secretary of State for the Home Department, at the Home-office, in Whitehall, for the purpose of laying before the right hon. Baronet certain statements in reference to the mismanagement of the present Metropobtan Sewers Commission, and the necessity, now that the term of odlce of that commission is near expiring, that any new measure introduced to Parliament upon the subject should be founded on the basis of the representative principle, and no other. The delegates from the various parishes, who had previously assembled at the Marylebone Courthouse, consisted of Mr. J. A. Nicholay, of Marylebone (the chairman of the delegates). and other members of the Marylebone vestry; Messrs. Healey and T. H. Smith, he, St. Pancras; Messrs. Geesin and Garrett (churchwardens), and deputation, from St. Martin’s-in-the-Fields; Mr. Toulmin Smith (barrister), with the churchwardens of llornsey; the churchwardens and a deputation from St. Giles’s, Camberwell; a deputation, with the vestry-clerk, from St. George the Martyr, Southwark; Mr. Horne and a de utation from St. Luke’s; together with deputations from St. George’s, anover-square ; St. Ann’s, Soho; St. Giles’s and St. George’s, Bloomsbury; St. Mary, lslington ; St. Clement Danes, Shoredltch, Whitechapel, Clerkenwell, and various other metropolitan parishes. Lord Dudley Stuart and Sir amiu Hall, the members for Marylebone, were also with the deputation. Sir B. 1 introduced the deputation; and Mr. Nicholay, Mr. Geesin, Mr. Toulmin Smith, Mr. T. M. Nelson, Mr. Jackson, Mr. Saunders, Mr. Horne, Mr. Healey, and Lord D. Stuart, “lowed. generally. from the expenditure of the present commission, that any new body should be composed upon the principle of representation. Mr. Saunders, of St. Martin’s, was the means of drawing from Sir G. Grey an important remark. Mr. Saunders thought something ought to be done to obtain for the metropolitan boroughs municipal rights, and then all the privileges of local government, both with regard to sewers, paving, police. &c., must follow. To this Sir G. Grey immediately replied, “ I beg to remark upon this point that the Government are in no way to blame that the various boroughs of the metropolis have not municipal rights. The fault lies entirely in the apathy of the inhabitants themselves in not applying for a charter of incorporation. (Cries of “ Hear hear”) Mr. Henley intimated, that, if the Government did not bring forward a bill, they had given instructions to the metropolitan members to bring in oue.—Sir G. Grey : “Of coursethat willbeat the discretion of the members.”Eventually, the interview ienninated by the Home Secretary promising to give the subject his best consideration.

Tun haw Misucasriui’. MARINE Aer-The Lords of the Committee of Privy Council for Trade have furnished the Commissioners of Customs with an approved scale of medicines for merchant ships, issued by their Lordshlps under the 04th section of the Mercantile Marine Act, and have, at the same time, caused them to be informed tha; no regular medical inspectors have as yet been appointed by their Lordshlps under that act, and that it is not intended to appoint any immediately; and that there is, therefore, ,no present reason for dispensing with such services, in respect of medicines, as onicers of the customs

of the law.

PARISH or CHRISTCHURCH, Sooruwamc-TM standing orders have been complied with in the case of this bill, to empower the trustees of the will of John Marshall, Gent, deceased, to alter, improve, or rebuild the parish church of Christchurch: the church tobe completed within four years, with power to erect additional churches, chapels, and schools, and to borrow on

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mortgage £20,000.

have hitherto been accustomed to render for the purpose of preventing evasion I

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Tnniumtxo ‘rnu Panama-At a late hour on Thursday night. a working Jeweller, named Charles Gill, residing at 32, Surrey-place, Old Rent-road, was apprehended by inspector Field, of the detective forcecharged with sending a threatening letter to Lord John Russell at the Treasury. The prisoner was conveyed to the Gardiner’s-lane police-station, and after undergoing examlnation at Bow-street yesterday (Friday), was remanded into custody.

Tim Paras Dorms-Mr. Borthwick had an interview with the Chancellor of the Exchequer on Wednesday, and presented memorials from 26 places, signed by 3428 householders, praying for the repeal of the paper duty. A deputation from the paper manufacturers stationers. and printers of Ireland, consisting of Mr. Grogan, M.l‘., Mr. Reynolds, M.P., Mr. Cameron, Mr. Webb, and Mr. lleron, secretary to the society. had an interview with the Chancellor of the Exchequer also on Wednesday, at his official residence in Downing-street. ADMISSION ro View ‘rue: llocsit or Limos-During the sittings of Parliament the public will be admitted to view the House of Lords every Saturday, between l0 and 4 o’clock, by tickets, to be obtained gratis at the Lord Chamberlain’s ottice. Abingdon-strcct (which opens this day), on any Wednesday between ii and 4 o’clock.

liaisirrnic Tum-:onamn-The Judicial Committee of the Privy Council on Wednesday refused the extension of the patent for the Llectric ‘l‘olegraph Company, upon the ground that Messrs. Cooke and Wheatstone, the original inventors, had received an adequate remuneration.

Suiwair TRADING BILL-—Otl Monday night, a meeting took place at the Globe Tavern, Derby-street, King’s-cross, of master butchers of St. Pancras parish, to consider the subject of the Sunday Trading Bill, and a petition to both Houses of Parliament was agreed upon in support of the measure.

Tits: Ci’rv Isrvaovnsrnrrra-On Monday, several houses, situated in Cannon-street, Laurence-Pountney-hlll, See, which are to be taken down for the new street leading to King Wilham~street. were disposed of, by auction, by Messrs. Pulleu and Son, by order of the Improvement Committee of the Corporation of the City of London. Another sale, it is expected. will complete the improvement in that direction. The sites in many parts of the new street have been let, and large houses are being erected upon them. The committee are in treaty for the purchase of the houses in the line of the new street westward to St. Paul’s. The money Brit};i which they are bought is from the fund the savings from the rent 0 t e ty property, after all necessary charges are dofrayed, and not from the tax on coals,

Posr-ormcm-Notieea have been issued from the General Posh offlce, that henceforward all newspapers to be sent to the British colonies or possessions, or for foreign parts. must be put into the post within seven day‘ after the day on which they are published. By a Treasury warrant, on andafter the lst March next. books for the following colonies may be transmitted by post, at the undermentioncd rates:—Gibraltar, Malta, the Ionian islands, and the British possessions in the West Indies, Newfoundland, Halifax, lac, viz. not exceeding llb., 6d.; not exceeding 2 lb., is.; 4 lb., 2a.; and so on in proportion. They must be sent open at the sides, the same as newspapers.

At the Queen’s Printin —otiice, in New-street-square, is a middleaged woman with a wonderfu head. She recollects the year and the chapter of every act of Parliament upon any subject. Though she is only the forewoman of the bookfoldcrs, many attorneys are very much indebted to her for inforinatlon.-Sun.

Exrnssivi; ROBBERY in an Omvmna-On Monda , information was received, that about twelve o’clock at noon, a lady, named Lee, residing at St. John’s Wood, entered one of the Atlas omnibnses in the Regent’s-circus, to proceed to her dwelling; at the same moment a man of gentlemanly appearance also entered the vehicle, and seated himself by the side of Mrs. Lee, with whom he entered into conversation. On the omnibus reaching Upper Baker. street, he hastily alighted, and took to his heels. Mrs. Lee instinctively felt her pocket. and to her dismay discovered that her pocket-book, containing two £50, live £l0, and five £6 Bank of England notes, had been abstracted, and, notwithstanding an instant pursuit, the fellow got clear off. The loss had a very shocking effect on Mrs. Lee, who became inscnsible, and had to be taken into, surgeon’s for medical assistance.

Canasiii‘ous Occunuv.nos.-—On Tuesday afternoon, a gentleman named Samuel Parnell, residing in the third floor of No. 7, Baker-street, was noticed by one of the servants sitting in front of the tire reading the newspaper. Soon after that time an acquaintance called to see him. when, on opening the door, Mr. Parnell was found sitting in his chair. completely enveloped in name. A young lady who ran to his assistance was overpowered by the smoke, and with difficulty was rescued. She was carried out inscnsible, but soon recovered. Owing to the exertions of the firemen, the flames were extinguished, but not until Mr. Parnell was burnt todeath. The damage done to the premises was not considerable. How the tire occurred is not known. The unfortunate dewmd was 8,; ye.“ or age, and has left several children, some of whom are in an extensive way of business.

,Ex’rnsisiva Ronnitnv or A Simvanr.—Ou Wednesday, at Maryleboue Police-office, Caroline Heseldine, a well-dressed and pretty-looking young woman, was placed at the bar, before Mr. Long, charged with having robbed Mrs. Mary Sumption, a widow lady, residing at No. l0, Stanhope-street, Hampstcad-road, of property to the amount of more than £l00. The prosecutrix, on being sworn, said—” The prisoner has been in my service three years. On Friday last i had in my wardrobe more than £l00, in £l0 notes and gel and some silver. The whole was placed in three bags, and 1 locked the door my wardrobe, which was in my bed-mom. On Saturday night, the prisoner, as was the usual custom, took a bird into the parlour, and presently “me do“ to me in the kitchen, cxclaiming, ‘ Oh, my God ! mistress, we have been rob forthe parlour window is open, and also the drawers ;’ upon hearing which 1 ‘Oh, then I am a ruined woman I’ i went into the parlour with her, when sh‘ remarked, ‘But they have not undone the secretai’re, for there is a key in I: that does not fit,‘ which Ifonnd tobe the case. The key is mine. i saw a silver watch, which was my late husband’s, lying on the window-board; ma prisoner said, ‘ Oh i that will, i dare say, detect them.‘ This watch was safe in my bed-room the same morning. Prisoner then went up-stalrs; and, all was about to follow her, she came running down in great haste, saying, ‘Oh! Madam, the drawers are all open, and the wardrobe too.’ I entered the and found that all my money was gone, as also the larger bag of the three. Th0 other two i found empty upon the floor. I said, ‘ Oh, dear! who could have done this?’ and the prisoner made no answer; she, however, seemed much agitated. Yesterday a tradesmen named Levy came to my house, he hav heard of the robbery, and informed me that on last Tuesday week he so tothe prisoner is gold watch, a gold chain, ring, and two brooches. Thin was mentioned in the presence of prisoner, who then said to me, ‘I an! the one who robbed you, and no one else, and I will restore you the money.’ She then addressed herself to Mr. Levy, saying, ‘ You will return to Mrs. Sumptioii whatl paid you ;’ to which he replied, ‘ We will settle that another time,’ and he then went away. After he was gone I said to the prisoner, ‘ Now, Caroline,’ when she remarked, ‘ If you will only go out at that (the front kitchen) door fora minute, i will restore it.’ Upon which i ‘ Then it is in the kitchen?’ And she replied, ‘ Yes, it is.’ I told her she mightjust law well ve it to me where l was, as it was not my intention to go out; upon which s a put her hand into an opening under the grate, and drew therefrom a parcel, which she gave to me, saying, ‘ There is your money.’ I opened it, and found therein two £l0 notes, six £5 notes, thirty-eight sovereigns, fifteen half sovereigns, three half-crowns, two shillings. and a sixpencs. lsaid to her, ‘ Now, Caroline, give me the rest of the things,’ and she drew from the same place as she did the money a gold watch, chain, key, ring, and brooch, which she gave into my hands.” The prisoner, who had nothing to say, was fully committed for trial. . . _

Three dead bodies were found in separate localities of the metropolis on Monday. One was the dead body of a woman, apparently sixty, dressed in a chocolate gown, black silk cape and bonnet, found lying in the Greenwich-road. How the body came there is at present unexplained-The second was the body of a scanian, about twenty-oi ht years of age, found in Four-street, Ratcllff. He is supposed to have met is death by ill-treatment received in the vicinlty.-The third body was found by the police of the O division; it is that of a man about sixty; his name is believed to be John Stephens.

Bmriis AND Duran-Births registered in London in the week ending Saturday, Feb. Bz-Males, 848; females. 756; will. i604. Deatha during the same period :—Males, 564; females, 546: total, “09. The aver-ago number of births in six corresponding weeks in 1845-50 was i464. The official report says, with respect to the deaths :—-“ A gradual increase in the mortality is represented by the following numbers of deaths returned in the last three weeks: 956, l04l, and H09. In the ten weeks of Hill-50, corresponding tothat which ended last Saturday, the average number was i063, which, if corrected for comparison with the mortality of the present time, by assuming the annual increase of population at to.) per cent, becomes “60. This estimated amount differs in no very considerable degree from the H09 deaths registered last week. The increase, equal to 68, in the present return over the preceding week (ending Feb. I) arose almost entirely amongst the young—the number of person. who died above if) ears having been about 590, and remaining in both weeks nearly the same. tis further to be observed, however, that, notwithstanding an excess in the neral result, the mortality from epidemic is perceptibly diminlshed amongst e middle-aged and the old ; whilst complaints of that class, to which the youngars subject, if not declining, do not appear to be gaining ground. The excess of last week over the previous is due, in great part, to tho

‘ aggravated fatality of pneumonia, and likewise bronchitis, amongst young par.

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sons. The aggregate of deaths caused by diseases of the respiratory arm‘. comprising all ages, was last week ‘153, which exhibits an increase on t avorage. The tubercular class, including consumption, numbered I72, w h less than the average, the destructive malady now mentioned claiming its out ofthese. being less than its usual contingent at this time. in the epidemic elm

small-pox destroyed 20 children, and to persons above l5 years; and in only s of the cases there is probable ground for infe that vaccination had in” performed with effect, and in sufficient time pre us to the eruption or tho disease

Mirraononooicai. Oasnnvsrmss-At the Royal Observatory Greenwich, the mean reading of the barometer in the week was 29.700 inches. The mean daily temperature was lowest on the urst three days of the week ; on the remainder it was above the average of the several days in l0 ) cars. especially on Wednesday and Saturday, when it was about 6 deg. above the average. The mean of the week was 405 deg, exceeding the average by 2 dog. The wind, which blew from the north on Sunday, was mostly in the south and south-w.“

‘ on the last four days.

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AH has. the attention, it was evidently the universal attraction.

Could vouch by all cases he’d seen, heard, or read;

So, e’en on this day we see

Dlsappolntments occasioned by cold, heartless folks,

Who think Valentine’s Day a good chance for a hoax. And, alas! so ’tis thought of by many.

Vile wretches to all sense of decency lost,

‘Who put valentines recklessly into the post,
\Yithout ). aying the lawful penny.

And the stern papa, And the fond mammn, Who have paid for some dozens before, Tell their daughter fair, Or their youthful heir, That they really will take in no more. But entreaties will soften. Another, ” 0h sec! ‘Tis from Charley, I know-he so doats upon me. Do take Just this one ?” It is done, She has won. And to gloat o’er her fortune, the maiden doth run To her room on hope’s eager wings. She opens it. Horror! What? twnpeuce for that.’ An old maid with a lap-dog, a parrot, and catThose horrible quiz-rim! things !

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THE most magnificent display of fireworks ever witnessed in Ireland was given, on Monday evening week, at Birr Castle. The Earl of Rosse had the fur prepared for the amusement of the people of‘ the town. The fireworks were manufactured and altogether managed at the Castle, and it is said that fairer fingers than his Lordship’s were busied about the greater part of them. The Countess of Iiosse felt much interest in getting up the festivities: nothing seems to gratify her Ladyship more than making her neighbours happy; and, indeed, nothing could have been more successihl than the attempt to do so by the proceedings of Monday evening.

After many disappointments had been experienced on account of the unsettled state of the weather, a propitious day (Monday) at length arrived. Notice was given that the fireworks, so anxiously looked for, would take place, and invitations were issued for a juvenile party, to which, however, old and young were requested to go. At five o’clock, carriages commenced arriving at the Castle, and soon a happy and delighted circle were enjoying the freely-given and cheeri’ul welcome of its noble owners. His Lordship’s splendid library was appropriated to the reception, and was soon crowded, the children evidently not more expectant than the grown people. In a short time the dining-room was thrown open. and the younger portion of the guests were gratified by seeing a Christmas-tree, from the branches of which were suspended many and rare presents. A splendid entertainment was likewise provided. The Christmas-tree was a beautifully shaped fir-tree, placed in a large wooden vessel, and illuminated by wax tapers, about fifty in number, and of dill’erent colours. This elegant and graceful-looking object, at one end of the dining-room, formed an exquisite ornament; and, although the viands and appointments on the refreshment table were such as might well disNumbered tickets were drawn in a sort of lottery by the children, and corresponding numbers being placed on the presents on the tree, each happy possessor of the ticket claimed a prize at the termination of the evening.

When seven o‘clock arrived, all the guests left the Castle for the lawn, to witness the fireworks. The guests were about two hundred in num

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her. But the multitudes that assembled in the demesne exceed belief : all the neighbouring towns and country must have contributed their share. Certainly, more than ‘20,000 persons had come together, excited by the reports that had got into circulation as to the magnitude and beauty of the forthcoming spectacle. Nor were they disappointed. It must have been highly gratifying to the noble projectors oi‘ the amusement, to flnd everything answer so exactly their intentions, and to learn, from the warm applause that occasionally burst from the crowds, that every person about them was delighted.

The slow and mldcstic rise of a tire-balloon commenced the display: i_ it gradually and steadily mounted into the air, and faded by degrees from the sight, lost in the distance.

Annexed is a copy 01‘ the programme which:was:handed about to the

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The Royal Favourite (Google Books)

The Royal Favourite
By Mrs. Gore (Catherine Grace Frances)
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“Surely Horsfall was brought into parliament by the duke of Wigmore?” inquired my master, with apparent unconcern.

“Yes! for Grubridge. The late Lord Hardenbrass, his cousin, was married to the Duke’s sister.”

“I wonder the duchess should have gone to the breakfast this morning?” said Roper, gravely.

“I dare say she knew nothing about the matter; and if she had, probably would not have cared a rush, except for the bore of having to moult her pink feathers and go into mourning in the dog days. / happened to hear of it,” added Exceptionatus, “because Lady Glengaff’s back window looks straight into Lord Hardenbrass’s house in Hill Street; and I observed the shutters closed this morning.”

“And what were you doing at Lady Glengaff’s? Is it for her, after all, you threw over poor Lady Maria Semiton?”

“A man may not marry his grandmother,” pleaded Cep, ” still less may he fall in love with her! My business at her house was to escape a hot ride to Campden Hill. She took me to the breakfast.”

My master was not listening. He was not even pretending to listen. He was literally so regardless of the decencies of society as to be winding up his watch ;—a hint to adjourn the meeting, scarcely to be overlooked. So absorbed, indeed, was he in the task, as apparently ‘to lose all interest in the desultory chat of his companions; for when, two minutes afterwards, Exceptionatus, who had been squabbling with Bragge concerning Lady Jane Barnsford’s complexion, appealed to him whether he did not think she looked remarkably well in lilac; he replied, with a look of bewilderment, “But, this morning, surely she wore a pelisse?”

His two guests burst into a shout of laughter; one of them accusing him of having suddenly gone blind,—the other of being desperately in love! The little dog was the only person present who understood him! / knew that he was thinking of the duchess of Wigmore. And, moreover, I knew why! He was thinking now thankful he should be when the two chatter-boxes took their departure, in order that he might sit down and write her a letter!

But it suffices to entertain a similar wish for the guest who is de trap, to take root in the house! Though Exccptionatus set no bounds to his yawns, he seemed equally disposed to set no bounds to his visit. Scarcely a reputation left in town but was the worse for the ensuing half-hour; merely because too idle men, who had nothing to say, were too inert to extricate themselves from their loungingchairs, for the effort of going home to bed!

“At last!” was the heartfelt ejaculation of the impatient host, when he had closed the door upon them. Nor did it the least surprise me to see him instantly repair to his writing-table, and seize a new quire of the finest wirewove, and a pen, which he held to the lamp to ascertain that its neb was unimpeachable, ere he opened his fire. But, having proceeded thus far in his task, and placed the blottingbook commodiously bef9re him, instead of putting pen to paper, ha laid it quietly clowu again, and fell into a fit of musing,

There are two reasons which induce a man to pause when about to write a letter – either that he finds he has nothing to say, or finds he has too much. Convinced, however, like the great Talleyrand, that the use of language is to conceal our thoughts, he set about cogitating on the most sinuous and plausible disposition of his words to express—” The dog is yours;” as an envewpe for the phrase which purported, by hook or by crook, to obtain in rep!y—”And yours the representation of Grubridge!”

But by what possible process of syncopation to concentrate the thing within the narrow compass of a sheet of note-paper was puzzling, even to a man so versed in minor tactics and manauvrings as my friend Roper. All that morning, the duchess had beset him with a vehemence of courtship almost alarming. My master was not a ladies’ man. Roper looked upon women as a means, and not as an end; and I am convinced that Hecate, having tie patronage of a borough, would have not only withdrawn his attentions, but his affections, from a grace or a muse—a Venus or a Mary Vernon. When, therefore, he found a woman who, though old und ugly, advertised herself, by her ringlets and pink pelisse, as pretty and young, looking delightfully at him with all her might, and giving utterance to the little sentimental nothings which, when uttered in a certain tone under an acacia-tree in bloom, become either worse than nothings or the music of the spheres,—he longed to tell her that she was under a mistake—that she had knocked at the wrong door—that it was his friend, Lord Algernon Howarth, and not himself, who was the homme a bonnes fortunes.

The duchess of Wigmore, meanwhile, was wasting as much art upon him as might have smoothed over a Tahiti question, or conciliated the Oregon dilemma! Instead of making the smallest allusion to spaniels in general, or King Charles’s in particular she began reminding him of the pleasant Christmas party at Barnstord Castle. where their acquaintance had commenced, four winters before; and how good-naturedly he had copied into her album some inedited stanzas of Lady Caroline Lamb s, and how kindly he had tried to teach her to skate; forbearing, of course, to add how offensively forward she had thought him! Smiling and acquiescent, poor Mr. Roper could not but recall to mind that those assiduities were the result of a preconcerted plan^between himself, Algy Howarth, and one or two Ch. Ch. men who were of the party, to make a fool of the frisky old duchess;—so that their scorn had been, at least, reciprocal.

At length (apropos to a beautiful marble copy of the Diane Chasseresse which adorned one of the bosquets into which her wanderings misguided him), she went off into a fit of spasmodic ecstacies concerning the greyhound crouching at the feet of the goddess. She confessed that, like Diana, (!) she had a weakness for dogs—(to which Roper mentally added, and puppies”). She was ashamed to own how fondly she was attached t9 a little pet given her some years ago by the duke—now, alas! getting old and infirm, poor fellow! imetimes, when she was nervous and out of spirits, she could p looking forward with fear and trembling to the time when, in the course of nature, she must submit to dispense with his society.

“The duke of Wigmpre’s?” demanded her companion, in an absent manner, half afraid that she was going to make him a conditional offer of her hand.

“No, no !—the dear little King Charles she had been talking about—the greatest beauty that ever was seen; not larger than a kitten, with ears that swept the ground! There was not such another in England!”

“I think I could show you its match!” said Roper, with a selfsufficient smile, falling into the trap as readily as though he were doing it to amuse an audience.

“Do not flatter yourself!” rejoined the duchess,with a look of archness much less genuine. “My poor little darling is certainly unique!”

“All I ask of your grace is, to suspend yonr verdict till you have seen Rattle!” rejoined my master. And the duchess smiled and promised. Such was the position of affairs when they parted at eight that evening at Campden Hill; and all the way home he had been reflecting how to evade his promise of exhibiting his treasure of treasures, his deadly ground-bait, to so vehement a spaniel fancier. For he regarded me, like Whittmgton’s cat, as the founder of his future fortunes; and if compelled to waste me upon the duchess of Wigmorc, the loss to the British empire, as sustained in its high court of parliament, would be indeed irreparable.

And now, in accordance with the new position of affairs, how was he to make an offer of the dog without alluding to Grubridge, yet in such a way as to bring his parliamentary views to the knowledge of her grace? Delicacy, in such an emergency, must be fatal. The duke had, doubtless, half-a-dozen proteges to whom such a windfall as Lord Hardenbrass’s vacant seat would be manna and quails. But if he suffered the opportunity to escape—if he allowed the little piece of patronage to fall to the disposal of its rightful owner, he deserved to be brained with a lady’s fan!

At length, he seized the pen; and whatever he saw fit to say, said it within the compass of two minutes and a sheet of petit poulet, and completely to his own satisfaction; and, having finished his task, proceeded to rouse Mr. Hill, and charge him, as he valued his master and his place, to see that note, and the dog who has the honour of addressing you, safely delivered at Wigmore House before eight o’clock. “It is a great object to me that the duchess should receive them as soon as her eyes are open,” added he, while his drowsy valet stood winking at him with his half closed. “Here is a five-pound note, Hill; which you may dispose of in the way you think most likely to secure the accomplishment of my views. The duchess’s maid is probably too fine a lady to be accessible to a bribe, but -”

I shall never forget the look of mingled pity and incredulity with which, at this remark, the plausible valet glanced at the plausible master. Cicero used to say that he could not understand how two augurs ever met in the street without laughing in each other’s faces; and the same wonder might apply to various kinds of modern humbug1

CHAPTER IX.

Aw Abe of the undue advantage I possess just now over the human species. and that, according to JEsop’s apologue concerning the lion painted by a lion, it is in my power to describe Christians oehaving like dogs, and dogs in the exercise of every Christian virtue, I generously forbear to place before my readers circumstantial evidence of the vilcness of the intrigue which proved the means of settling me as the envied inmate of Wigmore House. What I might have felt on installing myself in my aristocratic residence, immediately after the luxurious fare of Lord Algernon, or gentle patronage of Mrs. Vernou, I will not stay to inquire. But it was a great relief to escape the society of Hill and his master (when roguery is in question, always give precedence to the valet!). I had now accomplished the utmost object of my ambition. I was a ducal dog. Our precedence was unimpeachable; our creation of the seventeenth century; and we had got the garter and lord-lieutenancy of a county!

On better acquaintance, moreover, I would not have exchanged my duchess of fifty for two of five-and-twenty. Many women are kind to a pet of my inches—giving it meat and drink in due season, or even a corner in their carriage for an airing. But the duchess of Wigmore studied my convenience and caprices almost before her own. Either because, being aware of the double-dealing and duplicity of her own species, she knew how to value the single-hearted attachment of an honest dog; or from her mental capacities being nearly on a level with my own, she was never weary of conversing with me. In our frequent fete-a-tetes, she would talk to me by the hour together; and though our intercourse somewhat resembled a game of patience, or rather of dummy picquet, I did my utmost to respond with all the eloquence of my eyes and tail, to her grace’s perpetual adjuration of “Is it a pet? Was it a little beauty? Did naughty Lewson tease the poor little dog?”

But these were not the only charms of my new situation. Now, in my maturer years, I blush to own it,—but be it remembered, I was then a puppy,—I was overjoyed to have the best of it as regarded my «»venerable sire! Every dog has his day; and Fido had enjoyed his with a vengeance. Like most discarded favourites, he injured his cause by sullenness. It is astonishing how slow people arc to proGt by the experience of centuries. The reigns of Elizabeth of England and Catherine of Russia have been stripped of every veil by the denuding hands of history. And yet favourites will persist in getting their heads chopped off, instead of obtaining sackfuls of diamonds and roubles, by learning of the prudent Potemkin to make way for a more attractive successor.

“Fido really grows insupportable,” said the duchess, one morning,

while the lady in waiting was dyeing her hair. “His temper, which

vas never good, is now a perfect nuisance. Twice yesterday did I

ir him growl at poor little Rattlc,, for merely playing near his cushion; and I am convinced he would have flown at the poor little dear, and perhaps bitten him, if he had strength. Bat he is so feeble that he requires as much attendance as a child.”

“Your grace may say that!” rejoined Lewson. “I am sure the greater part of my time last winter was spent in nursing him. And when he had the influenza, as your grace must remember, I was two nishts without seeing my bed!”

Her grace did remember. And she also remembered the handsome silk dress by which this extra service was repaid. “I really don’t know what your grace will do if the marchioness brings the children to Wigmore Castle this autumn?” continued the waitingmaid; “for Fido will no more allow them to come near your grace than”

The duchess appeared less interested in the fate of the marchioness and her children (whoever they might be) than in mine; for she interrupted without ceremony Mrs. Lewson’s surmises. “ISiow he is so infirm on his feet,” said she, glancing at the little black boulette which was nearly as much of a cushion as the one on which he was lying, “he gets so fat for want of exercise, that his wheezing at night makes me quite nervous. It puts me so in mind of my lute poor asthmatic old aunt, Lady Maria.”

“And I can assure your grace that if ever I take him down to dinner in the steward’s room, Monsieur Beshymell says it is quite a cony to have him in the room,” added Lewson, affectedly.

“A very impertinent observation of Bechameil’s! It I chose to send a hedgehog there to dinner, it’s no affair of his! Not but that I admit Fido to be a bore,—and worse;—for the duke assures me it is very unwholesome to sleep in the room with an animal whose lungs arc affected.”

Mrs. Lewson remembering that the duchess had proposed, some days before, to transfer Fido at night to her chamber, guve a tug to her grace’s hair such as elicited a snarl not much more musical than my father’s.

“1 was thinking, Lewson,”—said she, after a pause which enabled her to forget her maid’s delinquency, but not her discarded favourite’s. —” that perhaps you might nave some relative, with whom I could pension him off ?—some old maid, or widow in indifferent circumstances.”

“I can assure your grace,” said Mrs. Lewson, with dignity (on this occasion too deeply offended for petty vengeance), “that though I’m in a menyal sityation, my relations is remarkable well to do in the world. There isn’t none of them to whom I could take the liberty of proposing to board a worn-out lapdog.”

“I am glad to hear it, Lewson!” replied the duchess, forbearingly. “And yet I remember seeing one day a shabby woman, with a basket, crossing the courtyard; and on remonstrating with the porter about having admitted her by the visitors’ entrance, he informed me, in excuse, that it was some relation of yours.”

The duchess refrained from saying “your mother;” anxious to propitiate her on Fido’s account. And how 1 longed at that moment for the power of speech, on learning that she would be content’

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The Royal Favourite
By Mrs. Gore (Catherine Grace Frances)
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pay half-a-guinea a week for the care of him ;—a sum that would have secured the old gentleman for the remainder of his days the affectionate attendance of my own dear Jem!

“The duke has peculiar notions on such subjects/’ resumed my noble mistress, surveying in the glass a poll as black and glossy as a bullfinch’s, for which she was indebted to the adroit hands of Mrs. Lewson. “Whenever his favourite horses grow too old for service, he has them shot. He has an idea that infirm animals are exposed to ill usage when their master’s back is turned; and, out of pure humanity, nas them placed beyond the reach of injury.”

“Your grace then thinks that, if the duke were consulted, he would advise having old Pido hung?” said the waiting-woman, looking a little shocked.

“Not hung !”—said the duchess, taking the tampon of her rouge from its satin-wood case. “Not exactly hung, Lewson,—it is only curs who are hung! But a single drop of prussic acid removes a dog without pain.”

(Removes a dog! Horrible locution!)

“Last year, when there was a suspicion that the hydrophobia had got into Mr. Gripingfield’s kennel, thirty couple of fine hounds were taken off by the apothecary, in less than twenty minutes!”—added the duchess.

“To his shop ?”—naively inquired the attendant.

“Taken off by hydrocyanic acid! Conceive the loss to poor Mr. Gripingfield!—the hounds were valued at more than a thousand pounds. But what are you smiling at, Lewson?”

“I was thinking, my lady, what a pity it was that apothecaries were not always as candid about their share in taking off their patients.”

“Don’t laugh about it! It is a very serious thing to reflect how thoroughly one lies at the mercy of one’s apothecary. A mistake is so easily made, and so little thought of! And it must harden those people’s hearts so horribly to be always attending deathbeds, and painful operations. I often tell Hummington he has no more feeling than a stone.”

I trust the reader does not suppose me sufficiently in Mr. Huminington’s case to doubt that, long before the close of this monstrous colloquy, I had laid me down “like the meek mountain lamb” beside the cushion of the parent whose days were thus barbarously menaced. Nothing ensued, however. Her grace was one of the many who talk daggers, but use none. And no sooner had my apprehensions subsided, and the old creature resumed his airs of oldfashioned superiority,—pretending to tell me what dogs I ought to cut, and what dogs were visitable acquaintance, whether belonging to the “hairystockoratical” saloon or steward’s room, I began to think him as great a bore as ever, and once more to treat him as my “governor.”

From Google Books on lapdogs

Our Modern Athens: Or, Who is First? A Poem – Page 64

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William Adolphus Clark – 1860 – ‎Read – ‎More editions
Prom hearty youth we pass to proud old maids, Decked out in crinoline and in brocades ; They … So thus these maidens once so fresh and fair, Have been compelled a lap-dog for an heir ; They ” rip out ” sometimes, but when day is fine, And …
Letters and Memorials of Jane Welsh Carlyle – Volumes 1-2 – Page 66

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Jane Welsh Carlyle, ‎Thomas Carlyle, ‎James Anthony Froude – 1883 – ‎Read – ‎More editions
as a foolish old woman at Dumfries used to say, ‘ everybody is kind to me;’ and I take their kindness and am grateful for it, … with them an accumulation of all the things to be guarded against in a London neighbourhood, viz., a pianoforte, a lap-dog, … Now if you will please recollect that, at Comely Bank, I also wrote down an old maid’s housedog, and an only son’s pet bantam-cock,1 you will admit, I think, …
Two Gentlemen Of Verona

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William Shakespeare, ‎George Steevens – 1786 – ‎Read – ‎More editions
The Virgin Unmasked, Or, Female Dialogues, Betwixt an Elderly Maiden …

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Bernard Mandeville – 1724 – ‎Read – ‎More editions
The Family friend [ed. by R.K. Philp]. – Page 380

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Robert Kemp Philp – Snippet view – ‎More editions
The state of an old lady running to catch the last omnibus. — Costk ran. … H. V. M. A spinster meeting a gent of whom she had not given up all hopes.— Alpha. A youth … Lilly A* An old maid feeding her lap-dog with* spoon.— J. D. The feelings …
Godey’s Magazine – Volumes 22-23 – Page 102

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Louis Antoine Godey, ‎Sarah Josepha Buell Hale – 1841 – ‎Snippet view – ‎More editions
… the Friarscroft is a small village situated at some dis- clergyman’s to supper, the old ladies’ to “tea and tance from the … the covert of willows and alders which old maids and a pet lap-dog, he departed one morn- nearly met over its current a …
The Royal Favourite – Page 59

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Mrs. Gore (Catherine Grace Frances) – 1862 – ‎Read – ‎More editions
continued the waiting- maid; ” for Fido will no more allow them to come near your grace than ” The duchess appeared less interested in the fate of the … It puts me so in mind of my lute poor asthmatic old aunt, Lady Maria. … There isn’t none of them to whom I could take the liberty of proposing to board a worn-out lapdog.
The Percy Anecdotes, Collected and Ed. by Reuben and Sholto Percy …

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1887 – ‎Snippet view – ‎More editions
For the last thirty years ofher life, she kept no servant, except one old female, who was succeeded … An Old Maid’s Will. … To Shock and Tib (a lapdog and a cat), :55 each for their annual subsistence during life; but should it so happen that …
Once a Week – Volume 9 – Page 245

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Eneas Sweetland Dallas – 1863 – ‎Read – ‎More editions
… in a young lady who pets a Parrot ; and the Roman lady who, according to Martial, fondled a snake, must have been a sour old maid. – as parasi| An attachment to a dog is honourable to both parties; and though dogs are sometimes kept at | first from … poacher, the pugnacious bulldog and the man of the ring, the brisk terrier and the London gamin, the peewish lapdog and the listless woman of fashion.
Once a week, an illustrated miscellany of literature, art, science & …

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Some mental perversity “lay be inferred in a young lady who pets a parrot ; and the Roman lady who, according to Martial, fondled a snake, must have been a sour old maid. An attachment to a dog is honourable to both parties ; and though dogs are sometimes kept at first from selfish … and the man of the ring, the brisk terrier and the London gamin, the peevish lapdog and the listless woman of fashion.

Once a Week, Volume 9
edited by Eneas Sweetland Dallas
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MY CATS.

DoEs the love of pets originate in benevolence 2 It is generally associated with sensibility, a spurious virtue as different from benevolence as revery is from thought. The sentimental Sterne, though heartless to all who had legitimate claims on his affection, wept, or affected to weep, over a dead ass; Couthon, when the innocent he was consigning to the guillotine trod on his cur, shrieked out, “Wretch, have you no humanity ?” and there are yet sensitive ladies to whom the sarcastic inquiry of the barbarian whether the Roman dames who fondled lapdogs had “no children to love” is very applicable.

But it is by no means to be inferred from such anomalies that quickness of sympathy with brutes of necessity denotes a perversion of feeling. Sensibility does not necessarily exclude, though it may overshadow, benevolence; tical plants blight the trees they cling to. A fondness for pets certainly does not invariably indicate tenderness of heart; but conversely, as killing flies was the recreation of the boy Domitian, he who is unkind to brutes is never very considerate towards men. Sympathy with brutes implies, even in the coldest heart, some glimmering of the Supreme Love; as a passion for flowers implies an apprehension, more or less clear, of the divine Thought expressed in them :—yet there are hard, practical Christians who conceive that disinterested kindness to creatures emphatically declared to be objects of the Divine care is a wrong to our fellow men; though, that somewhere men are in want of bread would seem a very inconclusive argument against feeding creatures which are not useless if they awaken an unselfish love in our hearts, and whose storgé, or instinctive trust in man, was designed by the Father of All to arouse our benevolence.

Due allowance being made for particular circumstances, it may be assumed that the choice of pets is generally an index to character. The farmer entertains a dull affection for some gentle heifer, with mild Juno-like eyes and aromatic breath. His man Giles lounges at leisure moulents round the sty, and fondly scratches the fat backs of the lethargic tenants with a clownish smile evoked by visions of future flitches. Community of tastes and pursuits leads the huntsman to seek an object of affection in his stables; and the soldier, whose life may depend on the fleetness and endurance of his charger, will share his last crust with him. A bucolic partiality for sheep can only be accounted for by the drowsy placidity of rural life. The love of birds is almost peculiar to women; and there is a graceful appropriateness in the tenderness of young girls for canaries and other little creatures, nimble, sweet-tongued, and sensitive as themselves. Matrons have a thoughtful preference for poultry. Venerable spinsters relish the spitefulness and loquacity of parrots, and admire a gaudiness of plumage according with their own aesthetic tastes. Some mental perversity may be inferred in a young lady who pets a Parrot ; and the Roman lady who, according to Martial, fondled a snake, must have been a sour

old maid.

as parasi

| An attachment to a dog is honourable to both parties; and though dogs are sometimes kept at | first from selfish considerations, he must be bad indeed who does not in the end appreciate and benefit by association with so noble an animal. | There is a curious likeness between certain social | classes and the dogs they respectively affect— between the stately staghound and the patrician, the eager pointer and the country squire, the bluff mastiff and the farmer, the furtive lurcher and the poacher, the pugnacious bulldog and the man of the ring, the brisk terrier and the London gamin, the peewish lapdog and the listless woman of fashion. The scarred and red-eyed bulldog of Landseer’s admirable “High and Low Life” is perfectly in keeping with the clay pipes, battered porter-pot, and other plebeian accessaries; but all our notions of the fitness of things would be outraged were he to take the place of the dignified hound in the library; and on seeing him there we should inevitably form a low estimate of the tastes of the aristocratic owner. Not only is the dog ordinarily a clue to the social status of the man, but a shrewd guess may be made at the disposition of the master from that of the dog. Many years ago, when I was chatting about dogs with a distinguished American gentleman, yo. guest I was, the latter asserted that a dog can distinguish in conversation words whose meaning he has once acquired ; and, noticing my incredulous smile, he offered me immediate proof of it. To the rear of his house was a paddock, the herbage of which was so much to the taste of the cows of the neighbourhood that they were constantly breaking through the fence to get a bite of it, and keeping the dog in such a fever of indignation that the mere mention of a cow awoke his ire. The dog referred to, a fine Newfoundlander, was reposing after the fatigues of the day at the other end of the room we were sitting in. Requesting my silent attention, my friend spoke for a few moments on indifferent matters, and then, without any perceptible pause, or inflexion of voice, or glance at the unsuspicious animal, observed, “there’s a cow in the garden.” The effect was magical. With a groan expressing extreme disgust at so unseasonable a call, the dog arose, and, passing through the open door, set off for the paddock. Ere our laughter had ceased, the abused animal returned from his bootless errand, and, casting a reproachful glance at his master, recomposed himself to slumber. Unlike those learned pundits who rejoice in their affinity to apes, I never see one of those odious caricatures of humanity without a sense of humiliation; and the person who pets a monkey may a priori be set down as a cynic. Nevertheless, I was once the possessor of one ; a friend about to leave India, and at a loss how to provide for his favourite, pressed the tiny wretch on my acceptance, very much against my will. A few days’ confinement having familiarised him with his new abode, 1 left Jacko to follow the bent of his inclination—to roam where he pleased, and indulge that ill-regulated curiosity which led him, like the philosophers claiming kinship with him, to pry into matters far above his comprehension, and to seek the why and the wherefore of everything that perplexed him by defacing or destroying it. Peace fled my house ; nothing could escape the prying eyes and busy fingers of this imp, in whose mischief there was so much method that I was sometimes inclined to ascribe it to intention. To put aught carefully aside was enough to attract his restless eyes and tempt him to pluck out the heart of the mystery. My domestics accounted for whatever was missing by saying, “The monkey has taken it.” Like the cat in London lodgings, he became the scapegoat for the sins of the whole household. He had an ignorant love of literature, and if indulged with pen and ink would spend hours in scribbling; but his cacoethes scribendi leading him to deface my books and papers, I was obliged, in self-defence, to interdict writing materials. He spent much of the time not devoted to these grave pursuits in the garden; destroying more fruit than he ate, for, like the poet Thomson, he ate only the sunny side of what he plucked; or prowled round the hen-roost, for he was as fond of eggs as a weasel, and preferred them fresh laid. During my dinner he perched on the back of my chair, and generally behaved with tolerable propriety till the advent of dessert, when he insisted on helping himself to fruit and sweetmeats, and was very indignant unless he had at least a sip of wine; for, having once been tipsy on liqueur, he was constantly haunted by the memory of that strange delight, and anxious to renew it. Having once seen me shoot a hawk, and examined its carcase with something of the perplexed awe of the savage on first witnessing the effect of fire-arms, he was so impressed by the occurrence that merely to point a stick at him, as if taking aim, threw him into an agony of terror. Feeling somewhat out of sorts one evening, I prescribed to myself a couple of blue-pills, and retired early to bed, inadvertently leaving the box from which I took them on the table. A couple of hours afterwards, I was aroused from a feverish slumber by an unaccountable commotion in the adjoining room, as if some one were in sore distress ; and on entering it there was my monkey stretched out on the floor, groaning and writhing with pain, and looking piteously towards me for compassion and assistance. The empty pill-box beside him explained the mystery. He recovered from the effects of this indiscretion, but he became eventually so troublesome that I banished him to a snug box in the garden at the base of a pole to which his chain was attached by a ring sliding on it, and permitting him to climb to the crosspiece at its summit. A few days after his rustication, the poor wretch was found hanging by the neck from his perch as dead as if Calcraft had operated on him. His chain had somehow got entangled, and in leaping towards the pole in order to descend, he committed suicide, whether acci. dentally or from depression of spirits I cannot say. I will not, however, from fear of being deemed effeminate, dissimulate that my peculiar tenderness is for cats. Why should I scruple to confess a feeling that has been entertained by so many eminent men 7 Whether considered in her frisky kittenhood,

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discreet maturity, or pensive age, none of the inferior animals exceed the cat in beauty of form, grace of movement, or gentleness of demeanour. In none is ferocity so strangely associated with sensibility, great muscular strength with a feminine softness of nature. Such being her attributes, it is not surprising that the cat should be thought the analogue of woman. Her very sobriquet of Grimalkin –the grey maiden—intimates that she suggested to our ancestors the idea of a fair spirit emergent from the gloom, like the White Lady of Avenel. Her vagueness of colour, and the luminousness of her eyes in the dark, led the ignorant to conceive that there was something supernatural about the cat, and gave birth to superstitions not yet quite eradicated from the popular mind ; and a very disagreeable impression is undoubtedly made by the weird and uncanny aspect of a black cat under certain circumstances. Adopting the more kindly view, Gray, in a charming poem, familiar to all, terms puss a “nymph;” and indeed what better representative of the grace, sensibility, witchery, artifice, and malice of the sex can be found among brutes ? | The frisky volatility of the kitten, yet innocent of blood of mice, irresistibly reminds us of the wild | glee of a girl yet ignorant of the power of her charms; and the noiseless movements and sedate demeanour of the mature Tabby recall the silent activity and thoughtful composure of the experienced matron. From this involuntary association of ideas, the volatile girl is spoken of as “a mischievous kitten,” the Frenchman fondly addresses his spouse as “ma chatte,” and some persons by a strange mental obliquity vituperate any obnoxious old woman as “that old cat l” What is more suggestive of the comfort and repose of home than the cat dozing by the fire : What associate of our domestic life interferes less with ease and meditation ? The soft murmur whereby she expresses her enjoyment of our caresses, does not pain us like the plaintive cry of

a bird doomed to imprisonment for life. Her eyes,

if not so lucidly intelligible, so expressive of a community of feeling as those of the dog, are transparent abysses of golden light, the very mystery of whose depths fascinates while it bewilders the thoughtful gazer. Her voice is more capable of inflexion, and more variously expressive of her feelings than is generally supposed, and can at times be subdued to a melodious cooing far sweeter and tenderer than that of the dove. As the wild cat formerly abounded in the British Isles, being enumerated among beasts of chase in a charter of Richard II., it has been argued by some that our domestic cat descended from it, or in other words, that the domestic cat is the wild cat reclaimed; but specific structural differences are fatal to this theory. That our puss is of foreign origin is indicated by the high esteem in which she was formerly held; the British Prince Howel Dha, for instance, thought her a fit subject for legislation, and determined by law her value at various ages, the price even of a kitling before it could see being fixed at one penny—a much larger sum then than now. Our Saxon sovereigns employed cats in the chase, and officials named Catatores, whose functions resembled those of “masters of the hounds,” had the care of them. In the course of time puss was transferred from the granary and the stable to the lady’s bower, and became the object of a tenderness which tacitly acknowledged the analogy between cats and women. Her society also relieved the melancholy gloom of the cell, the English rule of nuns in the thirteenth century considerately excepting her from the category of “beasts ” which nuns were forbidden to caress. The Church regarded puss with particular favour. Wolsey, Richelieu, and other distinguished churchmen, lavished caresses on her, perhaps because the combination in her of silken suavity with a ruthless will was an exact reflection of the ecclesiastical genius. The cat was also frequently introduced into churches as an architectural detail, of which there is an instance in the group of an old woman and her cat carved on a miserere in a church in the Isle of Thanet ; and was even admitted into sacred paintings, such as the “St. Cecilia” at Bologna, wherein puss appears as an enraptured auditor of the strains an angel is eliciting from that very unangelic instrument the violoncello. During the middle ages a custom prevailed at Aix, in Provence, of exhibiting in a shrine, on the day of Corpus Christi, a cat arrayed in swaddling-clothes, before which incense was burnt and flowers strewn. On St. John’s day, on the contrary, a number of cats, enclosed in a basket, were borne in solemn procession with the chants of the clergy through the city, and burnt in the market place. The origin of this strange custom is unknown. Down to a very late period it was fancied that various parts of the cat had medicinal virtues, three drops of blood from the tail being, for instance, considered a specific in epileptic cases. These fancies were merely silly, but others existed which had a malevolent tendency. Reminiscences of Pagan superstitions and magical rites, —such as the Scottish Taigherm, or sacrifice of a black cat to the subterranean powers, seethed in the popular mind at a time when, agitated by great political and religious questions, it was in a transitional state, and assumed the form of an elaborate system of demonology, which Scripture was perverted to sanction, and which our British Solomon wrote a learned treatise to expound. The feminine love of cats became a crime : any lonely old creature who kept one was assumed to be in league with the powers of darkness, and liable to the penalty enunciated by the Mosaical law. Thousands suffered as witches on such evidence. At the very period when this holy horror of cats and their associates prevailed in England and America, they were in such esteem elsewhere that the four cats of the lady of the Protestant Bishop of Odensee, in Denmark, were interred beside her in the Cathedral of St. Knud, in that city, arrayed in white satin, and with a plumed black velvet cap on each feline head : Mohammedans regard cats with kindly favour, from a tradition that the prophet, when called to prayer, cut off his sleeve rather than disturb one slumbering on it. The dog is considered

unclean, but the cat is allowed to eat from the Moslem’s dish, and benevolent institutions for cats exist in various places. At Damascus there is an hospital for infirm cats. At Cairo there is a charitable fund for the maintenance of destitute cats, administered by the Cadi, to whose care the citizens consign superfluous kittens; and every afternoon, at the hour of Asser, these pensioners of the public receive a fixed dole. The Chinese, in place of feeding, eat cats. Pleasant M. Huc says that, like the ancient Egyptians, they have a notion that the contraction and dilation of the cat’s pupils have some relation to the movements of the spheres, and look into its eyes to learn the time of day, as our old women prognosticate rain on seeing it wash its face, and as seamen gravely shake their heads and augur a coming storm when it is unusually frolicsome. Like the good bishop in Victor Hugo’s tale, my heart has, with an occasional interregnum, been ruled by a dynasty of cats ever since the days when those entrancing myths, the White cat, Whittington’s cat, and Puss in boots had for me the authority of history. In after life, when a cat did not share it, my domestic comfort seemed incomplete; and now that my hair is grey I cannot pass a cat in the street without pausing to salute her. When in India, I possessed a feline friend of remarkable sagacity. Seeing her one day eating raw fish, and enquiring whence it came, my domestics smilingly replied that Jenny must have caught it herself, as she often fished in the neighbouring brook. In consequence of this extraordinary statement I watched her movements for some days, and had finally the satisfaction of seeing her take her way to the brook, pause on its margin to contemplate the small fry sporting in its shallow waters, and when one came within her reach, capture it by a swift extension of her paw. This feat I saw frequently repeated afterwards. On a subsequent occasion, when travelling in Assam, my camp was pitched on a sandy islet in a tributary of the Brahmaputra, for security from the tigers which infested the banks. In the afternoon succeeding my arrival there, on looking around for Jenny, she was nowhere to be seen, and the encampment was searched for her in vain. During the discussion as to what could have become of her, the truant was espied by a sharpsighted fellow, snugly ensconced in the fork of a shady tree across the river; though it seemed incomprehensible how she could have got across the channel which was a hundred feet in width. When the sun approached the western horizon the mystery was solved by her composedly swimming back; and so long as we remained on that arid spot, impatient of the heat and lack of shade, she passed part of each day in the same tree It was my habit, when in cantonments, to pace up and down before my door in the cool of the evening, and Jenny always attended me, unweariedly following me to and fro, as if, like myself, she felt the need of exercise. If my walk extended beyond my own domain she was eager to accompany me; and when I returned from abroad, warned of my approach by the sound of horsehoofs, she would advance a considerable distance from the house to greet me. She lived on the most friendly terms with my dogs, but had a special pique against a parrot which swung on an iron perch a couple of feet from the floor of the veranda, just where Jenny preferred taking her afternoon nap. The bird, usually silent at the hour when in tropical lands all creatures are exhausted by the heat, was sometimes perversely loquacious; and the cat’s annoyance on such occasions was extremely diverting. Twice I myself saw her, after turning uneasily and watching him for a time with gleaming eyes, rush swiftly at the noisy wretch and give him, with her paw, a spiteful buffet that knocked him off his perch, as a hint that his prattle was disagreeable and out of season; and in both instances, after a shrill shriek of surprise and indignation, the discomfited bird relapsed into gloomy silence for the rest of the day. If I whistled an air to her, Jenny would leap on my knee, gaze intently at me, and express her delight by a soft cooing murmur. This dear creature, of whom I never think without a sigh, was lost overboard by night in the Ganges. When residing in a wild American region, some years afterwards, I was in the habit of visiting a neighbour dwelling some three miles away, and leaving my cabin to the care of a cat. One evening Tab was not visible when I was about to go, and I departed leaving the door ajar for her— she subsequently acquired a knack of opening it by springing at the latch. When I had nearly traversed the forest intervening between the two houses, a rustling in the fallen leaves made me start and turn round; but, instead of the panther which I fancied was tracking me, I saw my poor Tab almost exhausted by strenuous efforts to overtake me. She slipped out and hid herself thus several days in succession in order to follow me when I was fairly on the road; and, whether she was actuated by affection or aversion to solitude, I henceforth called her to accompany me whenever I went forth. She would leap on my lap when I whistled to her, but had an unpleasant fashion of patting me on the mouth which I construed into disapproval of my efforts to amuse her. On leaving the place I reluctantly consigned her to my neighbour’s care. My present favourite, Tootee, is the prettiest of a litter presented to me four years ago by her mother, who implored my patronage of them by bringing them up from her retreat in the kitchen, and laying them at my feet. She early learnt to recognise a summons in a snap of my fingers, and the headlong rush of the entire feline family up the stairs on hearing this signal was extremely ludicrous. Though the confinement of a great city is very unfavourable to its development, the intelligence of Tootee is singular. She likes to accompany me into the garden and to run after a ball, and when younger, frequently brought it to me in her mouth. She is in the habit of putting her paws on my shoulders, licking my face, and nibbling at my nose, a strange trick which I discourage,_and is very partial to my shoulder as a seat. Having discovered that, from some defect in the lock, my bed-room door may be opened by pushing it, she springs at it repeatedly in order to overcome by her weight the slight resistance

of the bolt.

When desirous of leaving the room she stands erect on her hind legs, and paws at the handle of the door as if conscious that it is necessary to act upon that in order to open the door. Should we go into the country or to the seaside, after exploring every nook of our temporary home and ascertaining what rooms are mine, she never intrudes elsewhere, being very diffident of strangers. Packing she understands to portend a move, becomes then unquiet, and wanders up and down the house mournfully as if bidding farewell to familiar objects; but, once established in a new place, she accommodates herself to necessity, and evinces no disposition to ramble. She is averse to solitude, and piteously remonstrates against being left alone; she distinguishes my knock from others, and generally comes to the door to welcome me; if her name is mentioned in conversation she pricks up her ears, and if directly spoken to usually replies by a gentle prut as eloquent as words. A cushion has been appropriated to her private use, and she evinces her apprehension of its being her property by sharpening her claws on no other object, by her uneasiness when it is used by any one, and by immediately

resuming possession of it when relinquished to

her. Only once was she so forgetful of her duty as to help herself to anything on the table in my absence. If not immediately attended to at meals, she drums impatiently on my arm, and having thus reminded me of her presence, composes herself to wait for a time. If still neglected she leaps on her mistress’ lap or shoulders, tries gently to intercept what she is raising to her mouth, and if permitted, will take it daintily from her lips. She never scratches or betrays the least bad temper, permitting herself to be handled roughly without resisting, and remonstrating merely by a soft mew.

I have been beguiled into these domestic remimiscences by a belief that the faults of puss, like those of women, are chiefly due to the injudicious way in which she is ordinarily treated by men. The faculties of the dog are developed by regular food, freedom, kindness, and association in our daily amusements. The cat is restricted to the house, stoned if she leaves it, fed scantily or not at all, despised as a household drudge, a forlorn Cinderella—but for whom, however, we should be over-run by vermin—abandoned to the caprices of children, and made occasionally the subject of cruel scientific experiments. We ill treat her and yet inveigh against her want of affection; we dine on mutton and reproach her with her carnivorous instinct; we frequently resent even a kindness, and are shocked at her promptness to avenge a wrong. I confess that I rejoice to hear the howl of lamentation that follows the scratch she has inflicted on the vicious child whose daily amusement is tormenting her; for it is not well, because parents are injudicious, that cruelty and lack of consideration for the sufferings of our fellow-creatures should pass unpunished. The alleged unsociability of puss is contradicted by the numerous instances wherein she has dwelt on amicable terms with other animals. At Lucerne, several centuries ago, a cat, dog, bird, and mouse fed daily from the same plate ; and two cats are now to be seen in the Zoological Gardens dwelling in harmony

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with a miscellaneous assemblage of monkeys, musing serenely in the midst of ceaseless tumult, and even sometimes joining in a friendly way in the frolics of the volatile crowd. The sensibility of the cat to music, like that of men, varies with the individual. A French lady of the last century had a cat remarkable for its love of music, and gifted with such power of discriminating good from bad, that it evinced unmistakeable annoyance at a discord or error in time. So assured was she of this, that Madame Dupuy relied implicitly on the cat’s intelligence to inform her whether her execution of a new sonata was open to criticism ; conceiving herself sure of pleasing in public when puss purred applause, and asserting solemnly that the bravas of her friends invariably confirmed the approbation of the feline critic; though cynics may refer this musical success to the age and wealth of the amateur. Be this as it may, at her death Madame Dupuy bequeathed her large estates to the cat, arranging for her residence in Paris and the country alternately, and leaving legacies to various friends on the condition of their visiting the cat at stated periods to inquire after her health and comfort. It is melancholy to learn that the legal profession alone benefited by this testament, a parallel to which was recently recorded in the “Times; ” two dogs having, by their solicitors, petitioned the High Court of Chancery that, in accordance with the wishes of their deceased mistress, the sum of 666l. 13s. 4d. in the three per cents. might be appropriated from her estate for their support; which, after hearing the arguments of counsel, the Vice-Chancellor ordered to be done. Happy land, where dogs are taxed, and have property in the Funds ! But there is a reverse to the picture. Not long ago a poor girl committed suicide in London on account of the death of her cat, and in her lifeless hand was a scrap of paper containing a touching entreaty that her “dear little kitten” might be laid in her coffin and buried with her. Let the reflection that there are probably in this wealthy land many lonely women, like this unhappy creature, without other friend on earth than a cat, win us to act more kindly to Puss |

A SUDDEN RISE.

“I this k, Molly,” said my father, rolling his cigar to the corner of his mouth, “I think, Molly, Bob’s growing.”

My mother looked up from her needlework, flushed and startled; pushed her spectacles half. way up her forehead, which she did when she wanted to see anything ; and moving a candle to the edge of the table, fixed her eyes straight upon me with a frown of extreme tenderness and searching inquiry.

“Stand up, Bob,” said my father, encourag. ingly; as if there was a way of standing up which would make a person permanently taller.

I stood up with a dogged feeling that as to height it was almost indifferent whether I sat or stood.

My father contemplated me for a full minute, during all which time he inhaled a long draught of tobacco smoke. At the end of that breathless period he emitted a remarkable cloud, which for the time blotted out me, the candles, my mother, and, in fact, the universe. At the age of seventeen, I differed in all respects from a mathematical right line, which has length without breadth or other dimensions. I possessed breadth and dimensions without length, —at least any to speak of. The colloquial name given me by my intimates at school was “Sausage.” I often pondered upon its possible apposition to myself: for I saw many pounds of that favourite edible quite attenuated, and of a delicate figure, the thickness bearing an inconsiderable proportion to length. At the University the mystery became solved, and several college breakfasts explained to me that a cooked sausage was intended. By the frying process, sausages contract in length, and become puffy, apoplectically stout, and afflicted with rupture. My speculations decided on that point, took a new turn, and sought the connection which subsists between pork sausages and high mathematical honours. But this is obiter of the present relation. When the world and I again hove into sight, my father rather unceremoniously pulled me towards him by the band of my trousers, and looked analytically at the interval of white stocking between their extremities and my high-lows. He then gently pushed me away, rolled his cigar to the other corner of his mouth, and placed his hand in such sort over his tumbler of whisky and water, that the spoon came out between the third and fourth fingers, and a drinking place was left betwixt the first and the thumb. With an air which blended satisfaction at the survey he had just made, and expectation of the sip that was to be, he repeated more authoritatively : “Molly! Bob’s grown, a good quarter of an inch l’” This was too much for my poor mother. She burst into tears; and wiping them away with the duster she was hemming, threw her arms round my neck, and sobbed on one of my shoulders. My father sipped his whisky and water, as if nothing had happened. In truth, my height at that time was no laughing matter. I stood five feet nothing in my socks. In figure I was robust—fat. My appetite was not bad : I was nourished by what I ate, and I grew, —but always latitudinally. There was great danger of my figure becoming an oblate spheroid if that kind of growth continued. In a year or two I was to enter the university. Was the sausage martyrdom I had suffered at school to follow me to college 2 I was designed for the church ; but a very bad design I must have been pronounced at that period. In the pulpit I should have presented the appearance of a small egg in a large egg-cup. The fact of my growth was, however, mentally admitted, and my mother tried to go on with her hemming, but couldn’t for looking at me. When a great happiness has been received, we recall it from time to time, to make sure we are not deceiving ourselves,—that it is not a dream.

Poetry from Google Books

Our Modern Athens: Or, Who is First? A Poem
By William Adolphus Clark
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First, there is Jim munching his dime cigar,
Great at billiards, and often at the “bar.”
He loves the ladies, but their papas say,
To win so smart a youth will never pay.
He’s first!!! that is, his family is known,
To live about the lofty State House dome;
He’s a gymnast smart, can box well and fence,
In these accomplishments he shows much sense.
Then there’s Titans! who ’11 oar it full two miles,
Ere you can kiss a maiden for her smiles.
They are trumps! and only play to win,
Loving a boat as Satan worships sin:
But with all their muscle, oars, and prizes,
They are modest youths and wait on ladies;
They are not ” blowers ” though heroes bold,
In ” Athens” honored for their manly soul:
We think them first — we think all fully first,
Taking to water — and who take the purse!
We bid God speed heroic muscle — mind
Too, that loves th’ oar, but not to oars incline.

Prom hearty youth we pass to proud old maids,
Decked out in crinoline and in brocades;
They’ve had more offers than pet squirrels nuts,
But their “dear men ” have been misfortune’s butts,
Who would not wed “till they could see their way,”
For honor bade them keep dear love at bay.
So thus these maidens once so fresh and fair,
Have been compelled a lap-dog for an heir;
They ” rip out” sometimes, but when day is fine,
And the heart beats freely as runs good old wine,
They get up a laugh and wonder how’t is,
Girls are so pleased with man’s disgusting phiz.
They would not marry the best one alive,”

Though bad their teeth, their hair most deeply dyed.

They sigh to think it though, for after all,

There is joy in whiskers nicely oiled;

They feel so down-like laid gently on the face,

While husband’s arm enfolds the wife’s dear waist,

That really, though men are plagues and puppies,

Pleased they would be with some, at least, as wooers.

There are in ” Modern Athens ” men of note,
Who ’bout theatres, show-shops, and bar-rooms float;
They are the ” small-beer wits” who croak, splutter,
Of genius and bet high on one another;
If they can make their bed, and board, and drinks,
‘T is all they care for — ” damn what th’ parson thinks;”
With managers, editors, reporters,
They are arm-in-arm as sons and daughters:
Their smiles are mutual and their hearts soft,
As hides in store-house ou Commercial Wharf.
Perhaps wooing the manager is one,
Who’s got a play he would have speedy done;
The “manager dear ” loathes him in his soul,
But as’t is genius pleads he must out-hold,
Some look of kindness and with base pretense,
Appear to honor his dramatic sense.
And so it goes, and so those who would gain,
Prom out the stage an author’s noble fame,
Must write his scenes with trembling and in fear,
To be repaid by disappointment’s tear;
To be kicked and pushed by actors and pimps,
Who beset our theatres like deathless imps.
If one has genius to write classic play,
He gold should have to pave his muddy way,
To keep himself aloof from meanest pack,
Who labor hard to break an author’s back.

Money, ay money, is the need of all,

The drama’s genius as the “nigger’s ball;”

If you have mind and soul and will to be,

A noted character — be banker ! — he

Can have plays done though poor their plot and sense,

Buy managers, actors, with recompense!

Let lubbers howl their criticisms wild,

What care thee — fortune’s imperial child ! *

The stage should be held in the highest praise,
“Nature’s mirror” in each succeeding age!
Genius alone should govern and control,
And favors asked should be denied the bold,
And pert who forward push to fill the place,
Which genius most godlike alone can grace!
We know’t is easy to define the law,
That should prevail as it prevailed of yore,
When men were authors whose wild stormy souls,
Demanded actors equal to their roles .’
And actors too were men whose genius felt,
The glow of nature and with transport melt!
Who soared with no hand — op’d no mouthing lip,

* We have no hesitation in saying that the manner in which the favors of managers, actors, and actresses are obtained, by those wishing new pieces produced, is a sad stigma upon the profession. An author, or his friends, must play the toady for an indefinite period, or possess such an overshadowing influence as to command their support at once, in order to get a new piece performed, which, if successful, imposes upon the ” poor author ” an everlasting debt of gratitude, he is not expected ever to be able to pay. If his plays make him anything, and he does not give pretty much all to those who have performed it, his meanness becomes the subject of general discussion; so that a man, unless under the most favorable circumstances, had better at once hang himself, than attempt to acquire either fame or a competence by dramatic authorship. He is beset on all sides by enemies, among whom are a dissatisfied pack, who have the ambition to write for the stage, but neither the talent, genius, or industry to accomplish anything meritorious. They block the way of true merit, as so much immovable lumber, and are an unqualified nuisance:

Whose form and features were a language fit,’
To bring down the house — fill the eye with tear,
Winning nightly laurel from ” the public dear.”
But though that age has passed and at this hour,
The drama crippled has lost its power,
Yet may it be in “Modern Athens” made,
To flatter genius and its merit aid;
There is no school like it, and people will
Cherish its love and cling around it still;
The poet’s soul exhales most fragrance here,
Which nature counterfeits to virtue rear:
Let ” Modern Athens ” place among her first,
The drama’s masters of the sock and verse,
Let this art so ancient and truly great,
Be here protected from disastrous fate;
Let it be raised at once and all become,
Pledged to guard it even to martyrdom.

And now, kind reader, be thou foul or fair,
We thank thee warmly for thy ‘tentive ear;
If thou perchance doth deem we’ve stricken hard,
Bethink thee of our subject— that the bard,
Is privileged to speak the truth though sad
Its telling, when listeners would be glad.
If life is sickening and if mankind,
Prefers clouds to light, to continue blind,
We are not disposed to aid in this
Oblivion — to greet them with a kiss,
When we should reprove and dare to inform,
Of what we see in human life deformed;
If we write and publish, ye shall perceive
As we, the great, and oh, most crying need!
Of sense and virtue ‘mong the class who reign,
Above the censure and the breath of blame;

But we can reach them with our trusty pen,
And though not Jove, we yet can truth defend!
It is the only cause on this tear-wet earth,
Worthy of manhood’s love and manhood’s work!
It is the only cause which moves the heart,
Towards its God, and godlike strength impart!
Forgive us, then, if in our hearty hate,
For those tawdry beings who would be great,
We have thrown our ink with ungentle force,
To stay mad folly in its wayward course.

Farewell, our friend! if indeed thou ‘rt a friend;
We wish thee merry to life’s latest end;
And when thy bones shall repose in the box, —
As thou art laid in th’ tomb with other corpse, —
May thy spirit freed from care, passion, here,
Be perfect honor in a nobler sphere;
May virtue’s laurels bind thy angel head;
Thy prayers be offered for the coming dead;
And if, perchance, our steps thou dost precede,
Attend our sorrows and supply our need ;*
So we will part, and in that parting hope,
On truth hereafter to more fondly dote.

* “There is something, I am convinced,” continued Byron, “in the poetical temperament, that precludes happiness, not only to the person who has it, but to those connected with him. Do not accuse me of vanity because I say this, as my belief is that the worst poet may share this misfortune in common with the best. The way in which I account for it is, that our imaginations being warmer than our hearts, and much more given to wander, the latter have not the power to control the former; hence soon after our passions are gratified, imagination again takes wing, and, finding the insufficiency of actual indulgence beyond the moment, abandons itself to all its wayward fancies, and during this abandonment becomes cold and insensible to the demands of affection.” — Lady Blessington’s Conversations with Byron.

“Species ducet te, video.”