General News.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 360, 4 January 1879, Page 9

General News.

The devotees of tobacco may hear with some alarm, and the rest of society with some hope, that the public authorities are invading the long-endured liberty of smokers. At Cobleiuz and Saarlouis, and at Treves, it is stated that the police have forbidden lads under 16 to smoke in the streets, imposing a fine, or imprisonment in default of payment, on the. offenders. As almost every German smokes from his very boyhood, and nonsmokers are the exception, this is a strong measure.

One of the greatest curiosities in the world has lately beeu exhibited in San Francisco. It is the section of the largest tree in the world, called " Old Moses." It was 240 ft. in height, and at one time was much higher. The section now on exhibition measures lODft. in circumference. The age of this tree is estimated at 4824 years, and over 200 persons can be admitted withiu the interior. It will be exhibited iu the Eastern States, and then taken to Burope. Such a curiosity as this should attract a crowd of visitors, for it is doubtful if its equal will ever be found again. The new gold discovery in India is described as follows :—Withiu an area of twentyfive by thirteen miles*, niuety outcrops were discovered of auriferous quartz from two to four feet thick, yielding from 5 Iwt. to 200 i-z per ton. The richer stone shows, when broken, fine and coarse seams, and jagged pieces the size of a pea. In s >me of the reefs much of the stone will probably not pay for the working ; but it is believed that on the whole a very large aud profitable industry will be ensured with the aid of capital and good management. Wyond is healthy aud pleasant for .Europeans nine months of the year, but fevers prevail during three months. The anti-socialist Bill in Germany has become law, and has beeu immediately applied. The President of Police has already prohibited four associations, —the Association for the Protection of the Laboring Population of Berlin the Association for vhe Communal Affairs of the North-East District, the Association of Tobacco-Workers, and the German Smiths' Union ; has suppressed the Berlin Free Press, and has prohibited, the circulation of thirtythree non-periodical pamphlets, some of them German, and some Swiss and American. The Free Press immediately reappeared as the '/'••gespost, but was suppressed again, and it is evident that the freedom of combining and printing is at an end for Socialists iu Germany. The following is an analysis of the shareIs Ideis in the City of Glasgow Bank: —Ladies, 323 ; geu.lemen, 831; shareholders holding the amount of t-tock qualifying them to he directors, 185 ; bankers, 16 ; bank officials, 43 ; solicitors and other advocates, 35 ; ministers, 43; widows, 34; teachers, 7; paper makers. 9; merchants, 82 ; medical practitioner.-, 22 ; insurance agents, factors, &c, 47 ; farmers, 24 ; executors, 78 ; trustees, 37 ; gentlemen

whose profession is not stated, 335. There are 267 residents in Glasgow, 103 in Edinburgh, 78 in Aberdeen and Aberdeenshire, 42 in Eifeshire, 27 in luverness and the North, 21 in Crieff and Comrie, 13 in Helensburgh, 12 in Stirling and its neighborhood, 9 in Ayr, 8 in Elgin, 6 in Dundee, 3 in while the rest are scattered over the southern counties aud iu the towns in the West; few reside out of Scotland. There is fairly good news for lovers of claret from the Bordelais districts Vanity'* Fair -ays :—lt is admitted by the vignerons themselves—as good grumblers as Essex farmers — that it is a fairly good year, though nothing wonderful. This, being interpreted, ineansi that it is, in fact, a very good year, and that we need not f«ar the price of ciaret rising. On the other hand, the ravages of the phylloxera iu the Charente have been of the most serious character, and there will be a falling off of at least one half in the quantity'of cognac made this year. But let no one listeu too much to the complaints of their spirit merchants on thja matter. There are enormous stocks of brandy kept in store, so that the price should not at present be sensibly affected. The Spectator of a late date says: —The Duke of Cambridge lately delivered a Bpeech to the Company of Haberdashers, at Gre-ham street, which must sound ominous to Sir Stafford Noi thcote. He maintained that as England would not submit to be anything but a great nation, she must keep up the efficieuey of her army, aud it could not be kept up in face of "a damaging economy." UnHne economy in ordinary times must lead to large aiadl exceptional expenditure in times of danger," which be evidently thought might be near at hand. There is, perhaps, another bint of the same kind in theChaucellorof the Exchequer's speech at Birmingham on finance. He intimated that if the taxes of' 1856 were reimposedL the revenue would be increased by £2s.oi)f>iOQi& a year. Has anybody, perchance, beeu suggesting to him that heavy war loans wouid sot hurt the people, as even an expenditure of £500,000,000 at five per cent would only replace us in the position of 1856 ? That is not his own view, of course—he is a sound financier at heart—but there are counsels of perfection as to national expenditure which attraet Imperialist minda The street-car system in New York isina state of transition. With a defiance of American public opinion which does it infinite credit, the Sixth Avenue Bailroad Company has begun to put one horse cars on its Canalstreet branch, an alteration by which it is ear pected to save a considerable percentage of! working expenses. The conductor is dispense*! with in these small Cars, and the passenger, on whom a small mirror enables the driver to keep his eye, is expected to deposit his fare in a kind of ra<>ney-box without any further request. To persons unacquainted with the United States this system may appear provocative of dishonesty, but it is shrewdly calculated that the eye of the driver and the pressure of public opinion are sufficient to i: donee every citizen to pay his fare, as the eye of the bar keeper and the presence of the usual loafers are sufficient to prevent him from taking an unfair and abnormal drink wh«»n the bottle is handed to him. It is concluded anyhow" that the few shortcomings of inattentive pas engers will am»n»t to a mere trifle when compared with the wholesale robbery of a conductor. — Iron.

An American paper says:—We had occasion, about a year ago, to refer to the decision of the Court of Chaucery for Ontario, in the case of the Canada Eire aud Marine Insurance Company versus the Northern Assurance Company. The case raised an interesting question as to the right of a company to reinsure a risk at a rate differing from th«t of the original iusurance. Such a transaction was pronounced, under the circumstances of this particular case, illegal. Against this decision the Northern appealed, and the Court of Appeal has reversed the judgment of the Court below, holding that the defendants had a right to re-insure on such term* as might bo agreed upon, notwithstanding that their own ntes were higher, so long as there was no misrepresentation proven, which the Court of Appeal holds was not done hers. To this decision the plaintiffs have, we understand, submitted, so that here the matter ends. Thia ma,y be good law, but it does not alter cur opinion, from a business p >int of view, of re-in-uring at lower ra'es. It is only fair, however, to state that the difficulty in this particular case appears to have arisen through misunderstanding between the sub-agents of the respective companies, and not from any settled or acknowledged practice on the part of the defendants.

American riflemen are tall scorers. A Mr. Partello, at Washington, recently in a long practice, professed to have mode withiu one point of the highest possible score. A Me. Frank Hyde writes to an American contemporary about it. He says :—" I am aßked about seventeen times per day, * What do you think of the score made by Wbat's-hfe-name there in Washington ?' I take it that a majority of the questions mean, do you believe it was made? If there is anythmg that a rifleman will be 'conspicuously inexact about' it is his practice scores. In fact, when I find a particularly good one recorded in my own book, I am inclined to require an affidavit as to its correctness before I will believe I made it. I understand the one in question is vouched for by Colonel Bunißide. is so, it is well authenticated, but whether Colouel Burnside saw and recorded every shot, or is simply vouching fop the credibility of Mr. Partello, I am not informed. In the absence of ail thfa facts, I can only say that the story, aud the way it has been h mdled, looks a. little like au attempt to advertise somebody's goods. . A few days after this reputed performance we find another loug despatch to the Associated Press, stating that he had, on a later occasion, made 214, in a bad light and with detective ammunition. This is wh it the law wookl say proving too much. If he coak\ vssak* &A 4

■with defective cartridges, how defective must they be to give him a full score, which figure, ' by the way, his friends telegraph he feels capable of reaching." We observe that the London Times of the 23rd October, in a paragraph drawing attention to the projected holding of an International ( Exhibition at Sydney in August, 1879, takes ■■ the opportunity "to give particulars of the population of New South Wales, and a concise statement of its resources —pastoral, agriculiural, mineral, and industrial. A survey is then taken of the population, and resources of , the Australian colonies as a whole. is ; pointed out that she now contains a population greater than that of the United States when they first acquired their independence, whilst the trade of the Australasian colonies is twentyfold or thirty-fold greater than that of the American colonies at the time of the revolution. The Times further reminds its readers that New South Wales is the eleventh State in the world for revenue, and that Australia is fifth on the list of purchasers of English manufactures. In conclusion, the above-named journal says the Exhibition derives additional importance from the fact that an International Exhibition is announced for 1880 at Melbourne, and that a Queensland Exhibition in 1881 is also mentioned. The following extract, from a speech in the German Reichstag in the debate on the Bill for the suppression of Socialism, will show that even the Liberals have learnt to regard the communistic tendencies of the age with distrust, and find it necessary to remind their hearers that there are two sides to the question:—"Herr Lowe, a Liberal, said that the most despotic repression of Socialism was preferable to Socialism. Eor many years of his life he bad had much less to live upon than many of those working-men who were now complaining of destitution. No of German society had made such immense strides towards the enjoyment of daily comforts as the operative. The German clergyman, physician, Civil Service employe, and tradesman were infinitely worse off now than they were 30 years ago. The laborer, on the contrary, was leading a luxurious life, in comparison with the former state of things, and yet would not desist from complaining of his alleged wrongs. This was the result of allowing professional agitators to hound him against the other classes." The Ministry of the Interior has just published the first complete statistics of the financial situation of the Communes of France. Their total annual revenue amounts to 427,646,000 francs, about £17,000,000, exclusive of the revenue of the Bureaux de Bienfaisance, which amounts to 25,687,000 francs. The. total communal revenue is thus over £18,000,000. This, added to the central revenue, gives a proportion per head of the population amounting to about £3 65., a little more than the proportion per head in England. The real incidence per full-grown person must, however, be considerably less thafi this, owing to the greater proportion of full-grown persons and the smaller proportion of children in France. Of the total revenue of the communes 200,000 francs are contributed by Paris, with 2,000,000 inhabitants, that is to say, the eighteenth part of the total population of France collected in Paris pays nearly as much as all the rest of France put together in local taxes. Paris is taxed 100 francs per head of its population. The rest of France pays only about 6 francs per head of the population. Lyons, which ranks second on the list of towns with the largest local expenditure, has a revenue of 10,437,000 francs, with a population of 342,000 souls. It pays only about 34 francs per head of the population. Marseilles pays a little more. No other town nearly approaches Paris. Of the enormous budget of Paris, 126,703,000 francs is the amount on the estimates for the coming year expected from the octroi, and 1,060,370,000 francs goes as interest of the municipal debt. Great as the budget is, its source of income, the octroi, shows no sign of having nearly reached the limit of its increase. The increase of revenue expected from it in the estimates of 1879 is 4,499,000 francs. CHINESE INTELLIGENCE. (own corkespondent press agency.) • Hongkong, November 9. Business still continues very slack, and freights very low. The A.S.N. Company have again chartered the British steamer Charlton—for Port Darwin, Sydney, and Melbourne—for a lump sum of 14,000 dollars. The French barque Idene is also on the berth for Melbourne and Sydney, for which she receives 25s per ton of 50 feet. The Mitsin Bishi Steamship Company intend shortly running a line of steamers to Hongkong. Typhus and dysentery have been raging at Shantung, and have caused great mortality amongst the people, being weakened by the late famine. The Italian barque Bianca Pertica has been lost between Nagasaki and Hongkong, with a cargo of coal. There is only one survivor out of a crew of fifteen. Dr. "Wong, a well-known Chinese physician at Canton, who obtained his degree from Edinburgh, died on the 10th instant. Russian advices from Turkestan report a severe engagement between three thousand Chinese troops and the Kashgarian rebels, in which the former were almost annihilated. A bronze statue in honor of Lord Beaconsfield is to be erected at Hongkong. Three million dollars of a new Japanese loan is to be allotted by Government for opening mine's, establishing factories, mills, &c. Great difficulty is experienced in some provinces of China in checking cultivation of the poppy, owing to the carelessness and inattention of the officials. The revenue schooner Li Chi was lost in a gale between Svvatow and Hongkong. Only two on board escaped. ' The British barque Barbara Taylor was totally yj-recked during a gale off the coast of

Queipart. The natives fed the crew until a steamer from Nagasaki came and took them to that port. The Russian steamer Batrak, on the coast of Saghalien, on the 19th September, was swept by a tidal wave on to the rocks. No lives were lost. An address signed by ,2262 Chinese shopkeepers of Hongkong, expressing confidence in Governor Hennessy, has been sent to the Queen. There has been a serious outbreak on the Island of Hainau. The Hakkas revolted, took three towns, and now threaten the capital. They are reported to have committed gross barbarities. The British brigantine Flying Scud, from Nagasaki to Newchwang, coal-laden, went ashore near the latter port, and became a total wreck. The rebellion in Kwangu still continues. General Li-Yung-Choi, the insurgent leader, sets up a claim to the sovereignty of Tonquin as representative of the last reigning dynasty. The rebels have taken several towns in Yunan. No alarm appears to be felt in Canton concerning the rebels. The Governor of Hongkong has prohibited the export of arms and ammunition from Hongkong. CONVERTS TO MORMONISM. The Leeds Mercury (Sept. 17) thinks the departure of six hundred Mormon converts for Utah is a somewhat rude awakening from the belief that the education of the people is a sure safeguard against religious delusion. Of these six hundred men and women who left Liverpool on Saturday, two hundred have been converted by the Mormon agents in England, fifty in Wales, and forty in Scotland. The other moity were converted in Germany, Switzerland, Sweden, Norway, and Denmark. The attempt to convert the Irish failed, and the southern parts of Europe do not appear to have afforded successful fields of labor for the elders who have been sent to the Old World to propogate the great religious imposture of the New. The hard-headed inhabitants of the north of Europe alone seem amenable to the persuasive tongues of the elders, and we have to confess with something like humiliation that Leeds has contributed some twenty converts to the band which sailed in the Wyoming on Saturday. We speak of the faith of these converts as a delusion, and to almost every thoughtful man or woman it seems one of the saddest and most audacious delusions recorded in the history of religious imposture. From beginning to end the imposture is a lie so obvious that he who runs-may read, and yet from the day when Joe Smith invented his miserable Testament to the present, Mormonism has counted its converts by hundreds of thousands. It would be a mistake to assume that any large proportion of these converts wilfully delude themselves, or accept the faith of Mormonism simply because of the sensual element which distinguishes it. The sacrifices which they make, the sufferings which they undergo, and the zeal with which they give themselves to the strange doctrines and still stranger practices inculcated and followed by Brigham Young and his disciples, afford indubitable evidence of their sincerity. Their sincerity, howevei*, is no justification of their error. The delusion to which they give themselves is not the less a delusion because they accept it in good faith. It is a painful reflection that with such people it is hopeless to reason. They yield themselves to plausible arguments, and to theories which will not stand serious examination ; and having once done so, no dogma is too absurd to be received as ah article of faith. The Pall Mall Gazette (September 18) says : —The Mormons continue to draw lax-ge supplies of converts from this country. No fewer than 600 converts to Mormonism sailed last Saturday from Liverpool, in the steamer Wyoming, for New York. They were in charge of a Mormon agent, who, it is stated, has been in England for two years engaged in proselytising missions. They were also accompanied by seventeen elders of the church en route to Salt Lake City. This happy family was not altogether composed of English men and women, but was partly recruited from the Continent. England supplied about 200, Scotland forty, and Wales fifty. To the credit of Ireland, not a single convert came from that island, which was proof against the persuasions of the Mormon missionary. Of the others, 265 came from Sweden, Norway, Denmark, and adjacent countries, while sixty were Swiss ©r Germans. Owing to the fact of the headquarters of Mormonism being so far removed from us, the proceedings of these singular people attract but little attention in Great Britain. It is, however, to be. regretted that large numbers of ignorant persons are from time to time made the victims of the agents of one of the most disreputable and objectionable sects in existence.

REDUCTION IN WAGES : BAD TIMES. The Globe, October 28, writes:—Our work-ing-class population are now fairly feeling the pinch of the hard times; and we cannot wonder if they show a good deal of reluctance to accept the situation. A reduction of .10 per cent, in the earnings of agricultural laborers, such as the employers in the counties of Sussex and Kent feel compelled to insist upon, means the beginning of a time of severe trial, during which only the most rigid economy will avail to enable the workpeople to make both ends meet. Agricultural wages Were not particularly liberal before, and a loss of one-tenth of the amount will, to many, mean the difference between bare comfort and straitened circumstances, in which there is difficulty to provide for wives and families enough of the necessaries of life. It is easy for those who are unaffected by such things to preach eloquent sermons to the industrial classes on the virtues of patience and resignation; but those who know most about the working classes will most deeply feel that they deserve the sympathies of their countrymen in trials which have been brought upon them by cauaes largely beyond their control.

The matter, however, must be looked upon from a practical, and not from a sentimental point of view. The single question to be answered is —is reduction absolutely essential to save the employers from loss ? We are greatly afraid but the one answer is possible. Fortune has turned her wheel, and the time of abundant prosperity having passed away, it has been succeeded, in the usual order, by a period of decline, which cannot fail to produce hardships and deprivations. All over the country there are signs of the arduous struggle which the producing classes have to keep things going, and all around us we see many of their number falling out of the ranks unable to continue the fight. The full effects of the protracted depression of trade are only now making themselves manifest, as is proved by the increased pauperism of the country. It may be that we have not even yet reached the worst. At such a time, therefore, reductions in wages are inevitable, and it will greatly depend upon how they are borne—in all departments of industry—whether England is to resume her old lead when the time of trial has passed away. Luckily, bread is cheap, and will continue so dnring the winter ; otherwise the distress must have been immeasurably greater. The Times (October 28) thinks in all probability the distress of the working classes may be of long continuance, whether the great failures and troubles among the employing classes continue or not. Of course, if these failures and troubles should continue, no one will doubt the seriousness of the results on the working classes; but it is important fully to realise that prosperous times for capitalists which seem now to be at hand may not be so good for workmen. It has frequently been noticed that in the first year or two of a trade revival the revenue does not augment and pauperism keeps' on increasing, while there are considerable numbers out of employment. In 1869 and 1870, after trade had distinctly begun to revive, and Lancashire especially was very prosperous, pauperism went on increasing ; nor did the revenue increase very fast. The reason appears to be that in the earlier stages of a trade revival there is still a superabundance of labor, and it is only as prosperity increases and capital rapidly accumulates that an extra demand for labor which leads to a rise of wages springs up. The working classes, therefore, must make up their minds to a year or two more at least of low wages, and hard work when they can get it. The richer classes must equally make up their minds to hard work, though they have, perhaps, a better prospect of profit by their work than has been the case for years. But the ultimate result of this time of trial should be good. The abounding prosperity which existed a few years ago was demoralising. Life had become too pleasant, and hard work too distasteful, to many employers and employed. The axiom of political economy that human nature requires the strongest stimulants to labor, and that it is indolence which is our chief enemy, had been very much forgotten. All classes will be the better for harder work, longer hours, and stricter discipline ; and the lesson of greater thrift which is so much needed in this country will also, we trust, have been very widely learned.

BOARD OF TRADE INQUIRY INTO THE THAMES COLLISION. The Daily Chronicle (October 29) reports that :—The Board of Trade inquiry into the charges brought against the certificated officers of the Bywell Castle and Princess Alice was completed yesterday, when Mr. Balguy and the assessors delivered a finding tantamount to an "all-round" aquittal of personal blame, but studiously and expressly avoided any issues as to whether either vessel was to blame for the calamity. The Court was of opinion that it had not been proved that Capt. Harrison neglected to keep an efficient lookout on board the Bywell Castle, but was satisfied both that Captain Harrison saw the lights of the Princess Alice before that vessel rounded the Tripcock Point, and that the engines of the Bywell Castle were reversed immediately the danger of the collision was apparent. It therefore returned Captain Harrison's certificate. With regard to Henry Dimelow, the engineer of the Bywell Castle, charged with having given up the custody of the engines of that vessel to her subengineers, the Court found that such was the case, but stated that, from the evidence, it was clear that had he been below nothing more could have been done to prevent the collision. The fact of the engines not being reversed had actually tended to save life, as was demonstrated by the fact that many persons saved themselves by climbing to the deck of the Bywell Castle, which could not have happened had the engines been reversed and the ships parted. The Court did not approve of Dimelow's having given up the charge of his engines ; but in consequence of his having done his utmost to save life, the Court returned him his certificate. The major finding was held good in case of the minor charge affecting Robert Thorn, who was left in charge of the engines, but who neglected to reverse them when ordered. The whole of the five charges preferred against George Thomas Long, first mate of the Princess Alice, were proven ; but as the Court did not consider his negligence contributed to the collision, "regretted to be compelled " to return his certificate. The charges proven against Long were: first, he neglected to station any one on the look-out ; secondly, he did not see that ships' lights were properly reported ; thirdly, he sighted, but failed to report, the lights of the Bywell Castle as soon as they were visible ; forthly, he did not report to the captain of the Princess Alice the lights of the Bywell Castle; and fifthly, and lastly, he failed to pass to the Captain the report from the look-out stationed forward, of the Bywell Castle lights. The inquiry was ultimately adjourned until Thursday, when it will be brought to a close by the Board of Trade. May we hope that the whole calamity will be speedily cleared up, and that something definite will result from both the Poplar and Woolwich inquiries

which may serve as a basi3 of legislation as to the rights of the "road at sea ?" ' The Morning Chronicle (Oct. 20) says : The whole tenor of the judgment of the Court is to cast some of the blame upon the deceased master of the Princess Alice—we cannot say the whole of it, for, owing to a technicality, Dix, the pilot, was not before Mr. Balguy and his colleagues, and consequently no opinion has yet been pronounced upon the way in which he handled the collier. It may seem a harsh thing that even incidentally the memory of a master so well and so favorably known as Captain Grinstead should have a slur cast upon it ; but the Court at Poplar could not allow itself to be influenced by any feeling, and it cannot be helped if the effect of the finding of yesterday evening points in the direction we have indicated.

VULGAR PARENTS. (From the Liberal Review.)

Very vulgar people are -often able to make money as well as the most refined of their species. Though the grease, or the oil, or the dirt in which they they have dabbled while they have stood behind their shop counters, and obsequiously waited upon their customers, generally seems to cling to them so long as they remain on this side of the grave, as they bscome rich so they become fired by a spirit of ambition, more or less laudable. Feeling their own deficiencies—recognising that their style of speech is such as would have made Lindley Murray shudder, that their manners are awkward, and that their stock of conversation, apart from the " shop," is of the most limited character—they resolve that their children shall be educated in such a manner that they may be enabled to hold their own with the best in the land. So while their fathers toil in the shop or the warehouse, the latter are sent to such "fashionable" schools as whose conductors will consent to receive them, and are taught dancing, music, and other accomplishments. One result of the refining process to which they are subjected is that they learn to look down upon those to whom they owe their mastery of the polite arts. They seem to come to consider their father and their mother, who appear to grow commoner and commoner as their children acquire grace after grace, as beings entirely apart from them, and as beings who are to be schooled, and lectured, and kept in the background upon state occasions. They apparently learn to heartily coincide in the opinion often expressed by compassionate, if not very discriminating, lookers-on that they are much to be pitied for having such dreadful people for parents, as having such dreadful people for parents is mor,e or less a bar to theirentering the select circles of society in which, as a natural result of their course of training, it is their first ambition to move. Nor do they always go to the trouble of keeping their sentiments in the background lest the feelings of those who have given them birth and everything they possess should be hurt. Over and over again their father, if he is not as blind as a bat, must see that they are thoroughly ashamed of him, and that there are times,indeed, when they would almost rejoice if they could deny their relationship with him. He is led to understand that where they would be ornamental he would be out of place, and that one of the first duties of a father such as he is not to thrust his company where it is not wanted. Then they learn to revile the trade by which he has made his money, and make strenuous attempts to induce him to retire from it. If he has a strong will of his own, resists the pressure that is brought to bear upon him, and sticks to his business,, they bear him a perpetual grudge, and regard him pretty much ss they would a piece of jarring machinery which had to be tolerated because it was extremely useful in a moneymaking point of view. When he weakly gives way to the pressure which is brought to bear upon him, renounces his connection with what has been his joy through life, and sets-up as a gentleman, they would fain wipe out the past altogether. He may be more or less miserable because he has nothing particular to occupy his mind with, and because he has become a slave instead of a master, in so much as he has resigned himself to the thraldom of those who would have him unlearn everything that he knows and learn something quite different in its stead, to attempt to accomplish which task he day after day discovers is fraught withhumiliation and failure, but, though he may be more or less miserable on. account of what we have indicated, he is not allowed to look back upon the shop, with anything like sentimental regret. They never mention it. To hear them talk, indeed, one would be justified in thinking that they had never heard of it, and that the money upon which they are living, and with which they are endeavoring to make such a grand display, had been rained down from Heaven or had come to them in some other' equally startling and mysterious manner. When, through an unlucky circumstance, he refers to it—when he indicates that hewould rejoice to be allowed to dilate upon a feat that he has performed in connection with it—they glare at him :and snap in such a manner tnat a looker-on might be tempted to think that they would be truly grateful to Providence if the earth would only open and swallow him up. It is possible that at last it dawns upon him in a dim sort of way that he has made a mistake, as what he has done has had the effect of separating his children from him, and that he longs for the old days in which he was at liberty to be vulgar to the top of his bent, his only objects in life being to act honestly, to pay twenty shillings in the pound, and to "put by something every year." But there is no turning back for him. He must continue on the stony path which, in moments of misguided confidence, he believed would be so soft to his feet. Though his children's thoughts are not his, and his thoughts are not his children's, though he cannot enjoy himself in the way that they enjoy themselves, he feels bound to, in a measure, attempt to regulate his life according to their ideal. So he stumbles on and on, to the end of the chapter, a successful man, the evening of whose life is rendered unnecessarily dismal by

a perpetual sense of failure, au object, at which the finger of scorn is often pointed, because while he aspires high his rough corners remain in all their ugliness, having become as much a part of him as are his hands and his nose, and a striking illustration of how ambition, is every day over-leaping itself.

SOCIAL HYPOCRITES. (From the Saturday Review) The most notoriously offensive social hypocrite is, to our minds, the man of sham geniality. Concerning even a real genuine "genial man " it may be plausibly urged that he is often intolerable, as he is almost always tolerant. He insists on calling people "good fellows," "excellent fellow?," whom you know by instinct to be pestilent creatures, narrow, conceited, and envious. By a pecul arity of vision which must make life very enjoyable, the genial man is blind to these things, and no doubt he is the happier for his blindness. But that does not make him any the better companion to people of lower animal spirits, people who are not always in the very pink of mental, moral, and physical condition. On the whole, however, people of thoroughly healthy minds and bodies seem to be the majority in this world—a thought which should be a great comfort to the philosopher who takes wide views—because we do find genial people decidedly popular. Hence the temptation to be a faux bonhomme, which naturally besets men of a certain weight and physical conformation who are not naturally genial. A man can hardly be genial under 12 stone ; but it is not desirable that all persons who scale over that weight and are florid and unctuous should try to be geuial. The result of their efforts is the existence of the mo 4 annoying sort of social hypocrite, the man who slaps backs out of m dice aforethought, sits up late and drinks toddy when he would be in bed if he listened to what the inner spirit Bings, and who gives an exuberant welcome to people whom he heartily wishes never to see. A great many doctors, and a great many lawyei-s, with a sprinkling of the ministry of our dissenting brethren, are falsely genial. It would be interesting to know whether they are aware that they impose on but few persons, while they inspire the rest of the world with a wild desire to rusS on them, to rumple their shirt fronts, tear their broadsloth, and beat them on the nose. They would foe much less unpleasant if they were frankly bearish—if they were, in fact, their own disagreeable selves. They are execrable imitations of a t3~pe which less than most endures to be imitated. It is agreeable to believe that they are generally mi-trusted, that they are always on the point of being found out, and that they compensate themselves for the open exercise of a brusque yet oily courtesy and good-will in public by bullying their families at home.

The sham man of the world is another most uncomfortable and uneasy social hypocrite. The poor wretch has a li tie taste perhaps and some literary ability; he took a very fair degree at college (where he posed as a huntingman and a playtr of loo); he is not unsuccessful as a scholar, a pro essor, a writer, a popular preacher. What he does naturally—namely, his work —he does well enough; what he does detestably is the thing that is not natural to -Mm—his play. The late ingenious Lord Byron, if we are to believe Leigh Hunt and Mr. Trelawuy, was the very crown and flower of this cl iss of social hypocrite. His great natural gifts as a man of the w>rld, his strengtn, his beauty, his wit, his success with women, were alloyed and impaired by his even more extraordinary poetic powers. The two sides of his nature clashed and made him miserable, and he aiwiys preferred and longed for the trivial fame of a man like Luttrell. The common man of letters who wishes to seem a man of the world is probably, with his limited power of feeling, not much happier than Byron. He never can be persuaded that, it he were not a mau of letters, he would be nothing. He is always craving for the reputation of the roue or the deer-stalker, of the shekarri or the athlete. It is not his Latin prose (which is not so bad) 'that he plumes himself on, but his riding, and he rides like a sack of potatoes. Pe knows a number of things ; but he will talk about the things he does know, such as jockey's weights and handicaps. He tries to be the tit ■ companion of young military men ; and when he writes, Vie mentions "pedants" and "bookworms" as if he were not h'mself. a member of the brotherhood. He is the pedant of flyfishing, the prig of cricketing or boating shop. Everyone is a "p daut" in his eyes who writes about dist out times in a tone that is not rollicking, and who writes correctly where he writes at random. If the contempt of scholars, the amusement of men of the world, and the admiration of people who are neither the one nor the oti'er is a desirable reward, the sham man of the world does not lack his guerdon. He is most offensive, perhaps, when, beiug a popular preacher by his trade, he haunts bil-liard-rooms, and tries to win a reputation for his knowledge of risky stories. Bad as are the Ignoramus who affects knowledge and- the vulgar man who affects d stiuction, the shamefaced braggart scholar escaped, from his cloister into mess-rooms and drawing-rooms is even more distasteful.

The rtfinedjnen who pretend to a healthy, blusterous quality are comparatively ianocent impostors. Nature uryiog them to speak softly and to walk delicately, they must needs strut and shout for fear of being thought effeminate. They hold vague opinions, and vaguely believe in their casual creed- ; but to hear them talk, or to read their writings, you would suppose them all to be Croniwellts or Knoxes. Mr. Carl vie lias much to answer for in regard to this class of humbugs - They are always saying that " the ratepayers will have .Lord Lytton's head," or whatever head may be in question, and giving the world to understand that they are' on the side of the bloodthirsty x'atcpayers. They long for rebellion in distant colonies that they may preach the virtues of flogging, of tar-caps, and of military executions. To tell the truth they could not endure

the sight of blood, and their hearts are as tender and womanish (if women's hearts are tender) as their theological opinions are casual and undetermined. Yet, when they treat of the past of theology, or the present restoration of St. Albans, they speak as if they were convinced Calvinists or " hard-shell" Puritans, as if the stool of Jenny Geddes lay ever ready to be thrown at the first representative of "black prelacy" whocomes within shot. These deluded persons have a femiuine admiration of brute force. Some of them adore Cromwell and others Robbespierre, while the charms of that conqueror Henry VIIL still prevail over the lady-like minds of others. The result is to be found in the insincere noise of much modern rhetoric which is poured from a dozen very various pulpits. The fires of Smithfield would would be nothing to the conflagrations ot today if all the pseudo-strong minded writers had a period of power, and did not run away and hide when their chance came. The distrust of self, a fine and engaging diffidence, seems to be the motive of most social hypocrites. The sham genial man and the sham man oi the world no doubt hope to gain something, some commercial or social reward, by their travesty. The others whom we have described find a dubious recompense in the power of occasionally believing that they really are what they try to seem—bluff, brutal, overbearing, roughly simple, destitute of di-tinc-tion, and hopeless commonplace. That prize, after all, is nearly as valuable as most of those which an approving and self-satisfied conscience can confer.