coffee having been utterly abolished by law in | the year 1888.

"I have rung several times," said the Duchess, "and sent Lady Maria upstairs into the assistants' drawing-room to get some of them to remove the things, but they have kept her, I believe, to sing to them; I know they are very fond of hearing her, and often do so." His grace, whose appetite seemed renewed by the sight of the still lingering viands which graced the board, seemed determined to make the best of a bad bargain, and sat down to commence an attack upon some potted seal and pickled fish from Baffin's Bay and Behring's Straits, which some of their friends who had gone over there to pass the summer (as was the fashion of those times) in the East India steamships (which always touched there) had given them; and having consumed a pretty fair portion of the remnants, his favourite daughter, Lady Maria, made her appearance.

"Well, Maria," said his grace, "where have you been all this time?"

"Mr. Curry," said her ladyship, "the young person who is good enough to look after our horses, had a dispute with the lady who assists Mr. Biggs in dressing the dinner for us, whether it was necessary at chess to say check to the queen when the queen was in danger or not. I was unable to decide the question, and I assure you I got so terribly laughed at that I ran away as fast as I could."

"Was Duggins in the assistants' drawingroom, my love?" said the Duke.

"No," said Lady Maria.

"I wanted him to take a message for me," said his grace, in a sort of demi-soliloquy.

"I'm sure he cannot go, then," said Lady Maria, "because I know he has gone to the House of Parliament (there was but one at that time), for he told the other gentleman who cleans the plate, that he could not be back to attend at dinner, however consonant with his wishes, because he had promised to wait for the division."

'Ah," sighed the Duke, "this comes of his having been elected for Westminster."

At this moment Lord William Cobbett Russell made his appearance, extremely hot and evidently tired, having under his arm a largish parcel.

"What have you there, Willy?" said her grace.

"My new breeches," said his lordship;"I have called upon the worthy citizen who made them, over and over again, and never could get them, for of course I could not expect him to send them, and he is always either

at the academy or the gymnasium: however, to-day I caught him just as he was in a hot debate with a gentleman who was cleaning his windows, as to whether the solidity of a prism is equal to the product of its base by its altitude. I confess I was pleased to catch him at home; but unluckily the question was referred to me, and not comprehending it, I was deucedly glad to get off, which I did as fast as I could, both parties calling after me-'there is a lord for you look at my lord!'-and hooting me in a manner which, however constitutional, I cannot help thinking deucedly disagreeable."

At this period, what in former times was called a footman, named Dowbiggin, made his appearance, who entered the room, as the Duke hoped, to remove the breakfast things; but it was, in fact, to ask Lady Maria to sketch in a tree in a landscape which he was in the course of painting.

"Dowbiggin," said his grace in despair, "I wish you would take away these breakfast things."

"Indeed!" said Dowbiggin, looking at the Duke with the most ineffable contempt "you do-that's capital-what right have you to ask me to do any such thing?'

"Why, Mr. Dowbiggin," said the Duchess, who was a bit of a tartar in her way-"his grace pays you, and feeds you, and clothes you, to

"Well, Duchess," said Dowbiggin, "and what then? Let his grace show me his superiority. I am ready to do anything for him— but please to recollect I asked him yesterday, when I did remove the coffee, to tell me what the Altaic chain is called, when, after having united all the rivers which supply the Jenisei, it stretches as far as the Baikal lake—and what did he answer? he made a French pun, and said 'Je ne sais pas, Dobiggin'—now, if it can be shown by any statute that I, who am perfectly competent to answer any question I propose, am first to be put off with a quibble by way of reply, and secondly, to be required to work for a man who does not know as much as I do myself, merely because he is a duke, why, I'll do it; but if not, I will resist in a constitutional manner such illiberal oppression, and such ridiculous control, even though I am transported to Scotland for it. Now, Lady Maria, go on with the tree." "when

"Willy," said the duke to his son, you have put away your small-clothes, go and ask Mr. Martingale if he will be kind enough to let the horses be put to our carriage, since the Duchess and I wish to go to mass.'

"Then, Willy, go and endeavour to harness the horses yourself," said the Duke to his son, who instantly obeyed.

"You had better mind about those horses, sir," said Dowbiggin, still watching the progress of his tree; "the two German philosophers and Father O'Flynn have been with them to day, and there appears little doubt that the great system will spread, and that even these animals which we have been taught to despise, will express their sentiments before long.'

"The sentiments of a coach-horse!" sighed the Duchess.

"Thanks, Lady Maria," said Dowbiggin; "now I'll go to work merrily; and, Duke, whenever you can fudge up an answer to my question about the Altaic chain, send one of the girls, and I'll take away the things."

Dowbiggin disappeared, and the Duke, who was anxious to get the parlour cleared (for the house, except two rooms, was all appropriated to the assistants), resolved to inquire of his priest, when he was out, what the proper answer would be to Dowbiggin's question, which he had tried to evade by the offensive quibble, when Lord William Cobbett Russell re-appeared, as white as a sheet.

My dear father," cried his lordship, "it's all over now. The philosophers have carried the thing too far; the chestnut mare swears she'll be d-d if she goes out to-day."

"What," said the Duke, "has their liberality gone to this-do horses talk? My dear William, you and I know that asses have written before this; but for horses to speak!"

"Perhaps, Willy," said the Duchess, "it is merely yea and nay, or probably only the female horses who talk at all."

"Yes, mother, yes," said her son, "both of them spoke; and not only that, but Nap, the dog you were once so fond of, called after me to say, that we had no right to keep him tied up in that dismal yard, and that he would appeal to Parliament if we did not let him out." My dear Duchess," said the Duke, who was even more alarmed at the spread of intelligence than her grace, "there is but one thing for us

to do-let us pack up all we can, and if we can get a few well-disposed post-horses, before they get too much enlightened, to take us towards the coast, let us be off."

What happened further, this historical fragment does not explain; but it is believed that the family escaped with their clothes and a few valuables, leaving their property in the posses

with a liberal anxiety (natural in men who have become learned and great by similar means themselves), the benefits of enlightenment, in turn gave way to the superior claims of inferior animals, and were themselves compelled eventually to relinquish happiness, power, and tranquillity in favour of monkeys, horses, jackasses, dogs, and all manner of beasts.

THE POSIE.

[Robert Burns, born on the banks of the Doon, near Ayr, 25th January, 1759; died in Dumfries, 21st July, deed, among the rarest, whether in poetry or prose; 1796. Carlyle says: "The excellence of Burns is, inbut at the same time it is plain and easily recognized: his sincerity, his indisputable air of truth." "His songs are already part of the mother tongue, not of Scotland only but of Britain, and of the millions that in all ends of the earth speak a British language. In hut and hall, as the heart unfolds itself in many-coloured joy and woe of existence, the name, the voice of that joy and that woe is the name and voice which Burns has given them."1]

O luve will venture in,

Where it daurna weel be seen, O luve will venture in,

Where wisdom ance has been; But I will down yon river rove, Amang the woods sae green,— And a' to pu' a posie

To my ain dear May.

The primrose I will pu',

The firstling o' the year, And I will pu' the pink,

The emblem o' my dear; For she's the pink o' womankind, And blooms without a peer; And a' to be a posie

To my ain dear May.

I'll pu' the budding rose,

When Phoebus peeps in view, For it's like a baumy kiss

O' her sweet bonnie mou'; The hyacinth 's for constancy, Wi' its unchanging blue,— And a' to be a posie

To my ain dear May.

The lily it is pure,

And the lily it is fair, And in her lovely bosom

I'll place the lily there;

1 See Allan Cunningham's Essay, "Robert Burns and Lord Byron."-Lib. Choice Lit., vol. vii., page 23.

The daisy's for simplicity,

And unaffected air,— And a' to be a posie

To my ain dear May.

The hawthorn I will pu',

Wi' its locks o' siller gray, Where, like an aged man,

It stands at break o' day.

But the songster's nest within the bush I winna tak' away,

And a' to be a posie

To my ain dear May.

The woodbine I will pu',

When the e'ening star is near, And the diamond-draps o' dew Shall be her een sae clear: The violet 's for modesty, Which weel she fa's to wear,—

And a' to be a posie

To my ain dear May.

I'll tie the posie round

Wi' the silken band o' luve, And I'll place it in her breast, And I'll swear by a' above, That to my latest draught o' life The band shall ne'er remuve,—— And this will be a posie To my ain dear May.

HYMN OF THE HEBREW MAID. BY SIR WALTER SCOTT.1

When Israel, of the Lord beloved,

Out from the land of bondage came
Her father's God before her moved,

An awful guide in smoke and flame.
By day, along the astonish'd lands
The cloudy pillar glided slow;
By night, Arabia's crimson'd sands
Return'd the fiery column's glow.

There rose the choral hymn of praise,

And trump and timbrel answer'd keen; And Zion's daughters pour'd their lays,

With priest's and warrior's voice between. No portents now our foes amaze,

Forsaken Israel wanders lone; Our fathers would not know THY ways, And THOU hast left them to their own.

1 Sung by Rebecca in Ivanhoe. Professor Wilson considered this hymn a perfect gem of its kind, in which dignity, pathos, and a religious spirit, at once pure and fervid, are admirably intermingled.

But present still, though now unseen! When brightly shines the prosperous day, Be thoughts of THEE a cloudy screen,

To temper the deceitful ray.

And oh, when stoops on Judah's path
In shade and storm the frequent night,
Be THOU, long-suffering, slow to wrath,
A burning and a shining light!

Our harps we left by Babel's streams,
The tyrant's jest, the gentile's scorn;
No censer round our altar beams,

And mute are timbrel, trump, and horn
But THOU hast said, The blood of goat,
The flesh of rams, I will not prize;
A contrite heart, an humble thought,
Are mine accepted sacrifice.

COUSIN TOMKINS, THE TAILOR.
BY W. H. HARRISON. 2

Edward Stanley was a gentleman of good family and liberal education. He held an official situation of considerable trust, and proportionate emolument. Early in life he married a lady whose personal charms, rather than a regard to similarity of taste and congeniality of disposition, had captivated him. He devoted much of his time to the cultivation of belleslettres, and delighted in the society of men of learning and genius, many of whom were frequent guests at his table. His lady was the daughter of humble people, who, by successful speculations, had risen rapidly to comparative wealth, by means of which they had given her an education at one of the fashionable finishing-schools, where, with tinsel accomplishments, she acquired notions much at variance with common sense and proper feeling, and quite unfitted for the society in which she had been accustomed to move. Being one of a large family, she brought her husband a very moderate fortune: but his income was ample, and she resolved to make it subservient to her taste for display, which Mr. Stanley, who loved her affectionately, was too weakly indulgent to oppose.

They had one daughter, their only child, of whom her father was both fond and proud. Her mother also loved her, but she loved pleasure more, and consequently resigned her offspring to the care of menials, and committed her education to a governess. The latter, however, was a young woman of piety and ability, whose endeavours were applied to regulate the

2 Abridged from the Second Series of "Tales of a Physician."