be done with it. If you loved me wisely colour it, all this beauty is a mockery and you would put an end to me, Carlino." an insult. Let us go to Paris. My dingy And, seeing poor Carlino's consternation, rooms in the Rue Madame will be a fitter he added, "Oh! if you could understand preparation for another abode far more all my misery! But you cannot; oh! dingy and cold and narrow." why was I born? why was I born ? "

For the two or three next days he scarcely spoke, or even raised his eyes. They were riveted on the ground, he seemed lost in a brown study. All Carlino's ingenious devices to draw him out of his gloomy reflections, to find some interest or diversion, were unavailing. "Thank you for your good intentions," he would say, "but I have sunk so low that even your affection, your great and noble affection, finds no responsive chord in my heart. Leave me quiet. I am solving a great problem."

He said one evening, rousing himself from a long reverie, "Carlino, take me back to Paris, render me this last service."

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Why does Monsieur say last?" asked Carlino, with some uneasiness.

"Never do you mind why," replied the Baron. "Invalids past hope are apt to have presentiments, or fancies, if you like that better. Take me back to Paris."

"It is for Monsieur to order, and for me to obey," said Carlino; "but Monsieur will allow me to say that he will find the apart ment in the Rue Madame very close and dingy in comparison with these gay rooms, this beautiful view, and this fine air."

Carlino made a last effort. Convinced that if his master were allowed to resume his water-cure he would remain at Divonne, and his hopes again revive, Carlino went to the doctor, and besought him, if the thing were possible, besought him with tears, to recall his veto, or at least fix a period, not too far off, for its withdrawal. But his prayers were of no avail. The doctor pleaded his responsibility, and was immovable.

So there was nothing for it but to pack and go. They went. Of what use to describe that journey? It was as trying and cumbrous, and fraught with as many difficulties as had been that from Paris to Geneva. Only this time the Baron seemed to be little or not at all discomposed by that exposure to the public gaze, which he had felt so keenly on the previous occasion. It might be that he was too much absorbed to take much notice of the gaping crowd, or that he looked down upon them from the height of one of those resolutions in the face of which everything below seems small and insignificant.

They were received in the Rue Madame by Victorine, who, telegraphed to in time The Baron was sitting by the open win- by Carlino, had taken possession of the dow, Carlino by his side. It was a calm apartment during the last forty-eight hours, September evening, all round passing love- had put it in order, lighted the fires, and ly to look upon. There was that mellow-prepared everything necessary for the travness of tints, the despair of painters, pecu- ellers. Her new master hardly noticed her, liar to the season. Autumn had begun its and she with much discretion kept in the luxuriant patchwork of gold and purple on background. Indeed, the Baron's fatigue mountain and vale. The redbreast chased and exhaustion were so great, that he went from the heights by the chilly nights had immediately to bed, had a potage and two grown domestic, and uttered its silvery new laid eggs, and then said he would try chirp near the house. The Baron contem- to sleep. Carlino went to his bedside plated the landscape with a look of scorn, twenty times at least during the night, and and exclaimed, "I loathe this feast of always found him sleeping soundly. nature; to me, for whom hope does not

THE economic and sanitary results obtained from the experimental sewage farm at Madras seem to be eminently satisfactory. The field chosen for the operations was an old swamp with a stiff clay subsoil, about the most unfavourable that could be selected for the purpose. The surface was levelled and protected from floods, and over an area of about two acres the sewage of the Perambore barracks and an adjacent village was conducted and distributed by means of an

open earthenware conduit. The offensive smell is very soon lost, and the yield of grass and vegetables is wonderful. Guinea grass was produced at the rate of 88 tons of fresh grass, or 29 tons of hay per acre, and native vegetables grow most luxuriantly. The sanitary condition of the district has also been greatly improved, and the success of the system has been so marked that it has already been extended to two other districts of the city.

From The Spectator.
THE EMPEROR'S LETTER.

and which shall divide the Legislative Power between the two Chambers, and restore to the nation that portion of constituent power which it had delegated to me." His motive is explained as clearly as his act. The Constitution of 1852 "had, above all things, to provide the Government with the means of establishing authority and order," but now that successive changes have gradually created a constitutional system in harmony with the bases laid down in the plébiscite, it is important to replace all that refers to the preservation of legislative order within the domain of law." The Senate, therefore, "that grand body which contains

THE Emperor of the French has accepted Constitutional Government. After his letter of the 21st inst., addressed to M. Ollivier, it is impossible for him to interfere again with the Parliamentary régime, except by an avowed coup d'état. The importance of this letter can scarcely be exaggerated, though it appears in this country almost to have escaped attention. Up to the date of its signature, Parliamentary government in France, although no doubt established and recognized, existed in fact only upon sufferance. The Emperor had at any moment the right to propose a Senatus-Consultum, so many brilliant men," is invited, that is, which, if accepted by the Senate, might ordered, to lend an efficacious concurmodify the Constitution in any direction he rence" to the new order of things, and the pleased. It was open to him, for example, Empire is finally transmitted into a parliato forbid Ministers to sit in the Chamber, mentary monarchy. The Emperor resigns or to declare them responsible only to him- his constituent power; the Senate becomes self, or to limit discussion, or to withdraw a House of Life Peers; and the Legislative the right of interpellation, or even, to put Body is at last authorized, not only to disthe most extreme case, to invest himself cuss, but, with the co-operation of the with Legislative power whenever the Cham-Senate, to change the Constitution. If the ber was not sitting. The Emperor, in fact, Senatus-Consultum fulfils this programme was, whenever supported by a Senate nomi- Parliament will be as absolute as in Engnated and paid by himself and selected land, and the régime which the Emperor has from among his warmest partizans, the real so scorned and derided for eighteen years, constituent power. That he would exercise which he has been believed to consider this authority was, of course, improbable; worse than either Republicanism or autobut the fact that he could exercise it, that a cracy, is re-established upon the ruins of letter of ten lines from him might break up the personal power. Of course it is open Parliamentary administration, encouraged still to Louis Napoleon to strike a coup every adversary of that régime. M. Rouher d'état, but so it is to any Sovereign in Euwas always intriguing, the majority in the rope, Queen Victoria included, and the Senate was always hoping, the courtiers right of demanding a plebiscitum is not were always whispering, there was au im- formally surrendered, but without a coup pression everywhere that the Sovereign d'état it would be nearly impossible to exermight like to have his hand forced, that cise it, for the grand spring of French AdParliament bored him with its chatter, and ministration when not under military coerthat he might be induced, if not to initiate, cion, the Ministry of the Interior, is in the at least to accept a movement of reaction. hands of the Constitutionalists. This impression was deepened by the conduct of several Senators, who threatened to forbid the Legislative Body to alter the mode of appointing Mayors, on the ground that this involved a constitutional change, and that the Senators were the guardians of the Constitution, and seriously embarrassed the Administration, more especially in domestic affairs. The Ministry was beginning to seem weak, always a dangerous attitude in France, when the Emperor, whether pressed by his Cabinet or of his own mere motion, intervened with his usual decision. He resigned with amazing frankness and completeness all that remained to him of his Dictatorship. Lay before me," he wrote to M. Ollivier, a Senatus-Consultum which shall firmly fix the fundamental dispositions derived from the plébiscite of 1852,

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There will of course be much discussion as to the motives of the Emperor in making a concession so vast and so unexpected. It will be said that he was coerced, that he is giving his Ministers rope, that he has thought out some subtle and it may be treacherous design. We distrust all these explanations, which are at best deductions from the past history of a man whose mind is still an enigma. Napoleon was under no new coercion. While he was loyal to his Ministers they could hardly have resigned without putting themselves visibly in the wrong, and till they resigned he could have allowed the Constitution to remain intact. As for giving his Ministers rope, while he allowed them to do as they would they had rope enough; while as to the secret plan, it must be a plan for regaining power, and

to part with prerogatives which legalized stituency to hear him to become the ruler almost any exertion of authority is a strange of France, the centre of all eyes, the source road by which to seek a Dictatorship for the of all political movement. From the day second time. Our own impression is that when the Senatus-Consultum is signed, M. the Emperor is honest; that he has been for Ollivier becomes the virtual ruler of the twelve months in contact with Parliamentary Empire, ruler with power to alter the mould government; and that he has found it much as well as superintend the casting, and M. less hard to endure than he expected. It Ollivier was a few years ago but an ordinary can do things, can pass laws, can control student. Any advance has become possible, the departments, can, above and before all, and we shall once more see the intellect maintain order in Paris. It will work, and of France throwing itself with passion into a régime which will work without crushing political effort, swarming upon the two him in its working seems to the Emperor roads, journalism and oratory, which in a fair régime. Ambition, in the ordinary Parliamentary France have always led to sense, the desire of power as power, can, it power. The full effect of the change will must be remembered, have little infinence probably not be felt till the elections, over Napoleon. He has had it all in full which are, we may remark en passant, again measure for eighteen years, and has not en- postponed by the necessity of working out joyed it much. Over and over again he the new decree, for under the nominee has drunk of that maddening draught for system the Chamber is filled with local which all strong men occasionally thirst, notabilities, people with large fortunes, few power so perfect that, as in the East and brains, and an ambition entirely social, Russia, volition becomes executive. He people utterly unknown to France generally, has never, it is true, been able to give sen- and with an extraordinary proportion among tence of death by a wave of his hand; but them of semi-German names. It is not till an order to the Police has sufficed to send a dissolution to be followed by an election a foe to Cayenne. He has never made a without interference sets all ambition free, war by ringing a bell; but his single order, that we shall see the new men come up; in the very teeth of public opinion, hurled but France has never failed to respond to a France upon Austria and freed the Italian call of this kind, and even after a despotism people. He has drunk the cup of power to of eighteen years, - a despotism, that is, the dregs, as he has the cup of luxury, and which covers the entire manhood of every now, sated and weary and over-experienced, man under forty, they will yet come up in he feels that if his life may but be easy and crowds. It is life which is revived in dignified, he has no wish to take up that France by this letter. As to its immediate burden again. Governing France is not result, it will not only release the Ministry such a luxury that a man who has tried it, from a secret fetter which has hitherto imhas succeeded in it, but is conscious that he peded action, but compel them to act with is not beyond the possibility of failure, a force which has hitherto been somewhat whose self-confidence in fact has been seri- wanting to their career. The nation will ously shaken, should plot to regain the look to them with undivided regard. Up power which he is even now abandoning. to this time, although the Emperor has been What the Emperor might do to save his to a wonderful degree withdrawn from the throne is another question; but his throne public eye men occupying themselves for the moment is safe, and with the throne with the Ministry, or even with individual he is content. He has little work, no re- Ministers, to an extent unknown since 1848 sponsibility, and an influence probably greater, if only from his hold over his own nominees, than that of any Minister in his own Cabinet. That is the kind of position old men love, and the Emperor, in experience at all events, if not in physique, is becoming old.

Whatever his motive, the ultimate and immediate effects of his letter on France can hardly be doubted. The restoration of the highest power, the power of modifying the Constitution, to the Legislative Body will, as we believe almost instantly, but certainly after the next dissolution, revive political life in France. It is once more open to any man who can induce a con

the public has still always watched the Emperor as the ultimate depositary of power. He is so no longer. It is on the Cabinet that the policy of France will depend, from the Ministers that promotion will flow, in the Chamber and not in the Emperor's study that men will make themselves valuaable or feared. The worst features of the Imperial régime worst, we mean, as to its effect, not as to its motive-the suppression of individual genius until the only firstrate man admitted to the Tuileries was the Emperor himself, will come to an end, and France will again be full of those men whose brains, whatever their other defects, still seem so nearly to yield the ancient

object of scientific research, the universal | any hurricane of popular wrath, to keep the solvent. Ministers thus invested with all drag fairly on the spirit of revolution as it responsibility must act or give place to others, and of others, as we have said, there is no lack. The Emperor's letter, whether he intends it or not, and we almost hope he does not, the irony of fate would be so. perfect, will prove, as we believe, that crowning of the edifice" which he has so often promised and so often feared to grant.

From The Economist.

rolled on its irresistible course to popular liberty, and at last to consummate the whole strange history by the concession of last Monday which virtually gives back, and with the air of spontaneous though half tardy and reluctant generosity, to the people the arbitrary power which he had persuaded the people eighteen years ago to confer upon him. What strikes us as so unique in all this history is its evidently purely intellectual and reflective source. All the Emperor's great strokes,—many of which, like his earliest attempts on the French people, have been failures, failures frankly admitWE doubt whether a reflective posterity ted, and as soon as possible rectified,may not find much more to interest it in the have been long prepared for, approached character of the remarkable man who now by careful parallels and calculated approxisits on the throne of France than even in mations, and though delivered with an authat of his more sudden and brilliant and thoritative air at last, yet quite without any meteoric uncle. To us at all events there of the divination of genius, nay, with a very seems to be something much more rare and marked air of design long resolved upon, unique in the slow pondering intellect which and even at the last almost hesitatingly mahas so curiously studied and so persever- tured. It would seem as if he understood ingly measured,-almost as it were by the French feeling itself far less by sympathy successive tentative instalments and grad- with it, than by deep meditation on its pheual approximations of some mathematical nomena. It is precisely this slow and paformula,-the political wants and needs of tient intellectual assimilation of the politiFrance, than in that of the far swifter and cal symptoms of France which has enabled more self-willed genius which flashed with him to survive so many errors, to descend an irregular lustre over Europe and fell with dignity where another would have falthrough the excess of the very qualities by len with disgrace, and to give back bit by virtue of which it rose. Louis Napoleon bit with at least apparent disinterestedness, has now been the first man in France for a generosity, and something of a grand confar longer period than his uncle ever was. sistency, the power which he had always Reckoning from the date of his first Consul-claimed to wield only as a trust from the ship, the whole of the first Napoleon's career lasted but sixteen years; and reckoning even from the date of his first public suc- Now for the last four years, compelled cess, his military suppression of the revolu- partly by the failure of his foreign policy, tion in 1795, his career lasted exactly partly by the stimulus which the growth of twenty years, one year less than his popular power and freedom in neighbournephew's has already endured. The tri- ing States has given to the desire for it in umphs and the collapse of genius such as France, the Emperor has been constantly, his, though they make an exciting story, do though very slowly, and apparently very not to our minds furnish one half so singu- reluctantly, modifying the Constitution in lar and unexampled in history as that of this direction, till at last he has accustomed the present Emperor's plodding, painstak- France so completely to the habit of exing, uphill, intellectual efforts to guage and pecting voluntary Imperial concessions, that adapt himself to both the superficial tastes there is no shock to his dignity in that final and permanent demands of the French surrender of personal power accorded in people, to win them by theatric glitter, to Monday's letter. For ten years, though conquer them by a profoundly-meditated much more rapidly in the last four, he has display of force far from congenial to his been steadily descending from the height of own nature, to rule them by satisfying de- personal Government on which he once liberately both their longing for quiet and stood, and, as it would seem, the descent prosperity and their desire for a showy in- has been accomplished, as the result of deternational position, to measure surely the liberate conviction, of intellectual necessity, returning thirst for freedom, to ladle out in slowly engendered in his mind, and often anxiously considered portions just enough coldly and almost clumsily expressed. and no more than enough at a time to avert | Probably no great ruler, so little scrupulous

people, the gift of which the people had themselves ratified.