modate a lady and gentleman with a little child, who, after fruitless search for a bed here and elsewhere, were just about to have their jaded horses put to their carriage, and drive out of town again. So you may think how we are put to it. I never saw such a thing in my life. off our legs."

We're all fairly driven

"Holloa! Betty, Betty!" exclaimed my indefatigable companion, darting off along one of the long passages after a tall, good-natured-looking creature, the chambermaid, "where's my bed-room, and this gentleman's?"

"La! Mr.

how can you talk so, there isn't a bed nor a sofa in the house that isn't occupied; ay, and if there'd been twice as many they'd have been full. I'm sure I don't know what's to be done : there's Missus can't for the life of her turn the folks away, but she keeps on promising to do what she can for them, and then she sends them to me, as if I could make rooms and bedsteads as well as beds; I'm sure if it hadn't been for Mr. Hussey there, I don't know whatever Mr. and Mrs. would have done, and they with a young child too! I wouldn't have had them put about at no rate "

"Ah! well never mind them now, they're housed: let's see what you can do for us, for we mean to sleep here."

"Well, I never! Hows'ever I'll tell you what; there's one of our commercial gentlemen told me this morning that most likely he'd be obliged to go on to Liskeard this afternoon, and if he does you

and your friend can have the room, and we'll make up something upon the floor for one of you."

Here was a gleam of hope: never had a commercial man more sincere good wishes for his getting

on.

Well now, "to be or not to be-that's the question;" fortunately we were soon relieved from suspense, for said bagman presently appeared, whip in hand, and announced to Betty that he was off. This was no time for ceremony, so "Come," says my friend, "what's the number of that gent.'s room, Betty?"

Ninety-three, top of the house," says Betty with

a grin.

"Oh, confound it! I know your stairs well, though I never was so high as that before; here, you boots, take these carpet bags up to ninety-three." Away we went after him, and if the room was not exactly such as we could have wished, yet we were rejoiced at having found a safe harbour; depositing, therefore, our cloaks, &c., and making ourselves a little tidy, we turned the key and took it with us, deeming upon such occasions that possession is at least nine points of the law.

In the bustling world below we succeeded after some time in making arrangements for our dinner, the great difficulty being to find a place where it might be served, the ordinary coffee-room being quite full. One corner of a large desolate-looking room, used for tea on ball nights, at last afforded us a refuge, and having secured the interest of a good

natured, fat, little bustling waiter, who seemed to be running about from place to place something like a cracker, knocking about everything and everybody, puffing as if he hadn't got five minutes' breath left, yet expatiating upon the hardships of such a bustling life; securing, I say, the interest of this little gent., we sallied forth to reconnoitre the town, when just at the threshold we encountered a gentleman who proved to be my friend's friend, and as such presently my acquaintance.

Upon comparing notes, it seemed that no obstacle existed to our clubbing together during our stay, the happy man having secured a bed some days before.

We now strolled into the town, but soon found that although the shops appeared to be very good, as well as handsome, yet that the greater part of the streets are narrow, not over-clean, and by no means inviting. Retracing our steps therefore, we passed the hotel, and one or two sets of handsome modern houses, and found ourselves immediately on the top of the Hoe, the hill I described before as forming the northern boundary of the Sound, and at the east end of which is situated the Citadel. This Hoe is a noble grass promenade about a third of a mile in length, and from one to two hundred yards wide, on the summit of a hill overlooking the whole Sound vis à-vis to the Breakwater, and across that looking out to the channel, in which, on a clear day, the Eddystone is seen like a tall vessel in the distance. Nearer to you, the eye, glancing across St. Margaret's Isle and the narrow channel, rests upon the magnifi

cent woods of Mount Edgecombe, whilst ever and anon the attention is attracted by the movements of the shipping, to be recalled occasionally by the marching of a guard across the Hoe between the barracks at Stonehouse and the citadel. The panorama is really perfect, and most fascinating. I had the advantage too of a cicerone who was well acquainted with the locality, and entered most enthusiastically upon its merits. He had been a great traveller, but declared he knew nothing, save the Bay of Naples, so beautiful or so interesting as Plymouth Sound. His friend was of a somewhat graver turn, but of a most agreeable deportment. Looking at the Australian emigration ships as we sat upon one of the stone benches, he said with a sigh, " Ah! those ships could tell many a tale of woe if they could speak and reveal the secrets of the prison-house.""

I observed, I thought they were for the transport of voluntary emigrants.

Why, yes," he said, "they are not filled with convicts it is true, but I believe you would not find that many of the passengers are obeying the dictates of their inclination, hardly of their free will, when they step on board the vessel which is to convey them to an unknown land far away from that country which holds all that they love, and venerate, and cherish. Some indeed, no doubt, emigrate in order that they may hasten to be rich; some from restlessness, and some from recklessness; but the majority, be assured, leave the land of their nativity as reluctantly and as much upon constraint of one kind or

another as if they were shipped by the sentence of the judge; their limbs, indeed, are free, but their motions are constrained: the iron chafes not their skin, but it enters into their soul. Few there are on board those vessels, I am sure, to whose ears the palls of the capstan do not discourse most unmusically; to whose heart the cry of the anchor's away' does not convey the sensation of violent disseverance from the spot to which they had clung, and to which they would still cling could they but see the remotest prospect of a decent maintenance for themselves and families. Many, many a youth too, is sent out to Australia as much upon compulsion as convicts, albeit that compulsion be of a friendly nature, and often rendered necessary by offences, if not against the civil law, at least against domestic happiness and well-being. I have lately had a very remarkable instance of this brought under my notice, and I think you will be interested in the narrative, for which we shall have time before dinner.

"The fact is, I came down last year with a young friend who was about to proceed to Australia, there to sow the remainder of that crop of wild oats of which a pretty large portion had been in active operation in this country for some time, very little to the profit of himself or family, and very greatly to the discomfort of his friends Happily, he could leave this country with the means necessary for ensuring a fair start in his new sphere, and we hope that he will become, not only a sober, but a prosperous, and perhaps a wealthy man: God grant it.