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SETTING UP A BUTLER.

introduced into the area to clean the knives and boots, is painfully ominous: Every doctor watches for such signs. It may be only a little flush or a scarcely visible pimple, but to the observant eye it betokens unmistakably what is about to follow. In a suburban house perhaps a boy does not much matter. There is a garden where he can be turned loose when not wanted indoors; or there is probably a pony-chaise, and he can make-believe to be useful to the groom. At any rate you know the worst of him. When he outgrows his jacket and trousers so that there is too much exposure of bare arm and dirty stocking, he must of course give place to another; but that other will only be a boy such as he used to be himself. The danger of the boy in a town house is that he is the thin end of the wedge the almost inevitable precursor of a man.

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one who reflects on all that is involved in the introduction of a butler into a house for the first time the prospect can hardly be contemplated without a pang. Hitherto he has been, under his wife, master in his own house. A woman cook is the highest person in his service, and personally he has nothing to do with her," though the mention of his name may sometimes be a useful resource to his wife when she has a difficulty with her chief domestic. If he wants anything done in a particular way he has only to tell his wife, who gives the necessary order. But now a new official is to be introduced under his roof who will entirely alter this state of affairs. A wife may manage a cook without troubling her husband, but he cannot escape the responsibility of himself looking after the butler. His domestic life suddenly falls under the shadow of a strange man who has ways

It may be supposed that with the in-and ideas of his own, and who, though crease of the domestic staff a certain nominally his servant, contrives in many change also takes place in the life of the things to make himself felt as master. household. There are more courses than Theoretically, of course the supreme there used to be at table, evening dress authority rests with the employer; he creeps in, and the range of hospitality gives his orders, and it is supposed that widens. The boy having been added at they will be carried out. But his sense the tail of the establishment, another of freedom in giving orders is apt to be male is found to be indispensable at the seriously circumscribed by his conscioushead of it. In short, our friend suddenly ness that they will be sharply criticised awakes to the discovery that he is in that in thought, if not in speech. A butler most distressing position which may be who finds himself in a house where there described as tottering on the verge of a has never been a butler before has ample butler. His wife is constantly pointing scope for a peculiar kind of tyranny. He out to him that other people not better has an experience of the rights and duties off than they are have a butler; that a of butlers to refer to of which his master butler at once steadies and gives charac-is destitute. Nothing can be more imter to a house, and is, in fact, a sort of pressive than the solemn gravity with social badge or symbol without which which, under the form of questions, he they can no longer hold up their heads issues mandates to his employers, or the among their friends and neighbours.expression of melancholy surprise with Women servants may be all very well in their way, but then they are distinctively associated with mere bourgeois respectability. It is also hinted that a butler would after all be rather an economy than an additional expense. He would check the bills, keep an eye on the other servants, and do many things which the master of the household is too much occupied to attend to. It is possible that this sort of argument may not carry very decided conviction to the mind of the person to whom it is addressed, but he cannot but feel that, however he may struggle and procrastinate, the question is already decided. Sometimes, of course, a man makes the plunge without thinking much about it, and he may even perhaps fancy that he will enjoy it. But to any

which he listens to suggestions or remonstrances which reveal the depths of social obscurity in which his master and mistress must have passed their previous existence. Reminiscences of the liberality and splendour of houses in which he formerly lived supply a ready answer to all complaints. His lordship, or Sir John, as the case may be, was content to write cheques for the wine-merchant with out making fussy calculations as to the proper consumption of the quarter, or indulging in invidious suspicions as to whether a common St. Julien had not been substituted for Château-Margaux; nor did he demean himself by looking into the items of shopkeepers' bills, and comparing their prices with those of the Civil Service stores. The butler's ideal

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at is one of a perfect establishment i in which the social scale since he left a titled the butler manages everything according house. But worst of all of course is the to his own ideas. Now he is in a gener-wandering butler who has been everyous mood, and grumbles because there where and with everybody, and who is are not enough large dinner-parties and perpetually being passed on from one an overflowing table. Another time he place to another, whose complexion redsulks because he is done to death with dens and whose gait grows unsteady on too much company. The first principle critical occasions, whose spoons are alof his system is that all transactions with ways going astray, who brings the reek tradesmen should pass through his hands of tobacco to the breakfast-table, and the so that he may arrange for a nice little odour of onions to dinner, and is discovbonus for himself, in return for which heered, after he has gone, to have forgotten undertakes to defend the dealers when to pay the bills for which money was any question is raised about the quality given to him. It will usually be found of their goods or a a doubt as to the fair- that servants, though they have faults of -ness of their measure. The cellar is their own, reflect the faults of their emusually a sore point in domestic adminis-ployers, and this is especially the case tration. The master likes to be sure that with the butler in a family of moderate he gets the wines he pays for, and that means. In a great house, where there is they are reserved for himself and his a large retinue of servants, and systematguests, while the butler resents a sus-ic organization is indispensable, the butpicious inspection of the stock. In other ler must necessarily be a man of good days the master looked after his cellar capacity, and character;, he occupies a himself. He took care that his favourite distinct and well-defined position and is wines were lovingly bestowed, and, as he well paid. A butler of the inferior order, surveyed the store, indulged in pleasant on the other hand, is too often required anticipation of the day when he would to combine the services of a menial with have up some of his Comet port or '58 the management of many matters which Latour. But now he is never sure what require not only unexceptional integrity, he has; bottles break, wines become but intelligence and business qualities. sour or muddy in the most perplexing He is usually a common, ignorant man, way, and at the most awkward times; and particularly susceptible to the temptand though the old-fashioned drinking-ations which surround him. He is probbouts have quite gone out, mysterious ably anxious to marry, or, if married, to evaporation seems to equalize consumption.

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It is hard to say whether the butler who is useless or lazy or the one who is too busy and meddlesome and wants to take everything on himself is more vexatious. In the one case the master is constantly occupied in looking after things which the butler neglects or in correcting his blunders. In the other case the master finds himself pushed out of the way, and forced to take things as they are provided by a superior power. His house is given over to a man who treats him as a fodger. A very good butler, who knows his business thoroughly, and knows that he knows it, is apt to be stiff and impracticable, and to presume on his experience. As a rule it is certainly a mistake to bring servants from a family of a higher class into one of lower position. A cook who has happened once to live with an Irish peer will ever after in moments of drunken depression bewail with tears the plebeian extraction of her new employer who has made his money in trade; and a butler feels that he has descended in

get settled in some business where he can live with his wife and children instead of seeing them only by snatches; and he is therefore eager to snatch at perquisites and to put by money. He acquires a dangerous taste for good living, and has too many opportunities of indulging it. He is too much trusted and too little respected, and generally he is underpaid, As a rule, it may be said that, unless a man has large means, he had better try, with his wife's help, to get on with women servants; and in any case there is obvious peril in handing over to a substitute with few qualifications for the task, the discharge of duties which he ought to see to himself.

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age, the addresses presented to him on has faith in your Royal Highness. "You his birthday by the grandees and the are strengthened," say the Conservative Alfonsist clubs of Madrid are natural Club, "by misfortune;" while the memenough. The grandees of Spain, who bers of the Liberal Alfonsist Club actually exercise little influence over politics, but congratulate themselves upon their future possess immense estates, and retain much monarch's expulsion from his home: of their ancient pride, are naturally desir-[“We feel deeply grateful to the provious of monarchy, and for the most part dential designs which have permitted prefer the monarchy of Isabella, which, your Royal Highness to strengthen your whatever its other failures, maintained reason and exercise your judgment upon them in their lands and dignities for more the spectacle of the wise and time-honthan a quarter of a century. The prop-oured institutions of free England, whose ertied classes, whether conservative or political ascendancy is recognized and liberal, share the same view, and as their deferred to both in the Old and in the candidate may yet succeed, there is noth- New World." As the grandees are not ing to surprise us in a slightly premature hungering for liberty as in England, or expression of their sentiments. Nor do the Liberal Club desirous of our aristowe wonder much at the grandiloquence cratic institutions, the thought in their of their addresses, the inordinate pride of addresses must be personal; they must nationality which gleams through them, have some degree of hope in their minds or even their apparent conviction that that an exile, which in common decency Spain is the greatest country in the world. they ought to have bemoaned, will bring Every nation has its patent fault of man-to their prince full compensation in addiner, and there is no more harm in the tional capacity for the throne. grandezza of the Spaniard than in the We are not at all sure that it will. levity of the Frenchman, or the morgue Englishmen are very fond of talking which all foreigners alike attribute to our about the grand education to be obtained somewhat surly countrymen. Nobody is"in the school of adversity". a school so pretentious as a poor gentleman of which for all that they never voluntarily degree, especially when fortune is dan-enter-just as they are fond of talking gling before his eyes, and it is as a poor about the "bracing cold," which makes gentleman of degree who might, if things their tempers insupportable, but there would only go right again, become rich exists very little evidence that exile inand famous in a day, that the Spaniard creases the capacity of princes. In modis just now posing. The really note-ern times most restored princes have worthy points in the addresses are the been failures. They become indeed men undercurrent of distrust which they of the world, obtain a certain cosmopolevince, and the argument by which their itan varnish beneficial to their manners, authors strive to soothe this distrust to and sometimes acquire a useful pliability. their own minds. All the addresses, and but as rulers they cannot be said to have specially the address of the grandees, succeeded. Charles II., who endured read as if those who signed them doubted real hardships in exile, being sometimes in their hearts whether a Spanish Bour-puzzled to pick up daily cash, learned bon could be good for anything, and re- prudence indeed, and as he said, would assured themselves by reflecting that, yield anything rather than set out on after all, this particular Bourbon had his travels again," but he learned little tasted adversity and been bred up in ex- else, and had contracted a fatal facility in ile. The thought is expressed by the accepting doles from royal friends which nobles with almost cynical frankness. for years made England little more than "Your Royal Highness," writes their a province of France. James II., his scribe surely a man who does not be- brother, learned the same trick, turned lieve very strongly in pedigree-"has to to the creed of the country he resided in, thank Providence for the twofold bless-improved a natural taste for cruelty and ing of a royal birth and an exile's educa- despotism, and was consequently the last tion." You have experienced "the mis- of his race upon the throne. Had he fortune which is the touchstone of na-remained all his life in England he would tions and the taskmaster of princes." probably have been a harsh-tempered, "Heir," write the members of the popu-narrow-minded English gentleman, whom lar Alfonsist Club, "to a glorious name, other English gentlemen would have enand trained in the school of adversity, dured without very much strain upon which purifies all great natures," Spain|their loyalty. Charles Edward had no

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arts, goes back denationalized, with tastes, habits, and thoughts which belong to another climate. Charles II. would have made a rather superior French noble of Louis XIV.'s court, and James II. quite a useful procureur du roi, with a penchant for the sentence of breaking on a wheel. The Prince of the Asturias may turn out better than any of the Pretend

is no evidence in history that he will, and
none in his answer to the addresses that
he will play a rôle which might make his
personal character unimportant. One
can scarcely imagine a constitutional
king of Spain, but a constitutional king
who is Bourbon, who is not regarded by
all Spaniards as head of his race, and
who has so few statesmen among his fol-
lowers, would be a phenomenon still
more difficult to realize.
Any govern-
ment in Spain would be better than none,
but if history may be trusted, the gran-
dees in thanking Providence for their
sovereign's whipping are a little prema-
ture.

opportunity to display his character as a sovereign, but his history after Culloden shows that his nature had very little of the true grit in it, that sunshine suited him a good deal better than "the hard grey weather" which Kingsley, when he has not got a cold, sings hymns to. Louis XVIII. went back to France a Charles II. in all but viciousness, with much of his urbanity - though of the delicious cour-ers hitherto restored from exile, but there tesy of Charles's apology for being "so unconscionable a time dying" Louis was incapable with some of his turn for saying good things, and just the sort of relation to Voltairianism that Charles had to the Catholic Church. His brother, Charles X., went back what he went forth -an incurable Bourbon, believing only in divine right, well-born men, and priests in their police capacity, and like our James II., was sent into exile for a second and last time. Louis Philippe, who had in exile taught French for bread, returned to France a wiser man indeed, wise with the wisdom of much experience, but cursed from his sufferings with a dread of the people, and from his pov- There is one example of an exile who erty with a most unkingly passion for ascended a throne which is sure to be acquiring cash. If he could have trusted thrown in our teeth, and that is Napoleon his freeholders with the suffrage, and left III. There can be no doubt that Louis legacy-hunting and heiress-hunting alone, Napoleon, from an early age, considered he might have lived and died a respected himself a sovereign by descent, that he king of the French, and he owed both lived years in exile, and that he displayed taints to his exile. As Egalité fils he abilities of a very exceptional kind. But had been a liberal, and he was heir of there is no certainty whatever that had the most recklessly spendthrift family in he succeeded his uncie, he would not Europe, a family that scattered gold like have done a good deal better. He would Mr. Disraeli's young duke. Ferdinand not have known so much, perhaps, cerVII. went back to Spain convinced of tainly not so much of the politics of all two things, that nations must be terror-Europe, but he would have known ized, and that the best instruments of enough, he would have been early initerror were the bullet and the menace of tiated into great affairs, and he would hell, and left a memory infamous among have been comparatively free from the all save the populace of Madrid. Of the German sovereigns turned out by Napoleon, and restored after 1815, not one seems to have profited by exile, not one kept his word to his people, and not one departed from the role of German prince in which he had been brought up. Nor is it very natural to expect that a restored prince should have benefited very greatly by exile, except in regard to positive knowledge. If he is a man when he is turned out, he either becomes ulcerated, as Ferdinand did; or sick with longing for security and ease, as Louis Philippe did; or more a prince in the bad sense than ever, as Charles X. did. If, on the other hand, he is turned out while still impressionable, he usually, like the Stu

three great weaknesses which destroyed him, his dread lest his son might not succeed him, which made half his professions dishonest; his weakness for coups de théâtre, which produced the Mexican tragedy; and his tolerance for rascals of the needy-adventurer type, who looked only to their own gain, and De Morny excepted, cared neither for him nor France. There are some faults usually found among kings which are extremely useful to their subjects, and one of them is the readiness with which they forget services which prove nothing but devotion. Frederick the Great would have been a more amiable man if he had not neglected all who served, or amused, or loved him while heir-apparent, but he

would not, if he had petted them, have would not have been so leniently treated built the Prussian monarchy. Had Louis by English opinion, but France might Napoleon merely stared at the adven- not have had to encounter Sedan or enturers who helped him to a throne, heldure the Treaty of Frankfort.

COLOUR IN FLOWERS NOT DUE TO INSECTS. -The doctrine that the conspicuous colours of flowers are entirely due to the necessity for cross-fertilisation by the agency of insects seems to be taking the world by storm. It is supported by Mr. Darwin and Sir John Lubbock. It could scarcely be put forward on better authority. Yet there are several facts with which it does not harmonize. For instance

I. Cultivation increases the size and colour of flowers quite independently of the existence or non-existence of insects.

Two very curious articles have been pub- be accepted in its entirety; but, unfortunately, lished by a Shanghai native newspaper, the we have every reason to know that so far as Hwei-Pao, protesting against the construction England is concerned travelling by railway is of railways in the Chinese empire. The Hwei-"a very dangerous mode of locomotion." Pao is of opinion that the existence of railways Pall Mall Gazette. in Europe is too recent to admit of a judg ment being formed as to their practical utility, and, moreover, that there is not sufficient business in China to render them profitable. The Chinese journal goes on to say that "tea and silk are the principal objects of commerce, and these have hitherto been forwarded to the treaty ports by river steamboats. A substitution of railways for steamboats would not effect any saving in point of time, and could not therefore, even from the point of view taken by the foreigners themselves, be of any service to China. Admitting that a little time was gained, the Chinese would not be benefited, for the goods would not be exported more rapidly. Thus the railways would only lead to an accumulation in the ports of vast quantities of goods which, as they could not be shipped off all at once, would fall considerably in price." The Hwei-Pao also says: "The accidents on the railwaylines are very numerous, caused by collisions, by the engines or tenders taking fire, by the trains running off the lines, or by the bridges giving way and the trains being precipitated into the rivers below. In other cases the carriages are injured by the great speed at which they are hurried along, and the accidents are so numerous that it is often impossible to ascertain the exact number of dead and wounded. All the foreign journals are full of details concerning these accidents. But, admitting that most of these casualties are preventable, and that the trains follow their regular course, they travel quicker than the thoroughbred horse, and the people walking on the lines would have no time to get out of their way. From this cause alone the number of fatal accidents would be enormous. In all countries where railways exist they are considered a very dangerous mode of locomotion, and, beyond those who have very urgent business to transact, no one thinks of using them." This latter statement cannot as yet

2. Double flowers in which the doubling arises from metamorphosis of stamens or pistils are more showy than the single forms, yet insects can be of little use to them, since they are either partially or entirely barren. The double-blossomed cherry is brilliantly conspicuous, but it bears no fruit.

3. Such abortive flowers as the cultivated Guelder Rose and Hydrangea depend for their beauty upon the destruction of the reproductive organs. If their increased splendour is meant only as a lure to insects, it is surely an absurd failure.

4. The autumn colours of leaves and fruits can serve no such purpose, yet these are often as bright and conspicuous as the flowers of summer.

5. Fungi and lichens exhibit brilliant colours, which can have nothing to do with insectfertilization.

Do not these facts indicate that though insects may be attracted by conspicuous colours, and may have some influence in the maintenance of coloured species, there is yet a deeper and more permanent cause for the colour itself?

Nature.

F. T. MOTT.

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