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is that they have few or no changes of contamination. Their parents are of raiment. Yet they are scarcely worse off course their examples, and their parents in that respect than many a respectable sometimes are bad enough for anything. labourer, and they are more hardened Yet this does not necessarily follow, than the labourer to the exposure which although thoroughbred tramps are thrown both must endure. They have the ad- in the midst of all sorts of temptations, vantage of him too in another way. The with very little to aid them to resist. labourer comes home drenched from his Their Bedouin manner of existence natwork to spend the evening in a draughty urally begets Bedouin habits of thought cottage, grudging himself each morsel of and morality. Most men's hands being fuel that smoulders to waste in his absurd turned against the tramp, it seems but chimney. The tramp has always his natural that he should turn his hands. shelter close at hand; or, if he does get against every one. He has no good wet, he has only to kindle a brazier. In name to be careful of, nor can he make a few minutes he is drying thoroughly, one. If there is a theft from a neighwhile the vapours that disengage them-bouring farmyard, if there has been a bit selves put him in a regular Russian bath, of fire-raising or heath-burning anywhere which is a preventive of rheumatism as about, if any graver crime has been comwell as a cure for it. Naturally, however, mitted, he is sure to be the first to be he never gets into that gloomy tent of his suspected. The police come poking when he can help it. The best part of about, making offensive inquiries, and the day he is to be seen working away at are far too sharp to show any faith in his some occupation or other, by the side of proofs or protestations of innocence. a bright little fire that burns merrily in What is the use of being suspected for the open. His wife is nursing the last nothing? Besides, few of the tramps baby, mending the clothes of the elder can have spotless consciences. When a children, and possibly taking turns with man lives out among the hedgerows, and her husband at a short black pipe. The has a hungry family growing up about children themselves are tumbling about him, he can hardly help becoming a in the cart-track, or playing round the poacher. A few wires go so far to help nearest pool; healthy, cheery-looking ur- the larder, and there is the pot on the chins, although very likely they go bare-fire ready to boil down the pièces de confooted and bare-headed, and are rigged viction. When a man once takes to out in big garments that have never been wiring hares, he soon goes on to stealing cut down for them. The School Boards fowls. When he begins prowling about have had nothing to say to them. But the poultry-yards with dishonest intentions, boys are sharp enough and handy as well, all is fish that comes to his net. The although they take their wild life as it descent from bad to worse is at once comes in a rough-and-tumble fashion. In easy and obvious, and he must be a spite of hard and scanty fare, the girls strong-minded or strangely well-princioften shoot up strong and healthy. Their pled person who can pull himself up on good looks, such as they are, may be the first slopes of the treacherous incline. merely the beauté du diable, but with their The more credit to him when he does red lips, their laughing eyes, their bloom-stop short at mere venial offences, and ing complexions, and their heavy shocks we believe that many of these people of thick long hair, they are as different as possible from the stunted, shrivelled-up little careworn creatures who are being reared in the rookeries of the Seven Dials or East London.

who are regarded as pariahs are, in a sort of a way, meritorious members of society. They often work hard and honestly for their living. Year after year you may find them in the very spot where We believe in the "book learning" their children were born, because their which prepares every one to take advan-fair dealing has made them a local contage of a chance, and which may give native intelligence invaluable help in aising itself up from the lowest station. certainly do not say that a rough and practical education is a safe systhe whole, although, hardships standing, it has its physical adand although these unreclaimed the commons and heaths may most debasing forms of city

nection in their own particular line. Their patrons will very likely be free in abuse of them, and will certainly look down on them with supreme contempt; yet they pay their characters a certain tribute by continuing to deal with them season after season. There are weaknesses and vices that are almost inseparable from the vagabond life. It breeds improvidence, and it tends to squander

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ing money in public-houses. When a cannot propose either work or play which
man has no roof over his head but a strip she does not prove to be encompassed
of canvas, and gets a precarious living with dangers horrible and hitherto un-
from hand to mouth, you can scarcely thought-of. In their childish days they
expect him to recognize the advantages
of the savings-bank any more than to be
a regular attendant at church in his
weather-washed rags. A bright tavern-
bar must be like a glimpse of paradise to
him when he has been kennelling by the
light of a farthing candle out in the cold
and darkness of an English winter night.
But, on the whole, and in spite of all
their faults, we suspect that these pro-
fessional vagabonds have scanty justice
done them. They are a curious race,
little accustomed to civil treatment, but
as likely to be hospitable as their con-
geners of the Arabian desert, if you only
take them in the right way. And a visit
to them would at all events be not unin-
teresting, even if it did not serve some
more creditable purpose than curiosity.

were not allowed a rocking-horse for fear
it should overbalance, nor a swing in
case the rope might break, nor a pocket-
knife lest they should cut their fingers.
The coddling mother is very nearly allied
to the timid one. She is always tying
comforters round her children's throats,
and applying flannel to mysterious places
where it will not stay. She revels in
chest-protectors and respirators, and her
room is adorned with sticking-plaster and
gallipots. She is always intent on prov-
ing that every one either has a cold or is
taking one; and she may be seen at
night in a flannel dressing-gown, going
from room to room with gruel, pills, mus-
tard-leaves, and India-rubber hot-bottles.
She is constantly discovering obscure
signs of some deadly disease in her chil-
dren. She takes for granted that all her
daughters have weak spines, so their
beds are destitute of pillows and there is
a reclining-board in every room. When
the coddling mother takes her girls to a
picnic she will not allow them to sit on
PERHAPS the greatest trial to young the grass, nor in the sun; nor under a tree,
creatures full of life and energy is the nor on a rock. They must return with
tyranny of the timid mother. She will her before the dew begins to rise, and
not allow her girls to skate because Sir are never allowed to look at the moon
John Franklin was lost amongst ice- except through a window. They are
bergs; nor to ride because fox-hunters taught to be always analyzing their sen-
sometimes get their necks broken; nor sations, and lose half the pleasures of
to row because young men injure them-everyday life. They may not exult in a
selves in those dreadful boat-races. brave south-wester, get wet in a summer
They may not have a pet dog in case it shower, or walk ankle deep in the glitter-
should go mad, nor any aconite or monks- ing snow-wreaths. Human nature shrinks
hood in their gardens for fear they should from prying further if the coddling mother
poison themselves. The timid mother is also a homoeopathist. Vivisection is
forbids her daughters to visit amongst nothing to the tortures she will inflict as
the poor, as they might take small-pox, she sits down with Laurie's "Domestic
and will not allow one of them to go alone Medicine " in her hand, to ask questions
outside the avenue-gate from her dread in order to diagnose the case.
of garroters. The description which she patient soon feels as though every organ
gives of the neighbouring fields is appal-in her body was such a mass of disease
ling. She represents them to be the that even bryonia and aconite, time
lairs of mad bulls, savage tramps, venom-about every five minutes, will fail to cure
ous snakes, and wild horses. Her girls it.

From The Saturday Review.
THE TYRANNY OF MOTHERS.

The

With regard to my journey into the north, I never had a pleasanter or more satisfactory one in my life, the company that went along with me being very agreeable, and the inhabitants of the northern parts simplicity of manners, and most other qualities that a far exceeding the southern in points of hospitality, stranger could wish to meet with. The gentry even of the highest rank are plain, familiar, hospitable men, and extremely civil to strangers, and the meaner sort according to their abilities equally the same, but seem rather given to merriment than industry; and though the southern generally boast of exceeding them in points of religion, yet this I dare to affirm that the virtues of the northern further exceed their vices than those of the southern. And this encomium I can justly add to their honour, which can be attributed but

AMONG the vast mass of papers and corre-letter we have seen, written in December, spondence collected by Carte, and now de- 1752, to "Mr. John Mason, at Peter House, posited in the Bodleian Library, are numerous Cambridge," are not unworthy of notice from letters addressed to the Duke of Ormonde a student of social history:during the reign of Charles II., by friends whose care it seems to have been to keep him informed of occurrences at the Court, or of the state of parties in Parliament. These letters convey a lively image of the manners and events of the time. Colonel Daniel O'Niell, Colonel Edward Vernon, Colonel Legg, Colonel Cooke, and others detail some of the scandals of the day. Sir Robert Southwell, Sir William Temple, Sir George Lane, and others, apprise him of the political occurrences at Whitehall, or describe practices, designs and intrigues of the parties at Court or in Parliament, from Oxford or Westmin-to too few about us, that is, in going from Bradford in ster. In a letter of Sir George Lane, dated December 29, 1674, there is an account of the death of Lord Clarendon, at his place of exile in France, of apoplexy,

the last fitt whereof was soe violent that his tongue being caught between his teeth they pierced it thorough, insomuch as when he came to himself, as he did for a while before he died, he could hardly make use of it for sorenesse whereof he complained very much, but his phisitians kept him in ignorance how it happened, least the knowledge of it should administer discourage ment unto him. One passage I have heard is very extraordinary and remarkable, which is that about a month before his death, writeing in his closet, his pen fell suddenly out of his hand, and being in no discomposure at all, endeavouring to resume it, he found himself for a while unable; which they say he reflected upon as an omen of the shortenesse of his life, and therefore from that moment neglected all the concearns of this life, and betook himself to the serious thoughts of that which is eternal.

We print the following letter as an admirable instance of the delicate manner in which, at the same time, a gift may be conferred and a substantial favour sought after in re

turn:

Noble Sr

I doe not write this to putt you to the trouble of an Answer, because I know yr employments are so great, and weightye; But my wife hath A minde you should tast of a country dish, and therefore presents you with a chine of Porke and A Turkey; I call it A Turkey because it hath no fellow, But it had one, before Reynard surpriz'd her; And therefore wee dare not keepe this any longer, for Feare shee should follow her many Brothers and sisters that have gone before her: I heare Dr Gillingham Prebend of Winsor hath bin dead these five weekes; I once supplyed his moneth for him, and the charges attending, But I shall not looke to bee repaid by succeeding him, especially if all bee true that I heare, that there is A mandate lyes ready for the Place; I am Sr Yr troublesome and much obliged Servant

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Yorkshire till we got thither back again, I did not hear so much as one oath sworn, save by the soldiers in the garrison at Carlisle. I know this account of their simplicity and integrity is far contrary to the common opinion.

Butter [at Carlisle] seldom is above two-pence per pound, though it sold at Carlisle for a 1-2d. when I was there, but was reckoned very dear. Salmon abounds in great plenty, there being very large quantities caught in the river Eden, just by the walls of Carlisle, and seldom sells at above id. or 1 1-4d. per pound, and often under. Here is greater plenty of coal than in Westmoreland, there being several great coal-works in the county, and much more wood both for timber and fuel; but the meaner sort that live within a mile of the coal-pits seldom burn any, but fetch peats (elding as they call them), perhaps two or three miles, and affirm them to be better fuel. Their butter exceeds ours for sweetness, but their cheese is stark naught, chiefly owing to their bad way of making it. in Cumberland being for the most part good pastureland, their cows are larger than ours in Derbyshire and long-horned, much like the breed at Skipton in Craven, Yorkshire, and though they have a great many Scotch cattle, but buy them only to feed, kill, and really their beef exceeds ours both for fatness and sweetness.

The soil

Academy.

THE following little account of an eye-witness of the execution of Lord William Russell letter addressed by Sir Charles Lyttleton to seems worth printing. It is to be found in a Lord Viscount Hatton, governor of Guernsey a portion of the Hatton collection lately added to the British Museum:

My Lord,

"London, July 21, '83.

... I have only time to tell you that my Ld Rus sell was beheaded this morning, he sayd not much but that he did not design to murder ye Kg, nor ye Govmt, but to keepe out poperie. he sayd the evidence agst him was true as to ye place and company, he was in, but he took that to be but misprision, for wch he did not ask God or ye Kg pardon. I saw him die at a distance and he seemed very stout. The Hangman gave him 3 blows besides sauing wth ye ax before he cut his head of. he came to ye scaffold in his own coach wch was not in mourning nor his livery; himself was in black. Doctor Tillotson, Mr Burnet, and ye

The subjoined extracts from an original sherrife was wth him.

Academy.

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I. SIR PHILIP SIDNEY. By Henry Kingsley, . New Quarterly Review,
II. THE STORY OF VALENTINE; AND HIS

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Blackwood's Magazine,

Fraser's Magazine,

Cornhill Magazine,
Saturday Review,
Spectator,

Saturday Review,

770 DAYLIGHT,

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• 824

TERMS OF SUBSCRIPTION.

For EIGHT DOLLARS, remitted directly to the Publishers, the LIVING AGE will be punctually forwarded for a year, free of postage.

An extra copy of THE LIVING AGE is sent gratis to any one getting up a club of Five New Subscribers. Remittances should be made by bank draft or check, or by post-office money-order, if possible. If neither of these can be procured, the money should be sent in a registered letter. All postmasters are obliged to register letters when requested to do so. Drafts, checks and money-orders should be made payable to the order of LITTELL & GAY.

"TO DIE-TO SLEEP."

How could we bear the anguish and the strife
That vex our souls forever 'neath the sky,
Or how endure the carking cares of life,
Did we not know that one day we should
die?-

That some blest day we shall find perfect rest Far from earth's torments and its madd'ning riot;

With idle hands upon a pulseless breast, We shall lie lapped in endless peace and quiet?

Then grief shall come no more, nor care nor pain,

To call us forth to suffer or to dare; No mocking dreams shall break our rest again, Telling us of joy to rouse us to despair.

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In vain with stone the cave they barred, In vain the watch kept ward and guard; Majestic from the spoiled tomb

In pomp of triumph, Christ is come!

He binds in chains the ancient foe,
A countless host He frees from woe,
And Heaven's high portal open flies,
For Christ hath risen and man shall rise.

And all He did, and all He bare,
He gives us as our own to share;
And hope and joy and peace begin,
For Christ hath won and man may win.

O Victor, aid us in the fight,

And lead through death to realms of light;
We safely pass where Thou hast trod;
In Thee we die to rise to God.

Thy flock, from sin and death set free,
Glad Alleluia raise to Thee;
And ever, with the heavenly host,
Praise Father, Son, and Holy Ghost.

JOHN MASON NEALE.

DAYLIGHT.

BY ONE OF THE AUTHORS OF POEMS FOR A CHILD.' ""

IF I was but born to die,

Life a "fitful fever,"
Why is earth so lovely? - why

Must I love and leave her?
Why is life so sweet and fair,
Yet so fickle-hearted,
That she can desert me ere
Daylight hath departed?

Am I only born to die?

Or, as thought condenses, Find I something, in this I

Greater than the senses? Something that I do not know, And I need not cherish, Yet must live forever, though Day itself shall perish.

What is death? A dreamless sleep?
Or a new awaking?

What is death? -a hope to keep
Breaking hearts from breaking?
What is death- an endless night,
Darkness gathered o'er it?
What is death -a sudden light,
Daylight dies before it !

Good Words.

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