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about with her chaplet in her hand. She looked upon my visit as a special mercy vouchsafed to her by St. Joseph.

Sister Edward has had an interesting career judging by her face, but what it was I have never heard. She has a wonderfully beautiful voice, and manages it with a skill that suggests a professional training. Quite a little crowd would assemble outside the convent walls on a Sunday afternoon to hear her sing in the chapel. The Orleanist princess, I noticed, seemed to know her well. Sister Marie-Joseph had been attached to the court of the Empress Eugénie, and it was her experience there that had given her her distaste for the society of her kind. One of the nuns had renounced the world because, whereas nineteenth century men were not to her liking, her friends were bent on providing her with a husband. Another had made her way to the convent, because the husband she would have chosen for herself preferred her sister. The majority of them, it seemed to me, were there because things had gone wrong with them in life; they had missed their chance, in fact, of a place among the few who are supremely happy. And as it is thus with them they are probably happier in the convent than they would be elsewhere. Whether or not they are better women, is another question. With some few exceptions they struck me as being more selfcentred than even the ordinary run of worldlings. Again and again when I was among them I saw them, kindly and tender-hearted though they seem, manifest a callousness to the sufferings of others that was quite startling. They are so bent on securing their own well-being-working out their own salvation they would call it that they have never a thought to bestow on the well-being of others, not even of those whom they have left behind them in their own homes.

Just as I was becoming quite accustomed to the ways of life in the convent, another visitor arrived, one who came there sorely against her will.

She was an Italian, the niece of a very distinguished personage, who, having never before given her a moment's attention in his life, suddenly bethought himself, when she was about eighteen, that it would be well to arrange a marriage for her. With this purpose in view he sent a confidential priest to see what she was like, and the report brought back was quite awful. The girl, the priest declared, could hardly read or write; she spoke the wildest patois, and knew no more of the decencies of life than the veriest gutter child. She had passed all her days in the country with her mother, who had left her entirely to the care of servants, and had never even given her a teacher. The uncle was furious and appealed for help to the superior, who promptly volunteered to take charge of the little savage, and try what could be done towards transforming her into a presentable member of society. The girl was solemnly handed over to her keeping, and was informed that she would be allowed two years in which to fit herself for the duties of her station. If by the end of that time she were, in the opinion of the superior, capable of taking a place in the world without being a disgrace to her relatives, a husband would be found for her; but if she were not-tant pis pour elle. She would never again see the outside wall of the convent.

In spite of her gross ignorance the little countess was bright and intelligent in those days; and although her manners were those of a peasant, in appearance she was decidedly attractive. She was as wilful and wayward, though, as a spoilt child; she had evidently been brought up in a home where "liberté, egalité, et fraternité" were the order of the day, and l.ad no respect whatever for authorities and powers. "I don't see why old people should be treated differently from young ones," she told me frankly; they are neither wiser nor better, and they are a lot more unpleasant." To transplant such a girl to a convent was positive cruelty. The first time I saw her she was a perfect Ishmael, treating

even the superior in the most cavalier fashion, and at open war with the nun who had been appointed to act as her governess. In a week though all that was changed; she was heart and soul in her work, and as eager to become civilized as even her distinguished relative could have wished. By some means or other the fact had been brought home to her that therein lay her one chance of escaping from the convent. And the convent she hated as only Italians can hate; and she hated everything connected with it, the nuns above all.

Only those who have lived in a convent

can realize how quickly time passes there, when once one has fallen under the spell of the place. One day is so much like another that they come and go almost unnoticed-there is nothing indeed to mark them. Even the temporary sojourner there speedily loses all interest in the doings of the world from which she is cut off; its worries and cares and troubles seem too far away to be of much importance. A sort of serene indifference, which is equally remote from happiness and misery, takes possession of her mind, and she ceases to feel keenly or to think at all. She gives up living, in fact, and exists; and, unless she have the misfortune to belong to the restless tribe, or to be imbued with altruistic theories, she finds existence by no means unpleasant-infinitely more smooth and easy-going than life. When the time came for me to say good-bye to my turret I felt a thrill of sincere regret; my experiment had proved a success on the whole; and I can quite understand how women in those rough, boisterous, far-back days must have revelled, at least for a season, in the very sleepiness of life in convents. But wherein lay the edification they are supposed to have found there is a subject on which I am still exercised in my mind. Physically they were the better, I do not doubt, for sojourning with nuns; and mentally and morally, well, probably not much either the better or the worse.

From The Nineteenth Century. ARE MANNERS DISAPPEARING FROM GREAT BRITAIN?

BY THE EARL OF MEATH.

An American who has seen much of the world and of society once remarked that "manners had disappeared from America and were rapidly vanishing from Europe." Is this remark true as regards Great Britain? In answer some cynics might reply, that as Britons never have been known to possess any manners, there can be no question of their disappearance; and in a certain sense the cynics would be right, for, in outward forms of politeness, history and biography unite in telling us that for centuries the art of polite demeanor between man and man, at all events amongst the highest classes, has been more cultivated and practised in the genial climes of France, Spain, and Italy than under the grey and frigid skies of Britain. But although the Englishman has rarely been able to rival the polished manners of his continental neighbors, he has never wholly neglected the art of courtesy, and it is only within quite recent years that it has become reasonable to ask, whether we may not be within measurable distance of the time when all outward forms of polite demeanor between man and man shall have completely disappeared from British soil. This is no extravagant supposition, for, strange as it may seem, a loud, noisy vulgarity has invaded circles which in the olden days were regarded as the strongholds of conventional etiquette, until, amongst a set of persons in London whose social position gives them an influence far in excess of their merits, it is actually considered the "smart" thing to be brusque, loud, and self-assertive.

It is usually supposed that democracy and democratic institutions are primarily responsible for the decadence of manners, and so, to a large degree, they are; but it bodes ill for the future of the outward signs of personal courtesy if those who desire to be considered in the front ranks of what is called "Society" join hands with the democracy

in sweeping from British soil the last vestiges of outward courtesy of de

meanor.

gratitude for the offer he has no intention of fulfilling. So far do we carry this dislike of phrase-making, that some English men and women find it very difficult to give expression to the genuine gratitude they feel for real benefits received; and there are some men whose modesty is so perverted that they would, apparently, almost rather be accused of doing something positively wrong than be suspected of having yielded to a kindly sentiment. Hence they are sometimes almost brutal in their manner should they feel constrained to make an offer of assistance to a stranger, and will endeavor to prove that any kindness they may have rendered was entirely accidental, or the unforeseen result of selfish action. There can be no doubt that kindness of heart must take precedence of manners; but, granting this to the full, what valid reason can be adduced for the divorce of the one from the other? Love of truth and detestation of all appearance of insincerity are also sometimes responsible for the apparent rudeness of the Briton; and as far as the cold and stiff manner, and the absence from his speech of flattering or complimentary phrases, are really due to these causes he is scarcely open to blame, for truthfulness and sincerity are to be preferred before politeness; but by keeping a sympathetic and charitable heart he might often honestly, without injury to his conscience, be able to give expression to the polite phrase, and to substitute a warm and cordial for a cold and repellent attitude. Manners, surely, should be the outward expression of the genuine or presumed inner feelings of man in his intercourse with his fellow-men, and where his heart does him credit the Englishman should not permit it to be discredited by his action.

It is quite true that too much impor tance may be easily attached to the outward forms of politeness, the absence of which from society need not Lecessarily imply a lack of kindly feeling in its members. Many are truly courteous who are entirely innocent of the conventional forms of politeness. It is, without doubt, possible to keep the human affections warm within one's heart, and yet be ignorant of a courtly code of manners. The French have for long been esteemed a polite nation, and so they are as far as outward forms are considered; but most travellers will agree that, except within certain circles, there is more genuine courtesy to be found between man and man in Britain than in France. The average Frenchman will be profuse in the bows which he will make on meeting an acquaintance, but he will often not hesitate, should the occasion arise, to sacrifice others to his own personal comfort. I have seen foreigners at a public entertainment make ladies rise by bowing to them, and then deprive them of their seats in the most polite and graceful manner. An Englishman, on the other hand, will often do a really kind-hearted deed in such an abrupt and awkward fashion as almost to give it the appearance of an insult. The Spaniard habitually places his house and everything in it at the disposal of his guest, but he would be greatly astonished if he were taken at his word. A stranger calls upon a Spaniard when he is at dinner. The latter invites the stranger to dine with him, or offers him something which he may have admired, but unless the dinner or article is very much pressed the invitation and the offer must be regarded in the light of mere polite phrases. Under similar circumstances the Briton would either not make the invitation or offer, or, if he did, would do all he could to render the dinner or the gift acceptable to the stranger, and would endeavor to escape being thanked, whereas the Spaniard expects verbal deteriorating.

As civilization advances, and as man becomes more and more permeated by its softening influences, it would only be natural that manners should improve, but as a matter of fact the exact reverse would appear to be the case. It seems as if manners were steadily

Each generation as it comes upon the stage of life is a little less polite in its bearing towards its fellows than the generation which preceded it, and unless a reaction should set in, and that soon, it would not be difficult to predict the date when the attitude of men and women towards each other will be softened by none of the restraining influences of a polite and considerate courtesy. Some will welcome the advent of a time when everything that a man or woman has or enjoys he or she shall possess by right, and not by the favor of any one, and consequently when there shall be no necessity for the giving or receiving of thanks; when the equality of all shall be so thoroughly recognized that the politenesses and deferences which proceed in a great degree from the recognition in society of differences of station, of age, and of sex, shall have become completely superfluous, and when politeness between equals shall be esteemed a sign of weakness, and an evil survival from feudal and aristocratic ages. To such it may be answered that, in so far as polite manners are the outward expression of kindiy feelings between man and man, they should be welcome to a democratic creed which professes to teach the brotherhood of man.

Britons have lately been made painfully aware of the unpopularity which they enjoy amongst most of the nations of the earth. It flatters our national pride to think that the almost universal disfavor with which we are regarded is due to jealousy caused by the exceptional prosperity, advantages, and privileges which we enjoy, and in a certain measure this is the real cause of our unpopularity; but ask the averagely intelligent foreigner why England is disliked in his country, and whether the question be put to the Russian, the German, or the Frenchman, in a large number of cases the answer will show that his dislike of Great Britain is not based on political reasons, nor caused by jealousy, but is simply the result of personal experience of the rude and overbearing manner of individual Englishmen with whom the foreigner

has been painfully brought into contact.

Some of us seem to forget or ignore the fact, that, as oil lubricates machinery, so does politeness facilitate the relationship of men.

Our manners at home are none of the best, but there are some Britons who have no sooner planted their feet on foreign soil than, instead of inquiring what may be the manners and customs of the country in which they find themselves, and then endeavoring to conform to them, they seem to consider that absence from home entitles them to throw off even the light conventional restraints of British manners, and live as though they considered that this planet and the dwellers on it had been specially created by Providence to cater for the enjoyment of the inhabitants of the British Isles, and more especially of certain members of that favored race in whom they happen to take the deepest personal interest.

How often, with hot indignation, has one seen British men and women behave abroad as he knows they never would dare to do at home-walking in the streets of large towns, or attending places of fashionable resort, the men in knickerbockers and the women in mountaineering attire, ostentatiously and of set purpose attracting public attention by noisy conversation and affected boisterous merriment!

It is not uncommon to see Englishmen in the halls and corridors of foreign hotels wearing their hats, when every foreigner is bareheaded.

Sometimes such conduct is due to ignorance of foreign customs; but very often, when there is no desire on the part of the Englishman to draw attention to himself by outraging foreign opinion, it is due to British pride, which refuses to alter its manners to suit the customs of the foreigner. Both in Norway and in America I have heard of Englishmen accepting invitations to dinner, and appearing at their hosts' houses in shooting-coats. One can hardly believe that such conduct was the result of ignorance.

How many Britons are there who, in

order to ensure against unconscious | aristocratic races, possessed of rigid infraction of local rules of etiquette, and well-defined codes of manners, take the trouble to learn and follow care not to make themselves acquainted the polite customs of the country in with them, or to inquire into the social which they happen to be? How many rank and position of those with whom are there, for instance, who, when seat- they come into contact, but treat Hining themselves at, or on leaving, a doos and Mahomedans of gentle blood table d'hôte abroad, remember that in with as little consideration as they do most foreign countries it is considered their own servants? Let us reverse the exceedingly rude not to bow to the situation, and imagine Britain a deWhat would be guests on either side; or will bear in pendency of India. mind that the hat should never be worn the feelings of British noblemen and indoors, and should always be raised gentlemen of position if a Hindu official when meeting a male as well as a fe- of no birth or manners, sent to govern male acquaintance, when addressing an English country, were to treat them any stranger, or when going in or out in the way in which some British offiof a shop or public restaurant; that in cials are in the habit of dealing with Germany, when paying a visit, no well- natives of distinction? And yet, when one does meet a true British gentleman bred man or woman ever sits on a sofa without being specially invited by the (and the race is, happily, not yet quite hostess to do so; that in the same coun- extinct), he is conscious of a feeling try the unmarried girl invariably grants that the world cannot show a similar precedence to the married woman; and product of finer make. that in the case of both sexes youth, when walking with age or rank, should place it on the inner side of the pavement? Such forms and ceremonies differ in most places, but there are few, if any, countries in Europe where there does not exist more polite ceremonial than in England. Some may rejoice at this, and denounce such customs as foolish trifling, and reply that true politeness results from kindness of heart, and not from any established code of ceremonies. The truth of the above proposition has already been acknowl-preserving. They should make up their edged, but there can be no doubt that the existence of such a code exercises a certain restraint on the selfish, vulgar self-assertion of those (the majority of mankind) who only regulate their actions by the consequences which they entail. In a country where rudeness meets with the punishment of social ostracism they will restrain their selfishness within bounds, but where society is indifferent in the matter they will not recognize any necessity for self-restraint.

How much of the unpopularity of the ruling race in India is due to the arrogance of some Englishmen in that country who call the natives "niggers," and who, in their dealings with ancient and

The word "gentleman" represents a British ideal, and is untranslatable in foreign languages; but, alas! the fine clay of which he is made is daily becoming so impregnated with coarse admixtures that there is danger lest, by the gradual deterioration of the quality of the clay, society should mistake pottery for porcelain, and should be content to accept the coarser for the finer article. It would be well for British men and women to consider whether politeness is or is not worth

minds on this point, and act accordingly. If they should decide that the cultivation of manners is incompatible nineteenth-century ideas, and with should be allowed to die out with other old-world notions, then, though some of us may regret the decision, we must only bow to the will of the majority; but if, on the other hand, thoughtful people perceive that much is lost to mankind. collectively and individually, by neglecting to study and to practise the little courtesies of life, then let them not by negligence, and, as it were, unbeknown to themselves, permit these habits to pass away without a struggle to maintain them.

There are still in our midst many

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