serve. mention her. " The old beast is 1“ She would have made a perfect gendead !” she writes jubilantly, in April, tleman,” observes St. Siinon, which 1719; adding, “I feel sure that the probably expresses well her courage, things she most regretted leaving be- strength, benevolence, and fair deal. hind her were my son and myself in ing; while womanly graces were wantgood health.” “I fear,” she says in ing. Brusque, startlingly outspoken, another letter, " that the Maintenon's an unsparing enemy, and a faithful death will turn out to resemble that of friend, she should not be forgotteu or the Gorgons - many serpents will con- obscured by all the brilliance and tinue to appear. If she had died thirty beauty of her time -- brilliance which years ago, all the poor Huguenots probably hid not one tithe of her would be still in France, and their rough but sterling worth. Charenton chapel would still be standing." Madame had the high-bred instinct of courtesy to her inferiors. It was to From The Strand Magazine. her equals that her unsparing vigor of COURT DRESS AND THE SPEAKER'S speech was exhibited. Her love for DINNERS. dogs was passionate. She had them THERE was a report current at the constantly with her. “ You could beginning of the present Parliament not,” she writes to her sister, “ read that the speaker, commiserating the part of my last letter, because a piece lot of members who for various reasons of it was torn off by one of my dogs. were not disposed to endow themselves I know that you do not care for dogs ; with court dress, proposed to give a if you did, you would easily overlook series of supplementary feasts at which their few faults. One of mine, named ordinary dinner dress would Reine, is as sensible as a human being, The rumor may be dismissed without a and begins howling the moment I am moment's consideration. The aker out of sight.” Referring to a theory of is not likely, voluntarily, to divest hinLeibuitz, as to the immortality of ani- self of one of the conditions which mals, she says, “ It is a great consola- temper his official hospitality. It suftion for me to know that animals do fices to be bound to invite in turn six not eutirely perish, on account of my hundred and seventy gentlemen to dindear little dogs," a remark that recalls ver, without going out of the way ,to the saying with which an old Northum- remove a possible obstacle to the invibrian vicar used to startle the orthodox tation being universally accepted. Acof his Rock, “ If dogs are not allowed cordingly, this session, as from time in Heaven, I really should hardly care immemorial, members dining with the to go there." speaker have been required to don Madame died December 8th, 1722, in court dress and carry a sword by their her son's arms. She had been ailing side, when it is not between somebody for long, and faced death with charac- else's legs. teristic courage. Many doctors came So inexorable is this law, that last to her bedside, but she said they were session it operated to the extent of all quacks, and that she was content to banishing the seconder of the address die. Her life had been a rather dreary from the speaker's table. It is the one. Possibly she was not sorry that invariable custom that the mover and the curtain was falling. “ You can seconder of the address shall be inembrace me if you like," she said to vited to the dinner to her Majesty's one of her ladies, who kissed her hand, ministers with which the speaker hos"for I am going to a land where all pitably opens the session. Last year will be equal in the sight of God.” Mr. Fenwick, whose honorable boast “ We are about to lose a gooil prin- it is that he commenced his career as cess, ," said Marais in his journal ; "a a working collier, seconded the adrare and precious thing in these times." | dress. He undertook the duty only upon condition that he should not be seemed too much, even as a prelimcalled upon to array himself in mili- inary coudition of being enabled to tary, naval, or court dress, as is the serve his country. But the uniform is quaint custom of the occasion. The imperatively necessary in connection point was yielded as far as his appear with court duties inseparable from ance in the House of Commous was ministerial office. On visits to the concerned. But the speaker, tied and queen, attendance at the Prince of bound by immemorial custom, did not Wales's levees, and at the ministerial see his way to vary the usages of the dinners in Speaker's Court, the integministerial dinner. Accordingly, whilst rity of the British constitution demands the mover of the address, arrayed in a certain strictly ordered uniform. the martial costume of a major in the After some protest, Mr. Bright gave in militia, dined with the nobility and in the matters of coat and trousers, gentry at Speaker's Court, the seconder, even of plumed hat. But he drew the clad in sober black, humbly ate his line at the sword. Finally, concession chop at home. was made on this point, he alone of all From their earliest departure on the her Majesty's ministers appearing on war-path the Irish members have made ceremonial occasions unembarrassed by a point of standing aloof from the a sword. speaker's dinner parties. There is, One peculiar distinction between the indeed, a story of the late Mr. Joseph Lords and Commons is the greater Gillis Biggar having been encountered jealousy with which the latter guard on the top of a Clapham 'bus with vel- the sanctity of their Chamber. Both vet coat on his back, ruffles at his Houses have staffs of messengers, wrist, black stockivgs coyly hiding his chiefly responsible as media of comshapely legs, silver buckles on his munication between members and the shoes, and sword in dainty scabbard outer world. But whilst messengers in hanging within easy reach of his right the Lords, charged with a letter, a card, hand. Questioned as to the occasion or a ministerial box, may approach the for this disguise, he airily replied, person addressed and achieve his er“I've been dining with Mr. Speaker." rand, a messenger in the House of This is, however, only one of the many Commons may not approach beyond myths that linger round the memory of the bar at one end, or proceed further honest Joseph Gillis. As upon another than the steps of the speaker's chair at apocryphal occasion it was announced the other. The consequences are inthat “the Tenth never dance," so it convenient and sometimes ludicrous. remains true to this day that the Irish | What happens is that the messenger, members never dine – at least, not standing by the cross benches, hands with the speaker. to the nearest member the message or Shortly after Mr. Bright, in 1868, card with which he is charged, and it joined the ministry as president of the is slowly passed along the line till it Board of Trade, the clothes difficulty reaches its destination ; each member presented itself. His Quaker con- in turn thinking it is meant for him, science revolted against the necessity occasionally an absent-minded statesof assuming the semi-warlike costume man opening a letter not addressed to which forms the full dress of her Maj. him. This is a matter in which the csty's ministers. To prance around in Lords are certainly more up to date, scarlet coat, with gold lace down his and the Commons might well take a trousers and a plumed cocked hat leaf out of their ordinarily despised under his arm, was a sacrifice that I book. HENRY W. LUCY. . 515 534 543 CON TEXTS." 1. THE WAVERLEY NOVELS, Quarterly Review, Temple Bar, Blackwood's Magazine, Contemporary Revier, Nineteenth Century, Cornhill Magazine, Spectator, . VIII. CONSCIENCE MONEY, Chambers' Journal, 555 . 560 569 572 575 60 A RESTING-PLACE, POETRY 514 PUBLISHED EVERY SATURDAY BY TERMS OF SUBSCRIPTION. For EIGHT DOLLARS remitted directly to the Publishers, the LIVING AGE will be punetually for: warded for a year, free of postage. 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 & Co. Single copies of the LIVING AGE, 18 cents. waves. A RESTING-PLACE. I will not breathe the name the gods have HERE wander I, beside the silent graves, lent her The little grass-grown graves, by fierce Call her my Lady of the Golden Heart winds blown. Nor point the bower that she alone may On yon grim rock a storm-bird sits alone, enter, Watching the grey clouds o'er the chang- The bright, chaste shrine wherein she ing sea ; reigns apart. The white fringe clinging to the heaving Here 'neath the stars that claim her as their fellow, Awhile the gloaming has to darkness I sing my lady and my dear duress. grown, And the winds' thunder fall'n to tender Tell her, ye winds that kiss her shining pillow, moan, The soft pulsation of eternity. The sad, sweet story of my faithfulness. Chambers' Journal. A. H. RAIKES. How peaceful here it is, beside the dead, Whose toils are o’er, and pangs of life so keen Secure they lie, while tempests rock their SAIL, LITTLE BOAT. bed, Sail, little boat — sail out of the bay And lull their weary souls to restful sleep ; To the radiant west ; While we, forsaken, do but strive and Swift as a bird, to my dear heart say weep, That love is best. Bear him a message, a message sweet (My heart thy freight !), lows meet At the golden gate. Speed fast away with enchanted crew And snow-white wings ; What though the wind and the wave divide, Fairest is she - the very winds adore her, And the way is longWhispering eloquent in sigh-soft speech How that they faint and fold their wings The currents of ocean are deep and wide, But love is strong. before her, Chambers' Journal. MYRA. How like a star she shines beyond my reach. Love her I must, not seeking her compas sion, In no stray hope to mend my sweet mis- She seemed a wild bird caged on earth, Who fretted in her prison bars, chance ; A wild bird brought from heaven's Love her alone, in tender, rev’rent fashion, blue, And kiss her feet as queen of my ro- Still unforgetful of her birth ; And while she gazed out on the stars Proud to the world, to her I humbly render She sighed to look where once she flew, All knightly homage on my bended knee ; Until at last her wings broke through. Proud but in this my absolute surrender For life or death to her sweet sov’reignty. Now thro' the midnight gloom I gaze, And should my wistful eyes once see Hers to command ; my true allegiance A new star drift down heaven's ways, keeping I know she looks once more on me. Prompt to the doing of her light behest, And by the astral barrier waits As to the charge where battle's storm is Until my angel ope the gates, sweeping, And earth no longer cages me. Her colors plaited in my helmet's crest. ARTHUR J. STRINGER. mance. From The Quarterly Review. not called the Wizard of the North for THE WAVERLEY NOVELS.' nothing; and the publication of a new It is now just eighty-one years since edition of the novels in some fifty the publication of “Waverley," and handsome volumes, enriched with innearly sixty-three since the author was troductory essays by Mr. Andrew Lang, laid among the dust of his ancestors shows couclusively that their reputation in the Abbey of Dryburgh. During is not upon the wane. Scott's lifetime his novels on the whole The completion of the Border edition suffered no loss of popularity, though affords a convenient opportunity for the last were less admired than the indulging in some further. speculatious first. After a time they very naturally on the character of the spell which has ceased to be so much talked of, and, as thus detied the whole armory of wit. new writers appeared upon the scene, After the lapse of many years, when ceased perhaps to be so much read. we stand far enough off from the But that has only been the fate of all Waverleys to see them in perspective our great classics, --Shakespeare and and in their relation to other works of Dryden, Pope and Addison, Fielding kindred genius, we hope to escape the and Smollett, Dickens and Thackeray. charge of repeating only a thrice-told Nobody thinks the fact any proof that tale, Mr. Lang strikes the right note in they were overrated in their own day, his frequent comparisons between Scott or that they do not still deserve all that and Shakespeare, and in his brief refertheir contemporaries thought of them.ence to the significance of the fact So with the Waverleys, There they dwelt on at greater length by Professor still stand, as distinct a land-mark in Masson, that Scott was the first novelour literary history as the Shakespearian ist who was a poct. But neither seems dramas ; like these, without an equal ; to see quite all that it implies, or its and, like these, never to be repeated. bearing on the great work which Scott The measure of their power and was appointed to perform. Mr. Lang their beauty may be found in the se- has had access to the manuscripts and verity of the criticism, which they other material now preserved at Abhave not only survived, but survived botsford ; but they have not yielded without the slightest depreciation. In- much in the way of novelty. They consistencies, repetitions, gross improb- have enabled him to correct a mistake abilities, tedious introductions, hurried made by Lockhart in reference to “St. and perplexed conclusions, faults of Ronau's Well.” With this exception construction, neglect of facts, historical we have not observed any important mistakes, false archæology, have all additions which he has made to our been proved against the author of knowledge of the history and progress Waverley," ,” and have left him ex- of the Waverleys. Still the essays are actly where he was. The only two very interesting, and we only wish the books in the English language which illustrations were half as good. have resisted similar attacks are the Before proceeding to the main object Bible and Shakespeare. Against all of this paper, it will be necessary to three the keenest intellects and most take into account the circumstances learned commentators have dashed which were in Scott's favor when the themselves in vain. There is a power publication of the Waverleys began. in all three of them from which these At the commencement of the present attacks rebound harmlessly, like the century the novel had by no arrows from De Bracy's helmet on the attained that high rank in our literaramparts of Torquilstone. Scott was ture which it holds at the present day, 1 The Border Edition of the Waverley Novels. The historical novel was hardly known With Introductory Essays and Notes by Andrew at all, or known only through writers Lang, supplementing those of the author. Illus- of a very inferior order, who seldom trated by more than Two Hundred and Fifty new and original Etchings by eminent Artists. satisfied the demands of good sense don, 1892-94. and good taste. Throughout the eigh means Lon |
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