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Folk-lore, The Cat and its. By Rev. T. F. THISELTON DYER, M.A.
Forefathers, The Lawlessness of our. By HUBERT HALL
Frederick Robson. By DUTTON COOK.

French Peasant, The, under the Ancien Régime. By E. BLANCHE
HAMILTON.

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Furred and Feathered Foes in New Countries. By C. F. GORDON-

CUMMING.

Future, The, of Vivisection. By OUIDA.

Giant Planets, The. By RICHARD A. PROCTOR
"Golden Ass," Macchiavelli's. By JAMES MEW
Government, Prison. By F. W. ROBINSON
Hans Sachs. By LOUIS BARBÉ

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Heine, Recurrent Ideas in. BY ALEX. H. JAPP, LL.D..
Hués, A Story of the. By F. BOYLE

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Nightmare. By Rev. T. F. THISELTON DYER, M.A.

Of Furred and Feathered Foes in New Countries. By C. F.
GORDON-CUMMING

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Parson, Biography of an Eccentric. By EDWARD WALFORD, M.A. 196
Peasant, The French, under the Ancien Régime. By E. BLANCHE
HAMILTON

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Prison Government. By F. W. ROBINSON

Queen, The Bargain with the. By HENRY W. LUCY
Rare Book, My. By FREDERICK WEDMORE

Recurrent Ideas in Heine. By ALEX. H. JAPP, LL.D.
Richard Cobden. By A. N. MACNICOLL
Robson, Frederick. By DUTTON COOK.

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Rockland Broad. By G. CHRISTOPHER DAVIES
Sachs, Hans. By LOUIS BARBÉ

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Science Notes. By W. MATTIEU WILLIAMS, F.R.A.S.:
Sensational Electricity-A Simple Electrical Machine-Count
Rumford on "Fired Gunpowder"-Modern Artillery Gun-
powder-Propagation of Gaseous Explosions-The Bursting of
Water-pipes Slow Combustion of Fire-Damp-Electric Tides
-Snow-clearing in London

Is the Full Moon Red-Hot?-A Chemical Chameleon-The
Origin of the Salt of the Ocean-The Origin of Oyster-shells,
Corals, etc.-The Anglo-American Arctic Expedition-Mr.
Walter Powell

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Stroll, A Biscayan. By the Hon. EMILY LAWLESS

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Sybarite, A Modern. By H. BARTON BAKER

342

Table Talk. By SYLVANUS URBAN:

"Mary Stuart "—A Slip of Modern Criticism-Fires in Theatres
-The Sunderland Library—" Chancing It”—Mr. Buchanan's

New Novel

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'HE time at which this story begins was a time of many begin-**** at any can

nings and many endings. The Eighteenth Century had expired the better part of a score of years before, and everything was in confusion. Youth-tumultuous, hearty, reckless, showy, slangy, insolent,... kindly, savage—was the genius of the hour. The Iron Duke had thrashed the Corsican Ogre, England was the Queen of nations, and Englishmen thought so much of themselves and of one another,.. that Society, for all its caste, became well-nigh republican. Gentle-. men were bruisers, and bruisers were gentlemen. At Ranelagh and ̧. Vauxhall fine ladies rubbed shoulders with actresses, magistrates.. foregathered with jockeys and sharpers, and the guardians of public order had more to fear from young bloods and sprigs of nobility than from professional thieves and blacklegs. Costumes were grotesque and irrational, but were worn with a dash and effrontery that made them becoming. There were cocked hats and steeplecrowned hats; yards of neck-cloth and mountains of coat-collar; green coats and blue coats, claret coats and white coats; four or five great-coats one on top of another; small-clothes and tight breeches, corduroys, hessians, and pumps. Beards were shaved smooth, and hair grew long. Young ladies wore drab josephs and flat-crowned beaver bonnets, and rode to balls on pillions, with their ball clothes in bandboxes. The lowest of necks were compensated by the shortest VOL, CCLII. NO. 1813.

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of waists; and the gleam of garter-buckles showed through the filmy skirts that scarcely reached to the ankle. Coral necklaces were the fashion, and silvery twilled silks and lace tuckers; and these fine things were laid up in lavender and rose-leaves. Hair was cropped short behind, and dressed with flat curls in front. Mob-caps and top-knotted caps, skull-caps and fronts, turbans and muslin kerchiefs, and puffed yellow satins-these things were a trifle antiquated, and belonged to the elder generation. Gentlemen said, "Dammy, sir!" "Doosid," "Egad," "Stifle me!" "Monstrous fine," "Faith!" and "S'blood!" Ladies said, "Thank God!" "God A'mighty!" and "Law!" and everybody said "Genteel." Stageroaches and post-horses occupied the place of railways and telegraphs; and driving was a fine art, and five hours from Brighton to London was monstrous slow going. Stage-coachmen were among the potentates of the day; they could do but one thing, but that they did perfectly; they were clannish among themselves, bullies to the poor, comrades to gentlemen, lickspittles to lords, and the high-priests of horseflesh, which was at that epoch one of the most influential religions in England; pugilism being another, caste a third, and drunkenness the fourth. A snuff-box was still the uni:**versal wear, blue-pill was the specific for liver complaint, shopping

was done in Cheapę and Cornhill; fashionable bloods lodged in ........High Holborn, lounged at Bennet's and the Piazza Coffee-House, ....made calls in Grosvenor Square, looked in at a dog-fight, or to see ::Kemble, Siddons, or Kean in the evening, and finished the night over sack-punch and cards at the club. Literature was not much in yogue, though most people had read "Birron" and the "Monk," and many were familiar with the "Dialogues of Devils," the "Ara::bian Nights," and "Zadkiel's Prophetic Almanac ;" while the is Dairyman's Daughter" either had been written or soon was to be. Royalty and nobility showed themselves much more freely than they do now. George the Third was still King of England; and George, his son, was still the first gentleman and foremost blackguard of Europe; and everything, in short, was outwardly very different from what it is at the present day. Nevertheless, underneath all appearances, flowed then, as now, the mighty current of human nature. Then, as now, mothers groaned that infants might be born; poverty and wealth were married in every human soul, so that beggars were rich in some things and princes poor in others; young men and women fell in love, and either fell out again, or wedded, or took the law into their own hands, or jilted one another, just as they do now. Men in power were tyrannous or just, pompous or simple,

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