At

the same time that the Government was taking the measures demanded by the critical aspect of affairs. one o'clock at night a sitting was held by the Chamber, in which were proposed the deposition of the Emperor and his dynasty, the appointment of an Executive Committee to resist, by all possible means, the invasion, and to drive the enemy from French territory, and the maintenance of General Trochu as Governor of Paris. The discussion was adjourned till the next day (September 4th), when another proposal was submitted to the Assembly, conferring on the Count de Palikao the title of Lieutenant-General, and appointing an Executive Council, selected by the Legislature. A third proposal, signed by M. Thiers and forty-seven deputies, to appoint an Executive Committee of National Defence, and to convoke a Constituent Assembly as soon as possible, was also laid before the Chamber. It was decided to refer these three proposals to a Committee, which should discuss them without delay, and the sitting was suspended until the report should be ready.

'In the meanwhile several thousands of the National Guard had gone unarmed to the building where the Assembly held its sittings, and which was surrounded by an enormous crowd of people, nearly all clamouring for the abdication of the Emperor. Troops and policemen were stationed everywhere, who only allowed the deputies to pass, as well as those persons who had tickets of admission; but they could not prevent many people from entering also. Whilst the Committee was deliberating, a large number of people had collected outside on the steps and in the colonnade of the Hall of the Assembly, and they all loudly demanded the deposition of Napoleon III., a demand which was re echoed by the great mass of individuals who filled the Place de la Concorde, the quays, and the Champs Elysées. The agitation of the assembled multitude

increased, and finally they broke through the ranks of the soldiers and the police, and arrived before the building of the Legislative. The National Guards who were on duty fraternised with the people and assisted them in climbing over the wall, whilst the regular troops looked on without interfering.

com

The

'The crowd, which had invaded the Legislative, rushed through every passage, and penetrated into all the rooms, even into those in which the Deputies were assembled in mittee. The public tribunes became soon filled to suffocation, whilst M. Schneider, the President of the Assembly did all that lay in his power to calm the excited multitude. sitting was declared opened, and several leading members of the Opposition united their efforts to those of the President, and demanded in vain to allow the Assembly to deliberate. Many of those who had filled the tribunes descended to the seats of the Deputies in the Hall, the doors were burst open, and fresh crowds arrived, who increased the tumult, and loudly demanded a change of Government, as well as the proclamation of the Republic. At last M. Gambetta pronounced the deposition of the Imperial dynasty, amidst the vehement applause of the assembled multitude, who still insisted, however, upon the proclamation of the Republic. It was thereupon resolved to proclaim this new form of Government at the Hôtel de Ville, and the leading members of the Liberal party went thither, followed by enormous masses of the people. They were soon joined by many other deputies, and the French Republic was then publicly declared. Acting upon the advice of some of her advisers, the Empress had already left for England.

'The troops which were stationed in Paris offered no resistance to the people, and only a few National Guards kept sentry before the public buildings, which henceforth were considered

as national property. A Government of National Defence was provisionally appointed, composed of the nine Deputies of the Department of the Seine, with General Trochu as its president.'

The book concludes with this melodramatic outburst from Lock's Histoire des Français, which M. Van Laun tacitly endorses :

'1848 had been a revolution caused by contempt; 1870 was a revolution caused by disgust. The Empire lasted twenty years a long period in the life of a human being, but a small one in the life of a nation. It had its foundation in the infatuation which rendered possible the crime whence it sprung; it owed its duration to the terror which its initiative crime inspired. In order to deter In order to deter minds from thinking of liberty, it gave full scope to sensual appetites, for such is the policy of all despotisms. But in the very day when material pleasures no longer sufficed, and when it was compelled to utter the word "Liberty," it was lost. The ebb which was perceived from afar sapped the ground under its feet; it felt that the quicksand would do its work, and in order to save the dynasty, and without caring whether it was not going to ruin France, it had the folly to provoke the catastrophe by which, fortunately, it was not overwhelmed alone."

The Tariff Hand-Book* is a trustworthy brochure which is particularly useful to all who take an interest in the discussion of Free Trade vs. Protection. Its compiler, Mr. John Maclean, has made the Tariff a life-study; and as he only presents facts and does not venture on the expression of an opinion of his own either way, his book is likely to meet with a good reception by both the political parties, for whose benefit the work is pertinently and mainly designed. Mr. Mac

*The Tariff Hand-Book, compiled by JOUN MACLEAN. Toronto: Rose-Belford Publishing Co.

lean exhibits the Canadian Customs Tariff and its various changes for the last thirty years, and presents the British and American Tariffs in full, as well as the more important portions of the tariffs of France, Germany, Holland, Belgium, Italy, and Switzerland. A new edition will, doubtless, be called for after the House opens.

Quite an attractive and convenient edition of Jean Ingelow's Poems.* has just been issued from the press of Messrs. Roberts Brothers. It contains the latest work of this charming English singer, and is further enhanced by a handsome steel portrait of the poet. Miss Ingelow's writings are universally admired for their delicacy and sweetness of rhythm, and nobility of purpose. All of her favourite poems may be found in this new and compact edition.

From the somewhat cursory glance which we have been able to take of Mr. Jones' new Law book,† and from the high legal attainments of the author, we should judge that the Practical treatise on the Real Property Limitation Act of Revised Statutes of Ontario, is a work which no member of the honourable profession could very well do without. It contains the latest decisions both in England and Canada, as well as a complete compendium of the Law on Easements. Mr. Jones is well qualified for the task, and his work exhibits a most extraordinary degree of research and verification. The book should prove of almost as much value to Conveyancers and Real Estate agents as to Attorneys and Barristers, for whom, however, it is especially designed. It is dedicated to the Hon. Stephen Richards.

*The Poetical Works of Jean Ingelow, 1878.Boston: Roberts Brothers. Toronto: Hart & Rawlinson.

t Jones on Prescription. -A Practical Treatise on the Real Property Limitation Act of Revised Statutes of Ontario. By HERBERT C. JONES. Toronto: Carswell & Co.

THE resistless influences which are

one day to reign supreme over our poor hearts, and to shape the sad short course of our lives, are sometimes of mysteriously remote origin, and find their devious ways to us through the hearts and the lives of strangers.

While the young man whose troubled career it is here proposed to follow was wearing his first jacket, and bowling his first hoop, a domestic misfortune, falling on a household of strangers, was destined nevertheless to have its ultimate influence over his happiness, and to shape the whole aftercourse of his life.

For this reason, some First Words must precede the Story, and must present the brief narrative of what happened in the household of strangers. By what devious ways the event here related affected the chief personage of these pages, as he grew to manhood, it will be the business of the story to

trace, over land and sea, among men and women, in bright days and dull days alike, until the end is reached and the pen (God willing) is put back

in the desk.

II.

Old Benjamin Ronald (of the Stationer's Company) took a young wife at the ripe age of fifty, and carried with him into the holy state of matrimony some of the habits of his bachelor life.

As a

As a bachelor, he had never willingly left his shop (situated in that exclusively commercial region of London which is called 'the City') from one year's end to another. married man, he persisted in following the same monotonous course; with this one difference, that he now had a woman to follow it with him. 'Travelling by railway,' he explained to his wife, will make your head ache-it makes my head ache. Travelling by sea will make you sick-it makes me sick. If you want change of air, every sort of air is to be found in the

City. If you admire the beauties of Nature, there is Finsbury-square with the beauties of Nature carefully selected and arranged. When we are in London, you (and I) are all right: and when we are out of London, you (and I) are all wrong.' As surely as the autumn holiday season set in, so surely Old Ronald resisted his wife's petition for a change of scene in that form of words. A man habitually fortified behind his own inbred obstinacy and selfishness is for the most part an irresistible power within the limits of his domestic circle. As a rule, patient Mrs. Ronald yielded; and her husband stood revealed to his neighbours in the glorious character of a married man who had his own way.

But in the autumn of 1856, the retribution which sooner or later descends on all despotisms, great and small, overtook the iron rule of Old Ronald, and defeated the domestic tyrant on the battlefield of his own fireside.

The children born of the marriage, two in number, were both daughters. The elder had mortally offended her father by marrying imprudently-in a pecuniary sense. He had declared that she should never enter his house again; and he had mercilessly kept his word. The younger daughter (now eighteen years of age) proved to be also a source of parental inquietude, in another way. She was the passive

cause of the revolt which set her father's authority at defiance. For some little time past she had been out of health. After many ineffectual trials of the mild influence of persuasion, her mother's patience at last Mrs. Ronald insistedgave way. yes, actually insisted-on taking Miss Emma to the seaside.

'What's the matter with you?' Old Ronald asked; detecting something that perplexed him in his wife's look and manner, on the memorable occasion when she asserted a will of her own for the first time in her life.

A man of finer observation would have discovered the signs of no ordinary anxiety and alarm, struggling to show themselves openly in the poor woman's face. Her husband only saw a change that puzzled him. 'Send for Emma,' he said, his natural cunning inspiring him with the idea of confronting the mother and daughter, and of seeing what came of that. Emma appeared, plump and short, with large blue eyes, and full pouting lips, and splendid yellow hair: other wise, miserably pale, languid in her movements, careless in her dress, sullen in her manner. Out of health as her mother said, and as her father saw.

'You can see for yourself,' said Mrs. Ronald, that the girl is pining for fresh air. I have heard Ramsgate recommended.'

Old Ronald looked at his daughter. She represented the one tender place in his nature. It was not a large place; but it did exist. And the proof of it is, that he began to yield-with the worst possible grace.

'Well, we will see about it,' he said.

'There is no time to be lost,' Mrs. Ronald persisted. 'I mean to take her to Ramsgate to-morrow.'

Mr. Ronald looked at his wife as a dog looks at the maddened sheep that turns on him. You mean?' repeated the stationer. Upon my soul—what next! You mean? Where is the money to come from? Answer me that.'

Mrs. Ronald declined to be drawn into a conjugal dispute, in the presence of her daughter. She took Emma's arm, and led her to the door. There she stopped, and spoke. have already told you that the girl is ill,' she said to her husband. 'And I now tell you again that she must have the sea air. For God's sake, don't let us quarrel! I have enough to try me without that.' She closed the door on herself andher daughter, and left her lord and master standing

face to face with the wreck of his own outraged authority.

What further progress was made by the domestic revolt, when the bedroom candles were lit, and the hour of retirement had arrived with the night, is naturally involved in mystery. This alone is certain: On the next morning, the luggage was packed, and the cab was called to the door. Mrs. Ronald spoke her parting words to her husband in private.

'I hope I have not expressed myself too strongly about taking Emma to the seaside,' she said in gentle pleading tones. 'I am anxious about our girl's health. If I have offended you -without meaning it, God knows!say you forgive me before I go. I have tried honestly, dear, to be a good wife to you. And you have always trusted me, haven't you? And you trust me still-I am sure you trust me still.'

She took his lean, cold hand, and pressed it fervently: her eyes rested on him with a strange mixture of timidity and anxiety. Still in the

prime of her life, she preserved the personal attractions-the fair, calm, refined face, the natural grace of look and movement-which had made her marriage to a man old enough to be her father a cause of angry astonishment among all her friends. In the agitation that now possessed her, her colour rose, her eyes brightened; she looked for the moment almost young enough to be Emma's sister. Her husband opened his hard old eyes in surly bewilderment. 'Why need you make this fuss?' he asked. 'I don't understand you.' Mrs. Ronald shrank at those words as if he had struck her. She kissed him in silence, and joined her daughter in the cab.

For the rest of that day, the persons in the stationer's employment had a hard time of it with their master in the shop. Something had upset Old Ronald He ordered the shutters to be put up earlier that evening than usual. Instead of going to his club

(at the tavern round the corner), he took a long walk in the lonely and lifeless streets of the city by night. There was no disguising it from himself; his wife's behaviour at parting had made him uneasy. He naturally swore at her for taking that liberty, while he lay awake alone in his bed. 'Damn the woman! What does she mean?' The cry of the soul utters itself in various forms of expression. That was the cry of Old Ronald's soul, literally translated.

III.

The next morning brought him a letter from Ramsgate.

'I write immediately to tell you of our safe arrival. We have found comfortable lodgings (as the address at the head of this letter will inform you) in Albion place. I thank you, and Emma desires to thank you also, for your kindness in providing us with ample means for taking our little trip. It is beautiful weather to-day; the sea is calm, and the pleasure boats are out. We do not, of course, expect to see you here. But if you do, by any chance, overcome your objection to moving out of London, I have a little request to make. Please let me hear of your visit beforehand-so that I may not omit all needful preparations. I know you dislike being troubled with letters (except on business), so I will not write too frequently. Be so good as to take no news for good news, in the intervals. When you have a few minutes to spare, you will write, I hope, and tell me how you and the shop are going on. Emma sends you

her love, in which I beg to join.' So the letter was expressed, and so it ended.

'They needn't be afraid of my troubling them. Calm seas and pleasure-boats! Stuff and nonsense! Such was the first impression which his wife's report of herself produced on Old Ronald's mind. After awhile, he looked at the letter again—and