renewing the fierce battle another day.

the

As may De supposed, prisoner was summarily checked in these agreeable reminiscences, but there was no other subject which had the smallest interest for her. She evidently considered herself a champion fighter, and probably thought it fortunate that she possessed in her brother's wife a detested object on whom she could exercise her prowess. Metaphorically speaking, it was like trying to pierce the hide of a hippopotamus, to attempt to make any impression on the hard nature of this woman. She was com pelled, as a matter of discipline, to listen respectfully to the admonitions addressed to her; but it was perfectly plain that she did not trouble herself to take in the sense of a single word. Her thoughts were far away, picturing no doubt the delights of another pugilistic encounter with her near relation, to take place as soon as possible after her release from prison, and to that ineffable enjoyment she was in due time allowed to depart, when her period of detention expired. The conviction left on the minds of those who had tried to benefit hier, was simply that in her they had one of the most striking instances of failure they had ever known in their experience.

Happily the failures are much more rare than the successes, and many pleasant instances of the latter might be given, if our limited space permitted. In the case of young girls led into illegal practices by some unwedded lover, in conjunction with whom they were sent to jail, we had often the satisfaction of accomplishing a prison wedding, which placed them in a position to begin a new and better life with every induce

nient to a radical reform. The arrangements for these alliances had to be conducted somewhat after the fashion of princely individuals whose marriages are State affairs. As the bridegroom was incarcerated in the male side of the prisou, and the bride on that reserved for the women, no intercourse of any sort was permitted to them. The uegotiations between the high contracting parties had therefore to be diplomatically undertaken by grave official personages passing from the one to the other, so that the weddingday was fixed without a word having been exchanged on the subject by the two persons most concerned. When the day of their release came, which was also to be that of their union, they were met at the gate by the chaplain who was to perform the ceremony and the visitor who was to act as witness.

The small pro

cession then solemnly proceeded to the parish church, where the discharged convicts were duly united, and allowed to depart to a breakfast which, for the first time during many months, was not to consist of gruel.

We cannot close without touching very briefly on a subject deserving of the fullest consideration, and which it is to be hoped may at no distant time occupy the attention of the Government, and be efficiently dealt with by ade quate legislation. We refer to the condition of the children of prisoners, as the system which obtains with regard to them at present is eminently unsatisfactory. It is in truth one of masterly inactivity: the State simply ignores them altogether. Even when a man's life has been taken by the law for a crime which deprived his children of their mother also, these hapless orphans receive

no official recognition of any kind. The workhouse is the only refuge to which they have a legal right; but they are not compelled to enter it, and the criminal associates of their unhappy parents generally take summary possession of them for begging or thieving purposes, and bring them up in all manner of vice. Private charity may at times step in; but it can only deal with individual cases here and there, and it can in no sense cope with that vast contingent of the men and women of the future, who are left at the prison doors by their natural protectors, either to drift into the pauper's last home, or to be hidden in dens of infamy where a far worse fate awaits them.

It is scarcely possible for any one to traverse our country roads without being struck by the dismal

apperance of the tramp children, who drag along their weary feet in the wake of their careless parents. The great majority of thes poor waifs would benefit by any legislation that might deal with the offspring of convicts, as the race of tramps are at all times very prone to qualify themselves in various ways, for a temporary residence within the prison walls.

This is a vast subject, of which the importance can only be indicated in the most cursory manner her; but we trust that the treatment of prisoners generally, especially with regard to their moral improvement and permanent reform, may soon seriously engage the attention of those in authority, and that some special provision may then also be made, for the rescue of the unfortunate children of crime.

ACCOUNTS of cruises in small yachts have a certain interest for all healthy Euglishnien, whether their hobby be sailing or not; but small yachts that are under 15 tons are necessarily limited in their choice of cruising-grounds. There is, however, one cruisingground of fairly easy access, where there is plenty of room, plenty of variety, and which is markedly foreign in its appearance, and that is Holland and its great inland sea, the Zuyder Zee, bordered by its many ancient cities, each with a capital harbour, and with its islands, which are worlds of themselves, not satellites of the mainland. It is a favourite cruising-ground of mine, and the following is the log of a little yacht belonging to my wife and myself, which carried her joint owners a delightful cruise on Dutch waterways.

The Chrysalis (a name compounded of the names of her owners) is 10 tons builders' measurement, and 9 tous Y.R.A. She is 10 feet long over all, and 9 feet bean, with the moderate draught of 4 feet 9 inches, but quite enough for Dutch canals and rivers. She is the fisherman's idea of a good sea-boat, having a "flat floor and two good ends," ballasted with a lead keel. She is very snugly rigged as a yawl, is as handy as a Una boat, dry in a seaway, and fairly fast. The accommodation consists of a good forecastle with two cots, cooking-galley, pantry, lavatory, main cabin about 8 feet square, and two bed berths on each side of a narrow well, over which hatches slide in bad weather.

We left Lowestoft harbour at noon on the 3d June. There was but a light air from the south-east

dead ahead, as our course was south-east-and we had to use our sweep to get out of the harbour. We tacked slowly down the Roads to the southward until we reached Pakefield Gat, when we stood out to sea, the wind naving southered, so that we could lay our course. With all lower sail and jib-headed topsail set, the boat lay over and leapt through the waves, the wind freshening quickly and settling from the south-west. We had set the log at twelve o'clock at noon, and were fairly astart upon our voyage across the North Sea. Directly we got outside the sands we experienced a long ground-swell, caused, as it happened, by a strong blow of the day before in mid-sea. The glass was falling too rapidly to be reassuring, and we meant to hurry across as fast as we could, as the swell might, as far as we knew, be a token of a coining gale, instead of a consequence of one that was past, so we sailed her with her lee-rail awash, and the tops of the waves now and then breaking over the fore-deck.

By three o'clock the land had entirely disappeared. We were also out of the track of coasting steamers and vessels, and there

was

not another sail in sight. We might expect now to be alone on the circle of the sea until we fell in with the North Sea fishingfleet in the early morning. The wind freshening and the sea increasing, too much water was coming aboard over the bows, so we lowered the stay foresail, which is

a very pressing sail on a small craft, while the jib is a lifting sail. The effect was marked. Although our speed was scarcely lessened, we went along perfectly dry over a bright blue translucent sea, with a surge of dazzling whiteness roaring away from our lee-bow.

At five we took in the topsail, and shortly afterwards the mizzen; and at seven, as the wind was now strong, and the high swell begin ning to break, we lowered the topmast. Relieved of the top-hamper, the little yacht bore herself easily and bravely in what was really an awkward sea, such, indeed, as you might not see in a hundred journeys across in the summer time. "A winter sea and a winter sky," said the skipper, as he looked back at the stormy yellow sunset and black hard-edged clouds. For some time before the sun neared the horizon it had been surrounded by a halo of rainbow colours-a "sundog," as it is called, which always presages wind; the glass was falling rapidly, and was below 30 inches, so that we apprehended a dirty night of it. It now took all our skill to dodge the break of the swell. "White horses " covered the sea all round, and we went sliding up one side of a steep wave and down another in a lively fashion, luffing to it if the wave came on the bow, or bearing away, so that her stern lifted to it first, if the wave came on the quarter. Every now and then there would be a sudden lull, then a gathering of a greater wave, which would come roaring along as if it meant to engulf us, but we would rise in what appeared to be a marvellous manner over its height; but the drop on its other side down its steep swift slope, and the dive into the two or three short high waves which succeeded each big

one, was a thing to be remembered rather than to be welcomed. Wet jackets and holding on was the order of the day.

At 8.45 P.M. we hauled the log, which registered 57 knots, so that we had been travelling at the remarkable speed-under the circumstances of a rough sea and towing a jolly—of over six knots an hour, a knot equalling 1.1515 of an English mile. The jolly was half full of water, and was too big to get on board. We fully expected to lose her every minute.

As it grew dark we took the precaution of changing to our second jib, and taking two reefs in the mainsail, also reeving two other reef-earings in case the expected gale broke during the night. We were now snug enough for the night, and to our relief the wind grew no stronger. When we got among the lights of the North Sea fishing-fleet, which shone brightly and in numbers all around us, we sailed close under the sterns of one or two of the smacks as they lay at their nets, and asked them to report us at Lowestoft on their return in the morning.

It was quite light long before

the sun rose from behind a low wall of black cloud, the upper edge of which was a straight line of flame; and the mackerel clouds in the western sky, and the heaving sea beneath, were ruddier far than the eastern sky and sea. With the sunrise it fell calm, and as the swell still continued in some degree, the rolling of the boat made the windless sails flap loudly, and the boom swing and jerk as if it would rive the boat to pieces.

Sending up the topmast and making all sail, we drifted along until five o'clock, when the two tall towers of Scheveningen were faintly visible through the haze.

Then we came suddenly out of the clear blue sea into a muddy torrent, the line of demarcation being as perfectly sharp as a division between two solids rather than between two liquids. This was the ebb-water from the Maas, and soon the shipping entering Maas sluice was plainly to be seen. A fine breeze sprang up from the westward with the flood - tide about nine o'clock; and with wind and tide in our favour, and all sail set, we smoked away up the long miles of uninteresting river at a rare pace, and at twelve o'clock we dropped anchor just off the park at Rotterdam, a hundred yards below the quay of the Harwich steamers. A hasty run ashore to despatch a telegram to the wife to cross by the night boat, which brought her to us by nine o'clock the next morning, and then a general clean and tidying up, and a comfortable meal and rest.

Of a place so well known as Rotterdam we have nothing to say here; and I. desire to assume that every reader knows something of the history of the Netherlands, for to thoroughly enjoy Holland journeyings a more than superficial acquaintance with her past is necessary.

We "did" the town, and visited the Hague with its pictures, and Scheveningen, with its quaint Noah's arks of brightly painted fishing-boats tossing in the surf, its fish-auctions on the beach, and its teams of horses hauling up the vessels on the strand.

Our anchorage. could not be called a quiet one, owing to the swell caused by passing steamers; but it was fresher and pleasanter than to moor in one of the many havens or basins which lie within Rotterdam streets, and are so crowded with barges and small

VOL. CXLVI.-NO. DCCCLXXXVI.

steamers, and have such a busy movement of going and coming, and loading and discharging cargo, that they remind one of the teeming activity of the occupants of the galleries of an ants' nest, when laid bare by an intruding spade.

At half-past five on the Thursday morning a fussy little tug, only large enough to hold her powerful engines, took us in tow; and when the "Missus turned out at breakfast-time, she found us moving gently along the broad smooth river, with a motion so motionless that it was imperceptible in the cabin, although we were travelling at the rate of five miles an hour. We formed one of a procession of five vessels in two files, each with her warp fast to the steamer-two lighters, two tjalks, and ourselves.

The tjalk abreast of us, as a type of all other tjalks in the country, which by scores and hundreds we met daily, may be described. She was massively built of varnished oak, with bows so bluff as to be almost square, a straight-sided box, made, like all Dutch craft, to slide over the water rather than through it, and with immense wing-like lee-boards on each side to let down and supply the place of a keel when going to windward. A tall mast bore a lofty narrow-headed mainsail with a short curved gaff, and a fore-staysail from the bow. The great rudder bore along its upper edge a grotesquely carved and gaily painted lion couchant, the most common of all the rudder decorations, and of as much importance as the familiar figurehead in sea-going ships.

Hull and spars were brightly varnished, with casings of polished brass, and rings and scrolls of red and blue paint wherever there was room the staves of the water

M