I to understand that peasants in this part of the country fence along the roads, using spades and shovels for foils ?' 'I can explain it, my lord,' said the Counsel. "The prisoners were making a ditch, which we call a fence in this part of the country.'

Nearly all great scientific discoveries have been combated and misunderstood, even by great men, Admiral Sir Charles Napier fiercely opposed the introduction of steam power into the Royal Navy, and one day exclaimed in the House of Commons: Mr. Speaker, when we enter her Majesty's naval service and face the chances of war we go prepared to be hacked in pieces by cutlasses, to be riddled with bullets, or to be blown to bits by shot and shell; but, Mr. Speaker, we do not go prepared to be boiled alive!' The last words he brought out with tremendous emphasis. Steam power in men-of-war with boilers which at any moment might be shattered by an enemy's shot—this was a prospect the gallant sailor could not face. Yet in a few years Sir Charles Napier found himself in command of the largest steam navy that the world had ever seen. Lord Stanley (subsequently the great Lord Derby) presided over a Select Committee of the House of Commons to examine into the state of steam navigation. George Stephenson, the eminent engineer, who was examined, spoke of the probability of steamships crossing the Atlantic, * Good heavens, what do you say ?'exclaimed Lord Stanley, rising from his seat. If steamships cross the Atlantic, I will eat the boiler of the first boat. That pledge was never redeemed.

In more recent years a Lord Chancellor, even after he had seen a theatre illuminated without candle or oil, poured ridicule on a scheme for ‘supplying every house in London with gas in the same manner as they are now supplied with water by the New River Company.' Again, so eminent a chemist and gas specialist as Sir Humphry Davy himself is alleged to have said on one occasion that it was as reasonable to talk of ventilating London with windmills as of lighting it with gas. It is an historical fact that when the Houses of Parliament were first lighted by gas, more than one famous legislator was seen closely to scrutinise an exposed portion of the gas piping and then to touch it apprehensively, with the notion, evidently, that it might be hot enough to burn his fingers and endanger the neighbouring woodwork.

The story of the comment of Cuvier, the celebrated French naturalist, on the definition of the word 'crab' adopted by the Committee of the French Academy employed in the preparation of

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the Academy Dictionary is well known, but is always fresh and amusing. The definition was : Crab, a small red fish which walks backwards. Your definition would be perfect, gentlemen,' said Cuvier, only for three exceptions. The crab is not a fish, it is not red, and it does not walk backwards.' The Royal Society is the English analogue of the French Academy. Many years ago a sailor who had broken his leg was advised to send to the Royal Society an account of the remarkable manner in which he had healed the fracture. He did so. His story was that, baving fractured the limb by falling from the top of a mast, he had dressed it with nothing but tar and oakum, which had proved so wonderfully efficacious that in three days he was able to walk just as well as before the accident. This remarkable story naturally caused some excitement among the members of the society. No one had previously suspected tar and vakum of possessing such miraculous healing powers. Several letters accordingly passed between the Royal Society and the humble sailor, who continued to assert most solemnly that his broken leg had been treated with tar and oakum, and with these two applications only. The Society might have remained puzzled for an indefinite period had not the man remarked in a postscript to his last letter:

'I forgot to inform your honours, by the way, that the leg was a wooden one'!

Rather a good story is told about Professor Huxley when he was delivering a lecture at the Literary and Philosophical Society, Newcastle-on-Tyne, some years ago. The subject was, “The Geographical Distribution of Fossil Remains of Animals;' and consequently numerous diagrams were required. Old Alexander, the porter of the institution, and quite a distinguished character among the members of the society, was assisting the Professor to hang the diagrams. The screen on which the diagrams were hung was not very large, and Huxley, do as he would, could not succeed without the blank corner of one diagram overlapping the illustration of another one which he placed great importance. What was to be done? The Professor asked Alexander to bring a pair of scissors. The scissors were brought, but, as the joint was somewhat loose, the Professor was not able to cut the paper, and he threw the scissors down in disgust, adding that they were useless. Vera guid shears, Professor,' said Alexander. 'I tell you they won't cut,' said Huxley. Try again,' said Alexander; they will cut.' The Professor tried

on

Don't be worried out of your evening sessions with Harry, whatever you do, and be firm. The head of the family is with you for whatever that office is worth in this present Kali Yug.

Yours ever,

R. E.

XVII.

From Lady Etchingham, 83 Hans Place, to Sir Richard

Etchingham, Tolcarne.

MY DEAR RICHARD, -I have not seen your letter, but I understand from Elizabeth that you have kindly invited Cynthia to Tolcarne for Whitsuntide.

I am sure that Cynthia would be very pleased to be with Margaret, but I am afraid that I do not quite see how it can be managed just at present. Elizabeth, who has been very much taken up with Mrs. Newton lately, proposes, I now suddenly hear, to start off with her to the sea for a few days next week. You know what Elizabeth is when she takes people up violently, and how impulsive. Mr. Shipley, Mrs. Newton's brother, called last evening to say that the doctors suggest change of air for Mrs. Newton, whose health has been, I believe, very unsatisfactory lately from insomnia and nervous exhaustion, and would Elizabeth be persuaded to go too, as his sister had an invalid's fancy to have Elizabeth with her. I do not myself see the need, as if Mrs. Newton does not consider her husband sufficient escort, there is a sister-in-law-a Mrs. Ware-quite willing to be of use and accustomed to illness. I remember her telling me the first time I met her that Mr. Ware had been completely paralysed for five years before he died. Also, as I told Elizabeth, I think it quite possible that Mr. Shipley just suggested her accompanying Mrs. Newton, thinking she might enjoy the trip. She often speaks of her dislike of London, which is, I think, a mistake. Mrs. Newton, I fear, is on the verge of melancholia, and would really be best left with her husband, who no doubt understands her temperament.

If Elizabeth is to be away for several days with her friend, I feel quite sure that Cynthia would not consent to leave me wholly alone, much as I should like her to have the pleasure of a visit to Tolcarne. My eyes have troubled me a good deal lately, and I have rheumatic gout in my hands (from weakness, Dr. Bowles says), and to sit alone, unoccupied, though I am quite willing to

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undergo it if Elizabeth thinks it will amuse her to be with Mrs. Newton, is not, I know, what others would choose for me. I really quite think also that for Cynthia's own sake it is better for her to remain quietly at home till the weather is more settled. You have had heavy rains I hear from Mrs. Follitt, and dear Tolcarne, of course, is damp. I always considered the roof faulty. I hope you have had no recurrence of your old attacks, and with love to Margaret and yourself,

Believe me,

Affectionately yours,

LAURA F. ETCHINGHAM.

XVIII.

From Miss Elizabeth Etchingham to Sir Richard Etchingham.

DEAREST DICKORY,—Thanks very much for your letter. It was just exactly what I wanted, and it has stiffened me. Cynthia would be perfectly content at Tolcarne with Margaret and Stephen, and he and she can travel down together. I will propose it at once, and I should hardly think that Laura's hard-worked team of phantom lions could be trotted out to block this path.

I am summoned to the drawing-room, and rumour reports Mr. Shipley's arrival with a message from Alice. So here endeth this epistle.

Your loving sister,

ELIZABETH.

P.S.-Send me a supplementary letter soon, and in it wrap up a recipe for patience and a right judgment in all things.

XIX.

Sir Richard Etchingham to Miss Elizabeth Etchingham.

MY DEAR ELIZABETH, -Let a pleasant thing come first. I shall be delighted to have Willughby's Birds; the rather that I had almost forgotten what home birds are like. Did I ever tell you that among the great Akbar's accomplishments was a lively interest in the natural history of Hindustan ? The work of encyclopædic Indian statistics (or as near statistics as Asiatic scribes could get) compiled under his charge includes elaborate figures of

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Indian plants. I wish the ingenious Mr. Traill would add a dialogue between Elizabeth and Akbar, wherever they ought to be, to his ‘New Lucian.' Akbar deserves to be in the eagle's eye in the sphere of Jupiter, whether Dante's principles could make room for him there or not. I am not so sure about Elizabeth. Akbar could have taught her not to scamp the supplies of stores and ammunition to her fleet. If ever the Government of India gets a piping time of peace before the coming of the Cocqcigrues, there ought to be an adequate life of Akbar produced by a combination of European and Indian scholarship. He wanted, like Frederick II. some centuries earlier, to do more than was possible for any one man, including the foundation of a universal religion. But he was a magnificently ambitious prince, and his peccadillos were trifling as the sins of Eastern despots go. There should also be a great publication of his architecture at FatehpurSikri, that city of palaces which stands to this day deserted, but not ruined. It is more impressive in some ways than any of the show monuments of Delhi or Agra.

The British public does not appreciate the 'New Lucian,' I fear, perhaps never will. Mr. Traill's humour is too subtle for the general. But there will always be a select number to delight in it. His work, if it is not so brilliant as Landor's, is free from Landor's prejudices and crankiness, and the violent disproportions introduced by them into Landor's Imaginary Conversations ; and sometimes it rises to a note of historic tragedy, as in the dialogue between Alexander II. and Peter the Great. If you ever meet with the comments of the Canaanitish press on the Exodus -written by Traill before the outbreak of the Russo-Turkish war in 1876-grapple those few leaves without fail. But you won't, for it has become one of the really scarce pamphlets of our time, and I doubt if it is to be had for money.

Sir Augustus's proceedings are very dark to me. There is nothing impossible in a vulgar ambitious man being captivated by a fresh pretty face; and yet I fancy somehow that his ambition is more calculating, and can hardly conceive that ruling passion being dethroned. Watch, I say again, and keep Harry out of despondency if you can. Cynthia is unformed, and may change her mind once and again before she fixes it; I cherish hopes that the final direction may be right.

Stephen Leagrave has settled to come here next week, with a muite neat and official disquisition on Secondary Education thrown