The Cardiff Times

WHOLESALE & RETAIL y' IRONMONGERS, /fOv f SANITARY ENGINEERS, &0. MARY STREET, VVYNDHAM ARCADE. y/<V^/ CUSTOM HOUSE-ST., X NEW STREET, CARDIFF. V yr ——— 15551 Experienced Workmen kept in all Branches.

COUNTY COUNCIL NOTES. HOW LAMPETER WAS LOST. A "Lampeter Liberal" writes Liberal* all through Cardiganshire will, I know, regret the election of the Tory squire and magistrate, Mr J. C. Harford, of Falcondale, as representative of the borough of Lampeter on the county council instead of such a well-known and deservedly popular Liberal as Dr Evans. his op- ponent, But lest the people outside Cardigan- shire should think that Lampeter Liberals are deserting their cause, and lest Cardiganshire Liberals should be disheartened, I send you this explanation:—Mr Harford was not elected by the people of Lampeter. If the people of Lampeter had had their way they would have chosen Dr Evans. The figures prove this-Mr Harford had a majority of 14; the college students who exercised their right of voting numbered 46, Out of these, two only voted for Dr Evans so that Mr Harford has bten returned to the Cardigan- BhireCounty Council,and sits as the representative of Lampeter, not by the wish of the majority of the bona fide inhabitants of L impeter, but by the votes of a few men whose gratitude to his ancestors would make them vote for any person bearing the name of Harford, and whose fear for their tithes would mduca them to vote against any man who took up the policy of Disestablish- ment. The practical interest that these men baj in the election was very small, for they come from all parts of the principality,and the administration of Cardiganshire concerns them very little. Could the election have been fixed for a day when the students were not in residence, and when the bona-fide inhabitants of Lampeter, to whom the question is all important, could have elected their own representative, Dr Evans wouid have been probably returned by a majority of 32. As it is, Mr Harford sits as the representative of a section pi the college. Can the Tories clsim this as a great victory, and cau Mr Harford congratulate himseii on his position ? AN EC3NOMXCAL SUGGESTION. Mr D. Morgan, Llandilo, writes Tke cost of providing screens for the various polling booth* wili form no inconsiderable item of the expense* attendant upon the county council elections, anc I think it is as well to raise a note of warning relative thereto. Probably, now that the twt, parties having tried their strength,it will be man; years before so many contests will again taki pla". £ aud thu* there need be no cost on the nerf occasions of providing screens. if the; matter is rct at once seen to. I venture to say that that costwill,to agreater or lesser extenuhave to be incurred again. It is the custom In some places to leave the screens in the polling booths, and to take no further account of them, and I know of one instance in which they were cut up for firewood. Let our counciliors at once see to it in their several districts. DUXRAVEN DISAPPOINTS. Where was Lord Dunraven?" was a question most anxiously asked on Wednesday at Bridgend. There was a special quarter sessions all held on his account; Judge Wiiliams was hastily fetched out of his county court to give eclat to the proceedings, as well as swell the number, and all this in honour of Lord Dunraven. But his lordship came not. Was he hunting, or shooting, or fishing, or making merry over his return to the county council! No he was not in Glamorgan- shire at ali. He was on his estate in Ireland, and wrote to say that he could not attend the banquet in honour of Mr Phelps because he was entertain- ing company at Adare Court. There is a great divide" now between him and several magistrates, so much so that b's chance for alderman bar departed. The Liberals won't vote for him, and the Tories are indignant at his treatment of their little gods. PROPOSED ALDERMAN FOE THE RHONDDA. I am told that the general feeling in the upper part of the Rhondda and Ferndale is that the county council should elect Mr David Evans (Bodringallt) as alderman. From bis great experience in his various capacities on the public boards of the district, one would naturally infer that he is a most competent person to deal practically with local affairs. He has taken an active part in all the important sanitary improve- ments effected in the various localities of the district, and, unquestionably, his services in connection with the proposed sewerage scheme, the carrying out of which it is estimated will cost JB120,000, cannot now be ignored without affecting the interests of the ratepayers. He is a member of the Ponty- pridd Board of Guardians, chairman of the Ystrad Local Board, and the school board; consequently his practical acquaintance with parochial matters, certainly, I should think, entitles him to a seat on the county council. Mr Evans is an ardent Liberal, and sound upon all the political planks of the association. He would. therefore, make a valuable acquisition to the council. Whether, however, it would be a good precedent to elect outsiders to the post of alder- men, I leave to older and wiser heads. To my mind, however, it is rather an abrogation of principle. The people should in the first instance decide who is fit to represent them. THE VICTORY AT LLANELLY. The remarkable Liberal victory at Llanelly. where the whole nine county council candidates have been returned, must be very encouraging to the party at that place. If derives special significance from the fact not only that the Conservatives had their picked men in the field, but that the old anti-association faction brought its whole strength to bear to secure a Radical defeat. Notwithstanding all, however, and notwithstanding the specious cry, No politics," the working classes stood firm they surmounted the difficulty caused by a journey of—in some instances—eight or ten miles to the polling centre in the rural district; they polled in over- whelming numbers, and they polled right. The election is a staggering blow to Toryism, and a splendid answer from the real capital of Carmartbenshire to the tyranny which, for so many years, has ground Carmarthenshire down. PONTYPRIDD AND THE COUNTY COUNCIL. A correspondent writes:—Now that the council is elected, the inhabitants of Pontypridd should lose no time in doing all that is in their power to have the meetings held in their town. All who have any knowledge of the geographical forma- tion of the county agree that Pontypridd is by far the most convenient centre of all the towns which have sent in their claims, while, as to railway facilities, Pontypridd is pre eminently the best suited. In fact, no matter what the standpoint from which the matter is looked upon, the claims put forward by ALerthyrr STeath, and Bridgend retire into insignificance when faced by the greater advantages which could be secured by the selection of Pontypridd.

LOCAL GOVERNMENT. BY W. ABRAHAM, M.P. (MABON). WHAT COULD A WELSH NATIONAL COUNCIL DO? Indeed we are not without cause to rejoice when "e find that so many gentlemen have been latnrned on the various county councils in the principality who, from experience, know the Seeds and aims of the Welsh people, and men Who are also in perfect sympathy with the in- dustrial classes. As usual, the Rhondda is to the forfc. To fill the ten seats she has returned ten sturdy Radicals. Still, even she could have done better. She might, among ten, have returned at least one direct labour representative. In this direction Llanelly (Carmarthenshire) has done better, for among nine true and faithful Liberals, Llanelly did in one of the wards return one direct labour representative at the head of the poll, THE QUESTION OF EDUCATION. Returning to the question of education. If Parliament can be got to substitute in the Local Government Act the words "intermediate and technical schools" for reformatory schools," as has already been requested, then Wales will have an opportunity of establishing a great system of national secondary education. Mr Tom Ellis, one of Wales' most worthy sons, has already broached the idea of a National Council for Wales. And why not ? Such a council would be much more able to deal with the question on the proper basis, and consequently much more satisfactorily to the Welsh community than can the central Government in London. When the state of public business and the progress of legislation (whatever that may mean with a Tory administra- tion) permit, the Government intend to introduce a Welsh Education Bill of its own. If there are some questions more than others in the settlement of which the voice of Wales ought to be heard and taken full consideration of, that of education is one of them. One would feel curious to know What new light a Government which cannot boast of having a single Welsh member in the Ministry can hope to throw on this question. I feel convinced that cur present rulers will insist on treating the Principality as a part and parcel of England" in the matter of education. Moreover, I fear, and not without reason, that there is but very little hope, if any, of having a satisfactory settlement of this question from a Government which exists for the purpose of resisting the claims of nationalities. Therefore, we ought to do all in our power to have this question relegated to the county councils, and through them, if desirable—the administration and supervision thereof—to the district councils that are yet to be elected under the new act. INTERMEDIATE EDUCATION AND ENDOWED SCHOOLS. That would be much better than even to accede to the provisions in Mr Mundella's bill for placing the intermediate schools of Wales under the control of the Education Department in London. Inasmuch as the county councils have been made eo thoroughly representative, why not assign to them at least the functions proposed for Mr Mundella's committees? Surely we can entrust to them the educational as well as other matters of interest to Wales. They should have also in their bands the government of all endowed schools. Perhaps it may not be universally known that out of about 30 endowed schools in Wales and Monmouthshire, the governing bodies of 27 of them are constituted in such a way that no Noncontormist, whatever bis qualifications may be, could apply ior a bead mastership under them With any hope of success. Undoubtedly it is the county councils, with their powers of combination, that are the Dest oodien over constituted for formulating schemes that would do away with systems of educational monopoly like this and any scheme which fails to remove this religious disability viU to command the confidence QftheTW<elsh people. Privilege in the death 8fcnKtgle will, I am afraid, kick too hard for Governments to tackle. Hence, let us endeavour to persuade them to transfer the struggla to the more sympathetic and unprejudiced county .councils. 0 THE APPLICATION OF CHARITIES. Moreover, the restitution of educational and other endowments to the services of those for whom they were originally intended would be in much more congenial place were the manage- ment thereof in the hands of the county council than ever they can be in the hands of the Charity Commissioners. Under the decision of the Court of Chancery, the children of the poor were -11 but totally excluded from receiving any Vocational benefit from the school endowments and although there has been a decided improve- ment since the passing of the Endowed Schools •A-ct, still there is roem for much more were the Matter in the hands of a more sympathetic body, for, in the opinion of the Charity Com- missioners, the endowments that they deal with have been by no means created for the exclusive use of the poor. The directions the commissioners obtain from the School Enquiry Report, they say, point to the benefit of all classes. The definition of the word II Poor" that they have hitherto generally adopted is the one which is mentioned by Lord Chancellor Hatherley in the debate on the Grey Coat Hospital case at Westminster, in which he sayg. « I contend that the term poor children )I! meant those who desire and those who deserve a bettereducationthan that which the circumstances ,of their parents can afford to give them," and ttPon this definition, not decision, until recently their whole policy has been based; and hence the reason why the educational benefits from endowments have not been available to the real poor. Unfortunately the children of the poor, manual labourer cannot be kept in school long enough to raise them to the standard of the deserving who could by comPetition win the scholarships proposed by the commissioners inder the ordinary eonditious of their schemes, hor create in them a desire for such a course of education. And there are »«««•"»» '"dances where these commissioners have, lawyer-like, adhered too strictly to what was considered to be the purpose of the founders m the interest of the old grammar school Latin, and apparently nothing but Latin, should be learnt, and so neglected shamefully the interests of the real poor, who would not come up to that standard, or anything J'ke it. So that What we want now is to have these and more especially the Welsh nn ,f;" and the preparation of education s n er them, transferred to the bands of county council?, who, as a body, are the most direct representatives of the people of any ^J^at has hitherto been elected, and who, fro P ^qualification,should give its most sympathetic Attention to the matter. THE SPECIAL CLAIMS OF WALES. There are probably stronger reasons why this should take place in Wales than in England. The commission in whose hands, more than in that of the Government, the matter now lies cannot boast of a single Welshman on It, ana Whatever may be said respecting improvements Recently made in England in tho direction ot making better provisions by means of these endow- ments for the education of the poor, nothing has been done in that direction in Wales. With all Welsh endowments the same old policy has mos t rigidly been exercised, viz., "I'r hwn y mae Kanddo y rhoddir iddo, 30 oddiar yr hwn nid oes Ilanddo y dygir oddi arao.ieyr byn syddganddo." Only eight years ago the governors of the Welsh Charity School at Ashford, who bad, and have, at their command a charity of £4.9.000 a year, and in addition a subscription fund of JB600 a year, after the institution bad fulfilled its beneficent mission for over 160 years, approved of ceiuatn regulations for the conversion of that chanty into a middle-class school for the purpose of providing first-class education for the children of such Welsh clergy, solrbitor8, medical m°H' farmers, and others who may be unable to afford the expense of ordinary 'boarding schools." Thus the governors of this Welsh charity, only eight years ago, actually and Jeally deprived the poor children of poor little Wales of the advantages of a charity that was Paginated for their exclusive use. Thls being so, is it not high time that the education of the poor Jn this and other respects should be relegated to the more congenial clime of the county council ? THe WELSH LANGUAGE AND WELSH NATIONALITY". la addition to this the county council would also be the body to which the subject of the value of the Welsh language should best relegated. This question again> I fear, would not be likely to receive sympathetic treat- ment from any Government, especially the present one. The question of Welsh nationality and that of the Welsh language are so nuked together that those whose policy would bo to stamp out Welsh nationality would ba most l*ely also to exclude the Welsh language from ^ecurriculuA of a Welsh school. Hence the r fM m aQd necessity of endeavouring to have the ettlement of this question placed before the council, if we can, so that a Welsh Rational Council should be formed to geal with brf re^?irements of Wales as a whole, so as to JiM?I entire system of education into jtiarmooy Hu local wants and lopal cooditiona; A

FACTS FOR FARMERS, Current Notes on Agricultural Topics. BY A PRACTICAL WELSH FARMER. The Results of the. County Council Elections- The results of the county councils in the rural districts plainly indicate that farmers have at last wakened up to the knowledge of what party will befriend their interests; and to such an extent has this feeling been shown that during the elections the most rural counties have shown the cleanest recoid. Carmarthenshire and Cardiganshire have been notably so. Some of the Conservative candidates in those counties had been wont to say (with Robinson Crusoe) that they were lords of all they surveyed, with none to dispute their rights. The farmers did not dispute their just rights, but they did dispute, and that emphatically, their landlords' right to be their representatives at these councils. So effectually have they done so that, with but very few exceptions, those who contested the elections were ignominiously defeated,and that by men of the people, with the only additional merit of being Liberals. Farmers, like other classes, bad lost faith altogether in the Tories, although they clung longest to them but now they understand the meaning of the two parties and their watchwords, and that while it is the aim of one to advance and to uphold the rights of the weak, the other aims to retard progress and to tyrannise over the defenceless. Were it not for the advancement of the work of Liberals, Wales now would be the same as it is pourtrayed in the report of a Times commissioner on the condition of the Welsh farmerIJ and labourers, which appeared in the Times of December 2nd, 1843. THE CONDITION OF THE WELSH FARMERS AND LABOURERS AS IT APPEARED IN THE TIMES," DECEMBER 2ND, 1843. The small farmer here breakfasts on oatmeal and water boiled, called • duffery,' or •flummery,' or on a few mashed potatoes left from the previous night's supper. He dines on potatoes and buttermilk, with sometimes a little white Welsh cheese and barley bread, and, as an occasional treat, has a salt herring. Fresh meat is never seen on the farmei's table. He sups on mashed potatoes. His butter he never tastes; he sells it to pav his rent. As for beef or mutton, they are quite out of the question—they never form the farmer's tood. Is not this a muzzling of the ox which treadeth out the corn ? The condition of the labourer, from the inability of the farmer to give him constant employment, is deplorable. They live entirely on potatoes, and have seldom fcnough of them, having only one meal a day. Being half starved, they are constantly on the parish. They live in mud cottages, with only one room for sleeping, cooking, and living- different ages and sexes herding together. Their Cottages have no windows, but a hole through the mud wall to admit the air and light, into which a bundle of rags or turf is thrust at night to stop it up. The thinly-thatched roofs are seldom drop dry, and the mud floor becomes consequently damp, and wet, and dirtty almost as soon as the '.oad, and, to complete the wretched picture, huddled in a corner are the rags and straw of which their beds are composed. Artificial Manures. I promised last week to write a few lines on artificial manures. As this time of the year farmers are buyinff and applying it to the land, I think it will not be unprofitable to do so. It is contrary to human nature to believe in a thine one does not understand, but though not under- standing, when results which we cannot under- stand are good we are forced to beJieve. Sucb to a great extent is cut position as farmers here in South Wales in connection with artificial manures. As the soil is the great storehouse of food, and is the banker which honours our draft, it only does so in proportion to the deposits which are from time to time made to it, and through insufficiency of the quantity of farmyard manure at our disposal to deposit to meet the ever growing, demand, the aid of chemistry was called in to supply substitutes for the home production. The result of this is the production of numerous good, bad, and indifferent classes of fertilizing matter, which is called by the general term artificial manure Against these compositions indiscriminately many farmers continue to be prejudiced through not understanding them, while others are sceptical about using them through there being so much worthless manure palmed on the farmer as the best fertilizing matter in the market." To guard against these makers who profess to sell cheaper than anybody else, those whose manures you can buy for a trifle above the cost of carriage, and those that sell bone manure without a particle of bone in it, great caution is required. We should buy only of well-known and trusted firms, those whose honesty has stood the test of experience, those that give and guarantee the analysis of the manures and not only that, but are also willing to pay ther expense of analysing if their own is incorrect. I have seen some of my friends when buying smelling the manure, and thinking that by the sense cf smell they can distinguish its quality. In their estimation if it gives off a strong smell it must be a good manure. Of course all manures, from the nature of its compound, have a certain amount of smell, but that is no index to its quality. In fact. when there is a strong odour it shows something the reverse of being properly made, and that some of the gases on which its fertilising power largely depends escape, MANURE SHOULD SUIT THE SOIL. Before purchasing we should try to understand what the land is in need of, and not give indis- criminately the same to all soils, whatever their nature. If it is damp, heavy clay soil, it is in need of ammonia and less phosphates but if it is a light, dry soil it requires the reverse—more phosphates and less ammonia. As to the quantity to sow per acre, many farmers, without taking into consideration the condition of the land always give it the same quantity. Now it is hardly right to expect the same result always when sowing such and such a quantity of manure, whatever the condition of the soil. If the soil is in good condition, it does not require the same quantity as would a poor soil. In wet land any sort of manure is something like throwing money away on the mode of applying it to the land. One noted firm of manure makers have for years tried to impress on their customers, with but little success, the importance of its proper application to the land. Their instructions are to mix the manure about a week or ten days before its application with about six times its amount of soil or ashos, and that it is only by doing so that the manure gets fair play to do its work. If farmers would but once try this mode they would see the benefit. One obvious benefit from this system is that it can be more evenly spread over the land. I have often seen farmers very careless about this. They are eareful about giving such A quantity per acre, but in sowing and spreading that quantity over the acre are not so careful as they ought to be. The result is that some parts get too much, while others get none, and by this their expectations are not realised. Another thing in connection with artificial manure is this j care should at all times be taken that it should not come in actual contact with the seed. The Weather and the Crops. The Mark-lane Express of Monday says:- Since this day week the weather has been I changeable, and owing to the absence of frost, ploughing is laborious and land heavy. The deliveries of English wheat have been heavy, and the range in prices of samples ususually exten- sive, inferior being offered as low as 26s, while 10s above that level is made for sound wheat, 63lbs to the bushel. The price of flour has been reduced 6d per sack for both American and English descriptions in London and Liverpool, but there is a majority of country centres at which no change can be recorded. Foreign wheats mark a decline of Is per qr generally, though, of course, with the large variety Presented there is no exact level of decline. The deliveries of English barley at country markets have been heavy, and since the New Year an exceptionally large quantity has been threshed. if ets f°r the most part are stationary, but where any current is perceptible it has tended in favour of buyers. Maize has fallen about Is per qr at the principal markets, Russian oats, African beans, and Canadian peas have been cheaper to buy. Rye is cheaper f other articles 1 show a little chapge, 4

WELSH GLEANINGS. I By Lloffwr. All who have studied with intentness the causes and influences which have brought about the present happy conjuncture of national advance ments in Wales, will readily acknowledge the indebtedness of the principality to Gobebydd. No man laboured more earnestly or intelligently to dethrone the tyranny of Tory territorialism in the inland constituencies. Wherever power without principle laid its heavy hand on the poor county Welshman, there you might expect to see at one time or another the keen face of Gobebydd"—and woe to the object of his righteous, irrepressible wrath. In the next week's Baner, "the little man, vivacious," smote the enemy hip and thigh. « Many a battle for the right did he thus help to win; and by means of these conquests over wreng-doers in high places, he infnsed courage into the tremulous hearts of hundreds who, but for bis stout advocacy, would never have achieved that confidence in themselves and in the equity of their case which has gradually paved the way for the realisation of Welsh national unity. A memorial s now to be raised over "Gohebydd's grave. It remains with Welshmen to say whether it shall be worthy of the man and his work. A rather good story is toid of the late Bishop of St Asaph. His lordship once delivered a short address to a village school on the. subject of besetting sins. "We all,' he said, have our besetting sins, myself like the rest. What do you suppose is tfiine ?" Noticing the astonished look on the faces of his youthful hearers at the notion of a bishop having a besetting sin, the right rev pro- late went on to say, Do not be afraid to answer." At length one little fellow was courageous enough to hold up his hand by way of showing his willingness to respond to the episcopal questioner. Well, my boy,' said the Bishop, what do you say is my. besetting sin?" "Please sir," stammered the lad, droonkenness I" No, rejoined his lordship, in the meekest oftonef, not drunkenness, but vanity." The Bishop's comment shewed,at all events, that if be was vain, he was also not destitute of a certain amount of humility. •" I have more than once alluded to the growing feeling in favour of a more formal recognition of the native language in the proceedings of public bodies in Wales. As I have already pointed out, several of the candidates for seats on the County Council made a strong point of tftis, and I am glad to find that in most, if not all such cases, the candidates were returned with a handsome majority. I mention Mr W. J. Parry, and Mr George Brymer, on the Carnarvonshire County Council, as cases in point. # a • This definite expression on the part of Welsh candidates has already produced practical results. In the Denbighshire County Council, for instance when the election of chairman was being aisenssed, the seconder of Mr Gee, who was elected by two to one, made his speech in Welsh, to the DO small consternation of the few magistrates who had been elected, and who were utterly unable to reply to the arguments ad- vanced, for the simple reason that they could not understand what those arguments were « In Anglesea a further step in advance has been taken. At a meeting of the County Liberal Association, to which the Liberal councillors had been specially invited, and when thirty of these councillors were present, two important resolu- tions were unanimously adopted. The first was that no person who might be proposed as chairman of the council should be supported by the Liberal councillors unless h8 were able to conduct the business in Welsh with equal facility as in English. This, in the case of a board which will necessarily comprise so many Welsh speaking councillors, was, on the face of it, only just and right. It would be absurd in such a case to elect to the presidential chair a man who, whatever might bo his other qualifications, would not be able to speak and understand the language with which the majority of the council would be most familiar. « • The other resolution was of hardly less import- ance. It was that Welsh members of the council should make it their rule to speak iq Welsh at the council meetings. As the majority of the Angle- sea members are Welshmen, this is equivalent to deciding that the major part of the proceedings shall be conducted in the vernacular. I have no doubt that those who, from defects in their early education, are not conversant with the native tongue of the Principality will. strongly object to such a rule. Still I think it is founded on strict justice. The majority of these men will be able to do the cause they support better justice if they speak in Welsh than they could do if they spoke in English. It may be a matter of courtesy to speak in a tongue which is understood by other members ignorant of Welsh, but it is equally the duty of those who wish to rule the affairs of the Welah people to acquire their language, • • • • Take the case of an English County Council, say Dorsetshire. Suppose there happened to be thres or four Frenchmen members of that board, and that Dorsetshire farmers on the council possessed such a smattering of French as would enable them to pa33the usual greetings of the day^ Would these men do themselves the injustice of. expressing their meaning imperfeotlyta 'JTrench for the sake of the few members who could not understand English? I trow not. Think the matter over, my friends. If will bear careful consideration. I learn that Mr W. J. Nicholson, son of the noted late Liverpool minister of that name, and who was until recently a student at Cardiff University College, has received a call to the pastorate of St. Paul's Congregational Church, Swansea. Mr Nioholson comes of a family noted for its pulpit oratory, and I have no doubt he will worthily uphold its credit.

HE COULDN'T STAND THE COMPARISON Dealer: Intelligent ? Why* of course he ia; jost as intelligent as you are, sir. Parrot (breakingjiD): Get. me 6oai9;pjg«ai<j quick! •

Musical and Eisteddvod Notes. By Maelgwyn. KOBE ENGLISH EI3TEDDV0DAU. I have received another programtne of an English Eisteddvod—and it was certainly English in the fullest sense of the word. It was held in Workington, West Cumberland, early in the year, and I was much surprised to see that it was the "thirteenth annual eisteddvod." So far, then, as Workington is concerned, the eisteddvod is not by any means a novblty." It has evidently taken firm root in that district, or it would not have been held annually for the last 13 years. Of those who took part in it either as adjudicators, managers, conductor, chairman, &c., there are but two bearing distinctly Welsh names—a Mr Griffiths and a Mr Jones. I suppose we may take it therefore that in Cumberland, as well as in Yorkshire, Staffordshire, and other counties, the Eisteddvod is mainly supported and carried to a successful issue by English men and women. This is a matter for sincere congratula- tion all round. As to the competitions, they contained a good many items that must neces- sarily appear on the programme of an Eisteddvod held in a district where it has not had time to take so firm a root as it has done-in Wales—I refer to competitions where the test pieces were left to the discretion or choice of the competitors themselves. This is a good way of popularising the Eisteddvod. I once attended an Eisteddvod in a district where, judging by what bad hitherto happened there, it was generally supposed that every man was an Eisteddfodwr. The committee were evidently: enthusiastic reformers, and with more enthusiasm than discretion they filled up the musical part of the programme with music of the modern school-abounding in "scientific" but certainly not melodious num- bers. As was to be expected, the number of entries was ridiculously small in every case, and it was positively painful to listen to the soprano soloists as they attempted to reach some miserable note with two flats or a double sharp before it. People may rave as much as they like about tho beauties of such music. It possesses no elements that appeal to the heart either of the singer or the listener. So the audience showed that day; they fell into a state of listlessness, and those who did not drop off into a quiet little doze looked on with mingled impatience and disgust. Then the cheers-any half-dozen persons could have raised counter cheers that would have effectually drowned them were it necessary. The audience no doubt thought they were having a sorry return for their money, and the promoters of the eisteddvod, struck by a happy thought, announced that after the next competition has been decided, we shall offer a prize for the best rendering of any song or solo chosen by the competitors themselves. The first real out- burst of applause that had been heard during the day greeted this announcement, and the com- petition was a brilliant success. Something like thirty persons-principally tenors and basses- came forward, and the variety was simply glorious, There was almost every kind of solo and song, from Total Eclipse down to the Friar of Orders Gray. The audience began to take a deep interest in the proceedings, and the ad- judicator—a gentleman from London-told me that the competition was unquestionably the best he had ever heard. The Workington Eisteddvod contained several items of this kind systematically arranged for solo, duet, trio, quartette, and small party. In the literary department one or two contests of a similar nature appeared, and altogether the eisteddvod—two meetings-proved immensely successful. Special trains from all part. of the district and from the North of Lan- cashire were run. In the evening a grand per- formance of the Messiah was given by tho Workington Choral Society, conducted by Mr Griffiths. The mayor presided, and there was an enormous attendance. i The musical world has sustained a terrible blow by the death of Dr Francis Hueffer, the eminent musical critic of the Times, and the author of many valuable works relating to musical matters. By far the best in memoriam notice of Dr Hueffer nppears in the Figaro, from which I take the following:—Dr Hueffer, although not the earliest of the champions of Wagner's works in this country, was at any rate one of the most powerful and most constant. He extended his protection of the "music of the future" to others besides its founder, and he was perhaps one of the few men living who could really appreciate the pretentious efforts of modern Frenchmen on the one hand, and the advanced compositions of the Abbe Franz Liszt on the other. But with the proceedings of the so-called Wagner party of the present day he had very little sympathy; and on almost the last occasion on which he visited a concert,in walking towards the Times office with a couple of his colleagues, he inveighed strongly awln against the projected drawing-room performance of Tristan und Isolde,' with pianoforte accompani- ment, as being diametrically opposed to the ¡ master's own teaching and example. Although he looked older, he was really born at Mttnster in the year 1845, and was consequently only in his I forty-fourth year. The son of a banker, he was educated in France, England, and Germany, and he received bis degree of Doctor of Philosophy at Gottingen in 1869. In that year he came to England, where he has resided ever since. His first start in London musical criticism was, I believe, upon the now defunct Examiner. Ten years ago Dr Hueffer succeeded the late Mr J. W. Davison as musical critic of the 2'iznes. The appointment led to a fierce newspaper warfare, which was not stopped until his principal critic met him at the production of Otdle at Milan, a meeting which led to reconcilement and subsequent respect, Dr Hueffer's books, however, show wide research, great learning, and liberal views. The best of these volumes is that on the Troubadours, which subject Dr Hueffer had Studied very deeply in his youth. He also wrote the "Music of the Future," edited the Great Musician's Series," and contributed to that publication the Life of Wagner." At the time of his death be had already written and corrected the proofs of the English version of Verdi's Otdlo, bad sketched a new opera on a subject from Dante for Mr Cowen, and was putting the finishing touches to the first volume ofawork which dealt with the whole history of music in England during the reign of Queen Victoria. He was taken ill after occupying a draughty seat at the first performance of Macbeth, at the Lyceum.

Sunday Afternoon in the Park Hall, Cardiff. [BY ONE OF THE AUDIENCE.] You must go early if you want a good seat," Was the advice given me by those who had previously attended these services. Thanking them, I acted upon their counsel, and at 2.45 I had taken my seat in the hall, which was then rapidly filling. Though I had been in it scores of times previously, I could not help again admiring its magnificence, not only for its size and arrange- ment, but for its beauty and comfort as well. The seats on the ground floor were soon all occupied — what an impressive picture is a sea of faces !-and, perhaps, there were 350 chairs occupied in the balcony. "Sutely," I said to my myself, "this in itself i,4 an evidence of success;' and I looked around the audience. Yes, they were a respectably-clad r adience. But what of that? Outward respect&btlity must not altogether be the gauge by wi iob we are to measure the success or failure of '.hese meetings in accomplishing the end for winch they were originated. If people who attend churches and chapels are well-dressed it must be remembered that those who walk St. Mary-street instead are also, generally speaking, wall-dressed; in fact, being well-dressed denotes very little. And so behind the appearance of that audience were all sorts and conditions of me: and wcmen-chnrcb goers and non-church goerr. the curious and the hungering, and it would tp.kj an omnipotent eye to say whether the leaders of these services had failed or succeeded in catering for the spiritual needs of the people. I think it is begging the question to speak of failure at all, and this seems to be the general opinion of all, I have spoken to who take a comprehensive view of the matter. But I was awakened irom this reverie by the grand organ, for its sweet symphonies were now falling upon the ear and into the houi, speaking to it in its own language, too pathetic for phraseology. It died away like a beautiful sunset, and then the audience sang Tell me the old, old story;" after which a prayer was offered for sincerity of heart, and when the chairman rose to speak a profound stillness reigned. The world's needs are broader and deeper than all our creeds and dogma^ said Mr Bird in the course of his pointed remarks, and as he uttered the words they seemed to be the essence of that conviction which slowly gdhers strength with the years. Passing on he expressed his gladness in the unsectarian nature of the meetings, after which he called upun Miss N. Aiher for a solo. Behold me standing at the door." one of Sankey's little hymns, was sweetly and expressively rendered, the choir joining in the chorus. It was much appreciated by the audience, as also was Mr Dyfed Lswys's rendering from Elijah cf "If with all your hearts." Short as was the musical programme, it was certainly sweet. The speaker (the Rev D. Young, of the Wesleyan Circuit) spoke from John 19, 6—15 and 16 verses. The Jews rejected Christ without considering His claims and without honest investigation as to whether bis statements of Himself were true. To do this was unfair and unjust. Pilate was convinced of this, but even his conviction did not provent his delivering Christ up to die. This rejectio-i was the rejection of the greatest Man the world has ever known. Losing sight of His Divinity for a moment, His atonement for pin, the efficacy of His blood, let Him be looked at as a MAN, and His claims considered in the. same impartial way as the claims of any public teacher or philanthropist are considered. Givine: Rim the same justice as to others, the speaker h hesitation in saying that,hestood aloneamopgtit men-as the Himalayas did amongst mountains. Personally, how noble 1 how kind Whst in His movement 1 What grace on his lips How he went about doing good, scattering seeds of kindness on every hand, possessing love enough in His heart and sympathy enough in His nature to meet any and every vase, end to turn swnshipa ink* every home. Look at Him as a teacher. We have haJ great teachers in history—Homer, Shakespere, Milton, Newton, Demosthenes-eacl1 of whom might be said to have created new periods in literature and science respectively; but Jesus Christ had created a new period in the history of the world from a moral titandpoint. He had revolutionised the world by a hitherto unknown love, which was both the fulcrum and the lever. Yes, Christ was more than a teacher, more than a philanthropist. He was a Saviour, He is on His trial to-day, and will be throughout tbo ages. What have we to say to His claims ? Let us not, while labouring under conviction, as Pilate did, deliver him up to die and cry "Crucify Him," when we have never investigated for ourselves or made any honest enquiry as to his Divine mission, Another hymn and the meeting was over. Every- one went away realising the freshness, the simpli- city,the sincerity of the service,and the remarks I overheard were those of high encomium. One liked the service as one likes a flower, because one cannot help it. The reply which Dr Parker gives to criticism adverse to his Monday Dinner Hour Talks' with working men, to which he invites them to bring their dinners, and pipes if they like, is "If I may by any means do good to any," This, I know, is the spirit of the promoters of these services. We want that spirit in all its breadth, for the world is very thirety in that direction.

The late Baron Martin was once informed by a very youthful solicitor's clerk in chambers that he had no power to make a certain order. Go and stand in the corner, sir," said the outraged majesty of the law, while I wr'.te it out." WASS HAEL I—The traditional symbol of the new year in olden times was the wassail bowl. The Saxons and their descendants would brew on New Ye:\l"s "Eve a large bowl of spiced and sweetened ale, and as the new year entered, the head of the house, tasting of the savory liquor, would say to all—" Wass Hael 1" (To your healths.) Each member of the household circle would repeat the ceremony. Wassail is said to have originated from • the words of Rowena, the daughter of Hengist who, presenting a bowl of wine to Vortigern the King of the Britons, said Wass Hael

THE NIGHT SKIES OF FEBRUARY, I By Arthur Mee. I- BTTheTw?n^ft?:STWi^i^nTipal S,ta?^d ^sfcellations now visible in the Southern Heavens. A, Orion; The observer who takes his stand in the open air on a clear evening about eight o'clock towards the middle of February, will have above and around him a noble stellar panorama. Right in the south is Orion, of whioh this month we give a little chart, that the reader may familiarise him- self with this noble asterism. The upper star of the Belt lies almost on the celestial equator. Just below the belt is the great nebula, which even an opera class will reveal to the observer as a glow of light. Rigelis a noted double star, a severe test for telescopes with object-glasses of three inches aperture. Sirius in a line below the belt, is a glorious object, which. if ancient writers are to be credited, has changed its colour since earlier ages. Above Orion, and pointed to by the belt is Aldebaran, the leading brilliant in the Bnlf, near which is Theta Taun a naked eye double, and a little further off the Pleiades, a pretty object in the smallest telescope. To the east of Orion is Procyon a considerable star, to north of which are the con- spicuous Castor and Pollux, the former the finest double in the northern skies. East of Castor and Pollux is the constellation of the Lion, whose stars, or a portion of them, form atr object shaped like a sickle or reaping-hook, and which, from the T; "m 'fr "» .oAyto mistaken. Between tho LK» and Castor and Pollux w a tiny cloud of lfcht, which a small telescope transforms into ataw—the PraeseD? or swarm of bees. Between the senith (or point overhead) and the north-eastern horizon is the Greater Bear, which peopfe here, and^Sewhew inWalosfor what I know, call the AA,Tnd is likewise known as the Wain, the Pk^h/the SSfssnitb^and-the norta-westero: honagn w CMeiopwa/i tbe'- W I group, and between it and the Pleiades is Perseus, a straggling constellation, containing a wonderful congeries of stars. The brilliant Capella is almost overhead, and Vega, struggling amidst the fogs of the northern horizon. It is to be noted that owing to the gradual westerly march of the, constellations in their annual apparent path, the above description holds good for 10 o'clock at night the middle of January, eight the middle of February, six the .middle of March, and so on, a month having theisame effect on the movement of the constellations as two hours on one and the same evening. -Now then for the planetary bodies. Saturn is situated just to the west of the sickle in the Liqq, and a line drawn south through the binder pair of pointers in the Bear should pass very near his place. Saturn souths about midnight the /first few days of February, and is then at his best for telescopic observation. Of Saturn's eigbt moons it is said that one has been detected with a good opera glass, but if so it must be reckoned as quite an exceptional feat. Venus in 1bè- east is a most brilliant and beautiful object Wid towards the middle of February presents ib Hie telescope the appearance of a half moon. Ot the other planets none are placed so as to be "worth the notice of those to whom these chats are intended. The moon is full on the 15tbcalXl towards the beginning and end of the monthits pha^e is well suited for telescopic observation. It is the best and most pleasing object for small instruments, and a never-ending souice of interest and wonder in large ones. The san continues practically destitute of spots. Before concluding I should very much like if some reader of the Weekly News would favour me with the- Welsh names of the Ntanr and constellations. r

Rambles, Amongst Colliers. BY GWEITHIWR. THE COUNTY COUNCIL AS VIEWED FROM UNDERGROUND. There are mutual improvement and debating societies underground. Probably this is news to those not fully acquainted with the customs of miners. Before resuming operations in the morn- ing colliers, have now, as, I dare say, when the oldest miner in the principality was a boy, the habit of cungregating in groups in different parts of the workings in order to indulge in a social chat upon the topics of the day. The practice is adopted in, I may venture to say, every colliery throughout South Wales. After descending the pit some take a short spell about the lamp- station, which is situated in most coilieries within about 20 yards of the down-cast shaft. Then each collier, and every other workman whose voca- tion necessitates bis entering beyond that particular spot, has to take bis lamp, which is examined and locked by an official, who, in most steam coal mines, resides in the lodge the principal part of the time during which the day men are engaged. The employes then proceed to their respective working-places—some a!ojg one level, others along another, and so on. As the levels and headings branch off in various directions, so the groups of men become more scattered and thinner. The six or seven hundred miners who, as they trooped onwards, divided at the entrance into the workings in two or three sections, are subdivided into numerous groups before they reach their respective destinations. The men of each beading from which their stalls branch off fix upon a certain "parting" leading into a working-place, and range themselves about ten or twelve on either side of the rails, some sitting on their heels, some on the ground, and others reclining and almost prostrate. A subject then crops up which is discussed in a convivial style. The topic for the past few weeks was the county council. Tory colliers are few and far between. I have not yet dropped across a single collier holding Tory principles. The result of the poll in the Rhondda was a foregone conclusion amongst colliers. They had discussed the question quietly amongst themselves in the recesses of the mines hundreds of yards beneath the surface; they had consulted one another regarding the ballot, and become convinced of its absolute secrecy. At the various public meetings. some would shew their hands in favour of a Tory, because they believed it was policy to do so, epeciallyif a colliery manager or one ot the Officials connected with the wotks where lje.Wi^s etfiployed was present. This is the reason why the management of different pits i-u- innocently V reckoned so many chickens before they-"www hatched," and, consequently, of course became elated upon the prospects of a brilliant victory for the candidates whom they supported. I am certain of this, that if a plebiscite on a universal vote of the colliers in South Wales were recorded to-morrow respsctiug their political views, the vast majority of them would not only declare themselves out-and-out Radicals, but Republicans in every sense of the term. At almost all the public meetings in connection with the county council, the most important question in the estimation of the miners, upon which the candidates were requested to express their opinions, was Home Rule for Ireland." Should a candidate return a negative reply, it was all U.P. with him, He might as well throw up the sponge immediately, and retire from the coutest. In fact, they seemed to feel more for Ireland than for gallant little Wales."

THE SAILOR OF THE PENNY- DREADFUL. The sailor is invariably a toothy persvu-that is to say, he laughs a good deal, and when not laughing has always a "sunny, boyish" smile imprinted on bis face. The whiteness of his "strong" teeth is always descanted upon, and we have seen them seriausly described as being like "blanched almonds in a brown cake." Teeth are difficult things to fit withva metaphor; To complete the portrait of a sailor it must always be said that his eyes, whatever their colour, havp a look of the sea in them," and his hair must never be straight: be would be no ttue sailor if his hair did not curl. N.B. —His mother is always a widow" The sailor, too, in these delicious romances is invariably frank and honest, and open as the hand with which he slaps his own thigh and the back of a friend. This honesty, it must be observed, is more especially the property of her Majesty s marine; mere merchant-service sailors (If deserving of the name at all) may swerve a little from the path of virtue. Indeed, it is well to remember that the captain of the ship (who in the weekly illustration never wears anything but a frock coat with a belt. and a cap with a pjke to it) genarally has a taste for the abduction of damsels. This foible surprises none of the crew, who are perhaps accustomed to it from a long series of voyages, for they seem to regard it as merely an amiable weakness on the part of the skipper. Such intimate knowledge of the mysteries of the infinite main, and of those who go down to the sea in ships, had the talented author of one naval story recently published, that the aforesaid captain of the ship" is reported during a storm of unpre- cented force and violence to have raised, with a steady hand, his binnacie to his eye." This was a touch of genius so much appreciated by the illustrator as to be chosen as the subject for the first half-page picture for the week. In this the captain stood on the bridge (it was a large full-rigged ship) enveloped in a sheet of foam and spray, regarding the immediate onslaught of a stupendous billow through bis binoculars, For the sake of probability let us hope this was also the author's intention. Yet this gentleman, for all his dangers, ended well j be married a West Indian heiress of great beauty and infinite accomplishments, who had followed him on board in the guise of a cabin boy, and as such seems, after a long voyage, not only to have served but cooked all the food for the captain's cabiu."—From The Penny Fictionisi," iu the Cornhill Magazine for February.

AN OLD SCHOOL OPINION. j* Visitor: Can yon tell me, doctor, what there is in this Christian science method of treating disease? Doctor (testily) s Yes, I can, What! Lots of humbog, madam.*

WELSH NOTES. THE NEWPORT PUBLICAN'S SCORE. The Newport School Board contest was certainly unique. It is not every day that a publican heads the poll, and, fortunately for the good sense of communities, it is also infrequent that votes are wilfully wasted by independent candidates of the unsectarian sort who never in the remotest sense stood a chance of winning. Their only achieve- ment, as in this instance, has been to reduce to the perilous point the positions of the other unsectarian candidates who have been squeezed in. For several triennial periods in New- port history, with the solitary excep- tion of the famous new departure, the board which Archdeacon Bruce attempted to pilot through its troubled career—for several triennial penods the unsectarians have had the majority. Careless of the Liberal strength, which, only a week ago, won six out of the eight seats for county council purposes, the Liberal and unsectarian party have supinely allowed themselves to be defeated. The odd trick has been won by the voluntary party. The winner of the odd trick is the proprietor of a second or third rate public house in one of the bye streets. By the accumulated vote of his brother Bonifaces he hus been placed at the head of the poll. The Church party are welcome to their adherent. He will, no doubtjprove himself in speech as he has in letter writing, a foeman at whose frown the rest of the board may be expected to shrink into the smallness of the humblest form of humanity. But if the ratepayers of Newport think they come creditably out of the election, they are grievously mistaken. THE SUCCESSORS OF THE APOSTLES. This week, in Radnorshire, 1 heard," says a correspondent of the Nonconformist, the following story. It was told me by a highly- respected agriculturist. The only school in his parish is called 'National,' whereas its name ought to be 'Sectarian.' Recently, the son of my informant came home from this school, and immediately asked bis father if he believed in aptetolic powers.' The father, apparently, did not catch the boy's meaning, and pressed his son to tell him what he meant. Oh,' he said, the vicar came to school to-day, and told us boys that he and other clergymen had succeeded the apostles, from whom they had received 'apostolic powers.' 'Father,' asked the boy, 'do you believe it?' Very quickly he did his best to uudo the pernicious teaching given in this Government- aided school. This kind of thing is going on throughout Wales quite as much as in England, and there is urgent need that every effort be made to instil into 'Young Wales' those principles which have made the principality all that she is to-day." A TRADUCED TOWN. There has been a paragraph going round the papers to the effect that the little Pembrokeshire town of Narberth contains 25 public-houses to a population of 1,200, and that out of these 25 public-houses 23 are kept by members and eacons of Baptist and Independent Churcheed. The returns for drunkenness show that in two years (1587-8) there have been 33 convictions. Out of this number only two were inhabitants of the borough. The others mostly consisted of tramps. The senior deacon of the Baptist Church asserts that not one of them are publicans, though they may be sinners, nor yet is there one of the Congregational Church. He beiieves that there are two or three communicants with the Baptists, and one or two with the Congrega- tionalists as publicans. The number of public- houses in the borough is 26, and they are mostly for the convenience of fairs and markets. Thirteen large fairs are held in the course of the year,as well as a weekly market,and if it were Dot for this patronage half the public-houses would closo to-morrow. It i! stated that over 200 dealers have to be accommodated the night preceding the fairs. The correspondent who furnished me with these facts, says, I trust that you will see that our little town will bear most favourable compari- son with any town in England or Wales. We have no idlers at the corners of our streets; every one has a means cf attaining a livelihood. I have gone round this town for some years in the course of my business, and have bad occasion to call at each public-house, and I can say it was very rarely a person was to be seen iu either of them during the day. I am told we have over 200 Rechabites in this town. This, out of a small population, speaks for itself." THE PROPOSED COMBINATION OF STEEL BAlL MAKURS. Rau-making is not such a favourite operation at some of the steel works as at Rbyainey. I was able several days since to refer to the proposed combination amongst makers, and I may now add that the announcement has occasioned some surprise. "Why does the Rbymney Company go into all these details r' is a question which has been propounded. Won't they defeat their own ends in the market?" And so on. Then, as a reply, it ia suggested that, after all, there is some j depth in the move, and that the Rhymney Company are in reality courting immediate orders for more rails, possibly at an improved price. I cannot, of course, pretend to discover the motives which actuate directors of the Rhymney Iron Company, but I am not deaf to the expressed desire of shareholders to see dividends." There is certainly a great scope for the ingenuity of the directors. It won't do for Rhymney to go on turning out unremunerative steel rails. At Cyfarthfa foundations are being laid down for new coke ovens. But Cyfarthfa keeps in touch sensitively with the market. When steel rails are wanted they can be turned out with rapidity. Rail prices are not good enough at present, consequently merchant bars constitute the current output. SIX CENTURIES SINCE. There are many queer little details which have come to light by the publication of the public records. The Blue Book just issued deals with the reign of Edward I. The following extracts speak for themselves:— S. David's, the bishopric of commissimus, during pleasure, to Bogo de Knouill of the custody of the bishopric of S. David's, void and in the King's hands. Gloucester, 10th April. Concurrent mandate of intendeuce and respon- dence in favour of, to the tenants of the bishopric. S. David's the chapter of the church of cong< d'eiire to, vice Richard iate bishop of, deceased. Gloucester, 10th April. S. David's; grant to Master Thomas Bek, of the prebend In the cathedral church of, lately held by the prior of Great Malvern void and in the King's gift by reason of the voidance of the bishopric of, which is in the King's hands, and mandate in pursuance to the dean and chapter of. Westminster, 19th May. S. David's; assent to the election of Master Thomas Bek, canon of the cathedral church of, as bishop of, and significamus in pursuance to the I Arch bishop of Canterbury. Dorchester,17th June. Llandaff, William Bishop of; mandate to, to levy and deliver, without further delay, the whole of the tenth of ecclesiastical benefices inhia bishopric to Alianor, the Queen-Mother, he having been appointed by Henry III. and Ottobon cardinal-deacon of S. Adriani to collect the sa.id tenth, which was granted by Pope Clemente IV.], for the behoof of the said Queen-Mother, the whole of such tenth being stui unpaid to her. Down Ampney; 4th March. Llandaff W[iUiam] bishop of; licence to, with the consent of Edmund the King's brother, to take up his abode, whenever he shall come to London, in the bouse of the Canons of the Order of the Holy Sepulchre of Warwick (" Warre- wicbie"), opposite S. Clement's without Temple Bar. Westminster, 25th May. Llantony Prima, in Wales, the prior of, staying in England letters of Attorney to, in favour of Nicholas de Ros and Stephen Bauzan for Ireland. Westminster, 18th May. The tenth of the Llandaff spoils were by no means the extent of the dowry of the Queen mother. She was given some portion of the Winchester diocese, which was also void, not to mention estates in England, and dues and land in Gascony and France.

A SAD CASE.—A: What is your prospective bride going to give you on New Yead" asked a young society man of bis friend. B: "I believe she is going to give me a handsomely worked watch case, and I am in a fix about it." How so f' "Well, you see I pawned my watch to get her a Christmas present, and haven't been able to redeem it yet, so I'll be in a sort of a earner when she presents me with the watch case." The question of food in relation to health is a very important one, and all who wish to attain to long life must study it with care. It lies, it has been well remarked, at the foundation of all other questions. There is no mind, no work, no health, no life, without food and just as we are- fed defectively and improperly, so are our frames developed in a way unfitted to secure that greatest of earthly blessings- sound miad in a aouad body.

Samuel's Sentiments. Samuel on Novel Readers. ï THIS LADY STRONGLY DEPRECATES NOVELS WORKS OF A DEVOTIONAL CHARACTER ARE THE ONLY ONES SHK PERMITS HER- SELF TO READ. HE Bishop of Ripen, sir, has evidently a higob opinion of the influence of novel- reading for good, and I daresay that he is right, but let us consider the matter and see. There can be no doubt that, looking at novel-reading as an educational influ- ence. it increases the vocabulary of a young man or woman, and, as it were, gives a tone to his or her conversation. What can be more improv- ing to a young man con versationallytban to mark that the hero of a novel invariably says to flAWlino T 4 then dare to cherish the hope that you, lipht of my life, are not wholly indifferent to me I" and that the heroine's reply is, "Think me not unmaidenly when my trembling lips dare to confess that since the first hour when these eyes beheld you standing beside yonder placid pool my heart went out and became yours for all time ?" Vastly improving is conversation of this kind. The magnanimous nobleman (in contradistinction to the bold, bad baronet; "barts," are nearly always bad men in novels) does not say to a strange visitor, What can I do for you ?" or What may your business with me be ?" but, rising from the luxurious ottoman on which he has been gracefully "reposing," he waves his taper fingers towards a chair, and, after asking his visitor to be seated," he asks in mellifluous tones, To what fortunate circumstance may I attribute the honour of this visit ?" Now a young man in business who adapted diction of this kind would be certain to get on—to the next town, probably. It may be said that the sort of fiction I am dealing with is only of the tenth rate order, SHE —"PERHAPS YOU WOULDN'T MLFCD BRINCRXS ROIIB: FOR ME 'THE FAMILY SCBEAMEK,' 'THE HATCHET OF HORRORS,' AND THB 'HALFPENNY HOWLER.' but, all the same, there are thousands and thousands of these stories written and read every year, and, even in the case of the best of the modern novelists, the greater body of the readers never take the trouble to ascertain what the classical and other allusions scattered about the pages mean, and they do not, I unhesitatingly aver, know tua picwiSf v.' an iniiii. i- i I, proportion of the word, used by the novelist. If they read good stories And"^pondered on them the result would be bAyff to be for good, but tbey don't. What they want is plenty of plot nud incident; it is a case with them of hang the dialogue and come to the 'osses," a-ad they never stop to consult a dictionary as they go along, but they skip all the descriptive passages and the moralisings of an author and simply burry to the I sensational part of the book. Nobody, sir, can ignore the fact that the sale of penny dreadfuls is enormous, and I am pretty well sure that thousands of young women of certain classes, married and otherwise, waste half the day when the male folks have gone to work reading bosh about "Gwendolines," Lord Cecils," "gilded halls," noblemen who either marry the governess or the housemaid, damsels of exquisite appearance generally who sp,.ut claptrap sentiment by the yard, murders, and all the other usual ingredients of the penny novel. These young persuns are of the type who read penny novels and never darn their stockings. If you examine the particular journal that they usually take in you will find that all the portion thereof which is devoted to essays or instructive answers to correspondents is left uncut by the usual hairpin which does duty as a paper knife, whilst all the lurid novel part is well-thumbed. And, sir, in my judgment these stories about dukes and earls and all that kind of people marrying mill girls are calculated to entirely destroy in the minds of youug people all idea ot the inevitable social distinctions which exist, and I have seen cases myself wheie good- looking girls have wrecked their lives by disdaining the young men of their own class and taking on with men of a superior ciass, who never cherished the slightest idea of marrying them, and all this has been the result of reading penny dreadfuls. Take even the orthodox novel m three-volume form. There are thousands of such written every year, but who can say that there are more than about half a dozen out of the whole batch that are really worth reading, or that will survive the waste-paper dealer and THE PERIOD OF THE HEROINE'S LIFE WHEN ALL THE ROMANCE CEASES-A COOED rN G TO THE GENERALITY OF NOVEL READERS. the butter mau ? Most of these novels are published at their own expense by sawnies who fancy that they will knock out all the best novelists of the day,, and I have no hesitation in declaring my opinion that nine hundred and ninety.nine of these novels out of every thousand are the most unmitigated twaddle and traph. that it is absolutely reckless waste of time even to glance at. & The books are as untrue to nature as they are weak or silly in style. It would be easy to name three or four novels published during the last twelve months that have attained a larfre measure of popular success, and that are, as works of art, simply beneath contempt. They nave simply been bought and read on account of the gruesome horrors and the dire deeds described in them. Let me name one instance-" The Mystery of a Hansom Cab." Can anything be more hideously vulgar than the drunken curses of Mother Guttersnipe? Can anything be more slipshod and inelegant than the literary style? The so-called character studies are mere silly caricatures, worthy only of a gory transpontine melodrama, and the grammar is more than shaky, What EL ESS YOUB LIFE, THIS GEXTLEMAN NEVER READS ROTELS—THE DAILY PAPERS ARE QUITE GOOD ENOUGH FOR HIM. mental refreshment does such a story afford, I should like to know ? One thing is very certain, and that is that all those novels in a library which have a spice of naughtiness, or that are very highly spiced with sensation, are those chiefly in demand, and any tibrarian will tell you so. The murdermongers aad the unholy passion merchants have, so far as public appreciation goes, miles of start beyond George Eliot, William Meredith, and a few other really first-class writers of novels, and even in the base of a popular author you will find that his or her really best and noblest work is neglected in comparison with that portion of his or her work which is written down to the popular standard, I wonder how many of the thousands of people who have snivelled over that lugubrious and compara-- tively vulgar story East Lynne" have read and appreciated the same authoress's Johnay Ludlow," which contains some of the sweetest and best short stories in the language? The fact is, su, that the Bishop of Ripon has got a bit (int. of his rtAnth hill THE SORT OF SITUATION DEAR TO THE NOVEL READER. etoquence has run away with him when he gusboa about novels and their moral influence. What good would any girl derive by reading the sensuous nonsense of Rboda Broughton, or by i gloatiug over the moral deductions of Ouida f I should say that young men and women who attempted to educate themselves from ndvela would derive a very false idea of life and of human nature. Novels may be all very well taken in moderation, like plum pudding, but they are quite as cloying and un wb olesome as the latter compound when the mental bill of fare consists of them solely, and but few people will be prepared to deny that the general body of 'r,o'to"¡,or.o:: TYiolja 311^ fotnfila never take up any species of literature eave such as is contained in a novel or a newspaper. SAMUEL: His SENTIMENT*, J

Wife (at the seashore)Charlie, what mens ten she rolling deep must contain 1—Husband; Thoa- tands of 'em darling.—Wife You have sailed; did you ever soa any of them?—Husband Yet. I see one now.—Wife Goodness 1 Where?— Husband Right in front of you.—WHe Why, I see nothing there but my motaac bathing.