The Gironde, represented the sentimental phase of Republicanism, and Lamartine and the Government are pledged to practical measures of industrial organization. The treacherous Times need not, therefore, be so sure that the author of the "History of the Girondists," will share the fate of his heroes, for Lamartine could appreciate the good in Robespierre, as well as in Brissot or Roland. Although, however, the Plain has no name in the clubs, the Mountain has. There is both the Club de la Montagne and the Club des Jacobins. Their names even are important. The signers of the placard of the latter state, that they "would resuscitate those heroic Montagnards who descended into the tomb with vanquished liberty.' They subjoin the important addition that they would do this pacifically, and that, God will judge. In fact, there has been great pacific progress since '93, and whatever the name, no club of '48 can have its exact counterpart, in any society existing during the reign of terror. For the rest, the placards have imprinted the names of clubs innumerable. We defer further speaking of them, as we wish to visit them, with our readers in a special letter. In noting the preaching of the placards it was impossible, however, to omit them. The religious movement, moreover, has not disdained the bill-sticker. In a land of transubstantiation it would have been indeed unwise to eschew the paste. The Wafer-God, however, is at a discount in the placards at Paris. The placards are Protestants. A Protestant Association, under the name of the Society for the Application of Christianity to Social Questions, is actively useful. Liberty in worship is proclaimed. The pastor and the priest, in their past preachings on the Republic are placarded in comparison together. By the side of these placards of Protestants, however, there is one calling for the formation of a French Catholic Church, on somewhat Unitarian opinions, and another convoking the Club of Free Thinkers. Thus Protestantism will soon need a definition in France, as it sometimes does elsewhere. of the People at Paris for soldiers' rations. Such are some of the sunbeams on the walls. Lastly, the placards of the press must not be forgotten. The Revolution has most immensely quickened intellectual life, not only in the clubs, but also in the pulpit and the press. New pamphlets are placarded every hour. Prominent above all others is the placard of Louis Blanc's work on "The Organization of Industry." In its 5th edition, it has still an extraordinary sale, and no less than six works with a similar title help to paper the walls with placards. George Sand is also publishing pamphlets in the form of letters, the first of which is entitled "Yesterday and To-day." and by the placards we likewise learn that Lamennais is editing a paper, and Michelet is the president of a club. In fact, pamphlets are prolific-newspapers numberless. The booksellers must all be republicans. The mental pulse of the Revolution beats incessantly. The printers must become princes-the authors not anybodies. The press of Paris demands, however, a more serious notice than the placards of Paris can help to give. Glory, however, to those placards which print the walls, with the warm letters of active brains! Glory to them which are the hand-writing on the wall to the Belshazzars of the earth! Let me leave them now for awhile, and remain, until my next communication, which will be on the coming elections, here, and in which I hope to show in some measure how much the press of England has perverted the state of party in France, Yours very truly, GOODWYN BARMBY. P.S.-In my introductory letter, what I stated of the tri-color was then historic and true. Since, with the view of preventing confusion, the Government has reordained the old arrangement. Difference, however, still remains. No. IV. THE ELECTIONS IN FRANCE. The placards of the foreign democrats residing or rendez-vousing at Paris are also numerous. These alone are sufficient to show to those who disdain not in their DEAR FRIENDS, arrogant blindness to read the hand-writing on the wall, that this Revolution of '48 is but commenced, and that it made known, the general elections in France have been As the English journals have by this time will be not only French but European. First there came postponed to April 23, and the meeting of the National the appeals of Swiss, Germans, Belgians, English, Ne-Assembly to May 4. The cause of this postponement groes, Poles, Portuguese, and Spaniards, convoking has been misinterpreted by a few here, and this mistheir countrymen to assemble together, and render their interpretation will be widely re-echoed by the majority adhesion to the Provisional Government. These were of the British papers, ever ready as they are to mislead quickly followed by placards announcing that Belgians, the public, when a movement of positive progress is at Germans, and Poles, were forming legions to march for stake. They will say, or rather they will have said by the recovery of their own rights in their own countries. the time this reaches you, that the Provisional GovernThese again, were but the leaders of other proclamations ment has postponed the elections and the National Ascalling for arms, money, and assistance. Then came sembly, that it might the longer maintain its power, and the announcement that a Belgian battalion had departed preserve its revolutionary dictatorship. This however by the northern railway. Then the placard that the is wrong; it is a delusive idea, and one calculated inGermans were about starting for Vienna. Lastly, the juriously to mislead the English mind. The true cause Polish proclamation-"Order reigns on the banks of of the postponement of the elections is a simple one. the Seine. Let it reign also on the banks of the Vistula. Although it is certainly the case, that the democratic Poland shall become more than a name. The Republic clubs have worked for the postponement of the elections, will make the tour of the world. Vive la Republique because they were aware that unless the intelligence of Belge! Vive la Republique d'Allemande! Vive la Re- the people generally, was awakened to the true interests publique Polonnaise! Vive la France!" of the commonwealth, which required time for its accomplishment, that the influence of the counter-revolutionists would be injuriously exercised on the votes of their dependants; yet still the Provisional Government, however natural, politic, or right, it might have been, have not allowed themselves to be influenced, in favour of this movement, and their own apparent interests. With a glorious self denial, Lamartine, and his bright band of colleagues, have nobly abided by their first declaration, that they maintained their power, only until such time as a National Assembly could be constituted, and that then, unless the voice of the country other Other placards are deeper, or more bizarre, less national and more individual. One placard announces a new planetary calender. Another bears the simple words" The moral sense of the country asks for a law of divorce." Glorious generosity is in others. An exempt invalid calls upon those like himself to assist the military service of their country, by clothing the National Guard. A foreign physician, offers from the feeling of fraternity to apply medicaments, and to heal the diseases of the poor, free of fee. The working artists of Paris proclaim that they are ready to build a Palace wise called them, they should be ready to retire, like new Cincinnati or Washingtons, into private life. Nor have they gone counter to this declaration in their present postponement of the elections, however it may be the interest of some to make it appear that such has been their course, and thus to damage the Republic in the eyes of other nations. In no wise has the Provisional Government been influenced by the ultra-revolutionary propaganda for postponement-in my own eyes a salutary if not necessary movement. In no wise either has the Provisional Government been anxious for their postponement, from the wish of longer retaining their present power, as their actual position is one of much more grave responsibility, than will be the functions which in every probability they will possess, in connection with the regulated and legally constituted authority, proceeding from the National Assembly. Men already, mostly of European reputation, they have no interest in the mere plaudits of the mob. Men of art, as they are, they have no natural love for anarchy, but the rather every preference, for order, harmony, and symmetry. It has not, then been for the causes assigned that the Provisional Government has postponed the meeting and the election of the National Assembly, but from a much simpler consideration, a much plainer cause. The truth is, that the people of France, and even the inhabitants of Paris, have not been unprepared for universal suffrage-certainly not! But they have, however, been wonderfully unprepared for the mode, the manner of its exercise. We that in England have had a larger electoral body than France has hitherto enjoyed, with the exception of the interval of '93, can scarcely conceive this. Such however is the plain matter of fact case. The French masses do not understand the machinery of elections. I have verified this fact by eyesight enquiry. In the department of the Seine, up to last Sunday, in the department in which popular, and populous Paris is situated, it was an absolute fact, that but one fourth of the population had registered their votes. Why was this? Was it that the populace took no interest in the elections? Most certainly not. Their congregated clubs, their processions, the evident excitement everywhere, clearly demonstrate the contrary. The true causes of the delay were, first, the ignorance of the people as to the electoral mode, and second, the insufficiency of the electoral machinery. In connection with the first cause we must keep in mind, that although France, to our shame, is now ahead of England on the suffrage point, that the French masses have on the whole been more unaccustomed to public meetings and popular elections than ourselves. Then the Provisional Government pressed with petitions and processions, and bothered with business on all sides, did not give sufficiently explicit explanations to the citizens, as to the mode of registering their votes. Thus there has been ignorance on one hand, and want of instruction on the other, in this matter. At the same time, under the second cause there has been deficiency. The electoral machinery itself has been insufficient. The Mairies have been appointed the offices of registration for the votes of the electors. Now these Mairies, organised for the purposes of municipal government, are not constituted on a sufficiently large scale for the arrangements connected with a system of universal suffrage. Their staff of clerks has not been numerous enough to dispatch, in the time at first fixed, the business of verifying and registering the votes. While the working hours of others have been shortened, theirs have been increased, and yet the day has not been long enough to perform their business. Thus in fine the electoral mode has been imperfectly understood, and the electoral machinery inefficiently arranged. It is these causes and these alone, which have compelled the Provisional Government to postpone the elections. They have not been postponed by it, under the influence of ultra-revolu tionary propaganda, or from the wish to preserve power, but simply because the elections could not be proceeded with, as the votes could not be registered within the time first given. Let those journals which in England have published the contrary, reprint this letter, and thus help to undeceive the British public on this point. Let those who blame the Provisional Government for the inefficiency of their electoral machinery, do better themselves, under similar circumstances. The elections of Paris will of course have considerable influence on the general elections in France. It will therefore be interesting in England to know who are the candidates proposed by the people themselves, for the Parisian representation. We compile a list of them, which is a junction of two lists, considerably accordant, presented by L' Atelier, Albert's paper, and La Fraternitè, another journal of the working men. These lists propose to proportion the representation of Paris, in the following manner :1st. The Members of the Provisional Government 11 2nd. The Chiefs of Schools of Societary Science, and Literary Men 3rd. Working-men-chiefs of their class. 9 14 34 The individuals selected as candidates, to carry out these two last proportions, proposed for the representation of Paris, are as follows: 1st. Chiefs of Societary Schools and Literary Men. Lamennais, author of the "Words of a Believer." Pierre Leroux, editor of the Revue Independante. Beranger. Considerant, chief editor of the Democratie Pacifique. Cabet, editor of the Populaire. Charles Leste Charrassine Advocates of the accused in April. 2nd. Working-men-chiefs of their class. Launette, an active democrat. Adam, late director of the Liberateur. The list is thus left with a deficiency of four workingmen candidates. It is probably, however, as good a programme of popular representation as could be presented to Paris. At the head of the lists the names of all the members of the Provisional Government are rightly placed. Their election as deputies for Paris, will be a glorious act of ratification of the Revolution of February 24, and a startling declaration of adhesion to the Republic. The chiefs of the schools of societary science, and the literary men who have battled for democracy, are also rightly pointed out as proper candidates to the population of Paris. The problem of industrial organization insists now upon a speedy solution, and who so fit to assist in solving that upon which the Republic depends, as those who for years have made a duty of its study. Literary men moreover, are as much producers and labourers, as any other working class. It is good, however, that working men are likewise proposed as candidates for Parisian representation, whose hands have laboured not only with the pen, but even physically, who so well as they themselves can tell of the sufferings, the wrongs, the wants, the wishes, and the rights of their own order? Who so well as those, who have themselves experienced them, can describe the miseries which result from the lack of labour, and POLICY. BY WILLIAM HOWITT. point out, by the side of the errors of competition, the necessities for an organization of industry? A cer- FACTS FROM THE FIELDS. THE DEPOPULATING tain class of minds may sneer at the idea that workingmen should take part in a deliberative assembly; but hereditary rulers have never practically shown any fitness for their task no more than they have brought forward any right or reason for their peculiar possession of legislative functions. On the whole the proportion of EXTENSION OF THE ENGLISH MANUFACTURING SYSTEM, candidates adopted by the movement party of Paris is well BY WHICH MEN ARE WORKED UP INTO MALEFACTORS. adapted for a fair representation of its intellectual life, and the names of the candidates proposed in the two lists which we have amalgamated into one, are most probably the best selection which could have been made, both for the future, and for the exigencies of the mo ment. THE MELDRUM FAMILY. (Continued from page 235.) MELDRUM went silently in the track of his companion, who ploughed his way through the densest masses of brushwood, and over bogs and ditches, till they struck into an open riding, which led them to a gate on the opposite side of the wood to which they had entered. Here the stranger said in a low voice--" Aha! now I perceive where we are;" and advancing cautiously, he crossed the gate to reconnoitre, and then telling Meldrum all was right, they struck across the country over hedge and ditch for a full mile, when they came out upon a highway. Before concluding this letter, however, let me endeavour to disabuse the public mind in England, on another point in connection with the general elections in France. The impression attempted to be given by your leading British journals, is, that in and after the elections, Paris will dictate to the provinces. "That city," says the Times of the 25th, "has entirely assumed or usurped the sovereignty of France." Nothing is more false than this. It is not in Paris alone, that the rule of Louis Philippe was opposed. Look back and remember, the historic struggle at Lyons, the second city of France, All here appeared as still and deserted as possible. and of whose working classes Albert is now the repre- Not a straggler from the agricultural meeting, nor a posentative in the Provisional Government. Did the ban-liceman was to be seen or heard. The stranger began quet at Dijon do nothing to sympathise with the Parisian to stalk on at a good round rate. propagand? Was the attack at Amiens less fierce than the outbreak at Paris? Has not the Republic been "Is this the way to Reading?" demanded Meldrum. everywhere proclaimed through France? "To Reading!" replied the man, "God forbid ! Yet still in spite of this, the implication intended, is that Paris has the Philistines are sure to be swarming. It would be Would you run into the lion's mouth? In that direction not only usurped authority over the provinces, but also impossible to enter the town before morning without that the Parisian population will dictate to the provin- being stopped and reconnoitred by the police, who will cial delegates. Such indeed are the injurious insinuations of several articles in the Times which thence have been informed of what has passed on the common prophecies, "a struggle, not with the partizans of roy-No, we must make for safer and more obscure quarters. yonder by that cursed devil's invention, the telegraph. alty, for they have lost all hope, but with a republic, in Come along." which the intelligence of the country would be fairly represented, and a most unmitigated democracy." The serpent-like guile of insinuations like this, must glance, through all its folds of green and gold, upon the honest eye. These treacherous things would produce the very processes which they pretend to deprecate. They assume division for the purpose of dividing. Nothing would better please the Times than such a denonement, as it prophecies. It reminds of a reign of terror, that it may again ensue, and despotism once more be installed. The Paris of '48 is not however the Paris of '93. There are now, other great cities in France, as well as Paris. France has now her Manchester and her Birmingham, as well as her London. Paris, will of course, influence the provinces; a metropolis ever must, but her influence will be legitimate-the example of intelligence, not the dictatorship of terror. Her own list of popular candidates is a guarantee, versus the Times, for the intelligence of her democracy. Is not the department of the Seine, moreover bound, like the other electoral districts of the provinces to a proportion of the national representation? Besides, the work of 48 is different from that of '93. In '93 it was confiscation-destruction. In '48 it is construction-organization. Terror was demanded by the one-intelligence is required by the other. With false-playing journals like the Times, however, the wish is father to the thought, and should opposition incense a people, it might rank as a prophecy. Now, thank God, the contrary is the case. We move on as harmoniously as may be expected, amid such immense obstacles. Let the elections pass off well, and practical minds be brought to bear upon the organization of industry, and the Republic is safe. "Now pray we for our country," and now, until my next letter, I remain, Yours sincerely, GOODWYN BARMBY. Meldrum felt a repugnance to commit himself with a aught he could tell, be a spy ready to give him up man of whom he knew nothing, and who might, for for a reward. But the assurance of the fellow that he could do as he pleased, but for himself he should lose drum to follow, and away they hastened. Presently they no time in running to earth, at length determined Melturned out of the highway to the right into a narrow country lane, and after following this for some time, and then crossing several downs, they descended into a valley, and halted before a row of what appeared to Meldrum, in the obscurity of the early morning, very mi serable houses. Here the stranger flung a handful of sand at an upper window, the casement was presently opened, and a rough masculine voice demanded who was there. closed, the door soon afterwards opened, and Meldrum "Bates and a friend," was the reply the window found himself in what appeared to be a public-house of none of the nicest aspect, and admitted by a man of almost gigantic build, with immense black whiskers, and seemed to lay his very heart bare before him. His huge with an eye that scrutinized Meldrum so keenly, that it colossal in its dimensions than it even was, and his person, clad only in shirt and trowsers, appeared more night-cap covering his bushy head of jetty hair, made his coal-black whiskers the more striking. 'All snug, Bates, I reckon," said the landlord. "I should think so, old fellow," replied Bates, for such was his name here, at least," but it will be snugger still when we have seen some supper and a good jorum of heavy wet." "Breakfast-you mean Joe," replied the landlord, as he thrust his bare feet into his shoes, which stood just under the oven, where he had pulled them off on going to bed, and proceeded to fetch out some bread, cold meat, that class which pretends to be nothing but what they and knives and plates. are-fine animals of the human species-enjoying life While the two arrivers got their supper, the landlord, in all the ordinary elements of life: having their own who had fixed himself opposite to Meldrum, and scruti-way very much, and exercising a strong will over all nized his outward man very attentively, after first throw-around them. Mrs. Crick took the whole management ing an ironing blanket round himself, inquired where of the house, and Captain Crick of the rest of the they had come from that evening-and received from houses. In her own sphere she ruled paramount-the Bates a circumstantial account of all that had taken captain never appeared to wish even to interfere with place. As he related Meldrum's part in the business, her sway, and she on her part never interfered with that the huge man cast still more searching glances at him, of the captain. In his absence she collected the rents, and ejaculating only-" The devil!"-The three seve- but never pretended to know anything about the affairs rally retired to their night's quarters. of the property. This place, to which Meldrum's guide had conducted This system had its conveniencies: for Twigg's-Houses, him, was not deserving of the name of a village nor of a as we have said, were notorious all over the country for hamlet, but rather of a rookery. It consisted of two the character of its population, and were therefore not rows of houses, one on each side of the road, facing each unfrequently honoured with the visits of police and other. They were of a very ordinary description, constables, and sheriff's officers. It was said, that not erected without the slightest regard to the picturesque, only were the people thieves, but that Captain Crick being all of one height, and as plain and bald as archi- himself was the grand receiver of all their stolen goods. tecture, or the want of it could make them. They had Many a time had the Captain been summoned before evidently been at some time the speculation of some ve- magistrates to give an account of his tenants when they ry prosaic soul, and why he should have set them down were charged with thefts, and neglect of payment of just here, where there was no apparent occasion for poor-rates, and the like. But on all these occasions, them, would require perhaps to call their projector up the captain declined placing himself in the position eifrom the dead to inform us of. Around were naked ther of accuser or patron of his tenants. All he knew, downs only traversed by a few shepherds, not one of he declared, regarding them was, that they paid their whom took up his abode here. These two rows of mean rents. That was his only concern, and that he attended houses staring at each other eternally, as if in wonder to. If it was a case of poor-rates, he would ask the paat their own location, were impressed with the most pal-rish authorities before the magistrates, why they did not pable marks of poverty and rudeness. The windows were broken, and the missing panes supplied by old rags, or hat crowns, or were pasted up with dirty paper. Before the doors were ash-heaps and other accumulations of nuisance. There were children of a dirty exterior to be seen playing in the street, if so it might be called, and the whole denoted that the inhabitants were of a low stamp. In fact, for the last two hundred years Twigg's-Houses had been the notorious resort of thieves, tramps, wandering potters, and still more nondescript population. collect their rates as he collected his rents, weekly. He "I beg your worship's pardon," would be the cap- If it were a case of theft-the captain pleaded ignorancee-he did not concern himself with any doings of his tenants, except the paying of their rent. He never set himself up as a critic on the conduct of his neighbours, and he never would. God knew there was dishonesty and wickedness in all ranks, and let God himself judge it-he Captain Crick had enough to do without. In the centre of one of the rows stood a public-house, bearing no resemblance to village ale-houses in general, but rather to a London gin-shop. This was the abode of the proprietor of the whole-no other than the large whiskered landlord, who admitted over night Bates and Meldrum. This landlord and proprietor was well known by the name of Captain Crick. There was a mystery about the man, and an unquestionable cleverness. He came here ten years ago. Twigg's-Houses were at that time almost deserted. The owner had absconded for debt. The creditor, whoever he was, for he did not appear This the captain said with peculiar emphasis and to be the mortgagee, had found so much trouble in col-shrugs of the shoulders, and expressive looks. It was a lecting his black mail from the nomadic population as hopeless case, and constables and overseers soon grew to have given up the task in despair. The thieves, beg- tired of bringing the captain to the justice-room only gars, tramps, potters, and the like, came and went at for him to make them look very simple and ignorant of leisure. The public-house only was held by the cre- their own business. ditor, and retained as a sort of security for his debt. Here the carriers of calves, fowls, eggs, butter, and such commodities halted for the night on their journey from the lower country towards London, and this kept up a considerable trade in cheap beds, beer, suppers, and hay and stable room. But the captain was said to be in reality the patron and receiver-general of the booty made by his tenants. If this were true, then the booty must have been of a kind very easily concealed, for defeated in all other respects, the police had made at least a score of searches by warrant of his premises, and invariably with the same success, that of finding-nothing. In this state of things Captain Crick one day arrived at the inn, and staid there for some days. He professed On all these occasions the captain was quite polite to to be retiring from the sea-faring line of business, and them, and in his absence Mrs. Crick was equally so— to want to settle in a thoroughly country retirement. saving that she gave them some sly cuts of the tongueThis place seemed to have peculiar charms for him-on their hunting of mares' nests, and suspicions of their there is no accounting for tastes--and so he very soon honest neighbours, in which the captain never ininstalled himself as master of the inn, and it was spee- dulged. dily rumoured that he had made out the retreat of the This had gone on for ten years. Twigg's-Houses had proprietor, and had purchased the premises. In fact, still the character of a rookery of thieves, and Captain very soon Mrs. Crick made her appearance, and took Crick of their receiver-general--yet never had the auupon her the duties of landlady. Mrs. Crick was a wo-thorities on a single occasion been able to fix a charge man of dimensions almost as Herculean as those of her on the captain. There had been proved to have been husband. She was a handsome commanding woman of some scores of thieves tenanting his houses, but then, what had the captain to do with that. It was his misfortune to have houses where it was not everybody that wanted them. He repeated it, he was no critic on any body, high or low (this was given with a nod and a shrug)-let the police look as sharp after the people as he did. about the public house at Twigg's-Houses, and the bleating of calves and lambs was generally sonorously heard there. In the tap-room as sonorously resounded the voices of these smock frocked and ancle-booted carriers, who thumped their pewter pots on the tables before them, as a sign for the bar-maid to replenish them, while they sent up clouds of smoke from their pipes. In the midst of the settle, Captain Crick would generally be found in earnest conversation with them, and adventures. When you saw him dressed in his best, with his huge frock coat, his broad-brimmed, fierce looking hat, turned up quite briskly at the sides, and his enormous black beard, you imagined you saw some ferocious pirate or smuggler, that had boarded many a peaceful merchantman, and would sweep a score of such quiet people into the sea, as easily as he swept the flies off the table before him when they came to sip the ale spilled by the carriers. But we dont want to be critic on a man who was too magnanimous to be a critic on any one else. All we know is, that Captain Crick, ever and anon, disappeared, on a journey into Cornwall, to visit his aged mother! All honour to his filial piety! Now we have been informed, however, though we publish it with caution, lest we should bring any unmerited stigma on the captain, and act with less candour and fairness towards him than he did to the public-at night often amused them with the relation of his seathat is, setting ourselves up as critics on his conductthat the captain had in his back court a certain most ingeniously contrived little crane and pulley by which any one in the secret could, by pulling a bell in a certain place have a basket let down at certain hours of nocturnal darkness, in which they could deposit anything of value occupying a small space only; and that the basket drawn up again, would soon afterwards descend with a certain sum in it, the exchange for the goods. Now we have been informed that by this means, a great exchange went on between the duly initiated, and some GREAT UNKNOWN. The initiated brought their goods, and received their money. From whom? As the captain would say-God knows! The captain nor any one else was ever seen in any such transactions. There never was a living soul who could charge him or any one else with receiving stolen goods-He never entered on any occasion into any bargains of the kind, or discourse on such subjects. The police had looked in this back court, but they never found any such crane, they only found the house well supplied with good capacious water spouts descending from the roof. They had examined the house, and never found any stolen or suspicious goods. If they were received-what became of them? Let those answer who knew. Well, here were Bates and Meldrum housed. They slept in the same room, and early in the morning Bates commenced a conversation. He told Meldrum how delighted he was to find a man like him who was prepared to rouse the country in the only way it could be roused. That the people were too tame, and would all perish of starvation without taking any means to help themselves. That Meldrum had hit the right nail on the head-the only way was to carry fire through the country, and compel those who had the property at stake, to have things altered, and give de cent wages. bring destruction on the few who adopted it, and that he was grieved to think, that scores might be suffering now from his own act last night. But we have again heard, that out of Captain Crick's Meldrum, who had cooled down a good deal since the attics, you stepped upon his roof, and there found your- meeting last night, listened in silence and with strong selves in a leaden gutter, between the front roof and the repugnance to this counsel, and when Bates had done, back roof, from which rose a wooden stage with steps expressed his doubts, whether he had not gone too up to it, from whence you could enjoy a splendid view far in his speech. That unless the whole of the agriover the country. The captain was fond of a breezy look-cultural people were prepared for such a plan, it would out. On this stage, however, stood a bench, which it has been whispered, turned upside down, made a little bridge, and this bridge pushed across from the gutter of Captain Crick's house, to a certain window in the end of the next house, that of the captain's trusty hostler, gave a ready means of escape for either goods or persons; that in the hostler's attic, this bridge again became a seat, and gave a speedy means of access to the captain's roof when needed. Now, those who are too illiberal to follow the captain's excellent system of not making themselves critics on their neighbours, declare, that as the stupid police never dreamed of examining at one and the same instant, the houses of both Captain Crick and his hostler, it was by the means of this bench, which was made A double debt to pay, A bridge by night, a simple bench by day, that the captain contrived to elude all detection of his illicit deeds. So said those who were ungenerous enough to be critics. Well, for ten years had Captain Crick been lord and master of Twigg's-Houses; and entertainer of all the carriers, who, with fine flower-y-painted waggons, and peals of jingling bells came daily up the country laden with calves, butter, eggs, cheese, hay, straw, and sundry other commodities out of the farming districts, to the railway station, where they now unloaded their live stock, and more compressible articles, and left only the hay and straw bearers to proceed to London as in the olden time. These men passed the night here, and thus there might be generally seen a throng of waggons standing At this, Bates started up in bed, and casting a furious look of astonishment on Meldrum, said,— "What are you a coward? What are you afraid of doing what you have so strongly advised others to do? The devil, have I been taken in, in you? Are you a pigeon livered milksop, and not the man I took you for? Did you not say that cruelty and injustice, the same cruelty and injustice which was grinding every other working man to death, had convinced you that nothing but fire and terror would be of any use in getting justice? Mark me, my man, you must speak out for I tell you, that either you show yourself all right and jannock, (bold and honest,) or I will be the first to put the bull-dogs on your heels!" Meldrum felt that he was committed. He had put himself into the power of a fellow of whom he knew nothing-and now he must go on, or be denounced at once to the law. For a moment a cold shiver went through him, and he cursed his folly for going to the meeting, and still more, for accompanying this man here. But when he came to review his situation, and his prospects, to reflect that no doubt a description of his person would be widely circulated amongst the police, and that he was a marked man-he felt that there was nothing for him but to give up tamely, or to carry out boldly the doctrine he had recommended, he resolved to do the latter, and told his companion so. "Then "That's right, my man!" exclaimed Bates. here goes for a grand campaign! We two, who have nothing to hope from the people of property, but every |