more than average moderation and sense of justice, who would willingly have prevented the act of malignant cruelty and hypocrisy which was performed by the rulers of the Jews, but who by no means conceived the saving of a "just person," belonging to the lower orders, of sufficient importance to endanger a popular tumult, or his own position. To those of our readers who have seen and comprehended the wonderful figure of Lazarus painted by Michael Angelo, in Sebastian del Piombo's great picture in the National Gallery, we may say, here, in this drama, that Lazarus moves and speaks. To those who do not know it, we can convey no idea of the impression which they will receive in reading this profound scriptural tragedy. It is not our purpose to give extracts. We have not space, nor, without giving the whole, could we convey the slightest adequate idea of any part. Every scene has its purpose, weighs its weight, and presents pictures and gives ideas to be stored up. From the first scene, wherein Judas communes with himself in his impatience of spirit, yet doubts and starts back in affright at the purpose he has conceived, while, to his terrified imagination, "pale forms slowly rise and gaze around," every succeeding scene would require to be enumerated. No one will ever forget, after once reading it, the dreadful picture of Judas, when he staggers into the Temple to Hing down "the price of blood"-and who shall venture to select a passage from the awful grandeur and intense agony of the last scene? The whole must be read. No one who realizes the scene in reading it, can help feeling appalled. As to the miscellaneous Poems at the end of the volume, the collection is peculiarly rich. We regret that we cannot now do more than mention the deeply pathetic monody entitled "The Ura ;" and the grand "Thought for Michael Angelo." The poem entitled "An Irish Funeral," some of our readers may recollect, as it first appeared in Howitt's Journal, as also did that entitled "Genius." We must refer our readers to the volume for the rest, only mentioning as one of our great favourites, "The Plough;" they will find them as full of originality and power as of singular variety. The Whole Art of Making British Wines, Cordials, and Liqueurs in the greatest perfection; as also Strong and Cordial Waters, with valuable Recipes for Brewing Fine and Strong Welsh Ales, etc. By JAMES ROBINSON, Author of "The Art of Curing, Pickling, and Preserving." London: Longmans and Co. blackberry syrup, and a thousand similar and dissimilar delicacies-why she would be a perfect Syren and Dalilah to all Teetotallers, and her house must be laid under the ban. But amongst those headstrong mortals who, spite all warnings, will go on making and taking all sorts of creature comforts, Mr. Robinson's book is sure to have a great run. His very preface is able to make a man dangerously knowing it all the arcana of fermentation, tunning, and filling up, racking-off, bottling, and corking. The worst thing about his recipes is, in our opinion, their eternal ingredient of ginger, which may be a very safe thing for the stomach, but is not so agreeable in everything to the palate. We do not believe that there is a race of it in genuine hock or champagne, nor in three-fourths of other wines. It seems to be our author's grand specific against crudeness-but those who don't like it can readily leave it out. On Large and Small Farms and their Influence on the Social Economy, etc. By H. PASSEY, Peer of France, Member of the Institute, etc. etc. London: Arthur Hall and Co.; Edinburgh: Oliver and Boyd; Glasgow: F. Orm and Sons; Cupar-Fife: G.S. Tullis. 1848. The Aristocracy of Britain and the Laws of Primo- These two works the production of our French neighbours, may be read with much profit at the present moment. It appears to us that M. Passey produces much sound argument, and as much sound fact, in advocacy of the Small Farm system. He shows the real results of small farms in France, Germany, Belgium, and other countries, and in our opinion, completely desstroys the bug-bear of sub-division. It is a work which should be read carefully by every one interested in the great tendencies and necessities of the age. Nothing can be plainer, that the progress of population and of civilization assuredly will force out of their way, all conventional obstacles; the people at large will claim to have a more equal possession of the land, and it will be for us to make ourselves practically acquainted with what is likely to be the result. The volume on the Aristocracy of Britain" will form a very fitting companion for Hampden's History of the English Aristocracy." In that work we have the actual story of the deeds and misdeeds of the aristocracy, and the portrai 66 in this volume we have the opinion of some of the most enlightened and celebrated men of France, amongst them, those now figuring in its provisional Government, on the influence of this aristocracy on the fortunes of this country, and their assertions of its necessary downfall. The names of H. Passey, De Beaumont, Sismon. di, Buret, Guizot, B. Constant, Dupin, Say, Blanqui, Miguet, etc., sufficiently testify the universality of this opinion of the disastrous influence of our aristocracy on the interests of our country in men of the highest genius, and of all political schools amongst our quicksighted neighbours. What a treasure would this book have been to our great-ture of their present ominous position in this country; grandmothers. It quite transports one back into old country houses, and into times when substantial ladies, know ing nothing of the London season, thought only of the seasons for pickling, preserving, distilling rose and lavender water, and storing the cellar with all sorts of wines and cordials. For those who are lucky enough to be living now-a-days, and not in the days of our great-grandmothers, we do not know a more tempting table of contents than Mr. Robinson's book furnishes, What a treasure must a wife be who should delight in its mysteries. What charming home-made wines, cordials, and other luxuries, might all about her calculate What a cup of glowing elder wine her husband may safely calculate on as he drives homeward on a winter's evening. What visions he must have of her rich cinnamon and clove cordial, her rich mulberry and incomparable cowslip liqueurs. on. Her hock and champagne and sherry would not be made of sou gooseberries or malt, but of real grapes ; and then her beautiful summer beverages and iced punches and burnt claret, and sherbets; her famous We have read both volumes with much satisfaction, and cordially recommend them to general perusal at this moment. THE WEEKLY RECORD. CONDITION OF THE COUNTRY. MIDDLE CLASSES. REMARKABLE LETTER FROM A one. Believing, however, that it may be in my power to give what you may consider both useful and interesting information respecting the hosiery trade, I venture to address you, from a conviction that you have both the ability and the disAWAKING OF THE position to make a good use of any really useful information. I have read with unabated interest your admirable papers entitled "Facts from the Fields," and have been particularly struck with the graphic skill and perfect truthfulness of poor Bates's narrative, whose case, as regards his sufferings, is that of thousands of this most unfortunate class of workmen. There is, unfortunately, something in the entire organization of this branch of trade which seems necessarily to convert the hosiers and bag-men into petty tyrants (a worse class, I take it, than great ones, paradoxical as it may appear), while it converts the workmen into slaves, scarcely, if at all, less to be pitied, and oft-times more to be pitied, than the slaves in the United States. This, I think you will allow, is a pretty broad admission, to come from the pen of a hosier, who has been connected with the trade for more than thirty years, during which time, with one or two rather brief exceptions, the condition of the frame-work knitters has been gradually becoming worse and worse, until, at last, many of them appear more like walking skeletons than any other class of men that could be found on the habitable globe. As far as we can at present judge, we see not the least prospect of any amelioration of their wretched condition, but rather the contrary; because our free trade measures do necessarily tend to bring the manufactures of our continental rivals into closer competition with our own, of which, only on Saturday, an American gentleman, who is now here on a trading visit, gave me a striking example, so, striking indeed, that if I did not know him to be a person of the strictest veracity, I should have been staggered by such a statement, and have questioned its truth. He assured me that in Manchester, one wholesale house (Messrs. Wood and Westheads) are now regular importers of Saxony gloves, and that they sell Saxon-made cotton gloves, of very fair quality, for thirteen pence a dozen, while the very lowest rubbish, in the shape of a cotton glove, that we can produce, costs us nearly double that money! Yet, strange as it may appear, there is, I believe, yet a small duty on all such goods when imported from Saxony. As Galileo said when condemned by the Inquisition for say ing-that the world moved" It does move though!" People have thought of late that the political world in this country was at a stand still, or if it moved at all, it moved backwards. While the people of the Continent have been making rapid strides in political and social regeneration, a wretched faction at home having climbed into the seat of power on pretence of reform, has been destroying the constitution by wholesale, and suppressing those liberties for which Englishmen have toiled, fought, and died for ages. But this treachery, this base attempt on a generous but deeply wronged nation, has had its usual effect. It has roused its resentment, and quickened the pulse of reform. The world does move. In our large towns, meetings are everywhere holding to determine on a brisker and bolder course of action, on a closer union of and with the people. The newspapers throughout the country breathe once more the true British tone. Even The Times, commenting on the unparalleled distress of the manufacturing districts, confesses that s omething must be done. Yes, something must be done. Luckily the pressure of accumulated debt has reached a point from which there is no likelihood of further intervals of ease, till the weight itself is thrown off. Such wretched navvies as Lord John Russell may, attempt to dam up the waters of taxation, but the river is coming in at the other end with a perpetual momentum that will bear down all barriers. The crisis must and will come, whether our infatuated aristocracy see it or not. A gentleman, a master manufacturer, writing from one of the manufacturing districts, says "To my great surprise, I find we have no Tories now to thwart us, for those who last year were Tories, are now become hearty Reformers, 'zealous of good works,' and filled with a most lively faith that something must be done, and that quickly, or the State vessel will founder! I am not speaking of poor Tories, but of men in really affluent circumstances, who now speak in a new tongue, and like men inspired with a new spirit, and if these are not signs of actual political regeneration, where must we look for such signs!" Now it is well known there are no "hosiers" (strictly so called) nor any "bagmen" in Saxony! Consequently, in that happy land, there are no tyrannical hosiers, nor tyrannical "bag-men," to "grind men's bones to make them bread." There, I am assured, every frame-work knitter finds his own frame, (consequently, has no frame-rent to pay) buys his yarn, bundle by bundle, of factors, and when he has manufactured this yarn into stockings, gloves, or other articles, he sallies forth to sell them to other factors, who may be dealers in hosiery, for the best price he can get. You probably know all these facts already, having yourself lived in Germany, and I mention them merely to point your attention to the vast economy of this system, which at once annihilates two classes of "tyrants" and one class of "slaves," thereby saving an incalculable amount of ill-blood, so necessarily created by our more crooked, complex, and beggarly system of conducting this unfortuuate business. The Americans tell us that, as regards stockings and gloves, we not stand the least chance in competition with the factors of Saxony, who buy such goods so amazingly cheap; on remarking to one of the former, that the frame-work knitters of Saxony can live at a much cheaper rate than our operatives can, "yes!" said he, " and I honestly tell you their habits are such, that I would rather maintain twelve Saxony frame-work knitters than one English one !" But we refer our readers most earnestly to the striking letter from a Nottingham hosier which we give below. On Saturday, April 30th, The Times gave a most startling article on the condition of that town. It described one parish as having upwards of 3,000 poor on its books: the poor-rates amounting to 10s. and 15s. in the pound; and the country people still flocking in to aggravate the distress. Can anything so forcibly prove the melancholy truths that we have been for weeks preaching in the “Meldrum Family?" Will this nation wait patiently till the aristocracy has utterly depopulated and desolated the country? What a crying fact is that which the Nottingham hosier mentions of the Americans now sending their cotton fabrics into our own East Indies! India, the mother country of cotton, we have suffered to be crushed by the monopolies of the traders of Leadenhall-street, and have gone to America for that cotton which we might have raised there in any quantity, and at a fifth of the price, and have supplied America with our money to such an extent, that she not only now manufactures for herself, but invades our very colonies, and drives us from our territories with her manufactures! How long are the greed and the imbecility of aristocrats to go on ruining and destroy-judge, unless he alluded to extreme cases in both countries. ing? When will this stupid nation choose a ministry that has been brought up to and understands real business? But we cease our queries, and leave the facts of our correspondent to speak some most home truths. Nottingham, May 1st, 1848. of the sincerity of this declaration I cannot pretend to be a One thing is plain, that, by sticking to our infamous Corn Laws so long, we have really compelled our former customers to manufacture for themselves, and for each other, leaving us to digest the bitter fruits of our selfishness and pride, and, unless our load of taxation be quickly reduced to a LOWER scale than that of any of our foreign competitors, I maintain there can be no help for us, either abroad or at home, and we must rapidly sink in the scale of nations, both as regards our physical and moral condition, and he who, with even half an MR. W. HowITT. Dear Sir-Knowing, as I do, how valuable every moment of time is to you, who so well know how to make a valuable use of those moments, I should indeed feel ashamed to test your kind patience by troubling you with a mere de-eye cannot see this, must be what politeness will restrain me sultory correspondence on subjects either not interesting to you, or respecting which you need no information from any from calling him! And now, my dear Sir, allow me to advert a little to what brother Jonathan is doing, because those who take Jonathan to be a stupid dolt, do most egregiously mistake their man, who will walk nine times round us while we are stupidly guessing what he is about. that may be convened upon this subject, the parties present hereby express their willingness to enter into the discussion and consideration of the points involved in the People's Charter, and other documents intended to secure the free exercise of the franchise." A great number of influential and known Reformers from various parts of the country attended. A deputation was appointed to confer with the Liberal members of Parliament, so as to obtain, if possible, their co-operation. A plan of organization has been since agreed to, and a portion of a General Council elected. A Provisional Committee has also been appointed to attend to the printing of the rules, and objects, and the issuing an address to the country. HUDDERSFIELD COMMONWEALTH BROTHERHOOD The Americans have for several years past made it their boast that they can not only manufacture as good shirtingcalicoes as any produced in this country, but also that they can send them to the East Indies and to China at lower prices than ours, thereby insuring them a decided preference in those markets. Now I have been informed by a gentleman who, I have reasons to believe, is pretty conversant with these matters, that the Americans do not produce cheaper cotton fabrics than we do, but that, nevertheless, they can afford, and do actually sell their fabrics at a lower price than we can ours, in consequence of the very liberal profits they realise on the various sorts of produce they import from the East, in exchange for their New England manufactures, because such produce, imported in American vessels, is admitted into the United States duty free, which it is obvious must give their merchants an immense advantage over ours, whose imports from In May, 1847, this Society was formed in consequence of two the same regions are severely taxed on entering our ports. articles by Silverpen, which appeared in this Journal. It was Meantime "Jonathan," who knows well that, even when not resolved to rent land and employ their members who were out visited with potato blights, we cannot get an adequate supply of work in cultivating it, at half a crown a day for ten hours' of grain and flour for our manufacturing population, unless labour. Such was the low state of their funds when this bold we import pretty largely from his great granary of the West, resolve was come to, owing to the wretched state of trade, that -knowing this, Jonathan sticks fast to his tariff, and, if we they could only, in the first place, raise a couple of barrels of pout the lip, and remind him that, having now repealed our flour, which they sold to any of the poor, whether members or Corn Laws, we think ourselves entitled to a reciprocity of not. This succeeded so well, that they were soon enabled to liberal measures. "Was it reciprocity you were talking of?" take a front shop and employ a man constantly. They sold he will say, "why then, John Bull, reciprocity thou shalt have, as good an article as any shop in the town at a lower price. to thy heart's content, if that will satisfy thee, and as you breaking up and cultivating sixteen acres of wood and land, They now return £50 per week, and the profits go towards kept your Corn Laws in operation for more than thirty years, -to the almost total exclusion of our grain and flour,-in which they have taken two and a half miles from the town. about thirty years from this time, John, we will talk to you This undertaking is divided into £5 shares, and the society emabout abolishing our tariff, which, should the wind be favour-ploying men who are without other work, pay them half their able, we will then reduce as gradually and as prudently as you are now preparing to abolish your darling Corn Laws; will that do for you, John?" Very similar to this will be the reply of our neighbours on the European continent. Is it not plain, then, that our only hope of salvation from as complete prostration and ruin as ever yet were inflicted on any nation, depends on a sweeping reduction of our national expenditure, and of our taxes, both national and local? The great bug-bear is the Debt,-the "blessed Debt," as Cobbett used to call it, which, in my view, ought to be n bug-bear at all, because, as it was contracted solely to uphold the CHURCH and the ARISTOCRACY, it is very obvious the CHURCH and the ARISTOCRACY ought to pay it, and must be made to pay it, even if it should require the full half, or more, of their ill-gotten wealth to liquidate it; this, in my opinion, will be the only honest way of dealing with the Debt, which has proved to be the very "ugliest" customer John Bull has had to deal with! Indeed, as both Church and Aristocracy pretend to be so very "loyal" in their feelings, I think the sooner her Majesty calls upon them to do this act of justice, the better; in which case, looking at the amiable lineage whence they sprang,-who, Sir, can doubt their "honourable" feelings? Repudiate!"-No Sir,-impossible! Such "honourable" and "right honourable" beings as our parsons and aristocrats, could never REPUDIATE,-believe me: "repudiation" being now considered a low. vulgar, republican vice, and quite unworthy of the pure blood of the men whose ancestors "came in with the Conqueror!" Judge you, then, Sir, whether such "high-blooded" beings would disgrace themselves by "repudiating" a Debt which they have always spoken of as being of the most sacred character, scarcely less so, in their estimation, I will warrant, than the tithes they are so tenacious in exacting! Ah, my dear Sir, there are hopes for us yet, if we only continue loyal to our Queen, and faithful to each other! That we shall be loyal to the last degree, I cannot doubt; whether we shall become a united people and discharge faithfully the duties we owe to ourselves and our children remains to be proved. I remain, dear Sir, Yours very faithfully, A NOTTINGHAM HOSIER. THE PEOPLE's league. At a friendly conference of Radical Reformers, called at Herbert's Hotel, Palace Yard, May 3rd, for the purpose of ascertaining whether the middle and working classes can unite on a common principle in relation to an amended representation of the people in Parliament, the following resolution was unanimously agreed to and adopted, as the declared basis of a new organization, to be henceforth denominated "The People's League." "Believing that the House of Commons must truly and justly represent the whole people before it can become effective for lessening our burthens, removing restrictions and monopolies, or for helping onward the intellectual, moral, and truly religious progress of our people, it is resolved that the foundation of the League about to be formed, shall be based on the principle of Universal Suffrage, or the right of voting for Members of Parliament to every man of twenty-one years of age unconvicted of crime, together with such details as are essential to its exercise. And that in any future conference PRICE d. earnings in money, and the other half goes to pay for their share. Such efforts as these are most meritorious, and show what the Working Classes are capable of, if those who have the means would but assist and encourage them. THE STANDARD OF FREEDOM. The times demand every honest man to speak out; and we are glad to see that there are sundry preparations, by the right sort of men, making for this purpose. Amongst others, John Cassell announces The Standard of Freedom, a weekly news. paper of thorough advocacy of Political, Commercial, and Religious Liberty. From what we know of the projector and have learned of the arrangements and proposed staff for this jour nal, we confidently anticipate in it a most vigorous and valuable instrument of public reform. PLAIN ADVICE FOR THE POOR WHEN SUMMONED Friends, try and keep out of debt, by industry care, and above all, temperance. If you cannot and are summoned, try and pay the debt before the trial day, and you will save much expense. Should you be unable, go to the Court on the day of trial, and you will find a friend in the judge, it you deserve it; he will give you indulgence by fixing a very small instalment (a workman need not lose his day as his wife or daughter may answer for him). If you do not appear, you will be ordered to pay it all immediately, and your goods seized at once for it, with great expense. Keep your instalments paid and you cannot be hurt; if you neglect once they may send an execution in your house. Join the Temperance Society, go to the tea parties, and keep the pledge, and you will then save money and be free from DEBT, which is misery. A FRIEND. CONTENTS. The Tangled Skein-A Knotty Question-Facts from the Fields. The Meldrum Family. By WILLIAM HOWITT. (Continued)-Ida and Zarah. By Miss H. M. RATHBONE-The Fire of Driftwood. By PROFESSOR Longfellow-Scepes and Characters from the First French Revolution--BY LAMARTINE. Madame Roland - Extract from the Diary of La Mayeux. The Deformed Needlewoman. By EUGENE SUE-Children in Exile. By JAMES T. FIELDS-LITERARY NOTICES: Judas Iscariot, By R. H. HORNE, Author of "Orion"-The whole Art of making British Wines, etc. By JAMES ROBINSON - On Large and Small Farms. By M. PASSY-The Aristocracy of Great Britain and the Laws of Primogeniture-RECORD: Awakening of the Middle Classes. Remarkable Letter from a Nottingham Hosier-People's League, etc., etc. PRINTED for the Proprietor by WILLIAM LOVETT, of 16, South STAMPED 244 THE SEPULCHRE.-FREE EXHIBITION. celebrated citizen, and Franklin himself longed for his native land. He could never free himself from the fear of being kept in France by ill health, and probably dying there, whilst the earnest wish of his soul was that it might be permitted to him to end his days in the midst of his fellow citizens, surrounded by his grand-children. As we promised in a former number in our notice of this exhibition, we again advert to it, our former opinion being rather strengthened than otherwise, on a second visit to this collection. We feel assured such an outlet was wanted for the rising talent of this country-and A deal of intercourse was always taking place between although from the nature of this institution, many in- Passy and Auteuil; Madame Helvetius dined once aferior pictures are likely to find their way to the walls, week in company with the Abbe de Laroche and the we think on the whole, it bids fair to be the West expo-physician Cabanis, who resided with her, together with nent of native talent in the country. Mr. R. S. Lauder Morellet, a dear friend but not a frequent guest, at the has a large space well filled with good pictures; among house of Franklin; and Franklin on the other hand, the most prominent may be mentioned 400 "The Tomb very often dined with Madame Helvetius, by which of Shakspeare," and 401, “The Evening Star." So has means he spent whole evenings with her, without even Mr. George Harvey, and Messrs. Mc.Culloch, Mc.Ian, paying her a morning visit. This intercourse with FrankNiemann, Kidd, and a host of other names, equally cele-lin was of the most charming kind, and Morellet, who brated. We think exhibitions of this kind, calculated has so excellently told us of the great philosopher's reto operate as a very powerful lever in elevating the markable good humour, simplicity of manners; sense masses in their onward progress; whose taste must of propriety and duty which exhibited itself in the become refined by such works of high art, as our en- merest trifles; affability, purity of soul, cheerfulness, graving of this week presents to our readers from Mr. and various other gifts, cannot say enough in its praise. Claxton's picture of "The Sepulchre;" one of several Such was, at that time, the society frequented by the very fine pictures by the same artist. man who had raised his native-land to freedom, and to whom the world is indebted for some of its most important discoveries. Mr. Claxton has represented the figure of Christ in the Sepulchre that was "roughly hewn out of the rock." The body is slightly draped and so disposed, that the head is resting on a rather high stone, which supports the upper part of the body, with the face turned towards the spectator. The face has a beautifully benignant expression over it-and the figure is admirably drawn. In the left corner of the picture, two angels are represented floating in the air, the one whose face we see, is looking down upon the scene with a sorrowful expression of countenance, the other whose head is foreshortened, and the face hidden, denoting acute anguish. The hands of both are tightly compressed together while in the bottom left hand corner of the picture are introduced the Crown of Thorns, The Nails, Sponge, etc. The composition as a whole, isvery chaste and refined, while the general effect is a bold chiar oscuro, the light catching portions of the principal figure, and the face and arm of one of the angels; all the rest of the subject being in deep shadow. It is one of that class of subjects which engender deep thought, carrying that mind back into centuries gone by-and recalling events which have had such an important influence on the world's history. We are glad to observe that a beautiful lithographic print by Mr. Bell Smith, has just been published by Gambard, from this fine picture of Mr. Claxton's. THE LITTLE VILLAGE AND GREAT AMERICA. IN the year 1786, Benjamin Franklin was in Paris, he lived at Passy, not far from Auteuil, and at Auteuil lived the widow of Helvetius who was such an excellent, amiable, and delightful woman, that her friends, and among these might be reckoned the profoundest thinkers of the time, were accustomed to speak of her in no other manner than as "our good lady of Auteuil." She was no longer young, although in the highest degree fascinating and amiable, and besides this, the gentleness, intellectuality and decision of character which had been peculiar to her through the whole of her much-tried, but always blameless life, made a union with her, a very desirable thing to the American philosopher, although at first it might appear somewhat startling. The dear lady herself had not the most remote idea of such a scheme; she received Franklin as a friend who entertained no other feelings than what he expressed, and whose acquaintance she would have esteemed herself happy in possessing to the end of her days. Philadelphia in the meantime desired the return of her One morning Franklin left his room much earlier than was his custom, and calling to Richard, his American servant, ordered him to atttend him to Auteuil, This Richard, or Dick, as his master called him, had fought in the war of Independence under Washington, and had thereby distinguished himself, and when he was compelled to lay down his arms and leave his general, he attached himself to Benjamin Franklin, from whom he never afterwards would separate himself. Richard was no servant of the ordinary kind; he was faithful, devoted, and as good an American as Christian, and read industriously in the Bible, or made the necessary preparations for Franklin's experiments in natural philosophy, Full of enthusiasm as youth is accustomed to be, or rather as a man who is sincerely convinced of the rectitude of his intentions, he allowed no opportunity to escape of praising to the very skies, either Franklin or his native country. In his leisure hours he occupied himself in making known to the other domestics, the operations of electricity, or in explaining to the peasants of Auteuil, the advantages of Franklin's newly discovered lightning-conductor. None but a person like Franklin, who was in the highest degree unapprehensive in matters of sentiment, would have failed to observe what delight the idea of a visit to Madame Helvetius occasioned to Dick. He was always ready immediately when they had to go from Passy fo Auteuil, and was often extremely fertile in discovering reasons why they should go. As soon therefore as Franklin gave his orders on this particular morning, Dick was ready as if by magic; the stick, hat, and gloves of the philosopher were instantly at hand, and without one moment's delay, they set out. The June sun almost scorched up the fields, and the two therefore took a narrow footpath shaded by trees. Franklin walked on with a slow step, and nothing in his appearance betrayed any desire to reach the end of his journey, more rapidly than usual, whilst his servant behind was quite in an agitation of impatience. Madame Helvetius was sitting in the room where she usually received visitors when they arrived; the window of this room looked out into a shady garden, where grew a linden tree, the thick leafy branches of which extended to the very window-sill. "I hope my dear Mr. Franklin," said she, as he entered, "that some unpleasant news which you wish to |