course has his hit with the rest. He your facts, but you show great weakness thinks it may not be amiss to warn candi- in applying them," or "I do wish you dates against rendering into verse pas- would avoid fluency of expression," or sages which they are expected to render into prose. Here again is one of the old sarcasms on women, that they think the hard, plain prose of life not good enough for them, and are always wanting to soar into the region of poetry. The same spirit animates the whole of these reports. They are full of jeering allusions to all those little weaknesses reference to which is known to be peculiarly offensive to the gentler sex. It may be true that women have a relish for racy language, and there are no doubt rumours that in the highest circles this passion for colour, or perhaps we should say for something else than prose, in conversation has led to the use of a very astonishing vocabulary; but only a Cambridge examiner is capable of telling a lady to her face that she is flippant and talks slang. The passage, however, in these reports which will probably be most bitterly resented is that in which proficiency in arithmetic is ascribed to women. It will be understood at once that this is only another way of saying that, if women are fit for nothing else, at least they can keep a correct account of housekeeping expenses. It revives at least one part of the old imputation that their natural mission is "to suckle fools and chronicle small beer," although it is well known that no greater insult can nowadays be paid to a young lady than to suggest that she possesses, even in the most trifling degree and shadowy form, any of the qualities of a competent housewife. Altogether this seems to us a very scandalous production. It has been printed by the Times as a genuine document, and names are appended to it which are certainly the names of gentlemen who are known in Cambridge. So we suppose it must be accepted as authentic. It will no doubt be taken up by the sex against which it is directed, and we shall hear what is thought of it. The object of the authors of this academical lampoon appears to have been to throw into an official form a consensus of the traditional foibles of women, under pretence of giving the results of recent examinations. Some of them are, perhaps, married men, and they may have enjoyed a malicious but shabby satisfaction in giving vent to remarks which had occurred to them in the course of domestic conversation, but which they deemed it more prudent to suppress. "My darling, I do not dispute | "When you begin to say just a single word on one subject, why on earth do you start off into a thousand words upon another subject which has no possible connection with it?" "You know, dearest, how I hate flippancy and slang," or " It's really hopeless trying to get a clear statement from a lady or expecting her to be logical" - these and other expressions in the Reports have certainly a strong flavour of conjugal controversy, and perhaps the examiners may feel relieved in having at last found an opportunity of speaking their minds freely. But after all it is surely rather hard on the innocent victims, and it is a pity they cannot have their revenge. In the old fable the lion observed that, if the picture of one of his species lying in the toils of the hunter had been painted by a lion, the man would have been on the ground and the lion on the top of him. Now that the women have been photographed by the examiners, it would be interesting to have a sketch of the examiners as representing the male sex generally, from the point of view of the ladies who were examined. We should probably find man described as hard, pedantic, and unimaginative; always in a fuss and hurry, and disposed to cry that time is up, although there is plenty of time to spare; and given over to a superstitious worship of mere rules and technical formalities. It would also be pointed out that man, with all his professed anxiety to make the most of time, often wasted it shamefully in asking for reasons when no reasons were necessary, and in carping at particular expressions, although all the while he knew very well what people meant; and that, with all his boasted logic, he has never mastered that elementary and most useful proposition, "It is because it is." It might further be remarked that, according to the ancient saying, Minerva had no sooner started on a journey than she arrived at her destination, and that women had no reason to be ashamed of resembling so respectable a goddess in the rapidity of their mental flight. If women are sometimes too quick, men are dreadfully slow and plodding, and women often attain by intuition to what men, with all their laborious logic, fail to reach. This would certainly be a good subject for the next exercises in English composition which are required to be written by ladies for the Cambridge Syndicate. ban at the desire of Louis XIV., as a counterfort to old Breisach, "the cushion and key of the German Empire," is also being rebuilt. It is regarded as an outpost of Strasburg against an attack from the south, and as a protection for the bridge across the Rhine. "A comparison," concludes the writer, "of the old with the new line of fortresses in Alsace-Lorraine shows very accurately the fundamental differences between French and German ideas as to the laying down of lines of fortifications. The first line of fortresses on the French system, consisting of Thionville, Metz, Marsal, Bitsch, Lützelstein, Pfalzburg, Strasburg, Schlettstadt, and New Breisach, has been reduced under the German system to Metz with Thionville, sixteen miles (English) off, and Strasburg with Breisach, thirty-two miles off. The French line represented the old cordon system of the last century-the principle on which the French army was distributed at the beginning of the war in 1870–71. The German line, on the other hand, represents the idea of concentration of forces, with only a slight protection of the flanks. This divergence of views seems to increase as time goes on. While the Germans are abolishing a great many small fortresses which absorb troops that would be much more usefully employed elsewhere, the French talk of establish THE barbers of Chelsea stand at the present | the Palatinate and of the Metz-Strasburg railmoment in a perilous and unenviable position. way. New Breisach, which was built by Vau For some reason or other the vestry of that parish has decided that, as a preliminary step to the enforcement of a better observance of the Sabbath among the trading classes of Chelsea, it is advisable to sacrifice the barbers. At a meeting of the committee of works of the vestry last week a resolution was moved that proceedings under the Act of Sunday trading be first taken against the barbers. The inspector, it was suggested, should go round the parish to obtain the names of all barbers keeping their shops open on Sundays. Some members of the committee appeared to have a difficulty in understanding why the holy seal of the vestry should be directed solely against hairdressers, and one memher suggested that "moral persuasion" should be tried in the first instance, "before putting a comparatively obsolete Act of Parliament into force." In the end, however, after a long discussion, the motion was carried by a small majority, and it is probable that henceforward the removal of beards on Sunday in Chelsea will be strictly forbidden. As many poor men have no time to get shaved on week days they will either have to shave themselves as best they can, or suffer their beards to grow in wild luxuriance. Let us hope that they will share the feelings of the Rev. John More, of Norwich, who in the reign of Queen Elizabeth was said to have the longest and largest beard of any Englishmaning of his time, and gave as his reason for wearing it "that no act of his life might be unworthy of the gravity of his appearance." Pall Mall. at intervals of from 80 to 120 miles (English) entrenched camps with from 100,000 to 200,000 men." THE Allgemeine Militarische Zeitung prints an article on the fortresses of Alsace-Lorraine. Two of these fortresses, Pfalzburg and Schlettstadt, are to be dismantled; the rest are to be strengthened, and a sum of 28,000,000 thalers has been reserved for this purpose out of the French indemnity. The improvements at Strasburg and Metz have been going on since 1871. Thionville is important as being the only place between Metz and Trèves where an army can cross the Moselle, the bridge at Remich being on the neutral territory of Luxemburg. A railway is now being planned for connecting Thionville with Berlin by way of Wetzlar, Coblenz, and Trèves. As the town is surrounded by hills, it would be difficult to secure it against a hostile attack, but every precaution will be taken, by means of bombproof barracks, traverses, &c., to protect the garrison. A fort is also to be erected on one of the heights which command the town. Bitsch the old fortifications are to be destroyed: but the castle has been rebuilt at great cost after the bombardment, and a small garrison, consisting of 100 men in time of peace, is to be kept in it. Though valueless as a fortress, Bitsch occupies an important position as the central point of the roads to At THE MOSCOW Gazette publishes an abstract of the stipulations of the treaty of peace concluded between Russia and Khiva. All the possessions of the latter country on the right bank of the Oxus and the delta of that river as far as the branch stream Tadyk, are to be incorporated with the Russian Empire. The frontier will extend from the mouth of the Tadyk as far as the Urgu Mountain, and then along the southern slope of the Ust-Urt to Usboi (the old bed of the Oxus). Khiva is to pay to Russia a war contribution of 2,200,000 roubles; but, in view of the poverty of the Khivan treasury, a period of twenty years will be allowed for the payment of the contribu tion on condition that Khiva shall pay five per cent. of the amount yearly. The Russians are to have the right of trading in Khiva, and the khan is to be treated as the vassal of the czar. MESQUITE gum is the name under which a substance obtained from the Prosopis glandu losa is known in Texas. 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