the ashes in the smaller of the two | eral draughts of white wine. Very trenches. About this time, 8.30 P.M., most of the spectators-two score, perhaps, chiefly Mahommedans from Nablus went away; but as we had resolved to see the feast itself we did not grudge a few cold hours on the hilltop, and we were well repaid. Although the recitation continued, with intervals, less attention was paid to it, and most of the Samaritans went to their tents, which we were allowed to visit. The high priest himself received us kindly, and gave us a glimpse of their precious Bible, as well as some interesting information. No recompense was asked except a subscription towards teaching children the Pentateuch, which we, being believers in the Bible, were most willing to give. They offered us shelter for the night, but we preferred to snatch a two hours' sleep in the open air after Jacob's fashion, and to stroll again among the ruins. The paschal moon was shining brilliantly, lighting up the old stones, the corn-plains beneath, the firm outlines of Ebal, and the little encampment of the faithful. soon, however, they began to think of Throughout the whole ceremony there was nothing of the nature of display. From first to last it was simple, human, and unaffected. We spectators were not recognized, except by way of common courtesy. We were treated exactly as two Midianites might have been treated if they had happened to come to the tents of Israel at Passover time. Towards midnight, about four hours after the slaughtering, a cry arose that the lambs were nearly roasted. The noise of prayer grew louder, and the men gathered round the Tabernacle. | This time they had staffs in their hands, and some, if not all, had sandals on their feet, according to the commandment. At a sign from the high priest the cover of the pit was removed, and a dense volume of smoke rose up towards heaven. The lambs were lifted out by the poles all black and stiff- waesome they looked in the moonlight and carried to the place of sacrifice, where they were placed upon mats. The prayers ceased suddenly with the word, "Ye shall eat it," and For, of course, the chief interest of in a few minutes, without further cere- this unique scene lies in the living picmony, every man in the company had ture which it furnishes of that great a chop or shank or piece of flesh in his ceremonial. Some little deviations mouth, eating rather greedily till the there probably have been during those first burst of hunger was satisfied. three thousand years; but in its esHungry they might well be after spend- sence and in its general features this ing such a night. They ate the lamb must have been the character of the with herbs, unleavened bread, and lib.feast which more than any other out ward mark distinguished the Jewish | that Spirit that we have learned to religiou before the times of the Temple reckon him who declared at Jacob's ceremonial. No doubt, in some re- Well that God is a spirit, as the Lamb spects, it has a half-savage character, of God that taketh away the sin of the with its bloodshed and burning and world. rapid eating after a long fast. There is an absence of what is called spirituality and of religious elevation. But the simplicity of it, its freedom from ritual, its family character, its obvious reminiscences of the habits of a wandering life, and, above all, its direct connection with a great event of sacred history; these features show the original meaning of the Passover, and its appropriateness to the time of its insti tution. Yet we must not exaggerate, or overpraise the early religious habits of the Jews. How different the thoughts which accompanied such a ceremony from the thoughts of God's people in later ages! "Sacrifice and offering Thou wouldst not. Will I eat the flesh of bulls or drink the blood of goats? the sacrifices of God are a broken heart." How different the idea of those butchered and sheared lambs from the thought of him who was brought as a lamb to the slaughter, and was dumb as a sheep before her shearers ! How different that half-savage feast from the quiet hour in the upper chamber, when Jesus said, "With desire I have desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer"! How few the points of contact between the bodily satisfaction with which those Samaritans devour roasted lambs, and the feelings that arise in Christian hearts when we say that Christ our Passover is sacrificed for us! Different? Yes as the seed differs from the flower, as the struggling stream differs from the broad river, as the first thoughts of a child about God differ from the matured religion of the philosopher. Historically, they are one and the same. Through the working of the Divine Spirit of truth and reverence and humanity upon such a primitive usage, man has reached the grandest and broadest views of his relation to the justice and the mercy of the Most High. It is by the inworking of THE LONDON HORSE AT HOME. LONDON horses are the result of the completest form of "urban immigra tion" known. Probably not thirty of the three hundred thousand which live within the Metropolitan area were born there. Yet, such is the natural intelligence of their kind, that, after a training lasting not more than eight months, even at the longest, they are as much at home in London streets, and as healthy in London stables, as if they had never known the freedom of a Suffolk strawyard, or an Irish hillside. Even in manners and appearance, the London horse differs from his country cousin. Even the street arab detects the latter. "Hullo! here's a country 'orse; let's take a rise out of him," was the amiable comment of a street urchin, on seeing a rustic Dobbin which had brought a load of hay into town during the summer droughts, munching from its nose-bag outside a Chelsea "public." In "The Horse World of London," published by the Religious Tract Society, Mr. W. J. Gordon has given not a sketch, but an exhaustive and brightly written account of the varied lives and work of the animals themselves, and of the organized system of collective ownership which mainly governs the employment and purchase of London horses. There is hardly a page in the book which is not full of facts, mainly new, and always interesting. As we read, the mixed and bewildering equine crowd which pours along the streets in carriages and four-wheeled cabs, tradesmen's carts and parcel-vans, brewers' drays and road-cars, dust-carts and coal-carts, hansoms and hearses, is resolved into classes, nations, and callings, destined for separate uses, with reasonable purpose. The immense scale on which horses are now "jobbed " from large proprietors, and the steady | ready to staud in harness or to start at decline of private ownership, is per- any speed wished by his driver. Behaps the most interesting fact, from an sides the great "jobbers," the omnibus economic point of view, on which Mr. companies, the railways, the London Gordon dwells. Tilling, of Peckham, vestries, and the large breweries and owns a stud of twenty-five hundred of distilleries own troops and regiments of all kinds, and these are hired for work horses, and the combination of capiin every part of the Kingdom, from tal and high organization with proper the heavy cart-horse to the riding-cob. economic management in these great They are to be found in Sunderland, in establishments has set a standard of Cornwall, and at Brighton. They are good and humane treatment by which hired by every class of customer, from the London horse has greatly benefited. the lord mayor and sheriffs to the laun- Better and larger stables, good food and dry company. Peck and Frean hire a litter, and steady work, with regular hundred for their biscuit-vans; a great days of rest, have lengthened the life brewer "jobs as many more. Even and improved the physique of the Lonsome of the tram-lines are thus horsed; don horse. A good brewer's horse, so is the Fire Brigade, the Salvage standing 17.2, was weighed by Mr. GorCorps, and now the mounted police. don, and tipped the beam at just over The advantage of these large establish- the ton. The driver weighed 20 stone ments is plain. If a horse turns out 12 pounds! The van, fully loaded, 6 unfit for the use for which it is bought, tons 15 hundredweight, to which must it can be transferred to another. If be added the harness, making a total unsuited for a smart carriage, it can be with the driver of nearly 8 tons. Three hired out to the doctor, and if trouble- horses draw the whole; and it was some, can be put to hard labor for a stated that, on the average, three season in an omnibus, and thence horses now do the work which four transferred, after a course of disci- did twenty years ago. "The vans have pline, to the luxurious life of private improved, the roads have improved, service. This is an old device; but and the horses have improved, - espehitherto the transfer could not be made cially the horses." We agree with Mr. without the sale and repurchase of the Gordon in thinking that steady attenanimal at a loss, until the horse-owner tion to the breeding of draught-horses increased his stock to a size which all over the country has probably inmade such change of employment pos- creased their size and power, just as it sible. One small owner, the possessor has increased the average size of the of four or five light vanners," was thoroughbred. The latter gains one wont to boast that he had bought a hand in a century. In 1700 he stood, horse for £5 and sold it for £50; and ou the average, at 13.2; he now stands we will present Mr. Gordon with the 15.3. We might suggest a rough test story for his next edition. The ani- of the growth of the draught-horse. mal, purchased at an equine "rub- The shafts of the "tumbril," or counbish" sale, was a confirmed bolter. try two-wheeled farm-cart, have probNo sooner was it harnessed than it set ably been set on at their present height off at full gallop, a career which gener- by the tradition of one hundred years ally ended in a smash, and the immedi- in wheelwrights' shops. If compared ate resale of the culprit. But the new with the height of the shafts in the purchaser, far from trying to check this "tumbrils" used for the monster propensity, resolved, as he said, to horses of the London vestries, a clue humor him a bit," and generously might be gained as to the proportionate "lent him to a fire-engine." The horse increase in the height of the best soon found that he was encouraged not draught-horses. only to bolt at starting, but to keep up The main conditions of health for the pace, and in six months was quite the London horse, when once accli 66 matized, seem to be the Sunday's rest, makes of shoes as in a Northampton and proper care of his feet. Experi- shoe-factory." 66 ence only proves the truth of the evi- Mr. Gordon has a separate and amusdence given by Bianconi, when the ing treatise on nearly every branch whole mail traffic of Ireland was run of the London horse-world, from the on his cars. He owned more horses queen's "Creams" to the funeral steed than any man of his time, and declared and the typical cab-horse. His story that he got far more work out of them of the request that King William IV. when he ran them only six days a would delay hastening to the House to week than when he ran them seven. dissolve Parliament in 1831, in order to Mr. Gordon cites Lord Erskine's speech give time for the cream-colored State when introducing a bill dealing with horses to have their manes plaited, and cruelty to animals: "Man's dominion the king's reply, Plait the manes! is not absolute, but is limited by the I'll go in a hackney coach," is part of obligations of justice and mercy; "the tradition of the Buckingham palace and, except in the case of certain un- stables. But the sequel of the indigfortunate hackneys, which can be used nant coachman swearing at the guard in carts on week-days, and serve in of honor, and having to descend from a cab on Sundays, most owners seem the box and apologize after conveynow to recognize both the justice and ing his Majesty to the House, gives utility of allowing their horses a Sab- greater finish to the episode. The bath of rest. Hard work is terribly funeral horses are State steeds in aggravated by any mischief in the their way also, and, like the queen's horses' feet, most of the cases of "cru- cream-colors, are foreigners, or of forelty" being due to working them in eign extraction. But the creams are that condition. The ponderous hoof of Hanoverian descent. The "Black of the dray-horse crushes down upon Brigade are all Flemish, and come to iron or sharp stone, and at once drives London by way of Rotterdam and Harthe object deep into the foot. Iron wich. There are nearly seven hundred nails inflict the worst injuries, and in London; and these are mainly the when " "" "demolitions are going on, or property of one or two large owners. masses of broken material are known "The jobmaster is at the back of the to be about to be carted through burying world." One of these speaks the streets, drags aud vans are often very pleasantly of his black stud. "I sent by circuitous routes in order am not a horsey man," says the underto avoid the nail-studded pavements. taker, "but I have known this class of Proper shoeing is almost as important horse all my life, and I say they are as daily foot examination for these quite affectionate and good-natured, bulky horses. "There is no animal and seem to know instinctively what more carefully shod than a brewer's you say to them and what you want. horse," writes Mr. Gordon. "At Courage's, for instance, no such things as standard sizes are known. Many have a different make and shape of shoe on each hoof. The shoe is always made specially to fit the foot, and these are never thrown away, but are mended soled and heeled in fact - by having pieces of iron welded into them again and again. One thing, they have an immense amount of self-esteem, and that you have to húmor. Of course I have to choose the horses, and I do not choose the vicious ones. I can tell them by the glance they give as they look round at me." They are very fanciful as to their company, and if a colored horse is put in the stalls among them, the Some of the shoes are blacks at once turn fretful and misersteel-faced; some are barred, the shoe able. Mr. Gordon has a fund of stories going all round the foot; some have and experiences of the sale-rooms, the heels, some toes; some one clip, some donkey-mart at Islington, and the extwo. In fact, there are almost as many port and import trade. I. THE LETTERS OF SIR WALTER SCOTT,. Blackwood's Magazine, Paul Perret, Macmillan's Magazine, MARINE V. THE CHEMICAL ACTION OF VI. 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