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marines, and these, with the bluejackets, it is likely to produce the results we desire. might be trusted to attack even Canton with It is the opinion of those on the spot that its million of mob. General Ashburnham the seizure and occupation of Canton will obhad left for India, and was succeeded by tain the reparation which the dignity of th General Straubenzee, who had become highly country requires, and also lead to a more perpopular, and was looked upon as a commander of skill, activity, and daring. The gunboats were arriving daily, and, when united, were likely to play an important part in the series of operations.

manent intercourse between China and the civilized world. We must, therefore, wish every success to the bold measure on which the English commanders have decided.

Indeed, the failure of a diplomatic mission to the North might be predicted without much presumption. The very fact that we, who had alone been insulted and injured, had called upon other nations to join us in our remonstrances would be likely to encourage the Court of Pekin to obstinacy. Not only do we seem to show our weakness, but we who have a cause of war associate with ourselves other nations who have not a cause of war, and who therefore cannot legitimately carry matters to extremity. The natural conclusion that Chinese cunning must draw is, that we shall be hindered from any active proceedings by these entangling alliances. It is as well to show that this is not the case, and that England, by inviting other nations to share in the advantages which will follow the opening of China, does not in any way cede her liberty of independent action. The plan of operations seems to be well considered. It embraces first the capture and occupation of Canton. We need not form any conjectures regarding the capacity of the English force for such an enterprise; our numbers are small, but a smaller force has within the last few weeks achieved still greater exploits. The demands of the British Government ought certainly not to be merely nugatory. To take lasting possession of some advantageous spot near the great ports of the empire, and commanding its main arteries, the Yang-tse-Kiang, the Hoang-ho, and the Imperial Canal, ought to be the first thought of the authorities. It is pretty well known that Chusan was abandoned at the close of the last war chiefly through the influence of the Canton merchants, who wished to place the seat of British power in their own neighborhood. But Shanghai and Ningpo have taken the lead in spite of the disfavor of our Government, and it is now time to recognize that their neighborhood is the real field for commercial activity and political influence.

The hope that something would at last be done had cheered men of every rank; all were anxious for the signal to ascend the Canton River. The authorities had come to the same conclusion as the whole body of military and civilians-namely, that it was better to treat the dispute as a local affair, and to deal with Canton as if its ruler had acted independently of the Imperial power. So the expedition of Lord Elgin to the Peiho, which had been delayed by his journey to Calcutta, was definitively abandoned, and diplomacy had determined to wait until the sword had done its work. This decision certainly seems most wise. We have before dwelt upon the singular relations in which we find ourselves with respect to the Chinese people. The Celestials as a nation will not quarrel with us. Canton is blockaded, but at all the other ports business goes on as briskly as ever. Shanghai and Ningpo are, in fact, thriving on the perversity of the southern rabble. Englishmen are admitted freely into the country, penetrate into districts never before visited, ascend the Imperial Canal, gaze on the quays and boats, the temples and villas, and all the other wonders of this isolated civilization. They are received everywhere with a kind of merry curiosity, and even allowed by Mandarins and Custom-house officers to pass without payment of the usual dues. It would certainly be as foolish as cruel to use any harsh measures against this population merely on the theoretical grounds that the central Government is responsible for the acts of its officials, and that the people must expiate the misdeeds of its Government. As it is, then, out of the question to do more than occupy as harmlessly as possible one or two points towards the North, and as it is moreover certain that such an occupation would be of no effect in bringing the Court to reason, it follows that we must strike the blow where it has been deserved, and where

A free communication with the Court of Pekin might also be insisted upon, for it is

with other civilized nations. China is in a state of transition. Change has come after long enduring immobility; a revolutionary spirit after ages of obedience; a strange enterprise and activity after a whole national history of stagnation. England can better than any other country direct these new ener gies in the right path. We have armies and fleets at hand, an immense trade, the most enterprising travellers and missionaries, and a national character which obtains for our people great ascendancy over half-civilized

impossible that the country which governs | long convinced that only energy and judg India, and into whose Malay and Australian ment on our part are necessary to bring the possessions the Chinese flock by thousands, empire into close relations with our own and can consent to be unrepresented in the councils of the Emperor. It is probable that the tale of the Indian victories, which has, ere this, penetrated into the depths of Asia, will, if followed by vigorous proceedings at Canton, induce the Chinese Court to accede to Lord Elgin's demands. But if it should still be obstinate there seems reason to believe that the seizure of the rice junks which supply Pekin will prove to the central authority the necessity of yielding. The description in the letter we print to-day shows with what facility our gunboats can cut off races. Large numbers of Chinese also speak the supplies of the capital. Owing to the southern portion of the Imperial Canal being in the power of the rebels, the grain is sent from the mouth of the Yang-tse by sea to the gulf of Pecheli. This voyage can, of course, be hindered by the British fleet, and probably such an opportunity of bringing the Court to reason will not be neglected.

Such is the latest phase of the Chinese question. Those who know the character of the people and its Government have been

the English language, rudely, it is true, but still well enough to make largely extended relations possible. It is to be trusted, therefore, both for our own sakes and for the sakes of a people who must be so largely dependent upon us, that Lord Elgin and the commanders with whom he is associated will act with courage, decision, and independence. This country is not inclined to forego the position in Asia which has been won by the heroism of a hundred years.

OPERATION ON AN ELEPHANT.-During the | no one daring to have recourse to the knife with late visit to Hull of Wombwell's menagerie, such a patient. Such was the state of matters the elephant "Chubby" underwent an opera- when Chubby paid us his farewell visit, as it tion which, from its novelty and success, de- was supposed, last Hull fair. His friends, as à serves a place among the surgical records. For last resource, applied to one of our townsmen, twelve or fifteen months previously, a tumor a veterinary surgeon, Mr. Tom B. Hyde, Jr. had been gathering on Chubby's off-side thigh. Mr. Hyde went, saw, and boldly resolved to use It grew, and grew, and grew, till at last men the lancet. The operation was performed a few began to doubt whether the elephant was an days after the fair, and lasted two hours; appendange of the tumor, or the tumor of the Chubby undergoing it with such fortitude and elephant; for the larger grew the one, the good sense as could only be derived from a smaller grew the other. Chubby sickened, lost consciousness of its object. The tumor, when his appetite, pined away-his skin became "a removed, weighed five pounds, and one of the world too wide." The sobriquet of "Chubby," fangs had to be searched out with the knife for which his once fair proportions honorably mer-a foot down the thigh. The operation proved ited, grew to be a mockery, and it became evident to his friends that unless the tumor and Chubby dissolved partnership, the former would soon be the sole representative of the firm. Change of air was tried, but the tumor only derived advantage. Medical advice was called in; but, alas, it proved another nut which the faculty could not crack.

Nine famous leeches, at nine various stations, tried their juleps and catholicons, but in vain-i

eminently successful. Every fresh bulletin announced his improving health till the latter end of November, when Mr. Hyde pronounced his patient thoroughly restored, and capable of returning to business. Chubby at once took the train to join his friends, Messrs. Wombwell & Co., and when we last heard of him, his ap petite and good looks were the theme of general admiration.-[Eastern Counties (Eng.) Herald.

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CHAPTER XLIII.“ THE SKELETON.”

comed by Victor, and dressed, and came down to dinner, and so I saw her.

She was altered, too; so much altered, and yet it was the well-known face, her face still, but there were lines on the white forehead I remembered once so smooth and fair, and the eyes were sunk and the cheek pale and fallen; when she smiled, too, the beautiful lips parted as sweetly as their wont, but the nether one quivered as though it were more

smile vanished quickly, and left a deeper shadow at it faded. She was not happy. I was sure she was not happy, and, shall I confess it? the certainty was not to me a feeling of unmixed pain. I would have given every drop of blood in my body to make her so, and yet I could not grieve as I felt I ought to grieve, that it was otherwise.

It is one of the conventional grievances of the world to mourn over the mutability of human affairs, the ever recurring changes incidental to that short span of existence here which we are pleased to term Life, as if the scenes and characters with which we are familiar were always being mingled and shifted with the rapidity and confusion of a pantomine. It has often struck me that the circumstances which encircle us do not by any means change with such extraordinary rapid-used to weeping than laughing, and the ity and facility-that, like a French road, with its mile after mile of level fertility and unvarying poplars, our path is sometimes for years together undiversified by any great variety of incident, any glimpse of romance; and that the same people, the same habits, the same pleasures, and the same annoyances seemed destined to surround and hem us in from the cradle to the grave. Which is the most numerous class, those who fear their lot may change, or those who hope it will? Can we make this change for our-forces us to wear for the concealment of all selves? Are we the slaves of circumstances, or is not that the opportunity of the strong which is the destiny of the weak? Surely it must be so surely the stout heart that struggles on must win at last-surely man is a free agent; and he who fails, fails not because his task is impossible, but that he himself is faint and weak and infatuated enough to hope that he alone will be an exception to the common lot, and achieve the prize without the labor, Sine pulvere palmam.

Perhaps one of the greatest trials imposed on us by the artificial state of society in which we live, is the mask of iron that it

the deeper and stronger feelings of our nature. There we sit in that magnificent hall, hung around with horn of stag and tusk of boar, and all the trophies of the chase, waited on by Hungarian retainers in their gorgeous hussar uniforms, before a table heaped to profusion with the good things that minister to the gratification of the palate, and conversing upon those light and frivolous topics beyond which it is treason to venture, while the hearts probably of every one of us are far, far distant in some region of pain unknown and unguessed by all save the secret sufferers, who hide away their hoarded sorrows under an exterior of flippant levity, and affect to ignore their neighbor's wounds as completely as they veil their

The old castle at Edeldorf, at least, is but little changed from what I recollect it in my quiet boyhood, when with my dear, father I first entered its lofty halls and made acquaintance with the beautiful blue-eyed child that now sits at the end of that table a grown-up, handsome man. Yes, once more own. What care Ropsley or Valèrie whether I am at Edeldorf. Despite all my scruples, despite all the struggles between my worse and better self, I could not resist the temptation of seeing her in her stately home; of satisfying myself with my own eyes that she was happy, and of bidding her a long and last farewell. Oh! I thirsted to see her just once again, only to see her, and then to go away and meet her never, never more. Therefore Ropsley and 1 journeyed through Bulgaria and up the Danube, and arrived late at Edeldorf, and were cordially wel

perdrix aux champignons is or is not a better thing than dindon aux truffes? They are dying to be alone with each other once more-she, all anxiety to hear of his campaign and his illness; he, restless and preoccupied till he can tell her of his plans and prospects, and the arrangements that must be concluded before he can make her his own. Both, for want of a better grievance, somewhat disgusted that the order of precedence in going to dinner has placed them opposite each other, instead of side by side.

And yet Valèrie, who sits by me, seems well exquisitely-shaped hands and round white pleased to meet her old friend once more; if arms bear few ornaments, but these are of I had ever thought she really cared for me, I the rarest and costliest description; her should be undeceived now, when I mark the blooming, fresh complexion accords well with joyous frankness of her manner, the happy those luxuriant masses of soft brown hair blush that comes and goes upon her cheek, escaping here and there from its smooth and the restless glances that ever and anon shining folds in large glossy curls. Her rich she casts at her lover's handsome face red lips are parted with a malicious smile, through the épergne of flowers and fruit half playful, half coquettish, that is inexthat divides them. No, they think as little pressibly provoking and attractive; while of the ball of conversation which we jugglers although the question as to whether she does toss about to each other, and jingle and play really rouge or not, is still undecided, her with and despise, as does the pale stately blue eyes seem positively to dance and Countess herself, with her dark eyes and her sparkle in the candle-light. Her voice is dreamy look apparently gazing far into an- low and soft and silvery; all she says, racy, other world. She is not watching Victor, humorous, full of meaning, and to the point. she seems scarcely aware of his presence; Poor Victor de Rohan ! and yet many a young wife as beautiful, as high-spirited, and as lately married, would sit uneasily at the top of her own table, would frown, and fret, and chafe to see her handsome husband so preoccupied by another as is the Count by the fair guest on his right hand-who but wicked Princess Vocqsal ?

He, too, is at first in unusually high spirits, his courteous well-bred manner is livelier than his wont, but the deferential air with which he responds to his neighbor's gay remarks is dashed by a shade of sarcasm, and I, who know him so well, can detect a tone of bitter irony in his voice, can trace some That lady has, according to custom, sur- acute inward pang that ever and anon conrounded herself by a system of fortification vulses for a moment his frank handsome wherewith, as it were, she seems metaphori- features. I am sure he is ill at ease, and discally to set the world at defiance: a chal- satisfied with himself. I observe, too, that, lenge which, to do her justice, the Princess though he scarcely touches the contents of is ever ready to offer, the antagonist not al- his plate, his glass is filled again and again ways willing to accept. She delights in to the brim, and he quaffs off his wine with being the object of small attentions, so she the eager feverish thirst of one who seeks to invariably requires a footstool, an extra cush- drown reflection and remorse in the Lethean ion or two, and a flask of eau de Cologne, in draught. Worst sign of all, and one which addition to her bouquet, her fan, her gloves, never fails to denote mental suffering, his her pocket handkerchief, and such necessary spirits fall in proportion to his potations, and articles of female superfluity. With these that which in a well-balanced nature "makes outworks and defences within which to retire glad the heart of man," seems but to clog on the failure of an attack, it is easy to carry the wings of Victor's fancy, and to sink him out a system of aggressive warfare; and deeper and deeper in the depths of desponwhether it is the presence of his wife that dency. Ere long he becomes pale, silent, almakes the amusement particularly exciting, most morose, and the charming Princess has or whether Count de Rohan has made him- all the conversation to herself. self to-day peculiarly agreeable, or whether But one individual in the party attends it is possible, though this contingency is ex- thoroughly to the business in hand. With tremely unlikely, that the Prince has told her out doubt, for the time being he has the best not, certainly Madam la Princesse is taking of it. Prince Vocqsal possesses an excellent unusual pains, and that most, unnecessarily, appetite, a digestion, as he says himself, that, to bring Victor into more than common sub-like his conscience, can carry a great weight jection to her fascinations. and be all the better for it; a faultless judg

She is without contradiction the best ment in wine, and a tendency to enjoy the dressed woman in the room; her light gos-pleasures of the table, enhanced, if possible, samer robe, fold upon fold, and flounce upon by the occasional fit of gout with which this flounce, floats around her like a drapery of indulgence must unfortunately be purchased. clouds; her gloves fit her to a miracle; her Fancy-free is the Prince, and troubled neither

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Constance listens to him with a weary, abstracted air; perhaps she has heard that story about the bear and the waterfall once or twice before, perhaps she does not hear it now, but she bends her head courteously towards him, and looks kindly at him from out of her deep sad eyes.

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`by memories of the past, misgivings for the very jolly-looking old gentleman, and the present, nor anxieties for the future. Many only one of the party that seems for the such passive natures there are we see them nonce to be "the right man in the right every day. Men who are content to take place." the world as it is, and, like the ox in his pasture, browse and bask and ruminate, and never wish to overleap the boundary which forbids them to wander in the flowery meadow beyond. And yet it may be that these too have once bathed in the forbidden stream, the lava-stream that scorches and sears where it touches; it may be that the heart we deem so hard, so callous, has been welded in the fire and beaten on the anvil, till it has assumed the consistency of steel. It winced and quivered once, perhaps nearly broke, and now it can bid defiance even to the memory of pain. Who knows? who can tell his neighbor's history or guess his neighbor's thoughts? who can read the truth, even in the depths of those eyes that look the fondest into his own? Well, there is One that knows all secrets, and He will judge, but not as man judges.

Champagne, if you please," says the Prince, interrupting the thread of his narrative by holding up his glass to be replenished; "and so, Madame, the bear and I were vis-à-vis, at about ten paces apart, and my rifle was empty. The last shot had taken effect through his lungs, and he coughed and held his paw to the pit of his stomach, so like a Christian with a cold, that, even in my very precarious position, I could not help laughing outright. Ten paces is a short distance, Madame, a very short distance, when your antagonist feels himself So Prince Vocqsal thinks not of the days thoroughly aggrieved, and advances upon that are past, the hearts he has broken, the you with a red, lurid eye and a short angry friends he has lost, the duels he has fought, growl. I turned and looked behind me for the money he has squandered, the chances he a run-I was always a good runner," remarks has thrown away; or if he does allow his the Prince, with a downward glance of satismind to dwell for an instant on such trifles, faction, the absurdity of which, I am pained it is with a sort of dreamy satisfaction at the to see, does not even call a smile to his lisquantity of enjoyment he has squeezed out tener's pale face—" but it was no question of of Life, tinged with a vague regret that so running here, for the waterfall was leaping much of it is over. Why, it was but to-day and foaming forty feet deep below, and the that, as he dressed for dinner, he apostro-trees were so thick on either side that escape phized the grimacing image in his looking- by a flank movement was impossible. It was glass," Courage, mon gaillard," muttered the very spot, Victor, where I killed the the Prince, certainly not to his valet, who woodcocks right and left the morning you was tightening his waistbelt, "courage! you disappointed me so shamefully, and left me are worth a good many of the young ones to have all the sport to myself."-Victor still, and your appetite is as good as it was bows courteously, drinks her husband's health, and glances at the Princess with a bitter He is splendid now, though somewhat smile.-"The very spot where I hope you apoplectic. His wig curls over his magnifi, will place me to-morrow at your grand chasse. cent head in hyacinthine luxuriance, his dyed Peste! 'tis strange how passionately fond I whiskers and moustaches blush purple in the still am of the chase. Well, Madame, indecandle-light; his neckcloth is tied somewhat cision is not usually my weakness, but before too tight, and seems to have forced more I could make up my mind what to do, the than a wholesome quantity of blood into his bear was upon me. In an instant he emface and eyes, but its whiteness is dazzling, braced me with his huge hairy arms, and I and the diamond-studs beneath it are of ex-felt his hot breath against my very face. traordinary brilliance; nor does his waistbelt, My rifle was broken short off by the stock, though it defies repletion, modify in any and I heard my watch crack in my waistcoatgreat degree the goodly outline of the corpu- pocket. I thought it was my ribs. I have person it enfolds. Altogether he is a seen your wrestlers in England, Madame,

at sixteen!

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