tory of the same camp contained in the letters from the brave men before Sebastopol.

The authoress enters with spirit into the excitement of the scene; but notwithstanding that she is half a soldier by association, and perhaps also by liking, the reader may yet perceive that in her woman's heart she looks somewhat doubtingly on war and its accompaniments. A little incident which occurred before her departure is gracefully related :

"A crowd were scattered about the rocky hillocks at Florian, watching and wishing well to the noble ship. Among them was a pretty young Englishwoman, a soldier's wife, with two little smiling rosy children at her foot, gathering daisies. "Get up, children,' said the mother, and kiss your hands to father.'

"I don't want to, mother,' said the elder, intent on its little pastime.

“Oh, you naughty child!' answered the woman, snatching it in her arms, and hurrying to the wall, under which the ship lay; you'll likely never see him again.'

"I turned away, the truth was so sorrowful, so full of pathos. How few of the brave hearts now beating with hopes of glory on the deck of that fine ship would ever feel again the loving pressure of wife or child! But such is war! Tis well it has its bands and colours, flags and music, to hide the tears in manly eyes, and drown the sobs of woman's voice; or, despite huzzaing crowds, it would be but on the whole, perhaps, an unpopular institution."

The lady certainly deserves a commission for the courage with which she met the inevitable privations and annoyances of a life in the camp. Here is a description of her "drawing-room and sleeping-apartment":

"The reader, if seated in a well-appointed English room, with the usual complement of upholsterer's luxuries around, may reasonably wonder how people exist in bell tents on Turkish hills, and live to come home, moreover, and find fault with them. I shall be charmed, from the results of my own experience, to satisfy any such curiosity. At Boulchar, I had the immense luxury of two tents,-a drawing-room and sleeping-apartment; both had mats and blankets slung over the side on which the sun struck during the day, but neither possessed the elegant addition of a carpet, nor even a Smyrna rug. Centipedes abounded with us; and as one was generally found under the cover of the Dutch cheese at dinner, we thought the less shelter we provided for them the better. The drawing-room furniture consisted of an inverted six-dozen chest, having sundry large rat-holes in its sides which both permitted circulation of air and afforded pleasant glimpses of scenery, as admitted through the open doorway; moreover, the lidless top being turned on one side, a charming pantry was secured, in which we kept our ration mutton and bread, with the Dutch cheese, and a little basket containing eggs, onions, and lemons, pleasantly rolling together, which, with some canteen sugar, wherein pipeclay frequently predomi nated, and the tin service, constituted the luxuries of the East. For sofas we had a pair of wicker baskets covered with skins, of which the parchment portion was distressingly visible; and for bergère à Maltese manufactured camp-stool, which either turned over or broke down whenever any one sat upon it.

"The sleeping-room was much more elaborately fitted. In addition to camp-beds, was a smaller inverted chest as a toilet-table, three boxes, and a gutta-percha basin and jug, odd little things that writhed about into all sorts of shapes as soon as warm water was put into them. Then round the tentpole were tied curiously-shaped twigs, the cuttings from strong trees. These served for hooks, and on them, in addition to the looking-glass, we suspended various useful articlessponge-bags, riding-whips, foraging-caps, and so on. The glass did tolerably well on a very still morning, but was

15

Our

hardly satisfactory under a high wind; for, as the pole vibrated, one's face was perpetually represented at all sorts of angles. And for your dinner?' inquires the reader. kitchen was erected modestly in the rear; the 'range' consisted of three stones placed under an embankment of mud in the open air; and as our wood was green, the blue smoke curled up from it in the most graceful manner. Our cook was a private of the regiment, and a very bad cook he was,-anything but a cordon bleu;' as to our bill of fare, that never varied; a bit of lamb in a little water, with salt, rice, and an onion, boiled under the influence of green-wood smoke, and eaten with half-baked bread composed of wheat and earth. This was produced in the tin saucepan, wherein it had been prepared, and was then served on tin plates by means of a cracked teacup."

WHAT MRS. SMITH SAID." Saint Agatha !—not been out of the city this summer ?" "No!-Mr. Jones said he couldn't afford it." "My dear innocent Abigail! Mr. Jones smokes his forty-nine cigars a day as usual, don't he?" "Yes." Well, he rides on horseback every morning?" "Yes." "Well, he plays billiards, and takes his sherry and hock, and all that sort o' thing down town, don't he?" "Yes." 66 Well, put that and that together! Just so Mr. Smith told me-' couldn't afford it.' I didn't dispute the point. It was too much trouble. I smiled just as sweetly at him as if I didn't know it was all a humbug. But I very quietly went to my boudoir, and despatched a note to that jewel of a doctor,, saying that I should be taken violently ill about the time Mr. Smith came home to dinner, and shouldn't probably recover till after a trip to Saratoga, or Niagara, or some of those quiet places. Well, he is as keen as a briar; and when Mr. Smith sent for him, he came in and found me in a state of foreordained exhaustion, in the hands of my maid Libby. He felt my pulse, looked wise and oracular, and said I'must have instant change of air.' Of course I objected; declared I never could bear to be moved; was quite entirely run down, &c. Doctor said he wouldn't be answerable for the consequences;' and finally, to oblige Mr. Smith, I gave in. Understand? Nothing like a little diplomacy. Always use the check-rein, my dear, if you want to start Jones off in a new direction. Men are a little contrary that's all. They'd be perfect treasures, every mother's son of them, if it wasn't for that!"-Fern Leaves.

THE POOR LABOURER.-I will show you a man worn, spent; the bony outline of a human thing, with toil and want cut, as with an iron tool, upon him; a man, to whom the common pleasures of this, our mortal heritage, are as unknown as the joys of Paradise. This man toils and starves, and starves and toils, even as the markets vary. Well, he keeps a heart sound as the oak in his bosom. In the sanctuary of his soul he bestows the kiss of peace upon a grudging world; he compels the homage of respect, and champions himself against the hardness of fortune. In his wretched homestead he is throned in the majesty of his affections. His suffering, patient, loving, wife-his pale-faced ill-looking children-are his queen and subjects. He is a king in heart, subduing and ruling the iron hours; unseen spirits of love and goodness anoint him; and as surely as the kingdom of God is more than a fairy tale, as surely do God's angels sing that poor man's jubilee.-Jerrold.

-A lecturer on education says, Were singing more generally taught in our village schools, how agreeable might be the results in the course of a few years. What could be more delightful than to hear the ploughman at his daily toil, or the mechanic at his labour, make the air vocal with melodies as the Venetian gondolier has done for centuries.

-Few things of any value are either quickly or easily acquired, The gourd which sprung up in a night withered in a night; but the oak, which takes more than half a century to arrive at perfection, lasts for centuries afterwards.

-It is related in the Earl of Carlisle's recently-published "Diary," that some ladies of his party visited a splendid hareem on the banks of the Bosphorus, belonging to the widowed daughter-in-law of Mehemet Ali of Egypt, partook of a "regular dinner," while beautifully-attired dancing girls perforined before them, drank coffee from cups studded with diamonds, and had to smoke pipes continually.

-The warriors of Abysinnia, like those of more civilized nations, are tremendous dandies, plaiting their hair with much pains about once a fortnight, and refreshing the head at intervals with a plentiful anointment of fresh butter.

-It is not good for us to have all that we value of worldly material things in the form of money. It is the most vulgar form in which value can be invested. Not only books, pictures, and all beautiful things are better; but even jewels and trinkets are sometimes to be prefered to mere hard money.

-The satisfied mutual love, which of two makes one flesh, and which in riper years becomes more and more a vital necessity of existence, receiving as much as it gives, is a rest, and stay, and blessing, beyond any other which earth can afford.

—Mrs. Jameson, in her "Common Place Book," thus distinguishes a gentleman of her acquaintance:-"If he had committed a murder every morning, and a highway robbery every night,-if he had killed his father and eaten him with any possible sauce, he could not be more intolerable, more detestable than he is."

The merry nightingale, That crowds and hurries and precipitates With thick fast warble his delicious notes, As he were fearful that an April night Would be too short for him to utter forth His love-chaunt, and disburden his full soul Of all its music.

THEATRES, &c.

JULLIEN'S CONCERTS, COVENT GARDEN.-The Beethoven Festival on Tuesday, the 16th, was a decided success, and, notwithstanding the unfavourable state of the Madame Pleyel and Herr Ernst commanded the greatest weather, attracted a large audience. The performances of attention; and Miss Dolby sang the air assigned to her in her best style.

Delavigne, continues to draw full houses to this favourite PRINCESS'S. The play of Louis XI, by M. Casimer little theatre. The plot is slight, and the interest of the piece is made to depend, perhaps unwisely for its permanent success, on the principal character. At present, however, this weight is most ably and efficiently sustained by Mr. Charles Kean, whose performance, with the doubtful exception of being at times a trifle too natural, is most effective. The getting up is excellent, and the piece will no doubt have a considerable run.

ST. MARTIN'S HALL.-The new oratorio of The Nativity, by Mrs. Mounsey, whose name as a composer is familiar to pianoforte players, has made a most favourable impression on the public, and will materially increase the reputation she already enjoys. Mr. Hullah has announced the engagement of Mr. and Mrs. Sims Reeves, who are to appear in Mendelssohn's oratorio of St. Paul on the 28th inst.

EXETER HALL.-Monday, Feb. 5, Miss Fanny Kemble will read Shakespeare's Midsummer Night's Dream, accompanied by the whole of Mendelssohn's music. Friday, Feb. 9, Haydn's Creation, Miss Birch, Mr. Sims Reeves, and Mr. Weiss.

POLYTECHNIC INSTITUTION.-Feb. 1, 8, 12, 15, 22, Miss Glyn's Shakespearian Readings.

PANOPTICON, LEICESTER SQUARE.-Aladdin and the Wonderful Lamp, with organ accompaniments, the story related by Mr. L. Buckingham.

PATRONIZING.

Mr. Barnum (the exhibitor of Tom Thumb), in his autobiography, says of Albert Smith :-" At this time my friend was an author, dramatist, and dentist, but subsequently he was exalted to the dignity of a 'showman,' and I am most happy to learn that he has accumulated a fortune from the exhibition of the panorama illustrating his extraordinary ascent of Mont Blanc."

EXTREMES MEET.

We learn from William Howitt's very interesting "Adventures in Australia" that the natives of that happy land have a quiet aristocratic demeanour, and rarely express surprise at anything new or wonderful, but talk in a quiet self-possessed manner, and speak of other tribes of their fellow countrymen as "wild black fellows." They never laugh loudly; but when very much amused, show their admiration by making a clucking noise with their tongues. Really it needs but to substitute a murmured "brava" and a subdued clapping for the "clucking noise," and we have these long-heeled native aristocrats qualified at once for the genteelest society.

FROM

OUR FRENCH CORRESPONDENT.

CHERE AMIE,

BOULEVARD DES ITALIENS. February 24th, 1855.

HIGH bodies are so much in favour now that they are worn even in full dress, ornamented from the throat to the waist by rows of buttons, either of diamonds, pearls, or any fancy jewellery, with bracelets to correspond, which are rendered indispensable from the sleeves being mostly of the open pagoda form. With these high bodies collars are necessarily worn; those of guipure of silk made in very deep vandykes are most suitable. The trimmings of these dresses are often of stamped velvet in wreaths or patterns. Those of white velvet are very elegant on light taffetas, forming tablier (apron) on the skirt and round the basquine or jacket, which terminates with chenille fringe-mixed white and the colour of the dress. Black velvet dresses have been ornamented by bands of feather trimming, three rows of graduated widths encircling the skirt; the jacket and sleeves, edged by feather bands.

Wreaths of black velvet foliage are used with excellent effect on coloured dresses of moire antique.

Plush is so fashionable this season that it is used on almost all kinds of toilettes, even on some which formerly would have been considered inconsistent dresses, of tarlatane, covered by flounces, each edged by a narrow band of white plush; the square-formed body was ornamented by a ceinture bretelle (braces) made of tarlatane, fulled and edged at each side by a band of plush at the waist, both back and front, the ends floating to the knees, increasing in width and rounded off; the body was also finished by plush round the neck; similar style in pink is also pretty. Another style possessing much novelty is double skirts of white taffetas having deep borders of tulle, on which are designs in taffetas on velvet, which have a rich effect; and under the white silk is another of pink taffetas, which shows the transparency of the tulle and its designs; a similar style is also adopted with black dresses, the under ones being of green, violet, or amber. Black is always so much worn that many novelties are introduced to add to the elegance of the toilette; some dresses are covered by flounces, embroidered in colours.

In order to relieve the uniformity of flounces they are now

VOL. 28.

much ornamented by galons, velvet embroidery, or lace; frequently each flounce is covered by a second and by several smaller ones, which may be placed diagonally, or in seven or eight rows laid on, forming a deep feston. These are all of the same material as the dress, or festonné, or fringed, or sometimes they are of lace.

The mixed flounces, as we have before mentioned, are also worn, as of taffetas edged with velvet, and a lace one above, or rather on it.

The style of ornaments termed chatelaines are much in favour for ball dresses, composed of flowers, and decorate both body and skirt; lace is also often added, composed of bands made either of black or white adapted to the purpose. The lace bands encircle the quilles or chatelaines of velvet, so much in fashion as ornaments for dresses of rich materials. The same style of trimming is adapted to the body and basques, and the sleeves forming triple pagodas are edged by bands of velvet and fullings of black or white lace.

Dresses of spotted tulle are very pretty for young ladies, made either with double skirts or flounces, the under dress being white or coloured; they are ornamented by ruches of tulle or ribbon, or merely a ribbon passed through the hem; the bodies with braces of wide ribbon. Other ball dresses are of grenadine tulle or organdy, with double skirts, embroidered round the bottom in several rows of festons in white silk; the upper skirt being raised at the side by a nœud of cerise velvet, and smaller ones on the shoulder, confine the draperies of the body and sleeves: but great variety is seen in ball dresses-some open at the sides, others en tablier (apron front). Dresses bouillonnés, flounced, double or even triple skirts, tunics, &c.-every taste may be gratified.

Vestes of black velvet, embroidered all over in silk, with stars, trimmed with lace, are very pretty, worn with a coloured skirt having three flounces, on each of which are three bands of black velvet, and small filet of bugles on each side. Vestes are also made of Terry velvet; some in light colours have a deep fringe of marabouts, shaded to match, headed by an embroidery of white bugles, closing with a row of pearl buttons, and worn with skirts of tarlatane, with flounces, which are bordered by a band of ribbon the colour of the veste.

Bretelles (braces) continue much in favour, and will, no doubt, be much used during the coming season, particularly by young ladies, whose simplicity of toilette may be rendered at once elegant and graceful; and numerous are the styles in