Unless you have some particular reason for early departure, stay with us a few days to recruit."

"The invitation is so kindly given, and is in itself so tempting, that I must accept it. I cannot offer the excuse of business. Since I have lost my papers, I have really nothing to do."

"It is too soon to despair of recovering them. They will turn up again, I have no doubt. And now you will understand that you are to make yourself quite at home. Mrs. Sutton will take every care of you."

"That I will," said the housekeeper, smiling.

The arrangement was precisely what she desired.

"I feel as if I were in a dream-and a very pleasant dream it is!" cried Hilary. "All sorts of strange fancies possess me," he added, gazing alternately at Mrs. Radcliffe and the housekeeper. "Your brain is still a little heated, I perceive," said the lady. "Yes," observed Mrs. Sutton, signifying by a glance that they had better withdraw.

Mrs. Radcliffe, therefore, rose to depart, but before she left the room, she said, "I hope you will be able to join the breakfastparty to-morrow, Mr. St. Ives. I will tell May that she may expect to see you."

"I will come, if my kind nurse will allow me," he replied. "What do you think of him?" inquired Mrs. Sutton, as they returned to the boudoir.

"He is the very image of Seymour. I did not venture to question him about his father; but I am sure he is Seymour's son. I think I did right to ask him to stay. The impulse was irresistible."

"You couldn't have done otherwise."

"I am glad you think so. Do you know, Sutton, I almost felt towards him as if he were my own son."

"The feeling was not unnatural. I am sure he is sensible of the interest you take in him."

"He seemed so. I shall never be able to part with him." Mrs. Sutton smiled. The right effect had been produced. "Perhaps he has been neglected by his father from some cause," she remarked, "and you may be the means of setting him right. Who knows?"

"His coming here looks like fatality," said Mrs. Radcliffe, who had become unusually pensive. "We shall learn more of his history in time, and then I will consider how to act. Try to find out if he wants anything, Sutton. I am afraid he is poor."

"I am afraid so. But unless I am mistaken in him, he is too proud to accept assistance."

"Still, we may help him. Something may be done. I tell you I feel like a mother towards him."

"That is clear; and he could not scruple to receive a mother's

aid. But it would be difficult to make this intelligible to him. However, I will do my best to carry out your wishes. I suppose you will breakfast with the party to-morrow?"

"I shall make an effort to do so-on his account."

"You promised to have a little conversation with Mr. Radcliffe about Mr. Oswald's suit."

"I did. But I think I shall defer it. There is no hurry. Mr. Radcliffe does not like the subject, as you are aware."

"I promised Mr. Oswald to remind you."

"I did not require to be reminded. But I shall have too much to do to-morrow to attend to the matter. To be plain, I want to ascertain what May thinks of young St. Ives before I stir further in Oswald's favour. Perhaps, she may like him."

Mrs. Sutton secretly exulted, but was careful to hide her exultation.

"I do not think May cares much for her cousin," she remarked.

"You appeared to think otherwise a few days ago. Have you altered your opinion?"

"I am still as favourable as ever to Mr. Oswald's suit. But I repeat I do not think May cares much about him."

"I am glad to learn that her heart is disengaged. That leaves me free to act. When you go down-stairs send her to me." "Pray be careful what you say to her, or you may do mischief."

"Don't fear me. I shall talk to her chiefly about young St. Ives. She is curious about him. She saw him when he was brought into the house, and was interested by his appearance.” Shortly afterwards Mrs. Sutton quitted her mistress, and sent May to her, as desired.

Feb.-VOL. CXLIV. NO. DLXXVIII.

M

POLITICAL SUMMARY.

THE Liberal papers have done their best to discover hidden perfections in the ministry not of their choice nor of the electors, but of Mr. Gladstone. The efforts made to prove the selection to have been a wise one, or a satisfactory one, have, however, at times been very amusing. The fitness of the ministry, as a whole, for its special work of disestablishing the Irish Church is generally admitted, but it is observed that the appointments which seem to be the most unfortunate for other reasons are only intelligible from that point of view. But for this the existence of Mr. Lowe and Mr. Bright in the same governing body would be utterly unintelligible, nor does the conjunction redound to the credit of British statesmanship. It has been treated of as a puzzle. They have been spoken of as men whose eloquence enormously strengthens the resources of the ministry in debate; yet at the same time they have been declared, in regard to the political character of the government, "to be positive and negative quantities, equal and opposing forces which neutralise each other." It would certainly puzzle any ancient or modern dialectician to understand how two forces which neutralise one another can be a gain to an offensive party. Hitherto, it has been justly remarked, it has been considered that an English cabinet should be formed of men who think alike on all the great questions of the day, but it seems that the new mode is to catch two of the members of the House having the least affinity one to another, and neutralise them by "pairing them off." Neither the French nor the Americans have been able to solve this puzzle. The latter deduct from it that we have not yet attained the political perfection enjoyed in the United States, where the ascendency of one party is the signal for the utter and entire exclusion of all shades of another a general change of places. If we were to venture a guess, it would be that each does not intend so much to neutralise as to triumph over the other, and that we shall witness the curious scene in the next parliament of two members of the same government perpetually struggling, except upon one point, for the supremacy of the ideas which each advocates, as also for the supremacy of their own remarkable persons.

The selection for the secretaryship of foreign affairs, is, according to a leading radical organ, the worst-if we regard its special duties in the whole list. This is not complimentary, and if Lord Clarendon is prepared to side with France and Austria against Prussia and Russia in the East or on the Rhine, the statement will

be true to an extent that may be as yet little dreamt of. The very odd appointment of Mr. Cardwell to the War-office and of Mr. Lowe to the chancellorship of the exchequer, when the general idea is that their duties should have been interchanged, also does not quite satisfy the Liberals, but they comfort themselves with the thought that both are thus placed out of harm's way. This, indeed, seems to have been the ruling principle in the constitution of the new cabinet, every member was to be made to fit a niche, in which he would be carefully ensconced, so as to be placid and ornamental, and do as little mischief as possible. Mr. Layard, with his characteristic modesty, for example, felt that he had claim for higher office than the Board of Works, but he condescended to accept office for the public good. Mr. Goschen would have made a constructive active President of the Board of Trade, therefore Mr. Bright, who has a strong prejudice against government intervention, receives the appointment. Lord Stanley has made the English Foreign-office a thorough business-like department of state, therefore a statesman who has been most conspicuously wanting in all these qualities is selected to succeed him. But the Liberals find consolation here also in the fact that with a conciliatory foreign minister for the Continent; a conciliatory war minister to deal with the commander-in-chief and the army; a conciliatory home minister-Mr. Austin Bruce-to deal with the country gentlemen; a conciliatory colonial minister-Lord Granville-to deal with our rather touchy colonies; and with a good large infusion of high titles in the administration generally, to command the respect of the wavering middle class, it must be admitted that the administration is one which presents the curve of least resistance to the high-running waves of popular opinion." That is to say, that the ministry of conciliation is also a ministry of mediocrities, which presents no power of resistance. This is a curious conclusion to arrive at in regard to a ministry which also represents destruction and confiscation, and has not as yet pledged itself to one single measure of construction or reconstruction. The so-called spirit of conciliation could not, for example, have gone further than in the appointment of an Ultramontane Roman Catholic, Mr. Justice O'Hagan, to the Irish Lord Chancellorship. Such attempts to conciliate an extreme party must infallibly excite the other party to a more bitter hostility than ever, and if, according to the Radicals, the ministry presents "the curve of least resistance to the high-running waves of popular opinion," the result may be very soon fatal to the continuance of an administration formed upon so puerile and so sentimental a system.

A noted Radical organ remarking upon the infusion of high titles in the administration, says that "it is a very good thing, particularly in the present state of affairs, that the party which is

going to make a great change in the whole scheme of English government, should have, in a conspicuous degree, the support of the great families belonging to the party. Revolutions cannot be made with rose-water, but it is a very good thing to sprinkle as much rose-water over them as possible. It will make things much smoother both in Ireland and England, that the destruction of the Irish Church should not seem the work of a new, wild, violent party, but the natural consequence of Liberal principles, whether held by men of one rank or another."

The paragraph has at least the advantage of being plainly written. A change is, we are told, to be effected in the whole scheme of English government. This may comprise everything, even to the overthrow of the House of Lords or the monarchy. It is admittedly a "revolution" that is to be brought about; the disestablishment or disendowment of the Irish Church is no longer the question; it is its "destruction" that is sought for. The peers who lend themselves to such proceedings are certainly placed in a creditable position, when they are told that they are admitted into the cabinet on sufferance, to impart a fallacious aspect of liberality to a new, wild, and violent revolutionary faction. They are amiable men, incense bearers to diffuse a cloud over the destruction of the Protestant Church, and the hallelujahs of the Church of Rome. A most noble and knightly office for the head of the Campbell clan, the Lord Warden of the Cinque Ports, the Lord Steward of Norwich Cathedral, and a descendant of the Cavendishes! whilst the name alone of the Lord High Chancellor who so nobly upheld the fortunes of a falling dynasty is represented in the Clarendon of the present day. It is a remarkable fact that the majority of the "rose-water" members of the new administration, both within and without the cabinet, are peers of recent creation. The Duke of Argle, Earl Spencer, the Marquis of Hartington, the Hereditary Great Chamberlain, and the earl who sits as Baron Boyle, almost alone have any pretensions to family traditions, and few have either traditional or historical antecedents of gallantry, loyalty, or patriotism to fall back upon.

The great fact is, however, that, as the Imperial Review has it, the bull has got into the china shop, and the general question is, how will he behave himself now that he has got there? Will he want to break the crockery? What if, after being accustomed to dance furious jigs all his life, he does not take kindly to the stately Whig minuet, in which it will be the duty of Lord Halifax to instruct him? Supposing that he insists on a rollicking pas seul— how then? Supposing him to inform Lord Hatherley that entails must be abolished; Mr. Chichester Fortescue, that the soil must be transferred from landlords to tenants; Mr. Lowe, that there must be a free breakfast table and the revenue raised from realised