same degree, in the objects compared; it is formed by placing aussi, as, or autant, as much, before the adjective, and the conjunction que, as, after it :

L'Allemagne est aussi peuplée que Germany is as populous as France.
la France.

À leur tête est le chien, superbe At their head stands the dog, as noble
autant qu'utile.
as useful.

(5.) The relation or comparison of superiority expresses a quality in a higher degree in one object than in another; this comparison is formed by placing plus, more, before the adjective, and que, than, after it :

Les actions sont plus sincères que Actions are more sincere than words. les paroles.

Le pied du cerf est mieux fait que celui du bœuf.

(6.) The comparison of inferiority expresses a quality in a lower degree in one object than in another; it is formed by placing moins, less, before the adjective, and que, than, after it :

placing before the adjective one of these words, très, fort, infini-
ment, extrêmement, etc. :-

Il y a à la ville, comme ailleurs, de There are in cities, as elsewhere, very
fort sottes gens.
silly people.

Je vous prie de croire que je ne
songe qu'à vous, et que vous
m'êtes extrêmement chère.

I beg you to believe that you are my
only thought, and that you are ex-
tremely dear to me.

KEY TO EXERCISES IN LESSONS IN FRENCH.
EXERCISE 151 (Vol. III., page 30).

1. Was not that hero enamoured of liberty and glory? 2. He was
enamoured with them. 3. Was not that king beloved by his people?
4. He was beloved by them. 5. Are not those merchants pleased with
their purchase? 6. They are not pleased with it. 7. Are you not
The foot of the stag is better formed vexed not to be able to accompany us? 8. I am grieved at it. 9. Do
than that of the ox.
you know with what the innkeeper has filled this cask? 10. He has
filled it with wine. 11. With what will you have that bottle filled
12. It is already filled with ink. 13.
when you have had it cleaned?
Are
14. I
you not very sorry to have had your apple-trees cut down?
am very glad of it, for they were good for nothing. 15. Is it not
necessary to have those plum-trees pulled up? 16. It is not necessary
to have them pulled up. 17. Is it possible to split that piece of wood?
18. It is possible to split it. 19. Are you exact in cleaning your
clothes? 20. I am very exact in it. 21. With what have you filled
22. I have filled it with money. 23. Is it necessary to
have your fire-wood sawed? 24. It is necessary to have it sawed. 25.
Are you not grateful for the services which are rendered you? 26. I
am very grateful for them.

Shipwreck and death are less fatal
than those pleasures which attack
virtue.

Le naufrage et la mort sont moins
funestes que les plaisirs qui atta-
quent la vertu.
(7.) We have only three adjectives which are comparative of your purse?
themselves meilleur, better; † moindre, less; pire, worse.

:

Meilleur, instead of plus bon, which is never used in the sense of better:

Il n'est meilleur ami ni parent que We have no better friend, no better soi-même.

Pire, instead of plus mauvais, Le remède est parfois pire que le

mal.

Moindre, instead of plus petit, Ce n'est pas être petit que d'être moindre qu'un grand.

relation than ourselves.

:

which may, however, be used:-
The remedy is at times worse than

the evil.

an expression also in use:-
Being less than great is not being
small.

(8.) The superlative, or third degree of qualification, expresses the quality carried to a very high, or to the highest degree; thence there are two sorts of superlatives-the relative and the absolute.

(9.) The superlative relative marks a very high, or the highest degree relatively, or with comparison: it is formed by placing le, la, les, the; mon, my; ton, thy; son, his; notre, our; votre, your; leur, leurs, their, before the comparative of superiority or inferiority:

Un bienfait reçu est la plus sacrée

de toutes les dettes. La probité reconnue est le plus sûr de tous les serments.

A service received is the most sacred
of all debts.
Acknowledged probity is the most
secure of all oaths.

(10.) The words le plus, le moins, must be repeated before every adjective:

Ce sont les livres les plus agréables, les plus universellement lus, et les plus utiles.

These books are the most agreeable,
the most universally read, and the
most useful.

LESSONS IN GEOGRAPHY.-XXXVII.
NORTH AMERICA (continued).

THE rivers in North America are even on a grander scale
than the mountains, as compared with those of the Old World.
The largest river in this continent is the Mississippi, which
brings to the Atlantic the waters drained from a surface of
more than a million of square miles. This river, which rises
in Lake Itasca, in Minnesota, at the elevation of about 1,500
feet, flows in a southerly direction to its embouchure, in the
Gulf of Mexico, a distance of about 2,400 miles, reckoning its
windings. The longer branch of this river, called the Missouri,
rises in the Rocky Mountains, and has a course of about
2,500 miles before it joins the Mississippi; so that the whole
length of the River Mississippi by this great branch is upwards
of 4,000 miles. This river is navigable from the sea to the
Falls of St. Anthony, a distance of about 400 miles from its
source; and the Missouri is navigable from its junction with
the Mississippi to the great falls at the base of the Rocky
Mountains. Thus the navigation of the Mississippi exceeds a
distance of 2,000 miles, and that of the Missouri, with the
lower Mississippi, a distance of 3,000 miles. The Ohio, another
tributary to the Mississippi, has a course of nearly 1,000 miles
before it reaches the latter, and receives a considerable number
of tributary rivers, of which the Tennessee is the largest, being
nearly equal to the Ohio itself. The delta of the Mississippi,
owing to the floods which occur among the tributaries and the
principal branches, is annually inundated to a great extent
from its banks, and is frequently the cause of very serious
changes and loss to the neighbouring country.

The next river of importance and magnitude is the St. Lawrence. The source of this river is the St. Louis, which flows into Lake Superior. This lake is connected, like a chain, with Lakes Huron, Erie, and Ontario, through all of which the river runs, and, escaping from the latter, receives the name of the St. Lawrence; it then flows in a channel of about 700 miles in length, forming between Quebec and the sea a broad estuary, which increases from 25 miles to upwards of 100 miles at its embouchure. The whole length of the St. Lawrence is conseThis river is navigable to the quently about 2,000 miles. rapids, near Montreal. On the channel between Lakes Erie and Ontario, a distance of about 40 miles, occur the Falls of Niagara, about 150 feet in depth, one of the most remarkIn

2. If you change worse into "in a worse manner," it should be trans- able cataracts in the world for extent and sublimity. lated pis, or more elegantly, plus mal :—

He reads worse (in a worse manner) Il lit pis (plus mal) que son frère. then his brother.

3. When you may substitute "a smaller amount or quantity" for the word less, it should be rendered moins :—

He reads less (a smaller amount) Il lit moins que son frère. than his brother.

the northern regions of the North American continent occur several rivers of considerable extent: the Nelson, about 1,400 miles; the Churchill, about 900 miles; the Mackenzie, upwards of 2,000 miles; the Coppermine River, and others, whose lengths are not yet determined. On the eastern coast of this continent are a number of rivers, whose average length is about 400 miles, such as the Connecticut, the Hudson, the Delaware, the Sus

quehanna, the Potomac, the Savannah, etc., all of which flow into the Atlantic. On the western side of the continent, and dowing into the Pacific, are the following, with their estimated lengths: The Columbia, 750 miles; the Sacramento, 420 miles; and the Colorado, 840 miles. The Rio Grande del Norte, about 1,400 miles long, falls into the Gulf of Mexico.

Of the lakes in North America, the largest are those in the line of the St. Lawrence, namely, Superior, Huron, Michigan, Erie, and Ontario, which, taken together, are estimated to cover a surface of nearly 100,000 square miles. These lakes are situated upon a succession of terraces, rising one above another. Ontario, at a height of 234 feet above the level of the sea, covers about 13,000 square miles; Erie, at a height of 565 feet, about 11,000 square miles; Huron, at a height of 595 feet, about 17,000 square miles; Michigan, about the same height, nearly 14,000 square miles; and Superior, at the height of 627 feet, about 43,000 square miles.

The other lakes of North America are very considerably smaller, those in the northern part of this continent being Lakes Winnipeg, Winnipegoos, and Athabasca, the Great Slave and Great Bear Lakes, the Deer Lake, Lake Wollaston, etc., covering altogether a surface of about 30,000 square miles. To the west of the Rocky Mountains are the Great Salt Lake and Lake Utah; in Mexico and Central America, Lake Chapala, Lake Nicaragua, and Lake Managua, covering a space of about 4,600 square miles.

The islands of North America are numerous. Greenland may be regarded as an immense island, in the north-west; Grinnell Land, North Devon, Cornwallis, Melville Island, Banks Land, Prince Albert Island, Prince of Wales Island, North Somerset, Cockburn Island, and some others to the north of the mainland, form what is sometimes called the Arctic Archipelago. Going southwards along the Atlantic seaboard we find Newfoundland, Anticosti, Prince Edward Island, and Cape Breton, on the British coast, and Long Island and some smaller ones on the United States Coast. Far out in the Atlantic are the Bermudas, and stretching in an arc from Florida to the north coast of South America are the West India Islands, which will be mentioned in detail in our next lesson. On the Pacific seaboard are Vancouver Island and Queen Charlotte Islands. On the coast of British Columbia and on the coast of Alaska are Prince of Wales Archipelago, Sitka, Kodiak, and some others; and the Aleutian Isles trending westward in a long chain from the headland which terminates the peninsula of Alaska. This peninsula, it may be said, gives its name to the whole of the new territory purchased by the United States from Russia, and formerly known as Russian America.

SUMMARY OF RIVERS.
St. Lawrence, Canada.
Hudson, E. United States.
Delaware, E. United States.
Chesapeake, E. United States.
Mississippi (with the Missouri,
Ohio, and other great tributa
ries), Central and S. United
States.

Bio Grande del Norte, Mexico.
Colorado, E. United States.
Sacramento, E. United States.
Columbia, E. United States.
Frazer River, British Columbia.
Yonkon, Alaska.

Mackenzie River, British North
America.

Back River, British North America.
Art Fish River, British North
America.

Seison (and its tributary, the Sas-
katchewan), British North
America.

CIVIL SERVICE PAPERS.-III.

GROUP II. (continued).

THE present paper will continue to deal with the offices comprised under Group II. In the last paper it was not possible to do more than describe the Admiralty, and the several establishments connected with it.

Although, for sake of classifying the offices according to their importance and standing, it is convenient to classify them in groups, as in the present instance, it must not be supposed that the services are interchangeable, and that a clerk in the War Office can exchange his situation against that of a clerk in the India Office, as an officer in one regiment of the line can exchange with a brother officer in another regiment. Under certain restrictions, it is competent to clerks in one department of an office to exchange with clerks in another department of the same office; but the power is seldom exercised, and cannot be used without a good deal of arrangement, and the consent of the chiefs on both sides. Occasionally it may happen that a man in one office, anxious to get into another, succeeds in being nominated to the place of his choice, and in carrying with him the rate of pay he was getting in the office he leaves; but the rule of the service, as regards relative standing with the men already in the new office, requires that the new comer shall go at the bottom of the list in the class to which he belongs; so that a third-class clerk who has been three years, say in the General Register Office, on being transferred to the Admiralty, carries with him the pay he was receiving in the Registrar's Office, but goes at the bottom of the list of third-class clerks in the department to which he has been transferred.

Another noteworthy fact, which is of general application, is that promotion does not as a rule go by what is called "merit." Experience has shown that promotion by merit is often promotion by favour; and, take the service right through, it will be found that civil servants themselves would rather the present system should continue than be done away. The present system is to promote the man next on the list, unless some special reason should require his being passed over; and in that event a full report has to be made by the head of the department, giving sufficient reasons for the slight, ere the promoting power will sanction the arrangement. Of course there are some offices in which, this rule notwithstanding, means are found of hoodwinking the guardians, and of promoting men on the score of "special qualifications," though really because they are friends of the recommending officer. For the public service, and for the good of public servants also, it would undoubtedly be well if some scheme of promotion could be devised whereby the truly ablest men might be selected for the highest grades of duty; but until Great Bear Lake, British North such a scheme, free from interestedness, and with a single eye to

America.

Melville Island.
Banks Land.

Prince Albert Land.
Prince of Wales Island.
North Somerset.
Cockburn Island.
Newfoundland.
Anticosti.

Prince Edward Island.
Cape Breton.
Long Island.

West India Islands.
Bermudas.

Vancouver Island.
Queen Charlotte Islands.
Prince of Wales Archipelago.
Sitka.

Kodiak.

Aleutian Isles.

the discernment of merit, can be propounded, it is better to authorise promotion according to seniority, except in cases of manifest unfitness, than to countenance a plan which leaves a door open to favouritism, and therefore to injustice. It is to be observed that the rule against transference is applicable not only to the case of two separate offices, but also to the case of two departments of the same office. Any one being transferred, say from the department of the Accountant-General of the Navy to that of the Comptroller of the Navy, unless it be some exceptional case, or the transfer be made for the benefit of the public service, will have to go at the bottom of the list in the class to which he belongs, in the latter department. When transfers are made by order, or to suit the convenience of the service, the seniority of the transferee is matter of arrangement. 2.-AUDIT OFFICE (Somerset House).

This is more correctly called the Exchequer and Audit Department. It is under the direct control of the Treasury, and its business is to discharge the function of auditor to the public accounts. It is governed by a Comptroller and Auditor-General, an assistant, a secretary, and a chief clerk. The business of the office is done by six first and seven second class inspectors, and thirty-four senior and sixty-seven junior examiners. Limits of age for admission, 18 to 25. Patronage in Treasury. Salary of junior examiners, £100 to £300, by annual increment of £10, and, after eight years, of £15. Senior examiners, £315, by annual increment of £15, to £500. Inspectors, £520 to £800. Messengers, who must be between 21 and 35 years of age, have from £80 to £110 a year. The subjects for examination are :—