not be able to contribute any such proportion to the necessities of the State, until the population amounts to three or four times its present numbers. The Internal Revenue ought to be a prolific source of wealth to the Federal Government, and might be made so, if the people thought it a shame and a sin to cheat the State; and if the revenue officers were appointed for life, or during good behaviour, and were not nominated, as they are, according to the present system, for political services, for the most part corrupt, liable to removal at any time, and certain of removal four years after appointment, unless the re-election of an actual President in the meanwhile should renew their lease of their ill-paid offices, and leave them free to make their pile"-i.e., their fortunes-by peculation and the receipt of bribes from evildoers. The whisky question is one in point. A large revenue ought to be, but is not, derived from this source, not because less whisky is distilled or drunk than there was before the article was taxed, but because there is an organised system at which the excise officers shut their eyes, or wink, for a consideration to defraud the Government. There remains only the Customs duties as a really prolific source of revenue. Were the Federal Government bold enough to reform this branch of its fiscal system, to cease listening to the clamour of the native manufacturers and coal

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owners for protection against Europe, and more especially against Great Britain, and were it to impose a reasonably low scale of duties upon iron and steel goods, upon textile fabrics, and all the ingenious art and manufactures of Europe, not for the sake of protection, but solely and wholly for revenue-there can be little doubt that the people of a country naturally so rich as the United States, and with such expensive and luxurious tastes in the matter of personal

apparel and adornment, would provide its Government with a large portion of the means necessary to preserve its financial credit. But unluckily the public mind of America knows little of economic science. To the mass of Americans, well educated as they are supposed to be, Adam Smith and his philosophy are as unfamiliar as the Koran. The people believe in what they call the American system, and they are robbed to their hearts' content by the "shoddy aristocrats," who manufacture bad cutlery, bad crockery, bad glass, bad cotton goods, bad silks, bad woollen cloths, bad everything, and charge the full price of the good European articles, duty paid in gold included.

Perhaps a "heaven-born financier" may yet appear in America-perhaps if the great man come he may be powerful enough to elbow his way through the dense obstructions that will be certain to impede his progress to the supreme placeperhaps the corrupt knaves and scheming scoundrels raised into political importance and position by the operation of manhood suffrage will stand out of the way to let him pass—perhaps the light of his genius will irradiate the dark places of Congress and the local legislatures perhaps experience and heavy suffering will prepare the people to receive him and listen to his teachings—perhaps he will have courage to tell the whole truth-perhaps his truth, if told, will convince the people to whom it is addressed-perhaps the politicians of the South, accustomed to rule, and more skilful in diplomatic and personal intrigue than the Northerners, will not for many years to come be enabled to take that part in the Government to which their talents entitle themand, last possibility of all, perhaps this supposed and greatly-to-bedesired financier, who shall have the knowledge and the will to educe order out of chaos, may be as fortunate as he ought to be.

sury,

These perhapses are perhaps a little too numerous; but unless they all happen to realise themselves and come true in the person of one man, having power and authority to do as he wills, it is difficult to see how the American Union is to pay its debt if the present antiSouthern and violent faction that paralyses the constitutional action of the President retain its ascendancy in Congress. Mr M'Culloch, the present Secretary of the Treaknows his business; but there is not a people, high or low, to second his enlightened efforts for the preservation of the national credit. The high are powerless and few, and the low are prejudiced, ignorant, and powerful; and the most fertile part of the country that could pay its full, or more than its full share of the public burdens, is almost as waste as a wilderness -its cotton, its rice, its sugar, and its tobacco, that added so largely to its own wealth and that of the world, are scarcely produced in exportable quantities. The curse of black pauperism and proletairism lies upon the land; and the North has to pay for the luxury of conquest after the luxury has been enjoyed and found to be worthless.

The test, however, of the great question of the debt will be the Presidential election of November 1868. If by that time the animosities engendered by the war shall have cooled down or been obliterated; if the Conservative feeling of the Northern people shall have found full play; if they shall resolve to hold out the right hand of goodfellowship to the South, and accept, as readily as the South has accepted defeat, the fact that the Union cannot be restored unless the rights of the Southern people are restored along with it; and if a popular candidate, strong in his adherence to the form and spirit of the constitution, and with no ill-will to vent against "rebels"-such a man, for instance, as General Sherman, or, after him, General Grant-shall be

elected to the Presidency, and with him a Congress that shares his opinions and will give him a strong working majority;-the debt of the whole American Union, whether of the Federal Government, or the several States that compose it, may be rendered as secure as the debt of Great Britain. Even at the present time, if the dominant faction would cease its threats of confiscation of Southern estates, and its suggestions for parcelling them out among the negroes, the finances of the Union would immediately assume a more favourable aspect. Were the Southern planters and others but certain that they might call their lands their own, and were the capitalists of the Northern States and of Europe satisfied that no act of confiscation would be attempted, the planters might with little difficulty borrow the necessary money to recommence the cultivation of their lands; and in two years the cotton alone, which with a little judicious aid they might produce, would enable them to lighten the burdens of the North as well as their own, and silence, perhaps for ever, the ominous whispers of repudiation which are now heard on every side. But if Northern fear of Southern supremacy in the councils of the restored Union should adjourn indefinitely that real union of interest and feeling without which a merely political union maintained by the bayonet is worse than useless, the debt will continue to be a debatable question, until the very discussions for and against its repudiation will demoralise the whole country. The prospect at present is not as bright as it might be; but in a young country, and among a hopeful people, a year may make a wondrous difference. In any case, the moral of the great story of the American Civil War will remain palpable to all understandings both in the Old World and in the New-that neither kings nor multitudes can engage in the bloody sport of war without taking the consequences and paying the piper.

opposite seat, and a newspaper half cut was resting upon my knees. I am very fond of reflection, and on that particular occasion I was reflecting-firstly, why the - I had left London; and secondly, why I was going abroad; and thirdly, whether I had taken a sufficient number of pairs of boots with me. I enjoyed my attitude. I know very few so pleasant that perfect ease which is the concomitant of such a horizontal position as I have tried to describe-that disregard of things sublunary, and that subjective selfishness which is so often to be found in our characters; for selfishness is certainly a by no means rare condition-mais revenons à nos moutons. There were others in the same carriage, and I felt painfully certain that sooner or later I should be obliged to answer something to them. An oldish man of between sixty and seventy was engaged in tearing to pieces some tough hamsandwiches, which were being produced by his daughter from a dirty basket.

"Will you have another?" "Thanks," was the answer, and I shuddered. I am naturally shy, and I could not conceive how any body could eat in a railway carriage, so I shuddered.

"You are cold, sir."

It had come at last, and I was obliged to make an observation.

"I am," I answered; and thrusting the newspaper over my head, I feigned sleep to avoid conversation. What a strange love, it appears to me, to be perpetually wishing to make new acquaintances, as if one's present ones did not bore one sufficiently! I felt I agreed with the man who, on being asked by his host whether he would go and see Stonehenge, replied, "Thanks, but I don't wish to know any more new people." The man who wishes to be remembered after the cessation of an acquaintance for a year is a bore-the man who introduces himself after he has grown a beard, and when really there is no con

ceivable reason for remembering him, is a bore. I think the reason I left London was that there were so many bores, and perhaps I hoped after a fortnight some of them might have forgotten me.

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Will you lend me the 'Times,' sir?" and I discovered a foolishlooking young man asking me for my means of salvation-i. e., the newspaper. He had a white hat on-nobody but a thoroughly impudent man can wear a white hat in April-a muddy complexion, and a vacillating grin. I gave him the paper, although I felt that by doing so I was opening out an indefinite field for his remarks. As I looked at his self-contented features, I began to have horrible misgivings as to having seen him only a few days before at Lady A.'s-he was just the sort of man to remember having met me there-probably bumped me, or upset my plate at supper; and what if he intended to take precisely the same direction as myself, and I should find him every morning and every evening at the table-d'hôte? Yes, when he had finished the account of the last steeple-chase, he would introduce himself. I once knew a woman who, wanting to get people to go to her ball, went up to somebody in the street, and said, "I think I have met you in church." I recollected, too, I had been at my dentist's lately, and that I was kept waiting with another man for a quarter of an hour-was it he? My reflections were disturbed by an old woman who put the point of her umbrella upon my neighbour's foot, and said, "Dear me, how awkward these carriages are! there's no room for anything. I tell my husband every day to write to the Times' to have them made bigger-it's very odd-they don't care."

This was no relief; I was evidently next to some great statesman's wife. Would she be next to me at the table-d'hôte every day also? The first time I went abroad, being, as I have said before, very

shy, I dined in my bedroom; but as it was au cinquième, I outraged my feelings in a few days, and came down-stairs.

"I beg your pardon," said the old lady, as her dressing-box fell upon my hat. "It's very odd, I thought it was safe. You see, some people go abroad with really so little luggage; but my husband likes to see me bien mise, and I am always very careful in consulting his tastes."

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said.

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Does he like you to travel?" I

Oh, yes, very much, and always alone in these days one need not be afraid."

"You never need be," I replied, and tried to go to sleep, but I could not, and I spent my time vainly conjecturing how I could avoid my present companions. At any rate, I would find out where they were going, and at least take a different route. "He of the muddy complexion," as I called him, had just finished my paper. I seized the opportunity and said, "The hotels will be very full in Paris, I am afraid."

"I hear that there is a good deal of small-pox at Calais."

"Ah, I'm glad we go to Boulogne -there is only half an hour more sea; and it don't much matter when one's very sick."

I felt keenly for the statesman, and hoped that he was sick for his own sake. The question, however, was settled. I could go to Calais in peace, and, after all, it was not likely that I should have such fellowtravellers again. It just occurred to me that the safest plan to have adopted would have been to go to some quiet hotel in London, near Regent's Park. I should have seen nobody, but then I should not have gone abroad. I think a great deal besides reflecting, and I think that a shy man has no carrière south of Regent's Park. Perhaps Tyburnia might support one or two. There don't seem to be many knockers (no shy man could or ever will be able to knock at a door), but then it looks hopelessly dull, and I know one or two extraordinary bores who live there; besides which, country people come up to the Paddington Hotel.

"Here you are, sir.'

I was at Dover. The sea has a great charm about it-that is to say, regarded from the Lucretian point of view. It is pleasant to see passengers emerge on a stormy day— to see them staggering with difficulty into the station, and turn a deaf ear to the solicitations of the waiters, who would fain have them believe that roast beef and pale ale will restore them to that equanimity which they have lost; then I amuse myself by reflecting upon the origin of sea-sickness, its powers, its; but I do not reflect in the same way, nor am I equally amused, as a passenger.

"Your luggage is registered, sir?"

"No, certainly it is not."

Registered luggage conforms to Mrs Bennet's definition of entailed property-once registered,