the flowers had been sent by a Russian lady-a Russian Princesswho lived at No. 12, and without even knowing the name, I called directly I could leave my room to thank her. Fancy my surprise and pleasure at finding that it was you."

"I can fancy your surprise, Alfred," said Malvina, sentimentally. "Do you not believe that I am very glad to see you again?” "Yes, Alfred, I do believe it. And now tell me what you wish to do. Will you take my horses, and go out for a drive, and come back to me afterwards? I am so agitated at seeing you; I shall be calmer then."

"Thank you. I have not arrived at that yet."

You

"Oh, how imprudent I was to suggest it! You feel very weak? Lie down on the sofa, and let me order a bouillon for you. may repose in peace here. No one is likely to come in. In fact, I know no one but Dr. Bertall, who attends you, and you can imagine why I have cultivated his acquaintance. I live very quietly, Alfred. One soon finds out the vanity of a mere life of pleasure."

"I think I will go into the garden, and sit down somewhere near the lake."

"Yes, that will be the best. It is getting cooler now; in the heat of the day it would have been dangerous for you. Oh, how delightfully calm it is by the side of that lake, and the water is so pure; it reflects the blue of the sky in a heavenly manner!"

"Poor girl," said Alfred to himself, "she is quite what the French call 'exaltée !' How much she must have suffered ! And how much she has improved !"

"You will come too, will you not ?" he asked.

"I?" she answered.

desire it."

"I did not think of going, but I will if you

(To be continued.)

STUDIES FOR THE TIMES.

BY A COUNTY MEMBER.

No. 1. RUSSIA'S GAGE OF BATTLE.

T is neither here nor there to say that we all knew what would come of the so-called policy of peace, inaugurated by Quaker platitudes at Christian tea-meetings.

The worst predictions of the most pig-headed Englishman that ever grew hot and cold at the martial sound of "Hearts of Oak" on a brass band have come to pass. Old fogies who have been swearing over their older port any time this forty years, that changing swords for ledgers would bring England to the dogs, to-day will thump their mahogany and refer to their past assertions. The principles of the Bright and Gladstone school are highly moral. Nay more, they are angelic. They are based in the holiest and best aspirations of a virtuous people. If we had angels to deal with, angels for subjects, angels for neighbours, angels for allies, angels for foes, an angelic policy of liberty and love and mutual trust would be in perfect order. But there is more of the devil than the angel abroad. Even in Protestant England it is acknowledged that we are born in sin and shapen in iniquity. What, then, shall be said for the rest of the world?

If all these years we had been simply legislating for our immaculate selves shut in from the rude world by the glassy sea, as my friend Lytton would say then freetrade tea-meetings, Brummagem petitions, and St. Stephen's occupied by a government of vestrymen, might have represented a harmless recreation and a virtuous exercise of moral sentiment. But for a nation which possesses nearly five hundred million square miles of territory in all parts of the world to be governed upon the principles of Mr. Bright's carpet warehouse, toned down by the sophistries of Lowe, and sweetened by the economics of The Noble Savage, is a position sufficiently humiliating to be understood by all the other peoples of the earth.

The world has paid dearly for the political successes of the Manchester school, whose pretty moral notions have sapped for the time being the Anglo-Saxon strength of some of our most promising

statesmen.

The policy represented by the present Government has kept the whole world in an unhealthy ferment. Even Theodore, the dusky monarch of Abyssinia, saw and practised upon our parsimony, until we were compelled to show Eastern nations that we were not altogether eaten up by greed and luxury. The present war which is decimating the manhood of France and Germany is the result of England's modern ideas of non-intervention. To go back to the Crimean war itself, Russia continued her aggressions because she did not believe we would fight. The Czar's ambassadors advised him that England, casting aside her old traditions, had entered upon a new epoch, which had for its motto, "Peace at any price." Lord Russell's encouragement of Denmark's resistance to the demands of Prussia and Austria led to the merciless slaughter of that plucky little State. The tragedy thus commenced had its principal scene at Sadowa; and Paris besieged is the sequel to Sadowa. England out of the way, the ambition of the more powerful nations of Europe breaks out with demoniac force and heat. It is the mission of England to stand between these contending passions, and the present condition of Europe is the penalty of our withdrawal from that grand rôle among nations which a mysterious Providence has assigned to us. It has become too much the fashion to decry ourselves, to regard the old British boast of superiority as an arrogant assumption; and in doing so we have repudiated the responsibilities of greatness. Surely this is only the pride that apes humility. The Times has told us that we have no business to interfere with the arrangements of other countries; and that we are not a military nation. Solemn ignoramuses who re-talk the Times at their clubs have gravely shaken their heads and said, “No, we are not a military nation; let us mind our own affairs, and not interfere with other people's." Indeed! Not a military nation? Will you be good enough to read your history, my friend; and not make yourself ridiculous because the Times chooses to cover the cowardice of the Government and its hatred of France by a phrase. As for the notion that we ought to isolate ourselves from the rest of the world, this is all very well for gentlemen who regard England as a close borough, to be governed by rule of thumb; but, ye sugar and carpet philosophers, pray look at Mr. Wyld's map of the world, and point out the spot that is untrodden by the English; show me the sea where the English flag is unknown. This little island called England is only an integral portion of the mightiest land, it not the happiest. In India and the colonies we have a hundred and seventy milions of people. How many of these have settled down in distant climes relying upon the

protection of the mother country? The English language is permeating all lands. It promises to be the language of commerce throughout the world. Our people are everywhere upon the earth. They are to be found on all lines of travel, and outside the recognised limits of safety. Everywhere they leave the seeds of new life. The world is full of their axioms and their Bibles. The British bugle awakens the echoes of forest and mountain in lands that Bruce and Ayrton never heard of. No right to interfere ! What nation has a greater? Non-intervention has well-nigh sounded the death-knell of England's honour and the safety of her sons in many a land beyond the seas.

But the great awakening has come at last. Russia, taking advantage of the fall of our former ally, and relying upon the crippled condition of England under the Quaker dictatorship, has thrown down the gage of battle. The Premier of England, whose noblest attributes have been so long dimmed by mere party associations, must have felt the Russian circular like a blow. They say Lord Granville's colour came and went at sight of the insolent words of Gortschakoff. The English pride, which had been so long pent up, came out at last in defiant words, and even Lowe forgot to be sophistical. I would not have insured the existence of the Ministry for a day if they had not replied to the Russian bear as the lion should; and I feel my feet better, and my gloves come on with a tighter grip, now that the Times has come back again out of the paths of usury and selfishness into the broader light of national responsibilities and English honour. Let us all be of one accord in this crisis, which thoughtful men have seen impending for years. Bygones shall be bygones. We will forget, if we can, the dockyards emptied of the skilled workmen; the iron plates of ships that should now be on the seas, sold for old metal; the trained soldiers disbanded; and all the other ills of a weak Government with too large a majority. For peace under a mutual disarmament of nations give me a Liberal Government. In war there is nothing so becomes the land as a fierce Tory Ministry. All that England will ask just now is that, Tory or Liberal, Conservative or Radical, the Government shall be English, heart and soul, in its maintenance of the national honour; in its scorn for broken faith and mean excuses; English in its championship of right; English in its assumption of oceanic supremacy; English in its determination to keep and maintain that legacy of greatness-bequeathed from bleeding sire to son-which is the right and title of our children's children.

In a war with Russia our chief action would be upon the sea.

Let us, therefore, glance at the character, condition, and capacity of our iron-clad fleet. We have upwards of fifty iron-clads. Only three of them are under 1,000 tons. The majority represent a tonnage of from 3,000 to 6,000. They are equal, if not superior, in construction and capacity to the iron-clads of Russia and America. We profited largely by the experience of the naval incidents of the American war, and in spite of much home criticism and party grumbling, our navy is in a far higher state of efficiency than Her Majesty's Opposition would have us believe. But our ships are undermanned. Our nineteen or twenty thousand sailors must be immediately augmented. The Royal Naval Reserve will supply the requirements of the moment. We have the mercantile marine to fall back upon. Orders for gunboats should be sent out to private contractors, to be executed rapidly, under the pressure of heavy penalties. Messrs. Penn and Son, Humphreys and Co., Napier and Son, Mandalay and Co., Ravenshill and Co., James Watt, Laird, and Dudgeon, and the other eminent builders, should each have a gunboat on the stocks, and it would only be a question of weeks before some of them were ready, while months would give us a crowd of vessels that would be prepared to follow up the operations of our present squadron. The Government will find but one sentiment influencing the English people-a hearty determination to do all that is necessary in supporting Lord Granville's firm and dignified reply to the insolent declaration of Prince Gortschakoff. All England will ask is, that if war breaks out there shall be no failure in our organisation. Russia will find Turkey not unprepared for the emergency. The Sultan has expended the large sums which he has borrowed upon his army and navy. Many of his best troops are officered by Englishmen. The Anglo-Saxon is to be found upon many of the Turkish ships of war. English guns and English rifles have long since found their way to Constantinople. "The Sick Man" is much less of an invalid than he was. It will be a curious anomaly of civilisation if the Turk should come out of the struggle an earnest and successful social reformer. Europe can no longer claim to lead the van of progress. France rushing into war with "a light heart" and a cry of joy; Prussia burning villages and shooting peasants by way of reprisals for acts of madness on the part of individual Frenchmen; and Russia, in the midst of the dire calamity which has befallen Europe, playing the part of a bandit; these can hardly be the acts of nations that call the Turk barbarian, and claim to be the leaders of progress. There is nothing