and is neat and substantial in appearance. Here we crossed the Aar; and, at the distance of little more than a mile beyond the town, came upon the equally if not more beautiful vale of the Reuss; then, crossing this stream also, at a short distance beyond, having gained another rising ground, we had before us the river Limmat, rolling onward through a similarly beautiful vale. The spectacle was striking, and telling Louis to give the horses a rest, we descended to examine it at our leisure. Advancing from the road to a position where we could command the most advantageous view, the three valleys lay stretched out in their varying sinuosities before us, the mountainous country on the south, whence the waters originated, gradually declining in height, till the dividing boundaries of the three rivers melted into a common centre, and the waters were conjoined into a single stream. These waters are the drainage of all central and northern Switzerland, and we afterwards had occasion to visit their main sources-the lakes of Brienz and Thun, whence issues the Aar; the lakes of Zug and Lucerne, which contribute the Reuss; and the lake of Zurich, which sends forth the Limmat. All are of a lightish green colour, and to our eye the Reuss appeared the largest of the trio. In the race to effect a junction of streams, the Reuss also falls first into the Aar, which, thus vastly increased, runs on a short way till struck upon by the Limmat; the Aar, therefore, has the honour of imparting its name to the united waters, which, after flowing a distance of ten miles to the north, fall into the Rhine and double it in size; the other or primary branch of the Rhine being a similar drainage from above the lake of Constance, and flowing by Schaufhausen to this spot, where it is thus so largely increased.

We spent so much time over this scene of beauty, and I should add historical interest-for the spot before us, on the peninsula formed by the junction of the Aar and the Reuss, was in early ages the site of the great Roman station of Vindonissa, within the broad limits of which, in after times, rose the castle of Hapsburg-that twilight began to draw its curtain around us, while still several miles from our restingplace for the night; and resuming our journey, by a road up the left side of the Limmat, which impetuously shot on its way between high woody banks, the broad disk of the autumnal moon rose over the distant eminences, and, guided by its gentle light, we arrived in due time at the gates of Baden.

Here there was some little difficulty. Originally built under the shadow of a feudal castle on an adjoining height, now in ruins, Baden is at present a walled town, greatly deteriorated by poverty, and we had no wish to have any thing to do with it. A huge vaulted portal, in its decayed wall, stood hospitably open, the doors having been long since removed, and the idea of defence laid aside; but this offered no inducement for our entering the place, and, conducted by Louis, we turned off by a path to the left in search of the boarding-houses at the springs-in fact, the true or practical Baden, the ancient town being only Baden theoretical. Our way was down a long declivity closely overhanging the Limmat, which we heard rushing beneath us, but could scarcely see, as the lofty bank on the farther side shut out the moon's beams from the profound hollow into which we were slowly descending. By Louis's care, we were at length safely landed within the courtyard of the Stadthof, an extensive hotel and boarding-house.

On the morrow, when awakened by the sound of voices without, we found ourselves lodged in a building most romantically situated within the margin of the river, and which was evidently crowded with visiters. We had seen no scene so singular since leaving home. The small town was composed of an irregular cluster of buildings of high and low degree, but mostly hotels of great size, planted at the bottom of the steep bank, and leaving only space for a shady promenade along the side of the Limmat. On the opposite or left bank the ground was equally precipitous, but facing the south was laid out principally as vineyards, with a strip of a village at the foot, to which a wooden bridge gave the readiest access. Among the various hotels and lodging-houses in different quarters, there was a concourse of visiters from Germany as well as distant cantons of Switzerland, fully as numerous as at Spa, but much less distingué than at Baden-Baden. The spot has been celebrated since the days of the Romans for its sanative waters, which are hot and of a sulphureous quality. There are sixteen springs, all rising within perhaps thirty feet of the river: one gushes out near the walls of the Stadthof, within the bed of the stream, and has been covered with a neat stone building, from which the water is drawn for the use of the baths. The aggregate quantity of water thrown up is about a hundred gallons per minute, the springs flowing with equal vigour and heat both day and night. The temperature, if I might judge from feeling, was about 90 degrees Fahrenheit. Every hotel has a spring and baths, the former rushing out as an everrunning fountain in an open court or covered arcade, to which all residents have access. For the benefit of the public, or, properly speaking, visiters of a poorer order, there is a free rountain in the confined patch of street, and here in early morning hundreds were in attendance. I was told that the sending of poor patients to the baths and springs is performed as a conscientious duty by the authorities of almost every canton; public contributions are also made at the bath-houses for the benefit of the humbler order of

visitants. Some idea of the great estimation in which the waters are held, may be obtained from the fact that between the 6th of June and 26th of September 1840, 19,530 persons had arrived and spent more or less time in attendance. The bulk of the residents at the time of our visit were a more respectable body of people than we saw any where else in Switzerland in one spot. There were apparently few or no French or English; and the amusements consisted either in loitering about the beautiful banks of the Limmat or making excursions in chairs and on the backs of donkeys to various scenes of interest in the neighbourhood.

THE KNIGHTS OF MALTA. THE institution of the Knights of Malta was one of greater importance and utility in its day than is generally imagined. However slight may be the merit accruing from the Crusades for the recovery of the Holy Land, they are entitled to share in it largely; but they have higher claims, of a much later date, upon the gratitude of the Christian world. Almost by the unaided exertions of this band of brothers, the Ottoman power was held in check, and its extension materially impeded, on the eastern coasts of Europe. This was a great service to the whole of that continent. The Knights of Malta effected, on the bosom of the Mediterranean, what John Sobieski effected on the plains of Austria; and their names should be embalmed along with his in the memory of Christendom. Towards the middle of the eleventh century, when the Holy Land was entirely in the power of the Mahommedans, the Egyptian caliph, Monstaser-Billah, was induced to permit the erection of a Christian chapel in the city of Jerusalem, with two hospitals, one of them dedicated to St John the Almoner. These were intended for the relief of the numerous pilgrims who then visited Palestine from all Christian countries. After Godfrey of Bouillon conquered the Holy City in 1099, the Hospital of St John became a place of great note as an establishment for healing the wounded and the sick, and was converted by Gerard, its rector, from a secular to a religious institution. He, with his brothers and sisters of charity, formally abjured the world, and assumed as their dress a black gown, having on the left breast a white cross. At the same time, a number of illustrious crusaders, burning with pious zeal, entered the body; and Godfrey of Bouillon endowed it with lands in Brabant. His example was speedily followed by other princes and barons of Europe, until the order grew wealthy, and founded many new houses both in Asia and Europe. The next step was the conjunction of the military with the religious character. Raymond du Puis succeeded to the rectorship; and, having been a brave soldier in his day, he was induced, by the reiterated attacks made on the Christians at their first settlement in the East, to propose to his companions, most of them old soldiers like himself, to join the profession of arms to their other duties. The summons sounded like a trumpet in the ears of the veterans, and Raymond du Puis became the first Grand-master of the Order of the Knights-Hospitallers of St John. Three classes were established in the order-that of the Knights, who were required, at first at least, to prove a noble extraction; that of Chaplains, who were non-military; and that of Half-Knights, or Serving Brothers, who were not of high birth, and whose duties lay both in the hospital and the field. The establishment of commanderies, as the houses were called, in different countries, rendered it proper to establish divisions called Languages in the order, as one for England, one for Germany, and so on. These were at first seven, and finally nine in number. Noble youths from all Europe soon swelled the order of the Hospitallers into a numerous force, and one of great strength, in times when a single mounted knight, cased in armour, was a match for half a dozen of the ordinary soldiery. Their wealth also enabled them to hire large bodies of mercenaries to aid in their enterprises; and their European houses, or commanderies, served as depôts, whence auxiliaries were continually drafted to the wars.

master of the order, seeing the hopelessness of any secure settlement of it on lands not its own, projected a great and important conquest-that of the island of Rhodes. Rhodes is about one hundred and twenty miles in circumference, and close on the coast of Asia Minor. It was at this time nominally a possession of the Greek emperor, Andronicus; but in reality was in the power of Saracenic pirates, mixed with Greeks of the same stamp. Fulk de Villaret gathered his war-galleys, and made a bold descent on the isle. The resistance was obstinate, and years elapsed ere the knights succeeded in planting the standard of the white cross on the walls of Rhodes. But they persisted in the siege till they made it their own.

The fate of the Knights Templars, almost at this very moment, showed the importance and necessity of such a fixed settlement. Returning to its European commanderies, this wealthy order, the rival of that of the Hospitallers in fame and power, became soon a subject of jealousy and avaricious envy to the monarchs of the time, and especially to Philip of France. In concert with the pope, that sovereign, under colour of forged charges of criminality, wrested its property from the order, and subjected its members to imprisonment, tortures, and death. Other countries also abolished the order, but without the same accompanying barbarities. Philip of France was partly disappointed, for the Pope forced him to accede to a general edict, giving the Templar possessions to the Knights of St John.

The latter body was greatly increased in power by these accessions, and it became more common than ever for the younger nobility of Europe to enter the order of the Hospitallers. Riches brought with it augmented luxury and many evils, but the knights were still kept in high military condition. A new race of the followers of Mahommed appeared against them. Othman (the Bone-Breaker), who gave a permanent name to the Turkish nation, possessed, with a tribe of Turkomauns, the region of Asia Minor adjoining Rhodes. He attacked the knights in their city; but, though one of the most tried and renowned warriors of his race, he failed to make the slightest impression on them. Similar assaults were renewed in more alarming shapes in the course of the years immediately succeeding. Betwixt the year 1310, when the order settled at Rhodes, and the year 1453, when the Turks took Constantinople, and founded a new empire, the Knights of St John fought many great battles, by sea and land, with the two Mahommedan powers in their neighbourhood, the Egyptian and Turkish. It is amazing to reflect, that this comparatively small body of men should not only have foiled so many efforts made by these powerful sovereignties to reduce them and take their stronghold, but should have even obtained possession of Cos and other Greek islands, captured Smyrna and held it for a long period, and made various expeditions against Syria and other places, as if possessed of the population and resources of a strong and warlike nation. They proved an unextractible thorn in the sides of the focs of Christianity.

Our space will only permit of a mere sketch being given of the career of the order; but we may allude specially to one event, the most important in its annals. The hour came at length for the fall of Rhodes, after the knights had held it for more than two hundred years. Solyman the Magnificent resolved at any price to oust them from their stronghold. We quote from Sutherland's history of the order, in the passage that follows. In June 1522, "a signal from Mount St Stephen intimated to the Rhodians that the Turkish fleet was in sight. Countless sails studded the Lycian Strait; and tumult and wailing instantly rose from every quarter of the city. The gates were formally shut, and public prayers were offered up in the churches, imploring Heaven to grant the victory to the champions of the Cross. This done, the whole population hurried to the ramparts and towers, to behold the terrible armament that threatened them with destruction. Four hundred sail swept past the mouth of the haven with the pomp and circumstance of a triumphal pageant; and on board this mighty fleet were 140,000 soldiers, exclusive of 60,000 serfs, torn from the forests of the Danube, to serve This formidable body remained in Palestine during as pioneers." Six hundred knights, with less than the entire period of its occupation, complete or par- five thousand regular troops, and a comparatively tial, by the Latin Christians, witnessing the whole of weak body of citizens and peasants, formed the whole the nine crusades, rendered necessary by the inveterate force prepared to oppose this immense armament, determination of the Mahommedans to recover their the leader of which, Solyman in person, told his troops lost possessions. During all this time, they existed that he had come to Rhodes to conquer or die." but to fight, having scarcely one month of perfect For upwards of three months, the most awful scenes repose; and in fight they exhibited the most despe- of carnage took place daily, after the siege had begun. rate valour on all occasions, though the abstemious- For one man who fell among the knights, twenty fell ness of their rules was relaxed by degrees. They re- among the Turks; but even this proportion was ruinmained in the Holy Land after kings and barons had ous to the former. In one assault, fifteen thousand all yielded up the cause in despair. At length, in the Turks were slain. By degrees, every one of the ramyear 1291, the Sultan Saladin drove them from their parts of Rhodes was in ruins, yet still the knights and last stronghold of Saint John d'Acre, and compelled their grand-master, a venerable old man, were unconthem to take refuge in Cyprus, then under a Latin querable. They filled the breaches with their mailed king. They there summoned all their commanderies bodies. Frequently, Solyman half-resolved to give to send members and supplies, and were soon enabled up the struggle, and frequently he threatened his offionce more to establish themselves as a powerful naval cers with death for their want of success. He proas well as military body. Their views were to harass posed various capitulations, and by capitulation was the Mahommedans of Syria and Egypt by sea. One the siege finally closed. The knights were unvanexpedition more they made against the Saracens of quished, but Rhodes was untenable. Twelve days were Jerusalem; but they found both that city, and the given them to embark their property; and, on the 1st other fortresses of the country, to be in so ruinous a of January 1593, the remnant of the Rhodian Chrisstate, that the approach of the Egyptian sultan forced tians went on board their galleys, a homeless band. them to fly to their ships. It was immediately after Before that departure, Solyman, who had in him great this step that Fulk de Villaret, twenty-fourth grand-points of character sought an interview with L'Isle

Adam, the grand-master. "For a time the two warriors eyed each other with piercing glances. The venerable and majestic port of the grand-master won the admiration of the youthful despot; and he magnanimously requested his interpreter to console the Christian chief with the assurance, that even the bravest of men were liable to become the sport of fortune. He invited him, at the same time, to embrace the Mahommedan faith, and enter his service, since the Christian princes, who had abandoned him in his extremity, did not merit the alliance of so redoubted a chief; and, by way of a bribe, promised to advance him to the highest dignities in his empire, and make him one of his chosen councillors. The grand-master answered, that were he to dishonour his grey hairs by becoming a traitor and renegade, he would only show how unworthy he was of the high opinion which his conqueror entertained of him; and that he would far rather retire into obscurity, or part with life itself, than be accounted a recreant and apostate by his own people. -Solyman dismissed the venerable knight with honour; and said to Achmet Pasha, who was in attendance, It is not without regret that I drive this unfortunate old man, full of sorrow, from his home.""

The Knights of St John had still their commanderies, rich and powerful, over Europe, though Henry VIII, about this very time, abolished the order in England. But their importance was yet sufficient to procure for them the cession of the island of Malta, where their numbers were soon recruited. Removed in some measure, however, from the sphere of Turkish and Egyptian operations, the knights came now into hostility with new enemies of their faith. The African coasts swarmed at this time, as they also did at a much later date, with pirates, who filled their coffers with gold, and their dungeons with captives, from the European states. In concert with the Emperor Charles, the Knights of Malta undertook a great expedition against the two Barbarossas, the most famous pirates of the day, who had gained sovereign power in Algiers and Tunis, by expelling the rightful princes. Tunis and Goletta were conquered on this occasion, chiefly by the dauntless valour of the Knights of St John, and the rightful governments were re-established. But, in a future expedition, the order lost a great force before Algiers, and a garrison of theirs was expelled with vast loss from Tripoli.

For the next half century, the knights waged incessant war with the piratical Mahommedans, both of Africa and the Turco-Grecian islands. The importance of their services to European commerce was fully shown by the renewed attempts of the Ottoman Porte to suppress them. In 1565, one great attempt was made by 30,000 Turks on the island. The assault of the small fort of St Elmo will show the bravery of the knights in a fair light :-"At daybreak on the 16th of June, the Turkish galleys commenced a furious cannonade against the seaward rampart; and at the same time the land batteries shattered into ruin the still remaining fortifications. This done, the Osmanlis entered the ditch to the sound of their proud but barbarous music; and, at the discharge of a signalgun, rushed impetuously to the assault, covered by 4000 harquebusiers and cross-bowmen, who, from their post in the trenches, shot down every Christian soldier who showed himself in the breach. Behind that deadly gap stood the knights and their scant battalion, armed with pikes and spontoons, and forming, as it were, a living wall. Between every three soldiers stood a knight, the better to sustain the courage of those who had nothing of chivalrous renown to uphold them. In vain did the Turks dash themselves on this impenetrable phalanx. When swords and pikes were broken, the Christian soldiers grappled with their antagonists, and terminated the death-struggle with their daggers. The burning hoops were of eminent service in this combat; and the cries of the wretches whom they begirt, added greatly to the horror of the fight. It was a cheering circumstance to the defenders of the fort, that the conflict was maintained under the eyes of their friends in the Bourg, who they feared had begun to doubt their bravery. Amid the thunder of the artillery, and the groans of the dying, their ears were gladdened at intervals by encouraging shouts wafted across the haven from the distant ramparts; and the guns of Forts St Angelo and St Michael played incessantly, and with considerable effect, on the Turkish lines. At the end of six hours, the knights, covered with wounds, and blistered by the scorching rays of the sun, had the consolation to hear a retreat sounded from the enemy's trenches; and the Turks reluctantly retired, leaving behind them 2000 dead." When the last defender fell, the Turks became masters of St Elmo. But they were ultimately driven from the island, with a loss of 25,000 men.

WAR.

opposition, took possession of the island. The inhabitants seem to have been utterly tired of the rule of the knights; and the latter ceded Malta to the French, What, speaking in quite unofficial language, is the net by a treaty which bound them at once to quit the isle. purport of war? To my own knowledge, for example, They received petty annuities in lieu of this their anthere dwell and toil, in the British village of Dumdrudge, cient possession. usually some five hundred souls. From these, by certain The British expelled the French; but the knights"natural enemies" of the French, there are successively returned to Malta no more. An attempt at the re-selected, during the French war, say thirty able-bodied establishment of the order was made by Paul of Rus- nursed them; she has, not without difficulty and sorrow, men: Dumdrudge, at her own expense, has suckled and sia, which ended in nothing. Thus fell the renowned fed them up to manhood, and even trained them to brotherhood of the Knights Hospitallers of St John. crafts, so that one can weave, another build, another The extent of their possessions at one time, as well hammer, and the weakest can stand under thirty stone as those of the Tempiars, is shown by the numberless avoirdupois. Nevertheless, amid much weeping and places, in Britain and elsewhere, to which they have swearing, they are selected; all dressed in red, and permanently given names. shipped away at the public charge, some 2000 miles, or say, only to the south of Spain; and fed there till wanted. And now, to that same spot in the south of Spain, are thirty similar French artisans, from a French Dumdrudge, in like manner wending; till at length, after infinite effort, the parties come into actual juxtaposition, and thirty stand fronting thirty, each with a gun in his hand. Straightway the word "Fire!" is given, and they blow the souls out of one another; and, instead of sixty brisk useful craftsmen, the world has sixty dead carcasses, which it must bury and anon shed tears for. Had these men any quarrel? Busy as the devil is, not the smallest. They lived far enough apart, were the entirest strangers nay, in so wide a universe, there was even, unconsciously by commerce, some mutual helpfulness between them. How then? Simpleton! their governors had fallen out; and, instead of shooting one another, had the cunning to make these poor blockheads shoot.-Carlyle's Sartor Resartus.

MELANCHOLY MOMENTS.

Ir is not pain, it is not grief,
That weigheth down my spirit now;
A holier feeling craves relief

For burden'd breast, for burning brow:
Nor pain nor grief might thus me bow,
Nor theirs the sorrow of the hour;
A deeper sadness this, I trow,
Bound on me by some sterner power.

Hast ever long'd to weep thy fill,

And felt that thou in vain must pine-
Felt fall on thee the leaden chill
Which freezes tears within their shrine?
Hast ever loved a full blue eye
Whose heaven mote ne'er upon thee shine?
Or seen a bosom heave the sigh

Thou knew'st was no response to thine?
Hast ever felt full many a thought
Of tenderness within thee swell,
By Nature to thy spirit taught,
Yet blighting that wherein they dwell?
Thy misery to love too well,

Since doomed still to love alone-
Affection sickening in her cell,

For lack of things to rest upon.
And hast thou known what 'tis to gaze,
In pensive musing, fancy free,
Back on the joyous sunny days

Of boyhood and of infancy?
Hast felt the rushing memories press,
And wish'd the troublers not to be?-
Mementos of thy loneliness !-

Then, stranger, thou canst feel for me.

And if a mother's eye did bless

Thine own, and fondly on thee smiled,
A mother's bosom once did press
Thine own-though only when a child:
Or if a sister fair and mild

Hath laid her soft cheek thine upon,
Then fathom thou the anguish wild

Born of the thought that both are gone.
Dearer than home to exile's thought,
Than to the hero battle's van,
Than science to the sage she taught,

Or chieftain to his Highland clan-
Dearer than to the deluged earth
The bow of hope that heaven did span,
Dearer than all the world is worth-
Is woman to the heart of man!
Prate not of friends: there is a smart
That mocks at friendship's nicest skill;
There is a void within the heart
That even friendship may not fill:
There is within a mystic will,

Aye calling at the spirit's shrine-
A something that demandeth still

A breast to blend and beat with thine :A breast will be thine own for aye, Will bleed at ought that brings thee pain, Will languish when thou art away, And leap when it on thine hath lain. Oh give me such, or else give back, Ye years, the blessedness ye've ta'en!The springiness my spirits lack— And let me be a boy again!

GUANO MANURE.

D.

The sterile soils of the South American coast are urate of ammonia and other ammoniacal salts, by the use of which a luxuriant vegetation and the richest crops are obtained. Guano has lately been imported in considerable quantities into Liverpool and several other English ports, and is now experimentally employed as a manure by English agriculturists. A consideration of its compo

manured with a substance called guano, consisting of

sition and mode of action cannot therefore fail to be ac

BENEFIT OF A FREE PRESS.

A free press is the parent of much good in a state. But even a licentious press is a far less evil than a press that is enslaved, because both sides may be heard in the former case, but not in the latter. A licentious press may be an evil, an enslaved press must be so; for an enslaved press may cause error to be more current than wisdom, and wrong more powerful than right; a licentious press cannot effect these things, for if it gives the poison, it gives also the antidote, which an enslaved press withholds. An enslaved press is doubly fatal---it not only takes away the true light, for in that case we might stand still, but it sets up a false one, that decoys us to our destruction.--- Lacon.

TULIPOMANIA IN HOLLAND.

When the Tulipomania infected Holland, and single roots were sold for many hundred pounds, we are told--"People who had been absent from Holland, and whose chance it was to return when this folly was at its maximum, were sometimes led into awkward dilemmas by their ignorance. There is an amusing instance of the kind related in Blainville's Travels. A wealthy merchant, who prided himself not a little on his rare tulips, received upon one occasion a very valuable consignment of merchandise from the Levant. Intelligence of its arrival was brought him by a sailor, who presented himself for that purpose at the counting-house, among bales of goods of every description. The merchant, to reward him for his news, munificently made him a present of a fine red-herring for his breakfast. The sailor had, it appears, a great partiality for onions; and seeing a bulb, very like an onion, lying upon the counter of this liberal trader, and thinking it no doubt very much out of its place among silks and velvets, he slily seized an opportunity, and slipped it into his pocket as a relish for his herring. He got clear off with his prize, and proceeded to the quay to eat his breakfast. Hardly was his back turned, when the merchant missed his valuable Semper Augustus, worth 3000 florins, or about L.280 sterling. The whole establishment was instantly in an uproar; search was every where made for the precious root, but it was not to be found. Great was the merchant's distress of mind. The search was reAt last some one newed, but again without success. thought of the sailor. The unhappy merchant sprang into the street at the bare suggestion. His alarmed household followed him. The sailor, simple soul! had not thought of concealment. He was found quietly sitting on a coil of ropes, masticating the last morsel of his onion. Little did he dream that he had been eating a breakfast whose cost might have regaled a whole ship's crew for a twelvemonth; or, as the plundered merchant himself expressed it, might have sumptuously feasted the Prince of Orange and the whole court of the stadtholder.' An

thony caused pearls to be dissolved in wine to drink the health of Cleopatra; Sir Richard Whittington was as foolishly magnificent in an entertainment to King Henry V.; and Sir Thomas Gresham drank a diamond, dissolved in wine, to the health of Queen Elizabeth, when she opened the Royal Exchange; but the breakfast of this roguish Dutchman was as splendid as either. He had the advantage, too, over his wasteful predecessors; their gems did not improve the taste or the wholesomeness of their wine, while his tulip was quite delicious with his redherring."--- Mackay's History of Popular Delusions.

ULTIMATE SUCCESS OF GOOD SCHEMES.

Many schemes ridiculed as Utopian, decried as visionary, and declaimed against as impracticable, will be realised the moment the march of sound knowledge has effected this for our species-that of making men wise enough to see their true interests, and disinterested enough to pursue them.--- Lacon.

W. S. ORR, Paternoster Row
LONDON: Published, with permission of the proprietors, by

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NUMBER 525.

THE TWO MISS SMITHS.

A TRUE STORY.

In a certain town in the west of England, which shall be nameless, there dwelt two maiden ladies of the name of Smith; each possessing a small independence, each residing, with a single maid-servant, in a small house, the drawing-room floor of which was let, whenever lodgers could be found; each hovering somewhere about the age of fifty, and each hating the other with a restless and implacable enmity. The origin of this aversion was the similarity of their names; each was Miss C. Smith, the one being called Cecilia, the other Charlotte-a circumstance which gave rise to such innumerable mistakes and misunderstandings, as were sufficient to maintain these ladies in a constant state of irritability and warfare. Letters, messages, invitations, parcels, bills, were daily mis-sent, and opened by the wrong person, thus exposing the private affairs of one to the other; and as their aversion had long ago extinguished every thing like delicacy on either side, any information so acquired was used without scruple to their mutual annoyance. Presents, too, of fruit, vegetables, or other delicacies from the neighbouring gentry, not unfrequently found their way to the wrong house; and if unaccompanied by a letter, which took away all excuse for mistake, they were appropriated without remorse, even when the appropriating party felt confident in her heart that the article was not intended for her; and this not from greediness or rapacity, but from the absolute delight they took in vexing each other. It must be admitted, also, that this well-known enmity was occasionally played upon by the frolicloving part of the community, both high and low; so that over and above the genuine mistakes, which were of themselves quite enough to keep the poor ladies in hot water, every now and then some little hoax was got up and practised upon them, such as fictitious love-letters, anonymous communications, and so forth. It might have been imagined, as they were not an swerable for their names, and as they were mutual sufferers by the similarity, one having as much right to complain of this freak of fortune as the other, that they might have entered into a compact of forbearance, which would have been equally advantageous to either party; but their naturally acrimonious dispositions prevented this, and each continued as angry with the other as she could have been if she had had a sole and indefeasible right to the appellation of C. Smith, and her rival had usurped it in a pure spirit of annoyance and opposition. To be quite just, however, we must observe that Miss Cecilia was much the worse of the two; by judicious management Miss Charlotte might have been tamed, but the malice of Miss Cecilia was altogether inexorable.

By the passing of the Reform Bill, the little town wherein dwelt these belligerent powers received a very considerable accession of importance; it was elevated into a borough, and had a whole live member to itself, which, with infinite pride and gratification, it sent to parliament, after having extracted from him all manner of pledges, and loaded him with all manner of instructions as to how he should conduct himself under every conceivable circumstance; not to mention a variety of bills for the improvement of the roads and markets, the erection of a town-hall, and the reform of the systems of watching, paving, lighting, &c., the important and consequential little town of B-.

A short time previous to the first election-an event which was anticipated by the inhabitants with the most vivid interest one of the candidates, a country

gentleman who resided some twenty miles off, took a lodging in the town, and came there with his wife and family, in order, by a little courtesy and a few entertainments, to win the hearts of the electors and their friends; and his first move was to send out invitations for a tea and card party, which, in due time, when the preparations were completed, was to be followed by a ball. There was but one milliner and dressmaker of any consideration in the town of B-, and it may be imagined that on so splendid an occasion her services were in great request--so much so, that in the matter of head-dresses, she not only found that it would be impossible, in so short a period, to fulfil the commands of her customers, but also that she had neither the material nor the skill to give them satisfaction. It was, therefore, settled that she should send off an order to a house in Exeter, which was the county town, for a cargo of caps, togues, turbans, &c., fit for all ages and faces-"such as were not disposed of to be returned ;" and the ladies consented to wait, with the best patience they could, for this interesting consignment, which was to arrive without fail on the Wednesday, Thursday being the day fixed for the party. But the last coach arrived on Wednesday night without the expected boxes; however, the coachman brought a message for Miss Gibbs, the milliner, assuring her that they would be there the next morning without fail.

Accordingly, when the first Exeter coach rattled through the little street of B, which was about half-past eleven, every head that was interested in the freight was to be seen looking anxiously out for the deal boxes; and, sure enough, there they were-three of them-large enough to contain caps for the whole town. Then there was a rush up stairs for their bonnets and shawls, and in a few minutes troops of ladies, young and old, were seen hurrying towards the market-place, where dwelt Miss Gibbs-the young in pursuit of artificial flowers, gold bands, and such-like adornments-the elderly in search of a more mature order of decoration. Amongst the candidates for finery, nobody was more eager than the two Miss Smiths; and they had reason to be so, not only because they had neither of them any thing at all fit to be worn at Mrs Hanaway's party, which was in a style much above the entertainments they were usually invited to, but also because they both invariably wore turbans, and each was afraid that the other might carry off the identical turban that might be most desirable for herself. Urged by this feeling, so alert were they, that they were each standing at their several windows when the coach passed, with their bonnets and cloaks actually on-ready to start for the plate!-determined to reach Miss Gibbs's in time to witness the opening of the boxes. But "who shall control his fate?" Just as Miss Cecilia was stepping off her threshold, she was accosted by a very gentlemanly-looking person, who, taking off his hat, with an air really irresistible, begged to know if he had "the honour of seeing Miss Smith"-a question which was, of course, answered in the affirmative.

"I was not quite sure," said he, "whether I was right, for I had forgotten the number; but I thought it was sixty," and he looked at the figures on the door.

"This is sixty, sir," said Miss Cecilia; adding to herself, "I wonder if it was sixteen he was sent to," for at number sixteen lived Miss Charlotte.

"I was informed, madam," pursued the gentleman, "that I could be accommodated with apartments here-that you had a first floor to let."

"That is quite true, sir," replied Miss Cecilia, delighted to let her rooms, which had been some time

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vacant, and doubly gratified when the stranger added, "I come from Bath, and was recommended by a friend of yours, indeed probably a relation, as she bears the same name, Miss Joanna Smith."

"I know Miss Joanna very well, sir," replied Miss Cecilia; "pray, walk up stairs, and I'll show you the apartments directly. (For," thought she," I must not let him go out of the house till he has taken them, for fear he should find out his mistake.) Very nice rooms, sir, you see-every thing clean and comfortable-a pretty view of the canal in front-just between the baker's and the shoemaker's; you'll get a peep, sir, if you step to this window. Then it's uncommonly lively; the Exeter and Plymouth coaches, up and down, rattling through all day long, and indeed all night too, for the matter of that. A beautiful little bed-room, back, too, sir-Yes, as you observe, it certainly does look over a brick kiln; but there's no dust-not the least in the world-for I never allow the windows to be opened: altogether, there can't be a pleasanter situation than it is."

The stranger, it must be owned, seemed less sensible of all these advantages than he ought to have been ; however, he engaged the apartments: it was but for a short time, as he had come there about some business connected with the election; and as Miss Joanna had so particularly recommended him to the lodging, he did not like to disoblige her. So the bargain was struck: the maid received orders to provision the garrison with bread, butter, tea, sugar, &c., &c., whilst the gentleman returned to the inn to dispatch Boots with his portmanteau and carpet-bag.

"You were only just in time, sir," observed Miss Cecilia, as they descended the stairs, "for I expected a gentleman to call at twelve o'clock to-day, who I am sure would have taken the lodgings."

"I should be sorry to stand in his way," responded the stranger, who would not have been at all sorry for an opportunity of backing out of the bargain. "Perhaps you had better let him have them-I can easily get accommodated elsewhere."

"Oh dear, no, sir; dear me! I wouldn't do such a thing for the world!" exclaimed Miss Cecilia, who had only thrown out this little inuendo by way of binding her lodger to his bargain, lest, on discovering his mistake, he should think himself at liberty to annul the agreement. For well she knew that it was a mistake: Miss Joanna of Bath was Miss Charlotte's first cousin, and, hating Miss Cecilia, as she was in duty bound to do, would rather have sent her a dose of arsenic than a lodger, any day. She had used every precaution to avoid the accident that had happened, by writing on a card, "Miss Charlotte Smith, No. 16, High Street, B, opposite the linendraper's shop;" but the thoughtless traveller, never dreaming of the danger in which he stood, lost the card, and, trusting to his memory, fell into the snare.

Miss Cecilia had been so engrossed by her anxiety to hook this fish before her rival could have a chance of throwing out a bait for him, that, for a time, she actually forgot Miss Gibbs and the turban; but now that her point was gained, and sho felt sure of her man, her former care revived with all its force, and she hurried along the street towards the market-place, in a fever of apprehension lest she should be too late. The matter certainly looked ill; for, as she arrived breathless at the door, she saw groups of self-satisfied faces issuing from it, and, amongst the rest, the obnoxious Miss Charlotte's physiognomy appeared, looking more pleased than any body.

"Odious creature!" thought Miss Cecilia; "as if she supposed that any turban in the world could make her look tolerable!" But Miss Charlotte did suppose