laying on duties here, and taking off duties
there, with the inevitable cry of "gloves are so
many and glovers so poor," as the reason for
unsound political economy. and faulty legislation.
And there are the Board of Trade statistics,
showing what numbers of the made article we
import, and where we get our best glove-leather
from; with many other curious and interesting
particulars, too long to be fully detailed. But
the history of gloves and glove-making, is, like
all things whatever in human life and society—
a very interesting matter when looked into and
thoroughly traced from source to outfall; a
thoroughness to which this mere surface sketch
has no pretension.

SMALL-BEER CHRONICLE THE LAST.

I HAVE by no means chronicled all the Small-
Beer which our social and other vats contain.
Indeed, Small-Beer is an inexhaustible liquid.
But I believe that I have chronicled enough of
it already to prove what I wanted to prove:—
namely, that the age is advancing in small
matters as much as it is in great.

And so we have got to the last of these
Chronicles, and to those few concluding words
which always remain to be said at the final
moment.

The field we have glanced over in these brief
abstracts of the time has been a wide one. We
have had to record the deaths of many old and
cherished Institutions, and the birth of some of
very high promise. The Small-Beer we have
quaffed has been served from all sorts and
varieties of taps. We have had Dramatic Small-
Beer, Social-Small Beer, Domestic Small-Beer,
Public Small-Beer, and many other forms of the
same liquor; and considering all things, it is
gratifying to observe how seldom we have been
compelled to pronounce that the Small-Beer
we have had to chronicle has been flat or
wanting in flavour. We have occasionally
noticed something wrong—as, for instance, in
the over fermenting of some of our Dramatic
Small-Beer, which has bubbled itself into such
a state of sensational excitement that a
considerable amount of the sound malt and hops
flavour has evaporated. Still, it is comfortable
to reflect how rarely we have had to use the
language of censure, and how certainly we have
proved that upon the whole the Small-Beer
prospects of the country are good and full of
promise for future "brews."

It is a wonderful thing to think what Time
will do for Small-Beer, and how it will turn that
liquor into Table Ale, or even at last into Double
and Treble X. What entirely Small-Beer
Chronicles, for instance, were those of Strutt, and now
the Chroniclers of our Strongest Ales are ready
to make use of his Swipes, and will hand a glass
of it to the public as quite a reputable Tap.
So, one of these days, will this very Small-Beer
of mine, which is sometimes flat, and sometimes
acid, and occasionally bitter, be frothed out by
the Tapsters of future ages, a foaming liquid fit
for the use of the best Malt connoisseurs of the
period. I am convinced that it will be impossible
for any of those eminent Bores who shall
adorn the future to get on without these
Chronicles of mine. They will go to the
Museum, and rout me out there, and give
extracts from my poor pages, with the original
spelling, just as it is here printed. So then at
last my Small-Beer will be Small no longer,
and the Fame denied to me now, will be
accorded to the Chronicler long deceased, and
haply a Quart Pot in bronze raised to his
memory in some conspicuous part of the
metropolis.

Seriously, it is a question worth speculating
upon a little, whether the History of one's own
time and its characteristics are not matters of
more importance than is generally imagined. In
the career of an individual, consideration of the
Present is of enormous value, and so is foresight
into the Future. The Past is looked to, that
encouragement may be derived from what has
adorned it, and warning from all that has
disfigured or impaired it. Our survey has been a
slight one, the subjects selected for examination
having been generally of the lighter sort.
Perhaps, however, they were as useful for the
purpose as bigger themes. Record is kept of our
graver and more important doings, elsewhere,
and these are carefully and jealously watched
always. The aspiration of that ambitious person
who, desiring to have influence over a nation,
averred that he cared not who made that nation's
laws, so he might be allowed to write its songs,
is sufficiently well known. In like manner, the
present writer may say that he cares not who
records the political struggles, and the mighty
changes which take place in the world, if he
may only be allowed to be the historian of its
"unconsidered trifles," its social changes, in
other words, its Small-Beer. Gazing into its
depths, as the Arab boy into the ink in the
"Medium's" palm, one may read many
remarkable things.

There is not a vast deal to complain of in these
days in our own country. The grievance-monger
now is not the reasonable man complaining of
unreasonable practices, bat a prejudiced and one-
sided person, who looks at things from one point
of view only, and can see the whole of no
earthly thing. For this same grievance-monger
there is hardly any place in the world, now that
the voice of Reason is so reverently listened to,
and, on the whole, so generally obeyed. Truth
and justice are gaining strength continually,
and men who are to hold their ground, and
things which are to maintain their place, must
now be characterised by merits of a more solid
kind than were formerly needed for success.
These are days when the graces of life are of
less account than the more sterling qualities.
We think more of what a man has to say, than
of the manner in which he says it. We don't
care so much how the orator's sentences are
"rounded off," if they do but convey to us facts
on which we can rely, and truths which will
bear investigation.