new market in Covent Garden. Aberdeen
abounds with educational and charitable
institutions. It had until lately two universities—
King's and Marischal Colleges — which, I regret to
say, are now united. Its grammar-school — where
Lord Byron began his early studies — is one of the
most ancient and famous seminaries in Scotland:
the nursery of many cultivated intellects, whose
influence has helped to sway the destinies of the
world. Among the philanthropic institutions
may be mentioned the Royal Infirmary, one of
the most splendid granite buildings in the kingdom;
Gordon's Hospital, an institution similar
to George Heriot's in Edinburgh, for the
maintenance of poor and fatherless children; and the
Orphan Asylum, built and endowed, at an expense
of thirty  thousand pounds, by Mrs. Elmslie, a
native of Aberdeen. In every respect, Aberdeen
is as handsome, as well-to-do, and as clean a
town, as is to be met with between Land's End
and John o'Groat's. A stranger entering it for
the first time will be reminded of Paris — I
mean the new Paris of Napoleon the Third. It
is like Paris in the whiteness and regularity of
its buildings, and also in the picturesque character
of the costumes of the market-women and fish-
wives. There, however, the likeness ends.
There are few "sights" or shows in Aberdeen.
In that respect it is a very severe town indeed;
There are only three monuments: one of the
late Duke of Gordon, another of Prince Albert,
recently erected, and a market cross. That
of the Prince Consort is a monument of high-
backed chair and jack-boots. Prom one point of
view you cannot see the Prince for chair, from
another you cannot see him for robes, and from
a third you cannot see him for boots. The Prince
is better represented in a sixpenny chimney
ornament. There is a great lack of amusement in
Aberdeen. There is a theatre, and there is a music-
hall; but neither of these temples is of a
sufficiently high class to attract the better classes of
the people. The result is, that when the better
classes want a sensation, they go to preachings
and revival meetings; or if they are not disposed
that way, they spend the evening over the toddy
tumbler. I am more than ever convinced that
the drinking habits of my countrymen, and their
fanatical character, are chiefly due to the want of
rational amusements. Here in Aberdeen, which
has a population of nearly eighty thousand
inhabitants, there is no public amusement of any
kind (except an occasional concert) which the
respectable classes can venture to patronise.
Ladies and gentlemen cannot go to a theatre
where the boys smoke pipes in the gallery. The
theatre has been pushed away out of sight in a
cold steep street near the shore, as if the town
were ashamed of it. It is not "the thing" to
go to the theatre in Aberdeen; and the better
classes being deprived of the sensation play,
must be content with the sensation sermon.
Preachings are held every day in the week, and
the sermon actually takes the place of the play.
It is offered as a sort of evening's entertainment.

As a centre of trade, Aberdeen is a town of
great importance; but if you ask me what is the
chief article of manufacture in this "northern
city cold," as the local poets call it, I answer
you, not wool, nor flax, nor iron, nor paper, nor
ships though all these things are manufactured
in high perfection — but men. The raw material
is produced all round about in the lowlands of
the south and east, and in the highlands of the
north and west; but here, in the grammar-school
and in the university, it is made up for the
markets of the world.

HALF A MILLION OF MONEY.

BT THE AUTHOR OF "BARBARA'S HISTORY."

CHAPTER LXIII. MR. FORSYTH.

MR. TREFALDEN was, undeniably, a very
gentlemanly man. His manners were courteous;
his exterior was prepossessing; and there was
an air of self-possessed quiet about all that he
said and did which made his society very agreeable.
He talked well about what he had read
and seen; and if even his knowledge of things
lying beyond the radius of his own profession
was somewhat superficial, he knew, at all events,
how to turn it to the best account. At the
same time there was nothing of the brilliant
raconteur about him. He never talked in
epigrams, nor indulged in flashes of sarcasm, nor
condescended to make puns, like many men
whose abilities were inferior to his own; but
there was, nevertheless, a vein of subdued
pleasantry running through his conversation,
which, although it was not wit, resembled wit
very closely.

Most people liked him; and it was a noticeable
fact that, amid the wide circle of his business
acquaintances, the best-bred people were
those whose disposition towards him was the
most friendly. Lord Castletowers thought very
highly of him. Viscount Esher, whose legal
affairs he had transacted for the last ten years,
was accustomed to speak of him in terms which
were particularly flattering upon the lips of that
stately gentleman of the old school. The Duke
of Doncaster, the Earl of Ipswich, and other
noblemen of equal standing, looked upon him as
quite a model attorney. Even Lady Castletowers
approved of William Trefalden to a
degree that was almost cordial, and made a
point of receiving him very graciously whenever
he went down into Surrey.

By mere men of business — such men, for
instance, as Laurence Greatorex — he was less
favourably regarded. They could not appreciate
his manner. So far, indeed, from
appreciating it, his manner was precisely the one
thing they most of all disliked and mistrusted.
They could never read his thoughts nor guess
at his cards, nor gain the smallest insight into
his opinions and character. They acknowledged
that he was clever; but qualified the admission
by adding that he was "too clever by half." In
short, William Trefalden's popularity lay, for
the most part, to the west of Temple-bar.