tune. At the elbow of this young gentleman
an old gentleman is rubbing some raw silk—
as though he longed to wash it—and then
stroking it with a touching fondness. He
carries a catalogue in his hand, and when he
has completed his inspection, hastens to make
some hieroglyphics in it.

Advancing a little more into the bazaar,
and edging our way between all kinds of men
in earnest conversation who "think one and a
quarter enough," or who "wouldn't mind
taking the damaged with the sound," or who
are confident "there is no longer any home
market for such goods"—we reach the first
long counter. Here, we discover a rich assortment
of objects piled about in hopeless
confusion.

Eighty-nine opera glasses: three dozen
"companions"—more numerous than select,
perhaps. Forty dozen black brooches—
ornamental mourning, sent over probably by some
foreign manufacturer, relying in the helplessness
of our Woods-and-Forests-ridden Board
of Health, and in the death-dealing fogs and
stenches of our metropolis. Seventeen dozen
daguerreotye plates, to receive as many
pretty and happy faces. Eighty dozen
brooches; nineteen dozen pairs of ear-rings;
forty-two dozen finger-rings; twenty-one
dozen pairs of bracelets. The quantities
and varieties are bewildering, and the ladies
cluster about in a state of breathless excitement,
or give way to regrets that the
authorities will not sell less than ten dozen
tiaras, or half a dozen clocks.

The French popular notion, that every
Englishman has an exhaustless store of riches,
seems to hold as firmly as ever; for, here we
find about three hundred dozen portes monnais,
and countless purses, evidently of French
manufacture. Presently we are shown what
Mr. Carlyle would call "a gigantic system of
shams," in five hundred and thirty-eight gross
of imitation turquoises. We stroll on, amused
at the variety of the scene—the intent looks
with which men are peering into all kinds of
packages, testing all kinds of manufactures in
all sorts of ways, and making notes eagerly
in their catalogues. We pause before seven
crosses, and nine crucifixes, "mounted." A
particular interest attaches to these gaudy
ceremonial trinkets of Berlin ware. They
were put up to auction with a cigar-holder,
and eleven finger-rings, for the sum of three
pounds fifteen shillings. At the farther end
of the long counter before which we have
been pausing, are some very finely-executed
bronzes, and Dresden, and other vases, marked
at exceedingly low prices. Yet, according
to the catalogue, they have all been
undervalued, and the sale of them is a Government
speculation.

To realise an idea of the Queen's Bazaar on
the morning of sale, it is necessary to have a
vivid sense of the unpleasantness of hearing
every imaginable air played at short intervals
on every kind of instrument, by performers of
various degrees of skill. We were suddenly
attracted to the second counter in the room
by a few loud notes played upon an oboe, by
a short gentleman with a long moustache.
The counter was loaded with brass instruments,
lying in confused heaps: some packed
in papers, some bursting through their covers,
and others glittering in the sun, in all the
nakedness of polished brass. We began to
think that a brass band had been seized by the
ruthless searchers of the Custom-house; but,
on referring to our catalogue, we learnt that
this heap of cornopeans, clarionets, ophicleides,
trombones, clarions, violoncelli, and guitars,
had been undervalued according to the
Custom-house authorities, and had been bought
on behalf of Government. An organ with
sixteen barrels had also fallen into the hands
of Government, for something under fifty-
three pounds. A solitary drum had been
resigned to the authorities, as an
undervalued article: it was the only instrument
which remained untouched.

Near these musical instruments, lay a great
variety of china from all parts of the world.
Designs the most graceful, and distortions the
most grotesque, were huddled together. Two
salt-cellars, which had been undervalued, were
inside of two butter-boats, that had been
similarly treated; while two egg-cups, detained
by the majesty of English law, stood modestly
beside some of the splendid pottery of Dresden.
Near all this china, were about one hundred-
and-twenty party-coloured Chinese lamps, in
the immediate neighbourhood of twenty-eight
cottages (dolls'), napkin-rings, pincushions,
nut-crackers, paper-knives, &c., all of the
celebrated Swiss carving, of which some splendid
specimens are promised for the Great
Exhibition.

Tired with the endless variety of the
Government Bazaar, we must pass over—seventy-
six dozen scissors, seventeen dozen bellows,
and even ninety-five coffee biggins, to say
nothing of nineteen larding-skewers, thirteen
scoops, fifty thousand tickets in sheets,
and one thousand box tops—to come to a few
parcels over which we saw many gentlemen
pause, and to which ladies hastened with eager
steps. Here they are;—sixty thousand gross of
buttons! Two hundred and fifty-two dozen
inkstands; hundred and fifty gross of hair pencils.
Of the stocks of shawls, barèges, and handkerchiefs,
we do not pretend to say anything;
but it appears rather trifling to squabble over
the value of two embroidered aprons, and one
scarf. However, the authorities appear to be
excellent judges of the value of a light crust,
and the cost of confectionery: inasmuch as
they have thought fit to detain, as
undervalued, no less than fifty-five patés de foies
gras, and a very promising consignment of
caviare.

Among the seizures which we find in the
Queen's Bazaar, is a muslin dress skirt,
embroidered; one robe with body; one scarf;
twelve collars; innumerable dress pieces; and