away together to one of the trees on Merù.
Mahadevi then went to Dachsha, and abused
him soundly. At last he took to beating
him. The assembly was in an uproar. The
gods took the part of Dachsha, and led
poor Mahadevi a sad life. He was almost
conquered when he struck the ground with
the locks of his hair, and instantly two heroes
and a whole army of demons rose up from
their mother's breast; cut off Dachsha's head
in the twinkling of an eye; wounded the sun
and moon; and left Mahadevi master of the
field. On the prayer of the gods, sent up
in a round robin, Dachsha was restored
to life. But, his head was missing; nowhere
to be found—a poor, foolish, straying head,
sadly wanted by its trunk! At last, after much
fruitless search, a goat's head was brought
and set on Dachsha's shoulders. Dachsha
came to life on the spot. He was very weak
and sickly, however, and did not recover
himself until a second incarnation. Mahadevi
then took up the body of his darling Sati, and
rushed seven times round the world, howling
horribly. And here we may remark that all
the gods, under every misfortune, do just the
same thing—they rush frantically round the
earth seven times, neither more nor less, and
howl most frightfully all the time.

Thus ends his drama.

WHAT I CALL SENSIBLE LEGISLATION.

I AM probably an older man than you, Mr.
Conductor; I have watched the world for
three-score and ten years; and let me tell
you that you have a good deal yet to learn.
No doubt you think it very high-minded to
look upon that age of the world in which
Household Words is being published as
superior to all past ages, and the race of men
who purchase Household Words as more
enlightened than their ancestors. You may
think it high-minded; but I know it is little-
minded. I have seen the world, and am a man
of the world, and I know the selfish motives
by which men are actuated. I have too much
experience to be deceived. If my juniors don't
blush under my observation, it is modesty they
want, not cause of shame.

And you, sir. I have just been reading a
back number of your journal. I always read
back numbers of newspapers and journals, as
a habit, in order that I may form an opinion
on the topics debated in them, after all
effervescence has gone off. So, I think, you should
drink champagne after it has stood an hour, if
you would know the substantial value of the
wine.

Hearing the other day, for the first time, of
your journal, I inquired its age; and, being
told that it had reached the mature figure of
ninety, I resolved to take it in. I therefore
ordered my bookseller to supply me weekly
with a number. Missing, of course, the period
of extreme youth and silliness, I determined
to begin with you at the age of twenty-one.
I have now read your number twenty-one.
Therein, after wading, with many a cold
shiver, through articles on Railways, Water-
supply, Education, Lieutenant Waghorn, and
such matters, which you seem to think
extremely worthy of attention, I came at last,
by way of climax, to an article in which you
undertake to cast ridicule on legislative
enactments emanating from our forefathers. It
bears the ribald title of "Comic Leaves from
the Statute Book." You begin to talk of
"manifest absurdities" in the first line. Sir,
I will not condescend to bandy words with
you; but, if you will allow me with becoming
gravity to lay before your readers some
examples of the truly paternal character of the
government which blessed our forefathers, you
will confer upon them a great favour. You
will allow them, for once, to enjoy the counsels
of experience, and be improved thereby.

Being a Scotchman, I shall take my stand
upon the laws of my own country. You chose
to laugh at English statutes; let your
conscience as a patriot judge you thereupon. It
is upon the erudite parliamentary Acts of the
northern part of the kingdom of Great Britain
that I now take my stand, because it is
with these that I am most familiar.

Let me ask any woman of experience, who
is a housekeeper, whether it would not be
convenient, if she could know the best and
worst of her expenditure; if there were no
rise and fall of prices to plunge her into a
weekly struggle with the pence-table. Our
contemned ancestors did not allow
unprotected women to be put upon in this way. In
the reign of James the Fourth of Scotland,
the magistrates of towns were enjoined "to
set prices upon bread, ale, and all other
necessarie things, wrought and bought." James
the Fifth appointed a commissioner "for
setting prices on craftsmen's work and stuff,
victual and salt." Then, the law told every
man what price he was to set upon all goods
in his shop: now, the tradesman is left to
make for himself complex calculations, and to
discover through much trouble what he ought
to charge in order to insure an honest living.
Queen Mary decreed that prices should be set
also on wild and tame fowl. "The black
cock," says her Majesty, per statute, "is to
be sax pennies, and the tame hen eight
pennies."

How many wars have been occasioned by
intermeddling with the affairs of foreign
nations? How weak it is to look abroad for
help; how manly to be self-dependent! A
penny earned is more wealth than a shilling
borrowed. How well our ancestors were cared
for in these matters by a wise government,
which gathered up into one hard strong knot
the resources of the country! Charles the
Second prohibited the importation of gold and
silver lace, buttons, thread, or ribands whose
gold or silver were to be found or counterfeited;
linen, cambric, damask, calico, cotton,