especially the "gentlemen ridders," the six
favourites, and the champagne—the
consumption of which is imperative upon everybody
on that day—when two hundred
thousand bottles are regularly carried from London,
and as regularly consumed! Under this
influence the company becomes gay and even
spirituel—a circumstance from which M.
Texier makes the wise deduction that the
tristesse of the English is caused by the
ordinary liquids which they imbibe—the
monstrous grogs, astounding gins, and
extraordinary porters before alluded to. If this
view of the case be the correct one, we have
only to open our ports to French wines,
and abolish those estimable persons Messrs.
Barclay and Perkins, Combe, Meux, Truman,
&c., together with all the " Co.'s entire," in
order to become as spirituel, as vivant, as
aimable, and, perhaps, as politically prosperous
as our neighbours!

The author here tells an anecdote which
gives us great insight into the sporting world.
A young gentleman whom he had met in one of
the great libraries of St. James's Street ("chez
Sam") a few minutes before the race, said
that he wished to stake a few guineas in
favour of "Teddington," but that he could
not find "a tenant." At this moment "One
of the great kings of the sport, Lord Spencer,
happened to pass, to whom he communicated
his embarrassment, and who replied: 'I have
your man—wait a few minutes.' Five
minutes had scarcely passed, when there
presented himself, on the part of Lord Spencer,
an ill-dressed man, whose rude manner and
coarse language proclaimed the English workman.
He was a mason. The gentleman
proposed a bet of forty pounds, but the mason
replied with disdain, that it was not worth
his while to trouble himself with so little;
he made no bets under five hundred pounds;
and he accordingly walked off." M. Texier
learned afterwards that the mason was the
representation of the masons in general, who
had subscribed each a few shillings towards
a sum amounting to three thousand pounds
sterling, for the purpose of speculation. M.
Texier learned also—what is not generally
known—that this practice prevails among
every other corporation of workmen, who
have each their representative on the turf.

The author gives a glowing account of the
return from the Derby; and here he may
perhaps be pardoned for one mistake which
he makes. He says that it is a common
diversion on these occasions, especially among
the aristocracy, to throw bags of flour at one
another—a proceeding which he quietly
describes as "very gay." The fact is, he
happened to be in the neighbourhood of the
officers of a certain "crack regiment," and
might well suppose that so brilliant a joke
could not be ot their invention.

But to note all M. Texier's eccentricities
would be an endless task. How his moustache
is voted "shocking " by a sagacious
public; how a bible is forced upon him at a
table d'hôte; how he sees the company go
to a Drawing Room (where the English ladies
had crowded all their feathers and diamonds
upon their persons, in order to dazzle the
foreigners); how he cannot succeed in getting
a cutlet at a tavern, or a place at the theatre,
or any comfort (upon which the English pride
themselves so much) in the houses;—are
all circumstances told with an appropriate
amount of pathos. But M. Texier saw
certainly more than we have seen in the
playbills; for he tells us (in illustration of the
rigid distinction between classes in this
country) that these announcements invariably
commence with the words—"The nobility,
gentry, and common people, are respectfully
informed."

Taking M. Texier all in all, we must
congratulate him on having contrived to concentrate,
within the space of a small volume, all
the worst features of the worst prejudices
which have for many ages tended to
separate—far more effectually than fifty Channels
—the two most civilized nations of the world.
The progress of science has united them
mterially: mentally, gentlemen like M. Texier
still continue to keep them apart.

Is it not, let us gravely ask in conclusion,
an extraordinary fact that a writer associated
with a respectable journal published in Paris,
can produce such absurdities as these, and
show such profound ignorance as this,
undetected, among a great intelligent and polite
people like the French; while if one
hundredth part of this nonsense were written by
an Englishman concerning the manners and
customs of France, he would be exposed by
his own countrymen through the length and
breadth of his own country, within a month
of his making such a fool of himself.

A PENNY A WEEK.

OUR Penny Society has been in existence
for a number of years: if I am not mistaken,
it is fast entering its "teens." During the first
stage of its existence it appeared to be but
a sickly bantling, with no promise of the
vigour of its after life. Some of its best
friends shook their heads in grave doubt, and
its own particular godfathers professed to
have small faith in its ever arriving at years
of discretion. However, if all goes on as it
does this present New Year of grace, I trust
to its reaching a green old age, though I may
not live to witness it.

We do not pretend to address ourselves
to the mechanic so much as to his wife and
children. To them we say "You are too
poor to subscribe to a Savings' Bank; you
have no need of a Benefit Club: pay to our
society one penny, or twice that amount if
you can, every week, and when Christmas
comes round with its short dark days, its
cold frosty nights, its pelting storms, and its
sharp biting winds, you will receive from us