art. We shall then be gifted with a gamut
of tastes, as complete as now is our gamut
of sounds. For instance, loaves of bread will
then be made to answer exactly to each of
the savoury notes of the scale. You will be
able to compose chromatic sauces, to serve as
the variations to diatonic dishes. You will
cook a grand pastoral dinner in E flat major,
to be followed by an allegro supper in D.
That the books, though eccentric, are not bad
at the bottom, your own acute judgment
shall decide for itself. You are aware,
Madame, that women, in France, are not
treated with sufficient consideration. They
have too little to do; they are kept far too
much in the back-ground; they exercise too
little influence both in public and private
affairs; and are not consulted half often
enough about things which concern their
sons and their husbands. Well; the writer
of this very book proposes to remedy the evil
of this completely. Henceforth, instead of
gentlemen taking the lead, 'Mrs. and Mr.
Smith' will be the polite style. Listen only
to one short passage: 'Females in general
are the epitome of all that is good and beautiful.
Why do men shave their beards if it be
not to resemble the feminine type? Woman
is the second edition of man, revised and
corrected, and considerably embellished.' There,
Madame Dubois, what do you think of that?"

"The books are not heretical, after all!"
was my answer. "Study is certainly a very
improving thing. You and M. Victor have
quite a right to cultivate your minds, if you
do not neglect your dinner-times. Perhaps,
by-and-bye, I may allow the Messieurs D, to
peruse a few extracts, if you will make it the
effect of your goodness to select the most
edifying parts for their instruction—like that
which you read just now. Never mind things
being cold for once. The soup shall soon be
hot again. I'll whip up an omelette to eclipse
the first. The roast shall retire into the oven
for a moment; and the salad will be the
better for a second dressing."

"Bravo, Madame! I am wide awake now.
When we pass from Civilisation to Harmony,
you shall rule the roast and boiled, in the
Communal Palace in which I dwell. For, in
that happy state of existence, no work is to
be done but labours of love."

A CHILD'S HISTORY OF ENGLAND.

CHAPTER XXXVII.

The Long Parliament assembled on the
third of November, one thousand six hundred
and forty-one. That day week the Earl of
Strafford arrived from York, very sensible that
the spirited and determined men who formed
that Parliament were no friends towards him,
who had not only deserted the cause of the
people, but who had, on all occasions, opposed
himself to their liberties. The King told him,
for his comfort, that the parliament "should
not hurt one hair of his head." But, on the
very next day, Mr. Pym, in the House of
Commons, and with great solemnity,
impeached the Earl of Strafford as a traitor.
He was immediately taken into custody, and
fell from his proud height in a moment.

It was the twenty-second of March before
he was brought to trial in Westminster Hall,
where, although he was very ill, and suffered
great pain, he defended himself with such
ability and majesty, that it was doubtful
whether he would not get the best of it after
all. But, on the thirteenth day of the trial,
Pym produced in the House of Commons a
copy of some notes of a council, found by
young Sir HARRY VANE in a red velvet
cabinet belonging to his father (Secretary
Vane, who sat at the council-table with the
Earl), in which Strafford had distinctly told
the King that he was free from all rules and
obligations of government, and might do with
his people whatever he liked; and in which
he had added—"You have an army in
Ireland that you may employ to reduce this
kingdom to obedience." It was not clear
whether by the words "this kingdom," he
had really meant England or Scotland, but
the Parliament contended that he meant
England, and of course this was treason. At
the same sitting of the House of Commons it
was resolved to bring in a bill of attainder
declaring the treason to have been committed:
in preference to proceeding with the trial by
impeachment, which would have required the
treason to have been proved.

So a bill was brought in at once, was
carried through the House of Commons by a
large majority, and was sent up to the House
of Lords. While it was still uncertain
whether the House of Lords would pass it
and the King consent to it, Pym disclosed to
the House of Commons that the King and
Queen had both been plotting with the
officers of the army to bring up the soldiers
and control the Parliament, and also to
introduce two hundred soldiers into the
Tower of London, to effect the Earl's escape.
The plotting with the army was revealed by
one GEORGE GORING, the son of a lord of that
name: a bad fellow, who was one of the
original plotters, and turned traitor. The
King had actually given his warrant for the
admission of the two hundred men into the
Tower, and they would have got in too but for
the refusal of the governor—a sturdy Scotchman
of the name of BALFOUR—to admit them.
These matters being made public, great
numbers of people began to riot outside the
Houses of Parliament, and to cry out for the
execution of the Earl of Strafford, as one of
the King's chief instruments against them.
The bill passed the House of Lords while the
people were in this state of agitation, and
was laid before the King for his assent,
together with another bill, declaring that the
Parliament then assembled should not be
dissolved or adjourned without their own
consent. The King—not unwilling to save