between France and England in a social point
of view. The residence of Our Boys and Girls
is clearly subject to an indispensable
condition which every common-sense Englishman
and Frenchman—except an Ultramontane—
would take for granted; namely, that their
religious profession, as Protestants, be strictly
respected. Catholic children, of course, follow
their creed; but others attend a Protestant
place of worship—a Temple, as it is called—
have free possession of, and access to, Bibles
and Church of England Prayer-books, besides
other works of an evangelically religious
tendency; and are visited, from time to time, by
an English chaplain, for the purpose of
catechising, preparation for the Protestant rite
of confirmation, and religious instruction in
general, in accordance with the reformed
faith held by their forefathers. All this has
gone on smoothly for some years past, with
the full consent and aid of the masters and
mistresses of these pensionnats, themselves
Catholics; and the system has worked
satisfactorily.

But, it seemed good to Monseigneur Parisis,
bishop of Arras, Boulogne, and St. Omer, to
address a pastoral letter to his clergy, and to
them alone, counselling the excommunication
of Catholic teachers who should take charge
of Protestant children, without perverting
them from the faith in which they were born.
It met with no support from the more liberal-
minded of the clergy; it gave great pain, and
more than pain, to many conscientious school-
mistresses, themselves sincere disciples of
Rome, but who still wished to fulfil their
duty to the parents of children of other creeds.
It roused a storm of indignation among
persons connected with the instruction of youth
throughout the department of the Pas-de-
Calais. True it is, not half-a-dozen other
bishops in France would have affixed their
signature and their sign of the cross to such
a persecuting document; but the point which
concerned us, by concerning Our Boys and
Girls, is that Monseigneur Parisis's see is the
one wherein almost all the mixed schools
receiving English children are situate. Had
he been Bishop of Toulon or Strasbourg, his
peculiarities would have been comparatively
of but little consequence.

All religious sects in France are allowed
the free enjoyment of their opinions.
Consequently, the Mayor of Boulogne, urged by
the British Consul, who was urged by the
parents and guardians of heretical children,
applied to the government; and the Minister
of Public Instruction issued a dignified and
temperate circular, in which he assured
French residents generally, that inmates of
schools need be under no apprehension that
interference would be permitted with their
freedom of conscience or worship. On this,
the bishop drew in his horns, and composed
a second letter, in which he made a nice
distinction between the schoolmasters' simply
and passively allowing their pupils to go to
temples, and sinfully accompanying them
thither and sanctioning the heterodox
doctrine by their presence. The one they might
do; the other, not, without incurring episcopal
censure. Immediately several masters,
contrary to their custom, personally conducted
their English trusts to the English church,
in defiance of the prelate's threats. And so
the matter has rested ever since, and is not
likely to trouble us again. The aggressor
came for wool, and went back shorn.

Again; it may be asked,  "What style of
young people are Our Boys and Girls? Are
they such as our Toms and our Harriets can
associate with?" Now, great disappointment
will be generally avoided, by first defining
exactly to yourself what ware it is you
want, before going to market; and then by
ascertaining what special wares are offered
by certain markets. No market will offer
all wares for sale. Where other men find
their affair, you, perhaps, may not find yours;
and vice versâ. If you are in quest of an
Eton, a Harrow, or a Rugby, where your son
may form friendships with aristocratic youths;
if you are in hopes that fagging obediently
may lead to a seat even in a reformed Parliament,
and that boating may introduce to a
government clerkship—don't come here. If
you require a school of extremest selectness,
where a strictly limited number of young
ladies, or young gentlemen, the sons and
daughters of noblemen and gentlemen only,
are received, with a warrant for the absolute
exclusion of all pupils of low connections,
or in any way connected with trade
and shopkeeping—don't come here. If you
are looking out for a forcing-school, where
childrens' heads, hands, and limbs, are
crammed with knowledge and accomplishments
on the high-pressure system, whether
there is room for them or not, never leaving
the attention free to wander and select
subjects of its own, not even during walks
and meal-times—don't hope to find here
what you seek. If you insist on your son's
becoming a double first-class man at Oxford,
or a Smith's prize-man and a Chancellor's
medallist at Cambridge—don't send him for
his preliminary education to swell the ranks
of our boys. If you wish your daughter's
training to include a carriage's stopping-the-
way at the door of the boarding-school, three
times a-week, with the attendance of a
mistress of deportment to teach the young lady
how to get into the said carriage, how to sit
or repose there, and how to get out again—
send your aspirant after chariot graces elsewhere,
not here. Our girls have occasional
treats to the sea-side or to the woods, in an
omnibus or in the carrioles of the country,
and they ride to and fro merrily enough;
but, they are not brought up exactly like
ladies born to their carriage-and-four as a
matter of course. It all depends upon what
you want; different people look upon the
same things in such a strangely different