and followers in my service who are as unscrupulous
and as vigilant as any in yours, though it is probable
enough that they are not quite so heavily bribed.

After replying to the prime minister of
France in these terms, Christina was wise
enough to leave the kingdom immediately.

For three years more, she pursued her
travels. At the expiration of that time, her
cousin, the king of Sweden, in whose favour
she had abdicated, died. She returned at
once to her own country, with the object of
possessing herself once more of the royal
power. Here the punishment of the merciless
crime that she had sanctioned overtook
her at last. The brave and honest people of
Sweden refused to be governed by the
woman who had ordered the murder of
Monaldeschi, and who had forsaken the
national religion for which her father had
died. Threatened with the loss of her
revenues as well as the loss of her
sovereignty, if she remained in Sweden, the
proud and merciless Christina yielded for the
first time in her life. She resigned once
more all right and title to the royal dignity,
and left her native country for the last
time. The final place of her retirement
was Rome. She died there in the year
sixteen hundred and eighty-nine. Even in the
epitaph which she ordered to be placed on
her tomb, the strange and daring character
of the woman breaks out. The whole record
of that wild, wondrous, wicked existence,
was summed up with stern brevity in this
one line:

CHRISTINA LIVED SEVENTY-TWO YEARS.

CHIP.
A SCHOOL FOR COOKS.

INNUTRITIOUS, wasteful, and unsavoury
cooking, is our national characteristic. No
school of cookery has ever yet thoroughly
answered in this country. The school of
adversity teaches the poor to hunger patiently
when the cupboard is empty, but to reward
themselves, by hasty cooking and large meals,
when they have the chance of filling it. The
food they throw away from ignorance of correct
culinary principles, when food is to be had,
would, properly husbanded and prepared,
satisfy the cravings of hunger when money is
scarce. Prosperity is also a bad school for
the middle classes, whose gastronomic ambition
is literally bounded by roast and boiled.
The roasting-jack and the saucepan, with an
occasional mess or two out of the frying-pan,
so thoroughly satisfy their desires, that they
make it a boast not to like soup, nor made-
dishes, nor stews, nor any of the more wholesome
and succulent modes of enlarging their
narrow range of taste.

No doubt a juicy portion of roast beef or
roast mutton is an excellent dish. Yet,
if the Englishman become too poor to
buy these prime joints, what then?
Practically, he goes without meat; for his wife,
not knowing how to cook inferior parts
properly, he must either abstain, or lay
in a solid stock of indigestion. Most of the
meat in France is—except veal—lean, hard,
and stringy, but none the less nutritious;
because French cooks know how to extract
the best qualities of the meat, how to make
it nutritive, more than tempting—even
delicious—and how to utilise what, here, is
utterly thrown away. Amongst the very
poor in this country, there are whole classes
who do not taste animal food from one year's
end to another, chiefly in consequence of
the prevalent ignorance respecting effectual
modes of economising and cooking it.

When provisions are dear, this subject
(a very important one; but seldom spoken
of without a smile, for some curious and
inexplicable reason) occupies attention. Why,
it is then asked, are not our national school
girls taught to cook? The answers to this
question are as innumerable as the
difficulties to be surmounted in effecting such
an object, and which are too apparent to be
more than alluded to. However, a small and
unpretending effort has been made by a few
ladies of rank to afford means of such
instruction. Near to the Christ Church
schools, in Albany Street, Regent's Park, this
inscription appears upon an otherwise blank
shop window: SCHOOL OF COOKERY AND
RESTAURANT. The objects of the little
establishment are set forth in a prospectus which
we begged from its intelligent
superintendant:

First: To open a kitchen for the poor, where they
may buy their food at little more than cost price, and
go themselves or send their children for instruction in
the elements of cookery. Secondly: A class of girls
desirous of service will he educated under an
experienced man cook, and at the same time receive moral
training from the matron and ladies connected with
the institution. Thirdly: a special class will be
taught cookery for the sick, to qualify them to
become sick nurses.

Young women wishing to receive lessons, will be
taught at a much lower price than they now have to
pay at clubs and elsewhere.

It is proposed to give, as rewards, certificates of
competency to those young women who distinguish
themselves as pupils, and who will thus carry with
them into service the surest evidences of their
proficiency.

Persons becoming subscribers will have the advantage
of sending their own cooks to receive lessons, or
of nominating a girl to the class. They will also be
entitled to have a cook from the school when wanting
help at their own houses.

The plan is answering well. The food is much
prized by the poor, and many families in the
neighbourhood are giving orders for dinners, and dishes of a
better description to be sent to their own houses.

Aid, either in money or custom, is asked. Any
lady ordering soups, jellies, &c., will benefit the
school, and, as a thoroughly good cook is employed,
the orders will be propurly attended to.

Orders from medical men for sick persons will be
received, and the food sent to them if required.