the offer was pressed on the kind attention
of the individual addressed, have specially
inclined you to favour it with a suitable
reply? And, if not, what improvements,
in the way of addition or suppression,
would you be disposed, in the strictest
confidence, to suggest? When the necessary
answers to these questions had been given, I
would have the Papers again collected, on
the same Income Tax principle; and would
immediately set the printers at work. The
Married Ladies' Returns should form the
text, and the Unmarried Ladies' Returns
should be added in the form of notes. No
names or addresses should appear anywhere.
The book should be bound in virgin white,
with orange-flower decorations on the back.
It should be printed in rose-coloured ink,
and it should be issued to the world from a
publishing-house established for the purpose
in Doctors' Commons.

What an inestimable bachelor's Manual
this would be! What a circulation it would
have among all classes! What a delightful
sense of confidence it would awaken in the
mind of the diffident male reader! How
could any man go wrong, with the Hand
Book to refer to, before he committed
himself to a positive course of action? If I had
such a book within my reach at this moment,
I might look out, and learn, the form of offer
which I felt to be most suitable in my own
case; might discover and correct its little
human imperfections, by reference to the
critical notes appended to it; and might
become a happy accepted man (if I could
depend upon my memory) by to-morrow at
latest. How many other men might enjoy
the same benefit, if the practical results of
the experience of others were thus placed at
their disposal—how many extra marriages
might be solemnised in the course of the
first year after the publication of the Hand
Book—I cannot presume to say. I can only
point to the serious necessity that there is
for bringing out the great work that I have
proposed—I can only implore the ladies to
undertake it, in consideration of the literary
honour and glory which it would confer upon
the whole sex.

In the meantime, here I am, shyly hovering
round my fate, and helplessly ignorant
how to rush in and close with it, at once and
for ever. If I could feel sure that the
Bachelor's Manual was likely to be soon
produced, I might, perhaps, manage to wait for
it. But, in the absence of any positive
information on this subject, I feel that I must
make up my mind to do something desperate
immediately. A spoken explanation of my
feelings—unless I could manage to catch my
young woman in the dark—being, in my
case, manifestly out of the question, I suppose
I must bashfully resign myself, after all, to
the alternative of writing. In the event of
my mustering courage enough to compose
the letter, and to send it off when done, the
question is, How had I better behave myself,
when the inevitable embarrassment of the
first meeting with her comes afterwards ?
Shall I begin with words, or begin with
actions ? Or, to be plainer still, which shall
I address first, her waist or her mind ? Will
any charitable married lady kindly consider
my especial weakness of disposition, and send
me privately one word of advice as to which
of these two delicate alternatives it will be
safest for me to adopt ?

INDIAN HILL STATIONS.

IT is impossible to rate the importance of
hill stations at too high a value. If India is
to be preserved, it must owe its security from
future mutinies and revolts, no less than
from foreign invasion, to the presence of an
European force adequate to the control of a
swarming population and of doubtful auxiliaries.
But to keep European soldiers in
health and strength under an Indian sun, is
no easy matter.

There is no one, in time of peace or
inaction, so helpless as the soldier, and
especially the English soldier. The same
men who, during an Indian summer
campaign, can march their twenty or five-and-
twenty miles in a day—no light task with
accoutrements and arms to carry—who bear
sun, hunger, thirst, and fatigue with absolute
gaiety of spirit, contrive, in quiet times, to be
constantly ailing, and show as much ingenuity
in seeking mischief as others in avoiding it.
Nobody who has seen much of the private
soldier can fail to be aware of the
difficulty with which the medical officers can
keep up the health of a regiment, even at
such foreign stations as the residents
consider healthy. No schoolboys were ever
half so reckless as the brave fellows whom
the prospect of a fight will, at any
moment, turn into men of iron; proof against
sickness and weariness. But, when there is
nothing to do, more exciting than platoon
drill or bayonet exercise, the tables are
turned, and Tom and Dick seek out, as from
sheer wantonness, whatever pursuit is most
likely to bring them to the hospital and the
cemetery. If fever exist in the neighbourghood,
the garrison always suffers first and
most of all. Ophthalmia, too, is certain to
select its most favourite victims from among
the troops. As for cholera, in India that
disease is more unaccountably capricious, and
less bounded by any known laws, than in
Europe; still, imprudence can produce
its effect, though care and vigilance are
sometimes baffled. Fruit is temptingly cheap,
and the soldier not only feasts on it, but often,
eats it half ripe. Wet feet, the sun, malaria
from swamps and undrained native towns,
the use of coarse native arrack, and other
injurious drinks, are the causes of very much
of the mortality that prevails. It is not usual
to march in the heat of the day, when this