body, for the benefit of those who are nearest
and dearest to us.

The cause of this lies in the kind of home we
of the middle classes make for ourselves; in the
excessive exclusiveness and isolation which, we
think the only safe or decent mode of life; in
the belief each man has that the four walls of his
titular castle are built of better brick than any
other man's four walls, and enclose pearls of
price that would be spoilt if allowed to be set
beside other pearls of as great price. No check
of public opinion reaches the home circle of
the middle classes, save on those rare holiday
occasions which call forth company manners.
Even a "lodger," though becoming by time
part of the family, necessitates a little self-
control, wanting in the ordinary conditions of a
home life; for no one likes to show the worst
of himself, or herself, to a person not connected
with him, or her, by blood or marriage. To
people who can take up their hats and umbrellas
and walk out of the house at their own sweet
wills we are considerate and courteous. We
lavish on strangers and we starve our own.

There is no greater education into vulgarity
than home carelessness. A man or woman
brought up under such a system is ruined for
all the reality of refinement in after years. The
surliness too often allowed at home, where
children are permitted to be snappish to each
other, disobliging and discourteous, ruins the
manners as much as it hurts the mind. Hence
we come to company manners, to a sickly
sweetness put on simply for the occasion, to a
formality of speech and an oppressiveness of
attentions, to an exaggerated politeness that is
so terribly afraid of transgressing into liberties
as to be absolute bondage, and to all the silly
little affectations belonging to the condition.

We never know any one whom we have not
lived with, and even then not always. To be
admitted into the Temple does not include
entrance into the adytum; and we may remain for
weeks in a house where master and mistress and
maids are all reticent alike, and may know
nothing of the reality underlying the surface.
People of whom I once knew something, and
who were notoriously ill-matched but
marvellously polite, could keep their house full of
company, and yet allow none of their guests to
find out that the husband and wife were not on
speaking terms. All the communication between
them, that was absolutely necessary, was
carried on by writing. Personally, these two,
dispensing smiles and civilities to all around,
held no direct intercourse.  Yet they managed
so well that no one saw through the screen.

With company manners and company dress,
there is also a company voice. Who does
not know that false voice of society ? Mincing
or thrown boldly forward, flung into the chest
or pitched up into the head, it is all the same—
the company voice, accent, choice of words,
and register—all artificial alike. And there are
company gestures. People sit and stand and
walk, and use their hands according to the
different degrees of familiarity in which they
stand towards their society. There is a vast
deal of company make-believe among us;
and if we would only give half the time we
now bestow on "looking pretty" and "behaving
pretty" in society, to being sweet tempered,
and amiable, and careful of pleasing, at
home, it would be all the better for ourselves
and our families, and a gain in the way of true
civilisation.

OLD NEWSPAPERS.

IN the year 1679, some truth-loving persons
set up a certain news-sheet entitled Mercurius
Domesticus, published to prevent false reports;
and for some time it was in high favour, as it
published many strange and startling facts for
the pleasure of contradicting them. This,
however, was only one of many Mercuries—the
first English newspaper having borne the name
of Mercury. It was dated 1588, and a copy
still exists in the British Museum. It is from
these old Gazettes and Mercuries that we cull at
random a few advertisements. There are many
inquiries after run-away slaves: as "Lost, near
Stocks Market, a negro boy called Kent, aged
ten. His hair cut short round the crown of his
head, with silver rings in his ears, and a russet
cloth coat edged with blue, and cap of the same,
belonging to Mr. Julius Deeds. Whoever shall
bring the same shall have a guinea reward."
The date is 1691. We often meet with
advertisements conveying the information that at
certain particular times and places a post will
be established for the purpose of carrying
letters; for instance, "These are to give
notice, that, during his majestie's being at
Windsor, there will go a post thither every
evening from the General Post-office in Lombard-
street, July, 1678." Travellers, to whom,
speed is an object, are informed that "A flying
waggon from Bath to London in three days
begins on April 7, 1729, and sets out from the
market-place in Bath, and comes to the White
Swan, Holborn Bridge, on Wednesday, and
returns every Thursday to the said Unicorn in
Bath. Passengers to pay ten shillings each,
and a penny a pound for their goods. Performed
by me, if God permit, Nicholas Peare."

What will the tea drinkers of the present day
think of the following scrap of useful information:
"That excellent, and by all physitians
approved, China drink, called by the Cheneans
tcha, and by other nations tay or tee, is sold at
the Sultaness Head, by the Royal Exchange,
London." This appears in a number of the
Commonwealth Mercury for 1658, which also
contains a doleful account of the death of
"His most renowned Highness Oliver Lord
Protector," and of the installation of his son,
with the proclamation and the account of the
rapture of the people, who did eagerly cry,
"God save his Highness Richard Lord
Protector!" In the same number we find the
following characteristic announcement: "There
is newly published A few Sighs from Hell; a