suggestions of improvement made by the For in these days we are not only bound committee of management, even when to live but constrained to keep moving, originated and supported by native gen- and among the gentry or upper-middle tlemen of the highest culture and standing. classes, simple vegetation is become not The most practical of all these proposals only disreputable but difficult. So lately was to procure the services of one of the as the end of the last century, as in the higher officials of the British Museum to centuries preceding it, the claims of blood reorganize the whole collection, which were still strong with the squires and might easily be done in the handsome lairds, if ready money was scarce. Cabuilding where it is at present located, dets who had little or nothing left them in were the best use made of the numerous the way of provision, naturally hung on to apartments at the disposal of the govern- the head of the family. "Jock, the laird's ment; but the cry of the Colonial Office brother," became a proverbial expression for economy knocked the scheme on the in Scotland for the well-born parasite head. Sir Penrose Julyan, in fact, with and loafer, who looked after the horses, the best intentions, did the island a seri- hounds, and hawks, acted in short as studous injury when he made his report upon groom, head-keeper, and factotum, and in her finances; and there is no doubt that, return had his clothes and keep, with his had his recommendations been thoroughly share of the bottles of an evening. Simicarried out, irreparable injury would have lar habits were in force to the south of been inflicted upon many of those remains the Tweed; and Sir Hildebrand Osbaldiof historical grandeur, which so ancient stone's household was a fair specimen of and wealthy a country as England should the life in many an ancient hall or manor. not hesitate to preserve in their integrity, house, when encumbrances were accumueven at some cost to the national ex-lating fast with the exigencies of a more chequer.

There are few parts of the world so varied in antiquarian interest as Malta. The gigantic Phoenician temples, in size, number, and state of preservation unequalled elsewhere; the Roman villas and tombs; the early Christian crypts and catacombs; the fragments of the work of Norman builders during the Sicilian occupation; and the gorgeous and lavish splendor in carving, painting, tapestry, and other adornments with which the knights decorated churches, palaces, and even hospitals, altogether make up a panorama of the world's architectural progress and decline. That England should add to these grand features is perhaps hardly to be expected; but we may hope that the New Zealander of the future, on his way to view the ruins of London Bridge, will not find every trace of the Knights of Malta obliterated in their ancient strong hold by British utilitarianism.

From Blackwood's Magazine.
OUTLYING PROFESSIONS.

As the world gradually ages and gets "settled up." the struggle for life, or at least for luxury, becomes more desperate every day. Parents with a plurality of sons, more and more puzzled as to disposing of them, are slow to echo the sentiment of the Psalmist as to the happiness of the man with a quiver full of children.

refined civilization. Sometimes, in Scotland, a younger son was started on a small farm, where with scanty stock and scantier capital he managed somehow to make the two ends meet. The alternative of the easier sort of existence was all very well for those who had little self-respect and less ambition. The hall table was supplied from the home fields, the coverts, and the ponds, from the hills or the streams; great hogsheads of strong beer were brewed by the butler; almost the only outgoings in ready money were for the gay clothes that were worn threadbare, and for the cellar, which was never an inconsiderable item. Where there was self-respect, or any spirit of enterprise, a younger son would go in for a pair of colors; or perhaps, with the example of the immortal Whittington before him, he might try his fortunes in commerce or trade. In cases of the kind, like the prodigal in the parable, he had his portion of the inheritance, such as it was, and thenceforth his relations washed their hands of him. If his luck turned up trumps, so much the better; the family had any credit he might gain, or possibly the reversion of a fortune. If he came down to the swine and the husks, little more was heard of him. Communications by letter were so slow and precarious that it seemed hardly worth while writing home for the remittance, which, in any case, would be almost certainly refused. And it must be owned that it was a happy state of things when anxious parents did not live under

the shadow of perpetual posts, and in the | atively little but the excitement of ad terror of pressing and peremptory de- venture, with an occasional handful of mands. doubloons to be squandered as fast as they were earned. And the command of these expeditions was a tempting profes sion to men who, if they missed the mines and golden realms they went in search of, could fall back in any case on the Spanish galleons.

Even in those days the time had gone by when foreign soldiering in one shape or another might lead to high fortune. When arms were the only career of a gentleman, unless he took orders in the Catholic Church with the probabilities of good preferment, the choice of a profes- The bold English adventurers who first sion was greatly simplified. We know sailed the Pacific were actuated by patrihow many Scotchmen got their bread by otism, and by a detestation of the pope, foreign service, if they did not make a the priests, and the Spaniards, almost as name in foreign wars. Few of the old much as by cupidity. But the profession county families but had sent sons to be they originated proved so attractive to enrolled in the Scottish Archer Guards of their seafaring countrymen, that, after the French kings. And the fashion con- passing through sundry doubtful stages, tinued after the Scottish Guard had been it was degraded into the buccaneering suppressed or swamped by the admission that bordered on piracy. Buccaneering, of native Frenchmen. Through the Thirty strictly speaking, was merely the romance Years' War, Dugald Dalgetties were to be of the butcher's business. The buccafound everywhere to the front, changing neer hunted down the herds of wild cattle indifferently from the service of the king that had multiplied and ran wild on many of Sweden to that of the emperor and of the West Indian islands, and establishback again, if they did not actually "take ing his headquarters on Tortuga, he a turn with Bethlem Gabor or the Janisa- smoked the flesh and sold the superabunries." Fair nominal pay, though too fre- dance. But those amphibious vikings, quently in arrear, with the chances of being far removed from law, were by no plunder, contented the hardy Scot who means fastidious as to how they made had been used to roughing it from his their money. They chased the Spaniards boyhood. It was characteristic that in the on the sea as they hunted the wild cattle wealthier England soldierly aspirations in the forests, and naturally, when the soared a higher flight, and aimed at es- Spaniards had the better of them, no mercy tates to be gained and bequeathed, as was shown. They ravaged the Spanish well as at excitement and glory. There colonies; they stormed and sacked fortihave never been such prizes in the irreg-fied cities; and when regular business was ular professions as in the golden days of slack, or the Spaniards unusually formidElizabeth, though too often the expecta able, they yielded easily to irresistible tion proved sadly delusive, and the ad- temptation, and preyed upon peaceful and venturers broke their gallant hearts in neutral traders. So that now and then, if following their Wills-o'-the-wisp through an Englishman came into the clutches of the swamps and forests of America. But one of his Majesty's cruisers, he might it was worth while risking much for these be hung up in chains at Port Royal or dazzling dreams, when the mere indul elsewhere. But when any day he might gence in them half satisfied their victims. be brought face to face with death, in The sons of the old Devonshire halls shape of shot, fever, or famine, the particthe Raleighs, the Gilberts, and the Gre- ular form was merely matter of detail. If villes were modern crusaders of a some- he died game he had the regard of his what more practical bent than their fanat- comrades, who formed the circle in which ical prototypes. The discovery of an El his posthumous character was to be disDorado was at least as likely as founding cussed; while on the other hand, in buca Christian kingdom of the cross, with the caneering, as on the Stock Exchange or holy sepulchre for its Kaaba. It_prom-elsewhere, success was sure to cover a ised infinitely greater gains to the English race; and patriotism with the promoters of these expeditions was so inextricably confounded with personal motives, that it must have been difficult or impossible for themselves to distinguish one from the other. They had no difficulty in finding recruits among the hardy southern seamen, to whom they could offer compar

multitude of sins. A rich man could sue out his letters of pardon, and even take high office under a tolerant government, grateful to him for adding to the national wealth, and recruiting seamen who might serve in the navy. He might have his snug tombstone in the parish church, with a tablet in the chancel commemorating his virtues and parochial bequests. Did not

Morgan, after being the terror of the trop- | over the walls from the shoulder of some ical seas, hang or pardon his former comrades in his capacity of deputy governor of Jamaica, and ultimately die in the odor of respectability, a knight of considerable landed property?

influential connection, men are only admitted through the narrow wicket gate after the preliminaries of searching competitive examinations.

But before the emoluments of the Indian But although the spirit of enterprise Civil Service had been cut down, pushing may still be alive in England, it is idle young men of small means had golden sighing for the opportunities of that golden opportunities elsewhere. Australia was time. It is long since buccaneers and really at the other side of the world, — "gentlemen adventurers" were bluntly except at some such_penal settlement as designated as pirates; for all their cruis- Botany Bay, the English had hardly ing, however successful it might be, could touched it. But the English flag was set only bring them up in an Execution Dock. up over a vast continent, which was open Even irregularly honorable soldiering was to the dashing adventurers who chose to discouraged with the institution of a stand take their lives in their hands. When the ing army. Nevertheless, for long the young Englishman landed at Port Philip marvellous "expansion of England" of- or Port Jackson, the good of all the counfered wonderful chances to the young and try was before him. When he had bought energetic. There were pagoda-trees to be the beginnings of his flocks and herds, he shaken in India, by soldiers as well as was much in the position of the patriarchs civilians. In fact, the one calling was Lot and Abraham. Without paying up confounded with the other, for a critical any cash to speak of, without transfer emergency might turn a clerk into a com- of title-deeds or dealings with the lawyers, mander-in-chief. Clive left his stool in he might settle and squat down in any the Company's offices at Madras to take district that pleased him. As in the case a seat in the House of Lords after his of Lot, the first thing to be considered campaigns, and in the mean time he had was to find a district that was fertile and passed through the treasury of Moorshe- well-watered, for droughts are the curse of dabad, where, after filling his pockets Australia as of Canaan. But then there pretty freely, he had gone away "aston was ample elbow-room, and it was only a ished at his own moderation." Men of in- question of going further into the interior. ferior talents, without being Clives, found It is true that in Australia as in Canaan easy roads to wealth in the laxity of public there were other difficulties to be overmorals. Underpaid civilians, after longer come. The natives, from an absurd noor shorter exile, came home to the old tion that they had some right to their country as full-blown nabobs, to build pal- hereditary possessions, were apt to be aces, to order round "more curricles "for troublesome. But the Australian blacks their guests, and to raise the price of were neither very numerous nor very war. everything, from " eggs to rotton bor- like: they were amenable, besides, to the oughs," on the old county families, who unfamiliar seductions of strong drink, and regarded them jealously. Even after the we fear the pioneers of our civilization, as reforms in the Indian administration, a rule, were by no means particular in there was still romance in the career. their dealings. We suspect that many of The Company had set its face against them came to class "the black fellows" corruption, but the pay was enormously with the emus and kangaroos, knocking increased. Sybarites like Jos. Sedley had one and the other over indiscriminately. only to keep reasonably steady, and they Be that as it may, the savages soon had a dropped into a succession of fat appoint wholesome terror of the guns that carried ments. A collector of Boglywallah might further and straighter than their boomeindulge himself in the luxuries within his rangs; and withdrawing to the recesses reach, and nevertheless could hardly help of the scrub, they wisely gave a wide berth saving largely. Then half the quick-witted to the intruders, merely knocking an ocsoldiers were sent "upon the staff;" or, casional bush shepherd on the head detached from the regiments they seldom offences which were generally avenged on saw, drew large pay and allowances as in- principles of vicarious justice. These dependent political agents. At that time, were happy days, when with slack compewe repeat, there was still romance in an tition and ready markets for the fleeces of Indian career, but ruthless retrenchment the fast-multiplying flocks, the squatters, and radical military reforms have gone far in spite of epidemics and droughts, extowards reducing the prizes in the profes-tended their domains and accumulated sion. And now, instead of getting a lift fortunes.

agreeably checkered by hardships and some daily drudgery. If we meant to expatriate a boy permanently, sending him where the struggle for existence could be only smoothed, we should send him for choice to a genial climate, where mere existence might be enjoyable all the year round.

Talking of genial climates, Florida sug. gests itself; and Florida has been "considerably cracked up" of late, and is become the fashion with North American consumptives. Well, we fancy that the seaports and watering places of Florida are all that can be desired in point of brightness and balmy atmosphere; while the orange-groves, planted by the orangefarmers, remind one of the gardens of Atlantis, or the glories of "the Golden Shell." It is true that the soft climate may be somewhat sensuous, and predispose the settler to indolence, but that is a mere matter of detail. But the young adventurer in Florida, who may answer any one of those advertisements that have been so frequent of late, is hardly likely to make his home on the sunny coast or among islands and keys where the tropical heat is tempered by the sea-breezes. He must buy his strip of soil up some swampy river, stealing snake-like beneath the black shadows of the jungle, and if he gives no more than the value, it may be cheap enough. But he must proceed to clear it, stirring the seeds of the fevers that lie in the slime and the leaf-mould, all ready to fructify: the very wild pigs that will come grubbing round his log hut seem wasted down to skin and sinew by the malaria; and if he hope to hold on to gather his orange-crops, he should start with an iron constitution and unlimited supplies of quinine.

tence, after serving a long and hard apprenticeship. We have seen that the fertile districts of Australia have been settled up, and the great squatters have been fencing themselves within their runs, by leagues upon leagues of iron fencing. That alone shows the amount of capital indispensable for the business, putting the necessity of stocking and getting land out of the question. As for the mines, they are being worked by syndicates or companies (limited), with great employment of labor, and a vast expenditure on machinery. There is hardly a place for the poor educated man even in the cities where clerks and shop-keepers are perhaps as plentiful as in England, and where they have taken to "raising" their own professional men, who start with the advantage of local connections. The Cape! With the exception of that episode of the diamond-fields, there was never much probability of making more than a living there; and now that the game is being crowded back beyond the Transvaal and the Orange Free State, those who would follow in the wagon-ruts of the Harrises and Gordon Cummings must go elsewhere in the Dark Continent. Were it not for the scarcely explored regions between the Upper Congo and the Upper Nile, the African elephant would be almost as rare as old English wild cattle, and our "ivory" would be bone or vegetable imitations. Canada! We are always hearing a great deal of Canadian immigration, and of the riches of the virgin soil between the Saskatchewan and the Pacific. Granting the fertility of the "Fertile Belt" and other districts; granting the magnificence of the timber on the great western rivers, and the fact that blasting reefs in the river beds, and laying down rails by the thousand miles, must Mining enterprise in the western terri. facilitate the transmission of the produce tories of the Union has been pretty nearly to markets, we can recall hardly an in-"played out," at least for small men; but stance of a Canadian settler who has come back with a fortune. Any prizes drawn out there that we happen to have heard of have been fished out of shipping companies and financial speculations. To rise above the lot of the laborer or lumberer, in British America more than else where, you must command a moderate sum of money; and the life of the ordinary farmer is as dreary as can well be conceived. He has fewer comforts, of course, than his brother in England, for he is farther removed from anything like educated society; he toils at high pressure through the short spring and the summer, and in the long winter his life is a blank, dis

cattle-raising has come very much into favor. Companies with large capital have been forming, and the cry is "still they come." We believe that those who were first in the field, or rather in the prairie, have been fairly successful: there can be no question that some boards of directors show highly respectable names. But the business is apparently being overdone; and though we see no reason to suspect the honesty of the newer companies, we are inclined to doubt the glowing promises of the prospectuses. The presumption is that American vendors are fully alive to the value of the lands; nor are they likely to accept anything less than