suspicious everywhere; but in America there is little temptation to it. them your place, may exist; but the present writer has never had the ill-luck to These phenomena are the slight but meet with them. They accept any casual characteristic traits of a society which has attentions which a fellow-traveller can rendeveloped itself under wholly new condi- der with perhaps a shade more of nonchaltions, and to some extent upon new beliefs ance than a lady would show in England, and principles. It is in the Western States, but on the whole they are perfectly willing as has just been said, that its distinctive to take the burdens as well as as the bencharacter comes out most clearly, as it is efits of equality. It is fully as common in in the great Atlantic cities that European England as in America for men to stand usages and ideas are most in the ascendant. up to offer a lady their place in a street or But every where over the Union one can't railway-car. The Woman's Rights Movehelp feeling how considerable the difference ment, about which so much has been said. from England is - I say “England," be- is really no stronger in the States than in cause any one who knows Ireland will think England, perhaps not so strong; for though the social contrast to that country far less its adherents may be more numerous, marked. Society in America is altogether they are, as a rule, less eminent by their easier than ours, simpler, more elastic, talents or social position. The agitation more variable, more gay and sparkling, for the female franchise, for instance, is more tolerant (spite of De Tocqueville's more generally discountenanced by the reflections on democratic uniformity) of best people" in the Eastern cities than individual divergences from the common it is in London, and counts among its leadtype. Woman hold in it a very conspicu- ers and sympathizers perhaps only some ous and influential place. They have more five or six ladies whose standing is as good, control over their property than in Eng- relatively, as that of the scores that take land, and are in all respects on a much part in it here. An ordinary American more complete equality with their husbands inatron is as little "masculine" in the in the eye of the law. They have made common sense of the word, and as unwilltheir way into most or all of the learned ing to be thought masculine, as her English professions. They are not thought of as cousins; and if not so much alarmed, she necessarily dependent on man, and are not is just as much repelled by the clamorous expected, no not even by respectable old- rhetoric of the Woman's Rights party. fashioned people, to be a mere reflection The English domestic ideal is still her of his wishes and opinions. They are not ideal. And in some respects she has shown talked down to in America: you never less willingness to assume public duties hear there, as you so often do here, a triv- than our English ladies have. Though ial young whipper-snapper condescending nine tenths of the teachers in American to a lady intellectually as well as morally his superior, but who would think it unbecoming to let her superiority appear. On political, social, literary questions, a woman is expected to have her opinion like a man; she is as free to give it; she is listened to with more external deference and as much substantial respect. She is not in the least afraid of being thought blue; and though I do not believe that women of high and wide culture are any commoner in America than in England, if so common, women sunk in ignorance or prejudice and wholly devoid of literary interests, are certainly much more rare. But it is very easy to exaggerate this comparative prominence and self-confidence of women, and many English travellers have exaggerated it. It is not at all true that ladies in the States obtrude themselves, or claim as right what courtesy is generally willing to concede to them. The women who, as Mr. Anthony Trollope says, come and stand before you in a railway car or an omnibus till you rise and give public schools are women, women do not sit upon the school boards; and even institutions like the Vassar Female College are managed by governing bodies consisting entirely of men. To express the precise nature of the difference between American and English ladies is extremely hard it is something too subtle to be represented by any combination of epithets. You are sensible of a sort of charm which is wanting here: you miss another charm which is present here: you do not know which is more to be desired, but you doubt the possibility of combining them. American girls are certainly more independent than ours are; more accustomed to take care of themselves, think for themselves, decide for themselves; not less really domestic in their hearts, but less tied to their mother's apron strings; franker in their speech, and more ready to tell you about themselves, their circumstances, their families. There is a kind of French verve and force about them, but there is also a Teutonic truthfulness. Then there is a nimbleness and versatility of mind, as well as a self-possession of manner, which puts a stranger at his ease from the first. Where an English girl throws the weight of the conversation on her partner an American girl takes it up, draws him out, perhaps chaffs him in a genial fashion, and expresses her opinion freely on all the topics that turn up. English ladies of the old school would be apt to disapprove of her on slight acquaintance. But when they come to know her better, they would perceive that she is, in essential matters, decorous as well as refined. American ladies who have mixed in fashionable society in London may often be heard to say that they are astonished at the quantity of scandal they hear talked there; and it is certainly true that one bears very little in America. In such places as New York and Chicago there are of course fast sets, just as there are in London and Liverpool. But in point of purity and real moral elevation the best society in America is possibly superior, and at any rate equal to that of our own upper classes; while the American middle class is certainly more cultivated, more interested in the "things of the mind " than the commercial class in England. tributes to the pleasantness of American life - how many opportunities it gives for a natural, easy, healthy friendship between young people. Youths and maidens in America certainly have, in their own emphatic language, "a good time." They can see as much of one another as they please; they can do so without the sense of being watched and criticized; and, what is more than all, they can be friendly and mutually interested without fearing to be misunderstood. When two young people take a liking for one another's society, they may talk together of an evening for an hour or more, may walk or drive together, may perhaps correspond, and yet nobody will have a right to suppose there is anything but friendship in the case. They are not driven, as they would be in proper England, either into repressing or concealing their feeling, or else into carrying it hastily into something else, and pledging themselves for ever to one another by a formal engagement. Friends may laugh and chaff, and tell Charlie or Jane that they seem to be fond of being together, but Charlie and Jane can take it coolly and go on their way unmoved, for each of them knows that so long as nothing is done but what custom One would like to examine the causes of and etiquette allow, neither has any right this divergence in the type of female char- to suppose, and is not likely to suppose, acter, to inquire how much is due to the existence of any tender feelings on the Protestantism for the spirit of Protest- part of the other. To be sure there may antism has worked more fully and power-spring up an affection, and why should fully in America than in England how there not? The same thing happens here, much to the circumstances of a society where people see one another less intiwhich developed out of small communities mately, the chief difference being that there living familiarly together with few relics it is more likely to be reciprocated, and it of the stiffness and class separation of is based on a far better knowledge of feudalism. But this would lead one away character and habits. In many, however, from the question which is of most practi- probably in most cases, the relation of the cal interest to everybody, the question how parties continues to be one of friendship this freedom of social intercourse which only, each being perhaps as intimate with has been described affects the character several other young ladies or young men and happiness of individual men and as he or she is with this one, and it lasts women. Upon this point it is satisfactory or wanes away just as do the friendships to have a clear opinion. One may grant of men for men. English mothers and that the independence of American women aunts may refuse to believe this, and insist has its defects as well as its merits: an that such friendships, even if they don't acute American lady once observed to me give rise to scandals, must produce much that she found English girls more attractive mischief and sorrow, partly in the way of than her own country women just because making girls fast or indecorous, partly by they piqued her curiosity: they did not so causing one-sided attachments and misunsoon show all that was in them. One may derstandings cases where one party confess that they occasionally give an im- having honestly meant friendship, the pression of hardness, which, even if you other has understood love, or, worse still, believe it to be merely superficial, is a where one, having sought only his or her little repellent. But a candid observer will own amusement, has led the other on to a overlook drawbacks more serious than point where the heart was committed. these when he comes to consider how The only answer one can make to this is a much this independence, this freedom, con- flat denial. Whether such results might or so much honest simplicity as to avoid this last horror; but no prudence will prevent any interest which he shows in a lady or which a lady shows in him (though in this latter case the inference is really rather the other way), from becoming the theme of talk among acquaintances, and, however heartily he may despise it for himself, he feels it acutely for the other party, whom it may injure in more ways naturally be expected or not, they are not found in America. Scandals are certainly quite as rare there as here; probably rarer. The standard of propriety is extremely rigid; and though a girl may do much which she could not well do here, if she once compromised herself society would be quite as stern and unforgiving in Boston or Chicago as in London. As to fastness, there are of course, as there must be, differences of manner and eti-than one. Nothing is commoner than for quette, but if one looks at essentials a dis- the friendship of two people- a simple cerning Englishman who goes below the and natural friendship which gives them surface will find as much true delicacy pleasure while it lasts, and might possibly and purity among ladies over youder as ripen into something better still -to be among his own country women. Cases of interrupted by the idle gossip of outsiders, blighted affection occur from time to time which, coming to their ears, causes one or under this open-air system, as they do un- both to break off the intimacy lest any der our band-box system; nothing short misunderstanding should arise. It may of the absolute separation carried out in be foolish of them, very likely it is; for France will prevent them, if even that. gossip is one of those things which people But they are, if one may trust the evi- should learn to despise; but there is nothdence given, less common and less crush-ing a sensitive mind dreads more than the ing in America than here; and the reason imputation of exposing another person to why may easily be seen. Girls, having seen a great deal more of young men than they would here, are not so easily attracted by mere externals, and become altogether less susceptible. They know more about the character and reputation of their companions, and are less likely to be beguiled by a mere flirt. Intimacy, being common and legitimate, ceases to have anything dangerously romantic about it. blaine and misconstruction; still more of wounding her feelings. Now, in America, people do not talk in this fashion about their neighbours; or, if they do, nobody need regard them; everything passes as a matter-of-course under the blessed name of friendship. There is another merit of the American plan which may gain favour for it from persons of even the strictest views -its tendency to produce happy marriages. That marriages are more frequent there than here, and are contracted earlier, may be ascribed to the circumstances of the Pleasant it certainly does not cease to be. Looking at the matter simply as a question of human enjoyment, the success of the American system may be pronounced complete. It makes a staid mid-country, where it is comparatively easy to dle-aged man long to have his youth to live over again, to see the bright, cheery, hearty, simple ways of the young people whom he meets straying on the sauds at Newport, or picnicking beside the waterfalls of the White Mountains, safe in their own innocence, meeting one another on the natural footing of human creatures, without affectations of innuendo on the one side, or prudery on the other. Little overtures and coquetries there may sometimes be, but it is all, as the attorneys say, "without prejudice." Such pleasure in the society of people of one's own age, which no moralist can deny to be one of the most legitimate sources of enjoyment, is in England a good deal cramped by the restrictions which custom has imposed, and a good deal clouded by the idea, so often present to the English youth, of cousins gossiping and parents inquiring into what the jargon of society calls "intentions." A man may walk with so much wariness make a living, and where, luxurious as certain sets of rich people are, it is a great deal more easy for a young couple to start in a simple way. Still the opportunities for acquaintance given must have something to do with it; and they have even more to do with a good assortment of the couples. In England, especially in London, a man often knows next to nothing of the girl he is engaged to. He has met her at parties, has taken her down to dinner, and danced with her, has called on foggy afternoons, and had tea gracefully handed to him; but he has learnt very little about her true character, her temper, her principles, her capacity for affection, for defects in these respects must be very marked indeed to show beneath the decorous self-restraint of company manners. The girl, on her part, is stil! worse off, since she has even fewer opportunities of judging what a young man is worth. For he, after all, sees her in her own house and among her family; he can notice how lead one to believe that, so far as the parshe gets on with them, and can often, if he ticular questions are concerned which have is sha: p, interpret her by them, for good or been here treated of, the gain will considfor evil. But he is probably quite isolated erably outweigh the loss. One is not prein the town; she sees nothing and knows pared to go quite so far as an ardent young nothing of his relations; he is merely a legal friend of the writer's, who proposed presentable young person of sufficiently to invoke the aid of Parliament, and pleasant manners and adequate income drafted a Bill, modelled on 3 and 4 Will. whom she meets in respectable company. IV., chap. 74, and entitled, "An Act for She does not guess what the sisters whom the abolition of chaperons, and for the he neglected, cr the schoolfellows whom introduction of more free, simple, and nathe cheated, or the clerks whom he bullies, ural modes of social intercourse" (short could tell about him, and has to learn for herself, when it is too late, that he is mean, hard, and selfish. In smaller towns and country places people have better chances, but in London, and our other great cities, it is hard to see how things are ever to be better while the present restrictions exist. In the States, on the other hand, it is generally a man's or a girl's own fault if he or she does not succeed in making out pretty well what the other is good for. Meeting oftener, and in a less formal way, able to carry on even a somewhat exclusive and engrossing acquaintance without being necessarily supposed to have "inten- all the modern apparatus of schedules, tions," an American youth has the amplest means of finding out what are the tastes, and notions, and habits of the girl whom he thinks of making his wife, and can use those means without exciting any suspicion. Nor can he himself keep a mask always on in her presence; even if he tries it, she is probably intimate with other young men of the same set, and can make out from them what is thought of him by persons of his own sex-in all cases the best guide and clue to the truth. The result is, that people do as a rule know much more of one another before they marry than they do in England, and that unhappy marriages are more rare. title, "The Chaperons Act, 1872"), in which, after a preamble reciting that in time past divers great inconveniences and evils had arisen from the practice of keeping young women under the eyes of their parents and other elderly persons, at balls, croquet parties, and other social gatherings, and from forbidding or discountenancing their walking, driving, or corresponding with young men, and that it was desirable as well to remedy such evils as to relieve such parents and other elderly persons from the fatigue of attending dances, &c., he proceeded to enact, with There is an idea afloat in the world, an idea which the Americans themselves are fond of, and which an Englishman, living among them, finds it hard to resist, that the United States is the land of the future, that its institutions, social and political, represent a type towards which the other English-speaking peoples are unconsciously, and it may be unwillingly, moving. As respects politics, at any rate, one hopes and believes that this is false; but as respects social arrangements, there is some truth in it; and it is a very curious subject of speculation how English life will be affected by the change, which is certainly in progress, in the status and influence of women. It is safe to predict that something will be gained and something lost; but the experience of America may well sub-sections, and interpretation clause, that from and after the passing of that Act the lady of the house in which or at which any entertainment (defined as hereinafter mentioned) was given should be deemed and taken to be the chaperon of all the young ladies there present to all intents and for all purposes whatsoever, with much more to the same effect, and a whole string of penalties (recoverable in a summary way), not less formidable than those which are to protect the British voter, directed against dowagers, sisters-inlaw, cousins, and others, who should endeavour to abridge the freedom of young persons by making malicious remarks or spreading unfounded stories respecting their interest in one another, and against parents who should, by the covert exercise of moral influence over their daughters, attempt to frustrate the benevolent intentions of the Legislature. But if opinion were to change, as it seems, though very slowly, to be changing, and our code of etiquette were so far relaxed as to recognize the existence of friendship, pure and simple, between girls and young men, and the capacity of girls to take care of themselves, not only would the chaperons for whom my lawyer was so much concerned be delivered from a wearisome and unprofitable task, but the sum of enjoyment among our youth, the gaiety, the brightness, the freshness of life, would be sensibly increased, and the tone of society in would find all that they could possibly wish for. The Azores (or Açores, more properly). so called from being the home of innumer able hawks, are a group of nine islands situated in the Atlantic, between 37 deg. and 40 deg. north latitude, and 25 deg. to 32 deg. west longitude, about half-way between the Old and New World. St. Michael's and St. Mary's (S. Miguel and Santa Maria) are the two most easterly, the latter being about seventy miles due south, and in sight of the former. Then, going westerly, we reach Terceira, so called from being the third island discov ered; St. George (S. Jorge) and Gracioça; then Fayal and Pico, and, still further westward, Corvo and Flores. The derivation of the names of these islands may not be uninteresting. St. Michael's, St. Mary's, and St. George derive their appellations, as their titles show, from the fact of their discovery having been made upon the days sacred to those saints. Terceira I have already mentioned. Gracioça takes its name from a word meaning "beauti ful," and truly the island is justly worthy of the title. Corvo (crow) takes its name from "crows," being the only island in the group where these birds are to be found. Flores, delighting in a profusion of flowers, takes its name therefrom. Lastly, Fayal takes its title from the word relation to such matters would be raised. From Dark Blue. THE AZORES. HAVING lived for three years at St. Michael's, the largest island of the Azores, and never having, since my return, met anyone who seemed either to have heard of, or to know anything of, these beautiful islands, I feel induced to write about them that the Englishmen, who so often seek for bealth at a much greater distance, may know that they pass by a spot where they meaning "beech," the island noted for an abundance of these trees; and Pico (peak), from its altitude above its eight companions. The islands were first discovered, it is said, in the year 1439, by John Vandenbergh, a merchant of Bruges, when driven by stress of weather. On his return to Lisbon, he boasted of his discovery to the Portuguese, who thereupon took possession, and have kept them till the present day. St. Michael's, to which island I shall generally refer, is the largest of the group. as I have said, being about eighty-two miles in length and averaging eight to ten miles in width, and stretches from east to west. The principal town in the island, Ponta Delgada (narrow point), i situated on the south side of the island. about nineteen miles from the most west ern point. This town is built in a sheltered position, caused by a chain of sugarloaf-shaped hills, running through, and culminating at the eastern end of the island in a mountain called Pico de Vara. Ponta Delgada is the third largest town in the Portuguese dominions, ranking next to Lisbon and Oporto, and enjoys a firstrate trade with England, Brazil, and the |