to give their support to independent candidates.

where

merely that the work of the nation will be better done, but that the class of professional politicians will be almost extin- Throughout the foregoing remarks I guished, and a higher and purer tone have intentionally described the worst asgiven to political life altogether. The pects of American politics, and taken my American people is so large, so busy, so facts from those great Atlantic cities hopeful, and on the whole so justly con- where the crowd of ignorant immigaants tented with the prosperity which it enjoys, has put democratic institutions to the sethat it takes some time to convince it of verest strain. It has been necessary to the necessity and value of this reform, do so, because it is from these cities that which the professional politicians of both | English critics of the United States have parties, not venturing on open opposition, drawn their illustrations and their warnare trying to evade by minimizing the ings; and my object has been to show issues involved. But a steady progress that even taking such institutions, and is being made; Civil Service Reform particularly the caucus system, Associations have been formed all over they are at their worst, the differences the Eastern States; lectures are constant- from England are so great that no inferly given on the subject and discussions ence directly applicable to ourselves can raised both in Congress and in the press. be drawn. America does indeed suggest Opinion in such a nation is not easily considerations of practical value to Enmoved on a comparatively new question, glishmen and Frenchmen and to all free but when moved it is irresistible, and the countries. She bids us maintain the hour of success seems to be no longer dis- present arrangements of our civil service; she impresses upon all citizens the duty of interesting themselves in public affairs; she dissuades us from multiplying popular elections, or handing over to them such posts as judgeships; she reminds us that the spirit of party must not be suffered to extend its influence too widely and seize upon all elective bodies. But these, except perhaps the last, are not the rocks towards which we in England seem to be drifting.

tant.

This is an instance of a phenomenon in American life which I may not have sufficiently dwelt on. The higher politics of the country are not, like the lower, left mainly to the professional politicians. There is always a large number of able and thoughtful men, who take no part in electioneering and hold no office, who are engaged in discussing matters of principle and enlightening their fellow-citizens upon them. There is thus formed a body of If this article had been a sketch of quiet and sober opinion which holds back American politics as a whole, there would the Congress or the persons in power have been many other matters to enlarge from doing any serious mischief, and on. Some defects in the Constitution and which, when things grow really serious, in the mode of working it must have been steps in to seize the helm. In 1871 New pointed out; many merits would also have York was suddenly rescued, by the action been set forth; and it would have been of a few public-spirited men who had shown how even the faults are largely due previously been "outside politics," sup- to transitory influences, which may disapported by the bulk of the respectable pear when education tells upon the new citizens, from the fangs of the Tammany and still incompetent citizens whom a too ring. Three years ago San Francisco indulgent system admits at once to elecwas in like manner delivered from a sim-toral power. I should have observed that ilar gang. Everybody knows that this the professional politicians, so often recan be done again if a like emergency ferred to above, are far less harmful should arise, and everybody has, therefore, through the country generally than in the been comparatively indifferent, perhaps populous maritime cities; that in many too indifferent, to the defects in the work-parts of the interior they scarcely exing of the ordinary machinery. But the ist, and that even where they do, perindifference diminishes, and the number sonal corruption is rare among them. of able and earnest men who enter public The scandals of New York have done life, especially as candidates for local offices, increases every year. The professionals strain every nerve to keep them out, and this is one of the main causes why they are still so few; but the mass of good citizens are less and less obedient to party dictation, more and more disposed

great injustice to the fair fame of local government in general. Taking the American political system as a whole, the shadows, regrettable as they are, are less conspicuous than the lights. If it is to be judged by its tendency to promote the welfare and security of the individual citi

zen and give free scope to his exertions, | I shall ever do any good as a lawyer; still, a dispassionate observer will pronounce as I have put my hand to the plough, I it superior to those of France, or Ger- might as well perhaps go on to the end of many, or Italy, and will perceive that it the first furrow, and if my being called has solved some problems which we in was of no other use, at least it would England have still to solve. please you, wouldn't it?"

JAMES BRYCE.

From The Cornhill Magazine.
NO NEW THING.

CHAPTER XIV.

PHILIP IN A NEW PART.

"Of course it would please me," cried Margaret; "I can't tell you how much it would please me. You know I wouldn't for the world urge you to take up any profession that you disliked; but the fact of being called to the bar would not commit you to anything, and it might perhaps lead to some appointment that might suit you. And then you don't mind people saying disagreeable things about you, I dare say."

"Not in the least, so long as I don't hear them."

IF Mrs. Winnington and her youngest daughter had a disagreeable walk home, owing to the absolute lack of any sympathy between them, the couple who pre- "But I am weak-minded enough to be ceded them across the wet grass and made unhappy by them. And you see, I through the chilly mists of the autumn do hear them; I can't help it. You don't evening were in no such evil case, and know what a satisfaction it will be to me found mutual solace for the troubles of to be able to tell one or two solicitous friends that you have no intention of lead

"Poor old Meg!" said Philip with generous compassion for this womanly weakness. "All right, then; that's settled. In two years' time you shall have a photograph of me in my wig and gown with which to confound the sceptical, and in the mean time I shall keep my eyes open, and try to discover some less objectionable way of earning my bread and butter."

life in one another's companionship.
Philip was still in a downcast and chasing an idle life."
tened frame of mind, and at such times he
commonly felt as though Margaret were
the only true friend he had in the world;
while she, perceiving his low spirits, and
naturally connecting them with Tom
Stanniforth's rather conspicuous atten-
tions to Nellie, was half sorry that he
should be in trouble, half glad that it
should be the means of moving him
towards a more than usually demonstra-
tive affection for herself. The best love
of the best women has always something
of a maternal character, and everybody
knows that a son can pay no greater com-
pliment to his mother than to make her
the recipient of his confidence, whether
spoken or unspoken. Margaret did not
attempt any specific kind of consolation,
being too much in dread of appearing in-
trusive for that; but she let her boy know,
in a general way, that all his emotions,
pleasurable and otherwise, were shared
by her, and she further soothed him with
such delicate forms of flattery as are con-
veyed for the most part by inference.

This process was so far successful that it had the effect of warming up Philip's self-esteem, which had fallen below freezing-point; and it was but natural that gratitude to so perceptive a benefactress should make him wish to do or say something that should be agreeable to her. So presently he came out with,

"Meg, I think I was in rather too great a hurry to decide on cutting the bar. I don't in the least believe, you know, that

Margaret thanked him so warmly that he really felt for the moment that he was performing an act of self-sacrifice, and could not find it in his heart to inform her of his actual projects, as he had been very nearly doing five minutes before. Why vex her needlessly? he thought. It was not to be expected that she would relish the idea of seeing him behind the footlights of the opera; and it was so pleasant to be patted on the back and told what a good, kind fellow he was. gan to think that he was rather good and kind quite as much so, at all events, as circumstances would allow him to be; and, by way of showing how thoroughly in earnest he was, he declared that he would go up to London and “set to work" no later than the very next morning.

He be

Margaret was a little taken aback by this precipitancy; the more so as she recollected that the Michaelmas term did not begin until the month of November. But that circumstance need not stand in the way of private study, she reflected, and perhaps it was best to strike while

た

the iron was hot. One thing, however, | sion of the house, and exactly twenty-four she felt impelled to say:

"I hope, dear, you are not hurrying away for any particular reason."

"Particular reason?" repeated Philip; and it was well that the darkness hid his alarmed face.

"I mean, you mustn't jump to conclusions. Tom Stanniforth is the Brunes' guest, you see, and they must be civil to him. I suspect that, if the truth were known, you would find that Nellie is very anxious for his visit to come to an end."

hours later a very diminutive gentleman was added to the list of Fanny's near relations.

It seems possible that readers may not, up to the present point, have become greatly enamored of Philip Marescalchi, and perhaps with a view towards raising him in the estimation of an important section of them it may be well here to state that he proved himself a father of the most unexceptionable description. To the ordinary male mind an infant, both as regards its aspect and its habits, is a somewhat repulsive little creature. It has none of the soft prettinesses which belong to the young of the lower animals; it is both exacting and ungrateful; and the utter helplessness which is supposed to endear it in a special degree to one of its parents seldom arouses a corresponding sentiment in the breast of the other. Philip, however, was an exception to the

Philip burst into a great laugh of relief. "So you thought I was going off in a fit of jealousy! Now, Meg, I do think you might have known me better. Am I ever jealous? Do I ever covet my neighbor's house, or his wife, or his ox, or his ass, or anything that is his? There is only one person in the world about whom I have ever felt jealous, and that is yourself. There used to be a time when I was horribly afraid that you would end by marry-general rule. From the first he maniing the trusty Kenyon."

"Then," said Margaret, who now, in
her turn, had reason to be grateful to the
darkness "6
-
we are quits; for you might
have known me better than to think that
of me."

Philip left Longbourne, the following
morning, in a condition of comfortable
self-approval, and no presentiment of the
circumstances under which he was next
to see the old place occurred to cast a
gloom over his excellent spirits.

"Where shall I write to you?" Margaret asked, as he climbed into the dogcart that was to take him to the station.

"Oh! the Club, as usual," he answered. He had never been in the habit of giving any other address than this, and, since he had become the tenant of Coomassie Villa, had often blessed the lucky chance which had preserved him from a less cautious custom. Margaret knew that he sometimes went to an hotel, sometimes to rooms, and had not cared to ask for more precise information upon the subject.

fested an immense interest in and affection for his baby, which was indeed an unobjectionable specimen of its kind, being neither red nor uproarious, but a tiny, waxen-faced thing which passed the best part of its days and nights in profound slumber. He purchased for it a cradle so lovely that Mrs. Webber threw up her hands in mingled admiration and dismay at the sight of it; and beside this expensive toy he would sit contentedly hour after hour, endeavoring by means of various expedients to attract the attention of its inmate, who would occasionally reward his efforts with a tipsy sort of smile.

Most ladies will be disposed to think that there must have been some good in a man who could so conduct himself; and it is possible that they may be right. Philip himself was a good deal puzzled and diverted by his own state of mind, and would often laugh gently at himself with that good-humored indulgence which was his normal attitude in moments of introspection. He had no idea of shaping Now although there was no particular any particular course in life for himself, reason of the kind that Mrs. Stanniforth or of steering by the light of any fixed had imagined to hasten Philip's departure, principle or set of principles; he liked to there was an approaching event which let things happen to him, and to watch rendered his presence in London at this the results; and when these took unexjuncture, if not essential, at least desir-pected forms, as they often did, he was able and becoming. On his arrival at interested, and sometimes greatly tickled. Coomassie Villa he found Mrs. Webber This experience of family life and pater(the Aunt Keziah to whom it may be re-nity had for him the charm of novelty membered Mrs. Marescalchi had once mingled with a certain spice of unreality. made reference as the sole representative He never forgot that he could escape of her kith and kin) in temporary posses- from it all whenever it might please him

"His rights? Well, really, Mrs. Webber, I think that at the present moment he may fairly claim it as one of his rights that he should not be made sick, as he certainly will be, if you go on hurling him into the air as you are doing much long. er. You can't mean to tell me that any human being, of however tender years, can like that mode of treatment."

to do so, and return to practical bachelor- | the baby with a series of violent upward hood and the society of his equals, and in jerks while she spoke. She was a tall, that knowledge lay, perhaps, the explana- stout woman with sharp black eyes and tion of the fact that he was quite satisfied grizzled corkscrew curls, and she put her to remain where he was. And he was question in a determined manner. really fond of poor little Fanny, who was recovering very slowly, and upon whom feebleness and her newly acquired matronly dignity had exercised a softening and refining influence. After a time, when she was able to leave the house, Philip used to hire an open fly, and take her out for drives, through miry lanes and byways, into the country, where they were as secure from recognition as in the heart "Don't you be imperent, young man. I of central Africa, and where creeping haven't brought up ten children of my mists, and falling leaves, and the pale own, nor yet I haven't left my comfortalight of watery sunsets affected her sim- ble home and come here to do servant's ple happiness with no chilly warning of work, for you to teach me what babies change. Long afterwards Philip some-like and what they don't like." times looked back upon those days with an aching feeling at his heart and a sigh over "circumstances," which he had always blamed, and always will blame, for the various misfortunes that have fallen to his lot.

Fanny's love and admiration for her husband knew no bounds. She was firmly convinced, and would frequently declare, that there was no one like him in the world. no one so kind, so unselfish, so uncomplaining. "And to think of him living like this, after what he's been accustomed to!" Fanny would exclaim, with tears in her eyes. In truth, Coomassie Villa, owing to the disorganized state of the household, was by no means a comfortable place of residence at this time; and if there had not been a good deal of amiability in Philip's composition, he would hardly have been able to tolerate Mrs. Webber, who had taken upon herself the functions of nurse, and who occasion ally showed herself to be a very unpleasant old person indeed.

Mrs. Webber, unfortunately, was not an Oxfordshire rustic, who might have been overawed by Mr. Marescalchi's gentility, but a shrewd woman, London born and London bred, whose husband kept a public house in Islington, and whose views of life and humanity were of the coarser and more practical kind. She had never approved of Fanny's escapade, and did not disguise her opinion that her niece's husband was "a slippery one."

"Mrs. Webber, I feel that we have acted most selfishly in keeping you so long. Let us lose no time in engaging a nurse and restoring you to your neglected family."

"Hah! make use of me so long as I'm wanted, and then show me the door that's it, is it? But I'd have you to know, Philip, that I'm not one as can be treated that way. Are you a-going to do your dooty by my niece? Are you a-going to love, honor, and cherish her as your wife, and introduce her as such to your rela tions? For that is what you swore to do at the altar, mind you."

"It may be so; but I do not recollect that clause in the marriage service. any case, the matter is one between Fanny and me, and highly as I respect you, Mrs. Webber, I don't intend to discuss it with you."

"There's two must give their word to that bargain," cried Mrs. Webber, with a defiant toss of her head and of the longsuffering baby. "Now, listen to me, Philip; I don't want to have no trouble; let's sit down and talk over things quiet, as between friends."

"Mrs. Webber, I am sorry to interrupt you, and it grieves me to say anything of a nature to hurt your feelings; but there is a trifling matter which I think it best to mention to you before we go any further. Twice within the last five minutes you have addressed me as Philip.' Don't do it again, please; I don't like it."

"When are you a-going to come for- The effect of this mild remonstrance ward, like a honest man, and let this poor was very remarkable. Mrs. Webber child have his rights?" she asked, making sank down upon the nearest chair, a sudden descent upon Philip one after-dropped the baby upon her knees and benoon when he was sitting alone in the gan to cry.

dreary little drawing-room, and tossing "Never did I think to be so spoke to in

this house! Not to be allowed to call
my own niece's husband by his name!
Well, this is unkind!" she ejaculated be-
tween her sobs.

Philip was immensely delighted. He
found himself the richer by a new experi-
ence, and mentally noted it down under
the heading of "How to deal with the
lower classes." Finding he was mas-
ter of the situation, he proceeded, in ac-
cordance with the rules of war, to follow
up his advantage and trample upon the
fallen.

"My good woman, your intentions may be excellent; but you are meddling with matters which are too high for you. I may in time succeed in raising my wife to my own rank in society; but the process must be taken in hand slowly and delicately. As for her relations, I haven't married them, and it will be altogether out of the question, I am afraid, that we should receive them upon terms of intimacy."

This was rather overshooting the mark. Mrs. Webber raised her head and snorted wrathfully.

"You have a goot ear," he was pleased to say; "and the voice well, the voice is goot too; but you have not learnt to get him out. What for you want to go upon the stage, eh? That is no business of mine, you say.'

"I don't say so at all," answered Philip, laughing, "and I am quite willing to tell you. I want to make money."

"Ah-so! It is no caprice, then. To make money?—well, that might be. At concerts, yes; upon the stage-perhaps." He thought for a moment, and then said: "I will undertake you, if you choose; but only upon the condition that you work hardt, and that you sing not anywhere in public until I gif you leaf. When you break one of these rules I make you my bow and wish you goot morning. Is that agreedt?"

Philip consented willingly, and was then admitted as one of Herr Steinberger's pupils upon terms much more moderate than the great man was in the habit of exacting from fashionable amateurs. For several weeks the new pupil worked as hard as could have been desired, and, finding that he made perceptible progress, enjoyed his work thoroughly. For in art of all kinds it is not le premier pas qui coûte; it is the weary second and third steps, when enough has been learnt to show how many more must be taken before proficiency can be reached, that discourage the faint-hearted and the indolent. To Philip, who was of an essentially sanguine temperament, success seemed not only certain, but close at hand, and he was proportionately joyous.

Philip, left in possession of the field of battle, stretched out his legs, whistled, sighed, and made a dismal grimace. He was not afraid of Mrs. Webber's compro- At Coomassie Villa, too, things were mising his future in any very serious man-going pleasantly and cheerfully at this ner; but she certainly had it in her power time. Aunt Keziah had not yet returned to cause him much intermittent trouble to native Islington; it being essential, as and worry; and that was almost as bad. she said, that she should remain for a He could not help thinking how much week or so, in order to watch the probetter it would have been if he had mar-ceedings of the nurse, to whom she had ried Nellie Brune, and how much how resigned the care of the precious baby; very much better if he had not married but she kept herself much in the backat all. Then he got up, shook himself, ground, called Philip "sir" when she and walked away in the rain to his club, spoke to him, and was to all appearance where, chancing to meet an acquaintance disposed to accept the situation in the who was passing through town, he soon spirit of a sensible woman. Philip was forgot all his sorrows in a game of pyra- so much pleased by this change of demeanor, that on the day before that fixed for her departure, he went out and bought her a massive gold bracelet, which peaceoffering she accepted with many expres. sions of humble gratitude. It presently appeared, however, that she had not yet said her last word.

mids.

In the month of October Herr Steinberger returned to London; and Philip lost no time in placing himself in the hands of that competent professor. Steinberger, this time, was complimentary, and more encouraging than he had been upon the occasion of Philip's first visit to him.

"Before I bid you good-night, sir,"