been snared by the savage sons of the | alas! of such praiseworthy action was that soil. A little while ago I was up at the the business of this marchand de modes East End, and I saw selling in the streets was seriously injured, and his humane dozens of robin redbreasts caught no far-efforts had to be abandoned. Even ladies ther away than Clapham the previous Sun- whom he knew to belong to some of the day." bird - protection societies came into his establishment and asked for hats and bonnets decorated with their little feathered "friends.” Thus he was forced to give way; the tide of fashion was too strong against him, and the earnestness of those who entered into the agitation too much of a mockery. Perhaps not one in a thousand of the inhabitants of London knows the pretty legend which traces the origin of robin's red throat to the great tragedy on Golgotha. But surely most people feel tenderly towards the friendly, coquetting little warbler which trills for us sweetly when other singers are silent. What an amount of coarse brutality then is stored up in the demand for its little slain body as an ornament! Not for the heads of our ladies of fashion - it would be too much en évidence there but perched on sprays of frosted ivy and mistletoe for Christmas ball-dresses, and on frames and inkstands for Christmas presents. Goldfinches, chaffinches, thrushes, and star lings are also popular; sea-swallows and gulls, driven to take shelter on our inhospitable shores, provide quantities of wings, the latter especially while grey was the fashionable color. The worst of the slaughter is that when it takes place during the breeding season it means brighter colors and consequently more remunerative work. One man-milliner with whom our representative had a long talk said he had entered into communication with the Wild Birds' Protection Association, with the object of assisting it to the best of his ability. He determined to discontinue using small birds for millinery or decorative purposes, thinking that fashion should not be pandered to when it involved the depopulation of whole districts of their feathered inhabitants, and knowing that the game birds of the world, and birds like the ostrich, farmed and protected for the sake of their feathers, provided a wonderful variety of plumage. He therefore laid in a store of Impeian, Argus, and Japanese pheasants, Californian quails, black partridges, light guinea fowl, and crown pigeons, so that no want, as regards form and color, should be left unsupplied. Native birds, other than game, were scrupulously avoided, and those only encouraged which provide recognized food for the table. Even the gay dwellers in tropical forests, the birds of South America, Africa, and the islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans, were to offer no temptations, no matter how collectors might risk their lives in securing them, or in entering into contracts with the savage inhabitants of the swamps and morasses for the purchase of the dried skins. The result, The wholesale destruction of songsters and useful birds at present going on around us is a disgrace to our boasted civilization which may well be laid at the door of those ladies who encourage it by buying bird ornaments to decorate their heads or their bodies, or to adorn muffs, fans, screens, mirrors, and various fancy articles. Selborne societies of all kinds will rise and fall until vanity ceases to play fast and loose with heart. Woman steps onward. Is it not high time for her to leave a folly behind which is also a cruelty? From The Leisure Hour. SILENT MEN. CHAUCER, as he himself informs us, was not a fluent talker. He shone much more in his tales than in speech. The Countess of Pembroke used to tell him that his silence pleased her infinitely better than his conversation. It was Sir Joshua Reynolds who said that if a painter wanted to succeed he must cut out his tongue. To illustrate this we may give the following anecdote told by Charpentier of two of the Caracci, the famous Italian painters. Augustino Caracci once made a long discourse in praise of the Laocoon, and it was remarked to his brother Annibal that it was strange he did not add his eulogium on this wonderful production of antiquity. Annibal said nothing, but took a crayon in his hand, and drew the marble group with as much correctness as if he had had it before him. This action was praise more impressive than if he had employed the most energetic expressions and the most brilliant figures of speech. Turning to his brother he then observed, "Poets paint with words, but painters speak with their pencils." Gainsborough once took part in a lawsuit, and when in the witness-box, he happened to speak of the "painter's eye" in a professional sense. The counsel for the other side, wishing to confuse him, said, "And pray what do you mean by the painter's eye?" “ 'Why," answered Gainsborough, "it is to an artist what a lawyer's tongue is to him." casions, however, frugal of words, when he did speak it was with effect. His eloquence was of the most persuasive kind.” But no one ever cultivated silence with more dramatic effect than Wallenstein, the commander of the emperor's armies in the Thirty Years' War. During the course of his campaigns, we learn from Michiel's "History of the Austrian Government," whilst his army devoted itself to pleasure the deepest silence reigned around Wallenstein. He could not endure the rumbling of carts, loud conversations, or even simple sounds. One of his chamberlains was hanged for waking him without or When at his work the late Gustave Doré was a good example of the silent artist. He could so abstract himself from what was going on around him that in the evening he would be unable to recollect who had called upon him in the afternoon. Strangers who visited his studio in the Rue Bayard for the first time were often astonished at his unceremonious and silent ways. "He would give them a nod-per-ders, and an officer secretly put to death haps a frowning nod-and go on with his painting, running up and down the steps of a ladder or along a platform, and pausing now and then, with a long, low whistle, to look at what he had done. Don't wake him; he's dreaming,' the familiars used to say; and it might happen that a visitor would have to go away, after a couple of hours' waiting, without seeing Doré awake!" because his spurs had clanked when he came to the general. His servants glided about the rooms like phantoms, and a dozen patrols incessantly moved around his tent or palace to maintain perpetual tranquillity. Chains were also stretched across the streets in order to guard him against any sound. His profound reserve made a powerful impression on the imagination of all by whom he was surrounded. He was never seen to smile, and took counsel of no one but himself. When he gave orders or explanations he could not bear to be looked at curiously; when he crossed the camp the soldiers had to pretend they did not see him. Washington was inclined to silence and reserve. He is described incidentally by Mr. Josiah Quincy as "a little stiff in his person, not a little formal in his manner, and not particularly at ease in the pres ence of strangers." He was not at all easy The silent and observing ways of artists perhaps qualify them for criticising other people's speech. There is a story told of a lady who one day went to call on Fuseli, a painter who, when there was need for it, could express himself with emphasis. Her ceaseless chatter did not even allow him to get in a word edgeways. At last a pause to take breath gave him time to say, "We had boiled mutton and turnips for dinner to-day." "What a strange observation, Mr. Fuseli!" exclaimed the lady. "Why," he said, "it is as good as anything you have been saying for the last two hours." Great men of action have been often marked by their silent ways. In this there is no doubt something of good policy. Silence played an important part in the "The superior man,' says Confucius, double-cunning tactics of Talleyrand, but "blushes for fear lest his words should he more often than not employed speech exceed his deeds." Another consideration is that safety always accompanies silence, whereas by injudicious speech the best-laid plans have been frequently up set. For a remarkable instance in history take the famous Prince of Orange, the founder of the independence of the Netherlands. He was known by his contemporaries as William the Silent. "Perhaps the epithet," says Mr. Prescott, "was intended to indicate not so much his taciturnity as that impenetrable reserve which locked up his secrets closely within his own bosom. No man knew better how to keep his counsel even from those who acted with him. Though on ordinary oc in conversation. When he entertained his prisoner, Lord Cornwallis, it was noticed that he spoke little, and never smiled. and not silence to conceal his thoughts, following his own maxim that “a minister of foreign affairs must possess the faculty of appearing open at the same time that he remains impenetrable; of being, in reality, reserved, although perfectly frank in his manner." We give him a place, however, amongst silent men that we may recall a ludicrous anecdote of his appearance as a dumb orator at a public dinner. Talleyrand's health was drunk. Before the applause had subsided he got up, made a mumbling as if speaking, but spoke nothing, made a bow, and sat down; at which the applause redoubled, though all those immediately about him knew he never uttered a word. Fifth Series, Volume LXV. } No. 2331.-March 2, 1889. From Beginning, CONTENTS. I. THE EARLY LIFE OF LORD BEACONSFIELD, Quarterly Review, Temple Bar, All The Year Round, . . VII. OVERLAND TO INDIA IN 1789 AND 1889, VIII. "SENTRY GO!". Supplément Littéraire du Figaro, IX. THE REIGN OF DARKNESS, . Cornhill Magazine, WHAT THE ROBIN SAID IN DECEMBER, 514 BUSY BISMARCK, PUBLISHED EVERY SATURDAY BY LITTELL & CO., BOSTON. TERMS OF SUBSCRIPTION. For EIGHT DOLLARS, remitted directly to the Publishers, the LIVING AGE will be punctually forwarded for a year, free of postage. Remittances should be made by bank draft or check, or by post-office money-order, if possible. If neither of these can be procured, the money should be sent in a registered letter. All postmasters are obliged to register letters when requested to do so. Drafts, checks, and money-orders should be made payable to the order of LITTELL & Co. Single Numbers of THE LIVING AGE, 18 cents. Mist shall pass, and skies be blue, TRUMAN. WHAT THE ROBIN SAID IN DECEMBER. Rushing, rich, tumultuous, bright, Now, as voice of birds is dumb, Touch that heartened - faded all — Stilled are, as we soon shall be, Ah! what note is that I hear, Soft, inquisitive, and clear? Wistful music trembling shed, Poet, from thy breast of redRobin fair, by Shirley Church, Marble headstone for a perch! "Man of dolor, wait awhileSee the morns of April smile, ELLERAY. ALONG the upward winding paths I went, Alas for mental splendors unexprest! A few pale poems and some worthier prose Make up the meagre sum which the world knows Of what was working in that brain and breast: The vague, eternal kingdoms have the rest. TRUMAN. BUSY BISMARCK. How doth the little "Bizzy" Press To store up venom night and day, How skilfully it shapes its sells, The mouthpiece it of Bizzy One, Punch. From The Quarterly Review. nation by their disclosure has passed. It THE EARLY LIFE OF LORD BEACONS is true that we have of late witnessed laFIELD. mentable instances of the violation of the THE time has not yet come to permit of | obligation once recognized by the minisa full examination and an impartial appre-ters of the crown, and imposed upon them ciation of the public life and work of Lord by oath, to abstain from all public, and Beaconsfield. The spirit of party is still indeed private, reference to what may have too high; the eccentricities and foibles passed in the Cabinet. But we trust that which made him a mark for ridicule, and those who have set this bad example will long prevented the recognition of his gen- find no followers. Moreover, there are the ius, and the malignant misrepresentations susceptibilities of former colleagues to be to which he was through life exposed, are respected, and the fear that heated perstill too fresh in the memories of living sonal controversies may be revived, which men to allow of a calm and dispassionate it is in every way desirable should be judgment of his character and services as forgotten. a statesman. We may hope that, ere long, We doubt whether there be any modern authentic materials will be accessible, statesman whose biography it would be which will enable the world to form a true more difficult to write than that of Lord estimate of both, and to do full justice to Beaconsfield, if the object of his biograa man who, with all his faults and failings, pher be to give such a full and truthful is daily rising in public estimation, and portrait of his subject as would enable the who is destined to hold a very high place world to form a just estimate, and to come in the history of his country. Those ma- to a full understanding of the man. His terials are known to be in the hands of character was so complex, it was composed Lord Rowton, Lord Beaconsfield's faithful of so many opposite qualities, there was and attached friend and literary executor, so much that was great and noble in it, to whom, on his death, he confided his coupled with so much that was cynical papers and correspondence. The queen, and fantastic; his speeches and writings, it is understood, is desirous that they abounding with fine sentiment and true should speedily be published in the form poetry, are at the same time disfigured by of a biography, with a view to the vindica- so much that is bombastic and coxcombtion of the policy and conduct of a min-ical; the motives of his conduct were freister who had earned her esteem, and in quently so obscure, and his actions often whom she placed no ordinary trust. But the task of Lord Beaconsfield's biographer is no easy one, and we can scarcely be surprised that Lord Rowton, if he has not shrunk from it, should have hesitated to enter hurriedly upon it. To write fully and unreservedly the life of a statesman, who but recently played a leading part in public affairs, is a delicate and difficult undertaking. There are many matters it will be found that from early manhood absolutely necessary to the full justification of Lord Beaconsfield's policy in certain instances, which must remain for some time to come State secrets, and which it would be a breach of duty of those possessed of them to record, until all risk of danger to the interests of the • Lord Beaconsfield's Letters, 1830-1852; New Edi tion of "Home Letters and Correspondence with his Sister," with additional Letters and Notes. Edited by his brother. London, 1887. so abrupt and unexpected, and apparently so rash and inexplicable, that it is scarcely surprising that he came to be looked upon as an enigma, and that he was known to satire and caricature as “the great mystery man." Nevertheless, we are convinced that, when the life of Lord Beaconsfield comes to be written by one fully competent to place it before us in its true light, he had marked out for himself a course from which he never deviated, and, after making due allowance for the frivolities and vanities of youth, and for a highly imaginative and romantic temperament, that he possessed the qualities which go to form a great statesman, and which would have raised him to the highest rank in any career that he might have chosen for himself. It is not, however, with the public life, |