instincts make a person forget self and think of others, make him "a man without a 'me.'

When M. Loubet was President of the French Republic he used to pay visits to his mother at Montelimar. On these occasions people would see him helping to arrange the stall at which the old lady sold garden produce on market-days. When the first man of France did this he acted as one of Nature's gentlemen, and when he received as his guest in Paris the British sovereign he instinctively did the same. Ruskin remarks of the heroine in Scribe's "Reine d'un Jour," that though a milliner plays the part of a queen, she is never detected, because she is simple and generous, and a queen could be no more.

In Spain and often in Ireland the beggars are instinctively polite. Archbishop Whately had a horror of indiscriminate charity, and one day said to a Dublin mendicant: "I never give to a beggar in the street." "Then where would your Grace like me to wait upon you?" was the reply.

CHAPTER IV

ARE WE LOSING OUR MANNERS?

As manners matter so much, it is very serious if we are now losing them.

Many foreigners say that we in Great Britain have no manners to lose, but we do not agree with them. There is more pretence in the manners of the French, for instance, but they are in their hearts and lives not at all less selfish than the "brutal Saxon." Nor are we much worse mannered than were our grandfathers. They paid more attention to forms and ceremonies, but think of their manner of dealing with women, children, lunatics, criminals, and the weak generally.

Still, our manners are by no means as good as they ought to be. Listen to the way young people now speak to and about their parents and elders generally-in a way that it would be improper to address a blackbeetle. None of us are infallible, not even the youngest, but boys and girls think that they are, and this makes it

difficult for them to honour their fathers and mothers-silly old people, who were born at a time when boys did not smoke paper and girls could blush, were not slangy and did not indulge in "risky conversation.

There is at the present time a want of reverence for everything in heaven and earth, and this expresses itself in a disregard for the feelings of others, which is the essence of bad manners. At a crowded assembly the other day I heard an elderly lady politely asking a young one if she might sit upon a chair that was beside her. "No; it is engaged,' she answered, which was a lie, as I found out afterwards. This lady would have offered the chair with a sweet smile if she had been in society where she was known; but at the time she thought that no one who knew her was observing, so her selfish character displayed itself in being rude to one older than herself. The hoary head is a crown of glory," says the Bible, but nowadays we are compelled to dye our hair in order to obtain respect. The youngest girl in the room throws herself into the most comfortable arm-chair, and leaves the aged lady, who has just entered, to find the best substitute she can.

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The Bishop of Norwich when passing a pretty cottage which was separated from the road by a

hedge, stopped to admire it. "Oh, please sir," said a voice from the other side of the hedge, "would you open the gate for me?" This the Bishop at once did. Then, to his surprise, instead of the tiny child he had expected, there stepped forth a girl big enough to have opened the gate for herself. "And why, my dear," said Dr. Sheepshanks, "could you not open the gate yourself? Please, sir, because the paint's wet," said the girl. A glance at his hand showed the Bishop but too plainly the truth of her statement.

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A lady known to me, eighty-four years of age, went up to the son of a baronet, who was sitting cross-legged and was smoking. She said that she had some pleasant messages from his family to give him. The "gentleman " did not uncross his legs, did not stand up, and did not take his pipe out of his mouth.

Men now moving in what is called good society treat women with impunity in a way that would have gained them a horse-whipping, or rather ass-whipping, fifty years ago. It is only too true that these men have, in many cases, been spoiled by fast girls, who, having no respect for themselves, did not exact it from them. If young women have "not the slightest objection and rather like it," men will smoke into their faces, appear before them in any or in scarcely

any clothes, call them by their Christian names, say words and refer to things that should be nameless, and in all other ways illustrate the truth that men respect women as, and only as, women respect themselves.

An observer of what now goes on in society is not surprised that many people should think that we are in danger of losing our manners. Bad manners are said to be very prevalent in connection with public and private entertainments. There are men who seem to think that an invitation to a party is a superfluous formality. They go to large "crushes" without being asked, hoping to escape notice in the crowd. That there is safety in numbers they are quite convinced; and if they were asked, "Friend, how camest thou in hither?" they would not have the grace to remain speechless, but would give some impertinent answer. And when they do receive an invitation, young men of the period leave it unanswered for days in hopes something better may turn up. Nor are their manners more apparent when they go to the party. They take no notice of the hostess and of her daughters. If asked to dance with a lady or to bring her into supper, they say, Let me see her," as though she were a horse, and then perhaps make the excuse, “I'm engaged," while they whisper the real reason to a like-minded companion—" Not good enough!'

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