There were tempting displays of large-sized, | either by braziers, or by a brick bed-place well-colored, but very deceptive flavorless ap- built hollow over a furnace and supplied with ples, and hard watery pears, with an abun-hot-air pipes. The fuel is wood or millet dant and more acceptable assortment of stalk, or pounded coal mixed with mud, Mr. peaches, apricots, and nectarines, in which we indulged greatly, and filled pockets and saddlebags. "There were butchers cutting and chopping at the legs and bodies of well-dressed pigs, slain for the occasion; and, better than all, a sight which made our gustatory nerves fairly tingle; there were delicious legs of the " yang row'. the mutton, about which we had inquired fruitlessly at every haltingplace, fresh and glowing in its delicate tints of white and red." Fleming says, but, as we suspect, with ricewater, a mode of using it universal in Asia, and which is convenient because the fire never goes out, and emits little or no smoke. The people were all decently dressed-though Mr. Fleming records, with a quaint cockney horror, that he found men at work frequently in the fields and on the towing-paths quite naked and are as neat in their costume as Dutchmen, and far more so than English peasants. They speak,'like most races except the EngWhat, save the locale, the dress, and the lan-lish, kindly and civilly to one another, and guage, is the difference between that scene are unique in Asia for their treatment of anand the one we have all witnessed in an Eng-imals. They never punish. lish market village? The inns are, of course, of every kind and degree, but a good one must be very like an English country inn, only the sleeping-rooms are a succession of brick buildings on the ground floor. The guests sit usually in hot weather under a shade in the yard, which is adorned with miniature gardens, and "at each side of the doorway, resting on rugged pillars of rockwork, are immense glazed vases filled with water on the surface of which float fine specimens of the almost idolized water-lily-just on the point of blooming, with black and red gold fish swimming around the stems, and sporting under the great palmate leavescurious looking animals, with an extraordinary development of the caudal fin, and eyes protruding far beyond their heads. In one corner are some dwarf fruit trees, the most notable of which is the species of citron called 'the fingers of Buddha '-from the digitated manner in which the fruit grows-the plumtree, and the peach, the double blossoms of which, in the early spring months, form such a beautiful spectacle in northern gardens." The houses are always in gardens, which are, moreover, always surrounded by walls, a Chinaman having an English love for privacy and the sense of exclusive possession. They are always of wood or brick, with over heavy wooden roofs, and have a curious summer-house effect, resembling in fact, precisely the now almost extinct willow-pattern plate. The furniture consists chiefly of tables, chairs, -the Chinese have arrived at the arm-chair, -and low stools, with ponderous screens and wardrobes; and heat is secured in winter "Hence a mule that, in the hands of a foreigner, would be not only useless but dangerous to every one about it, becomes in the possession of a Chinaman as quiet as a lamb and as tractable as a dog. We never beheld a runaway, a jibbing, or a vicious mule or pony in a Chinaman's employment; but found the same rattling cheerful pace maintained over heavy or light ground by means of a turr-r or cluck-k, the beast turning to the right or left and stopping with but a hint from the reins. This treatment is extended to all the animals they press into their service. Often have I admired the tact exhibited in getting a large drove of frightened sheep through narrow crowded streets and alleys, by merely having a little boy to lead one of the quietest of the flock in front; the others steadily followed without the aid either from a yelping cur or a cruel goad. Cattle, pigs, and birds are equally cared for." The "gentle " Hindoo, who will not kill an animal for the world, treats it while alive with sickening cruelty, and the Burmese who reverences all life as the gift of the Creator, is as brutal as the English cabman. Throughout his long ride Mr. Fleming, though sometimes bullied by innkeepers and always jealously watched by the mandarins, suffered little annoyance from the people except through their ungovernable curiosity. No serious attack ever seems to have been made on him, and were the Government really willing, Europeans might apparently travel from end to end of northern China. The descriptions of country, village, and wayside inn life constitute the true charm of this book; but Mr. Fleming reached the great wall at its meeting with the sea. It is, he says, exactly like the walls of most Chinese | laid in layers six or eight feet deep at a time; towns, from thirty to forty feet high, and leading him to suppose that the builders had twenty-five feet broad, with towers at every one hundred and fifty or two hundred feet. been fully alive to the necessity of allowing one part to settle down and solidify before building any higher, in order to prevent displacement and speedy demolition from premature shrinking." They, with the walls, have been admirably built to withstand the devastations of ages of exposure in such a climate. The basement or foundation for the whole is The bricks are large, and of a dark slate widely and compactly formed for bearing the color. The wall crossing the plains, gliding weight of such a load of matter, by imper-up the mountains and crossing ravines, irreishable granite blocks imposed on each other sistibly strikes the imagination; but on the to an elevation of six or eight feet from the hills it is not above eight feet high, and has, ground. On this the body of the building is reared, consisting of an internal bank of earth tightly rammed and packed, and encased in a sloping brick shell of no great thickness, embedded very firmly in mortar of great apparent strength and hardness-consisting, so far as I can judge, of a large proportion of remarkably white lime, similar to the chunam of India, mixed with sand and pebbles in very small quantity. The courses of the brickwork were regular and well pointed, and in working up the wall the observer could scarcely fail to notice that it had only been in many places, crumbled from the unceasing action of the elements. Beyond this wall no Chinaman is allowed to pass, except with merchandise once a year, the Tartars fearing lest their Chinese subjects with their untiring industry and habit of accumulation, should gradually cultivate the desert and buy them out,-a curious and melancholy illustration of the grand peculiarity of China—a civilization which never advances beyond sharply defined limits. If I could choose my sitters 'my case were not so hard : To transmit the face of beauty, statesman, war- Is work that would not sully e'en the majesty of But as my old friend Horace puts it "modus est And nowadays each nobody must with my rays make free, Till cartes are ta'en by cart-loads, that ta'en should never be. Albumenized, collodionized, on paper and on glass, The whole world seems mad for setting the carte before the ass! Of privacy our great ones' joys and griefs I'm forced to rob; Compelled to do the bidding of the genuine British snob ; To lurk behind the sofa where the queen sits in her weeds, To squint over her shoulder at the letter that she reads; To dodge the prince and princess, e'en through their honeymoon ; Play the spy upon their morning, and blab their afternoon, Shoot them flying on their drives from some sheltering bush or tree, And peep in through the key-hole on their dinner and their tea. -Punch. From The Saturday Review. impossible in a civilized age and a Christian country. The most slanderous imputations If an illustration were needed to show the were recklessly made upon her conduct and difficulty of arriving at historical truth, it character by a nation which professes to be might be found in the endless controversies the depositary of the spirit of chivalry; and on the faults and virtues of the personages it has often, in comparatively modern times, who were in turn the heroes or victims of been attempted to insist upon those charges, the French Revolution. Though two gen- supported as they were by the most questionerations have passed away, party feeling still able testimony of insinuations contained in survives, and on the suspicious evidence of private memoirs. Even historians have, in contemporary pamphlets and private memoirs some cases, passed an unfavorable judgment it is constantly being attempted to reverse, on the queen, based as it would seem on the or at least to modify, opinions that have for médisance of Parisian society, and not upon a long time held their ground. Historical any reliable evidence. On the other hand, criticism was never more active and more there are innumerable defenders of the outintelligent than it is at the present day in raged queen, who seek to represent her as a France. There is a much greater disposition saint in her life and a martyr in her death, than was formerly the case to consult well- and who, from compassion for her sufferings authenticated documents, instead of adopting and indignation at her traducers and opthe stereotyped conclusions of popular writ-pressors, have been led to exaggerate and ers. Therefore, notwithstanding the brilliant falsify what could be said in her favor. The inaccuracy of a Thiers and the undisguised last champion that has appeared is M. de advocacy of a Louis Blanc, we are disposed Lescure, who begins by assuming an attitude to hope that in the present age some prog- of judicial impartiality, which, however, occaress may be made in arriving at a true ap- sionally verges on indiscriminate admiration. preciation of the actors in the greatest drama Now there can be no question that, when of modern history. Though, no doubt, in- Marie Antoinette became Queen of France, dividual opinion or party feeling may often she enjoyed universal popularity. Her youth diminish the value of the numerous essays and beauty won the affection of all. The on the French Revolution which the press of society of Paris rejoiced in having a court Paris furnishes, yet, upon the whole, we presided over by a high-born princess, and think it must be admitted that there is an those who were less frivolous hoped that the increasing tendency to examine and judge the time had come when the reign of Dubarry Revolution and its epoch with greater calm- and her fellows was to cease forever. Never ness and moderation. Malignant vituperation was a reign more auspiciously commenced. and slander, accompanied with the fiercest de- And yet within a very few years her popununciations, are the worst weapons of attack larity had utterly vanished. The worst stoand defence in times of violent popular com-ries were freely circulated about her. She motions. The most vindictive persecutions was alleged to spend vast sums in enriching and punishments are their natural conse- her favorites; she was charged with furtherquence, and infamy is frequently, whether justly or not, attached to the memory of the victims. But it may sometimes happen that a later generation may reverse a wrongful verdict, and rescue from undeserved obloquy bright and honorable names. Few of the great characters of the French Revolution have been more perseveringly and more foully assailed than Marie Antoinette. For the last dozen years of her life she suffered from persecution, and at length from such ferocious cruelty as would have seemed to be *La vraie Marie-Antoinette, Etude Historique, Politique, et Morale. Par M. de Lescure. Librairie Parisienne. Paris: 1863. ing the interests of Austria at the expense of France; her private life was reported to be scandalous. After the affair of the Diamond Necklace, she became odious in France. Though nothing at that trial was proved to implicate her in the matter, the popular belief undoubtedly was that she was really compromised by the disclosures made in the course of the proceedings. When the Revolution broke out, there were no limits to the hatred which she encountered. By some it was believed that she was the chief obstacle to the efforts of the revolutionary party, and that her force of character and her influence over her feeble husband rendered her dan It was gerous to them. Others maintained that she | être distingué pour une ou deux personnes, was forever intriguing with the Court of Vi- et une coquetterie générale de femme et de enna and conspiring against France. reine pour plaire à tout le monde. Dans le also said—and the charge has been repeated temps même où la jeunesse et le défaut d'exby M. Louis Blanc and Sismondi-that her périence pouvaient engager à se mettre trop à son aise vis-à-vis d'elle, il n'y eut jamais faults of temperament and judgment were aucun de nous qui avions le bonheur de la fatal to Louis XVI. and were among the voir tous les jours qui osât en abuser par causes of the final crisis of the revolution. la plus petite inconvenance. Elle faisait la Yet this was the princess who a few years reine sans s'en douter. On l'ado rait sans before had been welcomed with enthusiastic songer à l'aimer." affection, but at length became the object of such bitter hostility with the people of Paris --an implacable hatred that was scarcely sa tiated with her blood. This is certainly not the portait of a queen who, by some writers, has been classed with Mary Stuart and Henriette of Orleans; and, in all probability, no efforts would have been made to tarnish her memory but for the animosity felt by the Revolutionary party towards her. Perhaps she did not come up to the French ideal of a Queen of France; but even if she had been as wise as she was courageous, she could hardly have guided the king through the perils of the Revolution. The day for timely concessions and judicious compromises had long gone by. In the state in which the country then was, no Government could have effected without violence the changes that were needed. The Church and the nobles, either by open oppo At first sight it seems difficult to account for such a change of feeling, unless we ascribe it to the fact that the French people werc, in those memorable years, in that state of unreasoning frenzy, that they could accept the vaguest rumors as proofs of criminality, and that the popular leaders lost no opportunity of trying to counteract at any price an influence which they felt and feared. It is simply idle to dwell upon the charges of personal misconduct. There is no proof that they had any foundation except in the malignant slanders of a corrupt court, which have been preserved in the memoirs of Be-sition or covert intrigues, rendered any comsenval, and Tilly, and Lauzun. But the unpopularity which finally matured into such deadly hatred no doubt began in the court itself. Marie Antoinette did not possess the tact to conciliate those by whom she was surrounded, and—what in French eyes was worse than a crime-she was wanting in the knowledge and practice of etiquette. She was impulsive enough have favorites like the Countess de Polignac, and to make any one a favorite was to expose herself to the certain enmity of those who were not equally distinguished. She had been brought up an Austrian Archduchess in the easy and homely fashion of the German courts, and she could not endure the stately ceremonial of Versailles. Gay and good-humored, she sought to please more than to command and she liked to be on terms of greater intimacy promise between the crown and the people impossible. It is too much to expect that the influence of one woman, however wise and bold could have saved the monarchy from the consequences of centuries of oppression and injustice. Nor, in justice, could much have been expected from a halfeducated princess, who had spent her youth in the court of Vienna, and the rest of her life in the fêtes and frivolities of Versailles. As for the king his character was so weak that it is doubtful whether he could ever have been induced to act under the pressure of a nature more energetic than his own. Marie Antoinette was full of courage, but had not more than average capacity for the conduct of public affairs. In September, 1791, Count de la Marck, in writing to Count Marcy-Argenteau, says : with her chosen friends than was then customary among royal personages. It was well "Il faut trancher le mot, le roi, est incapaobserved by the Prince of Ligne, who had, ble de régner, et la reine bien secondée peut from his long residence at the French court, seule suppléer à cette incapacité. Cela même ne suffirait il faudrait encore que la pas; frequent opportunities of observing the char-reine reconnût la nécessité de s'occuper des affairs avec méthode et suite; il faudrait qu'elle se fît la loi de ne plus accorder une demi-confiance à beaucoup de gens, et qu'elle acter and manners of the queen : "Sa prétendue galanterie ne fut jamais qu'un sentiment profond d'amitié, et peut donnât en revanche sa confiance entière à letters. They are forty-four in number. Among them are letters to the Emperor Leopcelui qu'elle aurait choisi pour la seconder." But if she proved unfit to govern, she at old, Madame Elisabeth, the Princesse de Lamleast was able to set an example of courage balle, and Madame de Tourzel, the dauphin's and dignity to all around her. Though ex- governess. The last in the series is one adposed to every insult and menace, her heroic dressed to Elisabeth, on the morning of the spirit never failed her. She endured to the 16th of October, the day of the queen's exeend, with true nobleness of spirit, the brutal- cution. The original of this letter is in the ities of her accusers, and the last letters which archives of the empire; it breaks off sudshe wrote from her prison are full of tenderness denly with an unfinished sentence, and bears and affection. When her nature was tested no signature. It is believed that its concluby misfortune and suffering, it proved to be sion was prevented by the arrival of the exetrue metal. The last years of her life are cutioner. It is extremely touching in its sufficient to atone for far more than can be allusions to her children and her friends. with truth laid to her charge, and ought to We believe that a great many more of her silence the voice of calumny. The aim of M. letters, especially those to her brother, the Lescure is to show that Marie Antoinette de- emperor, are in existence in the archives of serves not only our compassion but our ado- Vienna; they probably would throw some ration. He declares that all the evidence additional light on the views of that court at that has been brought to light in modern the time of the flight of the king to Varennes. times tends to show the absolute blameless- But we must admit that the mass of literaness of the queen's life-a more favorable ture referring to Marie Antoinette has alview than that entertained by M. Sainte- ready reached most preposterous dimensions. Beuve, who seems to us to insinuate more M. Lescure gives us a list of some two hunthan he is in a position to sustain. Perhaps dred works, without including the countless the most interesting portion of M. Lescure's piles of scurrilous pamphlets which are to be volume is the collection of Marie Antoinette's found in the collections of the curious. MR. BUCKLE AS A TALKER.-In a book just published, under the title of " Arabian Days and Nights," Miss Marguerite A. Power gives an interesting sketch of her meeting in Egypt with Mr. Buckle but a few weeks before his death. "At Cairo we had the good fortune to fall in with one whose premature death a few weeks later now makes the souvenir of the encounter doubly interesting. This was Buckle, who, in his researches for fresh materials for his History of Civilization, was now on his way back from a journey up the Nile. He had, on his arrival in Egypt, brought letters of introduction to the R.'s, so that, as they were already acquainted, he came almost immediately to call, and was asked to dinner on an early day. I have known most of the celebrated talkers of-I will not say how many years back-of the time, in a word, when Sydney Smith rejoiced in his green, bright old age, and Luttrell and Rogers and Tommy Moore were still capable of giving forth an occasional flash, and when the venerable Lord Brougham, and yet more venerable Lord Lyndhurst, delighted in friendly and brilliant sparring at dinner-tables, whose hosts are now in their half-forgotten graves. I have known some brilliant talkers in Paris-Lamartine and Dumas and Cabarrus, and brightest, or at least most constantly bright of all, the late Madame Emile de Girardin. I were perhaps invidious now to mention. But, |