your bride on a honeymoon visit to London invitation of "Sit, sirs, and fill !" would have that is, if expense is no object to you. But given a vivacity to the gathering. But confor many like ourselves, who, we almost re- spiracy does its work dry-lipped, and that gret to say, are not in the manufacturing or Shakspeare knew full well. Had the high iron lines, but dependent upon our wits or contracting parties, who arranged the defeat professions to attempt such localities is lit- of Lord Derby's administration, taken their tle short of bankruptcy, if the experiment is claret freely, the fine vinous influence would in any degree protracted. Not that your act- have been an antidote to the factious poison. ual consumpt is overcharged, for that is not But they could not do it. At such a consultthe case; but when you come to peruse the ation, the best vintage of Lafitte would have bill, you begin to understand that Turkey tasted nauseously, for there is an honesty in carpets, even in usufruct, are hideously ex- the pure juice of the grape, which even Arpensive; that Ariel takes tithes, more exorbi- chemage could not withstand. So the butler tantly than any Rector; and that, for the had a sinecure; and Trebonius and Metellus privilege of a fortnight's residence, you are Cimber went to bed with nothing stronger expected to pay at least a year's interest upon than soda-water upon their stomachs, which the value of the furniture. Also you arrive fact may account for subsequent symptoms of at the comprehension why wax candles are flatulency, and rumors of intestine disorder. invariably put down, instead of the lesser But to return to the French clubs. We can't luminaries which you employ in your own suppose that they were like our own masonic private abode. Knowledge is always valu- lodges; for in them, as we are given to unable, but you may pay too dearly for it; derstand, a wholesome degree of Spartan therefore, on the whole, if your means are conviviality is maintained, within the limits limited, we should not recommend you to try of proper discretion; and the only true bond the experiment of a West-end private hotel. of fraternity is ratified by a temperate cup. The cost of a day's entertainment at such an We have a vision of these Parisian clubs. establishment, live as quietly as you will, We see before us a darkened staircase, up comes to more than a week's reckoning at which young Robespierre is led blindfolded Frankfort. It has long been a reproach a vestibule with a hideous apparitionagainst us, who are born on the northern side awful metaphysical signals; and then the of the Tweed, that we are economical of our neophyte is led into a bare room, where the "siller." We accept the accusation as a old mummery of the Vehmegericht is enacthigh compliment. We suit our movements ed. President masked in red - Council to the state of our purses; and, if we do not similarly veiled in black. Hannibal's altar launch out in extravagance, neither do we more daggers displayed thereon than ever swindle. But there is no wisdom in sacrific-graced the belt of Alessandro Massaroni — a ing to fashion, when you can command the same amount of comfort for nearly one third of the expenditure.

some

considerable sprinkling of skulls, blue lights, and a blasphemous oath; and then the sworn Socialist is dismissed, without knowledge of "Clubs!" was the old cry of the followers the locality where these Eleusinian mysteries of Jack Cade, and, in later times, it was a were performed, but with a ticket, referring favorite whoop among the London apprentices. him simply to his immediate captain, whose Heaven be praised, the word has now no such orders he must obey implicitly, in case he can violent significance in Britain, whatever it persuade another idiot to undergo the like may have elsewhere. All of us have heard infernal baptism. Such is our notion of the mention of the Clubs of Paris, which attained French clubs, as gathered from contemporary such fearful notoriety in the days of the bar- hints; and really we cannot conceive anything ricades. What were they in outward show? more purely diabolical. But it is a startling We confess that we feel a good deal of curios- fact that such societies have existed for nearly ity on that point, and should be thankful for sixty years, in France, in Italy, and, what is information. Clearly they were not convivial more our immediate concern, in Ireland. institutions where men ate and drank; for They may slumber for a time for snakes refection never goes hand in hand with revo- hybernate but they do not die; and always, lution, nor malt with massacre. No sanguin- at the approach of a political crisis, they reary conspirator ever grappled cordially with vive. We are no admirers of the new Emperor the tankard. Shakspeare, whose fine percep- of the French, because we do not pretend to tion is never at fault, sufficiently indicates this fathom his policy, and have no great faith in eternal truth in the conspiracy scene at the his pacific declarations; but, in his internal house of Brutus, in the play of Julius Caesar, administration, which is all that we have now where the host never once thinks of offering to deal with, we think that he has acted most his visitors even a paltry stoup of Falernian. wisely in smiting down the clubs at once. A Had their business been of another nature, vast deal of nonsense is talked in this country we_should have had the stage direction: about the freedom of the press. There is no "Enter LUCIUS with wine;" and the cheering | peculiar sanctity, that we know of, in printer's

working all day together, separate amicably in the evening, and form two divisions, one of them enlightening the Whig, and the other the Tory subalterns! Anything more egre

ink. Treason in types is as bad as, nay, worse than, spouted sedition; and when the press has reached that point of outrageous license which inculcates anarchy and revolution, it is the duty of a government to put it under re-giously absurd than this can hardly be imagstraint. Sir Charles Wood, by his recent ined; and we need no other argument to speech at Halifax, stultified himself as a man, convince us that the present coalition is not and disgraced himself as a minister of the destined to have long endurance. In this crown. He demonstrated, what we have all country, so far as our internal regulations are along believed, that he has no knowledge concerned, party is a social tie; and, like all whatever of the posture of affairs on the other such ties, it cannot be violated with Continent; and we doubt not that he has, impunity. The Peelites we call them such moreover, convinced Lord Aberdeen of the still, in order to indicate the section of men monstrous blunder which he committed by to whom we refer are chargeable with bad inviting him to become a member of his cab-faith in having continued to be members, or inet. Louis Napoleon is quite competent to conduct his own affairs; and, at all events, requires no advice from so very imbecilea quarter. Of course, it never could occur to Sir Charles Wood to ask himself, how it was that the liberty of the press in France, once so unrestricted, came to be finally abolished? Yet, after all, its present degraded position is to us the strongest proof of the necessity which existed for coercive measures. It is not in the nature of things-it is not within the limits of possibility - that a free press, speaking loyally and constitutionally, could have been put into fetters. It sank into bondage solely because it had been the advocate of anarchy. Swiftly, in states, does retribution follow on the footsteps of crime. But for the revolutionary movements, brought about, in a great measure, through the instrumentality of the French press, that Louis Napoleon, who is now charged with being its violator, never would have had it in his power to stretch forth a finger against it. True freedom can only be maintained by a jealous observance of order. Anarchy begets despotism; and it is as unreasonable for a revolutionist to complain of the consequences of his folly, as it would be for a man who has been experimenting with combustibles in his study, to raise an outcry if his house should happen to be consumed by the fiery element. We, too, have our political clubs; but we are glad to think that, in none of them is there any talk of treason, or hatching of revolutionary schemes. Each of them is the head-quarter of a state party or was, because we really do not understand how, under the present arrangements, the old distinctions can be maintained. Why should Sir William Molesworth belong to the Reform, and Mr. Gladstone to the Carlton Club? They are both members of one cabinet are supposed to be acting in strict political concert and, in truth, must be acting together cordially, if they are honest, which we doubt not. In clubs, indeed, the ministerial hand is divided. One half of them go to the one, and the other half to the other place of resort. The occupants of the Treasury bench, who have been

rather in frequenting an exclusively political club, after they had ceased to act in concert with the party of which that club was constituted. We say nothing about vested rights of membership, or considerations of pounds, shillings, and pence-all that is fudge. The plain common sense view is, that those gentlemen had seceded from the principles of the club, and they, therefore, ought to have resigned. A clergyman of the Church of England does not lose the benefit of clergy because he joins the Church of Rome; but he is bound, at all events, to leave his mother church - he cannot, at the same moment, be an Anglican and a Romanist. If a member of a tee-total society become converted to the principles of Bacchus, we should hold him inexcusable if he insisted on discussing his bottle, or, mayhap, magnum of port, in the presence of the other members of the Antijolly-dog Club, who can barely carry their chicory. He has infracted the primordial rule; and, though expulsion may not be a declared penalty for his offence, he ought in common decency to retire. We are very desirous to touch upon this matter with extreme delicacy, because, although it has been made the subject of public remark, comment, and correspondence, it is, strictly speaking, a question only proper to the members of the clubs. But a great political party club is, in our day, an institution of public interest. It is not like a place of entertainment, or a literary, service, or local club-it is a party sanctuary, the sanctity of which depends upon its peculiar worship. Thousands, who are not members, have and feel a strong interest in that; for it is undeniable that those clubs do constitute the grand rendezvous of party. No character can be baser than that of the deliberate spy; and, without supposing that any man, pretending to the character or status of a gentleman, could be guilty of such ineffable infamy, we would merely say that no one of right feeling ought to place himself in such a position as to incur the most distant hazard of such a charge. That charge never has been, and never could be, brought against any statesman, or men in high official situa

tions. They may have acted injudiciously or who dislike party must admit that it is betunwisely in frequenting political clubs-from ter than cabal; and, for ourselves, we anticithe general theory of which a change in their pate, if the disorganization of parties should political creed, however conscientiously made, be permanent, nothing else than a wretched have caused them to differmay but their and unwholesome, as well as dangerous dehonor is beyond question. Ugly stories, how-velopment of cabals. But enough of this. ever, are abroad about less scrupulous eaves- We shall regret extremely, if, in the foregoing droppers, and snakes in the grass; and it is remarks, we have given offence to any one, very desirable, indeed, that even the suspicion our object simply being to enforce the docshould be allayed. Obviously it is intolerable trine that in a purely political club it is very that, at an exclusively political club, no gen-desirable never to lose sight of, nor contratleman can speak his mind freely, without vene, the original cause of its foundation. taking the precaution of scanning the whole of the apartment, lest, within earshot, there may lurk some knavish underling of the other party. We have no liking for half-and-half, preferring to have our liquor unadulterated; and we have not the slightest notion of making a confidant of Janus. If a man is to be a Whig, let him say so, and keep to his company; if he is to be a Conservative, let him eschew Whig alliances. The worst of the present system is, that the Liberals have all the advantage. There are no spies in the Reform Club, whatever there may be in the Carlton; and, even on the supposition that the present state of matters is the necessary result of political changes which were unforeseen, we may be pardoned for wishing to see a speedy adjustment.

With regard to other clubs we have absolutely nothing to say. It never was allowed to us to penetrate into the interior of the Oriental, so that we might listen to the legends of its denizens touching Futtyghur and Chittapore. It is, we are led to suppose, a little Hindostan in the heart of London, between which and Cheltenham the members are perpetually vibrating; and we imagine it is unsurpassed for its curries. Of the Service Clubs we venture not to speak; nor of the Athenæum, which is the first of the literary establishments. Club life, indeed, is a peculiar feature of the present age, and hitherto there have been no symptoms of decay, though we doubt whether the system will admit of much greater extension. On this point it is worth quoting the opinion of Sir E. B. Lytton, who, in his England and the English, written nearly twenty years ago, made the following remarks:

The truth is that we set great store by the maintenance of these clubs in their integrity. We do not refer to the one more than to the other, being of opinion that the character of "Clubs form a main feature of the social an opposition is almost as valuable and im- system of the richer classes of the metropolis. portant to the country as the character of an Formerly they were merely the resort of gamadministration. We take it for granted that blers, politicians, or bons vivans now, they most men are drawn to one or other of these have assumed a more intellectual character; clubs from considerations of political principle. every calling has its peculiar club - from the The members of it are his associates, and it soldiers' to the scholars'. The effect which is every way desirable that there should be an this multiplicity of clubs has produced is saluidentity of interest and of sentiment; for there tary in the extreme; it has begun already to can be no doubt that in every club, of what- counteract the solitary disposition of the naever nature it may be, harmony is the grand tives; it opens a ready intercourse with our desideratum. Who would choose to belong foreign guests, who are usually admitted as to, or continue in, a society where he is sure honorary members; prejudices are rubbed off'; to meet, every day in his life, with the very and by an easy and unexpensive process, the persons towards whom he entertains the most most domestic or the most professional learn antipathy? It may be said that the cases the views of the citizen of the world. At are not parallel, because, fortunately for us, these resorts the affairs of the public make political differences in this country rarely lead the common and natural topic of conversato the interruption of private friendship. tion; and nothing furthers the growth of pubWe admit all that, and are exceeding glad lic principle like the discussion of public mat that it is so; but it must be remembered that ters. It is said that clubs render men less the institutions of which we are discoursing were founded for political objects, and for these alone. We have no doubt that every member of Parliament could find more congenial society elsewhere, if he merely consulted his private taste and inclination. But he does not do so. He joins the Carlton or the Reform as a party-man, and we should be sorry to think that the system is likely to be interrupted or to fall into disuse. Even those

domestic. No: they only render them less unsocial; they form a cheap and intellectual relaxation, and (since in most of the recent clubs the custom turns to neither gambling nor inebriety) they unbend the mind even when improving it. But these are the least advantages of clubs; they contain the germ of a mighty improvement in the condition of the humbler classes. I foresee that those classes will, sooner or later, adopt institutions

so peculiarly favorable to the poor. By this species of cooperation, the man of 2001. a-year can, at present, command the nobler luxuries of a man of 50007.—airy and capacious apart ments, the decent comforts of the table; lights, fires, books, and intellectual society. The same principle, on a humbler scale, would procure the same advantages for the shopkeeper or the artisan, and the man of 50%. a-year might obtain the same comforts as the man of 5001."

confess, is rather a ticklish consideration; for, though we began this paper with a distinct moral view, we have been led into so many episodes that we have some difficulty in the summing up. Still, we are not without arrangement. And, first of all, we would beseech wives to be tolerant on the subject of clubs; because these institutions do, to a certain extent, promote the happiness of their husbands, and make them more useful members of society. At the same time, we by no Since the above passage was written, a de- means intend to dissuade them from a proper cided movement has been made by the class degree of jealousy. If the husband appears referred to, but not altogether in the direction likely to become too clubbistic, let him mildly indicated by the author. Lecture and read- be made aware of his backslidings; and, if ing rooms have sprung up in every considera- the appeal is gently entered, the odds are that ble town, but there has been no attempt, as the delinquent will be reclaimed. The comyet, to push the experiment farther. Indeed, fort of a club, however great it may be, is we doubt much whether it could succeed. In nothing to the comfort of a happy home; and the first place, there is a certain limit below it is towards the establishment of that that a which the outlay cannot be reduced; and we wife should bend her genius. Men, in the fear that limit is beyond the justifiable ex-gross, are not monsters, nor are they exorbipenditure of persons of contracted means. In the second place, without more leisure than he is likely to be able to afford, a club-house would be to an artisan a mere ordinary, and would too often detach him from his proper domestic duties. Our habits or modes of life must ever be mainly regulated by our means of expenditure; and perhaps the most serious objection which can be urged to the club system, arises from the fact that men of small means can thereby habitually command the luxuries which, in domestic life, pertain to wealth alone. Some men require the application of the spur. Though very far from being philosophers in the proper acceptation of the term, they have a decidedly philosophical dislike of anything like undue exertion; and if they find that they can live, in one character, as comfortably upon £300 a-year, which may chance to be the amount of their patrimony, as another can upon £3000 in his own peculiar home, not a few of the epicureans will be apt to shrink from undertaking that labor, in which is comprehended the greater portion of the happiness and utility of man. Doubtless wits of the Garrick Club you, in looking over the foregoing three or four pages, consider us as betraying evident symptoms of senility. What would you have? Would it be possible for us, in these hyberborean regions, where the snow is now lying two feet deep, to chronicle your faceti whether they relate to the tonsorial operation said to have been performed upon one of your members, or to any other incident of fun that constitutes the zest of your existence? No! Good fellows all, we greet you heartily; and hope that, in the coming time, your walls may never reëcho with a less burst of genuine fun than has been elicited from them in the happy days of yore! And now

--

what is our moral? That, we

tantly selfish - though we deny not that exceptions occur - and, what is as much to the purpose, they are very easily led. Witness that huge hulk, Hercules, whom Omphale compelled to spin, and whom Dejanira trepanned even in the matter of his shirts! The old fable had a distinct meaning. It pointed to the supremacy of the married woman, provided she knows how to set about it. To dowagers, with daughters, who lament that their lot has fallen in evil days, we would breathe a word of encouragement. Let them, too, endeavor to make their houses agreeable places of resort, and we are ready to stake our existence that they will not find the clubs operate to their disadvantage. But if they will persist in the preposterous theory, that the only proper method of exhibiting the accomplishments of young women is the enactment of the part of a Bacchante, we have nothing further to say. Fitzurse, who is the best partner at the polka that can be found, is no fool, at least in so far as monetary notions are concerned. That distinguished officer is in the habit of declaring, at mess, that he won't sell himself by which the jackanapes means marriage for less than a certain number of thousands; and nobody can blame Fitzurse, since it is notorious that a lesser amount would not suffice to clear him of his previously contracted debts. But, in the mean time, at every ball or assembly Fitzurse monopolizes your daughter, which is surely not the best recommendation for that very handsome and sprightly girl. O mothers! in whatever grade of life you may move, do justice to your children. Teach them what is truly valuable; and, though fashion be against you, keep them from that too close contact and familiarity with the other sex, which, though it affects not virtue, mars the bloom of modesty. Use your own eyes. If we are wrong, you will be

able to confute us; but we venture to say | have looked on his last pirouette-Miller that, out of that wilderness of phantoms now will be gathered to the patriarchal Joseph rushing past you, as if under the delirious in- the fine wrist of Fitzball will be motionless fluence of opium, you can hardly select half-and Badmington be laid in an alcoholic a-dozen of whose addresses to your daughter grave. Of that jovial band you may be the you would approve. Very well! let us with- sole survivor, feeding upon melancholy remdraw and inspect that half-dozen. Three of iniscences, and conversing uncomfortably with them don't care one fig for any girl in the ghosts. The time will come and perhaps room. They are there because they like the it is not very far distant - when you will disexcitement, which is, in fact, the chief part cover that the best of all possible clubs is but of their existence; and if you can bring them a poor substitute for a home. And this also to book, you will have accomplished a feat is undeniable, that no inveterate club-lounger which fifty mammas have striven in vain to ever yet attained to distinction. Have, then, achieve. We grant that you have some chance a noble ambition; and, whilst you avail yourwith the other three. But what are they? self of the pleasures within your reach, do not Asses contemptible in intellect, callous in permit them to enslave you. Every man feeling, and such as do not possess any one stands in imminent danger of being carried quality (beyond acres or dividends) which could captive to some Castle of Indolence, and the possibly recommend them to your notice. club may be your moral Bastille. "But, then, the acres and the dividends?" Madam, we thought we had the honor of conversing with a British, not with a Circassian mother.

But wherefore prose we further? Is this a time for moralizing, when the only fine frost which we have known for four successive winters has arrested the rivers, covered the lakes with a solid mirror, and is even now in

If it be the fact, as we have heard it alleged, that beauty is at a discount in the mat-viting us to take part in the national game? rimonial market, we conceive that we have For, of all existing clubs, the Curling Club is stated quite sufficient reason to account for the that which we frequent with the most intense extraordinary depreciation. And we do not delight. Let us see. It is now mid-day, and think that, so long as the present system pre- the thermometer is standing at twenty-three vails, there is any great likelihood of enticing in the shade! Already our jolly brethren young men from the clubs, or of altering the will be sending the stones roaring up the rates of quotation. However, that is no con-rinks on the pond of Duddingstone Policy. cern of ours. We never were fond of preach- The lawyer will have flung aside his brief, ing; and if the notions which we now pro-and the banker deserted his desk, in honor of pound should be rejected with scorn, we shall the exhilarating holiday; and foul shame endeavor to bear the obloquy. We may, however, and perhaps ought, to say, that these notions are entertained by more young men of the present generation than possibly dowagers

are aware of.

would it be were we the last at that gathering. On this day, nine of our chosen are to contend for the integrity of their ice against any other nine in Scotland; and though the West produces most famous curlers, with the good and gallant Earl of Eglinton at their head a chieftain whose removal Ireland will long deplore

Finally, we would recommend the too enthusiastic clubbist not to become too enamored of his microcosm. Doubtless, within the walls of his pet establishment there are to be found Scotorum comitem flevit glacialis Ierne. several agreeable companions and associates -Smith, the politician, who is great at the and though the men of Bathgate and the breakfast-table, and who, somehow or other, Kirk of Shotts, who are sometimes able to is admitted to the arcana of state secrets, practise in the dog-days, may be our oppowhatever ministry may be in power-Jenkins, nents, we are yet not timorous for the result. the dilettante, who can tell you everything At all events, even if defeated, there will be about the opera-Miller, the famous jester balm in Gilead; for we already scent beef Fitzball, the pride of the billiard-room and and greens, from time immemorial - yea, Badmington, the connoisseur of vintages, from the days of Fergus the First - the curlwhose advice becomes valuable about dinner-ers' appointed banquet. Not all the Nine of time. But those excellent individuals do not Parnassus-not even Maga herself - could constitute the whole world. They are mortal. detain us longer from the fun; and, thereSome day or other Smith will be as dead as fore, with a sudden impulse, we jerk our pen the treaty of Unkiar Skelessi —Jenkins will into the fire.