IF, O reader, you have known what it is to pass years in a faraway land, of which the climate and the products are very different from those familiar to us here, you probably are acquainted also with the agreeable feeling produced by recognising some day, here on British soil, a plant, an animal, or a fruit, which you had thought to be kept pretty strictly to the climes where you had once been straying. You are pleased at sight of a once familiar object now for long out of reach and sight, and you are pleased to think that the object is one of which you have intimate knowledge, while most of your friends, probably, require much explanation as to its nature and uses. A pleasure of this kind may greet you on any day. There is scarcely anything, from anywhere, which may not find its way into London now. Time was when men went to certain places to obtain certain things: Quin went to Plymouth to eat John-dories; canvas - backed ducks could only be tasted by crossing the Atlantic; in Jamaica only could the perfect land-crab be enjoyed. But sit still now, have a little patience, and all these things-yea, even the incomparable land-crab-will come to you. To-day I have had on my table some fairly good mangoes. Until to-day I had not eaten one for more years than I like to talk about; but I have talked a good deal about the fruit, declared it to be a specimen very inferior to some of which I once lived in the daily enjoyment, but nevertheless commended it to attention, and predicted that we should have it of

as

superior quality anon. I think I was justified in this prediction by observation of the ever-increasing quantity and variety of foreign fruits which arrive at our markets. To say nothing more of fruits that are at present rare, those which we have long appreciated now come from a distance at a reduced price, so that there can be very general enjoyment of them. Pine-apples and grapes, which used to be supplied to us from English hothouses at very high prices, can now be enjoyed by the multitude; and, these being very wholesome well as very grateful fruits, the indulgence to our palates is obtained without the sacrifice of any sanitary principle. Obtained, that is to say, in ordinary seasons without any sacrifice; but I fear that, if the cholera had come within a measurable distance of us last summer, the good supply of fruit would have been held to be a misfortune. I rather think it is usual for European doctors to altogether prohibit the consumption of fruit during a visitation; and we shall have rather a tantalising time whenever the fell disease may again make its way to our shores.

I am thankful to say that my experience of cholera-times is not very extensive. No doubt, when the dreadful disease is actually among an English community, they will be as much scared and horrified as denizens of any other country; but I do not think the apprehension of its appearance creates even proper alarm and caution. As a proof of this, I shall mention a commotion which I know to have occurred some years ago in a small

English borough, at a time when it might have been expected that a sense of common danger would have suppressed for the time class jealousies. Up to the date of the event to which reference is made, the little town had itself escaped the epidemic, which, however, was making considerable havoc in several places not very distant. One day a woman, a tramp, or a person not much above the level of a tramp, came to the borough, was taken ill there in a mean lodginghouse, and speedily died. It was soon ascertained that she had come from a town where Asiatic cholera had established itself, and the doctors affirmed that she had died of that disease.

Now the local authorities were, to do them justice, quite on the alert. Immediately after the death occurred, the mayor and corporation met in their hall and deliberated on the situation. To carry the body from the lodginghouse where it lay to the churchyard would have involved the taking it through the principal streets. Even though some of the streets might have been avoided by using a circuitous route, the churchyard could not be reached without passing through one or two streets and the old burialground was dangerously near to a large number of houses. Medical opinion was decidedly against burying the woman in the churchyard; and happily, as it seemed, there was an alternative to that proceeding, for there was an enclosed piece of ground about half a mile off, and quite without the town, on which had formerly stood a chapel, and where a tower was yet standing. This piece of ground was consecrated, and it could be reached from the lodging-house without traversing more than a very small part of one of the streets.

The town council therefore thought that they had in every way taken prudent and reasonable order when they decreed that the grave should be dug in the piece of ground near the tower, and that the funeral should take its way thither, where all rites would be duly performed. It was lucky, as they thought, that this consecrated area was available; the safety of the living could be regarded without disrespect to the dead; the burgesses thought that they had discreetly settled an unexpected and menacing difficulty.

If, however, they thought that they were to receive the thanks of the community, they were grievously deceived. No sooner was it known that the burial was to take place near the old tower, than the lower orders of people, putting aside all concern about the cholera, grew vastly excited at the thought of carrying the body to this ground, which had for long been unused for interments. They said that, if it had been a well-to-do citizen that had so died instead of a friendless stranger, no authority would for a moment have thought of ordering the burial to be effected elsewhere than in the churchyard. collected in angry groups about the streets (it was on a Sunday), and ultimately gathered in an immense mob about the house where the body was lying, declaring that the burial should be in the churchyard, and nowhere else.

They

The disappointed magistrates and councillors, when they understood how ill their arrangements had been received by a large part of the community, repaired to the scene of tumult, and endeavoured to convince the populace that what had been ordered was for the common good of all, high and lowthat the danger was a very serious one-and that, as good citizens, all

to a distance as speedily as possible the infectious remains. But they could scarcely obtain a hearing. Fifty orators were ready from among the crowd to overbear them, and to assert in no gentle terms that they (the authorities) would not have acted as they had done if the deceased had been one of their own relations or order. They did not care a straw (so they said) about the danger, which could not be greater from a poor person's corpse than from a rich one's; they would allow no burying in a strange ground-that might be depended on; and therefore the authorities, if they were wise, would lose no time in preparing a grave in the churchyard, and ordering the funeral to take place there. Things continued in this way for several hours. No actual violence had occurred, but there was great excitement. The woman still lay unburied. The magistrates did not choose to rescind or modify their decree; and the populace still declared that the funeral, as decreed, should not take place. Evening had come, and it was considered most important that the interment should take place at once. I should mention that the police force of the little borough was very meagre, and quite unable to cope with such a mob as was filling the streets.

At this conjuncture whispers were passed about that troops had been demanded from the nearest garrison town, and that a couple of regiments would be present before morning to enforce the magistrates' orders. There is some reason, however, to doubt the truth of these whispers, because the conduct of the authorities showed that they had by no means lost faith in themselves as yet. They announced that the state of the town

It was observed by the more reasonable of those who were mixed in the assembly, that the crowd, when thus left to itself by the magistrates, became of a sudden somewhat calmer. It had no longer champions of the law to wrangle with it, so the fire declined from lack of fuel: and it did not appear to have any clear ideas of action; it was only an obstructive mob without leaders-indeed everybody capable of taking a lead was on the side of the law. So, although the aspect of things had not changed much, there seemed to be a general disposition to wait and see what the authorities would do next.

As I have heard the tale told, the town council, when it reassembled in guild-hall, did not exhibit the helplessness which it is customary to expect from civic bodies when called upon to deal with unwonted difficulties. There were one or two burgesses who wiped their heads, said the responsibility was very serious indeed, and hinted that it would be better to let the people have their way. A small section followed a fiery little man with red hair who was all for gunpowder. "Have troops here," counselled this section, "with the least possible delay. Read the Riot Act. After that, if any offer opposition to the law, let the military deal with 'em." But the mayor and his deputy, supported by the town-clerk, offered advice which was not begotten

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The municipal body now turned to the neighbourhood of the lodging-house, taking with them this time their crier in his robes and with his wand of office. As the magistrates entered among the crowd, the crier turned suddenly to a respectable tradesman who was watching the proceedings, called upon him in the sovereign's name to aid in upholding the law, and told him that the mayor desired him to take the oath as a special constable, which he would refuse to do at his peril. The tradesman, who was quite on the side of order, took the required oath at once. Another decent man was then sworn in, and then another. Then the crier came upon one of the noisy malcontents, and required him to be sworn. The fellow refused at first; but the mayor reminded him that he did so at his peril and these appeared to him, as Pistol's rant did to Mrs Quickly, to be very bitter words. Moreover, he had seen more substantial persons than himself comply with similar demands: he was taken aback; he received the book and took the oath.

The effect of these proceedings was very satisfactory. When the noisy rogue suffered himself to be sworn, and the murmur ran about, "You must; you can't refuse; it's jail and £50 penalty,❞—a great many leading obstructionists, who

did not fancy being enlisted as agents of the law, made retreat as quietly as possible, and repaired to their own houses. The swearing, however, went on among the many that remained on the ground, until twenty or thirty special constables had been made. The crowd hardly knew what to make of this move, and stood quiet and somewhat astonished, wondering what would happen next.

What did happen was, that the mayor, who was now listened to more patiently than before, said a few soothing words to the assemblage. He told them that he fancied their dissatisfaction to have arisen from a belief that the authorities were inclined to treat the deceased slightingly because she was an indigent person. This was very far from the fact. They had acted solely from considerations of public safety, and by no means with an intention to respect persons. In proof whereof, he was glad to tell them that the corporation had ordered the hearse (there was but one in the town, and that but rarely in request) to bear the body to the grave; also, that some of the aldermen and council would follow as mourners, so that no mark of respect might be wanting.

As he finished speaking, the plumes of the hearse came into view, as the vehicle was driven up the street. The most refractory of the mob had, as I said, slunk away for fear of being made special constables. There was nobody to lead an opposition; the honest mayor had all his own way; and a cheer even greeted the hearse as it drew up at the door of the lodginghouse. The special constables formed two lines from the house door to the hearse, and between them the body was brought out by the workmen who made the coffin, boxed up for its last jour

ney, and driven off to the old tower (followed, as was promised, by some of the corporation), and there decorously interred.

There

So ended the tumult. was not another case of cholera in the healthy old borough; and the little émeute soon ceased to be a prominent topic of conversation. If the inhabitants generally of that borough were not to be put from their domestic jealousies by fear of disease, I am able to state that one individual could be quite alive to the danger of an epidemic. This was proved at a time when, not cholera, but typhus fever was the scare. An old lady of the place having heard that typhus was in the neighbourhood, declared that she would take it and die of it. She had not the faith in her own prediction that would have made her passively await its fulfilment, but, hopeless as she declared her case to be, made vigorous efforts to turn the fate aside. Being a person of some means, she had not much difficulty in taking her measures. She hired a house several miles in the country, shut herself therein with one servant, and established a stringent system of interdicting communication, except of the most sparing and necessary kind. Her quarantine was kept up for a week or two; but alas! by the end of that time there was an end of precaution, for she had died of typhus. It was remarkable that there was not another case of the disease for many miles round her.

If I have not a very intimate acquaintance with cholera, I cannot say the same of yellow fever, for of this last I have witnessed the ravages in different parts of the world; I have also felt its grip. It is a question not yet, as I think, decided, whether yellow fever is conveyed by infection or

not.

Certain it is that some persons believe it to be so; and I remember a diabolical attempt to introduce it into a healthy region. by means of infected clothing. It happened at Bermuda during the period when North and South were flying at each other's throats in the American States, and when, by reason of the blockade - running, a good many Southerners were collected in the Bermuda group. There had been a bad outbreak of yellow fever while the war was being waged; and before the disease had quite subsided, a discovery was made of a box, the passage of which had been provided for to the Northern States so that it might arrive in the hottest part of summer. It was found to contain the bedclothes and bodylinen (as was evident from the condition of the articles) of persons who had been afflicted with the epidemic. The intention, no doubt, was to introduce and spread the pestilence in the Northern towns and districts. I quite forget how the attempt was first brought to light; but very little doubt was at the time entertained that it was deliberately planned, and was to have been mercilessly carried out.

It is a not uncommon belief that the free use of intoxicating liquors, so common in warm climates, renders one very susceptible of the fever, and takes largely from the chances of recovery if the disease be once induced. In its general, unmodified form, this belief is cer- tainly incorrect; conditionally, it is probably true.

As facts in sup

port of my assertions I adduce: 1st, That in the visitation at Bermuda to which I have referred, several men, known to be steady and hard drinkers, enjoyed complete immunity from the attacks of fever; 2d, That, in the same epidemic, occasional inebriates men who