of the gallant bridegroom, the decoration of the church, the number and names of the guests, the splendour of the wedding breakfast, with the speeches of the gentlemen, were all discanted upon and described in a way which, though we may admire, we cannot hope to imitate. The writer of this fashionable report, being one of the invited wedding guests, comp sed an ode for the auspicous occasion, and concluded with the hope that Mr. and Mrs. Ellis might enjoy long life and prosperity in the parish of Riverside, and that the practice Mr. Ellis had recently purchased might increase and prosper, which remark, though a compliment to the rising practitioner, was hardly one to the parish itself. The last and concluding paragraph alluded in feeling terms to the united houses of Evans and Jackson, now one family, with best wishes for their uninterrupted happiness and unbroken harmony.

THE END

OUR SHAKESPERIAN READINGS.

SOCIETY in a provincial town, such as I am now writing in, is too often stale, flat, and unprofitable. It is stale and flat because we live in little sets, seeing the same faces every day, and using almost the same words. And our words are very often unprofitable and even mischievous, because they are, as a rule, spoken in reference to persons. It is a garrison town, and the writer lives in a military set. Here scarcely anything is talked of except personalities. A regiment is such a small world, that it is impossible to indulge in the luxury of privacy. Everyone knows too much of everyone. The amount of money possessed by each officer, and the last new dress of his wife, are as well known to his companions as the regimental facings. At last we wearied of grinding out the same tunes, as on a barrel organ, about our neighbours' concerns. Rightly or wrongly, we fancied we had a small amount of intellectual power over and above that possessed by an organ grinder's monkey. "Why, then," we asked ourselves, "should our visits to each other be so wearisome, and so unworthy of cultured, or even of half-cultured, beings?" We had, of course, all read Shakespeare in our youth; but might it not be as well to read again the "myriad-minded poet?" One lady, who had some organising ability, started a Shakesperian reading-club.

In this paper we propose to give an account of our struggles towards the light of rational sociability out of the wearisome darkness of tittle-tattle gossiping. In large cities mental food can easily be obtained. We desire to encourage those who live in small provincial towns and country places to make bricks even without straw-to endeavour to amuse and edify one another even though they live far from any great centre of culture and education.

Only six persons were present at our first reading. Many others promised to come, but at the last moment, their courage failed them. "They never could read aloud. They would come and listen; but for anything else they were quite afraid to venture." Nor was this diffidence surprising when we considered how much neglected is the art of reading aloud, than which no accomplishment is more social and eminently useful. "Hamlet"

was the first play operated upon. Two members of the club made a selection of the parts to be read, taking care that their "elegant extracts could be read in about two hours.

After a good deal of tittering on the part of the first readers, we got fairly started, and the reading was so much better than we

expected, that" to be or not to be" was no longer the question with our club, especially after that soliloquy had been very effectively given. When half the play was read through, we had tea and talk for ten minutes. During this time, jokes were made about the ghost-" Alas, poor ghost !"-and different opinions put forward as to the correct emphasis to be given to the several words

in the line

"To be, or not to be; that is the question."

The conversation that occupied these ten minutes was very good. The readers had been bottled up, so to speak, and when they did give vent to their thoughts and feelings, it was in a sparkling, lively flow of talk. Our reading supplied a text from which we considerably departed, for we discussed many subjectsfor the most part, however, as became rational beings, which would not have been the case if there had been only talking and no reading.

Our reading party met every week at the houses of the several members. From the small beginning already mentioned it has become greatly enlarged and three other Shakesperian Readings have been started in the neighbourhood suggested by our experi ment, and there is a perceptible improvement in the society of our town. People have something else than mere talk to occupy them when they meet their friends. Vulgar gossip about neighbours' concerns is less indulged in, and reputations no longer die at every word, wink, and nod. Boswell was, according to Dr. Johnson, "the best travelling companion in the world." For such a purpose, readiness to make talk at all hazards is a high recommendation. "If, sir, you were shut up in a castle and a newborn baby with you, what would you do?" is one of his questions to Johnson, à propos of nothing. Those who have not this capacity for talking about nothing will appreciate Shakesperian Readings as being helps at any rate to keep the ball of society rolling without having to make talk at all hazards themselves. Occasionally recitations from Tennyson are given by different members, and charades have been substituted at some houses for readings. The end aimed at is to raise social intercourse to a higher level by giving people something besides gossip to think and speak of. We hear much of the elevation of the working classes; but those who have been gifted with social talents are greatly to blame if they never exert themselves to make society in the middle class a little more bright and innocent. It is a great mistake to suppose that a person must be rich in order to become a social influence. Certainly fashionable dinner parties are expensive, but these are not given now-a-days for the sake of friendly intercourse Guests are collected merely to witness the fact that their host

entertains with a larger number of entrées, than appeared at their own tables when he was guest. It is no wonder that the words "in a friendly way," are now generally added to invitations where sociability and moderation are preferred to snobbishness and excess. There are many "friendly ways" of seeing one's friends, open to people of very limited incomes. We ourselves know mistresses of houses whose pleasure it is to bring young people together, to break up cliques, to be, in a word, centres of social influence and this they do at no greater expense than the cost of a few pounds of tea and coffee, and of sweet cakes in the year. These ladies have enough brains, tact, and sociability to make their entertainments pleasant with scarcely any other outlay than that of good-nature and good-humour. The feasts of reason and flow of soul at the Saturday afternoon "teas," and Monday Shakesperian Readings of Mrs., the leader and inspirer of society in this provincial town --, are like good words, "worth. much and cost little."

SONNET.

A LESSON FROM THE FLOWERS.

COME, let us take a lesson from the flow'rs,
And gather wisdom-leaves from nature's book:
For modest, lowly flow'rets, we must look,

And try to make their sweet example ours.

First, take the Snowdrop, fair, with drooping head,
It cares not to attract the passer's gaze;
The fragrant Violet seek, for all its days
This flow'ret hides its charms 'neath leafy bed.

The Primrose, too, a lesson to us gives,
It brightens ev'ry spot on which it lives;

And then Forget-me-nots, with eyes of blue,
Are emblems, old, of love and friendship true;
But in one line, to sum up all the rest—

Who aims to live like flowers, must live her best.

M. A. BAINES.

BRIEF AND VARIOUS.

THE CONVENTION WITH ASIA MINOR.

THE leading articles of the French papers, says a correspondent of the Standard, on English affairs are, as a rule, seldom worth more than a passing notice, but an exception must be made in favour of the République Française, which displays a knowledge of our manners and customs, and a sound appreciation of our policy and its guiding principles, that many an Englishman might envy. In a recent number, M. Gambetta's journal calls attention to a very important design which it attributes to England-the formation of a railway between India and the shores of the Mediterranean. The République considers that the Convention by which England obtained the right to occupy Cyprus, and make it a post of observation and a base of military operations on the Syrian coast, is the first practical step towards carrying that grand idea into effect. It then proceeds as follows:-"It is not in our province to affirm whether or not the Anglo-Turkish Convention was drawn up and signed in view of the creation of this new line of communication between the British Metropolis and the English Asiatic possessions. This is a political question which is too important for us to enter upon here. We desire to confine ourselves to offering the proof that the creation of this grand line must necessarily be one of the most important results that England will obtain by her engagements respecting Asiatic Turkey. Her own interests are so iden. tical on this question with those of the Sublime Porte, that sooner or later the execution of this ripely studied and perfectly prepared proje t must form one of the essential elements of the reforms which the English Government has undertaken to introduce into Asia Minor. It is the eventual realisation of this project that we propose to examine and explain. In the first instance, it is neces sary to look at both sides of this important question. The English side is that which most nearly concerns the interest of those countries which will be immediately benefitted by the construction of the line in question. It is certain that first and foremost England desires the creation of a military line of communication which may be safer and more rapid than that of the Suez Canal. It is not that in case of war with Russia, or in the eventuality of a rebellion of her Mussulman subjects, England does not count on the Suez Canal as a road by which reinforcements could be sent to the scene of military operations; but, in addition to the advantages