enough for the rise. Meanwhile, the working
man remains a study—in some respects, too, a
problem—in great part a difficulty—in much a
contradiction—but, on the whole, a national hope
and a national pride, and the future of a very fine
and noble power. Yet he has to do a little
hard work before he becomes that power;
and the hardest of all will be the coming to
a knowledge of his own deficiencies, the ability
to distinguish friends from flatterers, the
determination to give himself a better and sounder
education than he has at present, and the casting
from him, as a childish toy, the silly conceit
which sometimes makes him an easy dupe, and
indisposed to hear the truth, or to profit by it if
heard.

ARCHERS AND TREES.

WE have already informed our readers that a
really toxopholite aristocracy was instituted in
England, under the sanction of monarchs, with
the full consent of princes and people.* It is
now regarded in a more sober spirit; but there
are nations in whom the ancient enthusiasm still
prevails. Among the Chinese, archery has even
a sacred and symbolic value.

*See BEAUX AND BELLES, p. 345 of the present volume.

It still keeps its place on the list of military
exercises, to the study of which an aspirant for
a commission is required to apply himself, if he
wish to succeed in his object. The attitudes
are regarded as of principal importance. An
observer describes the movements of a Chinese
teacher while engaged with his pupil. He was
very particular to place the student in what
seemed to the spectator a most ungainly position;
nor was the pedantic martinet satisfied with
the result till, after frequent manipulations of his
pupil's legs and arms, he succeeded in getting
him into exact conformity with rule. In this
cramped attitude the pupil was compelled to
hold the bow for a certain length of time,
in order to make the pose familiar to him;
and then another set of operations was
commenced with reference to an attitude further
on in the exercises. This complex detail was
gone through with the utmost gravity, as if
some religious ceremony was proceeding, in
which deliberate motion and great solemnity
were indispensable requisites. After this, the
students are taught the art of shooting, and are
subjected to trials of skill. In every Chinese
corps of one thousand men, one-fifth are archers,
with regular officers. During actual warfare
they go to the field armed with the bows and
arrows which they wear only for show, nor are
ever expected to use.

The Indian archer has a manner of his own,
as dissimilar as can be to any European
method. He stands with his feet wide apart,
places one arm of the weapon over the front
of his left leg, and passes the handle behind
the thigh of the right; then he forces the
upper horn forwards with the right hand, and
slips the noose of the string into its place with
the left.

The yew-tree furnished the material of which
the bow of our ancestors was formed, and is a
frequent ornament in country churchyards.
Many have thought that they planted the tree
there for the express purpose of supplying bow-
wood for the public service. This, however, is a
mistake; lime, fir, chestnut, and oak are also
present in our churchyards; and the yew may
be seen nourishing in other spots—in Wales,
wherever a starting-place can be found for it,
in any cranny or cleft in the mountainous or
rocky soil. This presence of the yew, therefore,
in some country churchyards, is merely
accidental, and not due to any set purpose.

Of other trees, however, this cannot be
said: some were introduced for a certain end.
The mulberry-tree, for instance, was
introduced into England, early in his reign, by
James the First, who spent nine hundred and
thirty-five pounds in planting them near his
palace, and by royal edict, about the year 1605,
offered packets of mulberry-seeds to all who
would sow them, for the purpose of encouraging
the cultivation of silkworms for the promotion of
silk manufacture in this country. The royal
patronage rendered the tree so popular, that there
is scarcely an old garden or gentleman's seat,
which had existed in the seventeenth century, in
which a mulberry-tree is not to be found. In
1609, Sieur de la Foret, who had in France a
nursery of five hundred thousand plants, travelled
over the midland and eastern counties of
England, for the sale of mulberry-trees, and
distributed not less than one hundred thousand
trees.

In the eighteenth century, what was called
The Mulberry Garden was opened near London,
in the neighbourhood of Spafields, and became
a very popular place of entertainment. An old
engraving gives a very good representation of
the spot and of "the swells" by whom it was
frequented. A party of fashionably dressed
fops are shown playing a game of ninepins
under the spreading foliage of a huge mulberry-
tree, the trunk of which, as appears from
another picture, preserved in the Guildhall
library, was protected by a wooden fence.
Under the shade of this noble tree seats were
arranged for such as desired a lounge in view of
the skittle alley, which was immediately before it.
Bands of music, illuminations, and fireworks,
varied the amusements. A grand saloon was
provided for the musical entertainment in
winter, as also a long commodious room for the
general company. The music which the
proprietor encouraged was strictly national, it
being his expressed opinion that "the manly
vigour of our own native music is more suitable
to the ear and heart of a Briton than the
effeminate softness of the Italian," adding, that
"no foreign performer would be engaged at
his establishment."

Trees and forests are as natural to the archer
as trout streams and willow banks to the angler,