Parliamentary standard and balance of such
questions; and we believe that if those be
not scrupulously just, Parliament cannot
invest itself with much moral authority. Surely
the whole country knows that certain chivalrous
public Prophets have been, for a pretty
long time past, advertising their Pick and Tip
in all directions, pointing out the horse which
was to ruin all backers, and swearing by the
horse which was to make everybody's fortune!
Surely we all know, howsoever our political
opinions may differ, that more than one of
them "casting his practised eye," exactly like
the Prophet in the sporting paper, "on the
broad surface of struggling society," has been
possessed by the same "intense desire to hold
up the lamp of light to all," and has solemnly
known by the lamp of light that Black was
the winning horse—until his Pick and Tip was
purchased; when he suddenly began to think
it might be White, or even Brown, or very
possibly Grey. Surely, we all know, however
reluctant we may be to admit it, that this has
tainted and confused political honesty; that
the Elections before us, and the whole Government
of the country, are at present a great
reckless Betting-shop, where the Prophets
have pocketed their own predictions after
playing fast and loose with their patrons as
long as they could; and where, casting their
practised eyes over things in general, they
are now backing anything and everything for
a chance of winning!

No. If the legislature took the subject in
hand it would make a virtuous demonstration,
we have no doubt, but it would not present
an edifying spectacle. Parents and employers
must do more for themselves. Every man
should know something of the habits and
frequentings of those who are placed under
him; and should know much, when a new class
of temptation thus presents itself. Apprentices
are, by the terms of their indentures,
punishable for gaming; it would do a
world of good, to get a few score of that
class of noble sportsmen convicted before
magistrates, and shut up in the House of
Correction, to Pick a little oakhum, and Tip
a little gruel into their silly stomachs. Betting
clerks, and betting servants of all grades,
once detected after a grave warning, should
be firmly dismissed. There are plenty of
industrious and steady young men to supply
their places. The police should receive
instructions by no means to overlook any gentleman
of established bad reputation—whether
"wanted" or not—who is to be found
connected with a Betting-shop. It is our belief
that several eminent characters could be so
discovered. These precautions; always
supposing parents and employers resolute to
discharge their own duties instead of vaguely
delegating them to a legislature they have no
reliance on; would probably be sufficient.
Some fools who are under no control, will
always be found wandering away to ruin; but,
the greater part of that extensive department
of the commonalty are under some control,
and the great need is, that it be better
exercised.

FOUR STORIES.

I MUST express my belief that a Frenchman's
rooms have far greater claim to be
considered his castle than an Englishman's
house has. There are no landladies, there
are no maids-of-all-work, there are no door
knockers (none are used at least), and no
parish fire engines. The law, as
represented by the Commissary of Police, is the
only visitor you, as an occupant of a French
house, are compelled to admit; and, though
in times of commotion you are certainly
subject to an irruption of cocked hats,
jack boots, and clinking sabres into your
domicile, a general turning over of your
papers, and ripping up of your feather beds,
to facilitate the discovery of treasonable
documents, you may at all other seasons proudly
call your house (whether it consists of saloon,
bedroom, antechamber, and boudoir, or simply
of a mansards au sixième, or garret on
the sixth floor,) your castle. You have the
key of it, and as long as you pay your rent
you are absolutely master therein. If you
choose to have your bed made, the lodge
keeper will make it for the consideration of
twentypence paid monthly; if you choose to
make it yourself you can do so; if you prefer
it not made at all, and choose to keep pigs
and a few live rabbits under the pillow, you
may. Only, if your concierge, or porter, doesn't
see you pass the lodge once in a week or so,
he smells a rat, and fetches a Commissary of
Police. The Commissary arrives; makes the
customary summons in the name of the law,
and breaks the door open, legally. Suppose
you have died of starvation: suppose you
have suffocated yourself with the fumes of
charcoal: justice informs itself, a procès verbal
is drawn up, and if you have no relations and
no friends, you are put into a wooden box and
driven off in a something like an omnibus
with the sides knocked out, by a driver in a
cocked hat, and put into a grave in the
cemetery of Montmartre.

The house I live in is four stories high and
a perfect citadel of separate little fortalices.
The inhabitants are subjected, it is true, to
domiciliary visits, and to the complaints of
their neighbours should they practise the big
drum, or the Sax-horn, rather too loud or too
often; but setting these little matters aside,
they are as completely masters at home, as
ever baron of old was in his battlemented
barbican. There is a staircase common to the
whole house (and not very clean) which is
neutral ground; a very place of réunion for
the cats of the different stories, and for quiet
afternoon gossips, should number twelve feel
conversationally inclined towards number five.
But the castles themselves are inviolable.

There is a great deal of social kindliness, and