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a faint echo of "Mon Dieu!" and "Très bien, très bien, vraiment!" and the Marchioness St. Julian laughed too, and joined in our nonsense, and, what was much more, bent a willing ear to our compliments, no matter how florid; and Saint-Jeu told us a story or two, more amusing than comme il faut, at which the Marchioness tried to look grave, and did look shocked, but laughed for all that behind her fan; and Lucrezia da Guari sat in shadow, as still and as silent as the Parian Euphrosyne on the console, though her passionate eyes and expressive face looked the very antipodes of silence and statuetteism, as she flashed half-shy, halfscornful looks upon us.

If the first part of the evening had been delightful, this was something like Paradise! It was such high society! and with just dash enough of Mabille and coulisses laisser-aller to give it piquancy. How different was the pleasantry and freedom of these real aristos, after the humdrum dinners and horrid bores of dances that those snobs of Maberlys, and Fortescues, and Mitchells, made believe to call Society!

What with the wine, and the smoke, and the smiles, I wasn't quite clear as to whether I saw twenty horses' heads or one when I was fairly into saddle, and riding back to the town, just as the first dawn was rising, Aphrodite-like, from the far blue waves of the Mediterranean. Little Grand was better seasoned, but even he was dizzy with the parting words of the Marchioness, which (among other things) had softly breathed the delicious passport, "Come to-morrow."

"By Jupiter!" swore Little Grand, obliged to give relief to his feelings" by Jupiter, Simon! did you ever see such a glorious, enchanting, divine, delicious, adorable creature? Faugh! who could look at those Mitchell girls after her? Such eyes! such a smile! such a figure! Talk of a coronet! no imperial crown would be half good enough for her! And how pleasant those fellows are! I like that little chaffy chap, the Duke; what a slap-up story that was about the bal de l'Opera. And Fitzhervey, too; there's something uncommonly thorough-bred about him, ain't there? And Guatamara's an immensely jolly fellow. Ah, my boy! that's something like society; all the ease and freedom of real rank; no nonsense about them, as there is about snobs. I say, what wouldn't the other fellows give to be in our luck? I think even Conran would warm up about her. But I say, Simon, she's deucedly taken with me-she is, upon my word; and she knows how to show it you, too! By George! one could die for a woman like that-eh?"

"Die!" I echoed, while my horse stumbled along up the hilly road, and I swayed forward, pretty nearly over his head, while poetry rushed to my lips, and electric sparks danced before my eyes:

"To die for those we love! oh, there is power

In the true heart, and pride, and joy, for this.
It is to live without the vanished light
That strength is needed!"

"But I'll be shot if it shall be vanished light," returned Little Grand; "it don't look much like it yet. The light's only just lit, isn't likely it's going out again directly; but, by Jove! she is a stunner! and

"A stunner!" I shouted; "she's much more than that-she's an angel, and I'll be much obliged to you to call her by her right name, sir.

She's a beautiful, noble, loving woman; the most perfect of all Nature's masterworks. She is divine, sir, and you and I are not worthy merely to kiss the hem of her garment."

"Ain't we, though? I don't care much about kissing her dress; it's silk, and I don't know that I should derive much pleasure from pressing my lips on its texture; but her cheek

"Her cheek is like the Catherine pear,

The side that's next the sun!"

I shouted, as my horse went down in a rut. "She's like Venus rising from the sea-shell; she's like Aurora, when she came down on the first ray of the dawn to Tithonus; she's like Briseis, when she tortured and subdued Achilles; she's like Medea

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"Bother classics! she's like herself, and beats 'em all hollow. She's the finest creature ever seen on earth, and I should like to see the man who'd dare to say she wasn't. And—I say, Simon—how much did you lose to-night?"

From sublimest heights I tumbled straight to bathos. The cold water of Grand's query quenched my poetry, extinguished my electric lights, and sobered me like a douche bath.

"I don't know," I answered, with a sense of awe and horror stealing over me; "but I had a pony in my waistcoat-pocket that the governor had just sent me, Guatamara changed it for me, and I've only sixpence left!"

LIFE ASSURANCE.

THERE is a romantic, as well as a prosaic, side to the subject of the following remarks; but we may state at the outset, that it is not intended to take in this article the romantic view, to enliven the page with anecdotes, or to derive-as perhaps we may on a future occasion derive— from the cases arising out of life assurance contracts that have come before our courts of law, the additional chapters which some of them afford to what has been called the "Romance of the Forum." Our remarks are now occasioned by a pamphlet recently published,* which is of a very practical and matter-of-fact nature certainly, but which contains so readable and popular an exposition of life assurance as a plea for its more general adoption, that we think the City men and companies should not have it all to themselves.

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It is very satisfactory to see that the assurance of lives is now generally appreciated as one of the most beneficial institutions of our age try; and that this mode of providing for a surviving family is recognised

* An Essay on Life Assurance, &c. By H. W. Porter, B.A., Fellow of the Institute of Actuaries and of the Statistical Society. Second edition. London: C. and E. Layton. 1860.

not only as a private, but as a public, good. Of the many applications of enterprise and science which surround us at the present day, some cannot be said to have produced unmixed benefits; but in the case of life assurance, at all events, the good to society has been unspeakable; and but for the evils attendant on a few unsound and reckless competitions that have generally been fleeting as well as false, its benefits would have been absolutely unalloyed.

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It is curious to compare the gigantic development of life assurance in the reign of Queen Victoria with its small beginnings in that of Queen Anne, when only one or two of the offices now existing had been established. Contingencies that do not seem to have been contemplated in the early days of life assurance are now commonly provided for; and it is a remarkable result of the perfection attained in the system in our day, that some office or other suits the case of every intending insurer; that terms of payment with regard to the yearly premium are found in operation which are suited to the peculiar circumstances of almost every policyholder; and that where he assures with participation of profits (for nearly all the established companies divide a stated portion of their profits with those who are assured for the term of life), he has the choice of various tempting alternatives, inasmuch as his share (or bonus) can be applied either as a reversionary addition to the amount assured, or in reduction, or even (when sufficient) in extinction, of future annual payments, or as a present payment in money. The increase and perfection of life assurance form, indeed, a striking and significant feature in the "Progress of the Nation."*

Mr. H. W. Porter, in this able and interesting essay, points out as a guide the chief differences in the constitution of assurance companies, and calls attention to the substantial nature of the security afforded by the proprietary companies in their constitution and invested capital. He does not discuss the relative merits of the "proprietary" or the "mutual" systems of assurance, nor is he the advocate for any particular office or class of companies-indeed, he has very properly abstained from mentioning the name of any one office; but he furnishes the intending insurer with valuable information for directing his inquiries, and warns him against the unsound pretences of new and reckless competitors who offer unheard-of advantages, equally "crafty, catching, and unfair." Mr. Porter most properly points out that the information required by the offices, in the declaration which forms the basis of the assurance contract, demands the utmost truth and candour. This, we may remark, is the more to be insisted on, as it is laid down by the courts that a fraudulent concealment which would vitiate the policy, may consist not merely in answering untruly any specific question, but in the suppression of any material circumstances affecting the life proposed. Depending as it does on the principle of averages, life assurance has been truly enough described as the combination of small sums contributed for beneficial investment, with a contract among the proprietary that those who do not live their average time shall share the good fortune of those who

The author of the essay now before us is a relation of the late Mr. George R. Porter, of the Statistical Department of the Board of Trade, the author of the valuable work well known under the title of "The Progress of the Nation."

live beyond it. Mr. Porter mentions the fact that, according to the "Carlisle Tables," of 10,000 children born alive, only 8461 attain the age of a year, and only 5000 remain alive at the age of 41; that of 500 at that age 7 will die within a year, and only one of the 10,000 will attain 104 years of age. While writing these remarks we observe a striking illustration by Dr. Letheby of the present strain upon life, especially in our large towns. In his report on the sanitary state of the City of London, he says that whereas at 45 a man elsewhere in England might expect to live to 68, the expectancy of life in the City is only to 62. Life assurance is daily becoming of more vital importance to a large proportion of the people, and it seems as if the increased facilities for it were a compensation due to mankind, when so many special agencies recognised by physicians as tending to increase the uncertainty of life are in operation, not to mention Revivalism and Dr. Cumming, long sermons and the activity of unpaid lecturers, the weariness of the British Museum galleries, the Civil Service examinations, the Incometax, bad cookery, and the speeches of Mr. Bright, as evils of the day tending to shorten life. In all seriousness, however, be it said that moral principles are brought into action by life assurance-prudence, for example, and present self-denial, for the attainment of future benefitsand if it be a virtue to assure one's life for the future benefit of those for whose welfare we are bound to provide, it finds its reward in the comfort of present security against the chances of this mortal life; a matter of the highest importance to that large portion of the community whose incomes are terminable with their lives. Life assurance has been made a useful security in commercial transactions, it is often part of the machinery of marriage-settlements, and it was shown, not long since, in a publication by a Conveyancer, that tenants for life of a landed estate, charged with portions for younger children, might preserve the inheritance, and at length even benefit in point of income, by resorting to life assurance rather than to mortgages.

Heartily commending, therefore, Mr. Porter's popular and persuasive plea for life assurance, we shall only say, in conclusion, to all whom it may concern, Insure! insure! insure! remembering what is said by Horace, who unconsciously advocated life assurance in the admonition which Lord Ravensworth has thus translated:

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* We are glad to see that arrangements are made for assisting officers of the Post-office to assure their lives. Similar arrangements are, we believe, in force in many other public departments; and in the North of England the coal-owners are now urged by their labourers in the hazardous operations of mining to assist them in forming an insurance-fund.

THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR.*

THE Muse of History is decidedly assuming very liberal opinions, and during the past twenty years she has gradually doffed her purple robes, and busied herself about the concerns of the people, while dressed in modest homespun, here and there set off by the tasteful ornaments of pleasant and forcible writing. Time was when history condescended to none beneath kings and their ministers, but with Macaulay we gained a startling proof that his predecessors had been mistaken, and that a more living interest could be aroused by a description of the social progress of the country, than by the most gorgeous catalogue of royal progresses and court intrigues.

But what our historians have effected for England by their diligent research, and application of the rich stores of documents amassed in our government offices, has hitherto found but few imitators on the Continent. In Germany, a vast amount of information has certainly been dug out, but it is scattered through the different states, and no one has hitherto set himself the task of forming a current and brilliant narrative from the abundant materials. Possibly, the enormous quantity has terrified the most painstaking Dryasdust from undertaking a task which was beyond his strength. A striking instance of this will be found in merely one section of German history-the Thirty Years' War: the only work employed as a text-book is still Schiller's narrative, which, though written with extraordinary power, is not adapted to fill all the requirements of the historical student. We rise from the perusal with a perfect knowledge of Gustav Adolph, Wallenstein, and other great leaders; but we have learned nothing of the feelings and temper of the nation during the awful period of trial. We are glad, then, that M. Freytag has taken a step in advance--though only a step-by collecting from various contemporary writers illustrative passages describing the state of the country. These materials, which must prove invaluable to the next writer on the Thirty Years' War, will supply the subject-matter of the present article.

Prior to the outbreak of the war, the condition of the German nation was eminently satisfactory; the victory of the Protestant party had taught the people the power they held in their hands, and they were not disposed to have it wrested from them without a struggle. The material prosperity of the nation was also well established. Luther's bold efforts to suppress all democratic tendencies had been remarkably successful, and civil and religious order almost universally prevailed. But all these fair prospects were menaced by the unhappy introduction of the Jesuit system into Germany in 1542; true to their policy, they had crept on gradually, until they became the spiritual lords of the domains of the Habsburgs: the tocsin was sounded for the German St. Bartholomew. The results of their dark intrigues will be found in the fact, that when the sons of Loyola first arrived in Germany, the entire nation was on the road to Protestantism. At the beginning of the Thirty Years' War three

* Bilder aus der Deutschen Vergangenheit. Von Gustav Freytag. Vol. II. .

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