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yère, ultimately reaching Rambouillet by the | Madame Dubarry prevented any permanent Essarts. At every suitable station, on his | good results flowing from the reconciliation long ride, the prince had found relays of dogs thus brought about; but M. d'Yauville himand horses. The chase partook of a marvel- self became not the less premier veneur à la lous character. The prince felt it so, cour de France, and no one was ever so depromised to place no limits to his gratitude serving of the distinction. to those who had ensured for him so splendid a hunt; but when he found himself engaged in the forest of Rambouillet, he began to feel some scruples as to where he would be next carried.

"My lord," it was observed to him, "Rambouillet belongs to the Duke of Penthièvre; and does your highness forget that it is to-day Saint Hubert, and the king hunts at Senart?"

"True," replied the prince; "but let us on." "Allons!" was a pet expression of Condé.

When the livery of the Prince of Condé had been distinctly made out on the other side, all eyes were turned upon the king to see what his countenance would express.

The French kings, from the time of Charlemagne, who sent dogs from the imperial kennels as a present to the Shah of Persia to hunt lions, have all participated more or less in the pleasures of the chase. Philippe Auguste was the first to enclose a park-the first of the kind, says M. Eugène Chapus, when they were common in the time of Cyrus. Saint Louis brought with him from the Holy Land a race of dogs of Tartarian origin go-probaby Turkman greyhounds. Louis XII. bad leopards trained to draw chariots. Henry IV. was led to select his field of battle at Arques from the strategic movements of a stag. Louis XIII. was called the god of falconry. Louis XIV. carried the science and the display of venery to its highest perfection. Napoleon revived the chase at Fontainebleau after Wagram, but his heart was never in it. His mind was filled with the thoughts of hunting princes and subduing kingdoms. With Charles X. la chasse became limited to what was termed les petits environs-the immediate neighborhood of Paris; and it finished with dragging a wooden rabbit across a room while the gouty old monarch fired at it from an arm-chair. Such was the end of what are justly called les grandes chasses historiques embellies de toutes les poésies de la vénerie. Under Louis Philippe, the young princes of Orleans attempted to resuscitate a pastime associated with all the past glories of the monarchy. The olden

"What will the king say?" was whispered

around.

But the king, instead of showing the slightest annoyance, appeared delighted. When some one proposed to order the intruders back, he said:

"No, no; I am only too happy that everybody should amuse themselves. Let the Prince of Condé come."

The king's words were quickly passed from mouth to mouth, and at length reached the prince himself, who could not well afford to be less civil than his majesty. He accordingly moved towards the monarch at the same time that the Duke of Orleans was coming up on his side.

"Welcome, cousins," said the king, in a fame of Chantilly was revived, and its forests very amicable tone.

All heads were uncovered. "Vive le Roi!" was the general exclamation,

It was a strange scene: at the moment the three royal cousins met there were three stags in the water, three packs of hounds in pursuit; and three different liveries in the same field. Needless to say that D'Yauville had made the science of venery assist in the pacification of a family feud. He had supplied the veteran stag of Rambouillet to Condé, and provided, with the assistance of others, the relays which were to bring the prince so unconsciously into the presence of the king. True that the intrigues of M. de Mampeou, the Duke of Aiguillon, and of

once more echoed back the hunter's horn. English horses and English riders joined the hunt, and turf, and sport, and groom became with many other words engrafted to the French language. Clubs to encourage the sports of the field and to ameliorate the breed of horses were founded-races and steeplechases,after the English fashion, were endowed with prizes, to be run for mainly by English horses, or horses of English descent, rode by English jockeys, and they still exist. The language of these proselytes of the turf-a jargon of French and English--is, with the practice itself, one of the most curious modern innovations in the life of the jeunesse dorée of Imperial France.

From Chambers' Journal.

THE PALACE, PARK, AND BOULEVARDS OF BRUSSELS.

BRUSSELS has many points of interest and attraction--historical, political, artistic. It is a city in which have been enacted, in ancient times and modern, scenes fraught with importance to the destinies of Europe. Of old it was a renowned seat of wealth, commerce, and mediæval splendor, combined with industry. Within the present century it formed the head-quarters of the great Duke of Wellington pending the memorable event, the deliberate intent and temporary consequences of which have been so strikingly neutralized and reversed.

But there are other circumstances, connected with the history of this city, which impart to it a still higher degree of interest in the mind of the reflective meditator on the intricate variations of mundane affairs. It has truly been observed that whilst it was almost the very theatre of the battle of Waterloo, which was intended to efface from the map of Europe all important traces of the effects of the first French revolution, it was destined, a few years subsequently, to become, in its position of capital of an independent kingdom, a prominent proof of the futility of that project. The kingdom of Belgium was, in effect, one of the first fruits of the second French revolution, and the King of the Belgians, once the consort of the princess whom all human probability pointed to as heiress to the throne of England, became husband of another princess, eldest daughter of a monarch also the chosen of a French revolution, and who, until seven years ago, was regarded as the founder of a permanent and vigorous dynasty. How completely the latter expectation has been falsified by actual events, it is unnecessary to observe. It belongs to the long list of disappointed calculations with which the fact of the existence of a King of the Belgians is connected. King Leopold was called to the throne out of the English retirement now occupied by the exiled family of the eminently unfortunate monarch whose daughter he espoused, and whose accession to the crown of France, was the immediate and moving cause

of Leopold's advancement to the position which-more successful than his father-inlaw-he has since continued to occupy.

During the oppressive and afflicting domination of the Dutch, Brussels had greatly declined from its former beauty and importance. There is little reason to doubt that this was as much the effect of design as the simple consequence of political subjection. The same policy which had formerly dictated the destruction of the harbor of Antwerp, could cherish jealousy of the greatness of a city which the perpetrators of that policy felt to be no natural vassal of Holland. It was a policy as mistaken as it was selfish. The subordinate and declining condition of Brussels was to the Belgians a constant and irritating memorandum of their prostrate condition. The adoption of a more generous course might have rendered them less impatient of the yoke. Possessed of all the natural elements and materials of industrial prosperity, Belgium, in equal union and conjunction with Holland, might have formed a great and happy kingdom. The fine soil of the former, teeming with fertility, and containing within its bosom abundant stores of coal and iron-the "ships, colonies, and commerce" of the latter, whose inhabitants may be said to have lived upon the wave-constituted a promising combination. Holland, apart from Belgium, is little more than a curious network of bridges, dykes, and banks, artificially snatched from the sea by wonderful efforts of skill and industry. Of the two divisions which composed the kingdom of the Netherlands, Belgium was by nature the most important and the most gifted. The benefit of participation in these gifts was thrown away by Holland, with a recklessness as great as that which led to the separation of Spain from all the possessions which formed the source of her grandeur and riches, commencing with the Low Countries themselves. It is a remarkable feature in the history of the Dutch, that, having worked out their own freedom by a noble effort of persevering courage, and earned for themselves the name of

champions of the rights of man, they have almost from the very first, in their dealings with others, ingloriously signalized themselves by conduct the reverse of that which they laid down as their political code during their own struggle for independence.

For a quarter of a century, under the sway of a sovereign who has certainly exhibited no mean capacity for governing, Belgium has been advancing in prosperity with little interruption, and is now one of the principal continental seats of manufacturing, mining, and agricultural industry. The capital, Brussels, which is also one of the European centres of literature, fashion, and science, has been gradually, but rapidly, exchanging its somewhat sombre and decaying aspect for one of conspicuous gaiety. At certain seasons of the year, it is much frequented by visitors pleasure-hunters, philosophers, health-seekers, connoisseurs, from every part of the civilized world; and the Palace, Park, and Boulevards, represented in our engravings, are scarcely to be exceeded, in cheerful "fullness," even by the Champs Elysées, or the gardens of the Tuileries. It will not be forgotten by the English reader, that the chief inhabitant of the palace is a personage, who, but for an event which occurred at the close of the year 1817,* might long since have been holding, in England, the same position, as regards mere rank and title, as that now occupied by His Royal Highness Prince Albert. He might, in short, have been the consort of the queenly mother of a royal race of English children. That his Majesty would have filled that position respectably, no one who knows him, from having observed his public and private conduct, can reasonably doubt; but that he ever could have earned that overflowing measure of affectionate esteem which is the happy possession of the husband of Queen Victoria, is a supposition wholly outside the limits of probability. It is, in short, as unlikely that he would have risen to the full position of Prince Albert, as that he would have descended to that of Prince George of Denmark, the ridiculous husband of Queen Anne. King Leopold is endowed with several qualities of a safe, quiet, useful kind, amongst which a profound appreciation of the value of hard cash is not the least conspicuous. He has proved himself, in many respects, a sensible, practical, wellmeaning man; but to have soared to the idea of the Crystal Palace would, to one of his

*The death of the Princess Charlotte, only daughter of George the Fourth.

character, have been as impossible as it would have been for Poet Laureate Pye to have written a first-class tragedy of Shakspeare's. His genius, so far as it has manifested itself, is generally of the mediocre order, with, certainly, no particular complexion of liberality, in the sense in which that term is supposed to signify generosity.

Nevertheless, it is undeniable that he has exhibited respectable governing talent. It was no small title to praise that, situated as his little territory is on the most dangerous point of contact with that of France, and almost identified as are the two peoples in language and literature, he should have contrived to carry them through the convulsive period of 1848 with scarcely the momentary appearance of peril to law and order. There is no single point in Europe more liable than Belgium to be imbued with the opinions and principles which, from time to time, obtain supremacy in France. Italy, Hungary, Germany, are in most points of view far more remote from liability to such influences; and the affair of 1830 had shown the natural susceptibility of the Belgians in the matter of French example. Yet, whilst Italy, Germany, and Hungary were convulsed, and great kings and emperors tottered on their thrones, it was the fortune of Leopold to maintain his rule unbroken and ungrudged.

All this gives indication of talent, and at the same time of honesty. Talent, doubtless, was required to manage the passions of the people at a period which was one prolonged and tremendous crisis. But if honesty had not accompanied talent, and approved itself in good faith and truthful in treatment, appealing to the best impulses of a nation, the probability is that the King of the Belgians would have had but little respite before following his father-in-law into an English exile.

Among the elegant manufactures of Brussels, may be mentioned her carpets and her lace. These have obtained a world-wide renown, though it must not be supposed that one-twentieth part of the lace or carpets sold under that denomination, have ever been produced in Brussels, or are intented to be sold for such. The system of widely-spread nomenclatures for single articles of dress, may have originated in fraud, and it may still be frequently put to fraudulent uses by persons engaged habitually in the least reputable devices of money-making; but for general purposes of commerce, the terms Brussels lace and Brussels carpets are as well understood as those of Turkey carpets, Bath post, and China ware, and are taken by common consent to

refer to a species, and not to a locality. This observation is made en parenthese, in reference to some observations which have recently appeared, contending that these trade terms are necessarily indications of fraudulent intent; a condition which no more follows necessarily than that the lady-donor of a "Cochin fowl," which has never seen the ocean, should seriously contemplate a fraud upon the credulity of her friend.

the state of the law existing in the various countries of Europe and America. The cheap reprints of Brussels are almost as well known as those of New York-gross inaccuracy, vileness of print and paper, and glaring inferiority on all points, being the characteristics of the spurious production.

As has been intimated, the visitor will find numerous features of attraction in Brussels, which it is not convenient or necessary to But there is another and special manu- catalogue in this short notice. His curiosity facture for which Brussels was long celebrated, will be peculiarly gratified if he carry with a class of manufacture which, peradventure, is him the tastes which are encouraged by intelmore creditable to the industry than to the | ligence and refinement. Those who long honesty or ingenuity of those engaged in it- ago sojourned there, cannot fail to perceive, requiring, as it does, nothing more than per- on a renewed visit, numerous monuments severance in the pursuit of aggrandizement of the improvements, architectural and otherat the expense of our neignbors. We mean wise, which, in the present century, usually the piratical reprinting of original works, for possess the valuable quality of regarding the copyrights of which the Paris editors had utility as the contrary of secondary to mere probably paid large sums to authors. The show and effect. In fine, it may be particularpiratical printing trade of Brussels in French ized, that should any possess the fortune and books, much resembled that of New York in influence of an introduction to the palace, English books, the difference being, that their reception will be all the more cordial whilst the New York pirates printed chiefly that they are Britons, subjects of an illustrifor native consumption, the Brussels pirates ous Princess, to whom (not least of his claims were engaged, for the most part, in re-ex- on our regards) King Leopold is uncle. portation, open or surreptitious, according to

From Dickens's Household Words.

BREAD CAST ON THE WATERS.

A YOUNG man (see his description in any lady-novel of any year), emin ently handsome, and mounted on a fiery-eyed black horse, rode slowly down the avenue of a gentleman's "place," in the pastoral county of Lanark. It was not a domain-not an estate; it was merely a moderate-sized property, with a pretty square-built house situated on the banks of a picturesque river, and protected from east to north by an abrupt elevation, which in most countries would be called a mountain, but here was known as the Falder Hill. His dress (see the same authorities for the becoming costume of the year seventeen hundred and eighty), set off his splendid figure to the greatest advantage. But Charles Harburn (that was the young

man's name) owed less to
any other person-
al advantage than to the fine, open expression
of his face. It does not matter whether
this expression arose from features or not;
there it was. You couldn't look at him with-
out wishing to shake him by the hand-he
was so jolly, so radiant, so manly in all his
looks; and his looks did no more than jus-
tice to the inner man. Everybody liked him,
except old careful fathers and mothers who
had rich and only daughters; and even in
that case I doubt whether the mothers could
have retained their enmity after the first
week. Fathers are such harsh and unsen-
timental brutes, that I believe they would
have hated him more and more. They could
see nothing to admire in him at all. He

hadn't distinguished himself at school half so much as young Pitsgothic of Deanvale nor at college so much as Polwoody of Drumstane; and yet nobody made any fuss about those very estimable youths, though they had two thousand a-year each, and were exactly the same age as Charles Harburn. Lord bless us! how old fogies of fifty will reason upon love and beauty! and prove that the snub nose of Polwoody and the bandy legs of Pits gothic are every bit as pleasant to look on as the Grecian outline and classic figure of the very charming young man we have left so long on his great black charger, in the avenue of Falder Mains, Reason away, old blockheads! It's pleasant to hear your silly remarks! Jane, and Susanah, and I, know better, though these fair maidens are both under twenty, and I never passed for a philosopher; but if a small bet will be any satisfaction, I am ready to deposit a moderate amount of coin on the correctness of the judgment of these two ignorant young girls, and leave the decision of the wager to the oldest professor in Edinburgh College, provided he has no marriageable daughters of his own, and is not himself on the lookout for a third wife.

At last Charles Harburn got to the foot of the avenue; and on closing the swinggate behind him, and entering on the highroad, he gave vent to the exuberance of his spirits by touching the courser's flank with his whip, and dashing off at a gallop on the narrow grass border that bounded the public way. I am ready to depose, that at the same time he gave utterance to certain words which sounded very like these "Nancy Cleghorn is the nicest girl in the world, the best, the loveliest, the most accomplished, the kindest; and I wish her father had bro ken his neck, or been drowned in the Falder, with all my heart." Now, to look at him, you would not suppose that such murderous sentiments could find room in the heart of so radiant a youth. Yet he distinctly wished poor old George Cleghorn, of Falder, to meet, or rather to have met, at some previous date, with an untimely end. So little can one judge, from countenance, of the depravity of the human mind! Perhaps Thurtell smiled joyously, in the course of his drive, in that dreadful gig, with Mr. Weare. Listen, a little farther, to what this horrid Charles Harburn is saying to himself" If the antiquated ruffian would say 'No' at once, I could bear his opposition, and know how to behave; but now with his talks about Dumbarton being of rock, and Ailsa Craig of gran- |

ite, while I and Nancy are only flesh and blood,-who can make head or tail of what he means? If I am Dumbarton, he says, for seven years, and Nancy, for the same period, is Ailsa Craig, he will not refuse his consent. I can't see, for my part, how Ailsa Craig and Dumbarton are ever to come together, if all the fathers in Scotland approve the banns; and as to being flesh and blood, of course we are, and not tanned leather and fiddle-strings, like himself! I will marry Nancy Cleghorn as soon as I can, and let the aged pump-Hallo! little boy!" he cried out, interrupting his soliloquy, and pulling up the black steed, which snorted with the excitement, and pawed the ground with impatience to proceed. "What's the matter, my wee man? Has anybody hurt you, that you'r greetin' so loud?"

A little boy of ten years old was sitting on the fence at the side of the road, and crying as if his heart would break. Before him lay the fragments of a small wooden tray, and a torn old red cotton handkerchief wrapt round a pair of very clouted shoes. He had never taken the trouble to pick up a few rolls of cotton thread and a broken toothed comb which lay mixed with other articles of the same kind, in the mud of the narrow footpath.

"Do you hear?" said Charles. "What has happened to you? and why are you in such grief?"

The little boy took the backs of his hands from his eyes, which he had apparently been trying to push deeper into his head with the knuckles, and presented a countenance of utter despair mixed with a good deal of dirt, and, at first, a little alarm.

"Twa men," he sobbed out, "have robbed me and run awa' with my stock-intrade."

|
"It couldn't be very large," said Charles,
"and maybe you will find friends who will
set you up again."

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"I have no friends," said the boy, whose face, when undisturbed by spasms of grief, was very clear and honest. 'I never had any friends, and I am thinking I never will have any friends." "Oh, yes, you will never fear. Tell me all about it, and perhaps something may be done."

"I started from Glasgow," said the boy, "three days since, with my pack." "How did you get your pack, and what was in it?"

"I got the pack by saving. I was an orphan,-a fundling they call it, because I was

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