and yours to the Imperial City! Had I thought of you, above all people, I should have fancied you fishing in the Highlands for salmon ; and here you are in the very centre of all that is charming and delightful. Excuse me, Mrs. Pigskin, and you, my bright young Chieftain. Alas! what a world it is: what a world we live in!" "A world indeed," replied Piggy; "but as far as we have yet seen, it appears to me to be a world of change. When last I was here some thirty years lang syne, we had none of these bright streets, as I remember none of these green trees and broad pavements, which cause Paris to be so attractive to the stranger. But tell me you who used to know everyone and all that passes in this world of gaiety, who is to win the French Derby-who the Grand Prix? we mean to see them both." "Bravo, Piggy, bravo! May your Chieftain's shadow never decrease, or your heart alter towards your friends. I see you have all the sporting propensities of other days; and if we do not win a rouleau or two out of our gallant allies, my name is not Linton and I am no Yorkshireman. Meanwhile, this is a happy meeting, and we will celebrate your first day in Paris with a little dinner-a simple dinner for four. You must bring the young Laird. Madame, you will do me great honour. Your good husband and I were firm friends in other days. I trust we are so now. At all events we will renew the contract at 7-sharp seven-the hour at which our ancestors were wont to sup; but we, in this age of humbug and civilization, dine and get indigestion. I shall order purely a French dinner, to initiate you at once into the habit of Parisian gastronomy. Sharp seven, at the Maison Doré: there it is, opposite. And now, dear friends, adieu for the present. Look at the shops, my Piggy. Your monkey will not last long, I take it." As the hour of seven sounded on the clock of Notre Dame -if it does sound, which I am not prepared to assert-the happy trio arrived in a brougham at the appointed hour. As Mrs. Piggy descended I heard a Frenchman, with a splendid crop of moustache and the usual red ribbon in his coat, assert that her ancles were perfection. Moreover, that her chausseur was Parisian, and with that air of assertion to which numbers of the beau monde of the Imperial capital are given. He added that her hat was bien posé sur une tête qui la merité; moreover, that she was bien mise. If Piggy, or his fair sposa, heard the compliment, they could scarcely have been offended; but I fear, under all circumstances, they little understood it. Meanwhile, the Roaster, with a good appetite, notwithstanding the cherry tarts he had consumed at 2 p.m., at that celebrated repository of sweet savories, Madame Guerre in the rue de Castiglione, holding his mother's hand, mounted the steps of the celebrated Restaurant, where they found their entertainer ready to receive them in full evening costume. And having handed his guests to a table apart, he placed the following menu before them, good-homouredly adding, "I have tried my best to secure you a good and simple French dinner. It is not precisely such as you would give me at Heatherland Hall; moreover, I question whether anything of Parisian food can beat your salmon, trout, Highland mutton, and young grouse in due season. Now let us have the dinner: Le potage purée de harels à l' Espagne. Le turbot garnis de filets de soll sauce Hollendaise. Les Crépinettes de Volaille à la Perigeux. Les filets de caustons de Rouen a l'Orange. La salade de homards bord de gelée, Les Cailles rotis. Le petits pois a l'Anglais. Le plum-pudding sauce froide. La Bouche à la Cardinal et Checulity. "A dinner for a dozen," said Piggy, having perused the menu (how much of which he understood I do not pretend to say), " and the plum-pludding" (I was not aware a French cook was up to that, if the stories I have heard be true of its being served in a basin as a custard). "My dear Piggy," said Linton, "we live in days of knowledge and civilization. The menu reads grandly, but the plats are small; and I wished your charming wife to appreciate Gallic gastronomy, and the Roaster I knew would put faith in a pudding." Need I say the dinner was first-rate and fully appreciated? The champagne frappé to a turn of admirable coolness, the Bordeaux soft, and the coffee aromatic; the fine champagne giving the last touch, which expanded warm hearts. The Roaster revelled in the pudding, which he pronounced equal to any one he had eaten at home. The Crépinettes au Volaille à la Perigeux, however, were not to the young Laird's taste; and, as for the black things which surrounded it, called truffles, happily for his digestion he would have none of them. Dinner over, Piggy proposed a cigar with us at his hotel, to which his friend readily assented, and Mrs. Piggy and the Roaster having retired, they fought over their battles of other days and discoursed on the present. "What is doing in Paris?" said Piggy. -any one I know? I believe you are and doings of every capital in Europe." "Are there many English acquainted with the sayings "I ought to be so, Piggy mon cher, inasmuch as for years I have passed the great part of my life abroad. The French, however, are a strange people to understand, and a life in the capital, to one who lives more or less with the highest aristocracy to-day and the more humble and less rich to-morrow, is difficult to describe. Your Whitsuntide holidays in Old England have, however, sent us over a very fair specimen of London Society. We have amongst us a few noblemen, a few members of the Imperial Parliament, some Turf men, and one or two ladies-perhaps more than I know of-who are, of course by accident, just now in Paris consulting their dentists, or ordering dresses from that sublime artist of ladies' toilettes Mr. W. Take my advice, and request your amiable wife to buy her dresses elsewhere. Not for a moment do I imagine-1 must use the word-she is fool enough to suppose that mere fashion constitutes good dressing, so far from it the present mode is simply hideous, if not disgusting; neither do I believe, without you are much altered, that you are fool enough to pay Mr. W the price he demands; or, I take it, the tail of the monkey will soon melt away. We have also among us one or two swindlers; ery amusing fellows in their line. There are comparatively very few families that is fathers, mothers, and children; this is bad. Nor have young fellows brought over their sisters. I have on several occasions warned the mothers of families not to permit their husbands to come over to l'aris alone, even under the plea of seeing the races, for there are in this pleasant city many temptations, and Englishmen seem to think that because they are in Paris they may participate in all our demoralizing habits and customs. There is something queer about n few of the holiday visitors England has sent over this year. A few of the men are living in out-of-the-way small hotels, evidently not wishing to be seen. F. M.P. exclaims, Paris is beastly full of English, one cannot go out without tumbling against fellows!' A nobleman has his letters addressed to my humble lodgings-with pleasure, but why? Why, again, does Mrs. C. B, meeting me in the Rue de la Paix, whisper in my ear, Do not tell any mutual friends that I am in Paris; even Henry does not know anything about this little trip. I am with Lady, who is very unhappy, poor dear. I will tell you all about it some day'? So thickly veiled was Mrs. B—— that I should not have recognised her. Why, then, did she address me? Ah! because she wanted to make use of me. How difficult it is to know why people are so civil!" Here Piggy's friend stopped to take breath and replenish his glass; while Piggy, throwing his legs up on the sofa and laughing heartily, exclaimed, "If all you say is true, all I can say is, what a world we innocent beings from across the Border live in." "True, my good friend," replied he, taking a good draught from his well-filled glass; "true as gospel. And as for this world we live in-Paris for the moment, the Frenchman's paradise-why it is a world in which men and women appear to take their will and spend their money, and leave the future to take care of itself. But of one thing be assured, Paris is far too near and too convenient for ladies and gentlemen of Great Britain, Ireland, aye, and Scotland, with all your sober ideas. But to resume, if you are not satiated with my gab: W. M.P. is here also (without his wife, of course), and dined last night at a café in a society' cabaret with two artistes of the dramatic world, who are going over with him to London, where they are engaged for the French plays. 6 "Well, there is of course nothing wrong in this; but Mrs. W. might not think so. W. refused to bring over his lawful wife-'Paris is so dear with a lady.' Englishmen did not condescend to such little fibs. years ago. "Another M.P. is here, I shall not tell you under what particular circumstances. He does serious politics at home, nevertheless; is deeply interested in the Irish Church question, also in missionary societies; and has met Mr. G. in Paris, quite by accident! He gives a sad account of English politics, and declares the House of Commons is worked to death, and yet there is no reason for it. He says Gladstone is in a pretty mess, and that Ireland is to be annexed to America within fifty years. "Very inexplicable mysteries are going on in the High Church, between young ladies and genteel Protestant priests-nothing wrong, by the way. Several noblemen are about to take holy orders as HighChurch Priests; and they, you know, must be gentlemen by birth. "But why should I tell you what is taking place among yourselves? You wish for the latest intelligence of Paris. 'Well, you meet with one clever fellow. He takes you by the button, and, in a most serious whisper, assures you that he had it from who was told by another, that the Emperor and the Prince of Wales dined together incog. at a café in the Palais Royal, and made a night of it. His Royal Highness often comes over to Paris incog.-ask T. if he does not. Such is the language of another. Then you are informed that the revolutionary period is fast approaching. Your days of quietude and order are over. The Emperor worn out. Must be so. Wonderful man. Empress going to Jerusalem. More in that than meets the eye. War in the spring, or the Empire is at an end. "It is better, cher Piggy, not to listen to such things-far better not to believe them when you hear them; but you asked me for a slight historiette of Paris sayings and doings. You have them. "Tired and thirsty, you stroll into the Cosmopolitan for a corpsereviver, a brandy cocktail, or a simple soda-and-brandy. It is a celebrated American establishment, wherein you may refresh yourself most agreeably for a franc. We will look in there during your séjour in Paris: they have some rare Scotch whiskey, said to be patronised by the higher powers. I may observe, en passant (excuse my French -we are in Paris) that the society you meet there is varied-sporting men, men of the highest class, men of the middle class, and men whose class it would be difficult to define. "All is, nevertheless, orderly and accordant with propriety as far as the outward man is concerned. By St. Hubert, however, tongues are free! I shall give you one little anecdote I was compelled to hear, and then to bed. However, on reconsideration, I may as well say it is scarcely of a nature to be repeated, and, let us hope, not true. I never heard anything worse since the days of George the Fourth, Defender of the Faith. We all know that golden-haired ladies have ensured great admiration, from the days of Virgil and Homer; but why should the modern Didos and Helens- "No, I had better not. It makes one sad to contemplate the condition of Paris society. What say you of London? You are learning all our immorality. Your traditional domestic happiness is expiring; your women becoming more and more; your men begin to like a frivolous Frenchman's pleasures; you are even losing your religious practices and professions. All this is prophetic of the fall of the British Empire; and that fall will have originated in your imitating the political, religious, and social immorality of the French. "And now, Piggy, having discussed two glasses of what across the Border you term toddy (stiff brandy-and-water), smoked no end of your excellent cigars-where do you get them?-and given you my opinion of Paris and its ways, good night, or rather good morning. May your repose be undisturbed, though I may have excited your curiosity; and recollect, the day after to-morrow we start for Chantilly, to see the French Derby. Sharp nine, at the Northern Station. Mind you bring the Roaster. And so good-night!" (To be continued.) 111 THE WEALTH IN EQUINE RESOURCES POSSESSED BY FRANCE IN HER ALGERIAN PROVINCES. BY R. P. (Continued.) Returning to the indigenous horse, the barb, on which was to fall so heavily the share forecast for him in the enterprise of the victorsutilization as an instrument of the conquest. After the first years of active operations, in which for the most part, applied as indiscriminately as unsparingly to every war purpose, as though the supply were inexhaustible, because it had been somewhat accessible at first; when scarcity began to make itself every day more sensibly felt, then, a due recognition not only of his ulterior worth as an acquisition-but of the difficulty to replace what had been profusely squandered without any organised local means of reproduction, dawned upon the minds of the military authorities. As may be readily conceived, the French army of occupation had in the first years of the war but very limited resources among the indigenous populations for the recruiting of the squadrons of native cavalry, no less than of the two battalions of native infantry organised respectively under the first and second administration of Governor-General Clauzel. It must, moreover, be acknowledged that the area for recruiting both arms of those native troops was as yet limited to the province of Algiers, of which a small part only had been subjected. The national sentiment of the Arabs was as yet too strong to be weakened in so short a time, and the constitution of the Spahis, both in regard to the men and the supply of native horses for their re-mount was not then what it afterwards became, and is in the present day. From the first creation of those native cohorts up to 1845, the contingents were furnished by natives of the towns, comprising Moors, Koulouglis, the youth of the Mussulman population attracted to the service by the allurement of pay and subsistence, and refugees who had sought French protection from the constant incursions of the hostile Arabs. The horses were furnished by the Government, and charged to the account of the collective corps, the same as effects in linen, clothing, &c. Led by French officers and non-commissioned officers, with a proportion of French troopers incorporated in their ranks, they had fought upon numerous occasions with great distinction, and in the arduous duties of the outposts were especially reliable and alert for the repulse of nocturnal surprises. The subsequent subjection of a few tribes in the territories of Bona and Oran had alone, however, enabled the further formation of several squadrons of Spahis; but in the province of Oran, in 1837, the indigenous irregular cavalry could only be increased by permitting the natives to remain by their tribes, with the allowance of a small monthly pay to ensure their services whenever called for. With the exception of some few desertions, the native horse, like |