other side of the old stump, and we walk homeward silently, until Henry laughs out, and says, "Thank heaven, my fate is not a flower;" and I swear to love him for ever and ever, and marry him, and live in a dingy little old room in some of the dark and dirty streets in the city.

Then I doze again: but presently the music steals into my sleep, and I see him as I saw him last, standing in his pulpit, so calm and noble, and drawing the strong men as well as the weak women, by his earnest persuasion; and after service he smiles upon me kindly, and says, "This is my wife," and the wife, who looks like the Madonna in that picture of Andrea Del Sarto's, which you liked so at the gallery, leads us to a little house buried in roses, looking upon a broad and lovely landscape, and Henry whispers to me as a beautiful boy bounds into the room, "Mrs. Potiphar, I am very happy."

I doze again until Adèle comes in and opens the shutters. I do not hear the music any more; but those days I do somehow seem to hear it all the time. Of course Mr. P. is gone long before I wake, so he knows nothing about all this. I generally come in at night after he is asleep, and he is up and has his breakfast, and goes down town before I wake in the morning. He comes home to dinner, but he is apt to be silent; and after dinner he takes his nap in the parlor over his newspaper, while I go up and let Adèle dress my hair for the evening. Sometimes Mr. P. groans into a clean shirt and goes with me to the ball; but not often. When I come home, as I said, he is asleep, so I don't see a great deal of him, except in the summer, when I am at Saratoga or Newport; and then, not so much, after all, for he only comes to pass Sunday, and I must be a good Christian, you know, and go to church. On the whole, we have not a very intimate acquaintance; but I

have a great respect for him. He told me the other day that he should make at least thirty thousand dollars this year.

My darling Carrie-I am very sorry I can't write you a longer letter. I want to consult you about wearing gold powder, like the new Empress. It would kill Mrs. Croesus if you and I should be the first to come out in it; and don't you think the effect would be fine, when we were dancing, to shower this gold mist around us! How it would sparkle upon the gentlemen's black coats! ("Yes," says Mr. P., “and how finely Gauche Boosey, and Timon Croesus, and young Downe will look in silk tights and smallclothes!") They say it is genuine gold ground up. I have already sent for a white velvet and lace-the Empress's bridal dress, you know. That foolish old P. asked me if I had sent for the Emperor and the bank of France too.

"Men ask such absurd questions," said I.

"Mrs. Potiphar, I never asked but one utterly absurd question in my life,” said he, and marched out of the house.

Au revoir, chère Caroline. I have a thousand things to say, but I know you must be tired to death.

Fondly yours,

POLLY POTIPHAR. P. S.-Our little Fred is quite down with the scarlet fever. Potiphar says I mustn't expose myself, so I don't go into the room; but Mrs. Jollup, the nurse, tells me through the keyhole how he is. Mr. P. sleeps in the room next the nursery, so as not to carry the infection to He looks very solemnly as he walks down town. I hope it won't spoil Fred's complexion. I should be so sorry to have him a little fright! Poor little thing!

me.

P. S. 2d.-Isn't it funny about the music?

"Dediscit animus sero quod didicit diù.”—SEN.

WAS four years at a college in Canada.

It was at St. H.; and I might have been there longer, and probably filled its septennary term, had my juvenile fortunes escaped the influence of what is known in British colonial history as the "Canadian Troubles." These broke out in the Fall of 1837; and in the Spring of 1839, I was

following the family to an exile's homeby no means a dreary one-in the United States.

I will not assert that the "Canada Bubbles"-so called by Judge Haliburton of "Sam Slick" repute-effervesced for the especial purpose of interfering with my private concerns; but I can safely say

that, had they resulted in as much good to his country as they resulted in good to me, Mr. Papineau would not have talked quite in vain, nor agitated himself into the sorry part which, more important people than I think, he played at that time.

If, indeed, the Canadians, in consequence of those events, could have sprung entirely free from their thraldom as easily as I sprang from mine, and suddenly found themselves as happy as I was when I first breathed the Yankee's bracing atmosphere; then might we forget how the Orator-Leader, who blessed his followers with no less than "Ninety-two Resolutions," could manifest so little resolution himself, on the day that he should have exchanged exordium and peroration for powder and ball.*

But, I was telling you of having been at St. H. College. I entered it in my ninth year only; and yet I do not conceive myself chargeable with any alarming degree of precociousness. Scores of little lads flock to this and its sister institutions at an equally tender age; and the Faculty will engage that they shall be soundly thrashed into the rudiments of the studies which they go there ostensibly to pursue during a term of seven years. The annual fee of fifty dollars is all that is required for services so rendered; yet, petty as that amount is, besides securing an inexhaustible fund of prayers in Latin and some classic erudition, it will secure very capacious apartments always occupied in common, but alas! very "short commons," too. For there, by the adoption of something like State-Prison economics, a student is taught and "found," and even medicated (principally with Castor-oil and Tereb. Canad.) for the small sum I have just mentioned.'

The Faculty have such faith in their dietary, that, if an indulgent mamma slips a bottle of cordial or some other dainty among her son's "traps," the inexorable "Prex." is sure to confiscate them upon discovery. This functionary, who, under the title of Directeur, is the terror of every one within his jurisdiction, is an insatiable cormorant in the matter of sweetmeats. Perhaps he conceives that boys had better be "crammed" with conjugations and declensions, than with cake and liqueurs; or, aware that "comparisons are odious," he may be anxious that they shall not turn from their coarse and scanty college fare, to console their appetites with the nice things in their trunks. But, whatever may be the motive of his somewhat predatory visits on the first night of

each term, it is certain that few Revenue Officers evince equal zeal in their search for contraband goods. Like those officers, however, he is now and then subjected to trials which might deter less persevering people from pursuing the occupation of a "Detective." For instance, I wot of a legend which says that, once upon a time, he made an apparently precious prizenothing less, as he thought, than a bottle of crusty port. The seal looked antique with the dust of many years in the cellars; there was even a vestige of venerable cobwebs clinging affectionately to the neck. The "Prex."-a dignitary that loved such things a little better than fasting-applied the cork-screw, and eagerly took a generous draught of the beverage. But tradition informs us also that, dashing the bottle from him, he terminated his search that time by violently expectorating a potion of what is, by some vulgar people, esteemed as a cheap, but capital, stomachic. We are likewise told that the student in whose possession this article in domestic pharmacopoeia was found, went unpunished-no doubt because the Directeur, like a sensible man, appreciated the moral he had been taught so unexpectedly of “looking before he leaped."

In my ninth year, then, I donned the uniform of what the envious plebs were pleased to designate as a mouton bleu, or something particularly "sheepish" and looking very "blue." The sobriquet

was not without its point, for the costume was certainly ridiculous enough to be matter of sarcasm with the best mannered critic in the world. It consisted of a cumbersome, blue frock-coat, called a capot, streaked with white cord in the seams, and worn at all times (save in bed!) tightly buttoned up to within a few inches of the throat. In addition to this the body had to be girted with either a ribbon, a patent-leather belt, or a bulky woollen sash, red, black, or blue, or of flashy colors so interwoven as to represent an interminable dovetailing of arrow-heads, in consequence of which it is popularly known as the ceinture flêchée.

The other colleges or "seminaries"— which number about half-a-dozen in the country-have each some uniform coat for their respective students. The military cut and German braid were affected at Chambly, where a large number of young Americans used to attend for the purpose of acquiring a knowledge of the French language. A plain, blue "frock," with velvet collar, and a dark sash, were in vogue at Montreal. The Quebec students

disported heavy white seams and green sashes; and those of the other institutions wore something in the style that prevailed at St. H.

Every where these coats are kept closely buttoned, and must not be thrown off, even for play during the hottest of weather. Exercise is, therefore, seriously impeded, and proves often injurious where it is violent, especially in games at ball or wicket. Apart from this important consideration, there are reasons of economy that urge an abandonment of this foolish custom. The expense of those garments, unless they are of coarse homespun, is great; and little fellows-looking ridiculously “all buttoned down before " like so many premature Grimeses-will ruin one coat at least in the course of a year; and it is no rare occurrence to see a whole skirt severed in a very peremptory manner during a rude encounter at "tag."

But the absurdity-nay, the cruelty of thrusting a lot of lads into those stiff-laced, draggling affairs, is aggravated by the reason assigned for the practice. The Faculty say that it is followed from motives of decency! They seem to think that a smart roundabout, or the sight of a pair of shirt sleeves in broad noon-day, must suggest improper reflections in the youthful mind; and, in their prudish opinion, they hope to obviate the evil by causing the outlines of the person to be rendered indistinct by the folds of an awkward skirt! Indeed, they carry this horror of any thing like "dishabille" to such an extreme as to compel the students, on retiring for the night in the common sleeping apartments, or dortoirs, to pull their pantaloons off and on in bed, out of which, as you can easily imagine, broadcloth issued in no very presentable plight!

I felt rather proud at first of the academic livery which I have been describing to you; and as on or about the 3d of September, A. D. 1835 (in the afternoon), I stood in the hall or parlor of St. H. College, I deemed myself remote but a few steps only from huge manhood. There was my large wooden trunk, inscribed with the initials of my name; the key was in my pocket; and those were titles quite sufficient, I thought, to establish my independence of apron-strings. I had my bedding too, with the cross-legged baudet that every student must bring from home; and over those personal effects I considered myself sole master and lord supreme.

My mother was at my side, confiding me to the tender mercies of the Directeur; and I, -prodigal lad that I was,-I inwardly rejoiced that I was escaping the rule at home, little dreaming of the ferula awaiting me among strangers. But when

she had accompanied me from the dortoir in which my pillow was not to be smoothened by her gentle hand again for at least six long months; and when she had left me alone with the President, after having kissed me, with a whispered injunction, nearly choked with emotion, to be "a good boy;" then I was no longer a "little man" -I was still in my ninth year-nay, I was younger, for I have heard persons called "babies" when tears had been caught rolling down their cheeks slowly, as if big with a great weight of grief. Í shall not say that I wept-grown-up people alone may weep-little boys cryand so I cried!

It afforded me little consolation to think that the "Directeur" was now my guardian. He was a smooth-shaven, portly priest, answering Young's portraiture of a parson :

"Fresh color'd, and well thriving on his trade." His outer dress consisted of the long black gown worn by the clergy in Roman Catholic countries, and by the tutors in all collegiate institutions over which the priesthood preside. It is in those establishments that the church recruits the ranks of her ministers; and it seems that the discipline which is there observed, as well as the course of studies prescribed, have been designed almost purposely to fit a young man for scarcely nothing else but ecclesiastical life. When he has completed these studies, if he be poor, or if his parents be bigoted, or if he really have a desire to enter the clergy, il prend la soutane-as the saying is in Canadaand assumes the title of Ecclesiastique. This is his first step towards taking Holy Orders. He is then employed as a tutor or superintendent over the students in some College or "Seminary," but pronounces no vows, and-unless I have forgotten how it is-does not bear the tonsural mark. The first of those vows is made when he has firmly resolved upon renouncing the pomps of the world, and becomes a Sous-Diacre, or under-Deacon. His crown is then shaved, and that entitles him to the respect of the Roman Catholic community. The second ecclesiastical stage occurs when he professes other and more austere vows, and takes the degree of Diacre or Deacon. The third and last stage is that in which the black chrysalis expands into the fullblown Prêtre.

As he ascends this ladder, the candidate for priestly honors becomes qualified for the performance of certain sacred rites in the church, and cannot return to worldly life after his initiation as a SousDiacre. It is only while he is an Ecclé

siastique that he may, if so prompted, cast off his black robe to embrace mousseline-de-laine, or "calico." He may likewise continue as a simple ecclesiastic all the days of his life; thus have I known a very fine old gentleman, renowned all over Canada as an excellent astronomer, and for many years the compiler of the sheet almanacs in use in that country, who never would take "orders." He remained attached to the soutane, and was every where called an Abbé.

But that was an isolated instance of ecclesiastical eccentricity. Few tarry very long at the threshold. Their salaries at college are nominal sums only, and they hasten, either to plunge into the busy round of worldly pursuits, or to graduate into the ministry, where they are usually provided for as vicars to parish priests, whom they succeed in due course of time. Others, chosen for that arduous task, for reasons of policy personal to themselves or the church,-are sent into the Indian missions; while a few are retained in the colleges as professors of the higher branches of learning, or to fill equally important posts in those institutions. The Directeur is always a priest in the meridian of life, and an able man. He who held that position, while I was at St. H., is now the Bishop of a rural Diocese, recently organized in the province. The Procureur, or agent of the college, is likewise a priest; and though not a man suspected of intimacy with the financial concerns of this mercenary world, he draws and loosens the purse-strings of the "corporation " with all the tact of a Wall-street broker. The Professors of moral and natural philosophy, and of rhetoric, are priests also. Thus, at least, half-a-dozen of these gentlemen are to be found in each establishment.

Their presence is a great auxiliary to the maintenance of rigorous discipline. The students-I mean those who are Catholics-must "go to confess" to them, once at least in every four weeks; for the purpose, no doubt, of obtaining the remission of those wickednesses for which they may not have atoned in due course of mortification in the flesh; and with this rule they are made to conform, whether they are as immaculate as lambs, or more iniquitous than scape-goats. The consequence of this is obvious. If those institutions be the recruiting dépôts of the priesthood, they are, from an inverse reason, the hot-beds of the infidelity which exists among the educated French Canadians. For, if, in one case, a strict performance of the religious exercises that there abound, converts a properly disposed individual into a minister of the gospel,

it will, in other instances, cast the student into an opposite and very lamentable extreme. The compulsory nature of this discipline will throw him into open rebellion; or it will so destroy his sense of accountability, that he will sooner confess a mortal sin which he never was guilty of, rather than accuse himself of a midnight visit actually paid to the "corporation's" melon-patch. From this indifference to really solemn rites, he therefore soon proceeds to deride them and the Divinity in whose service they are claimed to be enforced.

That the clergy shoot thus wide of the mark which they seem to have constantly in view, is not a little surprising, especially when we look at the monastic complexion of life in their colleges. If the morning bell does not wake the student, the loud Deo gratias of the superintending ecclesiastic is sure to rouse him. He dresses in a hurry, and hastens to prayers in the étude or common study room. These, which last some twenty minutes, are said kneeling. They consist of paters, aves, a confiteor, and litany, that are read by an elder collegian, while the Communauté utter the responses more or less attentively, and sometimes with ridiculous cadences of the voice. Before the breakfast, all repair to the chapel, where the basse messe, or low mass is solemnized by the Directeur. It occupies half an hour, during which the students rise from their knees at the reading of the Gospel only. No sermons are delivered, and no singing allowed, except on holidays, or when a stranger of distinction officiates. On those occasions, the best vocalist present leads off in some French hymn or cantique, and is followed by the congregation in full chorus.

Two of the students have to assist in the ceremonies at the altar, and must commit to memory a copious series of Latin responses, in order to well fill their parts. They serve according to a roll-call prepared by a sacristain or clerk of the chapel, and are excused from the performance of that duty in time of sickness only. Besides this messe, every priest in the establishment "says" his own at a side altar, where he is attended by a member of his class, or some favorite lad. He has no audience, but officiates privately, and with less deliberation than the Directeur.

Kneeling time recurs at about half-past eleven, A. M., when the Faculty meets the collegians in the "study." There the President reads a passage from a religious book, over which they are expected to reflect during several minutes of silence that follows; but whether they busy themselves with "inwardly digesting" what

they have been listening to, or with speculations as to the proximate chances of a poor dinner, I feel incompetent to state; from personal experience, however, I am inclined to think that the latter consideration engrosses their minds more deeply than the former.

The dinner, which follows this exercise, is eaten in silence, except on holidays and Sundays, or whenever a stranger is the guest of the Faculty, or a student is announced as having been for three weeks at the head of his class. He then has the honor of giving a Deo gratias, which, on being proclaimed, sets every tongue in motion. But on all other days, some young man occupies a pulpit, where his lungs wield a desperate conflict against the clatter of knives and forks, in the effort to make himself heard, out of a ponderous volume of history. Thanks to the stentorian voice of one of those readers, I once learned at the close of a year, that the book in his hands was the identical work which, in the same seat, I had enjoyed the privilege of announcing the title six months previously; and I verily believe that a large proportion of the students could not have said whether it was a book begun in the year of the college's foundation, or only the day before.

That incident proves the advantage there is in stuffing simultaneously the stomach and mind. As to its disadvantages much might be said; last, but not least, is dyspepsia, for all who are not blessed with the digestive powers of an ostrich. The American practice of calling "Waiter!" and bolting the food he brings, is a rational act compared with this dumbfeeding in Canadian colleges.

The close of the dinner is always announced by the appearance of a younger student who comes in front of the Faculty's table, and reads a chapter from the book "De Imitatione Jesu Christi." On this and whatever else has been read, the "Prex" may question the audience; but he seldom gets correct answers to his vexatious queries. I never thought, nor do I think to this day, that he is entitled to any, good, bad, or indifferent.

A lunch at four o'clock is followed by an opportunity for prayer at the chapel; but as it is optional with the students to improve it or pass the time at play, none go save the piously inclined, or those who have a penance to fulfil by order of their confessors, or who are sent up by their tutors for some mischievous act, which, I fear, is far from being atoned by their presence near the altar.

Before supper the Faculty meet the collegians again in the study, where, on their marrow-bones, all "count their

beads," the Directeur taking the lead and the Communauté roaring out the responses. This exercise lasts about thirty minutes, and the students are often detected in the act of mitigating its severity, by kneeling upon the green cloths which they use on their desks.

The last long prayer is read in the Salle de Récréation, or play-room, in the same manner as the morning's, which it equals in length. Finally, while the students are undressing in the dortoirs, one of their number reads a short biography, in French, of the saint whose name answers to that particular day in the calendar; and when this has been done, and every body has gone through the contortional feat of pulling off his pantaloons within sheets, the superintending ecclesiastic raps on the table, whereupon all must doff their night-caps and sit in bed, while he rehearses a few brief prayers, known as Actes, or professions of Charity, Faith, Hope and Contrition.

This is a long catalogue, but it does not comprise two short Latin prayers, one of which opens, and the other closes, the hours of study and recitation. The first, an invocation to the Holy Ghost, runs as follows:

"Veni, Sancte Spiritus, replè tuorum corda fidelium, et tui amoris in eis dignem ascende. Emitte spiritum tuum, et creabuntur, et renovabis faciem terræ."

The other, which is addressed to the Virgin Mary, reads thus:

"Sub tuum præsidium confugimus, sancta Dei Genitrix; nostras deprecationes ne despicias in necessitatibus; sed à periculis cunctis libera nos semper, Virgo gloriosa et benedicta."

This "Veni, Sancte," and "Sub tuum," are each repeated about fourteen times every day, the students kneeling on their seats, and turning their faces to the wall.

If now we compute the moments thus passed, we will have an average of three hours daily which the students of those institutions spend on their knees; and the curiously inclined can easily ascertain, if they wish. what proportion of a seven years' attendance there is passed on a poor fellow's marrow-bones. I have not the patience to do it. Indeed, we must lose all patience with this state of continual genuflexion. It is capable of producing but one sure result, and that is a big callus on each knee! It may be maintained that this is the best mode of remedying a calloused heart, as certain scrofulous affections are sometimes drawn from a vital part of the system to another part where they may create less mischief; but experience teaches that many young men look upon the innumerable hours