spin along, my fine fellow! bravo!" till the whirl of the wheel communicated itself to his head; and the sea acting equally upon both, he was soon incapacitated for further observations.

Against the other paddle, in a pensive attitude, leant his brother Valentine, who having, amongst his other studies, read an English translation of Corinne, thought it necessary, like Lord Neville, to take a pathetic farewell of the white cliffs of Albion ; which tender feeling, as he was only going for a fortnight to Paris, his mother country, however partial a parent, could hardly be supposed to reciprocate with any one of his numerous family. However, there he stood, leaning his fat face on his pudsy hand, and trying in vain for a rhyme to cliff"whiff" and "stiff" being both unmanageable. At last his head was turned before his couplet-and his patriotic sickness yielded to one of a less sentimental description-his mal-du-pays being succeeded by the mal-de-la-mer.

Such was the disabled condition of the Hobson family, when their passage was concluded, (as is always the case,) in less time than it was ever done before, though in half an hour longer than they were told was expected, at starting. They now entered Calais harbour, and prepared to expose themselves to the gaze of the crowd assembled to criticise the last importations from the island of beauty.

H.

Nationality is a sort of generous illiberality, a dignified selfishness, the indulgence of which, so far from exciting self-reproach, one easily persuades oneself is praise-worthy, as well as pleasing. The consciousness of monopolizing, within our sea-girt isle, a proud pre-eminence of beauty is one of its most gratifying illusions.

Yet I own, that in returning along the Dover road, I have been sometimes a little puzzled in my attempts to be struck with this, as, in passing, I have endeavoured to persuade myself, that a slouching gait, high round shoulders, thick waist, and thicker ancles, must belong to a lovely face; and leaning forward to convince myself, the slight glimpse has not quite realized the expectations national vanity had formed.

If such disappointment has sometimes been my fate, in spite of all my prejudices, of which I am proud, what must a Frenchman, whose prejudices are certainly the other way, think (when he thinks at all) of the boasted beauties whom he daily sees scrambling and shuffling to their inn, with all the disadvantage of just recovering from the most unbecoming of maladies, of which a packet is the cause? their complexion (which is always their first attraction,) completely discoloured; their dress (which is never their forte,) splashed and draggled; displaying, in short, all the disfigurement, and none

of the interest, of recent distress. Though Venus did first come from the sea, assuredly she never landed from a packet.

We have, however, sent more favourable specimens than the present representatives of an English Venus, and her three attendant graces; who, in the persons of Mrs. and the Misses Hobson, with old Hobson, like Vulcan, hobbling after, excited no small merriment, as they made the best of their way to Dessein's Hotel.

CHAPTER VII.

THE feeling which one experiences in the first change from an English to a French inn, must be like that of a horse, who is suddenly taken out of a warm, close stable, and turned into a loose box. In the first, he is often cramped for room; kept much too hot; plagued with superfluous care and attention; never left enough to himself; and stuffed beyond what he can eat. In the other, he has a fine, roomy, airy place, to walk about in, and nobody ever seems to trouble his head about him, or to come near him, except at random, to feed him, when they have nothing else to do.

At any rate, if the comparison be not quite just, it is one which struck Tom Hobson, as he and his family were turned into a large, staring, out-of-theway kind of room, and left to their fate. Minutes, that seemed hours, passed, and there was no appearance of any one taking the least notice of them. Mrs. Hobson on whom the discipline of the packet had entailed a most ravenous appetite, now became most clamorous. All in vain ;--at last she heard a footstep on the stairs, and sallied forth. There she

caught a stray waiter, singing-" Partant pour la Syrie." He was proceeding on his way, without attending to her, when hunger made her bold; and though she had lost her "Manuel de Voyager," she screamed at him, as she thought, in the words of that useful publication—“ Je suis femme, il faut me manger." The garçon stared a moment, in astonishment; when the truism contained in the first part of the sentence, not seeming to reconcile him to the obligation implied in the remainder-he passed on— "Partant pour la Syrie.". Their case thus seemed quite desperate; when first an authoritative voice was heard upon the stairs, abusing every body to the right and left; of which the most audible words were-"Sacre! de faire attendre; Sacre! Milord Hobson;--une des plus riches familles d'Angleterre ; -Sacre!"—and, to their astonishment, there appeared the figure of the much despised courier, sacreing into the room the identical garçon. Leon's al

tered appearance, in "Rule a Wife and have a Wife," did not create greater surprise, nor, indeed, a more complete change in manner and deportment; nor was it easy to recognise the little, helpless, muchenduring being, in the shabby surtout and oil-skin hat, in the arbitrary, bullying, swaggering hero, glittering in gold lace and scarlet, with shining yellow leather breeches, and clattering about in a commanding pair of boots. It was like the Emperor Napoléon, rising from a sous-lieutenant of artillery, upon the extinction of ancien régime, into absolute power.

Thus, after the short-lived anarchy of the steamboat, Pierre had completely superseded all the former legitimate authorities of the Hobson family. From that time forward, nothing could be done without him; all Mrs. Hobson's almost unintelligible wants were obliged to receive his sanction, before they could be satisfied ;-old Hobson's eau-devie and water could not be obtained without his approbation ;--Tom was obliged to resign, into his more efficient command, all future control over the postillions ;--even the young ladies could not lay their heads on a downy pillow, unless it was procured by him; and when Miss Hobson desired that she might have duex gros matelots on her bed, he it was that saved her from the danger to which an unconscious substitution of one vowel for another, might have otherwise subjected her. The dinner