but if I had some useful employment I think I could keep them all away. I am now past twenty, I am well and strong, I will go out into the world and work. I am ready to take any situation I can get, until I have earned as much money as will enable me to rent or purchase a little farm, which I will manage myself, and so provide for myself.""

The mother thought at first that she was out of her mind; but after a little reflection and a few minutes' conversation with Lotte, she began to think her scheme a highly rational one, and she therefore replied to her (for she was a good and a sensible woman):

"I have always foreseen that my children would have to provide for themselves when they should arrive at years of discretion. Do as you think best, my dear Lotte. Poverty is no disgrace; if we can work ourselves out of it, it is an honour to us. I am only afraid of our relations: what will they say to such a project?"

And there was an uproar among the relations.

The seven aunts tapped on their snuff-boxes and exclaimed, "What an extraordinary idea! Cannot she keep quiet and live in an humble way as so many others do,-spin and knit, and attend to her mother's little household matters, and occasionally amuse herself at our coffee fêtes? Women ought to stay at home; there is no occasion for them to launch out into the world, especially when they are as comfortable as Lotte is. Others are contented and live on in just such a way, and why cannot she, I wonder?"

The seven uncles shook their heads and said: "She will rent a farm, manage it herself, and attend to all her business? What stuff! Nothing can come of such a plan but blundering and confusion and downright ruin. We must give our most serious advice against so extravagant a scheme."

Fraulein Lotte, however, had made up her mind. After much exertion she obtained a situation in a large establishment in the country.

In her family there was a poor unfortunate boy whom none of his relations were willing to receive, because he was afflicted with a grievous, incurable, but not mortal disease. And one day, when Lotte found the boy bitterly lamenting his hard fate, that he should be a burden to others and a misery to himself and yet not be permitted to die, she spoke to him thus:—

"Do not weep, Theodore! I am going out now to earn money, and in a few years I shall be able to buy myself a little house and garden on the banks of the Dalilfe, and you shall come and live with me. You shall bathe in the fresh water of the river and grow strong and well. You shall help me to cultivate the garden, and we shall live happily together. Take courage, Theodore, dear child; only have patience, I will take care of you.”

Our Fraulein, accordingly, went out into the world, and did her duty as stewardess in a large house, where the work was heavy, indeed, but the wages were high. In addition to this, she bought a stock of flax, had it spun and woven, and in a few years had accumulated a little capital. She had what is called business tact, and of all the different kinds of tact, that is not perhaps the very worst, at least if directed by a good and honest heart.

Eight years had passed away when Fraulein Lotte saw her native town again. Everything there still looked much the same. Her mother went about to tea and coffee parties as before. The accomplished sister sang, played, painted flowers, and waited for the great success in life, which was still to come. The seven aunts continued to take snuff, and the seven uncles still shook their heads and discussed Lotte's projects.

As for Lotte, she saluted her mother and her relations, and informed them that she had bought a farm in Elfdalen, and that she meant to take the afflicted Theodore to herself, so that his family should no longer be burthened with him.

The very next year Fraulein Lotte sent her mother a present of an enormous cheese, and a gigantic salmon from Dannaufors on the Dalilfe; and wrote to say that she was going on well, that she certainly had a great deal to do, but that she was thankful to God for the same. She added that Theodore's health was much improved, and that he was so happy in his mind that he had ceased

to complain of his disease, which no longer hindered him from being a good and useful man. Fraulein Lotte concluded by inviting her mother, her sister, and all the family to come very soon and see their fortunate Major in her own house.

Her mother shed tears of joy at the thought of her daughter's high moral worth and of the success it had procured her, congratulated herself on having offered no opposition to her wishes, and invited all the family to come and partake of the cheese and salmon, and to read the letter.

The aunts took snuff and remarked: "Ah! who could have believed that Lotte would have got on so well? Our good advice was not altogether thrown away upon her. Delicious cheese!"

The seven uncles all nodded their heads, and remarked: "Now, that is just what women should do. If they would all follow Lotte's example instead of sitting still doing nothing, it would be much better for themselves and for the world. A most excellent salmon !"

Five or six years have passed away since Fraulein Lotte went to her farm in Elfdalen, and .... "But here," said I, "ends my story, so far as I can see. We can hardly doubt, however, that our Fraulein had a happy life, at least she had the satisfaction of having tried for it in a generous and a rational way."

"Yes, she had the comfort of a good conscience," replied our hostess; "and of one thing more we may be sure,--nay, of two things, with regard to 'poor Lotte :' when she was in difficulties she did not sit down and call upon Hercules, and when she was in sorrow she gave herself but little time to waste in useless brooding."

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"Why, Mrs. A., I declare you are getting quite enthusiastic," remarked the quiet Mrs. B.; "Fraulein Lotte seems to be your model for young ladies."

"And so she is," was the reply. "It seems to me a great pity that young ladies are accustomed to be so easily satisfied. It is quite true that sad and bitter thoughts of our own uselessness and degradation are not very amusing at the time, but their results will appear afterwards, in the shape of something good, either said or done. Therefore I pray that they may come, with all their present discomfort, and that we and the world may be the better for them."

XXX.-PASSING EVENTS.

lr is obviously impossible for a publication, making its appearance only once a month, to compete in mere novelty of intelligence with daily contemporaries; though it has some compensatory advantage in being able to exercise some discrimination as to what is deserving of being recorded, instead of being obliged, in the haste of daily publication, to shoot loads of matter into its columns, and leave the reader to pick out from the heap what he may consider worth preserving. The purpose of these slight sketches of public occurrences has had reference rather to the future, than to the moment in which they are read :—it has been intended that they should furnish such a record of events as shall make a volume of the English Woman's Journal a history of the year in which it has appeared-still they are subject at the moment to the inevitable disadvantage, that the more important a piece of intelligence is, the more certain is it that the reader will be already acquainted with it.

It would not be easy, for instance, to find any one who was not already aware that the capture of Lucknow took place on the 19th of March, and that the rebels to the number of 50,000 or more were driven out and dispersed― and the army is now in active pursuit of them. The details of the military operations connected with this transaction lie of course out of our province, but we find small reason to regret the inevitable omission. The only features in military triumph on which the mind can rest with real satisfaction are the noble qualities so often developed in the actors,—and these are not always exclusively on the side of the victory. The names of the gallant men to whom their country is indebted for these services will doubtless be long and gratefully preserved; but of battles and sieges few people care to remember more than the results.

The Bill for "transferring the government of India from the East India Company to her Majesty the Queen" (viz. to Downing Street) has been brought forward, but found to be so indescribably complicated and unwieldy in its details, and so entirely unsatisfactory even to its authors, that there appears no probability of its ever becoming law. At an entertainment given to Lord Derby at the Mansion House, he could himself say nothing better in favour of the ministerial measure than that it could not be expected to be any better. He invited suggestions from all quarters, and seemed to imply that he would like to see any one else's notion of an India Bill if they objected to his; and, possibly in consequence of these observations, Lord John Russell unexpectedly came forward a few nights afterwards with a proposal "to take Resolutions in a Committee of the whole House, and thus practically obtain a consultation between her Majesty's Executive and the Representative Chamber." This chivalrous readiness to aid his old opponents has of course set people looking out for ulterior motives.

Among domestic transactions the public attention has been most strongly engaged by the trial of Dr. Simon Bernard, on the charge of being an accessory before the fact to the late attempt on the life of the Emperor of the French.

After a trial of six days' duration a verdict of Not Guilty was returned, and received in the crowded court with a shout of irrepressible exultation, echoed by loud and rapturous cheers from the multitude assembled without.

The general impression has been that the Government had pressed the prosecution with unusual severity-that it had done so virtually at the instigation of a despotic Court, itself established by violence but a few years since that the crime in question has already been expiated in the blood of the chief offenders—and that an English jury passing sentence of condemnation in this case would be rendering itself an instrument of vengeance to the present Government of France, and moreover would appear to other nations to have been influenced by the menacing tone lately adopted towards this country in French official papers. There can be little doubt that the jury was in some degree affected by these considerations, and that they partly account for the verdict itself as well as its reception; but there appears to have been a break in the chain of evidence that would justify the verdict in a merely legal point of view; and an expression stated to have been used by the prisoner, that he intended to go to France when the Emperor came over to England again, seems to imply that it was rather the overthrow of the government than the death of Louis Napoleon that had been contemplated by him.

In curious contrast to the usual character of the intelligence concerning the state of imperial France, we have from Russia accounts of a movement in favour of human liberty, that cannot but be received with cordial satisfaction.

A measure recently proposed for the emancipation of the serfs appears to be meant in genuine good faith. Meetings of nobles have been held in most of the provinces to prepare plans for carrying it out, and at the first sitting of that of Nijni Novgorod, General Mouravief, the military governor of the province, held language reflecting high honour both on himself and the sovereign of whose wishes he may be presumed to be the organ. He reminded his audience, consisting of serf proprietors, that "moral interests take precedence of material ones" (though the two we believe are not often really incompatible). He alluded to the argument often plausibly urged in favour of slavery, that "the slaves themselves in many instances desire no change."

"Among the people whose material existence we have to secure, there is many an individual who, content with his present position, desires no other. Glory and honour to the owners of such individuals, but their happiness is merely fortuitous. You, gentlemen, are called upon to substitute certainty for chance -to remove from the administration which relates to an entire class of persons everything of an arbitrary character; but success will not be obtained in this, so long as we see in man a mere productive power, similar to that of animals in general: we shall only obtain success by resuscitating the human dignity that has been stifled, and by invoking the assistance of free labour. Do not separate from your material calculations the respect due to the rights of man." The very phrase of "the rights of man heard in such a quarter seems to indicate the inauguration of a new era. Nothing is easier of course than to meet all this with sneering doubts of its sincerity-but we trust it is now no longer a point of patriotism to doubt the possibility of Russia's advancing on the career of civilisation and humanity. We have a strong conviction, too, that a Russian serf is no less " a man and a brother" than a slave of darker complexion, and we cannot look with indifference on the prospect of so mighty a change for the better in the position of twenty-two millions of people. But we have good tidings too for those who think a black skin and a woolly head indispensable conditions of sympathy.

A Mr. Thomas Glegg, of Manchester, has published an account of some very successful efforts recently made to establish a cotton-trade with Western Africa by the agency of native Africans only, it being considered that if Europeans took it up it might result in a revival of the slave-trade. One hundred and fifty-seven cotton-gins have been sent out, and communication opened with seventy-six African traders, and 929 bales of cotton produced, though unfortunately more than 300 were afterwards destroyed by fire. From the increased facilities now obtained, it is calculated that 10,000 bales per annum may be looked for. The cotton is said to be of a good quality, the best substitute for the American, and fetching in the Liverpool markets twopence or threepence a pound more than the East Indian. Every ounce of cotton has been collected," says Mr. Glegg, "all the labour performed, and all the responsibility incurred, by native Africans alone. I believe that the trade will prosper-first, because it will have God's blessing upon it; secondly, because Africa is naturally adapted to the growing of cotton, as everywhere it springs spontaneously, and is indigenous to the soil; and, thirdly, because wherever else cotton will grow, people cry out for the African to come and help them, showing in my opinion that he is its natural cultivator also."

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Park, the second of the two English engineers, so long unjustly and cruelly imprisoned in Naples, has at last been sent back to England, and has published an account of the shameful treatment to which he and his companion were subjected during the reign of the "spirited Minister" who was so keenly

susceptible to the wrongs of a Don Pacifico, and so tremblingly alive to encroachments on the pure and virtuous empire of the Ottomans.

In connexion with this subject we have a curious illustration of the proficiency in what Mr. Dickens has named "the art of not to do it," furnished by the discovery of a little passage in the history of the English Embassy at Turin; but the blunder was of such a felicitous description that we cannot imitate the kindness of the jury who, when returning a verdict of not guilty, "hoped the prisoner would never do so any more. The matter was simply this: Lord Clarendon told the Envoy, Sir James Hudson, "to inquire whether the Sardinian Government intended to object to the seizure of the Cagliari." Sir James Hudson, of course, did not do it himself, but told his Secretary of Legation, Mr. Erskine, to do so for him. The secretary, finding this mere copying of instructions dull work, indulged his fancy in a little variation of his own, and wrote a note stating that Her Majesty's Government was disposed to object to the seizure of the Cagliari. This diplomatic fantasia might certainly have placed the Sardinian Minister in a curious position; but what Mr. Erskine said was so evidently what he ought to have had to say, that we cannot understand how anybody can be angry with him. We should rather be inclined to offer him a testimonial.