fourth he is in the possession of that reward of industry which is sufficiently described as success, and is able to minister to the wants of others, especially the poor, by handing out not the crumbs simply, but the more substantial evidences and remains of the feast within.

In the fifth tableau we observe that he has risen by industry to opulence, and by integrity and punctuality to high respectability, and in the last is exalted to that pinnacle of honour a citizen may aspire to, the Lord Mayoralty of London, the greatest reward which that ancient and noble city can bestow on diligence and integrity.

In this the zenith of his career he has reached the perfection of the times.

Now it appears to us that this series of thoughtful illustrations and that of the idle apprentice, may afford a simile upon which we may be able to some extent, but very briefly to work. Of Hogarth it has been said that his graphic representations are indeed books, for they have the teeming, fruitful, suggestive meaning of words-other pictures we look at his prints we read!

We will take then the industrious apprentice for what he is worth-we will assume him to have received the limited, yet what was in those days esteemed to be the liberal education of the period.

Let his condition represent the state of the civilized world at an ancient by gone date-he further acquired by teaching, the art and practice of weaving together

with a great variety of matters relating to the business-so the society of ancient days by the light that was let in upon it and by inventions gradually disclosed through the expansion of the mind, resulting indeed from that enlightenment, raised itself in the scale, and by reasoning and thought there came that respect of persons and good fellowship whose progress knows no barrier. Learning and study and the dissemination of knowledge by writings and ultimately by means of printed works led to the spread of the gospel and like the apprentice in church people in greater and increasing bulk sent up prayers and praises to Heaven.

This however was the work of one section of society which with education and the power knowledge possesses and imparts, followed the current of improvement.

But what about the other section-the family of idle apprentices. We cannot always view the sunny side!

The illbred ruffian of the past became the accomplished burglar of the present, the daring highwayman of a late period appeared in another form as the expert thief and assassin of the first class railway carriage the old fashioned blazing irons,' the flint horse pistols of a past age, gave way to a neat revolver of six chambers, or a 'deringer.' Whilst Ireland that only gem of the sea' possessing 'the finest pisanthry in the world' has disclosed to us the fact that the respectable farmer who pays his

1

own rent and dares to ask for that which is weekly due to him from his farm tenant, or turns that tenant out of possession on refusal, may expect to be shot or roasted, or his ears cut off, or to have the ham strings of his horses severed, or his cattle houghed, or may be their ears and tails cut off, their eyes gouged, or their tongues torn out, or himself 'Boycotted '-no tenants being permitted by the secret societies to remain with him, no tradesman, not even his grocer or flour factor, his butcher or any other person, to supply him and his family with the necessaries of life, or do aught for them, nay not even the postman-scarcely the postmaster of the district, to hand him his letters!

If this be not civilization' in the end of the nineteenth century it accompanies that blessing!

The term civilization we are usually taught to believe comprises amongst various other things the gradual abolition of the lex non scripta-the disuse of all those old fangled facts and fictions relating more particularly to tenures the feudal system, knight service, free socage, frankalmoign and the like, and the substitution for them of what is of

later years considered to be a more just and reasonable or less absurd arrangement.

This may be so in these populous and knowing days of change, although when the old laws were in full swing we may rely upon it they suited the times; and judged by the difficulties surrounding their abrogation, it is clear they were made not without the

greatest thought and diligent enquiry and after a practical experience of the requirements they were intended to meet.

Yet many of the old customs though apparently worthless, still prevail in the northern counties, such for instance as that of the curfew bell and the like. In an ancient city in the North Riding, the Town Crier as regularly as the clock strikes nine, appears nightly in the market place with his body well nigh surrounded by an immense cow's horn, through which instrument of music he blows a long blast, which though not loud yet from its tone may be heard at a great distance on a quiet night.

Whether the ancient liberty was held in olden times on condition of a trumpet fanfare or the like, or that in the nature of curfew (couvre feu) the good citizens were at this signal to extinguish their fires, we are

unaware.

Such a custom we must say does seem absurd in the present day-whilst it is a use, it is useless! It may well be abandoned, yet there are many others whose inutility may be questioned, but which have been rendered obsolete by special legislation.

CHAPTER IX.

"He was a man, take him for all in all,
I shall not look upon his like again."

SHAKSPEARE,

"You cry against the noble Senate, who,

Under the gods, keep you in awe, which else

Would feed on one another."

SHAKSPEARE.

Another evidence of what we have before referred to as the "march of intellect" is the change in the mode of existence, the amusements and occupations of the people-and here we cannot wholly agree that many of the amenities of life are in the present any improvement upon the past, "those good old times" in fact!

Truly Napoleon was right even in his day when he described the English as a nation of shop-keepers, but what would he say now, when regardless of title, rank, and condition, we find Lords and Commons, aye and Parsons too, engaged in the mercantile pursuits of the country, grasping, some of them, at every penny they derive from the mines and royalties they possess, or the manufacture of goods or the like!

Many however are the honorable exceptions in this respect, and great indeed is the good frequently done by their princely and unbounded charity and liberality.

Still we cannot look back without some feeling of regret to the departure of the 'fine old English