the knife until
another came, more unfortunate in physiognomy than himself, when it was
immediately made over to the last, who was obliged in his turn to retain
it until he could discover some one even more unprepossessing.
Following up this principle with the women of Belgium, and comparing
them with other European states, they are most unequivocally entitled to
hold the knife, and unless they improve by crossing the breed, I am
afraid they will have it in their possession for centuries.

We arrived safe at Malines, and I was infinitely amused at the variety
of astonishment in the five hundred thousand faces which we passed. In
one rich meadow I beheld a crowd of Roman Catholic priests, who looked
at the trains in such a manner as if they thought that they were
"heretical and damnable," and that the Chemin de Fer was nothing but the
Chemin d'Enfer. At Malines we all got out, walked to a stone pillar,
where a speech was made to the sound of martial music, and we all got in
again. And then to show the power of his engines, Mr Stephenson
attached all the cars, omnibuses, and diligences together, and directed
the Elephant to take us back without assistance from the other two
engines. So the Elephant took us all in tow, and away we went at a very
fair pace. It must have been a very beautiful sight to those who were
looking on the whole train in one line, covered with red cloth and
garlands of roses with white canopies over head, and decorated with
about three hundred Belgian flags, of yellow, red, and black. However,
the huge animal who dragged this weight of eighty tons became thirsty at
Ville Vorde, and cast us off--it took him half an hour to drink--that is
to say, to take in water, and then he set off again, and we arrived
safely at Brussels, much to the delight of those who were in the cars
and also of his majesty, and all his ministers, and all his authorities,
and all the mercantile classes, who consider that the millennium is
come, but very much to the disappointment of the lower classes, who have
formed the idea that the _Chemin de Fer_ will take away their bread, and
who therefore longed for a blow-up. And Mr Stephenson having succeeded
in bringing back in safety his decorated cars, has been _decore_
himself, and is now a Chevalier de l'Ordre Leopold. Would not the
_Iron_ order of the Belgian patriots have been more appropriate as a
_Chemin de Fer_ decoration?

It is impossible to contemplate any steam-en