f the period to the modern "masher." Miss ZEFFIE TILBURY,
Miss HELENA DACRE, and Miss DESMOND ("1st Lady with a song" and gigantic
lyre) are all equally good, and even the subordinate female parts have
efficient representatives.

Returning to the gentlemen (a difficult task when it entails leaving
such pleasant company) Mr. F. H. MACKLIN as _Polixenes_ is sufficiently
robust in his manly bearing to suggest the necessary contrast with
_Leontes_, and Mr. FULLER MELLISH is picturesque, painstaking and
conscientious as _Florizel_.

[Illustration: An Infant Phenomenon.]

I began with Miss ANDERSON and (much to my regret) I must end with her.
She is equally charming as _Hermione_ and _Perdita_. Her cry of horror
and dead faint in the Hall of Justice on learning of the loss of
_Mamillius_, is one of many points that profoundly impressed the
audience, and in her comedy scene with _Polixenes_ in Act I, in which
she asks him _a propos_ of _Leontes_, "Was not my lord the verier wag o'
the two?" her smiling glance at her sombre lord is simply inimitable. I
can quite fancy that _Leontes_ when he saw _Hermione_, and _Florizel
Perdita_, must have talked of their condition (allowing for the loss of
their hearts) as I describe myself when I assume the signature of

ONE WHO HAS GONE TO PIECES.

* * * * *

A PLEA FOR THE BIRDS.

(_To the Ladies of England._)

[Illustration]

Lo! the sea-gulls slowly whirling
Over all the silver sea,
Where the white-toothed waves are curling,
And the winds are blowing free.
There's a sound of wild commotion,
And the surge is stained with red;
Blood incarnadines the ocean,
Sweeping round old Flamborough Head.

For the butchers come unheeding
All the torture as they slay,
Helpless birds left slowly bleeding,
When the wings are reft away.
There the parent bird is dying,
With the crimson on her breast,
While her little ones are lying
Left to starve in yonder nest.

What dooms all these birds to perish,
What sends forth these men to kill,
Who can have the hearts that cherish
Such designs of doing ill?
Sad the answer: English ladies
Send those men, to gain each day
What for matron and for maid is
All the Fashion, so folks say.

Feathers deck the hat and bonnet.
Though the plumage seemeth fair,
_Punch_, whene'er he looks upon it,
Sees that slaughter in the air.
Many a