of match-making, the reader must
consider these maxims for its proper use to be thrown into the bargain
_gratis_, and not therefore to be scrutinized severely. Some other day,
if we can muster up courage enough for so delicate and arduous a task,
we may perhaps attempt to show that, in the present state of society,
the art of match-making deserves and requires cultivation, and how, in
our humble opinion, this cultivation should be carried on.

FEMININE INFLUENCE.

All English ladies who are warmly devoted to the great cause of feminine
authority have got their eyes just now upon the Empress of the French.
It is understood in English domestic circles that the Empress has
decided to go to Rome, and that the Emperor has decided on her staying
at home, and the interest of the situation is generally thought to be
intense. The ocean race between the yachts was nothing to it. Every
woman of spirit has been betting heavily this Christmas upon the
Empress, and praying mentally for the defeat of the Emperor, and every
new telegram that bears upon the subject of the difficult controversy is
scanned by hundreds of dovelike eyes every morning with indescribable
eagerness.

M. Reuter, who is a man probably, if he is not a joint-stock company, is
believed not to be altogether an impartial historian; and it is felt in
many drawing-rooms that what is wanted on this occasion, at the
telegraph offices, is a sound and resolute Madame Reuter, to correct the
deviations of M. Reuter's compass. In default of all trustworthy
telegraphic intelligence, Englishwomen are compelled to fall back on
their vivid imagination, and to construct a picture of what is
happening from the depths of their own moral consciousness. And several
things their moral consciousness tells them are clear and certain. The
first is, that the Empress Eugenie is an injured and interesting victim.
She has made a vow, under the very touching circumstances of measles in
the Imperial nursery, to pay a visit to the Pope; and Cabinet Ministers
like M. Lavalette, who throw suspicion on the binding nature of such a
holy maternal obligation, are worse than "S. G. O." In the second place,
she has set her heart upon going. Even if a vow were not binding, this
is. It is mere nonsense to say that her pilgrimage would interfere with
politics. A woman's fine tact is often of considerable use in politics,
and the sight of the Prince Imperial in his mother's arms might exercise
th