e most beneficial influence on the Pope's mind.

Pio Nono has held out hitherto in the most inexplicable manner against
the Prince Imperial's photograph, but he never could resist a sight of
the original. And, thirdly, if a wife and a mother may not have her own
way about going to see the Head of her own Church, when is she ever to
have her way at all, and where is the line to be drawn? The next
downward step in a husband's declension will be to prevent her from
frequenting all religious exercises, or, still worse, from selecting her
own balls and evening parties. This is what English ladies feel, and
feel keenly. It is some consolation to them to learn that, if the
Empress Eugenie is discomfited, she will not have been discomfited
without a struggle. Of course there will be no evening reception on the
New Year at the Tuileries. No lady with a proper sense of what was due
to her own dignity would receive under such circumstances. But till the
most authentic news arrive, it will still be possible to hope and to
believe that victory will eventually, and in spite of all appearances,
declare itself upon the side of right and of propriety, and that her
Majesty will not be interfered with merely to satisfy the idle caprices
of a Foreign Office.

The question of the proper limits of feminine influence is one which
such universal enthusiasm forces naturally on one's notice. Not even the
most rigid cynic can deny that women ought to have some influence on the
mind and judgment of the opposite sex, and the only difficulty is to
know how far that influence ought to go. Every one will be ready to
concede that sound reasoning is worth hearing, whether it comes from a
woman or a man; and that, so far as a lady argues well, she has as much
claim on our attention as Diotima had on the attention of Socrates.
This, however, is not precisely the point which is so difficult to
settle. The problem is to know how much influence a woman ought to have
when she does not argue well; and further, what are the matters on which
her opinion, whether it be based on argument or instinct, is of value.

One of the most important subjects on which women have some, and always
want to have a great deal of power, is religion. This is one part of the
supposed mission of the Empress upon which feminine observers look with
especial sympathy, and on which experienced masculine observers, on the
other hand, look with some awe. The correspondents of the daily pa