household both to the
law and to society, authority should go with responsibility. And
yet--perhaps for this very reason--wives there have the household
affairs more absolutely in their hands than they have here. A man whose
absolute authority is acknowledged, practically as well as
theoretically, is very ready to make concessions and to rid himself of
what at any time he may assume. Real monarchs, like the Czars or like
the Tudors, are careless of the protection of royal etiquette. The
consciousness of this acknowledged or rather unquestioned superiority
shows itself in the men's faces, and in their bearing, simple and
unpretending as their manner is. Besides all this, men in England (I am
leaving out of consideration the lower classes) show the effect of
cultivation, of breeding, of discipline. Even in the middle classes
they are well informed, and, what is of more importance to the present
question, they have been taught to behave themselves respectfully to
others. They do so behave; they feel that they ought to do so and that
they must. There are two gods worshipped in England, and one is
propriety; and a very good god he is, when he is not made a Juggernaut.
The result of all this is a very different man in appearance from him
who generally pervades "America." The latter may be, and generally is,
as handsome physically as the former; he may be, and generally is, as
good morally; but the one generally shows for all that he is and
perhaps for more, and the other does not, and frequently does for less.
And yet again; among such men in England another sort who, for example,
say "hadn't oughter," and "have came," and who spit upon the floor, are
not generally found mingling. They are kept in social pens by
themselves. And thus in judging of English society they are left out.

A comparative estimate of Englishwomen is too serious and far too
complicated a subject to be treated except in an article by itself.

RICHARD GRANT WHITE.

A DEAD VASHTI.

Do we indeed desire the dead should still be near us, at our side?

"I do not know how it is with others," said the spirit, looking away
from the Sunday child to the red and spectral moon that was arising
from the tossing ocean into a mass of heavy, broken clouds; "for since
my death I have been alone; but when I left my human form I left few of
the affections, the passions of life, and thus death has made but
little change in me. I cannot believe, however, that all