d and pins: or was that a tench?) except to make a
rhyme. Even Walton, who gives instructions for cooking a chavender
or chub, is discreetly silent on the cooking of a dace, though he
tells us how to catch him. "Serve up in a clean dish," he might have
added, "and throw him out of window as fast as possible."

"O that I were lying under the olives!" And O that to olive orchards
(not contiguous) I could convey the newspaper men who are almost
invariably responsible when a shadow of distrust or suspicion falls
between us Englishmen and the race which owns and tills these
orchards. "The printing-press," says Mr. Barrie, "is either the
greatest blessing or the greatest curse of modern times, one
sometimes forgets which." I verily believe that if English newspaper
editors would nobly resolve to hold their peace on French politics,
say for two years, France and England would 'make friends' as easily
as Frenchmen and Englishmen 'make friends' to-day.[1] One hears talk
of the behaviour of the English abroad. But I am convinced that at
least one-half of their bad manners may be referred to their
education upon this newspaper nonsense, or to the certainty that no
complaint they may make upon foreign shortcomings is too silly or too
ill-bred to be printed in an English newspaper. Here is an example.
I suppress the name of the writer--a lady--in the devout hope that
she has repented before this. The letter is headed--

"THE AMENITIES OF RAILWAY TRAVELLING IN FRANCE.

"Sir,--As your newspaper is read in France, may I in your columns
call attention to what I witnessed yesterday? I left Dinard by
the 3.33 p.m. train _en route_ for Guingamp, having to change
carriages at Lamballe. An instant before the train moved off
from the station, a dying man belonging to the poorest class was
thrust into our second class carriage and the door slammed to.
The poor creature, apparently dying of some wasting disease,
was absolutely on the point of death, and his ghastly appearance
naturally alarmed a little girl in the carriage.
At the next station I got down with my companion and changed
into a first-class compartment, paying the difference.
On remonstrating with the guard (_sic_), he admitted that a
railway carriage ought not to be turned into an hospital,
but added, 'We have no rules to prevent it.'

"I ask, sir, is it decent or human, especially a