elicious breakfast or dinner on shipboard, while the Germans on the Rhine
are positively luxurious, and while we know that a steam-boiler offers every
convenience for petits plats, the real old English steam-boats of the General
Steam Navigation Company never vary from huge joints and skinny chickens,
with vegetables plain boiled.

We remember, some years ago, embarking on a splendid French steamer,
afterwards run down and sunk in the Channel, to go to Havre, and returning by
Boulogne to London. In the French vessel it was almost impossible to keep
from eating,--soups, cutlets, plump fowls, all excellent and not dear. On
board the English boat it was necessary to be very hungry, in order to attack
the solid, untempting joints of roast and boiled.

This is a travelling age, and both hotel keepers and steam-boat owners will
find profit in allowing the spirit of free trade and interchange to extend to
the kitchen. Our public cooks are always spoiling the best meat and
vegetables in Europe.

More than twenty lines of steamers ply from Liverpool to the various ports of
Ireland; the Isle of Man, which is a favourite watering-place for the
Lancashire and Cheshire people; Glasgow and other parts of Scotland,
Whitehaven and Carlisle, Bangor, Caernarvon, and other ports of Wales, beside
the deep-sea steamers to New York, Philadelphia, and Boston; to
Constantinople, Malta, and Smyrna; and to Gibraltar, Genoa, Leghorn, Civita
Vecchia (for Rome), Naples, Messina, and Palermo; so that an indifferent
traveller has ample choice, which is sometimes very convenient for a man who
wants to go somewhere and does not care where.

The amusements of Liverpool include two theatres, an amphitheatre for
horsemanship, and several sets of subscription concerts, for the use of which
a fine hall has been erected.

The race-course is situated at some miles distant from the town; races take
place three times a-year, two being flat races, and the third a steeple-
chase. They are well supported and attended, although not by ladies so much
as in the Midland and Northern Counties. The Liverpool races are chiefly
matters of business, something like the Newmarket, with the addition of a
mob. A large attendance comes from Manchester, where more betting is carried
on than in any town out of London. Gambling of all kinds naturally follows
in the wake of cotton speculation, which is gambling.

The crashes produced in Liverpool by the sacra fames auri