equently the best educated persons are found doing the
dirtiest work, just as may be seen in a Canvas Town in England before
election time. The inhabitants of a Colonial Canvas Town think only of
the gold and the quartz, just as at home the inhabitants of a Canvas
Town think of nothing but filthy dross and drink--the quarts taking of
course precedence of the pints in the estimation of the "independent"
voters.

* * * * *

MORE ORNAMENTAL THAN USEFUL.

MR. DISRAELI calls "invective a great ornament in debate." According to
this species of decoration, Billingsgate ought to be the most ornamental
place of debate in the world; and MR. DISRAELI himself, than whom few
orators deal more largely in invective, deserves taking his rank as the
most ornamental debater that ever was born.

* * * * *

CIVIL (VERY CIVIL) WAR AT CHOBHAM.

[Illustration: T]

The gallant fellows now assembled under arms and over ankles in the mud
and dust of Chobham, were on Tuesday, the 21st of June, led--or rather
guided--into one of the most civil wars to be found in the
pages--including the fly-leaves--of history.

It having been understood that a battle was to be fought, every one
seemed animated with the spirit of contention, and the struggle
commenced at the Railway Station, where a company of heavy Cockneys,
several hundred strong, besieged with great energy the few flys,
omnibuses, and other vehicles, that were to be met with. The assault was
vigorously carried; but the retaliation was complete; for the cads,
drivers, and other marauders, having allowed the besiegers to fall into
the snare, drove them off to the field, and exacted heavy tribute as the
price of their ransom. Some few took refuge by trusting to their heels,
rather than undergo the severe charge to which they would have been
exposed; and they arrived, after a fatiguing march of nearly five miles,
much harassed by the ginger-beer picquets and tramps that always lie on
the outskirts of an army.

It was, however, on the field, or rather among the furze-bushes of
Chobham, that the battle was really to be fought; and in the afternoon,
the Guards, the 1st and 2nd Brigades, with the Artillery and Cavalry,
took up a sheltered position under a hill, to conceal themselves from
the enemy. This "concealment" was rather dramatic than real; for the
enemy had already determined not to see, and as none are so blind as
those