ing. The
influence will extend down to some of the humblest ranks of society, and
we shall have the _Herald_ and the _Post_ full of accounts of how MRS.
JONES of Jonesville had the altar decorated, the Bishop got up, the font
covered with the arms of JONES, and all the appliances of Royalty aped
at the baptism of the JONESIAN infant.

We have no objection to the party, and the banquet after the ceremony,
but when the next comes--and we hope there may be many yet--we trust HER
MAJESTY will use her own good sense, and release all future Royal
Christenings from the trappings of pomp and vanity with which custom has
hitherto entangled them. We must say, in conclusion, that HER MAJESTY is
not responsible for all the pompous foolery against which we have raised
our voice, for it has been customary long before she came to the throne,
and she has, in many instances, had the courage and good sense to
abolish many empty observances. We hope, on the next occasion of a Royal
Christening, to find her exercising her own proper feeling in divesting
the occasion of all those forms which are at variance with its spirit.

* * * * *

CHOKING IN THE ARMY.

[Illustration: T]

There is one species of Stock in the conversion of which no difficulty
whatever would be experienced. Indeed, the experiment with this
description of Stock has been successfully tried in the Indian portion
of the British Empire; as is proved by the following extract from a
general order:--

"The Commander-in-Chief is pleased to direct the entire
discontinuance of the leather stock in all the Honourable Company's
European regiments under this Presidency."

The British soldier would be very much obliged to LORD HARDINGE, if the
gallant nobleman would please to convert his Stock from a rigid,
galling, strangling band of leather into a collar of more flexible
material. That common tailors occasionally discount bills is no reason
why "clothing Colonels" should have to do such a "bit of stiff" for
their men as the military Stock. The infliction of flogging in the army
has been greatly mitigated, even in the cases of grave offenders; would
it not be as well to abolish altogether the gratuitous punishment of the
Stocks?

* * * * *

SPIRITUAL MANIFESTATIONS GOING A-HEAD!

REV. GLENDOWER S. FIBBS, of Salem, U. S., has been induced, by the
extensive interest of the British aristocracy in the SP