"If I knew where to find a needle and thread," said the authoress, with a half look at the bridesmaid.

"I know. Let me sew it up for you," said Cynthia.

Her pride had left her. She felt humbled to the dust. It would be a relief to do something for this woman-better than herself whom Frank preferred to her.

"Let me do it," she said earnestly. "Mr. Handy, I shall depend upon your escort."

Frank Handy bowed, and the girls went together into a bed-room.

Escort? was it his escort to the city? He had told her he should go there. Cynthia sewed up the hole in the blue dress, very sadly and quietly.

The animation faded from the young authoress's face, as she looked down on Cynthia's quivering lip, and saw a big tear fall upon her sewing. She had heard some one say, she had been the victim of false hopes raised by Seth Taggart; and had in her heart despised her for it; but now she felt as if the sad, heart-broken love bestowed on him endorsed him as far better than he looked. It was a woe, however, to which she could not openly allude. But, as Cynthia set the last stitch in her dress. she

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stooped down and kissed her. Every sorrow has its lesson," she said, "as every weed has a drop of honey in its cup. Blessed are they who suck that drop, and store it for good uses."

She had gone, and Cynthia was left alone. Yes, she had much to learn. This night's experience had taught her that her reign was over, and her career of bellehood run. She, who was not good enough to keep a good man's heart when she had won it, would set herself to her new task of self-improvement. She would

have her dear old father's love, and live at home, and little children, too, should learn to love her. And then, perhaps, some day, when they both grew old, Frank Handy might, perhaps, see that he had judged her hastily, and not be glad, as he was now, that she had rejected him. At least, every improvement in her would be due to his influence, though unseen; and so, even in her lonely life, he would not be altogether dissociated from her. She sat in the dark, with her hands clasped tightly over her burning forehead.

She heard voices in the passages. The party was breaking up. People

were beginning to go. Oh! why had she staid alone so long! Perhaps during that hour Frank might have changed his mind. She had deprived herself of the opportunity.

She started up and hurried out amongst the company. They were all getting their cloaks and shawls on. Frank, in his great coat, was standing impatiently at the house-door.

Please to tell her that my buggy has come up first," he said to some one, as Cynthia presented herself in the passage.

"I am ready," said the lady in blue, presenting herself.

Frank raised his hat to the company; and took her on his arm.

"Shut up that door," ," said somebody; "and don't let the night air into the house."

So the door closed with a jar that went to Cynthia's very heart. She turned aside and tried to help some of the girls to find their shawls and hoods. "Every lassie had her laddie," Cynthia only had no one to take her home. She asked Tommy Chase to walk home with her, and he said he would as soon as he had had some more cake and some more supper.

Cynthia went back into the empty parlor, and sat down by an open window looking on the yard. She hid her face in her hands. All sorts of thoughts went singing through her brain; but the one that presented itself oftenest, was an humble resolution that she would try to be such a woman as Frank Handy wisely might have loved.

There was a stir among the vines that draped the window-frame. She did not look up. It was the wind. She heard it sigh. She felt its warm breath near her cheek-warmer, surely, than the night wind. She lifted her head quickly.

"Snip!" said Frank's voice at her side. It trembled; and he trembled as he stood with a great hope and a great fear contending in his breast. His selfpossession was all gone. The struggle had unnerved him.

"Oh! Snap!" cried Cynthia. suddenly. And then, drooping her head, crowned with the hop bells, lower and lower-more and more humbly, till it rested on the window sill,—she said in a broken voice: "I know I am not worthy, Frank; but you must teach

me."

WAR is no obsolete or decayed tradi

tion. The millennium still perversely lingers in the caves of Apocalyptic vision, and mighty, indeed, must be that faith which accepts universal peace as an impending reality. Mars is not yet a fossil for moral palæontologists to speculate upon, but, from his old Olympian home, he even now looks down on a contest more stupendous and destructive than any before waged on this earth. The year in which Sebastopol was taken; the year in which pestilence and sword have celebrated their new entente cordiale in the Tauric Chersonese with human holocausts, unequaled in numbers and nobility; such a year is no time for denying that war is an ever possible contingency, which each independent nation is bound so far to anticipate as by all just and honorable means to avert its oncoming, and to be forearmed against its disasters.

Most sincerely do we deprecate war. The appeal to brute force in any form, as an arbiter of rights, is abstractly bad logic, and worse humanity. Yet who can doubt that such appeals will continue to be made? As a plain question of fact, what is there in the present state of the world to give even the most shadowy hope of our being forever at peace with all nations?

As wars have been our national portion, so are we still bound to regard their coming as possible. The United' States have no privilege of exemption from the casualties of national existence. With whatever fidelity we may cultivate international amity, the time may arrive when no choice is left us but war. We appear even now to owe no thanks to England's prime minister and prime newspaper for the peace which we enjoy, despite the formidable fleet lately dispatched to bathe its sides in the Gulf Stream. Canada, Cuba, Central America, Mexico, the Northwestern boundary, the Sandwich Islands, the Sound dues, our commercial policy, our resistance to search, our doctrine of naturalization, violated neutrality, and sundry other points, present contingencies which may easily provoke the dialectics of war. The Eastern Allies, whether flushed with victory or enraged by failure in their

strife with Russia, are less likely to maintain a pacific and conciliatory deportment towards us. Nor can We deny that our own nation, if not, as Lord Ellesmere declared, the most warlike power on earth, is by no means meek or gentle under insult, menace, or dictation; we are not yet millennium saints, and shall scarcely become so, while the cool audacity of frontier life continues to leaven the sobriety of our commercial and manufacturing elements. Thus, while deprecating, and because we deprecate all needless strife, we hold it to be the part, both of prudence and of duty, to foresee and provide against the disastrous effects of any breach of peace, come from what source it may. It is an imperative duty to maintain our country in such an attitude of defensive preparation, as not to invite hostility and spoliation by leaving bare, to petty invasion, the vital points of our national strength.

The situation of our country is such, that any formidable war must especially involve the maritime element. No neighbors on this continent need be taken into the account, except as auxiliaries to European powers. No transatlantic enemy can operate against us, except by effecting what, in military parlance, is called a grand descent, or by bombardment from shipboard. Petty descents may be prevented, and could not much influence the result of hostilities. A grand descent involves the embarkation of an army on shipboard, its transportation across the seas, and its debarkation on an enemy's shores, either rapidly, to effect a local object, or to conduct one or more campaigns from a seacoast base. A bombardment from shipboard usually requires only a naval armament, and no landing need be forced. Now, it is almost exclusively to the one or other of these forms of attack that we are exposed. It is true that Great Britain, or, especially, Great Britain and France combined, could attack us effectively by the Canada route, which, therefore, necessitates some special precautions along our inland frontier. But, for us, the main problem of home defense consists chiefly in our being able successfully to repel grand descents and naval bombardments.

In a war with France or England, we should be subject to far more formidable grand descents than would have been attempted at any past time. There has been no period of the world's history when transmarine expeditions could assume such gigantic proportions, or wield such formidable power, as now. The great advances in ship-building-the rapid expansion of commercial transportation, and especially the general introduction of steam-power, both for military and commercial operations, have removed much of the difficulty incident to sending expeditions across the Atlantic. Powerfully as our inferior naval force and privateering militia could operate against the transportation of supplies for such an expeditionary force, success in landing, and in putting under contribution a portion of our country, would secure subsistence for the troops thus thrown among us, and the conflict would become one for superiority in the field-that field being some devoted section of the sea-board states. England, with her small available land force, could not long sustain such a conflict; but France, with her plethora of excellent soldiers, could give us a severe trial.

One chief obstacle to grand descents is, the danger and difficulty of effecting a landing, when this is contested with any vigor. Unless some town, furnished with available wharves, can be seized, the landing of men, guns, and materials, must be effected by the aid of small boats-a process slow, laborious, inadequate, and especially precarious when no good anchorage is secured. It has always been held essential, in landing an expeditionary force, quickly to make sure of some harbor, where the fleet and transports can ride in safety. The recent increase of draft, in merchant ships, has augmented this difficulty, and much restricted the number of harbors which would suffice as bases of operations, in grand descents.

Another obstacle to great expeditions, which is of recent date, is, that by the aid of rail-roads and steam-boats, our local troops can be concentrated with great rapidity, to contest the landing, and obstruct the operations of a transatlantic invading force. Our sea-coast strategic points are chiefly those where these facilities for concentrating troops exist in full vigor. As against grand descents, this element is of great importance; but it is absolutely null for

A glance at the history of grand descents, will show how difficult they have always been found to be; and yet, that they have been a not infrequent resource. Ancient history presents some remarkable examples of such enterprises, on a scale of great magnificence, both in organization and in results. Xerxes is said to have had 4,000 vessels, when he invaded Greece. At the same time, 5,000 vessels are said to have landed 300,000 Carthaginians in Sicily, where they were defeated by Gelon. Three expeditions, under Hannibal, Himilco, and Hamilcar, ranged from 100,000 to 150,000 men, each. Pyrrhus landed 26,000 infantry and 3,000 cavalry at Tarentum. Regulus is related to have taken into the naval battle of Ecnon 340 large vessels, with 140,000 men, while the Carthaginians had fifty more vessels, and from 12,000 to 15,000 more men. Regulus then descended, with 40,000 men, on the African coast. The Romans lost 28,000 men and 100 vessels, at Drepanum. Lutatius took 300 galleys and 700 transports into the battle of the Egean Isles, and the Carthaginians there lost 120 vessels. Scipio Africanus compelled the Carthaginians to burn 500 ships. Paulus Emilius descended on Samothracia, with 25,000 men. In the third Punic war, 80,000 infantry and 4,000 cavalry were transported from Lilybæus to Utica. Mithridates had a fleet of 400 vessels-of which 300 were decked. In Cæsar's second descent on Britain, he had 600 vessels, and about 40,000 men. also transported 35,000 men into Greece, and 60,000 into Africa. Augustus transported 80,000 men and 12,000 horses, to meet Antony in Greece, who had 170 ships of war, 60 Egyptian galleys, and 22,000 infantry, beside the rowers. Germanicus took 60,000 men, on 1,000 vessels, from the Rhine to the Ems. Genseric descended from Spain, on Africa, with 80,000 Vandals. In 902, Oleg is said to have embarked 80,000 men, in 2,000 barks, on the Dnieper, proceeding thence through the Black sea, to Constantinople. William the Conqueror made his descent with from 60,000 to 70,000 men. Louis IX. made a crusading descent on Egypt, with over 1,800 vessels, and with about 80,000

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