and wherever my eyes wandered there appeared through the darkness a picturesque mixture of light, colours, and flags. In a short time the pale blue group, as well as the rocks, the boats in the river, and even the countenances of the people that stood dripping by my side, assumed a beautiful red hue, then they became bright green, and, when the artificial lights which gradually and successively had caused these striking changes expired, the blue bull's-eye which, although it had been for the moment overpowered, had continued unceasingly shining upon its object, recovering its power, shed its pale lovely cerulean influence as before.

As, perfectly unconscious of the rain, I was enjoying the scientific changes I have described, I heard, at a considerable distance, a very slight insignificant explosion, followed instantly by a general murmur of applause. Some said, Oh! some, Ah! some, Ai! in short, the groan of delight from the whole assembled multitude was apparently composed of the joint utterance by innumerable voices of the vowels a, e, i, o, u, formed into one long drawling word. On looking in the direction in which everybody seemed to look and groan, I saw, high up in the darkness, a dense mass of falling stars of every possible colour, announcing the commencement of the fireworks at the Champs de Mars, at the Barrière du Trône, on the Seine, and in various other localities. Occasionally the success of these feux d'artifice was only announced to us by a faint and distant cheer; but every five or ten minutes they rose and burst at a great height, with a variety and splendour which appeared to afford everywhere intense delight.

During the time I remained leaning against the railings overlooking the Seine, only about two rows of people behind me (all of whom were under umbrellas) could manage to get an occasional glimpse of the cascades, illuminations, &c., to the remainder almost invisible; and yet at no moment did I receive the slightest pressure, nor did I hear a single complaint or even observation respecting the innumerable little streams of water which from one person's umbrella were running into his neighbour's neck, and vice versâ.

At ten o'clock at night I abandoned my position to go to my lodgings. In returning along the Pont de la Concorde, I came into a tide of people, all, like myself, homeward-bound, all in good humour, all happy. There was no pressing, no

confusion. Most of the women had nothing on their heads but white caps; many were carrying in their arms dripping children. As the merry mass moved along, the rain, which for the last hour had been steadily increasing, was to be seen pattering upwards from the asphalte pavement of the Place de la Concorde. On reaching the covered colonnade of the Rue de Rivoli, it was, of course-especially for ladies whose silk cloaks and backs were dripping wet-a haven of considerable importance, yet I particularly observed no one tried to hurry into it before the person that preceded him, or even to enter it until he or she could do so without pressing upon any one else. On the whole, as I entered the welcome door of my home, I felt very deeply that, instead of regretting the weather they had experienced, there was nothing in the fête I had just witnessed that conferred half so much real honour on the Republic as the urbanity, politeness, and social virtues which the French citizens, under circumstances of untoward disappointment, had just evinced in the celebration of its anniversary; and yet, although liberty, fraternity, and equality had really been the happy characteristics of the day, it is an anomalous fact that, while every citizen of Paris was enjoying the festival of his independence from the power of monarchy, the garrison of Paris, consisting of an army of 60,000 soldiers were-excepting the guards I have mentioned, and occasionally a dragoon trotting through the streets with a despatch-confined to their barracks the whole of the day, to prevent the overthrow, by "the people," of the very republican system, the establishment of which was apparently producing among them so much happiness and joy!

The expenses of the fête, indirectly as well as directly, must have been enormous; and yet, strange to say, although I had been awakened in the morning by the gratulatory roar of the cannon of the Invalides, and although my ears had been assailed by appeals of applause and of noises of approbation of every possible description, I did not, from morning to night, once hear the voice-even of a child-exclaim" VIVE LA RÉPUBLIQUE !"

As, on reaching my room, I was pretty well tired out, I soon made preparations for going to bed; and yet, before doing so, I could not help reflecting with pride and pleasure on a statement still lying on my table, in Galignani's newspaper,

announcing the respect which in England, on that day week, Prince Albert and the Royal Commission had publicly paid to the sabbath, by suspending on it all work at the Crystal Palace, although by doing so their pledge to the whole family of mankind to open it on the 1st of May was in danger of being broken.

The following little "dulce-domum" paragraph, contrasted with the scenes I had just witnessed, pleasingly corroborated the same important moral:

From the 'Times' of Monday. "Yesterday the Duke of Wellington attended the early service and received the sacrament in the Chapel Royal, St. James's."

THE OCULIST.

BEFORE I left England I had been strongly recommended to ascertain in London who was the best oculist in the French metropolis; I, however, took especial care to do no such thing, but, on the second day after my arrival in Paris, called Mr. Swann, an English chemist of very high character, and, after explaining to him my anxiety on the subject, I put the important question to him.

upon

"Sir," he replied, "I will give you the name and address not only of the best oculist in Paris, but, I believe, in Europe!" he added that the proper way of consulting him was to go to his house, where he received his patients every day except Saturday till two o'clock; and as he further advised me to go early, on the next morning I left my lodgings at a quarter before seven, and crossing the Place de Vendôme (the sentinel at the foot of Napoleon's column, pacing backwards and forwards, had in a great-coat-which, I believe, belonged to the sentry-box-a large hole

"If there's a hole in a' yere coats,

I rede ye tent it:

A chiel's amang ye takin' notes,
An faith he'll prent it ")

afterwards the Boulevart des Italiens, and then entering the

Rue de la Chaussée d'Antin, I proceeded along it until I saw over a handsome porte-cochère the No. 50.

I asked the concierge if Dr. Sichel lived there?
"Au premier, Monsieur,"* she replied.

So up stairs I mounted, and on the first landing place, ringing at the bell, the door was opened by a lad dressed in a sort of half uniform half livery, who showed me into two drawing-rooms, handsomely carpeted, the walls of which were surrounded by chairs, on which I saw, seated in silence, and in various attitudes, eight or ten persons. The boy told me in French "to give myself the trouble to sit down." On my doing so, he went to his little desk, opened a little drawer, and, putting his hand into it, he brought, and, without the utterance of a word, delivered to me, a little bit of wood about an inch and a half square, on which was inscribed the figure 11.

"What is this?" said I to him in French.

"Monsieur" he replied, "c'est votre numéro "† and then, turning on his heels and walking across the carpet, he seated himself at his desk with his face towards the wall.

In glancing at those who at the early hour I have named had come before me, I saw in a chair opposite me an officer in blue uniform and red collar, wearing the cross of the legion of honour; beside him sat a lady in a white bonnet, within which was an exceedingly pretty face, a quantity of black hair parted on the forehead, and in the place of whiskers two slight wreaths of light green flowers. Next to her

sat a poor-looking paysanne in a milk-white cap, with frills beautifully plaited, and with a black shawl neatly thrown over her shoulders, confined across the breast by one long pin stuck in diagonally. Of the party assembled, some without very much expression of countenance were leaning their chins on umbrellas, others sat ruminating with their arms stiffly extended, their hands one over another resting on a stick. One poor lady, evidently suffering great pain, kept her white pocket-handkerchief on her eyes. Next to her sat a powerful-looking man in blouse.

I was examining my little wooden ticket, and was reflecting on the extraordinary disposition for order and system

*On the first floor, Sir.

Sir, it is your number!

which, in spite of her interminable political disorders, and repeated annihilation of every system of government, pervades France, when the bell rang, and the boy, as suddenly as if the wire had pulled him too, jumped up, and then opening the door, ushered in two ladies, to the eldest of whom he gave a wooden ticket, which she received with silence, and then with her young friend sat down almost immediately opposite to

me.

No. 11's eyes immediately looked at No. 12's eyes sympathetically to discover, if possible, what was the matter with them, at which the eyes of No. 12's friend sparkled and glistened, as much as to say, "You are mistaken, Sir, if you think we are either sick or sorry!"

The bell every now and then intermittently gave another ring, until in about a quarter of an hour the room was nearly full of eyes, some evidently suffering so severely that with habitual caution I began to reflect whether, in my visit I might not possibly catch more than I had come to have cured.

For a considerable time we all sat in mute silence, and indeed, in our respective attitudes almost motionless; save that every now and then a gentleman, and sometimes a lady, would arise, slowly walk diagonally across the carpet to a corner close to the window, press with his or her hand the top of a little mahogany machine, that looked like an umbrellastand, look down into it, and then very slowly, at a sort of funeral pace, walk back.

All this I bore with great fortitude for some time; at last, overpowered by curiosity, I arose, walked slowly and diagonally across the carpet, pushed the thing in the corner exactly as I had seen everybody else push it, looked just as they did, downwards, where, close to the floor, I beheld open, in obedience to the push I had given from the top, the lid of a little spitting-box, from which I very slowly, and without attracting the smallest observation, walked back to my chair.

The silence continued for a long time; at last with great joy, I first heard and then saw the massive door of admission to Dr. S. open, and I was expecting to see No. 1 rise from her chair, when a sort of clerk, who hardly a minute before had walked across the carpet into the room beyond the said solid door, re-appeared, carrying through the two waitingrooms on his right arm a dark-coloured coat and waistcoat.