BOOKS.

PEEL'S SECOND VOLUME OF POLITICAL MEMOIRS.* As we last week intimated after a cursory examination of this volume, those who expect many political revelations in its pages as regards King William's dismissal of the Melbourne Ministry in 1834, or the repeal of the Corn-laws in 1846, will not find them. More complete information is given as to reasons and motives from the actors themselves, and the respective incidents are illustrated by original materials. There is nothing to greatly modify the opinion which has been formed as to the conduct of Sir Robert Peel in taking office in 1834, and the skilful manner in which he played out his very difficult game ; or the repeal of the Corn-laws in 1846,—that is, as soon as the fury of the conflict was over' and men were able to trace the consequences of that repeal, not only economically but politically and socially. Indeed, there is little of what may be called formal defence on the part of Sir Robert ; he prefers to "call his witnesses" in the shape of documentaiT facts. When we consider the elaborate and rounded style of his rhetoric in the House of Commons, it is curious to observe the brief calm statements of the volume, only varied by reasoning, and now and then by an under-current of deep feeling, welling out as in this apology for presenting the Corn-law documents at the length he does.

" They are, however, the materials from which the future historian will extract that which is worthy of permanent record, and from which, with the aid of other contemporary evidence, he will pronounce his judgment on the motives and conduct of public men. Even if the details entered into be more copious than is required for such purposes, some allowance will be made for the natural anxiety of one who has been the object of much bitter reproach and very persevering hostility, to interpose the only safeguard which it is in his power to interpose against lasting injury from unjust accusation.

"It is notperhaps too much to ask for a dispassionate consideration of the information and opinions in regard to the threatening of a great misfortune which were presented to the Ministers whose imperative duty it was to avert if possible the calamity of famine. It is not too much to ask that due weight may be given to that testimony to the real feelings, impressions, and intentions of those Ministers, which will be supplied by the daily communications that passed between them under circumstances that banish all reserve—the approach of an indefinite and portentous misfortune, and the deep sense of a common responsibility."

But if there is no information of a new kind in the volume, the Memoirs are very valuable to the political and historical student, very curious to an observer of the times. The reader is presented with the practical manner of working a government on the critical occasions of its formation, its dissolution its reconstruction, and the consideration and settlement of the most important and difficult measures. It seems to have been the practice of Sir Robert Peel to do a good dealing by writing. When he souqht to strengthen his short-lived Ministry of 1834, he applied (as is well known) to Lord Stanley (now Earl of Derby) and Sir James Graham. The "Rupert of debate" answered the letter in a long, laboured, respectful, but rather bitter diatribe, portions of which may now be quoted against him. The more wily Baronet came up to town from Netherby, out of "personal esteem" for Sir Robert, and "respect" for the communication authorized by the King ; so that no litera scripta remains, taking a tart review of Sir Robert's conduct in Opposition, or measuredly indignant remarks on coalitions. It was Peel's practice to bring important measures before the Cabinet by a written memorandum taking an exhaustive review of the subject. This memorandum he read, and then a copy was sent to each Minister, who, if the case required it, gave his opinion in writing. In the matter of resignation after the triumph of Corn-law repeal,—for which resignation Sir Robert had evidently long prepared,—he did not immediately read his memorandum, but first sent it to the Duke of Welington ; who gave a military reply, to the effect that he thought the position could be held some time longer, and that they might take the chance of reinforcements coming up. When Peel almost warmly refuted his ideas, the old. soldier rather evacuated the question than capitulated. " • London, June 23, 1846.

" ' My dear Peel--I have received your letter of this day's date ; and I request that you will dispose of that which I wrote to you on Sunday night, and sent to you yesterday, as you may think proper. " I quite concur with you in thinking that the temper in both Houses of Parliament is as bad and as unfavourable to the existing Administration as it is possible. I have never known it so bad as last night ; but I hope that we shall on Thursday and Friday have a majority on the third reading of each of the Corn Bill and Customs Bills.

Ever yours, &c. 'WELLINGTON:

"The memorandum, together with the Duke's first letter, was communicated by me to the other members of the Government; and 'I do not recollect that there was the slightest difference of opinion as to the course which it would be our duty to pursue in the event of our failure to carry the Irish

This method of bringing matters to the test of the pen, not only secured a more thorough examination from each individual Minister by compelling him to consider the question ; it probably i saved time n council, by _preventing much wordy and irrelevant remark. It certainly rendered the responsibility of the Cabinet more real, for there was a man's opinion under his own hand. It

is as certainly curious for the p of posthumous publication, since in reading the opinions of Ministerstheir respective mental and personal characters are pretty plainly developed.

• Jlfeinoirs of the Right Honourable Bit Robert Peel, Bart., M.P., fe. Published by the Trustees of his Papers, Lord Mahon (now Earl Stanhope) and the Eight lion. Edward Cardwell, M.P. Part 11.—The New Government; 11334-'5. Part 111. lisped of the Corn-Laws; 1845-`6. Published by Murray. Tried by this test, the superiority of Peel as a Minister is conspicuous, not only for the breadth and largeness of his views, but for the manner in which he brushed aside all roundabout means of proceeding, and his thorough appreciation of the political and moral feeling of Parliament and the country, beyond the abstract or practical reasons in favour of a measure. In this latter point he is far superior to the Duke of Wellington. The Duke exhibits great singleness of aim and purpose. This is especially shown in 1834 during Peel's absence in Italy. Sir Robert Peel was to be Prime Minister, unfettered ; everything gives way to that idea, and all the Duke's indispensable appointments are not only tem rary, but must be made obviously so. Even the Lords of the treasury were to be only warming-pans. lie writes to Peel" I mean to put in Becket, Plants, and three Peers so as to leave no doubt of the temporary nature of the arrangement." Able, however, as he was as an adviser and a civil administrator, the opinion seems just that the Duke was unfit for the post of a constitutional Minister. He looked at matters too much with the military and legal eye; • considering whether a thing could be done, and not the moral consequences that would attend or follow it. He also displays rather a hankering to get in and to keep in, with a disposition, strange to say, to see things as he wished them to be, and to listen to persons who represented matters as he would have them. These are his reports of public feeling on the dismissal of the first Melbourne Ministry, in 1834.

"Everything is quiet. The change appears to five general satisfaction. The King is in high spirits. * * "Attempts have been made to create excitement in London and in different parts of the country, but they have failed entirely. The country was never more tranquil. The Funds are rising gradually, and everything appears to go on as usual.

"Addresses are coming in from different parts of the country to thank the King for dismissing Ins Ministers and from all thrill hear I should not

be surprised if these should be adopted universally. • • "The usual attempts are making to excite a feeling against what exists and what is likely to occur, but without much success. The Common Council, however, have agreed to present an address, which the King will receive upon the throne this week, if the Duke of Gloucester, who is very ill indeed should not die; and there are some addresses, principally from Scotland:from places of inferior importance. "You will see in the newspapers an admirable letter from Sergeant Spankie to his constituents. I think that the sentiments in this letter are What prevail generally in the country." [But they lost the Sergeant his seat for Finsbury.] Peel's estimate of public opinion and political feeling was too keen to entertain the Duke's sanguine view of affairs, or to allow of that "alacrity ,of spirit or cheer of mind" which animated the "Great Captain. These are the Minister's reflections, on his return to England. "I greatly doubted, indeed, the policy of breaking up the Government of Lord Melbourne at that time. I entertained little hope that the Ministry about to replace it would be a stable one—would command such a majority in the House of Commons as would enable it to transact the public business. I was not altogether satisfied by the accounts I first received with the sufficiency of the reason for the dissolution of the late Government—namely, the removal of Lord Althorp to the Lords, and the objections of the King to Lord John Russell as Lord Althorp's successor in the lead of the House of Commons.

"If change under the then existing circumstances were desirable at all, it appeared to me more likely to lead to a satisfactory and permanent result if it should take place in consequence of dimensions among members of Lord Melbourne's Government, or quarrels between the Government and its supporters or in short from any cause rather than the direct intervention of the King, except of course in the case of some event manifestly justifying such intervention, and insuring for the act of the Sovereign very general support and approbation throughout the country."

Graham ranks next to Peel in distinctness of view and business capacity ; but he is deficient in the nice perception of public opinion, and of the almost moral consequences attendant upon speech or action, that distinguished his chief.

The story of the formation of the Ministry of 1834, and the efforts Sir Robert Peel made, chiefly through the Bishops, to originate an ecclesiastical reform, is told fully, but it does not occupy the space devoted to the abolition of the Corn-laws. The narrative of the circumstances which led to the inception of this measure, the way in which the necessity gradually developed itself, the differences its first proposal in a modified form produced in the Cabinet, and led to the Ministry's resignation, extends, as Sir Robert anticipated, to an almost fatiguing length, though it was necessary, no doubt, with the objects he had in view. Some of the leading documents connected with the abortive attempts of Lord John Russell to form a Ministry have appeared already, through the " explanations " that took place in Parliament. The correspondence that ensued with Peel's doubting colleagues, in consequence of his determination to enable the Queen to meet Parliament and the country, if he stood alone, is curious as displaying the different characters of men, and the various reasons which induced them to join in supporting what they had formerly shrunk from. A similar remark applies, and for a similar reason, to the secret but official opinions on meeting a difficulty that was apprehended in the Committee of the Lords on the Corn-law Repeal Bill. In the Committee proxies were of no avail, and the question was, should they be used on bringing up the report, if the Committee, as was expected, should mutilate the bill. There are also some interesting private letters, as well as the communications already alluded to respecting the final resignation.

After the appearance of Lord John Russell's famous Edinburgh letter of the 22d November upon the Corn-laws, many people thought that it stimulated Peel to decide on their abolition. More believed that Lord John suspected what was taking place, and thought to make political capital on easy terms by forestalling

his opponent, in words. As a matter of fact, Peel and Graham had begnn to institute inquiries into the potato failure as early as the beb olnning of August. On the 13th October, Peel and Gralam, in -0 letters which crossed each other, both hinted at the probable necessity which might arise for considering the Corn-laws. On the 1st November, Peel read to the Cabinet a memorandum which finally-led to the resignation. It was therefore impossible that Lord John's letter could have influenced Peel. Indeed, the whole course of the proceedings after Peel's resignation brings out forcibly a remarkable feature of Lord John Russell's character, namely., his recklessness of the consequences of what he writes or says. If anything practical—any substantial result—was to follow his Edinburgh epistle (beyond that of increasing the difficulties of a Ministry with a national famine on their hands,) the effect must have been his own accession to office. Yet as soon as the practical result was presented, he first shrunk from it, and then fairly turned tail. Lord John endeavouring to commit Sir Robert to an indiscriminate support of his embryo bill, or Lord John and the Marquis of Lansdowne going down to Windsor to inquire whether Lord Stanley or some other Protectionist would not take office [to be badgered, or if successful to uphold the Corn-laws ?] contrast very unfavourably with Peel, before William or Queen Victoria, resolving at once to undertake the Premiership, without pause or consultation with any one.

It has often been said by the Protectionist or Tory party, especially since the results of Peel's policy have been staringly apparent, that he was not so much faulty in repealing the Cornlaws, and the Catholic Disabilities, as in the secret and arbitrary way he set about it. The argument is not only plausible but weighty, since the mode touched the self-esteem of his followers, and made them appear as a set of nobodies or slaves. There is a defence of this conduct in the volume before us cogent, and in a

practical view convincing. More than a year us, their retirement from office, Lord Aberdeen sent Sir Robert a letter from a

Lord which raised this question. In returning the letter to Lord Aberdeen, Peel made the following reply ; which, though limited to the Corn-laws, is equally applicable to the Catholic question.

" totally differ from Lord — as to the mode of proceeding in 1845 in reference to the Corn-laws. In December 1845, I thought their repeal indispensable to the public welfare, and to the real interests and security of the Protectionists themselves. Being of that opinion, every consideration became subordinate to the carrying of repeal. I was determined to carry it, for failure after proposing it would have involved this country in most serious evils.

"It was impossible to reconcile the repeal of the Corn-laws by me with the keeping together of the Conservative party ; and I had no hesitation in sacrificing the subordinate object, and with it my own political interests. It is a very difficult matter under any circumstances to convey information to a political party as to the intention of a Minister in regard to questions which are intimately connected with great commercial speculations and great pecuniary gains and losses ; it is ten times more difficult to make such a communication to a selected few. Times are changed since a Prime Minister, after ascertaining the sentiments of the Marquis of Hertford and the Duke of Rutland and the Earl of Lonsdale, could form a pretty good guess of the inclinations and probable conduct of a whole party. I will venture to say that an exclusive confidential communication to the fourteen or fifteen to whom Lord — refers would have insured very general dissent. "This would have been true of all questions and of all times since 1833. "But in the particular case, when was this communication to have been made by me ?

" Was it to have been made during that interval after the 1st of November 1845, when you and two other members of the Cabinet were the only ones who agreed with me ? There is not one of Lord —'s fourteen or fifteen who would not have sided with Lord Stanley and the dissentients. "There is not time for a Minister to hold separate communications with Lord This and Mr. That, and go through the whole series of facts and argu ments, the combination, the general result of which has led him to form a settled but still debateable conclusion. Nothing but that full and ample detail which can be made once for all in Parliament will do justice to the ease and gain the assent of reluctant supporters. I am perfectly satisfied, that if at any time between the 1st of November and the day on which (having resumed the Government, on which neither Lord John Russell nor Lord Stanley would venture) I announced in the House of Commons the intended repeal of the Corn-laws, I had tried to gain acquiescence either by belabouring individuals separately, or by summomng the party generally, I should have received scarcely one promise of support. I should have had on the part of the most moderate a formal protest against the course I intended to pursue ; to the most violent I should have given facilities for or

ganized opposition ; I should have appeared to be flying in the face of a whole party, and contumaciously disregarding their opinion and advice after I had professed to consult them ; but (what is of infinitely more importance) I should have failed in carrying the repeal of the Corn-laws. "Now I was resolved not to fail. I did not fail; and if I had to fight the battle over again I would fight it in the same way. Lord —'s way was certain of defeat."

• We have alluded to Lord Stanley's long review, in the guise of a friendly letter, of Peel and the Duke in Opposition, with a little panegyric on himself. But well did Johnson say-that "Nemesis is always on the watch." Here after three-and-twenty years' burial, quite apropos, is the dictum of the Earl of Derby on Coalitions.

" The reputation of those who take a part in public affair' is a matter of national importance; and confidence in public men has been more shaken by coalitions than by all the other acts of personal misconduct taken together. This consideration opplies with peculiar force to the offer which you have now made to me. If any beneficial moral effect were produced by my separation from Lord Grey and my former colleagues, and my abandonment of office for the sake of conscience and principle, that effect would be wholly destroyed by my speedy return to office with their political opponents; the motives of my former conduct would be suspected, whereas now they cannot be impugned; and any reasons which might be urged in vindication of the present junction would be powerless us opposed to the public sentiment whwh revolts against all political coalitions, especially when they ar made the immediate stepping-stmw to power." BORTHWICIOS THREE YEARS IN CALIFORNIA.* LENGTH of time, and extent of exploration, with the consequent variety of observation they produce, are the features which mainly distinguish this volume from the several other books on California. With the exception of young Marrynt, the author seems to have had a better education and occupied a better position in life, or at least to have made better use of hfs opportunities, than the adventurers who have hitherto narrated their experiences in California. Mr. Borthwiek does not neglect the description of mere externals, or omit an account of his risks and rough living ; but he collects facts which throw light on the diversities of national character, and his remarks extend to the social peculiarities of California, as well as to the causes which produced and modify them. Mr. Olmsted, in his book on Texas, drew striking contrasts between the domestic ménage of the Americans and Germans, exhibiting the varieties, comforts, and pleasures of the Teuton life, with the sordid sameness of the American; ascribing the difference to slavery. We remarked at the time that race perhaps had something to do with it: • the Anglo-Saxon Englishman in Australia is equally rough, with his eternal tea, damper, and mutton-chops. Mr. Borthwick in Call,forum draws a somewhat similar contrast between the French and_ Anglo-Saxon races ; but he sees that the differences go deeper ABA further than to the merely social appearances.

"Of all the men of different nations in the mines, the French were most decidedly those who, judging from their domestic life, appeared to be most at home. Not that they were a bit better than others able to stand the hard work and exposure and privations, but about all their huts and cabin's, however roughly constructed they might be, there was something in the minor details which bespoke more permanency than was suggested by the generality of the rude abodes of the miners. It is very certain that, without really. expending more time or labour, or even taking more trouble than other.men about their domestic arrangements, they did 'fix things up' wit,h. such a degree of taste, and with so much method about everything' as to give the idea that their life of toil was mitigated by more than a usualshure

of ease and comfort. • • •

" Whatever the specialties and accomplishments of individuals or of classes' the French as a nation were excelled by no other in the practice of the art of making themselves personally comfortable. They generally located themselves in considerable numbers, forming. small communities of their own and always appeared to be jolly and enjoying themselves. They worked lard enough while they were at it, but in their intervals of leisure they gave themselves up to what seemed at least to be a mdfe unqualified enjoyment of the pleasures of the moment than other miners, who nevdr entirely laid aside the earnest and careworn look of the restless gold-hunter. "This enviable faculty, which the Frenchmen appeared to possess in such a high degree, of bringing somewhat of the comforts of civilized life along with them, was no doubt a great advantage ; but whether it operated favourably or otherwise towards their general success as miners, IS not so certain. One would naturally suppose that the more thoroughly a man rested from mental or bodily labour the more able would he be for renewed exertions ; but at the same time, a man whose mind is entirely engrossed and preoccupied with one idea is likely to attain his end before the man who only devotes himself to the pursuit of that object at stated intervals.

"However that may be, there is no question that, as miners, the French were far excelled by the Americans and by the English .; for they are inseparably mixed up together. There are thoroughgoing Americans who only a year or two ago were her Majesty's most faithful subjects, and who still in their hearts cherish the recollections. The Frenchmen, perhaps, possessed industry and energy enough, if they had had a more practical genius to direct it ; but in proportion to their numbers they did not bear a sufficiently conspicuous part either in mining operations or in those branches of industry which have for their object the converting of the natural advantages of a country to the service of man. The direction of their energies was more towards the supplying of those wants which presuppose the existence of a sufficiently wealthy and luxurious class of consumers than towards

seizing on such resources of the country as offered them the means of enriching cliiing themselves in a manner less iinmediately dependent on their neighbours.

"Even as miners, they for the most part congregated round large camps, and were never engaged in the same daring undertakings as the Americans —such as lifting half a mile of a large river from its bed, or trenching for miles the sides of steep mountains, and building lofty viaducts supported on scaffolding, which from its height looked like a spider's web ; while the only pursuits they engaged in, except mining, were the keeping of restaultants, estaminets, cafis chantants, billiard-rooms, and such places, ministering more to the pleasures than to the necessities of man, and not in any way adding to the wealth of the country by rendering its resources more available.

"Comparing the men of different nations, the pursuits they were engaged in and the ends they had accomplished, one could not help being impressed with the idea that if the mines had been peopled entirely by Frenchmen— if all the productive resources of the country had been in their hands—it would yet have been many years before they would have raised California to the rank and position of wealth and importance which she now holds.

"And it is quite fair to draw a general conclusion regarding them, based upon such evidences of their capabilities as they afforded in California ; far

not only did they form a very considerable proportion of the population, but, as among people of other nations, there were also among them men of all classes."

Mr. Borthwick was among the early arrivals in the country, when the now brick-and-stone-built Francisco was for the most part a collection of wood and canvass sheltering-places, and society had not settled clown into something like order. The passage of the Isthmus from Chagres to Panama was in a worse than primitive state, owing to the numbers of the gold-seekers; for the transport and accommodation that might roughly serve for the business of Spanish creoles and mixed breeds broke down before the troops of eager adventurers of all nations who in 1851 sailed, like Mr. Borthwiek, from an American port for Chagres, and got to Panama and thence to Francisco as they could. The rowing or poling by day, the sleeping by night in wet clothes on hard. 'boards or wet ground, with short allowance of very indifferent food, was not a bad apprenticeship for the crowded and ill-found

Vessels that bore the treasure-hunters from Panama to Francisco, or even for the hardships of the Diggings. These were so great, from wet, variable weather, hard work, hard and fast living, and inevitable exposure, that the wonder is, not that many died, but that any survived. Yet amid all these struggles and privations for the one sole object of gold, there was greater safety for life and property in the " mines " than there was at Francisco, and much more Ithully feeling than was displayed in the outward journey, at Panama, or at the capital of California itself. The comparative security Mr. Borthwick ascribes to the prompt and certain justice of Lynch law ; trial and execution following detection with a quickness that brought the idea of punishment vividly home to evil-doers, while there was no possibility of escape by quirks or forms. The good-nature might spring from lull pockets or the hopes of fortune, but in part from the expansion of ideas which a trip to California involved, and the way in which the natural man was rubbed down and polished up by collision with strangers of various nations, and by having to give way to others. The author is speaking of the Missourians, who came to California across the Prairies.

"In their movements the men were slow and awkward, and in the towns especially they betrayed a childish astonishment at the strange sights occasioned by the presence of the divers nations of the earth. The fact is, that till they came to California many of them had never in their lives before -seen two houses together, and in any little village in the mines they witnessed more of the wonders of civilization than ever they had dreamed of.

"In some respects, perhaps, the mines of California were as wild a place as any part of the Western States of America ; but they were peopled by a community of men of all classes, and from different countries, who, though living in a rough back-woods style, had nevertheless all the ideas and amenities of civilized life ; while the Miasourians, having come direct across the plains from their homes in the back-woods, had received no preparatory edution to enable them to show off to advantage in such company.

"And in this they laboured under a great disadvantage as compared with the lower classes of people of every country who came to San Francisco by way of Panama or Cape Horn. The men from the interior of the States learned something even on their journey to New York or New Orleans, having their eyes partially opened during the few days they spent in either of those cities en route; and on the passage to San Francisco they naturally received a certain degree of polish from being violently shaken up with a crowd of men of different habits and ideas from their own. They had to give way in many things to men whose motives of action were perhaps to them incomprehensible, while of course they gained a few new ideas from being brought into close contact with such sorts of men as they had hitherto only seen at a distance, or very likely had never heard of. A little experience of San Francisco did them no harm, and by the time they reached the mines they had become very superior men to the raw bumpkins they were before leaving their homes.

"It may seem strange, but it is undoubtedly true, that the majority of men in whom such a change was most desirable became in California more humanized, and acquired a certain amount of urbanity ; in fact, they came from civilized countries in the rough state, and in California got licked into shape and polished.

"I had subsequently, while residing on the Isthmus of Nicaragua, constant opportunities of witnessing the truth of this, in contrasting the outward-bound emigrants with the same class of men returning to the States after having received a California education. Every fortnight two crowds of passengers rushed across the Isthmus, one from New York, the other from San Francisco. The great majority in both cases were men of the lower ranks of life, and it is of course to them alone that my remarks apply. Those coming from New York—who were mostly Americans and Irish— seemed to think that each man could do just as he pleased, without regard to the comfort of his neighbours. They showed no accommodating spirit, but grumbled at everything, and were rude and surly in their manners ; they were very raw and stupid, and had no genius for doing anything for themselves or each other to assist their progress, bat perversely delighted in acting in opposition to the regulations and arrangements made for them by the Transit Company. The same men, however, on their return from California were perfect gentlemen in comparison. They were orderly in their behaviour; though rough they were not rude, and showed great consideration for others, submitting cheerfully to any personal inconvenience necessary for the common good, and showing by their conduct that they had acquired some notion of their duties to balance their very enlarged idea of their rights which they had formerly entertained."

Like the rest of the visitors to California, Mr. Borthwick's object was gold-digging ; but he got tired of it after a time, especially as he found he could make money by following his own profession of a painter. Vanity was present in the Diggings ; even the roughest lilted to have an improved "counterfeit presentment" of himself; perhaps a better feeling than vanity prompted many, for they wished to send their likeness to some one at home. The exercise of the profession of travelling portrait-painter may have given a value to Mr. Borthwick's book by leading him to perambulate the Diggings more thoroughly than he might have done even as a miner, and brought him acquainted with the people under more favourable circumstances than as a mere competitor. In the course of his experience, though he says it was not great, he "invariably found that men of a lower class wanted to be shown in the ordinary costume of the nineteenth century—that is to say, in a coat, waistcoat, white shirt, and neckcloth; while gentlemen miners were anxious to appear in character, in the most ragged style of California dress."

"Where the carcass is there will the vultures be gathered together." There was no lack of persons to ease the miners of their gains. Gambling-booths were present in every place that reached the character of a village ; a table was extemporized in the poorest " hotel." A company of players travelled through the district, as well as a band of singers. There was a grisly bear who fought bulls, and a company of Mexican bull-fighters. According to Mr. Borthwick, they exerted more skill and less cruelty than the Spanish artists. The men on horseback really charged the bull, and did not sacrifice their steeds. There was also a novelty introduced.

"The next thing in the programme was riding the bull, and this was the Met amusing scene of all. One of the horsemen lames him over the horns, and the other, securing Inn. in his lasso by the hind-leg, trips him up and throws him -without the least difficulty. By keeping the lassoes taut, he is quite helpless. He is then girthed with a rope, and one of the performers, holding on by this, gets astride of the prostrate bull in such a way AS to secure his seat, when the animal rises. The lassoes are then cast off, when the bull immediately gets up, and, furious at finding a man on his back, plunges and kicks most desperately, jumping from side to aide, and jerking himself violently in every way, as he vainly endeavours to bring his horns round so as to reach his rider. I never saw such horsemanship, if horsemanship it could be called, nor did I ever see a horse go through such contortions or make such spasmodic bounds and leaps ; but the fellow never lost his seat—he stuck to the bull as firm as a rock, though thrown about 80 violently that it seemed enough to jerk the head off his body. Dining this singular exhibition the spectators cheered and shouted most uproariously, and the bull was maddened to greater fury than ever by the footmen shaking their flags in his face and putting more square on his neck. It seemed to be the grand climax ; they had exhausted O. means to infuriate the bull to the very utmost, and they were now braving him more audaciously than ever. Had any of them made a slip of the foot or misjudged his distance but a hairbreadth, there would have been a speedy end of him ; but, fortunately, no such mishap occurred, for the blind rage of the bull was impotent against their coolness and precision.

"When the man riding the bull thought he had enough of it, he took an ortunity when the bull came near the outside of the arena, and hopped o his back on to the top of the barrier. A door was then opened, and the bull was allowed to depart in peace."