The promise to-day looks well-it is estimated at so much; to-morrow it does not look so well-and it is estimated at less worth. Besides, all the gold and silver in the world could not pay a twentieth part of these promises. Thus the fluctuations are incessant. The betting at the Stock Exchange has reference to these fluctuations. One of the betters is interested to have a rise, another to have a fall, of value. One agrees to deliver at a future day, at a certain price; all are interested to bring about a change either one way or another. The man who desires a rise may not be scrupulous as to any means which may produce the rise; and he who wishes a fall of price will eagerly second anything which will have that effect. Consider the consequences upon the honesty and good faith of those who engage in this betting!

The Merchants' Exchange is not so devoted to absolute betting; yet its largest business partakes of that vice. One buys a cargo at sea; another agrees to deliver a cargo three months hence. One sells what he has not, for a future delivery. Another buys what he never intends to receive, deliverable to him in the future. No money is paid, nor received. The buyers and sellers are merely gambling-betting (as in the Stock Exchange) upon the rise or fall of prices! And are interestedthe one to advance the price, and the other to lower the price, of the thing dealt in!

Consider the temptation to unfair practices, the inevitable tricks, false rumours, lies, and deviations from honourable conduct involved in such transactions! Reflect upon the consequences to the honest trader, who is, in his very honesty, all the more easily tricked by the unscrupulous!

The stronghold of these various gambling Establishments, and the grand feature, in fact, of the English business life, is CREDIT-to which I will devote some space. We have nothing like it, nor had the ancient Barbarians of the West. It is, perhaps, the most distinguishing thing in the Barbarian life.

As already hinted, Credit means that a Promise shall stand for performance.

It had its rise among the Barbarian tribes, not very long since, and grew out of their incessant wars. Particularly the English, finding they could not pay the armed bands, contrived to get the gold out of the hands of the people in exchange for the Bank-paper, and then, forcing the people to still accept the paper for gold, issued paper to such an amount as Government needed! From that period the people, especially the trading classes, making directly or indirectly nearly the whole, found an advantage in resorting to the same fiction-and the Government could do no other than give to the trader, who could not pay his promise, the same relief which it took for itself for the Bank. It allowed him to pay what he could, and go on as before! No matter that he paid only one-third part-unless he had been guilty of some extreme roguery, he received a discharge from all his promises, and could begin to make new ones and go on in trade as before!

In this way, the Barbarian community is one wherein a false principle corrupts all. Boldness, recklessness, cunning, to say nothing of positive criminality, are encouraged; honour, delicacy, simple integrity, are driven into obscurity. Let him who would preserve his conscience smooth and clear, a mirror whence divinity be reflected, shun all the marts and ways of trade!

The Revenues of the Government are derived largely from the dealers in the great Marts, and it is immediately interested in the upholding of the Credit of the innumerable paper-promises of all kinds made by these and by the Betting Houses. It is, in fact, the chief supporter of the whole sham-it cannot be otherwise, for the English State rests upon it. The promises of the Government to pay gold can never be kept, and it forces an acceptance of a mere fraction, from time to time, as a suficient redemption of its promises made generations ago o! !

Other sums are derived from taxes upon the tea, sugar, and other things largely consumed by the lower castes; whilst rich silks, laces, and costly things used by the High-Castes are not taxed. But then the taxes are levied by the High-Castes!

A great revenue is collected from the excise, a tax upon the beer, drank in enormous quantities by the lowest Caste. To stimulate the consumption of this article and increase the revenue, Beer-shops are to be seen on every hand, and the drinkers everywhere. Drunkenness, wretchedness, riot, disorder-these flourish as the Beer-shops increase; these are the associates of those places! Yet in vain do good Englishmen try to remove these evil dens. What are the efforts of these few in the midst of a general debasement-a debasement which takes, without shame, a share in a traffic so vile !

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I have spoken freely of the dishonesty of the Barbarian trade and business-a dishonesty to be expected when one broadly views the whole ground of their Society. Still, natural equity and its instinct, especially when the mind is more or less cultured, will always prevent absolute dissolution-thieving and roguery will be restrained in tolerable bounds. A man of genuine integrity finds traffic no good moralist in the best of circumstances. He needs the support of the State, or he will fight an unequal battle, and be forced by dishonesty to retire. The Barbarians are not yet sufficiently enlightened to raise the measure of honesty. The Government and the people are one in this. They do not perceive that the evils under which their industry, their peaceful pursuits, and all their interests suffer, are those inseparable from a bad superstition and false principles-these extend everywhere and into everything. Misleading in Statesmanship [Lan-ta-soa], in dealings with distant peoples, in due ordering and educating the people at home-stimulating wild speculation and extended confidence (credit) at one time, only to be followed by disastrous collapse, excessive distrust, and wretchedness, soon after! Giving, in fine, to Barbarian society that aspect of restlessness, that apparent but often vicious activity, that indescribable hurry and confusion, that unhealthy excitement, unknown to an orderly and industrious people, whose order and industry are grounded upon the simple and direct rules of reason and truth.

CHAPTER VII.

SOME REMARKS UPON MARRIAGES, BIRTHS, AND BURIALS. [HI-DY].

In our Flowery Kingdom when a man marries he pays to the parents or relatives; but with the Barbarians the woman pays to the man. Women are such costly burdens that men demand some compensation for undertaking to keep them; and the relatives of women are glad to get them off their hands at any price.

There are in England four great Castes, which contain the whole population. The habits of the Castes differ, though you will observe certain characteristic features common to all. In order to understand more clearly the remarks which follow, it will be convenient to speak of the division of Castes.

The first-High-Caste. Those who do nothing useful and pass their time in mere self-indulgence.

The second-High-second Caste. Those who do but very little, and come as nearly as possible to the selfish existence of the first.

The third-High-low. Those who are obliged to work more or less, but are ever longing to attain to theidle s elfishness of those above them.

The fourth-Lowest Caste (Villeins). Labourers, not long since serfs, and still so in effect.