sum that makes him think before he sells bad milk again.

Even on Sunday a tricky dealer no longer has a chance to work off his poor milk. Ever since an experimental raid one Sunday morning, when out of several hundred samples collected the tests showed that almost half of them had been adulterated, occasional Sunday raids have become part of the established order of things.

Outside of the city, the New York farms supplying milk have been inspected as they never were before. Diseased cattle have been condemned, and farm-yards and barns made sanitary. With the health of the city at stake, Dr. Lederle's policy has been "no quarter" to high or low, as certain owners of notoriously bad milk-farms in Queens County discovered to their sorrow. But when the farms were declared a menace to the public health, and the farmers deprived of their milk-supply by having the cows driven to the pound, where they were boarded at a cost, to the owner, of three dollars a day each, they carried out the conditions imposed by the Board of Health with a quickness and thoroughness that demonstrated the complete success of the measure.

Following up the important work begun by Dr. Belcher, the department, by using the bacteria as detectives, has been able to wage war against the careless farmer, out of the State as well as in it, with a letter to this effect:

We have tested your milk, and it runs a million bacteria to a half-teaspoonful. That means either that your cows, yards, and barns

are not clean, or that you are not cooling your milk. Unless you correct what is wrong, we shall have to exclude your milk from the city.

A circular accompanies the letter, explaining that bacteria are not only dangerous, but unprofitable, because they cause the milk to sour, and telling how to prevent them.

By the combined efforts of the different managers of the milk campaign, the standard of New York's milk-supply has been raised materially. The men who have worked untiringly for this result deserve the city's heartiest vote of thanks. But they need the coöperation of the public.

Efficient as the Board of Health has

proved itself within the limits of its authority, the vastness of New York's milksupply and the wide territory covered by its milk-farms make anything but a general supervision impossible without an army of inspectors. The city cannot require by a law which affects all its citi

zens the desirable standard which would put the price of milk beyond the reach of its poorest citizens.

The future of the city's milk-supply depends upon the people. The Milk Commission has given New York "certified" milk at the necessary "certified" prices, and, what no other city has had before, safe "inspected" milk for very little more than the ordinary prices. This is the great achievement of the milk campaign. But, if the reform is to go further, the people must take the trouble to demand and get the pure milk which is within their reach.

TOLD IN

CONCERNING STUTTERING, SINNING AND

SUFFERING, BEING PAINTED, ETC. DEAR MRS. HUGHES I answer your kind letter, immediately, not only to express my best - very best-thanks for all its contents, but also that you may not remain under the least doubt as to Broster. He is so far an empiric that he has not been regularly educated to medical practice, being bred a bookseller at Chester. But his powers of removing hesitation, or rather his skill in instructing persons to avoid or subdue that painful nervous affection, are

certainly wonderful. I have not seen Lady Morton since he attended her but learn on all hands that she is not like the same person in society. Her hesitation was of a peculiar kind, for she stopp'd dead short without any of those unpleasant attempts at pronouncing the Shibboleth which generally accompanies hesitation of speech. And there you stood or sate listening, not well knowing whether the speech had come to a natural or violent conclusion. I am informed she now speaks forward like any other person.

A Major Histed of the Royal Dragoons who

was inspecting our yeomanry here the other day told me he had been under Mr. Broster's care for a very embarrassing hesitation which interfered a good deal with his giving the word of command and making reports etc. in the course of his profession. I could scarce believe him, so absolutely had all appearance of the kind disappeared. Only watching him very closely I saw when he was about to address the Yeomanry a momentary embarrassment which instantly passed off and would have been totally undiscernible by any one who was not watching very close. So much for the feats of Mr. Broster whom I would certainly consult if I had occasion. There can be no danger of harm to the person, for his instructions are not accompanied by drugs or operations, or to the purse, for like those who cure smoky chimnies he proceeds on the principle of no cure no pay.

I am ashamed to rob you of Lord Falkland 1 who besides the very great value which every lover of Clarendon's history must set upon his character & talents has been happy in an Artist [probably Oliver] to convey his features to posterity. It is absolutely a sin to accept so valuable a present but then it would be an act of the most severe self denial to decline, and I fear we seldom long hesitate when the choice is between sinning and suffering. I once published a very few copies of poems written during the civil war by Patrick Carey a Catholic priest whom I afterwards discovered to have been a brother of Lord Falkland. I think I have two copies left, and will beg your acceptance of one by the first safe opportunity.

Sophia, poor soul, has kept her bed for near a week, dangerously ill at first with an inflammable complaint which has of late been fearfully frequent. Luckily we had near timely aid and skilful medical help, so that with bleeding and care she is now better, but still couchante as a Herald would say, but I trust will soon be able to do honour to the "Stones "2 which I think much improved by the additions which Mr. Hughes has made to the ancient fabric. There is a John Bullishness about the whole, a dogged honesty and stubbornness of good sense, which make honest George Ridler out to be a pattern of old English Yeomanry. We laughed till we were like to die at the primitive display of Mr. & Mrs. Bull 3 in the one horse Chay. I give the bathers infinite credit for their address in contriving so effectual a punishment for interlopers. Many a man has been stripp'd for being himself flogg'd, but the situation of the honest Citizen must have been superb while, reserving the nakedness for his own part of the show, he transferred the flagellation to the back of old Nobbs. Leaving off the vagaries of this second Adam and Eve in a Tim Whisky, I must tell you that I have had another disappointment in an expected visitor of eminence; this was no less than Can

ning who proposed rubbing up an old acquaintance by a visit at Abbotsford, when pop dies yon old Louis le desiré, and Mr. Secretary of state must go to his office to forward addresses of condolence and congratulation and renew the bands of amity between John Bull & Louis Baboon.

I recollected the passage in Dr. Plott as I read it; but upon what authority comes the explanation-a very natural and probable one, and a sign that old Noll's saints were not quite so confident in their superiority to Satan as their gifted pretensions would have made one suppose. . . . I think you mentioned there was some old pamphlet giving an account of the stratagem. I did not get the drawing of poor John Leyden, but I remember Heber saying he had got it for me, but somehow he forgot to send it me or it was mislaid. I will be much flattered by Mr. Berens letting me have a copy of it. I remember well sitting to him, and Heber reading Milton all the while. Since that time my block has been traced by many a brush of eminence, and at this very now, while I am writing to you, Mr. Landseer, who has drawn every dog in the house but myself, is at work upon me under all the disadvantages which my employment puts him to. He has drawn old Maida 6 in particular with much spirit indeed, and it is odd enough that though I sincerely wish old Mai had been younger I never thought of wishing the same advantage for myself. I am much obliged by Mr. Hughes's kind intentions in favor of Charles who will be at Brazen Nose at the term. My kindest compliments attend the excellent Doctor, and I am always Dear Madam,

Your truly obliged and faithful
Walter Scott

October 6 1824

Notes by Mrs. Hughes.-1 An original miniature of Lord Falkland which I had sent Sir Walter. 2 Your father had made large additions to Sir Walter's favourite ballad of "George Ridler," and I had sent him a copy.

3 The ballad of the Magic Lay of the One horse Chay written by your father & published in Blackwood's Magazine for October 1824. It was founded ing August, & the loss of Mr. & Mrs. Bull's (for on a fact which took place at Brighton the precedsuch were the names of the parties) cloaths was owing to their being stolen by a manœuvre of the Bathers.

4 An extract from Dr. Plotts history of Oxfordshire containing an account of a stratagem practised to intimidate the Commissioners sent by the Long Parliament to value the Manor of Woodstock after the death of Charles 1st.

5 Mr. Berens had offered me a drawing of Sir Walter's friend Dr. Leyden & had formerly made one for him which he had not received.

6 A favourite old deer-hound of the Ban & Buscar breed.

7 Mr. Charles Scott his youngest son. Your fa

cause, being, as it appears, one of those moderate men who in times of stress seldom are frankly trusted by either party. He was killed at the battle of Newbury, 1643.

In 1820 Sir Walter, who had previously contributed an essay, with the hitherto unpublished poems of Patrick Carey, to the "Edinburgh Annual Register," published "Trivial Poems and Triolets" by this Carey, whom he compares with Lovelace as a poet. On page 230 of Lockhart's Life will be found a long extract from Scott's introduction to this volume of poems. The name of the Falkland family was, I think, generally spelled without the e-" Cary."

The six letters that follow, of which the first is of date November, 1824, and the last December, 1825, were published in

botsford, given by Mr. John Hughes (father of Thomas Hughes, the author), who visited Sir Walter and Lady Scott in 1825.

WALTER SCOTT AT HOME

MY DEAR MOTHER

Abbotsford-31 August Sir W. just as you have described him, for one can say no more, the ladies appearing to consider me quite as an old acquaintance; & what is most extraordinary of all, Urisk, the domestic brownie or goblin, in most gracious humour, which has continued. Yesterday we drove in the sociable to call on Mr. & Mrs. Lockhart; then to Melrose, where Lady & Miss Scott had a little shopping, while I looked at the Abbey. In the evening came Mr. Ballantyne, & two French gentlemen with introductory letters, who staid the day. Lady Scott, being evidently mistress of the language, took the first frais de conver

sation; and guard was relieved soon by Sir Walter, whose bonhommie was remarkably conspicuous; particularly when the Gauls (who are gentlemanlike & speak English pretty well) did not understand anything, & required a French commentary; he then dashed freely at a language he does not much like, although I could see that the effort tried him. Miss Scott being somewhat shy of French, I was forced to do mon possible, to rest Sir W. occasionally; & the strangers were on the whole kept sufficiently employed. You may imagine how I have been poring over the armoury & the different curiosities, which I reconnoitred at a very early hour yesterday morning, not to be wasting time there when Sir W. was visible.

I forgot to mention the Lockharts. She I should think had most of her father of any of the family; carries it in her manner & countenance. Him I found very attentive & civil, as an old Oxonian; but there is an aigre manner in speaking of people & things in general, which warns you to be on your guard, & weigh what you say. Now with Sir Walter I find that reserve is quite out of the question; as he seems to understand & laugh at all the minor tricks of society. His manners seem in the same style of grand simplicity which distinguishes the higher style of painting and which was very much the characteristic of another man of no small celebrity, Prince Nugent. Allowing for the difference of a plain soldier & a man of genius, a man of action & a man of thought, as also for some difference in years, they remind me strikingly of one another; particularly in the art of making you perfectly at home; in the power of dispensing with what one may call the trash of human intercourse without any detriment to their own real consequence; & in short appearing never to think about themselves.

Sept. 1. I was summoned from my letter to accompany Sir Walter & the French gentlemen in a walk towards Huntly-Burn; (Thomas the Rhymer's) which strikes me & struck them, as being the White Lady's hold. Some say Elvin Water; farther on.

You will be glad to hear, I am sure, that little Lockhart is in a state of health quite satisfactory to his parents & Lady S. The sea has done him much good, they say; & the child appears to me as healthy & alert as other children, with a very fresh colour; still rather slightly made, but what flesh he has is firm on him. Mrs. L. seems in very high spirits, as if she had nothing on her mind now; sung us some Gaelic & Border songs last night with much animation, delighted the French gents. though they frankly owned they did not clearly make it out; "mais c'est une espèce d'inspiration." . . Ever your affectionate

J Hughes

SIR WALTER'S PLUCK IN ADVERSITY

MY DEAR MRS. HUGHES AND MY WORTHY DOCTOR 1 I write immediately to give you the information which your kindness thinks of importance, I shall certainly lose a very large sum by the failure of my booksellers, whom all men considered as worth £150,000 & who I fear will not cut up, as they say, for one fourth of the money. But looking at the thing at the worst point of view I cannot see that I am entitled to claim the commiseration of any one, since I have made an arrangement for settling these affairs to the satisfaction of every party concerned so far as yet appears, which leaves an income with me ample for all the comforts and many of the elegancies of life, and does not in the slightest degree innovate on any of my comforts. So what title have I to complain? I am far richer in point of income than Generals and Admirals who have led fleets and armies to battle. My family are all provided for in present or in prospect, my estate remains in my family, my house and books in my own possession. I shall give up my house in Edinb. and retire to Abbotsford; where my wife and Anne will make their chief residence, during the time our courts sit, when I must attend, I will live at my club. If Anne wishes to see a little of the world in the gay season, they can have lodgings for two or three weeks; this plan we had indeed form'd before it became imperative.

At Abbotsford we will cut off all hospitality, which latterly consumed all my time, which was worse than the expence; this I intended to do at any rate; we part with an extra servant or two, manage our household economically, and in five years, were the public to stand my friend, I should receive much more than I have lost. But if I only pay all demands I shall be satisfied.

I shall be anxious to dispose of Mr. Charles so soon as his second year of Oxford is ended. I think of trying to get him into some diplomatic line, for which his habits and manners seem to suit him well.

I might certainly have borrowed large sums.

LXVI.-70