and representation, is seldom out of the hand of
its owner. A student will be proud of showing
how much his meerschaum has been browned
and hardened by use; evidence of the time
during which he has been exercising his lately
acquired facilities, and developing his progressive
genius. He walks the streets with greater
dignity; enters the lecture-room as if he were
somebody; believes himself to have obtained
—at all events to have deserved— the special notice
of the professor; he is ripening into a councillor
and leader of younger candidates: in a word, he
smokes with authority.

German pipes are better accommodated to
locomotion than those generally in use among other
nations. The chibouk of the East is too cumbrous,
and requires special attendance in its
conveyance and preparation. Clay pipes, especially
the most delicate long-tubed pipes, are
too fragile to be borne about by their possessor,
and moreover soon become dirty and disagreeable;
but the moderately long and large-bulbed
pipe of the Germans is hung to the button of
the outer garment, or carried in the hand without
inconvenience. It is to the Teuton what the fan
is to the Chinese, ever present and in constant
service.

The Dutchman continues faithful to his long
pipe of white clay. It is of a more delicate form,
and more pleasant to the touch and to the taste
than the ordinary English pipe, and the canaster
which he smokes incomparably superior to the
tobacco commonly used in England. The smoking
habit is perhaps more rooted in Holland than
in any part of the European world. The old
King William— known in his country by the
name of Vader Willem— had a great dislike to
tobacco smoke, while the court painter Kuh
declared he never succeeded in taking a likeness
unless he had a pipe in his hand, and found no
inspiration except in its fragrant fumes. He
refused to paint the portrait of his royal master
unless the king gave way to his foible, which,
notwithstanding his prejudices, His Majesty very
good-humouredly consented to do. The king
had not been long seated in his chair, when,
overcome by the smoke, he fell asleep. The
artist continued his work for a little time, unwilling
to interrupt his sovereign's repose, when
he followed the royal example: his brush fell
from his hand, and monarch and subject were
slumbering and snoring together. Willem was
the tirst to awake, and exclaimed to the painter,
"Why, sir! you are asleep! He was of course
roused, but having no time to recollect in whose
august presence he was, exclaimed abruptly and
irreverently, " Whv you fell asleep first!" The
king was fond of telling the story, which I often
heard at the Hague, and of reminding his
favourite artist that the use of tobacco did not
teach good manners.

The primitive form of smoking was undoubtedly
that of the rolled weed, the cigar in
its simplest shape; then came the simple tube
of earthenware, which enabled the smoker to
exhaust the whole of the burning leaf. Cutting
tobacco into small pieces and placing them in a
bowl communicating with the mouth through a
long aperture, thus separating the heat of tile
burning process from the fragrance and the
flavour of the smoke, was the next important
advance in the fumatory science. Much is not
to be said in favour of those refinements which
have added other odoriferous and medical virtues
to the Nicotian raw material, nor do I propose
to speak of a variety of means by which adulteration
has insinuated itself into the manufactory,
nor of the many vegetable substances which from
time to time have oeen recommended as substitutes
for the Indian vegetable.

In my youth it was deemed the most gracious
and delicate of compliments that a fair Spanish
lady should with her own coral lips inhale the
first whiff of a pajito, and present it lighted
to a delighted recipient. In my age I have
been honoured with no such marks of favour.
Perhaps the usage may have passed away with
the basquina, the mantilla, the vela, and the
high and ornamented carved tortoiseshell comb
which in former days formed the universally
admired costume of the señorita Española. I fear
Parisian fashions have destroyed the ancient
characteristics of Spanish nationality; but when
I first knew Spain, during the Peninsular war,
no woman would have dared appear in society
in any colour but black or one of very dark
hue, in any stuff but the alepin or bombasine,
for every moda that was tainted with a French
name was abhorrent to the general feeling, and
its introduction would have brought grief to
the wearer; but now the modistes of Paris are
the law-givers in Madrid, and a Spanish lady
smokes as little as a Parisian.

It is certainly more agreeable to the traveller
that he should find variety instead of sameness
in the different regions which he may explore,
yet the tendency to imitate and assimilate forms
and fashions is breaking down international
barriers, and moulding the civilised races into a
greater and stronger community of philanthropic
feeling: we cannot long hate those whom we
wish to resemble, and we give a place in our
affections to those who become our models in
any of the habits of our lives. Emancipation
from restrictive tariffs, free intercourse, free
trade, if they do not introduce a universal
language, recognise and give potency to a
common, a universal interest. "Like loves like"
is but a rude form for giving expression to the
advantages which grow out of a widely spread
and ever spreading sympathy.

OUR EYE-WITNESS (STILL) AT THE
NATIONAL GALLERY.

YOUR Eye-witness has to report the remainder
of his evidence, given on various subjects
connected with our National Collection of Pictures;
the last inquiry upon this matter having, as the
reader will remember, been abruptly terminated
by the necessary absence of one of the
commissioners. The ghost of Sir George Beaumont,
having been released by the eminent Medium
who had summoned it, appeared in court, and