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nOMKSTIC MANNERS OF THE PRUSSIANS.

barristers, it would be more rigliteous to regard tlicm ratherin the honourable light of the intellectual judges of the land.

This may, and perhaps will, sound bombastic to foreigners,since even in Paris it is well known tliat every critic persistsin the mediseval custom of levying " black mail " upon alltliose of whom it may be a part of bis voeation to give a truth-ful opinion to tbe public.

" Je tiens ä mes reclames," (I hold to my perquisites,)cried the Abbe Moineau — one of the first scientific writers ofFrance — in concluding an engagement with the managers ofa new Parisian Journal, that was intended to be the govern-ment organ of the French Exhibition.

Nor is it any secret among the literary circles of theFrench capital, that the rooms of M. Jules Janin, — the prin-cipal theatrical critic there — have been all furnished by" gratuities " from the actors and actresses, who have beenanxious to win bis good opinion.

To the great honour of our own country be it said, notonly that no literary gentleman among us would be guilty ofsuch iniquities, but, even if he would, he could not; since noJournal of any repute would for a moment consent willingly tonumber such a person among its staff: and further, bis ownclass would indignantly refuse to recognise bim as one oftheir body.

How natural, then, is the wide difference between thetwo nations and the two peoples! — England, where the" Times " Printing-office alone occupies nearly the same spaceof ground as Elirenbreitstein, the principal fortress of Prussia,and has almost the same number of men retained within it,and that as much for the defence of the country, too; — Eng-land, where the profession of journalism numbers in its ranksmany of the wisest and noblest minds in the kingdom; wheresome of the most eminent and upright of our law lords ori-