tory, the daughter of a North of Ireland clergyman. It is
pleasant to be able to chronicle an item of Irish news that has nothing
to do with the violence of party politics or party feeling, and that
shows how worthy women are of that higher culture and education which has
been so tardily and, in some instances, so grudgingly granted to them.

* * * * *

The Empress of Japan has been ordering a whole wardrobe of fashionable
dresses in Paris for her own use and the use of her ladies-in-waiting.
The chrysanthemum (the imperial flower of Japan) has suggested the tints
of most of the Empress's own gowns, and in accordance with the colour-
schemes of other flowers the rest of the costumes have been designed. The
same steamer, however, that carries out the masterpieces of M. Worth and
M. Felix to the Land of the Rising Sun, also brings to the Empress a
letter of formal and respectful remonstrance from the English Rational
Dress Society. I trust that, even if the Empress rejects the sensible
arguments of this important Society, her own artistic feeling may induce
her to reconsider her resolution to abandon Eastern for Western costume.

* * * * *

I hope that some of my readers will interest themselves in the
Ministering Children's League for which Mr. Walter Crane has done the
beautiful and suggestive design of The Young Knight. The best way to
make children good is to make them happy, and happiness seems to me an
essential part of Lady Meath's admirable scheme.

(1) Gossips with Girls and Maidens Betrothed and Free. By Lady Bellairs.
(Blackwood and Sons.)

(2) A Modern Apostle and Other Poems. By Constance Naden. (Kegan Paul.)

(3) Mrs. Somerville and Mary Carpenter. By Phyllis Browne, Author of
What Girls Can Do, etc. (Cassell and Co.)

(4) Ismay's Children. By the Author of Hogan, M.P.; Flitters, Tatters,
and the Counsellor, etc. (Macmillan and Co.)

ARISTOTLE AT AFTERNOON TEA

(Pall Mall Gazette, December 16, 1887.)

In society, says Mr. Mahaffy, every civilised man and woman ought to feel
it their duty to say something, even when there is hardly anything to be
said, and, in order to encourage this delightful art of brilliant
chatter, he has published a social guide without which no debutante or
dandy should ever dream of going out to dine. Not that Mr. Mahaffy's
book can be said to be, in any sense of the word, popular. In discussing
this important subject of conversation, he has not merely