ne is not very hard to please."

From Nijni-Novgorod our travellers proceeded to Moscow by rail, and
thence to St. Petersburg, returning to Paris through Prussia and
Belgium.

In four months they had accomplished a journey of very great length,
having traversed from Shanghai to Paris, some 8,000 miles, without
accident. We regret to add that Madame de Bourboulon did not long
survive her return home; she died at the chateau of Claireau, in Loiret,
on the 11th of November, 1865, at the early age of 37.

FOOTNOTES:

[18] Humboldt: "Ansichten der Natur," i. 8.

[19] Thomas Carlyle: "Lectures on Heroes," Lect. iii.

LADY HESTER STANHOPE.

Lady Hester Stanhope was born in 1776. She came of a good stock: her
father was that democratic and practical nobleman who invented an
ingenious printing-press, and erased his armorial bearings from his
plate and furniture; her mother was the eldest daughter of William Pitt,
the "great Earl of Chatham." It was at Burton-Pynsent, her illustrious
grandfather's country seat, she spent her early years, displaying that
boldness of spirit and love of independence which marked her later
career, training and riding the most unmanageable horses, and shocking
society not a little by her disregard of its conventionalities. She
inherited from her parents great force of character, intellectual
faculties of no common order, and something, probably, of her
eccentricity of disposition. A large and liberal education developed
these natural powers, which were in themselves remarkable, and as she
grew up to womanhood her sagacious estimates of policy and her sound
judgment of men and things secured her respect in the highest political
circles. To her cousin, the younger Pitt--"the pilot who weathered the
storm," in the language of poetry; who died when it was at its height,
in the language of fact--her advice was always acceptable. It was always
freely given, for her admiration of her distinguished kinsman was
unbounded. In the last months of his life, when he was stricken by a
mortal disease, and sinking under the burden of political disaster, she
was assiduous in her attendance upon him; and it was to her, after the
memorable battle of Austerlitz, he addressed those historic words, so
pathetic in their expression of failure, "Roll up that map (the map of
Europe), it will not be wanted these two years."

After the death of Mr. Pitt, Lady Hester abandoned the gay and polished
society of whic