66 the stations for the convenience of the travellers are | 72 wide, and 64 feet high, where all people met, and worthy of a cultivated and noble social condition; rightly so. There, on one side, just at the beginning and the same prevails, also, everywhere throughout of the nave stood-SWEDEN, and opposite to it, on the United States of North America, even in the the other side, RUSSIA-little David and great wildest parts through which railroads are carried. In Goliath, as I like to call them. France and Germany they are shamefully regardless in this respect; and in Germany the grand-looking officials throng about the railways, begging for a Trinkgeld" (drinking-money), which is a shameful thing it seems to me, in men who are paid by the state. These gentlemen of the police in England are polite, are ready to assist not alone the well-dressed and those who have a respectable appearance. No! they show to the lowest, even to the worthless themselves, a kindness and a propriety of manner which is admirable, and which makes them esteemed both by high and low. It was Saturday evening when I arrived in London, and on Monday I visited the Exhibition in the Crystal Palace. The morning was beautiful; the clouds had taken wing and fled through the expanse of heaven before the careering west-wind. It was amusing to see the crowds of people who, in long rows, and with their garments fluttering in the wind, streamed through Hyde Park towards the Crystal Palace, which is situated on one side of the park, and which now glittered in the sun, with all its hundreds of flags waving and beckoning in the brisk morning air-a gay, refreshing sight! I had heard critical tongues compare the Crystal Palace to a great-birdcage. And there is a something in the form as well as in the airiness of its construction which do remind one of a so-called coop-cage. But it is, in any case, a cage in which all the birds of heaven found room, and it much more resembles a magic castle out of the fairytale world than any other castle on earth. I expected to have seen it more brilliant in appearance, but the white canvass hangings with which the exterior of the Crystal Palace was covered, in order to prevent the too strong effect of sunlight within, gave it rather a dull than brilliant appearance. Of the throng of carriages, great and small, which moved along in four lines, upon the great road on the outside of Hyde Park and towards the Crystal Palace, I say nothing, because the quiet activity of the police and their presence at every point made it a matter of small importance. There was no need to have a moment's uneasiness either for one's own or other people's safety. The police cared for all, like a higher, calm law of order. All that was needed was a little patience. Less from want of this than from a desire to enjoy the morning air, and to have a view of the approaching concourse of people, I alighted from the carriage, and went on foot through a portion of that beautiful park up to the palace. This, with its immediate environs, covers about twenty-six English acres. I wished to enter at the end nearest to which was the Swedish department, and my friendly conductor, Mary Howitt, ied me in by the western entrance. And soon we stood in the great nave, 1,848 feet long, There was a time—just at the opening of the Exhibition-when our little David presented himself at this great congress of nations in his shepherd's raiment, in all simplicity and deshabille; and the Swedes in London who saw it, were deeply shocked and ashamed, and kept in the nave, as far as possible from the Swedish department, in order that nobody might call to them and inquire, "Is that all which you have to show ?" No indeed! He did not make a great show, that little King David, more especially just opposite to the great Goliath, who had come in his most splendid attire, proud and magnificent. But-it was not so very bad, and it did not matter so much to those who know what our King David-or to speak in pure Swedish-who know what the Swede is. Because there is no fear for the Swede, when he comes to the pinch; that we all know, and the world knows it too. But he has a sort of-may I say it?—an excellent inability of going to market, of puffing off himself and his, which is not to be blamed, and which I like; and a sort of bear-like winter-sloth in rousing himself, when it has nothing to do with any contest of life and death,—which is not so good, but yet which is perhaps excusable when it merely has reference to self-display. But yet little King David ought to have reflected that it was better not to have shown himself at all in the royal halls of the stranger, than to have shown himself there in his every-day attire, in his simple shepherd's dress. And he did so reflect in a little while, and went home again and returned and showed himself, without splendour it is true, but in such guise that he might with honour maintain his place in any company whatever. But how much more honourable might not this place have been, if Sweden had only rightly understood the intention of this the World's Exhibition, and had seriously entered into it! how much-yes indeed, twenty times richer, have been the native mechanical exhibitions which we have occasionally had in Stockholm. And if we had sent hither scenes from the life of the Swedish people, and of Sweden itself in figures and pictures-what peculiarity and beautiful individuality of life might not Sweden have exhibited, as a nation among the nations. And even as it was, Sweden exhibited, in her small dimensions, a beautiful and rich individuality of character, much more so than the giant opposite to her. There in the middle of the nave, stood the lofty porphyry vase of Sweden, the only one of its kind in the World's Exhibition, and so placed as to rule over, as it were, the whole of this portion of the building, and to be seen from all sides. There also was the great cannon, with its peculiar mechanism, which attracted the attention of all connoisseurs, and which had, besides this, great memories connected with it; | especially out of the female life of Sweden. The thread because in the great battles of the world, the Swedish of life, of the great as well as the little life, is spun more cannon had thundered with honour in the cause of leisurely in Sweden than anywhere else in the world, popular freedom. And at the foot of that altar-like especially for women. And almost all women spin in erection, in which the flowers of Emma Furstenhoff Sweden. The spinning-wheel is the symbol of hung droopingly on a ground of green velvet, so household industry in Sweden. Countesses spin for naturally and so life-like, especially the apple-blossom, the sake of amusement, and to pass away the time that the king of flowers, Linnæus himself, might during the long winter twilight. The wives of the have mistaken them for the living ones, lay knotted clergy spin in the country, with their young maidens rods of iron, knotted whilst the iron was cooling, and women-servants around them, by the crackling which seemed to bear witness that the strength of fire in the large room of the house. The fine young Thor and Stärkodder yet lived in the North. True | lady in the town spins also in the forenoon, and dances it is that these knotted bars of iron came from Norway, at the ball in the evening; spins because it is pleasant but the Swedes and the Norwegians are brothers, and and useful to do so; not unfrequently spins cloths for the iron and the giants belong to them alike. the tea-table of her father's house or for her own future home, and listens, perhaps, the while, in spirit to the ballad, which every mother's daughter in Sweden has heard sung beside her cradle,— I saw too that much attention was given to a Swedish covered carriage, or, more properly speaking, to the skeleton of one, and to some particularly beautiful Swedish cabinet-work, as well as to some new discoveries in articles manufactured of iron, &c. &c. That which most struck my eye after the Swedish porphyry vase, and that which delighted me, was a little Swedish spinning-wheel with its yellow flax upon the distaff, and which stood quite cheerfully outside the Swedish department, the Swedish banner hanging high above it, and before it the altar with flowers and knotted iron, and among many beautiful works of Swedish industrial art. Right, thou little King David! Thou art not ashamed of thy shepherd-attire, nor of thy shepherdlife, when thou thyself comest clad as a prince to the meeting of the princes. Thou bearest in the one hand the sceptre, in the other thy shepherd's staff, and thou regardest them alike with honour; thou unitest thy shepherd and thy kingly life with a cheerful and a willing mind! It is good, and it is done like a king. "Spin, spin, daughter mine, To-morrow comes the bridegroom thine, And the peasant farmer's wife and daughter and It is especially in the northern provinces of Sweden that you can observe properly the prevalence of the spinning-wheel and the manufacture of linen. I seemed to see the handsome and populous peasantry of Helsingland and Norrland sitting in their spinningrooms, men and women, spinning, spinning through the long dark winter evenings, by the light of the crackling pine branches, while the storms roar and the northern lights dance without. I saw again the old couple, as I once saw them there, man and wife, spun together there for above fifty years,—through the marriage, the silver marriage, the gold marriage,-had thus spun through half a century together, and looked as if they might, in the same way, spin out the whole hundred years; a still life, delightful, or— terrible! . . . . The giant over the way, the great Goliath, does not do so. When he came forth in his pomp and glory, and displayed his doors, and his tables, and his urns of brilliant green malachite, set in frames of gold,--who sat spinning together in a little room, as they had and beautiful and magnificent they were, there is no denying that, although the former often were wanting in harmony, and the superabundance of gilding gave an impression of cold splendour, of a something gaudy, of a want, a deficiency through it all;-when, I say, he advanced forward to display himself in the Great Exhibition before all the people, then banished he into the background,—into a great dark department behind him, everything which belonged to the peculiar popular life of his dominions. He was ashamed of the poor common people of his realm, and their labours and their industry were sent afar off into the dark. Not so King David. Close beside his silver ore and porphyry, placed he the Swedish peasant's greatest labour and enjoyment, the spinning-wheel, with its distaff of flax, and held them forth, in honour due, before all people at the great meeting of the peoples. The spinning-wheel with its flax! How much did it not say to me of that Swedish life, that quiet, grave, every-day life. How many pictures out of this life did there not present themselves to my soul-pictures And now I missed again, in this Exhibition, pictures from that still-life genre, pictures such as Tideman's; landscapes, such as Gude's. But not one picture, not one image of the folks-life of Sweden, or of the picturesque popular costumes, was there, to give to foreigners an idea of it. China had sent pictures where the people, the life, and the labours of China were delineated in the Chinese style; upon Chinese tea-canisters you saw the Chinese plucking the tea-tree, and preparing the tea. Hindostan had sent representatives of the whole of its life, of its festivals, its courts of justice, its business, houses, gardens, all its daily life, in admirably-executed little figures, and plastic pictures. Tunis had done the like, and other eastern countries; but the people of Scandinavia had merely sent their | Attempt after attempt failed, year after year went by, wares, their productions, and their ornaments. Denmark had sent some noble pieces of statuary, but not her living forms from Amager and Hedebo! Sweden. had sent her porphyry, her spinning-wheels, with the flax on the distaff, but not her Dalecarlians, her people of Bleking or of Scania, nor her Laplanders with their reindeer. Norway had sent her knotted iron, her silver ore from Konigsberg, but no pictures of her sublime scenery-not the mountain huts of Telemark with the Telemark people! Pity!-pity beyond repair! At the same time, many of the people of the Western nations exhibited a similar deficiency in this respect, while the incessant and crowding throng of people around any representations of actual popular life, showed that these, more than anything else, attracted the interest of the public. There was one thing in the Swedish department which was wholly overlooked by the multitude,-which arrested the notice only of a few men of science. It was a little thing apparently, and yet it is probable, yes it might certainly be asserted, that nothing in this World's Exhibition, nothing amid all wares, inventions, and precious productions of all nations there displayed, is destined to create so great an epoch in the affairs of the world, to give so totally new a career to trade and navigation, and to the whole progress of mankind, as this little thing, conceived in a Swedish head, and carried into effect by a Swede. and still Ericson continued labouring with the same zeal, the same invincible perseverance, the same hope. Many years had passed over, and still lived Ericson in the same stillness, well known to the public as a man of extraordinary ability, and the originator of various fine mechanical improvements, but yet only fully recognised by a very few in America, whether natives of the States or his own countrymen, in his true greatness. One of the latter, my noble and learned friend, Professor P. E. Bergfalk, said to me as we met in New York, "Here lives in retirement a countryman of ours, who carries within himself, and will soon make public one of the greatest discoveries of the age." The prophecy was speedily fulfilled. At the eleventh or twelfth attempt, Ericson might exclaim-"Eureka! I have found it!" The little caloric engine which was shown in the Swedish department of the Crystal Palace was the first proof of Ericson's discovery which came to Europe. In November 1851 a public trial was made of the new engine. The result was-the complete triumph of the finer, the more etherial element, over the grosser one-the victory of caloric over steam. Caloric, it is said, demanded five-sevenths less fuel than steam in order to produce the same effects; and that which crowned the conquest was, that by the application of caloric vanished all danger of explosions and other accidents which attach to the use of steam both by land and water. It is easy to perceive the effects of the new principle of movement upon the action of the world. I will only mention one, which I cannot think of without the intensest joy. It is, the facility which it will afford to all, even to the poor, for travelling. Before long, all will be able, occasionally, to enjoy the refreshment of free movement; all will be able some time to see a great portion of God's beautiful world,-will be able, through travel, to cast away sorrow, to improve This thing is a machine called a "Caloric Engine." The object of the machine is to substitute hot air for steam, as a motive-power, and to perform by that power all that is now done by steam at an infinitely less cost. It is many years since this discovery originated in the mind of Captain John Ericson, then in Sweden, and principal of the Military Academy at Marieberg. It became the grand object of his thoughts; he carried it with him to England,-carried it with him and pondered over it in silence, while he worked out, and brought to bear, many other mecha-health, renew strength, extend their views, live, learn nical improvements; amongst these, screw-propellers for vessels. When he had completed a screw-vessel, he invited a number of distinguished Englishmen to make a sea voyage with him in this vessel. They came, but treated the matter coldly, and merely said "It is an interesting discovery." "Do you see nothing more in it?" demanded Ericson. "No, nothing more," was the reply. and enjoy, as I myself have done, and cannot feel sufficiently thankful for. . . . . How gladdening, how divine, to become the promulgator of such an earthly gospel to mankind! See! This is found concealed in one of the many overlooked machines in the little Swedish department of the World's Exhibition. Did the fortunate discoverer require the vast soulroom of the New World for the accomplishment of his invention, in order to breathe and work in freedom? Was his fatherland-was Sweden, too narrow for him? It would grieve me had he found it so: but it rejoiced me to hear that he had said—“ If I succeed in my discovery, then-but not beforeI shall return to Sweden." An American sea-officer came to Ericson, and said, "Will you permit me to make a voyage in your screwvessel ?" Ericson agreed, and they went. "I have seen enough," said the American; " and we will cause your name to resound on the Delaware." Ericson complied with the invitation, and went over to the New World. His screw-vessels very soon were ploughing the waves of the Deleware, and his name was spread over the United States with great renown. But Ericson himself continued to live still and retired This is remarkable in this little people, cast by fate in New York, in a course of incessant industry endea-high up towards the polar circle, cut off from the vouring to acquire fortune, by which he could be able great world--this little people of three millions of to carry into effect the new discovery which he made. Swedes. We lack much which makes other nations There is a relationship between mother and son so great and holy that we cannot compare it with any other. great, which qualify them to take the initiative in the | together in a knot, pressed violently and jeeringly on world's development. We want still religious free- the throng, notwithstanding the remonstrances of the dom, the noblest of all freedom. We want, at the close-packed and crushed multitude. Forced against same time, freedom of thought, freedom of conscience the balustrade, and supporting myself against a pillar, in its highest objective form: we want this, with all I was neither able to move from the spot nor scarcely its ennobling, fertilizing life. We lack the mighty to breathe, while I felt that the moment was appublic spirit which perpetually wakes, and knows how proaching when some accident must happen; and actively to convert the time of peace into a time of some old ladies and gentlemen, who were sitting with glorious victories; the public spirit which can remove pale, anxious countenances near me, were evidently of mountains by faith-that penetrating, discriminating the same opinion, for in the middle of the throng faith in its own powers and the will of Providence; people began to shriek and strike. But just as I fully the spirit which never despairs, and never gives way comprehended all the horrors of this moment, my kind before difficulties and discouragements; which without companion said to me, "Don't be afraid! the police besitation sacrifices individual advantages to a clearly are there. Police! All will soon be right again!" We perceived public benefit. We lack this still. lack-ah! we lack much; but great men we do not lack men who, from time to time, come forth from the dark home by the iceberg, and work in the world and in the epochs of science, and stamp upon them the impress of their genius. From Odin down to our own time, this series of Ynglingar-immortal youths in the world of spirit-intellectual vikings, who have caused the name of Sweden to circulate round the world with honour; and it is remarkable that these men have always achieved their victories through a quality which is regarded as a fundamental deficiency in the Swedish national character-perseverance. : perseverance. Our great warriors, statesmen, and men of science, have all conquered through their perseverance through that have won what they desired. To read their history is to read the history of the power of Ericson's life is another example of this kind; a splendid testimony to the power of persevering labour united with genius. We close this episode, which will not seem long to Swedes, with the wish that our great countryman may soon return to his people and his fatherland. It was a general people's day, a so-called shilling day, on which I first visited the Exhibition. In the course of this day it was visited by from one hundred and seven to one hundred and eight thousand persons; and the spectacle which this life of the people presented was not one of the least interesting features of the Exhibition. The concourse of people, especially as one surveyed it from the upper galleries, reminded one of a disturbed ants'-nest. One could not move in it without being incessantly pushed and jostled about. I endured this on this day for full five hours; but never have I been less rudely pushed, more gently treated in a crushing crowd of people; never beheld a more friendly, inoffensive, good-humoured disposition amongst those that pushed and were pushed,— that is to say, in each and all,-than here in this vast throng of people, of all classes and in all kinds of clothes, both handsome and mean. Only once, in the upper gallery, had I a lively anticipation of being crushed to death. A dense mass of people formed themselves on one spot where many ways met, and this every moment increased through the fresh living streams from all sides. Some evidently ill-disposed people, men and women, who kept The word "Police! police!" went like lightning, like a liberating spell from mouth to mouth. I saw white-gloved hands moving in the air over the heads of the human mass, and at the same moment the crush gave way-there were air, space, motion. The people streamed off by different ways, and myself and Mrs. Howitt could gain the stairs which we had been endeavouring to reach, and descend into the vast space at the bottom, where, notwithstanding the immense multitude, you ran no danger of such a crush. The Duke of Wellington was also this day in the Crystal Palace, which he was in the habit of often visiting; but this time he could not support the pressure, which was greater than it had ever been before. Two policemen were obliged to take the old Field Marshal betwixt them, and assist him out of the crowd and the Crystal Palace again. The people, who recognised him, made way for him with hurrahs. It was especially in the so-called Transept, the splendid central space running directly across the Crystal Palace, that you could best see and enjoy the popular life. Here, between the two huge elm-trees, which in full freedom stretched forth their giant arms under the crystal vault which they seemed to support; here, amid the glittering, splashing water-works, where the crystal jets issued from the glass fountain; where the groups of living trees and plants from all zones stood wet with the dew from the fountains; where the groups of superb birds and insects, the admirable artistic productions of human hands, shone amongst the green leaves; here, you saw people of all classes sitting on the benches, upon steps, or at the feet of marble statues, which in a vast circle, stood like silent spectators of the moving, busy scene. Here you saw old men and women, in poor clothes, sit and eat together out of their provisionbaskets, old and poor as themselves. Here, young mothers were sitting, and nursing their children without any constraint, in the neighbourhood of elegant ladies and gentlemen, who were treating themselves to ices and other refreshments, which were to be found in plentiful abundance, set out on tables and counters covered with snow-white cloths, within the splendid iron-gates of the Transept. And there, in that outer gallery, were again fresh groups of flowers and green shrubs; and here sate people together at small tables, and ate and drank together in social ease. his own, without debt or danger; he was fortunately placed, also, in the unpicturesque but comfortable County Wexford-a county I have so often mentioned, that I am almost ashamed to do so now; it seems-no matter how many lands I see—as if I had little to say of any, except Wexford! however, so stands the fact. "Tom" was a denize of the Barony of Bargy; but Nelly's "people" belonged to the county of Limerick; and Nelly herself drew her first breath on "Shannon's flow'ry banks;" this, perhaps, accounts for her having more earnestness and enthusiasm in her composition than falls to the lot of a mere "Wexford girl," who is in general as steady, neat, orderly and care-taking, as if born on the Saxon side of the water; in fact,-though I believe the Here, in this middle portion of the palace, were com-, "Tom's" mind; that he lived-wonderful to tell in parative rest and peace; a kind of still-life of actual Ireland!-upon a little freehold of his own, and held beauty. Here, by the murmurs of the springing waters, surrounded by Swedish pines and tropical palms,—here I enjoyed my most charming hours in the Exhibition, refreshed by repose, by the thoughtful kindness of friends, and by coffee and bread and-butter, the staff of life during the journey through the Crystal Falace. How charming here to listen in tranquillity to the hum of the vast multitude, to the sound of music from the organs and pianos, which here and there throughout the hall were touched by skilful hands! To see the sunbeams play on the up-springing waters, and from the moving ocean of people to lift the eyes to the statues around, representing life's great moments of strength or joy in ideal beauty! I came, by chance, repeatedly to seat myself by a marble statue at one end of the transept, representing Time. It was the old half-awakened ideal of time-the primæval old man with his hour-glass and scythe; which I can by no means perceive to be a profound conception, for nothing strikes me so much in the living time, as its eternal youth, its Phoenix character. And the old man did not here attract my notice on his own account, but it was a flock of small gnats that perpetually kept up a dance around the head of the ancient one, as if they would allure him to look up, and imbibe more joyous thoughts. They came from the living, verdant shrubs, from the springing waters of the fountains, behind the old one's back, and the little winged creatures sang of life and eternal youth, eternal spring-time over the head of stony Time, and the sun beamed on the gladsome flock, as if he smiled in approbation of their dance. Charming was it to watch the groups of people who sat enjoying the gifts of life in concord. It was family-life on a magnificent scale. Just opposite to me I saw a little group of two gentlemen and a lady. The gentlemen offered the lady alternately to drink from their cups, and she drank; a trifling circumstance, but it pleased me, for the three, who were neither young nor handsome, had an expression of a beautiful humanity. Were they relatives, or only friends? A pure, beautiful friendship, a fraternal relationship betwixt persons of different sexes, is a sight rare and beautiful, and one in the futurity of which I trust. (To be continued.) real ould ancient original Irish" would hardly consider it a compliment,-the Wexford lasses, particularly those of the baronies of Forth and Bargy, are, as I have said before, in their customs, manners, and language, far more Saxon than Celt. Nelly's aunt was a wonderful flax-dresser; she had a great deal of knowledge about flax, in all its several stages; sowing, growing, steeping, beetling, carding, hackling, spinning! She was, in short, a flax oracle, and was more generally called the "flax woman," than anything else. She was so very wise, was Nelly's aunt, that if she had lived in old times, the neigh bours would have thought she had something to do with fairy flax, and every one knows that is very different from the flax manufactured for good, honest, homely, prosperous purposes. She had been a beauty in her youth; a soft, delicate sort of beauty. She had still fair flaxen hair, and large, light, loving blue eyes, with long dark lashes; she was not old, except in manner; and those of her │ neighbours and employers, staid settled housekeepers, who had found Nelly too giddy,-and if truth must be told, too monopolizing of the attentions and affections of the "lads of the village," to the great discomfiture of their own blooming, solid, Barony-of-Forth daughters,-never hesitated to say, that if they were young men, they knew who they should look after-not that giddy Nelly; her face wasn't of the lasting kindnothing but foolish red and white; no nose, or nothing but a "spud; no eyes-to talk about-and a regu lar Munster mouth. Yes, to be sure the teeth were good-that is, white enough; but who in their senses would ever set any store by teeth-the last to come, and the first to go, of all gifts. Now the flax-woman NELLY NOWLAN's aunt bore up against her niece's had fine melancholy features; it was as good as a banishment (as she called it) with fortitude; some of "sarmint" to look in her face-never took a partner her neighbours said-What a comfort it must be to from any of the girls at a dance-never threw a be well rid of the girl, who was such a torment to her "sheep's eye" after any of the boys, or expected to -and to be receiving an occasional five or ten shil- be walked home with, or stood betwixt a promised lings instead of the vexation she caused her, by refus-pair by moonlight or sunlight, which Nelly was always ing so decidedly the best match in the country-the very best offer a poor girl could have; for every one knew that no thought of emigration ever disturbed NELLY NOWLAN'S EXPERIENCE IN COMMUNICATED BY MRS. S. C. HALL. (1) Continued from p. 13. doing, in her heedless sort of way-laughing and jesting with all, yet caring for none. But the great secret, after all, of poor Nelly's unpopularity with her own sex, was her popularity with the other; nothing injures |