lons garnissant la moitié de l'avant-bras; cette mode, déjà usée précédemment, est disgracieuse et lourde.

Rien n'est plus élégant pour les façons de robe de demi-toilette en riche étoffe, qu'un corsage plat montant, ayant le dos plat sur les épaules, et légèrement froncé dans le bas. Avec cela on peut mettre un pierrot de tulle et blonde, fermé par une broche; ou, si la toilette est destinée à être portée dehors, on peut tourner autour du cou une écharpe de tulle qui retombe.

Le crêpe et le tulle seront les étoffes privilégiées pour robes de bal, avec des fleurs de couleur. Le noir, que l'on croyait devoir conserver une grande vogue, est déjà bien délaissé. Le noir restera comme demi-toilette, en satin brodé, en blonde à dessous de couleur; mais probablement fort peu en robes de bal, comme on l'avait pensé.

Les robes de velours montantes sont parfaitement comme il faut, en velours noir, bleu de la reine, scahieuse, ou vert émeraude. Quelquefois on les porte avec un mantelet de satin plain, de la même couleur que le velours.

Une grande élégance est de garnir, pour une demitoilette, les sabots et le corsage d'une robe de velours avec du point.

Les bonnets du matin sont à basses garnitures, mais on peut étendre ces garnitures sur les côtés, de maniére à garnir les tempes plus que sur le front. Les rubans que l'on place à ces bonnets sont en taffetas ou en satin; la garniture est en tulle de soie uni, ou en dentelle; les coques doivent être extrêmement courtes et plates.

Un joli petit chapeau de soirée que nous avons remarqué, était en velours bleu ciel, à forme ronde, relevée en auréole, la calotte froncée, arrondie; sur la forme un oiseau de paradis et un nœud de satin bleu.

Un autre plus simple, en velours marron, avait une seule plume courbée en arrière, moitié verte et moitié marron. Un ruban de satin marron tournait autour et formait un nœud au pied de la plume.

Les femmes ont poussé jusqu'à la recherche la fantaisie des pantoufles; rien n'est plus élégant que ce petit soulier négligé, en marroquin, tailladé de manière à laisser apercevoir la doublure de soie, et brodé en soie au crochet à dessins qui couvrent le pied. Les petites dents qui, de rigueur, bordent le devant sont garnies d'une petite faveur plissée; l'intérieur est ouaté et doublé en taffetas. Ces pantoufles se font de toutes couleurs, gros bleu, bordées et doublées en soie verte ou cerise, hanneton etvert, cerise ou bleu, etc. Ces nuances sont toutes de fantaisie et peuvent être aussi bizarres que le goût qui les déterminent.

Les douillettes ne se portent plus dans l'appartement. Cette mode était si disgracieuse qu'elle ne pouvait être de longue durée. Les douillettes maintenant sont laissées aux personnes malades, ou conservées comme double chaussure avec de petits souliers de bal, ou au spectacle, les douillettes garantissent du froid, et sont là encore fort bien portées.

Pour demi-toilette simple, pour sortir en voiture par un tems froid, on portera des demi-bottes en velours, garnies de fourrures.

Comme chaussure solide, on dispose des brodequins de peau de manière à ce que la guêtre est montée dans une espèce de soulier; la peau noire n'est pas taillée en deux parties; elle emboîte le pied entièrement.

Pour robes de courses ou des peignoirs du matin, nous

avons remarquè de très-jolis mérinos imprimés à petits dessins.

De charmantes écharpes habillées sont en satin souple, à fond de pois et bordure de fleurs; elles sont en entier couleur sur couleur, ou à dessins de couleur sur fond noir.

Nous avons vu de grands châles en pluche d'une originalité de fort bon goût, le fond est un plain de palmes ou de bouquets, entouré d'une large guirlande. Ces châles ont aussi le grand mérite de ne pas ressembler à ce qui se fait aujourd'hui et remplacent parfaitement les mantelets rejetés.

D'autres plus ordinaires, sont en flanelle anglaise gris de fer, unie sans dessins, les devants sont doublés intérieurement de gros de Naples cerise, le tour est bordé d'un passepoil cerise.

On met sous les chapeaux peu habillés des brides de blonde dont le haut se termine près des papillottes, par un nœud en ruban de couleur différente á celle du cha peau. Sous un chapeau bleu de la reine, des nœuds roses ou cerises sont fort bien; avec du vert des nœuds bleus, presque toujours les nœuds sont en satin.

On revient aussi pour les tours de tête aux petites fa veurs de satin faisant anneaux, dans lesquels se trouve enfermé chaque rang de tulle; en outre, les tulles de très-petits nœuds de satin en rosettes. Des plumes panachées d'une manière légère sont teintes d'une seule couleur; quelques brins de la nuance que l'on veut joindre à la nuance principale sont noués de distance en distance, de façon à ne pas couvrir complêtement la plume de dessous.

Les robes de bal qui se sont déjà faites dans nos premiers ateliers ont généralement des fleurs dans la jupe; celles, par exemple, que les princesses portaient à l'un des bals du mois dernier, étaient en crêpe blanc, avec des guirlandes de petites fleurs formant zigzag, et pla cées en biais; Chaque angle marqué par une fleur plus forte.

On met aussi une ligne droite placée en biais, ou plusieurs bouquets diminuant de grosseur vers le haut et détachés les uns des autres.

Au spectacle on voit beaucoup de chapeaux en satin rose, ornés d'une seule plume rose, peu longue, mais très-fournie, et se recourbant presque sur la passe. Des chapeaux en satin blanc broché, doublés en satin rose, et ornés de deux plumes blanches s'inclinant de côté, appartiennent aussi aux toilettes distinguées.

Les demi-voiles de blonde ne sont plus incompatibles avec les plumes, dès que les plumes toutefois sont en couleur et de la même nuance que le chapeau. Cet arrangement donne souvent un cachet de négligé que ne peut avoir un chapeau à plumes qui ne serait pas modifié par un demi-voile. Ceux en point d'Angleterre sur une capote de satin rose sont de très-bon goût.

On voit beaucoup de capotes qui ont des formes rondes et plissées. A celles là on ne peut admettre de plumes, un bouquet de fleurs ou un noeud sont leurs seuls

MISCELLANEA.

Difficulty of Providing for Chil tren of a certain Class, in English Society.-If a man of the middle class be troubled to provide for his sons, how to provide for his danghters is a more perplexing question. The first-no, the second point; is to get them married; the first point is to prevent them from marrying into a lower, which commonly means a poorer rank than that in which they were born. The first point is generally effected during childhood; when every day, and almost every hour of the day, something happens to impress them with a fear of such degradation as attaches to imprudent marriages.-The second purpose being subject to the first, becomes extremely difficult. We suppose the girl to have no fortune except beauty, tenderness, modesty, and good sense. Who will take her as a wife, that she will take as a husband? She may by chance, or rather her mother may, by dint of great toil and management, catch one of the wealthy class; but this would be an exception to the general rule. The general rule with the daughters of men of small income, whether fixed or not, is a choice between celibacy and marriage with one of the uneasy class. Now a great proportion of young men in the uneasy and midele class dead marriage, unless there be fortune in the case, as the surest means of increasing their embarrassment. This is one of the most important features in the social state of England. Amongst the middle class, amongst all classes except the highest and the lowest, moral restraint" is a confirmed habit. Hence immorality without a parallel in any other country! This is the cause of that exuberaut prostitution which shocks an American. Another effect of moral restraint amongst the middle class is, that a large proportion of the females in it are doomed to celibacy. One may well say doomed. Custom forbids them to practice that sort of "moral restraint" to which their brothers resort without disgrace; and custom is stronger than walls and bars. In this case, it has more power than the strictest disipline of a convent. In England, a certain state of political economy, pride or prudence, and custom, occasion more unnatural suffering than all the religious superstitions of Italy and Spain. The proportion of English women who pine in celibacy, is far greater than that of Spanish or Italian women who languish in convents; and the English women suffer more than the others, because, living in the world, they are more in the way of temptation, more cruelly tantalized by their intercourse with happy wives and mothers. There is not in the world a more deplorable sight, than a fine brood of English girls turning old maids one after the other; first reaching the bloom of beauty, full of health, spirits, and tenderness; next, striving anxiously, aided by their mother, to become honoured and happy wives; then fretting, growing thin, pale, listless, and cross; at last if they do not go mad or die of consumption, seeking consolation in the belief of an approaching millenium, or in the single pursuit of that happiness in another world which this world has denied to them. The picture may displease, even because it is correct. This, Americans, you whose domestic manners an Englishwoman holds up to the ridicule of her country women-this is a faithful sketch from domestic lite amongst the middle class. England & America.

The Outa Snake.-Before we quitted Chunar our dandies who had kindled a fire on the bank of the river, were dressing their rice and curry, when a small snake approaching the place where they were seated, one of them rose and dispatched it with a piece of bamboo. It was about twenty-five in. ches long, entirely white, except the top of the head, which was a deep shining black. This particular species is called by the natives the outa suake. It is very rare, and of peculiar habits. These creatures always go in pairs, and it is remarkable that if one is killed either by man or beast the survivor will follow, until it is either destroyed or obtains its revenge by biting the author of its bereavement. It has been known under such circumstances to keep the pursuit with the most patient perseverance for upwards of three hundred miles. The little creature whose mate was killed by one of our boatmen, was seen, after we had pushed from the shore, gliding along the bank of the stream in a direct line with our boat, and when we reached Cawnpoor there we found it ready to deal its vengeance upon the wanton destroyer of its conjugal felicity. It was despatched belore it could put its evil intention into execution. Oriental Annual.

The Theatres of Ialy.-The far-famed San Carlo is the grand opera, and is the most splendid house in Europe, it is much larger than the King's Theatre in the Haymarket, and the decorations are of a most superb and even gorgeous character. There are six tiers of lofty boxes, the pannels in front are of richly carved gilt wood, and the proscenium is adorned with four magnificent columns of the Corinthian order. The King's box is exactly in the centre of the house, very richly ornamented with crimson-velvet hangings. The interior is of plate glass, and three handsome chandeliers depend from the ceiling. But it is only used on state occasions, three private boxes thrown inte one, being appropriated to the members of the royal family. San Carlo, like most of the theatres in Italy, is insufficiently lighted: but, on certain occasions, there is a grande illuminazione, when it presents an appearance of the most dazzling splendour. On each side of every box is a branch containing five wax torches, the light from which shining on the profuse gilding, with which every part of the house is adorned, renders its brilliancy on first entering too glaring for the eye to support; these supernumerary lights amount in number to 750, exclusive of the chandelier in the centre, and the customary illumination of the theatre * An Italian audiance is naturally

far superior in its musical taste to an English one, and listens to an opera with much greater attention. The fashionables do not (as is frequently the case in our own country) delight more in the sounds of their own voices than than in those of the performers. The foolish custom of applauding an actor before he has opened his mouth does not prevail in an Italian theatre, nor are the airs in an opera interrupted by a senseless clapping of a set of would-be-musical enthusiasts, who by an occasional exclamation of "bravo," would insinuate their appreciation of that which they do not understand. In the theatres of Italy is always observed the mutest attention, which it were sacrilege to interrupt, but the applause at the termination of anything occasioning more than ordinary satisfaction, is often protracted to a somewhat preposterous extent. I remember witnessing at San Carlo the first performance of a new opera by Pacini, founded on Walter Scott's tale of the" Betrothed." The enthusiasm it gave rise to was, in the estimation of one who considered the comparative in. significance of the occasion, irresistibly ludicrous. The principal performers were called for after every scene in which they appeared, and the presence of the composer was insisted on at the termination of each of the three acts. I remember likewise, at Verona, when Pasta was starring it, the audience not only called for her after every scene, waving their handkerchiefs, and threatening to de considerable damage to the theatre, but actually staying in the house half an hour after the curtain had dropped for the evening, vociferating for Pasta, who, to gratify them, again came forward almost undressed, and, after this condescension on the syren's part, they remained still unwilling to disperse, till in ormed by the manager that the object of their idolatry had retired to her home. Fondo is the other royal theatre at Naples. It is neither a very large nor handsome building, but it has generally the same company, and is under the same management as San Carlo. So great is the admiration of music among the Neapolitaus, that nearly all their places of public amusement are devoted solely to its cultivation, and there is but one theatre set apart for the drama. Forentini is the name of the house thus appropriated. Its size is about the same as that of Fondo, and it is generally occupied by a company possessed of at least, respectable talent. The tragic acting of the Italians differs from that of the French and English in about an equal degree. It is without the drawling affectation of the former and is unmarked by many of those touches of genius, which, though often at variance with the strict rules of mere correct delivery, constitute the chief graces of the art in our own country. The manner of their tragedians approaches nearer to that of Young than that of any other actor, though more rarely even than that gentleman, do they condescend to quit the cold propriety of declamation for the irregular brilliancy of genius. They attempt to express different passions only by different tones. They do not consider how a sentiment would be felt, but how it ought to be spoken, and endeavour to find in art a substitute for nature. Their comic acting assimilates very nearly to the English. It is without the naiveté of the French, nor does their humour so much depend on grotesque contortions of the person.

Cobbett's Literary Magazine,