thrice rung a bell, which nobody answered, walked, without further ceremony, through the rooms on the ground-floor, as divers other gentlemen (mostly with their hats on and their hands in their pockets) were doing very leisurely. Some of these had ladies with them, to whom they were showing the premises; others were lounging on the chairs and sofas; others, in a perfect state of exhaustion from listlessness, were yawning drearily. The greater portion of this assemblage were rather asserting their supremacy than doing anything else, as they had no particular business there that anybody knew of. A few were closely eyeing the moveables, as if to make quite sure that the President (who was far from popular) had not made away with any of the furniture, or sold the fixtures for his private benefit. “After glancing at these loungers—who were scattered over a pretty drawing-room, opening upon a terrace which commanded a beautiful prospect of the river and the adjacent country, and who were sauntering too about a larger state-room, called the eastern drawing-room—we went upstairs into another chamber, where were certain visitors waiting for audiences. At sight of my conductor a black, in plain clothes and yellow slippers, who was gliding noiselessly about, and whispering messages in the ear of the more

impatient, made a sign of recognition, and glided off to announce him. There were some fifteen or twenty persons in the room. One a tall, wiry, muscular, old man from the west, sunburnt and swarthy, with a brown-white hat on his knees and a giant umbrella resting between his legs, who sat bolt upright in his chair, frowning steadily at the carpet, and twitching the hard lines about his mouth, as if he had made up his mind 'to fix' the President on what he had to say, and wouldn't bate him a drain. Another, a Kentucky farmer, six-feet-six in height, with his hat on and his hands under his coat-tail, who leaned against the wall and kicked the floor with his heel, as though he had Time's head under his shoe, and were literally ‘killing' him. A third, an oval-faced, bilious-looking man, with sleek black hair cropped close, and whiskers and beard shaved down to blue dots, who sucked the head of a thick stick, and from time to time took it out of his mouth to see how it was getting on. A fourth did nothing but whistle. A fifth did nothing

but spit.

“We had not waited in this room many minutes before the black messenger returned, and conducted us into another of smaller dimensions, where, at a business-like table covered with papers, sat the president himself. He looked somewhat worn and anxious

—and well he might, being at war with everybody— but the expression of his face was mild and pleasant, and his manner was remarkably unaffected, gentlemanly, and agreeable. I thought that in his whole carriage and demeanour he became his station singularly well.”

AN AUDIENCE IN SIAM.

We take the following interesting account of an audience in Siam from Neale's “Narrative of a Residence at the Capital of the Kingdom of Siam”:— We hopped into the presence-chamber on all fours, like a company of frogs on the borders of a marsh; and this method of approaching the king was a leniency accorded only to us, for the Siamese themselves crept in on their stomachs, and remained prostrate during the whole interview. On our first entry I could perceive nothing but a very magnificent curtain, worked entirely of gold and silver tissue, which stretched across the whole length of the room; presently the soft notes of a remarkably sweet-toned organ reached our ears, and as the symphony gradually swelled into the beautiful cadence of one of Mozart's masterpieces, the curtain drew aside by degrees, and revealed to our expectant eyes the corpulent and half-naked body of the mighty and despotic king of Siam. The silence that ensued for some minutes was only interrupted by the sweet music of that self-performing little organ ; and innumerable were the prostrations made by the craven courtiers and flatterers that surrounded his majesty. The king was seated upon a throne—cross-legged, of course—of somewhere about two feet elevation from the ground, formed of most exquisite workmanship in ivory and ebony, with a cushion and hangings of fine red velvet, inwrought with silver ; and the scene would have been very imposing had it not been for the ludicrous appearance of his majesty himself, who, excepting the golden tissue cloth round about his loins, and reaching down to his knees, had very much the appearance of an overbloated Brahmin priest, and appeared to have been putting to the test that insane practice, which tradition attributes to the Brahmin tribe, of eating till the straw, which they had previously tied round their stomach as a mark to limit their feastings, should burst.

VISITING THE POPE.

The Pope receives only seven strangers at a time, and many days often elapse between one receptionday and the next.

The necessary equipment is a court dress, sword, &c. Persons who have a claim to it may go in uniform, naval or military; and many do this who have no claim.

The uniform of a naval lieutenant had got into the hands of a Roman tailor, who had let it out for the occasion of an introduction to the Pope to so many of our countrymen, that it was nearly as well known at the Vatican as the habit of a cardinal would be, and the “navy lieutenant” was a standing joke at Rome.

When the seven persons who are to form that day's party are all arrived at the introducer's, they set out for the Vatican, where they are at first introduced by one of the cardinals; and then, being desired to divest themselves of their swords, are conducted to the pregence of the Pope. Nothing can contrast more strongly with the pomp and circumstance of a royal levée than this scene. The Pope sits in a sort of study, at his table, writing, with books near him, his dress being quite en deshabille, somewhat like a flannel dressinggown. When the visitors enter, he rises and comes forward to the circle, and commences conversation, generally preceding it with a remark complimentary to the English character. The period for remaining in the papal presence is various, but generally it does not exceed half an hour.