well withdraw the veil altogether, and favour the world with the fulllength portraits of the leading members of the Cosmopolite Club.

The Vicomte de Pigarreau, who was its President, has already been introduced to the public, but not yet sufficiently described. Although loyalty was, doubtless, a shining feature in his character, and had, as he said, rendered him so dear to the elder branch of the Bourbons, he possessed other qualities which made him dearer still to the community at large. In this age of testimonials few men had, perhaps, received so many as the Vicomte de Pigarreau. The quantity of parchment on which his name had been inscribed afforded the most convincing proof how greatly he had been sought after, and the advertising columns of the public papers were constantly recording some act that increased his celebrity. The tone and manner of these documents were of the most affectionate kind, and if the intentions which they expressed could have been carried out, it is more than likely that the Vicomte would even have been boarded and lodged at the public expense. But he was of too generous a nature to allow of this excess of friendly feeling, which, as he used to observe, would have entirely destroyed his independence; and, to avoid attentions which from their frequency actually became importunate, he had recourse to the device of changing his name and residence every now and then, though it was not long before the exercise of his singular virtues brought him into the old predicament. But besides the addresses which were constantly being forwarded to him, the number of valuable objects which came into his possession at different periods, without purchase, was something quite extraordinary; and if the Vicomte had entertained the fancy of making a collection-in illustration of modern art-there are few houses that would have exhibited so fine a display. Long practice had matured his very decided penchants, and we are of opinion that it would have been extremely difficult to find a person of finer taste than the Vicomte in the choice of a costly dressing-case, a splendid bracelet, or richly mounted jewel, an elaborately ornamented fowling-piece, a handsome service of plate or china, or any similar accompaniment to a gentleman's "having;" neither would it have been particularly easy to have made a better selection of the individuals who were destined to furnish any of the abovementioned articles. But the Vicomte de Pigarreau-as we continue, at present, to call him-was not one who cared to make an exhibition of his domicile; he was, moreover, slightly capricious, and, after the charm of novelty had faded, disembarrassed himself of the objets that surrounded him as eagerly as he acquired them. He had an aged relative-the only one, indeed, with whom he continued on terms of intimacy-whose passion was exactly opposite to his, and who loved to gather where others thought only of dispersing. This old virtuoso was an uncle of the Vicomte de Pigarreau-on the sinister side-and as he was rich and likely, one day, to "cut up" well, the profuse nobleman was in the constant habit of sending him the numerous things he no longer desired to keep. But the Vicomte's relative had his peculiar notions also, and he indulged them to such an extent as to give to his intercourse with his nephew the complete air of a matter of business, and would never consent to receive a single present without forcing upon him a sum of money in return, and, at the same time, drawing up a memorandum of the particulars. These interchanges of regard, the old gentleman, who was a sort of wag in his way, used facetiously to call "pledges of mutual affection." "They were,"

he said, "essentially serviceable in strengthening even the ties of relationship. They reminded people of each other when all other means failed. In a world like this, where the takers so greatly outnumbered the givers, it was not only pleasant but wise to establish reciprocity of action." Few people understood reciprocity better than the Vicomte, or practised it more uniformly. Thus, in his dealings with an utter stranger, he would never admit of an hour's delay in coming to a settlement. The instant a tradesman sent in a bill-if he happened to be at home-he invariably gave him one in return. "Bill for bill" was his motto; and, viewing the matter in a commercial light, he took care that nothing should occur to disturb the circulation of his paper. To have called it in would, he thought, have so disturbed the market and brought on so heavy a crash, that he never could be induced to countenance such a measure. On this point, as well as on several others, he recorded his opinions, in the shape of a private journal, and as we have been allowed access to the volume, we may have it in our power to furnish some extracts from it hereafter.

By the ubiquity which marked the Vicomte's movements, the universal character of his dealings, the extent of his travels, the variety of languages and customs with which he was familiar, his profound knowledge of costume, and the admirable way in which he "made up," and, more than all, by the amount of his savoir vivre, he fully established his right to the Presidential chair of the Cosmopolite Club.

We hope it will not be thought to detract from his ability to occupy that chair, when we state that the Vicomte de Pigarreau was an Englishman; and that if amongst his many aliases he had a better right to one name than another, that name was Jones. Modern statistics have satisfactorily shown how easy it is for a person so designated to pass in a crowd, and the Vicomte-to use his own expression-he invariably “fell back upon it."

The Vice-President of the Cosmopolites, General Baron Wacken van der Cuyck XXXVI., was in reality a foreigner. Belgium might have claimed him for her son, and had, indeed, done so on more than one occasion, but she never could keep him, he was so fond of roving, and found the confinement of his native country so irksome. He was born near the village of Waterloo, but travellers might look in vain for his ancestral château, as it was utterly destroyed by the French artillery in the same furious cannonade that riddled the walls of Hougoumont, and made daylight shine through the farm of Mont St. Jean. It was a stirring thing to listen to the General's account of the manner in which he-then only a boy of fifteen-defended the home of his infancy, in his father's absence on the field of battle, against four squadrons of Imperial hussars who were ordered by Napoleon himself to charge the château; a duty which the military reader will immediately perceive (without the aid of the King of Prussia's instructions) falls so completely within the range of the operations of light cavalry.

That his youthful gallantry did not pass unrewarded was attested by the national order of "The Flying Lion" (Le Lion se sauvant), which hung at his button-hole. It was his only consolation, for he never again beheld his sire, whose fate was enveloped in mystery. It was supposed by some that Baron Wacken van der Cuyck XXXV. was the officer who headed that brilliant retrograde movement upon Brussels, in which every

one concerned earned the above-mentioned order of knighthood, but as he did not come back to ask for it, it was bestowed upon his son to commemorate both the father's exploits and his own; so, at least, our friend, the General, said. How Wacken van der Cuyck XXXVI. grew up to man's estate, and how he served his country, it would take us too long to recite; but it is a fact which deserves notice in the history of this gallant fellow, that, though nursed in the lap of battle, and obtaining such distinguished brevet rank, he was fonder of the arts of peace than those of war, and never in private life developed his acquaintance with military stratagems, save in the solitary instance of not allowing any one to turn his flank, if he could by any possibility prevent it. He was of a genial and hospitable nature, and liked nothing better than assembling a number of "his fellow-creatures" round his board, particularly if that board were covered with green cloth, and the guests who flocked to it came with money in their pockets. The General excelled in all games, both of chance and skill, and had acquired the happy art of rendering the former subservient to the latter. His manners were popular, and his philosophy imperturbable. No one, of course, could doubt his courage any more than his integrity; and it was even said that he had, on one or two occasions, allowed himself to be "kicked," merely for the sake of showing the extreme serenity of his mind under circumstances of difficulty. His intimacy with the Vicomte de Pigarreau was a very close one. They had many objects in common, and were united by bonds of more than ordinary interest-of compound interest, in fact, as bonds like theirs were very naturally associated with. There was, moreover, a family connexion between them, the Vicomte's third wife, whose union with that nobleman had not been considered legal, in consequence of two former wives of his being still alive, having formed a morganatic marriage with the Baron Wacken van der Cuyck XXXVI., who was even more deeply involved in matrimonial ties than his accomplished friend.

The Herzog Wolfgang Henker von Donnerblitz, Landgrave of Graballerley, and Stammvater of the ancient house of the Spitzbuben, was an efficient and influential Cosmopolite. He was a mediatised Prince-that is to say, had been sacrificed for the interest of others; but whether he ceased to be a reigning Duke at the treaty of Vienna, or renounced his rights at a later period, we are quite unable to say. In spite, however, of his political deprivation, he was firmly attached to the German Diet, and no one who ever saw the manner in which he made play at breakfast, dinner, or supper, could for an instant entertain a doubt on the subject. He was a strong, stout-built man, with a head like a bullet, and very little hair on it; but to make amends for the absence of what Mr. Rowland calls "the greatest ornament of the human frame," his active jaws bristled from ear to ear as if with a cheval de frise. To this high-born Teuton was assigned the hospitable control of the establishment, and the manner in which he acquitted himself of the duties of "Kelner-undProviantmeister" told very much in his favour. This was the less extraordinary, perhaps, when we remember that the Herzog had since his retirement from public life given himself up almost entirely to the consideration of the great questions of eating and drinking, and, assuming an impenetrable incognito, had actually officiated in the capacity of steward, butler, and occasionally of waiter, at one of those table-d'hôtes on the banks of the Rhine where six hundred strangers of distinction dine at May.-VOL. XCII. NO. CCCLXV.

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least three times a day, and where the principle of cookery is carried so far that even the hot medicinal springs are flavoured by nature to resemble mock turtle.

He might have continued in this congenial employment until apoplexy quietly closed his career, but for a ridiculous mistake which he happened to make in the stormy year of 1848. At that revolutionary period, when thrones and dynasties were tumbling about people's ears, and the motto of every crowned head was "sauve qui peut," the Duke imagined that it was necessary for him also to fly, and, in the fancy that he was saving the crown jewels, carried off all the silver forks and spoons at the ChurSaal. Since that time his Highness had "lived about," chiefly in Paris, and, as his hereditary domains had long been confiscated without a chance of recovery, he had nothing left for it but to make it out, as well as he could, on the proceeds arising from the sale of those identical forks and spoons. When that alchemy ceased, he lent his name and countenance to another, and became one of the directors of the "Exploitation Aurifique de tous les Pays," in which capacity he now came over to England. As he was a heavy, grave-looking man, and wore spectacles -sleeping in them, as the Germans habitually do-he doubled the role of maître d'hôtel with that of croupier at the pleasant little evening entertainments which were speedily set on foot at "The Cosmopolite."

Another distinguished member was the Marquis del Birbante, not very distantly related to the illustrious family of the Collipendenti. Like many of his class, his patrimony was small, and when he came into possession of the old castle in the Apennines, he found in it nothing but a gallery of pictures, the heir-loom of his family. These, it is true, were exceedingly valuable, being chiefly Raffaelles, Titians, Da Vincis, and so forth-such as we only see in the palazzi of Italian nobles-but it was long, very long, before he could be brought to listen to the representations of his Intendant, and agree to sell the portraits of his ancestors. At length, in a moment of intense agony, having subsisted for three months on the acorns of the ilex (a tree which grows very profusely in the Apennines) and the produce of his fusil and fishing-rod (which, with water from the foaming torrent, constituted his sole aliment), he fell in with an English millionaire, who tempted him with so large a sum that we should be ashamed to mention the amount. To that Englishman he sold his favourite Raffaelle; it was a portrait of the Doge Antonio Seroccone, and, according to his own account, he never knew peace of mind afterwards. He abandoned his castle, repaired to Rome, fell in with sharpers, lost his money, and again broke in upon the heir-loom, repeating the act, we are sorry to say, until nothing remained to him but the name and complexion of his forefathers. His own and his country's ruin happening about the same time, he borrowed a hurdy-gurdy from a friend, and fled across the Alps, and in this disguise eventually reached London, where his talents soon recommended him to the notice of the Vicomte de Pigarreau, himself an ardent lover of Art.

We must be briefer in our enumeration of the other chief members of the Club.

There was Mynheer Wouter van Schobbejak, a Dutch gentleman, formerly a merchant in Amsterdam, his dealings being in the general line, sometimes herrings, sometimes tulips, sometimes precious stones, according to the wants of the market-or his own. He had possessed some of the finest diamonds in Europe, but they were gone; yet he cherished their

memory so dearly that he constantly occupied himself in imitating them in paste, and the produce of his ingenuity he set as high a value upon as on the originals, and now and then-when people would have bargainsmade nearly as much money by them. Wouter van Schobbejak had enemies in the Syndicate, and to avoid a conspiracy which was set on foot to deprive him of his liberty, he quitted Holland. Like the generality of his countrymen, he was as mute as a fish, and could drink like one; only instead of water he preferred Schiedam.

Heinrich Würfelspieler was another merchant who had joined the Club, bringing to it a great deal of very valuable experience. He was a native of Bremen, or Hamburg, or some other of the free cities,-which, nobody knew to a certainty, but that he did belong to one of them was evident by the free use he made of everything that came into his hands. He had speculated largely in his time, and been "unfortunate;" assuredly from no fault of his, for he always did his best to control fortune. A slight trait may serve to indicate his character. Of a mathematical turn, he had studied cubic equations so deeply, that he could tell you to a certainty which side of the dice would turn uppermost whenever he handled the box. There were, besides:

Don Lopez de Malacostumbrádo, a grandee of Spain of the (very) first class, who exercised the privilege of wearing his hat on all occasions, and was, of course, a knight of the Golden Fleece; Senhor José Manoel da Lobo, a retired wine-merchant from Lisbon, whose grandfather was Grand Inquisitor, and great-grandfather a Jew, and though not a grandee of Spain, wore three hats at the same time; Count Harrach von Sneezum, Feldzeugmeister in the service of the Prince of Lippe-Salvi ; Count Wrzyszckskewski, a distinguished Pole, who, out of Poland, went by the name of X Y Z; Monsieur Loupgarou, from Lyons; M. de Crottenville, from Paris; M. Coupegorge, from Marseilles; M. Colin Tampon, a military gentleman from Geneva, who sold his services to the best bidder; Cincinnatus W. Sloaker, the wealthy American banker, and his first cousin, Goahead T. Smith, of Tadmor-ville, Kentucky; Major O'Reilly, of the Austrian service; Colonel Blazer, who had come over to settle the debts of the Columbian and Bolivian republics, and contract a few on his own account; and a sprinkling of English gentlemen who answered, some of them, to the names they bore in early life. Mr. Crankshaw, the Yorkshire horse-dealer, was one of these, though, from some unexplained cause, he did not stand A 1 at Tattersall's; Mr. Balders, the bill-broker, was another; Mr. Spokes, the attorney, who had recently taken his name off the rolls-as a precautionary measure—was a third. As to the Reverend Mr. Wadbrook, his writings had caused him to be so well known particularly to the Mendicity Society that to have stifled his fame under any other designation, would have been an act of pure injustice to himself; he accordingly retained his clerical appellation, and was the person on whom it devolved to act as secretary and say grace at the Club.

CHAPTER XI.

HOW THE COSMOPOLITE CLUB GAVE THEIR FIRST GRAND ENTERTAINMENT FOR THE SEASON, AND WHO WERE INVITED.

ENGLISH Society has commonly been reproached for its obstructiveness, but, amongst the changes wrought by the Exhibition of 1851,