with heavy folds of maroon coloured velvet overspread with lace.  Look where you will, the picture of former wealth and taste presents itself.  Around the walls hang costly paintings, by celebrated Italian masters; some are portraits of the sovereigns of England, from that of Elizabeth to George the Third.  Brilliant lights jet forth from massive chandeliers and girandoles, lighting up the long line of chaste furniture beneath.  The floor is spread with softest Turkey carpet; groups of figures in marble, skilfully executed, form a curiously arranged fire-place; Britannia’s crest surmounting the whole.  At each end of the room stand chastely designed pieces of statuary of heroes and heroines of past ages.  Lounges, ottomans, reclines, and couches, elaborately carved and upholstered, stand here and there in all their antiqueness and grandeur.  Pier-glasses, massive tables inlaid with mosaic and pearl, are arranged along the sides, and overhung with flowing tapestry that falls carelessly from the large Doric windows.  Over these windows are massive cornices, richly designed and gilded.  Quiet grandeur pervades the whole; even the fairy-like dais that has been raised for the nuptial ceremony rests upon four pieces of statuary, and is covered with crimson velvet set with sparkling crystals.  And while this spectacle presents but the vanity of our nature, grand but not lasting, the sweet breath of summer is wafting its balmy odours to refresh and give life to its lifeless luxury.

The gay cortŠge begins to assemble; the halls fill with guests; the beauty, grace, and intelligence of this little fashionable world, arrayed in its very best, will be here with its best face.  Sparkling diamonds and other precious stones, dazzling, will enhance the gorgeous display.  And yet, how much of folly’s littleness does it all present!  All this costly drapery-all this show of worldly voluptuousness-all this tempest of gaiety, is but the product of pain and sorrow.  The cheek that blushes in the gay circle, that fair form born to revel in luxury, would not blush nor shrink to see a naked wretch driven with the lash.  Yea! we have said it was the product of pain and sorrow; it is the force of oppression wringing from ignorance and degradation the very dregs of its life.  Men say, what of that?-do we not live in a great good land of liberty?

The young affianced,—­dressed in a flowing skirt of white satin, with richly embroidered train; a neat bodice of the same material, with incisions of lace tipped with brilliants; sleeves tapering into neat rufflets of lace clasped upon the wrist with diamond bracelets, a stomacher of chastely worked lace with brilliants in the centre, relieved by two rows of small unpolished pearls,—­is ushered into the parlour, followed by groomsmen and bridesmaids as chastely dressed.