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ances; but that would be hard to do, even if she were willing, for she is classified by sensible men as belonging to another set. Her mother has no gentlemen friends upon whom she might safely practise a new style of conversation at home, and would only be vexed, and tell her it was "her own doing," if she were to confide her troubles to her. Just arrived, in fact, at an age when she could first form a womanly judgment, and choose her companions with a taste that would hold good, she will find that her choice was long ago made, and that the position and character which should now be before her, are already fixed and stamped, and are no more matters of choice.

And what chance has Miss Melta Nyscriem to marry, either agreeably to herself or satisfactorily to her parents? A refined young man shrinks instinctively from the thought of a bride who could never enter society without recalling, to the mind of every one, the number of persons in the room to whom she had been previously "engaged." Her own doubt, whether she could be agreeable to a superior man, would prevent her receiving him graciously or appearing to the advantage of which she might be ambitious. Resources to retire upon, in the hope of out-living this prematurely chosen position, she has none.

But would not a mother, who had kept her own place in society-who had friends of her own, youthful, but better chosen-who, as her daughter's intimate companion, would have imperceptibly trained her to converse with persons of any age, like a girl of sense, while she prevented her from cultivating and parading the silly and useless intimacies which are so enviously remembered by rivals-would not such a mother have marked out for her, probably, a much more desirable destiny? With the earnest wish to allow to a young girl every possible freedom of choice, should she not be guarded against destroying her own value before she is ready to give herself away? And may not a mother's experience and watchful friendship, train and keep guard over a daughter, at that incautious age of life, without undue interference-without, indeed, any hindrance of such natural selection for intimacy as would afterwards be pleasantly remembered?

SOCIETY AND MANNERS IN NEW YORK.

Mobility of Fashionable Usage in New York-Depreciation of the Social Value of Wealth-Exacted Respectability of AcquisitionNecessity of Ornamental Acquaintance-Rising Fashion of Stylishlooking People.

WE hardly think Americans are aware of the kaleidoscope facility with which usages of society are adopted in this country-the suddenness with which changes come about— the ease with which prejudices are destroyed-the alacrity with which public opinion takes any plausible inoculation of improvement or novelty. Phenomenon as this is, in the history of Civilization, however, the explanation of it is very simple. Society, in all European countries, is the simple, indigenous growth of many centuries-a tree carefully nursed and guarded, the products and fruits of which were sheltered from foreign admixture, and affected only through root and soil. Society in America, on the contrary, is a transplanted stock, with no proper fruit of its own, though of no prodigal fertility; forbidden, by the nature of our institutions, from being formally fenced in or privileged, but lending its juices spontaneously to any graft that may be inserted. Comers from all nations may sit in the shadow of it with equal welcome. A usage of Europe that has been ages in maturing, is ingrafted upon it and bears product in a year, or, having been tasted to repletion, it is dropped as readily and superseded by another. We have no national opinions on the disputed points of society-no prejudices-no habits.

It will be understood, at once, that this stage "of easy wax" is natural to a new country, peopled by large simultaneous immigrations from every nation of Europe, and that, with time and knowledge, our impressibility will harden, and we shall have, like older countries, fixed standards, and manners no more easily affected by innovation. It is meantime, however, that opportunity best offers, for suggestion of good principles and remedy of evils; and, we seriously believe we could do our country no better service, in this journal, than by agitating constantly the questions of relative social value, and settling, by discussion, as perseveringly and siftingly as possible, the bearings of polite usages and the good

and evil of what a contemporary disapprovingly calls “distinction of classes."

Let us call attention, for the moment, to a change in New York society which is now in transition, and suggest a result which we are hardly sanguine enough to anticipate, though it is very desirable.

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No one will deny, we presume, that mere wealth has lost much of its value, within the last five years, as a passport to society. There are, at this moment, rich people, by scores, waiting unadmitted, at the door of Fashion - those, too, whose houses, carriages and "good"-ness in Wall street, would, at one time, have been an open-sesame undisputed. Wealth, now, above an easy competency, only suggests the additional question of "how it was made;" and, without a satisfactory answer to that, the blackball upon a new-comer's advances would be unanimous. The inquiry, however, can only settle the point that the wealth is no objection; and it is in this transition of wealth from a very positive to a merely negative consideration, that we find the progress to which we wished to called the attention of the reader.

The necessity of having an ornamental acquaintance, is a feeling which has, of late, strengthened very perceptibly in the higher circles of New York, and this opposes, perhaps, to a claimant of fashion, the most formidable barrier. How Mrs. Somebody, who has left her card, will grace a matinée or figure at a ball, is the chief speculation which decides whether the visit shall be returned at all, or returned promptly or laggardly-with a mere card or with an "At Home" naming a weekly day of reception. It is not beauty that is exacted-though that is a very privileged passportbut style. To look well-bred has a value in this metropolis, at present, which gives more social rank than in any other capital in the world. And it is not surprising, for, where there are no titles, the grounds of fashionable estimation vary capriciously—with a few dazzling examples, or with rarity or over-use-and "old families" having mostly died out or become impoverished, and wealth losing its value by frequency and vulgar accompaniments, the "premium" has fallen very naturally upon the external stamp of Nature. It is a well understood and definite emulation, with those who receive, to have the most distinguished-looking group at a

matinée, or the most stylish of people and dresses at an evening party.

Advanced, however, as this stage of fashionable estimation is, beyond a merely monied aristocracy, it is still very far less rational, less refined and less nobly republican than the standards that prevail in some of the choicer societies of Europe. In our next number we will endeavour to sketch one or two circles abroad, the elevated tone and feeling of which are the slow result of centuries of progress, but which we trust may be anticipatorily attained by the overleaping earnestness of our country, and by that unconceited willingness to learn which puts Americans over time as electricity puts news over distance.

The circles in London, the access to which is generally understood to be most an honor and privilege, are not those whose entertainments and guests are duly chronicled in the Morning Post. The Duke of Devonshire's, the Marquis of Lansdowne's, the Duchess of Sutherland's, and two or three other houses of the nobility, form the sphere which is most unexceptionable for rank, style, and fashionable distinction. Into this, entrance may be obtained by advantages impersonal and accidental, and the position thus won may be retained by the same tenure, without any contribution to the brilliancy or agreeableness of the evening's entertain

ment.

There is another sphere in London, formed of perhaps five or six houses, to which many have free access who would never be invited to the entertainments of the nobility; and to this sphere, on the other hand, many who visit freely in noble circles would with difficulty obtain admittance. Among these are the houses of Hallam the historian, Babbage the mathematician, and one or two other gayer receptions than

these.

To this level of London society, a dandy lord, with no conversation but that of second-hand rote, would never attain; nor a titled lady who was merely a dashing woman of fashion; nor any representative of money and nothing else. Strangers and foreign diplomatists aside, you are sure that every other guest is a person of mark--eminent for wit or powers of conversation, interest of connection or distinction of personal character, beauty or grace, genius, energy or adventure. The threshold of this circle is carefully guarded against folly

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and pretension, but, above all, against commonplaceness. Aristocratic it is-but the aristocracy is of God's endowing, not of Mammon's or the Queen's.

There is a great difference in the manner in which these different kinds of society are frequented. At a ball at Lansdowne House or Devonshire House, the guests arrive at near midnight, in full dress, comply with all that ceremony or etiquette can require, and, if they wait for the sumptuous supper at two or three, usually go home by daylight. To these magnificent routs, men of rank who have a career to look after, such as Lord John Russell, Lord Brougham, Sir Robert Peel, or ambitious men who guide adventurous intellects by collision and constant comparison of thoughts with other minds, look in for half an hour, or are perhaps only seen at two or three in the course of the season. emulation at such places is that of splendor and display, mainly, and acquaintance with the current gossip of Court and fashion is more available than any other coin of inter

course.

The

To the choicer intellectual receptions which we have described, guests go earlier, at nine or ten, and they commonly separate before twelve. Tea is usually offered in the cloak-room as you enter, or found in a side-room, presided over by the housekeeper, and, except the ordinary eatables of a tea-table, no supper is given. The least possible ceremony is observed. The eminent statesmen come up from the session of Parliament in the dress they have worn all day, and, at any one of these parties, there are more noblemen, of the class we hear of at a distance, than at the most fashionable rout. Artists and authors are there, in what costume they please to come. Those among ladies of high rank who frequent this class of society, (of whom there are many who shine in it and prefer it to all others,) appear in full dress, if they are going afterwards elsewhere, or in a home evening dress if not, and, of either sex, no particular toilet is exacted by ceremony or usage. This freedom would be looked for, naturally, in an intellectual sphere of society; but there is one feature of these few privileged receptions in London which takes the stranger by surprise-the extraordinary proportion of beautiful women whom he meets there. Whether it is that men of intellect attract beauty by giving it its best worship, or that the most valued gifts of Nature (and beauty