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ENGLAND.
15

Nobility do not oppose it, and if the Commons act contrary to it, another set of members are sure to be returned at the next election who are of the same opinion as the public. Such is England, a country where the people govern themselves,—what wonder if such a people have secured for themselves an amount of political liberty which is nowhere else to be found on the face of the globe, America alone excepted.

To-day (25th December) Merry Christmas has returned to bless old England, and loud church-bells rang in the morning through the thousand streets and lanes of London, merrily as a marriage-bell. Christmas.Unlike what we have at home on festive days, it is all quiet and still in the streets, shops and offices are all closed, and the whole town presents a sort of funeral appearance. But do you like to see Christmas in its true aspect? Go to the interior of one of the houses, and mark what passes on there. What with the joy and gladness of every member of the family now assembled together, what with the group of happy faces round the cheerful hearth, what with the roast beef and Christmas plum-pudding of old England, and what with the temptations under the mistletoe, Christmas is a jolly time indeed in England.

The cold season in England begins with the Christmas tide. The other day we had a snowfall. Beautiful flakes of snow descended gently in showers like bits of cotton. The shower was soon over, and we walked on the pavements covered with snow. Unlike our Indian winters with clear skies and sunny days, English winters have