Further, there can be no reason why mistresses should not agree to let each of their servants have a certain number of hours during the week which they may consider their own. The one drawback to service, in the eyes of many who would be better off in service than they are now, is, that they cannot have the evenings which at present are at their disposal. If the housewife gives the matter a little thought, she will see that this is an enigma the solution of which is not impracticable. The future must be pregnant with reform in the relations between the occupants of the drawing-room and of the servants’ hall. If masters and mistresses are wise, they will rob the revolutionary spirit of the age of any force it may have, by anticipating in a generous and liberal-handed manner claims which, if ignored, may result in a condition of things as undesirable as that which to-day obtains in Australia, where servants, at least as they are known in the old country, are non-existent. A SUBAQUEOUS EXCURSION. Our good-fortune in obtaining permission to descend a caisson of the gigantic Forth Bridge—which when completed will be one of the most stupendous railway viaducts in the world—obtained additional zest from the fact that comparatively few structures are founded on what is termed the pneumatic principle in this country—the employment of compressed air being more in vogue on the continent—and still fewer are open to the passing visitor, uninfluenced alike by professional or scientific ardour. Arrived at North Queensferry, on the Fife side of the Firth of Forth, we embark for the island in mid-channel, and rounding the easternmost promontory of the rock, see before us a huge iron cylinder, which, but for the incongruity of its position, we should take for a gasometer, and not a caisson. We land, and are forthwith marshalled to the dressing-room. Leathern caps and garments of a sombre blue hue are donned, and we are ready to descend. Before, however, proceeding, a brief outline of the working of a caisson, the end in view, and the means adopted in the attainment of that end, may be given, which will enable the reader to follow our movements.