except as the soup and other dishes are brought you in succession, the meats being carved by the servants, and all the old-fashioned notions, as to vegetables and side dishes, very much Frenchified, and revolutionized. Grace before meat, and after the removal of the cloth, was always faithfully performed in the circles which I frequented; but I was sorry to hear that this new style of serving the table has somewhat affected those Christian proprieties, by confounding “the _egg_ and the _apples_,” and leaving one in doubt as to where the dinner proper begins, or where it arrives at a legitimate conclusion. The conversation at these dinners never seemed to me as animated as that of breakfast parties. Even the half hour after the withdrawal of the ladies, and the disappearance of servants, was less sociable and sprightly. I must say, however, that I entirely disagree with the profound Mr. Boswell, as regards the introduction of children at the dessert, which, in my opinion, greatly enlivens such occasions. In they come, rosy and beautiful, fresh from the nursery toilet, and bringing joy and hilarity in their eyes and faces! The son and heir steals up to his father; a lovely girl is permitted by mamma to come timidly to you. I was, indeed, a little surprised at a nobleman’s table, when his boy, a youth of twelve or fourteen, came to his side, to find the little fellow introduced as “Lord C——,” instead of _Harry_ or _Willie_, as it would have been with us; but, as nothing could exceed the familiar and affectionate manner in which the title was spoken, I saw at once that it was natural enough to others, however unwonted to my Republican ear, to see a mere child so formally announced. After this announcement he was called simply “C——,” as if it had been his Christian name, and I was pleased with his simple and unaffected manners throughout. English children appear to be “under tutors and governors,” and generally behave with becoming deference to elder persons. I remember not a few of my little friends in England, with real affection. Blessings, then, I say, on the children, and may it never be unfashionable for them to be seen amid fruit and flowers, at an American or an English table!