SOME REMARKS UPON MARRIAGES, BIRTHS, AND BURIALS. [HI-DY]. In our Flowery Kingdom when a man marries _he_ pays to the parents or relatives; but with the Barbarians the woman pays to the man. Women are such costly burdens that men demand some compensation for undertaking to keep them; and the relatives of women are glad to get them off their hands at any price. There are in England four great Castes, which contain the whole population. The habits of the Castes differ, though you will observe certain characteristic features common to all. In order to understand more clearly the remarks which follow, it will be convenient to speak of the division of Castes. The _first_--High-Caste. Those who do nothing useful and pass their time in mere self-indulgence. The _second_--High-second Caste. Those who do but very little, and come as nearly as possible to the selfish existence of the _first_. The _third_--High-low. Those who are obliged to work more or less, but are ever longing to attain to the idle selfishness of those above them. The _fourth_--Lowest Caste (Villeins). Labourers, not long since serfs, and still so in effect. The _fourth_ Caste is so _low down_ as to be usually disregarded altogether, in any account of the people, though included in the count taken of the population by Government. They may amount to nearly a half of the whole. They are rarely styled _people_ at all. They are designated by many contemptuous names, of which the more common are _my man_, _navvy_, _clown_, _clod-hopper_, _parish-poor_; _boor_, _rough_, _brute_, and _beast_ are frequent, especially when any of the despised Caste slouch too near, or happen to touch a Higher Caste. When a man of the higher orders thinks to take a wife, he sees to it that she will bring him money enough to compensate the cost. He dislikes to part with his easy freedom and yoke to himself a being as selfish, frivolous, and useless as himself. _He_ may be broken in fortune and notorious for immoralities, yet, connected to the Aristocracy, he knows that he may demand a large sum if he will take for wife a woman a little lower in family than himself. She must be of High-Caste, but not of the highest. The woman's relatives say, "Well, he is _fast_; but marriage will settle him. His father, you know, is second son to the Earl of Nolands, and his mother was a sixth cousin to the Duke of Albania, who has royal blood in his veins. I think we may make a large allowance for such a desirable match." It does not occur to the speaker, at the moment, that the royal blood coursed through very impure channels in the case cited. It is an object eagerly sought by low rich to buy for their daughters a High-Caste husband; and men of this kind, ruined by gambling, loaded with debt, often degraded by vice, deliberately calculate upon this ambition to repair their fortunes, and get comfortable establishments.