society outside of us; for, with all the improved locomotion of the age, travelling was our universal resort for all classes and all circumstances. And, again, the visits which we thus increasingly paid to our neighbours far and near, began also to be as cordially and fully reciprocated by them.
Ministerial receptions of this comprehensive kind became, in particular, the feature of the time; and when the palatial accommodations, furnished by our centralized public office system, became available, these great assemblages at once assumed the character of a grand national institution. The science, the progress, the general intelligence of the time were ever there freshly represented. The effectual shortening of parliamentary sittings by the "Special Hansard" method, already alluded to, was eminently favourable to this new politico-social departure. The wearied minister in "The House" could be promptly refreshed by a short walk through the great corridors of the national edifice, transferring him, mind and body, from the graver to the lighter sphere, within still timely evening hours, and all underneath one and the same roof. These official interminglings and receptions became at last the business and social resource of every evening all the year round, and the pleasant scene where the highest and the humblest of society met together for mutual acquaintance, edification, and good-will.
All along our coasts, such as these coasts still were, at this stage of my retrospect, and more
