take into account possible errors in transmission. But tell me, has
there been a national defeat?"

"Well, yes," admitted _Mr. Punch_, with a sigh--"we did not
come out altogether satisfactorily. Even the second man was a
Frenchman--albeit, his name was suggestive of dear old Scotland."

"And do you mean to say," said the New-Zealander, "that the best
scullers of England were beaten by a boating-man from the Seine?"

"It is too true, and the Frenchman himself succumbed to a
Dutchman--yes, we confess it, and with shame."

"I don't see why you should," returned the other, changing his tone
to one of greater satisfaction. "As a New-Zealander, I observe nothing
degrading in the superiority of Old Holland." And considering the
prowess of VAN TROMP in the past, there was perhaps nothing so strange
in the triumph of OOMS in the present.

* * * * *

"TO PAY OR NOT TO PAY, THAT IS THE BISLEYNESS."

MY DEAR MR. PUNCH,--I see that the receipts of the National Rifle
Association have fallen off, and that there is a proposal to make the
Bisley Meeting this year rather more attractive than its predecessors.
The Camp is to be open, and there are to be Concerts and other
distractions. But is this enough? Once confess that Rifle-shooting
is not the sole business of the gathering, and the way is cleared for
more amusing items. All that is wanted to convert a semi-failure into