Another failure of empirical knavery, another slip between the cup of silver and the lip of stratagem, occurs to my recollection. It was my good fortune to win a prize goblet annually given for Roses at one of our midland shows, so frequently, that my success became monotonously irksome to the competitors generally, but specially to one of these covetous exhibitors who grow Roses only for gain. He induced, as it afterwards transpired, two other growers of the Rose to combine with him in an attempt "to beat the parson;" and so sure was this clique of success, that they brought a couple of bottles of wine to the show, to be quaffed from the cup, which I won easily. In the afternoon I happened to come upon the conspirators drinking their port in a quiet corner of the grounds, and one of them not only invited me to partake, but, as from a sudden impulse, and as though the truth must come out with the wine, to my intense amusement, and to the still more intense amazement of his friends, revealed all the history of their little game. He declared that he was thoroughly ashamed of "the job," and was heartily glad they were beat.

Truly it was a strange confession, but I believe the penitence was sincere.

The Despondent Exhibitor is also an exceptional, but by no means discreditable, variety. He is physically incapable of festive emotions - "a sad, gloom-pampered man," but a good Rosarian, and a righteous. If a cloud crosses the sun, he shuts up like a Gazania or a Crocus; if a few drops of rain fall, he hangs his head like Virgil's poppies, "Lassove papavera collo, Demisere caput, pluvia quum forte gravantur".

He never has the slightest expectation of a prize. He has had more caterpillars, aphides, blights, beetles, and mildews in his garden than ever were seen by man. So he tells you with a slow and solemn tone, looking the while as though, like Mozart composing his own requiem, he listened to some plaintive music. I used to regard him with a tender pity, as being unhappy. I used to sigh "Alas for him who never sees The stars shine through his cypress trees! "

But our further acquaintance has convinced me that he has a relish for melancholy. I watched him once, when I knew, but he did not, that he had won a first prize, to see what effect success would have upon him. He came slowly to his Roses, and read the announcement with an expression of profound despair, just as though it had been a telegram informing him that the bank, in which he had placed his all, proposed a dividend of fourpence in the pound!

Warned by these rare examples against anger, avarice, and despond, assured that the horses which rear, bite, kick, and sulk, are seldom winners of the race, let the young exhibitor now acquaint himself with his colleagues generally, and let him learn from them, as from men who have not lived in vain amid the beauties and the bounties of a garden, contentment, generosity, perseverance, hope. They will tell him that the lessons of defeat will most certainly teach him to conquer, if he will only learn them patiently, noting his failures, and making every effort to overcome them. Fighting for the prize, he resembles in one point, and one only I trust, the prize-fighter: when judgment, temper, self-mastery are lost, the battle is lost also. They will tell him not only how to win his laurels, but how to wear them gracefully; in prosperity, as well as in adversity, to preserve the equal mind. But which will be his lot to-day 1 The crisis approaches, and the stern mandate of the peremptory police is already sounding in his ears, "This tent must be cleared for the Judges".

It used to be said at our flower-shows, "Oh, any one can judge the Roses;" and when, few in quantity and feeble in quality, they formed but a small item of the exhibition, they had, of course, no special claims; but this indifference unhappily prevailed long after the Rose had become a chief attraction in our summer shows, and even where it was the only flower exhibited. At our great Rose-shows we have succeeded in eliminating from the halls of justice incompetent judges; but elsewhere the Rosarian takes with his Roses a very anxious heart. Only last year one of our most successful competitors, a Leicestershire clergyman, who had just won two first-prizes at the Crystal Palace, took some Roses equally good to a show at Burton-upon-Trent. Facile princeps, he was not even commended; and on remonstrating was informed by one.of the judges that his Roses, to which precedence had been given at a national contest, "were not the right sorts for exhibition" The fact is, that three varieties of censors are still appointed over the Roses at our provincial shows. There is the man who loves them, knows and grows them well - his judgments will be right.

There is the man who is a clever florist and grows Roses partially - his judgments will generally be right, but if the collections are large or numerous, or nearly equal in merit, he will be perplexed to incapacity. Thirdly, there is the man appointed to be judge of the Roses because he once won a prize for Cucumbers, or because the mayor knows his uncle. The latter is either, in his wise silence, quite useless, or, in his fool's loquacity, a dreadful bore - dangerous wherever he has power. To the second I would say, "Cassio, I love thee, but never more be officer of mine " until you know more about Roses, To the first I take off my hat, as to "a chief justice among chief justices," * and wish that he may ever preside in court when I have a cause to plead.

The arbiter at a Rose-show should be a man who not only lives among Roses, but among Roses in their most perfect phase. He should know the capabilities of each separate variety as to symmetry, colour, and size, that he may estimate and compare accurately the merits of the flowers before him. He should know thoroughly their habit of growth, their peculiarities of leaf and wood, that he may correct misnomers, and detect additions or duplicates. He should regard his office as a sacred duty, not only because justice and honour are sacred things, but because there seems to be a special sanctity in such beautiful handiwork of God; and to be untruthful and dishonest in such a presence and purity should be profane in his sight, as though he lied to an angel. But his duty will be his delight also, and thus, having his inclination at unity with his conscience, and his love instructed by his reason, he cannot fail to fulfil it. Knowing the law thoroughly, and sifting the evidence minutely, he must give the sentence of a righteous judge.