CAUSES OF FAILURE. 5 



But now comes a most important question : 

 Have we beautiful Roses in proportion to this 

 great multiplication of Rose-trees ? The printer 

 will oblige me by selecting a brace of his biggest 

 and blackest capitals, with which I may reply 

 emphatically, NO. It is indeed, at first sight, a 

 marvel and perplexity, that Avhile the love of 

 Roses is professed so generally — while the de- 

 mand for Rose-trees has increased so extensively, 

 and the flower itself has every year disclosed some 

 new and progressive charm — Roses should be so 

 rarely seen in their full and perfect beauty. Queen 

 Rosa, in common with other potentates, has 

 greatly enlarged her armies, but how few young 

 officers have as yet distinguished themselves fight- 

 ing in the wars of the Roses ! Though some of 

 her great generals, including our Commander-in- 

 chief, Rivers of Sawbridgeworth, and Keynes of 

 Salisbury, and Hedge of Colchester, have gone 

 from us, full of years and honors, most of her 

 heroes are veterans, and the names of those (I 

 give them alphabetically, to avoid invidious dis- 

 tinctions) who fight in the wars of the Roses or 

 attend to the commissariat have been long familiar 

 to our ears — Baker, Bulmer, Cant, Cranston, Cur- 

 tis, Dickson, Ellison, Francis, Fraser, Frettingham, 

 Hole, Hollingsworth, House, Lane, Lee, Merry- 



