party rose and gave nine astounding cheers, shaking the ceiling of the room above them, and in which the Chief was sitting. Mina walks slowly, and with the help of a stick, being lame from a wound, and from being frost-bitten. There is more of mildness than of any other quality in his countenance: good nature, good temper, affability, and a tendency even to jocularity seem to be imprinted on his features. He is dressed in the English fashion, but several of his suite wear Spanish uniforms. General Pampluna is among them. The Editor of the Plymouth Journal having inserted some scurrilities respecting Mina and Si Robert Wilson, the indignation here and at Plymouth is such, as I never before witnessed. The man, who could write such trash, must have a weak head and a bad heart. He will not, however, write much more here. His dismissal is demanded on all sides. The Paper is generally discontinued; pasquinades are published, and the general belief is that it cannot long exist. A copy of the Paper was publicly burnt on Thursday, and another on Monday, on the parade, amidst the execrations of a concourse of spectators. We noticed in our last that the Plymouth Journal was publicly burnt in our streets during the last week, for the infamous and false accounts it contained of the reception of General Mina. We have now to record that for the same cause it has been expelled from the Reading-room of Messrs Rowe by the Subscribers. Devon Freeholder." The Times, Dec. 16, 1823.

4. As general Mina passed through Taunton, some of the most respectable inhabitants invited him to a public dinner, and he returned the following answer.— "General Mina has had the honour of receiving a letter from the Members of the Municipality of Taunton, inviting him in their own names, and in that of all the inhabitants, to a public feast on Thursday the 18th inst., or any other day he may appoint. The mental and bodily state of General Mina suit little with arrangements of this nature the ill state of his health obliges him to observe a very strict diet, and from the unfortunate circumstances. which

have brought him to England, and seeing the present lamentable and degraded state of his unhappy country, having left his wife, parents, brother, and friends still there-being, as he now is, on the soil of Constitutional liberty, and considering how many Spaniards have just lost it, the appropriate sentiments, in which he can indulge, are those of grief and mourning. These reasons have decided him to refuse any public demonstration of kindness; of which he scarcely dared to flatter himself worthy. Thus impressed, General Mina hopes the above Gentlemen will have the goodness to dispense with his acceptance of their invitation, which he appreciates as though he had been able to accept it; and assures them that the honour they have done him, the satisfactory expression of this kindness, and the distinction shewn him this day by the inhabitants of Taunton, will always be regarded with gratitude and live eternally in his memory. (Signed) Espoz Y Mina, Hatch-Court,Dec. 16, 1823. ” The Courier, Dec. 18, 1823. "The proceedings of General Mina, reported in this day's Journal, and his reply to an invitation of the inhabitants of Taunton, who had invited him to a grand dinner, will for ever stamp his character, we should think, as a man of good sense. The General declines the friendly festival; but in such expressions, from such motives, and, we have no doubt, with such feelings, as will leave the Corporation better satisfied with the refusal than they could have been with the acceptation of the invitation. I am in ill health,' says the gallant man, an unfit guest for the rich repast; I am unhappy; I have left behind me an oppressed country; a wife and parents, a brother and friends are still there. These are no subjects for mirth and feasting.' Brave and wise man! Solomon says there is a time for all things; and we hope the time for mirth and feasting will yet come." The Times, Dec. 19, 1823.

IX.

The Plymouth and Plymouth-Dock Weekly Journal has contradicted (in the Courier, Dec. 29, 1823,) the statement res

pecting the disrepute and discontinuance of the Paper, and announces that the Times, Morning Chronicle and other Papers will be prosecuted for their libellous insinuations.

X. ORDEAL.

"The following mode of trial by ordeal prevails in the Burmah-Empire: A certain quantity of wax is weighed in two equal portions, and formed into two candles, which are lighted at the same instant: one is held by the plaintiff, the other by the defendant, and the holder of the candle, which first burns out, is adjudged to have sworn falsely, and of course to have lost the cause." The Courier, April 17, 1824.

XI. CHARLES DIBDIN.

The following particulars relative to the author of the justly celebrated Sea-songs, are extracted from a monthly musical Work, entitled the Harmonicon. Charles Dibdin was born at Southampton on March 15, 1745; his mother's father was a Clergyman of Bristol, of the name of Garth; his grandfather, on his father's side, was a considerable merchant, and founded a village near Southampton, which bears the name of Dibdin. Mr Dibdin was the 18th child, his mother being 50 at his birth! He had a brother 29 years older than himself, Thomas Dibdin, on whose death he wrote the beautiful ballad of Poor Tom Bowling. This gentleman was Captain of an East-Indiaman, and father of the present Rev. T. F. Dibdin. Charles Dibdin was educated at Winchester, with a view to the clerical function; his propensity for music, however, diverted his attention from everything else, and brought him to London at the early age of 15. He died on the 25th of July, 1814, aged 69, and was buried in St. Martin's burying-ground, on the northeast side of Camden-Town. On a slab placed over his remains by his wife and daughter are engraved the following lines from his pathetic song, Poor Tom, or the sailor's Epitaph. His form was of the manliest beauty;

His heart was kind and soft,

Faithful below he did his duty,

And now he's gone aloft."

The Iris or the Sheffield Advertiser, April 20, 1824.

XII. ANTHONY HENLEY.

Convenient courage.

The Peer congra

"A certain Earl, having beaten Anthony Henley at Tunbridge, for some impertinence, the next day found Henley beating another person. tulated Henley on that acquisition of spirit. Oh, my Lord!' replied Henley, 'your lordship and I know whom to beat.'" The Times, June 12, 1824.

XIII. GEORGE III.

"A curious occurrence took place at Plymouth during the royal visit to that Dock-yard in the year 1787. At this time the great North dock was constructing by Mr Parlby, the architect, by whom the docks and public buildings at that place and at Portsmouth were erected under the direction of the Navy-Board. The good old King, (George III,) always interested and inquisitive in the affairs of his Navy, discovered, by the plans laid before him, that the Builder was exceeding the dimensions given him, and inquired the reason of this deviation from his instructions. Mr Parlby informed his Majesty that the French were then building at Toulon a first-rate ship, so large, that not one of his Majesty's docks was capable of admitting her. He, therefore, considered it necessary to enlarge this one a little, that the Commerce de Marseilles might have one dock in England fit to receive her.' This so pleased his Majesty that he immediately called the Queen to let her know what Mr Parlby had told him, and both were highly delighted. It will be scarcely less gratifying to the English reader, than it was to Mr Parlby, to learn that the first Ship ever taken into that dock was this very Commerce de Marseilles, becoming ours at the surrender of Toulon in 1794. Ekins's Naval Battles." The Iris or the Sheffield-Advertiser, June 22, 1824.

XIV. Verses on love.

“A gentleman, paying a visit one morning, was shewn into a room, where on a writing desk was paper, on which a lady had begun to transcribe a song from the Opera of Love in a village. Remarking that she had left off at the end of the two following lines

In love should there meet a fond pair,

Untutor'd by fashion or art

He took up a pen and completed the verse by adding,

If on earth such a couple there are,

I'll be whipt at the tail of a cart."

The Courier, June 24, 1821.

XV. WILKES.

"There was in Wilkes's time a worthy person, who had risen from the useful, but unpolished business of a bricklayer to be lord Mayor of London. Among other of his early habits the civil dignitary retained that of eating every thing with his fingers. One day a choice bit of turbot having repeatedly escaped from his lordly grasp, Wilkes, who witnessed the dilemma, whispered, "My lord, you had better take your trowel to it." The Courier, July 1, 1824.

XVI. BALAAM'S ASS.

"Sometime ago, as a Lady of the Fortescue-family, who possessed great personal charms, was walking along a narrow lane, she perceived just behind her a hawker of earthenware driving an ass with two panniers laden with his stock in trade. To give the animal and his master room to pass, the lady suddenly started aside, which so frightened the poor animal, that he ran away, but had not proceeded far, when he unfortunately fell, and a great part of the crockery was broken to pieces. The Lady in her turn became alarmed, lest, when she came up to the man, he should load her with abuse, if not offer to insult her; but, to her surprise, when she arrived at the spot, the man with great good humour, gallantry, and wit exclaimed,