1 studies in which I am soon to be immersed,-I shall feel, believe me, no ordinary gratification, if I may flatter myself that you will waste a single thought upon my interests, or breathe a single wish for my future welfare!" Here Mr. Le Blanc concluded; but I understand that his Vale, as shown-up in school, was of a much greater length. His name was then ordered to be enrolled among our honorary members, on the motion of Mr. Courtenay. The Club proceeded to ballot for two candidates. I will draw the characters of both, although the first only was successful. CHARACTERS OF TWO MORE CANDIDATES. It had long been a matter of surprise to the whole School, that a society like "The King of Clubs" should have existed for so many months without enrolling among its members that choice character, JASPER HARVEY. The main-spring by which this individual regulates every action, is a social disposition, which embraces a most comprehensive view of the duties of good-fellowship. To this his time, his thoughts, and his money, have been sacrificed; but, in return, he has attained that most difficult of all acquirements, the art of keeping on terms with all parties, by never declaring for any particular one of the many which agitate our miniature world. He is equally popular with the Cricketers and Boatmen, whose interests so often and so violently jar; for he contrives to satisfy the demands of both. With the one he is accounted a hard swipe, an active field, and a highly creditable stout bowler; and he is stroke of the ten-oar to the others. What would the duck and green pea suppers at Surley-Hall do without the good-humoured smiles and smart repartees of Jasper Harvey? The preparations for the glorious Fourth of June would be a mere chaos of doubt and perplexity, were it not for the steady coolness with which Harvey issues his directions. In fact, the legislative and executive are both lodged with him on these occasions. His fiat decides the claims of the rival boats in their choice of jackets, hats, and favours; and the judicious selection of fireworks is an additional proof of his taste. It has long been a maxim of philosophy to refer all things to first principles; I ought, therefore, to apologise for thus húrrying, in medias res, without first noticing the circumstances of birth and early habits, which led to the formation of the character of this Eton demagogue. Jasper was born of most respectable parents at W -. His father enjoys an extensive practice in his profession of the law, and of course is a personage of no small consequence in a borough, where the corporation, for the most part, consists of tradesmen who have rapidly risen to affluence, from administering, at good profits, to the comforts and luxuries of a court residence. Such worthies generally contain less in their heads than in their purses, and are easily managed by a clever spirit, who will condescend to such a task. Mr. Harvey has always ready at hand, against the public dinners and meetings, two or three new songs, and as many dozen of old jokes; which, as if establishing the truth of the Pythagorean Creed, have animated successive generations from the time of Joe Miller. And thus, by falling in with the prevailing humours of the old codgers, and by flattering the personal vanity of the younger townsmen, whenever he has "the pleasure of meeting" them in the street, Mr. H. is become the oracle of the Vestry-room and Town-hall. The vicinity of Eton College was a tempting opportunity for procuring a polished education for his only son; and besides, Mrs. H.'s maternal feelings would be spared the pang of so decided a separation from her darling, as the sending him to a boarding-school must cause. This last consideration decided the matter, and Jasper came to Eton on the plan of a day-scholar; it being arranged that he should return home to his meals and sleeping-hours. At first the little fellow was very obedient to Mamma's wishes, and whenever his form was dismissed from the School-room, and his engagements with his Tutor were discharged, he was seen trudging up town with his Gradus, Grammar, and Dictionary, under his arm, and the ink-bottle in his hand. By degrees, however, as his acquaintance increased, and their invitations for his companionship in their different sports multiplied ad infin., Harvey had fewer journeys a day into Berkshire and back. He was at first observed to loiter about Barnspool, swimming paper boats, or stoning the ducks. In process of time he was enrolled in the lower Clubs of cricket or football, according to the time of year, became the best at a leap across Chalvey ditch, and was known to have brought down a robin after a toodle of two or three miles. In the meantime his W- connexions were only kept up by his occasional appearance in public alongside of his Admiral at the Town-hall dinners; to which he was introduced at an early age. It is some years now since he signalized himself by the arch style of his "Miss Nightcap and her Sweetheart; a song of his, which has even made the gray-beards at table shake with laughter. The remaining outlines of my sketch may as well be filled up by the imagination of my reader as by my pen. "Train up a child," says the old proverb, " in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not depart from it." Taught from his very infancy to consider universal popularity as the summum bonum, we have seen, in the former part of this essay, that Harvey has attained the acme of his wishes. His equals love him for his social qualities, and court his acquaintance as the sine quá non of society; and the younger members of the community look up to him as a father. Such is his condescension, that his good offices are never refused to the lowest underling in the School. Is power abused by the upper boys? Harvey is appealed to as the mediator between the fag and his master. His grants of liberties to the commonalty are indiscriminate and profuse, while his influence is always exerted to obtain the same privileges for his numerous protegées from the more close aristocrats. The consequence of this is, that our "Friend of the People" is attended in all his movements by a shoal of dependents, of every form in the School: some to get their lessons construed, and others to further their claims to their respective stations in the next match or water expedition. I have omitted to mention an excellent system, by which he secures the influence over his equals which he has gained by his good-natured temperament and useful accomplishments. This is effected by the dinner-parties which he is enabled to give occasionally at home, to select divisions of six or eight. It affords me true pleasure to meet with this opportunity of a public acknowledgment for the kindness and affability which so many of my schoolfellows and myself have invariably met with at the table of the Harveys. The - style in which the banquets have been served up,-the highlyseasoned French dishes, and the superb trifle dish in the centre, have frequently called forth the panegyrics of a Rowley. But there has been another enjoyment far beyond. what sensual indulgences can afford, which has given these parties their true gusto,-the social intercourse with this family of chaste breeding and elegant manners. The hearty English hospitality of the father, the conversational powers of Mrs. H., and, "last, not least," the charming smiles and musical talents of Miss Emily, have made impressions upon our minds, and will long be preserved there by sentiments of grateful attachment. "To turn and But I am run away with by my subject. to return." I may well be asked what acquirements my friend Harvey possesses to entitle him to a seat in a literary club. I am reminded that the cricket jacket, turned up with blue, the ten-oar broad brim, and the prowess which fought its way through hosts of Bargees, when intercepted upon Windsor-hill, are no particular recommendations in his present canvass. Let it not, however, be thought that his other avocations have so entirely monopolized him as to preclude a due attention to study. Had it been so, his success with the o Too would never have been so complete. It was of course necessary for a pretender to a character of this sort to have the ability of conferring obligations in the school linenot subject himself to the necessity of soliciting them. This consideration taught Harvey to husband carefully every hour which he spent at home: a decent scholarship, and much general knowledge, was the reward of this plan. I do not intend to lay any claim for him in the department of the imagination. The steady and sober intellects of this individual form a contrast to the brilliant mind of a Montgomery. Harvey is made for real life, and all the bustling engagements of society; he is alone in solitude, and at home in a crowd. Free from the weaknesses to which great minds are liable, he has neither thought nor wrote himself into a belief in ghosts, second-sight, animal magnetism, craniology, or the like, as Johnson, Scott, Le Blanc, &c. are supposed to have done sure in common matters, his judgment is not deep enough for any thing abstruse. Plain good sense how ever is a substitute, which more than counterbalances the deficiency. By an instant glance he can tell the difference between a pillar and a post, while such minds as Le Blanc's have had recourse to all the orders of architecture, and inquired into substance and essence before they have ventured to decide on the question. The treasure-house of his memory is well stored, and his reputation as an orator leads us to expect that he will prove a distinguished member of our society. His proficiency in English literature must be judged of by its fruits; and I now quit a character which I have dwelt upon with pleasure, not forgetting to offer an old friend's congratulation on the event of this last test of his popularity, his admission into—“ The King of Clubs." It is with no small degree of compunction that I find myself called upon, as Secretary of the proceedings of our Club, to record, for the first time, the rejection of a Candidate. I am aware that it must appear an invidious task to attempt to delineate a character, when the question of our opinion of him has been already prejudged by the event of the ballot. It is, however, an act of necessity, peremptorily required of me by my duty to the Club, since it tends to exculpate the Members from all charge of selfish ill-will or private pique, in the marked degradation of a schoolfellow; inasmuch as I shall prove that, after a mature consideration of the worth of the individual, our verdict could not be otherwise than it was. PHILIP WASNEY JENKYNS is the eldest son of an ancient family in the West of England. But this same fortunate coincidence of good birth has been a grievous stumblingblock to the hero of our tale. How justly may we have recourse to the words of the Roman Satirist : "Malo pater tibi sit Thersites, dummodo tu sis Jenkyns can accurately enumerate the heroes, statesmen, philosophers, and other worthies, of the long pedigree of his ancestors, but forgets at the same time the responsibility which has descended upon his own shoulders, to transmit, in unimpaired lustre, to posterity, the renown of his race by his own individual exertions. We have often heard of the |