CCLXXV. Billy Taylor &c.

Febr. 25, 1838. Billy Taylor is a prisoner here; his wife and daughter got drunk, and were locked in; she was lying in the passage; some one came and told Billy to take care of his wife's virtue; she would be rasped; never mind, said he, she has been so 500 times......

G. W. M. Reynolds says that a friend of his blasphemously swears by the top-curl of the Almighty's perriwig!

Dr H. Lee said that a Frenchman, who taught French at Oxford, was asked how he got on there with the men, and he coolly said that if God Almighty were to say to him, Monsieur, which would you prefer, to teach the young men at Oxford, or to be damned? I declare to you that if it was the same thing to God Almighty, I should prefer to be damned!

CCLXXVI. SUNDAY LEGISLATION.

The saints of our day, meekly tolerant of the indulgences of those in high station, are exasperated against the crying sin of poor man's slaking his thirst during the hours of Divine Service. That the hard-working mechanic, pent up in his workshop during the week, should take recreation on the Sunday, this, in their eyes, is a crime which calls for the visitation of Heaven, and the vengeance of the Magistrate. The world of fashion may entertain their guests on the Lord's-day, and the wealthy of the land may have their accustomed indulgences without offence to Heaven; but that a public-house should be open in which a tradesman, after his walk, may procure rest and refreshment, this is an offence to be punished with fines and forfeitures, as one not to be borne with in a Christian land.

CCLXXVII. THE BOOK-WORM'S WIFE.

To a deep scholar said his wife:
"Would that I were a book, my life!
On me you then would sometimes look ;
But I should wish to be the book,
That you would mostly wish to see:
Then say what volume should I be ? "
"An almanac," said he, "my dear:
You know we change them ev'ry year."

CCLXXVIII. SELFISH.

A gentleman made his servants sell the produce of his lake. A wit observed that he was endeavouring to make his servants as sel-fish as himself!

CCLXXIX. EXCHANGE NO ROBBERY.

A gentleman, on leaving a party, missed his hat which was a new one. "Oh, sir," said the servant, "all the new hats have been gone these two hours."

CCLXXX.

Febr. 25, 1888. An Irishman, who hawks paper about in the prison, was speaking of LORD GORMANSTON's son, who is a prisoner, and who has a terrible habit of swearing, "Sir, he swears such oaths, as would fetch the Devil from Hell!"

J. H. Hutmann says that, when the Literary Gazette was first started, they sent it to various persons without orders;

among others to Dr Carr, now Bishop of Worcester; he had received it for a year and a half, when the proprietors sent in the account. The Lp called at the Office, when J. H. H. was there; the Bp said that he should not pay for the paper, he had never ordered it, and would not be 'diddled and humbugged;' they observed that he had received the paper regularly, had never counterordered it, and could not expect to be allowed to have it so long for nothing. This same Bishop's daughter died at Leamingon, and was left to be buried by strangers; he refused to pay the undertaker's demand as extravagant; the latter brought an action and obtained a verdict.

CCLXXXI. TITHES IN FRANCE AND IN ENGLAND.

Arthur Young, in his Travels in France, wrote thus. "In regard to the oppression of the clergy as to tithes, I must do that body a justice, to which a claim cannot be laid in England. Though the ecclesiastical tenth was levied in France more severely than usual in Italy, yet was it never exacted with such horrid greediness as is at present the disgrace of England. When taken in kind, no such thing was known in any part of France, where I made inquiries, as a tenth it was always a twelfth, or a thirteenth, or even a twentieth of the produce. And in no part of the kingdom did a new article of culture pay any thing; thus, turnips, cabbages, clover, chicoree, potatoes, &c. &c. paid nothing. In many parts meadows were exempt: silkworms nothing; olives in some places paid, in more they did not; cows nothing; lambs, from the 12th to the 21st; wool nothing. Such mildness in the levy of this odious tax is absolutely unknown in England."

CCLXXXII. EMMA AND JANE.

Two lovely sisters once there were,
And each a-churching goes;
Emma goes there to close her eyes,
And Jane to eye her clothes.

CCLXXXIII. Gladiators.

VIRGIL seems to have made the mirmillo the same with the secutor, and thus all the comments explain him: yet LIPSIUS contends that the mirmillones were a distinct order, who fought completely armed, and therefore he believes them to have been the crupellarii of TACITUS, so called from some old GALLIC word, expressing that they could only creep under the pressure of their armour. A principal part of the choicest gladiators were THRACIANS, that nation having the general repute of fierceness and cruelty beyond the rest of the world; the particular weapon they used, was the sica or faulchion, and the defence consisted in a parma, or small round shield proper to their country.

CCLXXXIV. FOOL-HARDY.

A parson, who had quarrelled with a Mr Hardy, his neighbour, turned upon him the following Sunday, and gave out as his text "There is no fool like the fool-Hardy."

CCLXXXV. THE DOG AND SERJEANT.

A serjeant ran his halberd through a dog which had attacked him. The angry owner said he might as well have used the butt end. "So I would," said the Sergeant, "if the dog had run at me with his tail."

CCLXXXVI. Malta Buonaparte, &c.

THE FLEET, March 26, 1838. BUONAPARTE took Malta on his way to Egypt, as Mr Chambers considers, by treachery of the knights of Malta; one of them, Baron Hompesch, asked Mr Chambers to discount some bills given by Buonaparte on that occasion. MR C. said that he would, if he could shew to him how he could arrest Buonaparte in case of non-payment.

CCLXXXVII. Original letter from Germany.

Strasbourg, Hotel de la ville de Paris, Ap. 2, 1838.

My dear Mr Barker,

You have doubtless long before this classed me among the "loose fish" of your acquaintance, and not without apparent reason. I am not certain, that I have any very good defence, for, although I am now sitting in a room in a hotel, in the midst of a city much renowned for its cathedral, and its clock, but still more for its pates de foie gras, yet by "holy Paul "it is not easy to say how or why I am here. I will however, narrate a plain unvarnished tale.

On the 9th of last month, H........, a gentleman of the name of Thompson, a surgeon H. E. I. C., and myself left Paris for Lille, on our way to Holland through Belgium. By slow journeys, seeing every-where all that was to be seen, we reached Brussels, remained there a few days, went from thence by the railway to Antwerp, with which town, although it is now too large for the number of inhabitants it contains, I was perfectly delighted. I there learnt the complete distinction that exists between the Dutch and the Flemish painters; and with reverence visited the scene of, and traced out the glories of old General Chassé, who, to the disgrace of the obstinate old king of Holland, now languishes, or I should say frets, in disgrace at Bergen-op-Zoom. From what I saw of Belgium, I am con