with the angels every night in Fleetstreet; that the unclean spirits are rum and gin, and Irish whiskey, (he drinks brandy himself, and wine when he gets it;) and, that the witness, who crieth in the streets, without any man regarding his testimony, is himself. Furthermore, he says, that the seven heads are seven aldermen, whose names he affects to keep secret; and that the ten horns can casily be found in the corporation. He further insists, that Robert, Lord Waithman, is death upon the pale horse; and, that the party who follow his lordship, are by him more dreaded than hell. Such a mass of valuable interpretation, hatched and brooded over as it is, yet to be for one year longer, cannot fail to astonish and convince a world so very prone to wonder and believe, as that in which we live; and there is no doubt, but the effigies of a man, who has advocated so many marvellous things within the city of London, will be set up in Guildhall to keep the giants in order.

When a great man does great things, it is very natural for small men to do small things; and thus the words, at the top of this article, which had long puzzled the world; as the more that civilization and experience extended, the more did both legislatures and saints set their faces against such a commodity of wives as seven; while the ladies, in one voice, declared, that, if they should garret it for life, they would never put the question to a mau, far less lay hold of him; and that such of them as were asked and answered, declared, in one voice, that after the ceremony was clenched, they would not wear their own apparel, but claim, as their mothers had done, that part of their husbands which is so sweetly symbolical of two united into one; but now met with a perfect solution, in the rage which at present exist for the establishment of joint-stock companies. The seven women are seven monied persons, Jews, Quakers, or others of the city of London; they take hold of an Actuary, who takes away the reproach, both of their establishing a monopoly against the public, and of their doing the dirty work of the concern with their own hands; and, it is just from the hope of its affording them abundance of bread to eat, and apparel to wear, that they enter into the speculation,

It is to be regretted, that a system which has been so decidedly foretold, and which possesses so many adva

tages in itself, should be opposed by the ignorant prejudices of individuals. In our opinion there is nothing better than a joint-stock company. Though Professor Malthus, Mr. Place, and all the other philosophers of checks have overlooked it, the increase of brains has obviously a much lower ratio to the increase of population, than has the increase of food. To see this one has only to open one's eyes, aud one will find fifty men (especially within Temple Bar) who dine abundantly, for one man who can speak sense. Now, if the wits of one be found inadequate for any enterprise, the only alternative is, to club the wits of another. This is accomplished by joint-stock companies; and it could not be accomplished in any other way.

Philanthropists and lovers of improvement will, therefore, rejoice at the number that are established, and in progress, and men who have fertile heads (in any place but the os frontis) will drudge at the invention of more. Mrs. Fry's grand pawn broking company will, for instance, be an excellent thing for all parties. It will be very beneficial to the public; because, when folks go from bad to worse, they are said to go "out of the Fry-ing pan into the fire," while this will be coming out of the fire and going into the Fry-ing pan, returning from worse to bad, which is a retreat in so far. As for Mrs. Fry again, and the other "Tossers of the Pan," they will save all the fat. At present, they get very little interest for their money, unless they hazard the whole of it, or bring themselves within the chastisement of those usury-laws so much detested by Jeremy Bentham, Serjeant Onslow, and the whole remnant of the twelve tribes of Israel; whereas, under the new system, they can get handsome profits without hazarding the loss of a penny.

It would be impossible to do justice to all the projected companies; and, so, the better way will be to give the hint of a few more. First, then, it would save a great deal of time and trouble if all loyal addresses to the king were furnished by a joint-stock company; they could be had much cheaper, and they would introduce so perfect a uniformity of loyalty, as could not fail to make England the wonder and the envy of all nations. Secondly, if there were a matrimonial joint-stock company, the deuce is in it if there would be any elopements or actions for crim, con. or

any old families dying out for the want of heirs. Thirdly, a joint-stock company for the holding of whig and radical meetings, and the making and reporting of speeches for the same, would not only save a great deal of time, which is at present wasted, but prevent the recurrence of such another affair as that at Manchester, in 1819. Fourthly, a joint-stock shaving company, where half-a-dozen rich ladies should pin the

napkin, and half-a-dozen more froath the soap, and some of the cleanly and clever-handed gentlemen brandish_the razors, would shave the lieges much closer than the twopenny shops, which, at present disfigure the streets. Lastly, if a joint-stock humbugging company were properly established, it would prevent thousands of individuals from making themselves ridiculous.

SCENES of carly life awaken so many recollections, and are associated with so many delightful sensations, that we always behold with pleasure those objects which, like the beacon to the mariner, serve to revive the memory of past enjoyment. To a man of a metaphysical and contemplative turn of thought, perhaps, these reminiscences afford the highest degree of intellectual pleasure. The imaginative powers displayed in poetry, and the embodying these creations of genius by the hand of the artist, as well as a contemplation of the beauties of nature, will unquestionably afford a high feeling of satisfaction to a mind so constituted: but, highly as these sensations are to be appreciated, they fall very short, in my opinion, of the impression made upon the heart and mind of him who, in manhood, traces the localities of his juvenile amusements.

I was led to these reflections by a visit I lately paid to the "Academic Shade" where I received the foundation of whatever virtue or literature I possess ; things were, indeed, changed since my time; my contemporaries had dispersed over the face of the inhabitable globe, encountering various vicissitudes of fortune, engaged in almost every occupation, and filling situations in every profession, trade, and gradation of society. They were gone and "left not a trace behind." The tree, which bore in staring characters the catalogue of their names, was no longer to be found, or if still distinguishable, those characters had so grown with its growth as to be no longer legible.

The play ground still retained its pristine appearance. The school-room, where fifty lines of Homer paid the forfeit of delinquency, continued a prominent object. The great bell which, like the curfew, regulated the duration of our

VOL. I.

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scholastic imprisonment, still held its unerring exactitude of command. awful code of discipline, stuck upon the wall to warn sinners against transgression, but which was always thought to be " more honoured in the breach than in the observance," reminded me of the many pranks I played off with impunity; for though the principle of Lycurgus was not formally adopted, yet it was detection that always constituted the offence. When I review the space that has intervened since that period of innocent recreation and improvement, what a waste presents itself; not, indeed, a blank, but as chequered as a chess-board with vicissitudes Creta an carbone notandi.”

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My old friend and preceptor gave me a kindly and hospitable reception. It happened to be a day of recreation; an invitation having been received a few days previously to spend the day" with farmer Coulson. Every countenance beamed with pleasure, every eye glistened with delight. Every face (at a season of life when the feelings are pourtrayed in the unsophisticated language of nature) shewed the innate feelings of happiness and anticipated enjoyment that was expected from this excursion.

The post-chaises were now wheeled into the fore court, the postboys greeted, horses admired, the master's indulgence lauded, and all anxious to give him the morning salutation with peculiar emphasis and energy on this joyous occasion. This was the foreground, (all joy, happiness, and satisfaction;) but in the back-ground of the picture a physiognomist might have read "the week's disasters in the morning faces" of those who composed it. A query, "If all these young gentlemen were to be of the projected party?" an answer in the affirmative, however, set all things to rights. A loud cheer testified the satisfaction

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with which this part of the audience received the welcome intelligence. All being now distributed through the different post-chaises, the cavalcade began to move along; the arrangement and conduct of which was under the direction of one of the masters, Dr. S. who, mounted on a sorrel pony, with a huge oaken stick in his band, was tacking through the carriages, like Commodore Trunion on his. voyage to get married.

Our route through Waltham and Nasingbury was truly picturesque and beautiful. The road, as we approached the latter place, is situated on the edge of a hill, which comes to the level of the vadjacent plain by a gentle descent. The view, at all times beautiful, was rendered peculiarly interesting by our presence; for as we winded our course in a serpentine circuit round the girdle of the hill, the post-chaises became visible at irregular intervals, and the boys ...who descended from them were scattered sover the face of the hill that intervened between the road and plain, which, with the romantic church, the rural village, band highly-cultivated country, formed ores of the most beautiful and enchanting landscapes the imagination can well picture Leaving this charming scene, we passed through a still beautiful though solitary district. Not a house or humain face, exclusive of our own party, to be met with. We soon approached a defile, on one side of which is an almost perpendicular hill, and at its base a small amphitheatre bounded by lofty trees, in the midst of which was constructed a tasteful and elegant building. In any other situation it might, however, have passed unnoticed; but so situated, it was like the snow-drop in the wilderness, beautiful in its native solitude, but worthless if transplanted into the vernal regions of the cultivated parterre.

Scarcely had we emerged from this charming spot, before the smoke of the farmer's kitchen intimated both our arrival at Notherhall, and the preparations being made for our reception. Farmer Cathe proprietor of the land adjacent to Netlierhall, was a most excellent specimen[[of a modern English yeoman, though, perhaps, he had, from a constant contemplation of the beautiful ruins of the castle, transfused a slight tinge of the antique into his own character. Hospitality, in the true old English acceptation of the word, was his ruling passion; his motto the burthen of all his jocund ditties; and though he had as much of

the good Samaritan in his composition as a modern sinner could well possess, yet the word charity was not to be found in his vocabulary. He looked upon every child of Adam as his brother, and, therefore, entitled to his assistance, as far as his means could allow him to dispense it. To form an idea of his person, figure to yourself a tall, well-proportioned, good-humoured looking man, his years somewhat above fifty: such an individual as at some period of your life you have seen on a Sunday evening sitting with a pipe in his mouth, on the bench which usually extends on either side of the villages ale-house. You will never see honest C. again so scated- he is gone to rest with his fathers, and peace be to his manès, Lena 1, 16 29/maY, MA

Alighted from the post-chaisesy the hearty welcome over, we were taken to a long room, with tables set out with eatables meant for a luncheon, or as it would be termed in high life, a “ dejune a la fourchette;" but eating and drinking are vulgar habits, worn indiscriminately by all his majesty's liege subjects. For my own part, I have always esteemed, as a first-rate genius, the Grecian mentioned by Hierocles, who, endeavouring to annihilate this odious practice, would have taught his horse to live without food, but, to his inexpressible mortification, found that he died when he had nearly accomplished his purpose; but, in this enlightened age, however, this age of invention and improvement, I assert (and I think I can see as far as my neighbours) that this desirable object will be accomplished through the medium of galvanism, gas, or steam, and extinguish the fame of Mrs. Rundles "Art of Cookery," consign to the tomb of all the Capulets the "Almanac des Gourmands," raise Cambaceres from the dead, and send Sir William Curtis with sorrow to his grave.

I will not, therefore, dwell on such a subject; but as every good writer ought to do, hurry my reader into the midst of business. Here, then, was an ass riding a donkey, and an ass being rode by three rank and file juvenile equestrians? there a youthful aspirant for the laurels of the brave, engaged in single combat with a gander; and not far off a wicked and unmanuerly cow, perceiving the learned Dr. S. in a reflecting attitude, curtailed as to his skirts, and bedaubed, as to his externals, with mud and dirt, by an unlucky roll in the kennel, occasioned by the neglect of his equestrian education,

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having mistaken him for a scarecrow, advanced to pay her respects “ad Ecossoise," at the same time articulating sound, which the vizier in the Arabian Nights, who understood the language of birds, would have interpreted" Long life to the Duke of Argyle." This salutation, however, was by no means acceptable to the learned Dr., who immediately put himself in a posture of defence, and, in consequence, a fierce and obstinate contest ensued victory was for a long time doubtful, but at length declared in favour of the Doctor, though the palm of gracefulness was awarded to his antagonist; for, in the rencontre which decided the affair, the cow making a lunge, and at the same time kicking up her rearward extremities, and raising her tail perpendicular to her back (a position which must be allowed to be an excellent imitation of that of the left-hand, practised by performers in the fencing art) would inevitably have destroyed the Doctor upon the spot, had not he, in the manner of a Spanish gladiator at a bull-fight, most adroitly slipped aside, and laid such a lusty stripe of his baton on the cow's' loins as to make her scamper ingloriously from the field of action. Some apprehensions were entertained, particularly by the ladies, for the safety of the Doctor; but we, who knew the courage and prowess of the man, left him to fight his own battle, and never did a conqueror at the Olympic games receive the palm

of victory with more pleasure than his learned Doctorship did the meed of -praise and gratulation which was (now showered upon him from all sides.q *n ›

We were shortly after invited to dinner, which I should have passede unnoticed, but that our repast was the feast of reason and the flow of soul. You may be sure that we all played a very conspicuous part at the knife and fork all, I must say, with the exception of our worthy Coryphæus. The Doctor ate little or nothing, but looked unutterable things. His appetite, I mean his stomach appetite, was gone, and he feasted at the optics. This denouement was brought about by the juxta position, as he himself said, of a young lady, the daughter of a farmer in the neighbourhood, whose brilliant black eyes, ruby lips, and rosy cheeks made such a deep incision in his heart, as to mount all his amatory propensities on the back of Pegasus, who has been since seen, frequently flying with billet-doux to the battlements of Netherhall. Having determined to commence operations in poetry, no sooner was the cloth removed than he fired off the following charade directly at the young lady's heart. After having been for a quarter of an hourin profound meditation, he uttered, in a tone of solemn and melting pathos, and a look as amorous as Malyolio's in Twelfth Night : y tour ad or op smo no alusb 146 fud minibusqroq

"La! sir," said Miss Betsy, as soon as she comprehended the gist of this enigma, are you making riddles on me?" It is but fair play, my dear," replied the gallant preceptor, "for your eyes have made a riddle of my heart."

und gabrodtidquus a dosly to tabim ed

tongols bus Intstest det di noise rato and, b99rronap bozzsq Warwick, had displayed in the combat with the cow. Determined to follow up his success, he immediately, while the dessert was yet blushing on the table, volunteered to sing a song of his own composition. He said it was extempore -to my knowledge he had made it three years before but that was no anatier. It was not the first time a similar tričk shad been played off, nay, even within the

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