Francis. Lord Jeffrey, a Scotch Judge, chiefly remembered on account of his long connection with, and numerous contributions to The Edinburgh Review, (the "Blue and Buff") of which he was one of the founders. In an article in that Review (July, 1806) he denounced Tom Moore as "the most licentious of modern versifiers, and the most poetical of the propagators of impiety." On this charge, which was too true to be answered in any other way, Moore challenged Jeffrey to fight a duel. and the two met at Chalk Farm, then a favourite spot with duellists. The proceedings were stopped by the interference of the police, when it was found that in loading the pistols, the bullets had been carefully omitted. This circumstance became the talk of the town, and Moore, especially, was subjected to much ridicule. Byron thus

alludes to the duel :--

"Health to great Jeffrey; Heaven preserve his life, To flourish on the fertile shores of Fife,

And guard it sacred in its future wars,

Since authors sometimes seek the field of Mars.

Can none remember that eventful day,

That ever glorious, almost fatal fray,

When Little's leadless pistol met his eye,

And Bow Street myrmidons stood laughing by ?"

English Bards and Sectch Reviewers.

When Moore read these lines he was so incensed that he addressed a challenge to Lord Byron, but by cautiously confiding it to a discreet friend it somehow never reached its destination. Moore afterwards became very intimate with Byron, but he still had His revenge, for he wrote Byron's Life. George Birkbeck, M.D., president of the London Mechanics' Institute, and founder of the Birkbeck Institution in Southampton Buildings, was a physician by profession, and an ardent advocate for the education of the people. He died in 1841.

Lord Mayor Waithman, four times elected M. P. for London, a strenuous advocate for popular rights. He died in 1833, and an obelisk was erected to his memory, n Ludgate Circus.

Then H-
E comes, who late at New-
gate Market, sweetest spot in town!
Instead of one clerk, popp'd in two,
To make a place for his ne-phew,
Seeking another at the U-

-niversity we've Got in town-
-niversity we've Got in town!

There's Captain Ross, a traveller true,
Has just presented, what in town-
-'s an article of great virtu
(The telescope he once peep'd through,
And 'spied an Exquimaux canoe
On Croker Mountains), to the U-

-niversity we've Got in town-
-niversity we've Got in town!

Since MICHAEL gives no roast nor stew,
Where Whigs might eat and plot in town,
And swill his port, and mischief brew-
Poor Creevy sips his water gru-

el as the beadle of the U

-niversity we've Got in town-
-niversity we've Got in town!

There's JERRY BENTHAM. and his crew,
Names ne'er to be forgot in town,
In swarms like Banquo's long is-sue-
Turk, Papist, Infidel and Jew,
Come trooping on to join the U-

-niversity we've Got in town.
-niversity we've Got in town.

To crown the whole with triple queue
Another such there's not in town,
Twitching his restless nose askew,
Behold tremendous HARRY BROUGH-7
AM! law professor at the U-

-niversity we've Got in town-
-niversity we've Got in town.

Grand Chorus:

Huzza! huzza! for HARRY BROUGH-
AM! law professor at the U-

-niversity we've Got in town.
-niversity we've Got in town.

PENNY POSTAGE.

The Penny Postage commenced on January 10, 1840. The following parody was issued during the same month.

THE UNIVERSAL PENNY POSTAGE.

FROM universal suffrage some
Say every blessing's sure to come,
As clear as one and one make two;
But others say it's all a hum,
And there's no blessing like the U-
-niversal Penny Postage.

Jeremy Bentham, political economist, and father of the Utilitarian School of writers, died in 1832.

Henry Brougham, Lord Chancellor, who took great interest in the spread of popular education, and was very active in the formation of the London University.

Of all the penn'orths Nature gave— A penny show, a penny shave,

There's blacking for a penny too, A penny biscuit-all must waive Their claims in favour of the U

-niversal Penny Postage.

For all things now there's some new way— To write, to seal, to fold, to pay ;

And you must talk in idioms new,

And when you mean Post-paid must say, "Prepaid," by order of the U

-niversal Penny Postage.

If aught's not new the wonder's great,

The tables are so turned of late,

E'en useful tables, though so true: Your half-ounce makes one penny-weight, According to the school of U

-niversal Penny Postage.

Who'd think our great authorities

(Pound foolish things we know they do!)

Would do a thing so (penny) wise?

How now in history they'll rise!—

The Government that gave the U-
-niversal Penny Postage.

Oh, Rowland Hill, immortal man,
How can we pay you for your plan!

To you our thanks, our pence are due ;
It was the Emperor of Japan

As much as they that gave the U

-niversal Penny Postage,

Send up a column to the sky,
Five thousand office inkstands high;
Take for a basement fair to view,
As many reams of "wove demy"

Write " To the author of the U-
-niversal Penny Postage."
ANONYMOUS.

SONG.

Sung by Dodge-ero (COLONEL T-YL-R) in the Burlesque Play of The Reform Rovers""

It is a most provoking do!

To think that I was potting 'em

The guileless DILLWYN and his crew,
When who should twig us but the hu-

-morous M. P. for Nottingham-
-morous M. P. for Nottingham.

(Wees and pulls out a true blue Reform bill. Gazing tenderly at it, he proceeds

Sweet Measure! checks of truest blue
They soon had found garotting 'em,
If they had helped to pass you through,
Without detection by the hu-

-morous M.P. for Nottingham-
-morous M.P. for Nottingham.

(At each repetition of this line Dodge-ero cracks his whip

in cadence.)

Bah! Bah! AS RAREY trotted Crui

ser, I was calmly trotting 'em,

When, hang it! who should enter-who? But that confounded pest-the hu

-morous M,P. for Nottingham-
-morous M. P. for Nottingham.

The very form, in which they drew
My words up, clearly spotting 'em,
He offered to the House as scru-
-tineers-he did indeed, the hu-

-morous M. P. for Nottingham-
-morous M.P. for Nottingham.

My eyes! (with soda corks, it's true,
I have a way of dotting 'em
At awkward times)-
-a rare to-do
Was thus created by the hu-

-morous M. P. for Nottingham.—
-morous M. P. for Nottingham.

And since they can't escape the cru-el sentence he's alloting 'em,

Their only chance is to abu

-se, and heap strong terms upon the hu

-morous M.P. for Nottingham

-morous M. P. for Nottingham.

From The Shotover Papers, or Echoes from Oxford. March 1874.

The Union" is a well known Club for Oxford Students, having reading and smoking rooms, a good library, and a debating room, in which some of our finest public speakers have made their maiden efforts. The frescoes above referred to were painted in 1857 by Dante Gabriel Rossetti, and are, unfortunately, rapidly fading away.

There was another Oxford parody of this song in "Diogenes" for July, 1853, entitled The Oxford Installation Ode. The celebrities to whom it alluded are now all dead, and the parody is quite out of date.

THE PLEA OF PADDINGTON.

THE Board of Works, a thrifty crew,

Oppose in cold, heart-sadding tone,
The Park! Ah! Bumble may pooh-pooh,
But "Let us have it!" is the U-

-niversal prayer of Paddington.
Non possumus? Nay, that won't do!
Pray drop official fadding tone!
Builderdom's selfish bosh eschew,
And listen kindly to the U-

-niversal cry of Paddington.
Asphyxia on our Town, too true,

Weighs yet in many a madding ton;
Give us another "lung," pray do,
Is now the hearty, ardent U.

-niversal plea of Paddington.
Are Cockney souls as dull of hue
As Babylon's pervading tone?
"Let's look upon the heavenly blue
From one more vantage," is the U-
-niversal wish of Paddington.
Posterity, on its turf pursue-

-ing pleasant sports, in gladding tone
Will bless the foresight, wise and true,
Which timely listened to the U-

-niversal prayer of Paddington.

Punch, February 11, 1882.

A SONG OF SOCIAL SCIENCE.

The Association was founded to elucidate the economical and moral principles on which the Constitution of ciety should be based, and to influence, by the light of

Twenty-five years since first they blew

Big Guns, Lord Brougham shotting 'em,
And now there's nothing new or true
But they'll bang at you-at the U-
-niversity at Nottingham !

If you would dish the Landlord crew,
By laws, without Boycotting 'em,
The Settled Land Act's action scru-
tinise as pictured at the U-

-niversity at Nottingham!

If you'd rejoice in skies of blue,
With no big chimneys blotting 'em,
You'll probably learn what to do
By patient listening at the U-
-niversity at Nottingham!

If you tight-lacing would eschew,

See girls with "bags" culotte-ing 'em,
Or" dual garmenture," why few
Subjects more "fetch" them at the U-
-niversity at Nottingham!

You'd learn how Women's rights first grew,
And how Man shirked allotting 'em,
On all such questions they'll adju-
-dicate serenely at the U-

-niversity at Nottingham!

Our Social Factors you'd review,

And learn the art of "totting" 'em? Bless you! Statistics stiff are stu-diously fed on at the U

-niversity at Nottingham!

Facts about drains, the Workman's "screw,"
Girls' boots, would you be jotting 'em?
They'll stuff you with enough to ru-
-minate for years on at the U-

-niversity at Nottingham!

Would you the World of Hobbies view,
Behold their riders trotting 'em,
That Universe they will elu-
-cidate completely at the U-
-niversity at Nottingham!

Battle of Hastings! Pun, Sir? Pooh!
Poor wags are always plotting 'em.
Yet twenty-five years' war, 'tis true,
Culminates this year at the U-

-niversity at Nottingham !

Punch, October 7, 1882.

During the recent election The Times newspaper was strongly opposed to Mr. Gladstone's policy, and on July 1, 1886, it published a poem by A. C. Swinburne, entitled "The Commonweal" to which it thus solemnly drew attention in its leading article:

"None can accuse Mr. Swinburne of sympathy with oppression, or with failure to champion the cause of struggling nationalities. But he is clear-sighted enough to see on which side in this struggle lie the great interests of human liberty, and the vigorous poem which we print to-day from his pen is a worthy contribution to the battle now being waged. "See the man of words embrace the man of blood"-points an alliance which English Liberals may well blush to acknowledge; and an appeal to all that is sound in this nation cannot better end than in Mr. Swinburne's words :-

Yet an hour is here for answer; now, if here be yet a nation, Answer, England, man by man, from sea to sea!

THE COMMONWEAL.

A Song for Unionists.

I.

MEN, whose fathers braved the world in arms against our isles in union,

Men, whose brothers met rebellion face to face, Shew the hearts ye have, if worthy long descent and high communion,

Shew the spirits, if unbroken, of your race.

2.

What are these that howl and hiss across the strait of westward water,

What is he who floods our ears with speech in flood; See the long tongue lick the dripping hand that smokes and reeks of slaughter!

See the man of words embrace the man of blood!

3.

Hear the plea whereby the tonguester mocks and charms the gazing gaper

"We are they whose works are works of love and peace; Till disunion bring forth union, what is union, Sirs, but paper?

Break and rend it, then shall trust and strength increase."

4.

Who would fear to trust a double-faced but single-hearted dreamer,

Pure of purpose, clean of hand, and clear of guile? "Life is well-nigh spent," he sighs, "you call me shuffler, trickster, schemer?

I am old-when young men yell at me, I smile."

The next day The Daily News, which was in favor of Mr. Gladstone's policy of Home Rule for Ireland, published a parody of the poem, and, in one of its articles, alluded to Mr. Swinburne in the following terms of reproach :—

"Every topic of prejudice is being urged by the opponents of Home Rule. All the sins of the Irish people, all the errors of their leaders, are being daily enumerated by critics who have made it their business to stir up international hatred between the two countries as the best means of consolidating union. The latest ally of the Tories is a red republican, who happens also to be the foulest-mouthed and foulestminded poet of the age. Mr. Swinburne is alleged by Mr. Theodore Watts to be a man of genius, and he has unquestionably a marvellous command of rhythmical and sonorous verse. But the words in which he attacks Mr. Gladstone are faint and feeble when compared with the language in which he has previously inveighed against Christianity, morality, and Almighty God."

5.

Many a year that priceless light of life has trembled, we remember,

On the platform of extinction-unextinct ;

Many a month has been for him the long year's last-life's calm December:

Can it be that he who said so, saying so, winked?

6.

No: the lust of life, the thirst for work and days with work to do in,

Drove and drives him down the road of splendid shame; All is well, if o'er the monument recording England's ruin Time shall read, inscribed in triumph, Gladstone's name. 7.

Thieves and murderers, hands yet red with blood and tongues yet black with lies,

Clap and clamour-"God for Gladstone and Parnell !" Truth, unscared and undeluded by their praise or blame, replies

"Is the gaol of fraud and bloodshed heaven or hell?"