political rigging of the Admiralty, of an Income-tax to benefit "an important interest," or of a great party" which musters about a hundred members including ultra-radical malcontents, it has been a failure. German ro ample, embodied in a new and elevated style of "practical art," be presented in the form of a bas-relief act of Parliament? After the failures, the idea is really better worth trying on than Indian Reform in the avatar of Siva. But there appears a rescue. mance tells of a species of supernatural Mr. D'Israeli is indeed very strong.— Liv. Age.] [This is from the Spectator. The likeness to person called "a double-goer," the duplicate of a living person; a functionary known to the Scotch by the name of "wraith," but endowed in the German with a more frequent power of intervention. That is a Germanic mystery which is now suspected to attend a right honorable high Caucasian mystery; only the double-goer comes not from Germany but from Central America Indo-Caucasian, perhaps, matured on an American soil, and thus completing the mystic round of the globe. When Stephens was in Central America, he heard of a city lying beyond "the Great Sierra," a bourne whence no traveller returns, and where the manners of Montezuma's days still prevail. Fired by curiosity, two Americans set out for that city, and have not returned; but a Spaniard who was with them comes back, bearing a young man and a young woman of peculiar race- three feet high or less, American-Egyptian in aspect. They are said to be a species of human toy, kept by the priests of the mysterious city-the live idols of the faith of that secret people. They are Aztecs," -a race degenerate, sacred, and extinct, like the camel, save as domestic animals. Inexpressibly sad and ludicrous is the aspect of these diminutive live dolls, sized like infants, proportioned like adults, without language, with no training save to play the idol -a microscope mystery- the Mango Copec and Mama Oello of Central America, reduced ad absurdum. But we have not yet stated the relation of this American mystery to the Asian. No sooner does this Aztec man appear before an eminent and learned lord, distinguished for the fire of his insight into everything at once, than the philosopher is surprised into the exclamation" How like ********!" Yes, it is the resemblance of this little American mystery to the right honorable high Caucasian is complete. The wraith is smaller and yet caricatured. There is the high Caucasian profile, the slender, light" wiry" figure, the jet ambrosial curls-in brief, a double-goer, half-way between the original and the weekly portrait in Punch. Is it not really a double, come to England to be "sent for," to superBede Lord Aberdeen, and restore "a great party?" It looks like it; for the Aztec has already been to the palace. Shall we not hear, then, of a policy founded on the traditions of the Montezumas? Will not English politics be adapted to the sculpture of the Aztecs? May not free-trade, for ex CHARACTER IN A BLUE BAG.-Two attorneys quarrel about a matter of business; one of them acuses the other of trickery; the latter retorts on the former by calling him a liar and a scoundrel; and the first attorney brings an action for slander against the second. Whereon, according to the report of the case : — The lord chief justice, in summing up, said it was not actionable to say of a man personally, "You are a liar," or " You are a scoundrel;" nor was it actionable to combine the epithets, and say, "You are a lying scoundrel;" but, if said of an attorney in his professional character, those words would be actionable. What the law-speaking by the lord chief justice means to say, is, that abuse, in order to be actionable, must be injurious; that to call an attorney a lying and scoundrelly man does him no injury; whereas, calling him a lying and scoundrelly attorney tends to injure him in his profession. The law, therefore, presumes that you may esteem a man to be a true and honest consider him a false and mean rascal; so that attorney, whilst in every other capacity you you may be willing to confide the management of your affairs to him, although you will not trust him with anything else. The the It is curious that the rule applied to the defamation of lawyers is reversed in its application to invective against legislators. Members of Parliament are censurable if they impute falsehood and scoundrelism to each other in a personal sense, but not censurable for making those imputations in a parliamentary sense. ory of this anomaly seems to be, that the affairs deceit and baseness, and accordingly that there of political life cannot be conducted without is no offence in accusing an honorable gentleman of evincing those qualities in laboring at his vocation, that is to say, for his country's good, for which it is necessary that he should cheat and deceive. The law of slander, partially applied to attorneys, ought perhaps to be wholly inapplicable in the case of barristers. If a counsel may suggest to a jury a supposition which he knows to be false, and particularly one which at the same and if he is to be allowed to make such a suggestion time tends to criminate some innocent person; for his client's benefit, he is allowed to be base and deceitful for the benefit of his client. To charge him with deception and villany in his character of an advocate, is to acouse him of professional zeal; to advantage him, not injure him, in his business. It ought to be lawful to call him a liar and a scoundrel in a forensic sense, as well as in every other. Punch. Part of an Article from the Gentleman's Magazine. A MIDLAND TOWN IN THE REIGN OF Music and Friends; or, Pleasant Recollections FEW provincial" dilettanti" have attained so wide a celebrity as the veteran author of "Music and Friends." Mr. Gardiner may well talk of his " friends," for the chief business of a long life appears to have been the very pleasant one of acquiring them, and his amiable disposition and agreeable talents have ensured him as large a measure of success as is consistent with this ever-fading condition of mortality. He has made as many friendships as could well be crowded into fourscore years. To his "Sacred Melodies," which he published forty years ago, he had (he tells us) four hundred and four subscribers, only twenty-four of whom are now alive. As subscribers to the present work he places upon record the names of one hundred and seventy-eight persons, all of whom, with the exception of four or five," he has the honor to call his personal friends." When at the age of eighty-three, he offers his last work" to their attention, they will gladly renew the " pleasant recollections" which were contained in his former volumes, and not merely pardon, but cordially welcome, the agreeable garrulity and self-gratulations of old age. now, A feature of Mr. Gardiner's early days, which is strange to the present generation, was the military aspect of the country, when "marching regiments" filled the high roads instead of occupying a special train: During the American war vast numbers of troops passed through our town, on their way to the western world. In summer time they arrive, in the evening, covered with dust, and set off again in the morning with their bright implements of war. The whole population was roused on these occasions. Crowds of young girls were up by day-break to join the brave fellows and accompany them as they marched out of town, which they did for miles before they possibly could part. It is difficult to conjecture why Leicester never rose to a military stution. Barracks were built in many large towns about us, as Northampton, Nottingham, and York. Yet our lasses were seldom treated with the animating sight of those men of war. Sometimes, however, a marching regiment was quartered in the town, and in Mr. Gardiner's xxxviii th chapter he gives some pleas ant reminiscences of the results of their flirtations with the belles of Leicester. There were also sojourners of another class, peculiar to a period of warfare, who apparently had some influence, and probably not a beneficial one, upon the habits and morals of the town: The captured sailors were sent on their parole into the midland counties; and we had many of the officers in Leicester. Their manners were strikingly polite; and their accomplishments, in music and dancing, procured for them constant invitations into the best company. Sunday afternoon was the great day of recreation. They all assembled in Phipps' field, on the south side of the town-now entirely covered with houses. Here they amused themselves in active sports of a novel kind, and also greatly diverted the spectators. The billiard-room was the constant resort of the French officers. An incident occurred here Mr. Gardiner is a native of the town of Leicester, in which he has been a resident during the whole of his life; not, however, insensible to the attractions of travel, or to any of the events which have been transacted on the great public stage during his prolonged career. In liberality of sentiment, avidity for information, and readiness to embrace every rational improvement, he has ever been that utterly destroyed the harmony between the a true citizen of the world. To those who foreigners and the townspeople. Soulez was are acquainted with the former volumes of playing a game of billiards with John Fenton; "Music and Friends"* (which were pub-a dispute arose, in which Fenton so grossly inlished in 1838), it is unnecessary to describe the present; to others we need only say that all three form a pleasant miscellany of musical, political, and general anecdote, interspersed, at intervals of every fifteen or twenty pages, with pieces of music of the author's own composition or adaptation.† self. 66 sulted Soulez that he left the room, and shortly returned with a brace of pistols and demanded instant satisfaction. The pistols (loaded) were Festival, the trio, The Lord will comfort Zion, was performed, and put down in the books as the composition of Haydn, although written by himPerhaps (he adds) it has been a false modesty in me not to affix my name; but to prevent any mistake, and as a general answer to these inquiries, I say that every recitation, symphony, song, and chorus without a name is my composition. In the Music of Nature, Music and Friends, and Sights in Italy, there are more than fifty songs composed by me, besides many of intrinsic merit that I have shortened and improved by cutting out old-fashioned flourishes now obsolete." (p. 379.) A MIDLAND TOWN IN THE REIGN OF GEORGE THE THIRD. thrown on the table for Fenton to take his choice. He dastardly seizing one of them ran away with it. Soulez pursued him to the Green Dragon, where Fenton took shelter. His brother, the landlord, a large, stout man, endeavored to thrust the Frenchman out; but, in the scuffle, Soulez, who had the other pistol in his pocket, shot the landlord on the spot. Soulez was tried for the murder; but, as there could have been no previous malice against the landlord, it was brought in manslaughter. When the Frenchman was remanded to prison, had it not been for my father, and a few others who were present, he would have been torn to pieces by the mob. The sentence was submitted to the judges; and soon afterwards Soulez received the king's pardon. Before we take a final leave of Mr. Gardiner and his " friends," we must revert to his interesting anecdotes of one whose biography is now occupying a large portion of public attention. Among the correspondence of Thomas Moore recently edited by Lord John Russell there are four letters (numbered 186, 193, 266, and 351) addressed "to William Gardiner, Esq.," but unaccompanied by a word of note to intimate who Moore's correspondent was, or how and when he became acquainted with the poet. Now, we find that a friendly intercourse subsisted for some time between them, the details of which form a very interesting feature in the earlier portion of Mr. Gardiner's memoirs; and we think it will be acceptable to the readers of the Life of Moore if we take this opportunity of laying the particulars before them. It will be remembered that in the year 1812 Moore was resident at Kegworth in Leicestershire, in order to be near his patron, the Earl of Moira. At that time, says Mr. Gardiner, Mr. Cheslyn invited me to spend a few days at Langley Priory, to meet the lyric bard, Mr. Anacreon Moore. The house was full of company; and, as the poet did not join in the sports of the field, I had the great pleasure of walking out with him over some pleasant fields to Kegworth, the post town, where he went for letters. In returning, he read me part of one from Lord Moira, who was just setting off to India, written with the affection and sensibility of a father. Mr. Moore was then living at Castle Donnington, for the advantage he had in consulting that nobleman's library. If the weather proved unfavorable for walking, the ladies would prevail upon the poet to sit down to the piano-forte. He might be compared to the poets of old who recited their verses to the lyre. His voice, rich and flexible, was always in tune, and his delivery of the words neat and delicious; his manner of touching the instrument was careless and casy; his fingers seemed accidentally to drop upon the keys, producing a simple harmony just sufficient to support the voice. In such company his performance was delightful, always indulging in the amoroso, a style peculiarly his own. 509 Lord Tamworth came one morning, with his hounds, and invited us next day to Staunton Harold, for dinner. After the ladies had left, we had a fine display of Mr. Moore's convivial powers. His lordship, a fine scholar and bon vivant, soon excited the bard, and a richer feast of classic mirth could not be imagined. His Anacreontic effusions and his corruscations of wit inflamed the company for three hours after the ladies had retired. In the summer [i. e., apparently, the summer of 1814], I paid a visit to Mr. Anacreon Moore, when he resided at Mayfield Cottage, Derbyshire. He met me at the bridge-foot, where I alighted from the coach, a little beyond Ashbourn, and took me a near way over the fields. When we came to the top of the hill which commanded a view of the spangled vale below, I exclaimed I can tell, by that smoke that so gracefully curls Above the green elms, that your cottage is near ! He was pleased with the quotation (from his well-known song of The Woodpecker), and wo stopped a few minutes to survey the richness of the landscape. On arriving, it was delightful to be welcomed by his graceful wife, who was assiduous in entertaining her company. The condition imposed upon his visitors was to tarry with him only a certain number of days, having bird the moment the former had flown. but one spare nest, which was to receive another Another stipulation was, that immediately after breakfast he should be left alone till within an hour of dinner; he was then devoted to you for the remainder of the day. As he was desirous of showing me the country, he broke through his plan, and formed a pic-nic party with a neighboring family for the next day. His object was to show me the romantic district, Dovedale, not more than two or three miles from his abode. The morning was fine, and we had an ass to carry the provisions. We proceeded by the way of Okeover Hall, and I was treated with a sight of that exquisite painting, the Madonna, by Rafaelle. In our walk the most beautiful spots were pointed out by the bard. When we lolled round our table-cloth, spread upon a luxuriant bank by the murmuring Dove, it was delightful to hear the tone of his voice. He felt inspired amid the scenery, and, having passed the livelong day, we left the happy valley with reluctance, to stroll home in the evening. The next morning I was shown into the library, and while there a letter came from Mr. Jeffrey, complimenting him on the learned review of the Fathers which he had written for the Edinburgh Review. So much erudition was displayed in that article, that the editer sent him a carte blanche, pressing him to choose his own subject, and he should not be surprised if his next communication was a learned disquisition on astronomy. He put into my hands a MS. book, in the handwriting of Lord Byron, a memorial of his extraordinary life. I had scarcely feasted my eyes many seconds when a carriage drove up full of ladies, to make a morning call. He said, “I must take this book from you; I dare not let it lie about." It was instantly put under lock and key. One evening he sat down to the piano-forte, and asked me to listen to a song he had just written, Those Evening Bells. He performed it with exquisite taste; I thought it one of his happiest effusions, and a composition that could only have emanated from himself, in whom the poet and the musician were combined. When I was in town, negotiating with Mr. Murray for the publication of the Lives of Haydn and Mozart [published by Mr. Gardiner in 1818], I found Mr. and Mrs. Moore in his drawing-room looking at the fine picture of Lord Byron. They were then living near London, at the rural village of Hornsey. [This was in 1817.] I was kindly invited next day to dinner, and the poet described to me a pleasant footpath across the fields, which I should find more agreeable than the road. As Mr. Murray was not at home they departed. Soon after they were gone he returned, and was much mortified, as it was the first call they had made him. I said I was invited to dine at Hornsey to-morrow, and pressed him to go with me; that he would not presume to do, but he would give me a commission to engage the bard to write a critique upon the Lives of Haydn and Mozart for the next Quarterly Review, and would give him fifty guineas a sheet. I stated this to Mr. Moore, who, it will be recollected, was then writing for the Edinburgh. He desired me to say "it was an extremely handsome offer, but he could not think of freighting his wares in an enemy's bottom." The path to Hornsey I found so intricate that I lost my way, and did not arrive till an hour after time. They had sat down to dinner, and when I was apologizing, Mr. Moore, in a loud voice, cried out, "Red or White?" I could not but smile, and Mrs. Moore was not a little astonished. He reiterated still louder, "Red or White?" I answered, "Red," and took my place at table. As soon as the cloth was drawn, I explained to Mrs. Moore that it was an allusion to the Cambridge tale which I told at Lord Tamworth's table.* which was fixed at three thousand guineas.* He told me, on executing this work, he found it infinitely more difficult to write the prose introductions than the poetry. Upon those he could scarcely ever satisfy himself. As I was a little curious to be let into the modus operandi of such intellectual tasks, I ventured to continue the conversation, and observed that many supposed that his verses slipped off his tongue as if by magic, and quoted a passage of great ease and beauty. Why, sir," he replied, "that line cost me hours, days, and weeks of attrition before it would come;" which required, he said, the constant repetition of the verse as he walked up and down the avenue in his garden. Every one feels the beauty of this author's. verse; the liquid smoothness of his numbers surpassed everything previously written. He is the only example of an exquisite ear for music combined with an elegant fancy. Drayton, Herrick, Suckling, Beaumont, Raleigh, Lovelace, and Marlow are poets of this order, but their verses are not without alloy. The composer meets with expressions that have no alliance with sounds; but in Moore there is not a word which the music composer wishes to remove. On this subject I asked the bard who, in his opinion, was the finest of our lyric poets? (I might have said excepting himself.) He replied, Burns was the greatest that ever wrote. diner relates the circumstances of bis attendIn another place (vol. i., p. 465) Mr. Garing a levee at Carlton House, in order to present to the Prince Regent the first volume of his Sacred Melodies. This he did at the suggestion of Moore, who offered him his own court suit for the purpose, and it is to the result that the poet alludes in his letter (Moore, vol. ii., p. 6): The prince was very gracious to you, and no one can be more so when he chooses. To give the devil his due, he is very fond of music, and that is one great step towards redemption, at least where you and I are judges. We must now lay before the render a letter of Moore to Mr. Gardiner, which is not included in Lord John Russell's series, though, After dinner we took a walk in the garden, and in passing through a conservatory there lay a heap of books in a corner. "Books everywhere," said I. "Ay," he replied, "these are the materiel of Lalla Rookh ;" and taking up one, said, "This book I bought at a stall for as it appears to us, it is fully as remarkable as the majority in his work. Mr. Gardiner three pence, and it was of great use to me.' Throwing it down and taking up another, had requested the bard to write some verses "This cost me half a guinea, and I got nothing to his music, and Moore had not merely assented, but had actually commenced writing a song, when he recollected the engagement which bound him exclusively to the service of Mr. Power: out of it but the tortoiseshell lanterns.'"' 6 The origin of Lalla Rookh was an application made to him by Messrs. Longman and Co. to write for them an epic poem, in which there should be no allusion to the ancient classic authors. They would be responsible for the highest sum ever given for an epic poem. Mr. Perry, it was agreed, should decide the amount, Mr. Gardiner, when at Cambridge, had received a reception more hospitable than ceremonious from a college wine-party upon which he stumbled when in search of a friend. Why is it that merit has such difficulty in obtaining preferment? False pretension stands in the way. Why is it that a truth is so long in forcing its way amongst mankind? Because it is so difficult to obtain sound evidence in its favor, and distinguish it from the hundreds of falsehoods which are constantly contending with it for notice. We know it as a certain fact of society, that a man may come forward with the design of offering his fellow-creatures some great benefit, and yet he will be received with distrust, and checked at every turn, as if he were a knave aiming at some sordid advantage for himself. And the reason, we can all see, is that selfish aims are so often concealed under a philanthropic guise, that society is compelled to be upon its guard against even the fairest appearances of beneyolence, until time has given a guarantee for their genuineness. the more I lament my thoughtlessness in offering | continually bringing upon themselves by false it; for I ought to have recollected (when Miss doings and appearances. Dalby told me that you wished some verses of mine) that I am no longer a free agent in the disposal of my writings - at least of those connected with music-having given, by regular deed, the monopoly of all such productions of mine to the Powers, of London and Dublin. These legal trammels are so new to my muse, that she has more than once forgotten herself, and been near wandering into infidelity, very much, I assure you, from the habit of setting no price upon her favors; but I think you will agree with me that it is worth while keeping her within bonds, when I tell you that the reward of her constancy is no less than five hundred a year during the time stipulated in the deed. For not complying with your request I need offer no better apology; but for inconsiderately promising what I could not perform, I know not what I can say to excuse myself, except that (and believe me I speak sincerely) the strong wish I felt to show my sense of your merits made me consult my inclinations rather than my power; and it was not till I had actually begun words to one of your airs that I recollected the faux pas I was about to commit. I thank you very much for the Sermons, which I am reading with great pleasure, and beg you to believe me, Very sincerely yours, THOMAS MOORE. To Wm. Gardiner, Esq., Leicester. The Sermons were those of Robert Hall; then resident at Leicester, and in the height of his fame as a preacher, and to whom, in when Mr. Hall read them with great delight, turn, Mr. Gardiner lent Moore's Sacred Songs, saying, "Sir, I discover that he is deeply read in the Fathers," &c., &c. (See Gardiner, vol. ii., p. 613.) From Chambers' Journal. THE COST OF INIQUITY. Ir is a fact, in the history of Prussia, that Frederick II. would never have inflicted upon his country the evil of farming out his revenues, had it not been that, while he had them in his own hands, he was cheated so extensively by his subjects. For the same reason, about the same time, the government of the king of Great Britain in Hanover was obliged to adopt the same oppressive measure. If we call to mind the anecdote of a party of Frenchmen trying which could bring the blackest charge against human nature, when Voltaire, commencing with," There was once a farmer-general," was admitted by common consent to have already carried the day we may form some idea of the severity of a punishment which consisted in farming out a nation's revenues. But the anecdote is merely a type of a class of troubles which men are Fictitious literature has no more favorite point than that furnished by the claims of virtuous poverty treated with coldness, and left to neglect. Its heroes, manly but out-atelbows its heroines, amiable but outcast. are always turned away from in an unaccountable manner, to the indignation of all readers of sensibility. People living in comfortable cottages are mysteriously addicted to mission to vagrants, just as the heavens are the unchristianlike practice of refusing adabout to break forth in a snow-storm. Councircumstances before them. These descriptry justices are invariably harsh towards the respectable persons who come in equivocal tions, we can have no doubt, are a reflection of what passes in actual life-only in actual life there is never any reason for wonder about the causes. Shabby vagrant people, and people who appear in equivocal circumstances and without good credentials, are there so commonly found to be bad, that no one stops to think of possible exceptions. The few good suffer because of the prevalence of iniq uity in connection with those appearances. Were there no transgressors of any kind in the world, fiction would be entirely deprived of this important province of its domain; for the wretched, under no suspicion, would then be everywhere received with open arms, succored, and set on their feet again. Even the superintendents of Unions would in that case become genial, kindly men, quite different from the tyrants which they always are in novels; or, rather, there being no longer any human failings, there would be no longer any poverty calling for public aid, and Unions would go out of fashion. Every one acquainted with business must have occasion to observe how many transactions of hopeful appearance are prevented by the want of confidence. And even where |