DESULTORY RECOLLECTIONS.

COLMAN THE YOUNGER.

Ir was generally known that the witty man and dramatist, "George Colman the Younger," inherited nothing from his father but his talents, and his debts. Better would it have been had he found himself disinherited and cut off with a shilling, which would have kept, for a short period, the heir apparent, instead of his being forced, for want of cash, to quit the high road of life in which he was so gifted to shine, and hide himself in the byeways of concealment; thus, for the better portion of his life, rendering himself a prisoner, in order to avoid imprisonment.

After many shifts behind the scenes of his own

theatre, where he lived for some time in what he termed "a hole in the wall," namely, a room at the back of the stage, whose opening was imperceptible except to the initiated; he ultimately rented a small cottage a few miles from town, where he for some time resided in the strictest privacy and economy under a borrowed name-the only thing he was then able to borrow with any security.

At the period when his most ruthless creditor determined on his capture, he with difficulty obtained a clue to Mr. Colman's whereabout; and being resolute in his intent, and in order that there might be no rubs or blotches in the execution of his resolve, he proceeded with a companion whose following could not be doubted-he was a bailiff.

The obdurate creditor having reached a turnpikegate which opened into a neighbourhood where he had reason to think he “burned," while paying the toll he assumed a questionable shape with the keeper of the "'pike," with the view of discovering the man of whose local habitation and (assumed) name he was unluckily ignorant; therefore, after some general enquiries concerning the neighbouring residents, he found it necessary to enter into a personal description of the man he "wanted," asking the toll-keeper whether he knew a " very little gentleman, particularly nice in his dress, who took a great deal of snuff, had very small hands and feet, and walked upon his toes."

This, for the most part, minute description of the

dramatist's external effects, was sufficient; the turnpike keeper easily recognized in it the person of a gentleman much respected in the neighbourhood, but the man somehow did not like his present

customers;" there was a sinister aspect in both that struck him to be unpropitious to him they were so anxious to discover, and he remained mute. The principal pursuer was too sagacious not to see that he should have but little information or sympathy from him of the gate—whose system of no trust naturally taught him caution-if he frankly admitted the occasion of his errand, and he contrived to insinuate that some more serious cause than the real one, brought him and his companion in search of the person in question, threw out some obscure hints and innuendos which, at last, struck the simple fellow with a vague notion that his neighbour had been guilty of some flagrant crime "unwhipped of justice"-murder, high-treason, perhaps, or, at the least, forgery; and, under such impression, he at length pointed to the abode of Mr. Campbell, situated on the rise of the adjacent hill. This was enough for the pursuers, who proceeded to the spot indicated, and having contrived to gain admission of the unsuspicious servant, they had the satisfaction of surprising him they came in quest of -the master of the house, with his child upon his knee, in full domestic enjoyment. The head bailiff pointed out the debtor to his follower, who immediately took him under arrest.

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After a short colloquy the trio prepared to depart -namely, the prisoner and his two keepers-when the creditor enquired of Mr. Colman whether he would object to return to town with him and his assistant in the chaise which had conveyed them thither; which question drew forth one of Colman's witty impromptus-which furnished the said creditor with a sobriquet which attaches to him to this hour -demanding a chaise to himself.

While a servant was dispatched to the neighbouring inn for one, the report of the position of " the Gentleman on the Hill" spread like wildfire round the little village-" Mr. Campbell was taken up, and was going away in the custody of two men;" this was enough; and before the expected chaise could reach the cottage, every petty tradesman to whom a shilling was owing, came with his "little account" for payment, and just as Mr. Colman was about to take final leave of his family-the chaise having arrived a tall, gaunt, dirty-looking man, as if fresh from the smithy, with his shirt-sleeves tucked up above his elbows, and a paper cap partially covering his grizzled head- (it was a brazier, who had hung some bells, a few weeks previously, in the cottage)-rushed, in wild and breathless disorder, into the room where the distressed inmates were standing, and gasping out, in tones wiry and dissonant as his own work, cried—

"Here's my bill; I will be paid; I'm a poor man

with a family; I won't be cheated; I work hard for my money; my bill is seventeen shillings; I won't stir till I get it; I will have my right;" and in this manner he raved until Mrs. Campbell with difficulty obtained a hearing, which she at length effected; then assuring the man he was in no danger of losing his money, counted from her purse the amount demanded, and laid it before him on the table. At this result, a surprising change was visible in the man's face and manner. He first cast his eyes suspiciously at the money, as if incredulous as to its validity, then looked up into the sweet face of her who had produced it; he next turned to the captured man, and lastly, his eyes fell upon the weeping child who clung close to his father, in alarm at the scene before him, and suddenly bursting into a flood of tears, the brazier's iron heart melted at once, and pushing back the money, he blubbered out

Why, then, if I had thought you would have given me the money, I wouldn't have come! They told me you were swindlers and robbers, and I couldn't afford to lose by such people, but now I won't take a farthing; I'll die first; so keep it to help you out of your trouble, for I won't touch it; I won't; I wish I may die if I do!" and spite of the efforts made to force the money upon him, this rough specimen of Nature's soundest metal, rushed out of the room as hastily as he had rushed into it, and