questioning the poor man, turned to them and said, "Gentlemen, you have always been curious to know from what family I sprung: I now tell you that I am not ashamed of my origin; that I am the brother of this honest miller; he has given you the history of my family." The general, after spending the day with his relations, in the festivity of which his officers heartily joined, took measures to better their fortune.

BROUGHA

52.

ROUGHAM did not get into regular practice at the bar till he had acquired celebrity in the House of Commons. He got a few Scotch appeals, and these brought him into early conflict with Lord Eldon, who persisted in calling him Mr Broffam, till a formal remonstrance arrived through the assistant-clerk; whereupon the Chancellor gave in, and complimented the offended counsel at the conclusion of the argument, saying, "Every authority upon the question has been brought before us : new brooms sweep clean."

53.

VOLTAIRE being asked if he had any notion

of the situation of our ideas, which we have totally forgotten at the time, but shall afterwards recollect-paused, meditated a little, and acknowledged his ignorance in the spirit of a philosophical poet, by repeating, as a very happy allusion, a passage in "Thomson's Seasons.” "Ay," said he, "where sleep the winds when it is calm ?"

in the

54.

SHAFTESBURY was a much admired prose writer in his day, but within the last fifty years nothing has made greater progress to perfection than style. Shaftesbury has one most inelegant mode of expression, viz., “This is pleasant enough, in the way of gaiety and humour;"-and "such arrangement is powerful, in the way of argument;" —and "these fancies may be well parried, in the way of burlesque." In short, I found this trick of phraseology perpetually in my way, when I was looking for the celebrated elegance of Lord Shaftesbury's style.-Seward.

55.

ANUS NICIUS CRYTRÆUS relates, that a treted

the pope's ring, or annulus piscatoris. The pope, thinking that some one had committed the robbery, issued a bull of excommunication against the robber. The raven grew very thin, and lost all his plumage. On the ring being found, and the excommunication taken off, the raven recovered his flesh and his plumage.

A

56.

PERSON being asked to explain the curse of Scotland, generally said to be the nine of diamonds (the number of jewels in the crown of that kingdom), answered, "The curse was, that they could not add a tenth to them."

57.

PEOPLE have about as substantial an idea of

Cobbett as they have of Cribb. His blows are as hard, and he himself is as impenetrable. One has no notion of him as making use of a fine pen, but a great mutton-fist; his style stuns his readers, and he "fillips the ear of the public with a three-man-beetle." He is too much for any single newspaper antagonist; "lays waste" a city orator or member of Parliament, and bears hard upon the Government itself. He is a kind of fourth estate in the politics of the country.-Hazlitt.

58.

AMES II. was so much pleased with Wycher

JAME

ley's comedy of the "Plain Dealer," that he released him from prison, where he had been confined seven years, by paying his debts, and settled on him a pension of £200 a year. His Majesty afterwards gave him a proof of esteem, which, perhaps, no prince ever gave to an author who was only a private gentleman. Wycherley happened to fall sick of a fever at his lodgings in Bow Street, Covent Garden, when the King did him the honour to visit him; and, finding his body much weakened, his spirits miserably depressed, and his memory almost totally gone, he commanded him, as soon as he should be able to take a journey, to go to the South of France; believing that the air of Montpelier would contribute, as much as anything, to restore him; assuring him, at the same time, that

C

he would order him £500 to defray the expenses of the journey. Wycherley accordingly went into France, and having spent the winter there, returned to England in the spring, entirely restored to his former vigour, both of body and mind.

THE

59.

'HE proverbs of several nations were much studied by Bishop Andrews, and the reason he gave was, because by them he knew the minds of several nations, which is a brave thing; as we count him a wise man that knows the minds and insides of men, which is done by knowing what is habitual to them. Proverbs are habitual to a nation, being transmitted from father to son.— Selden.

60.

A DISPUTE happening between two officers on

board a vessel, whose crew were a mixture of Irish and English, in the course of the contest one of them asserted that the English could not answer a common question with half the propriety natural to the Irish. A bet being proposed, it was agreed to try the question immediately. An Englishman was asked what he would take to go up aloft blindfold in a hard gale? "I would take a month's pay," said the fellow. "And what would you take, Pat?" said one of the officers to an Irish

man. "Nothing," said the Hibernian, "but fast hold!"

WHILE

61.

WHILE Sir Walter Raleigh was a scholar at Oxford, there was a fellow who, though of a cowardly disposition, happened to be a very expert archer. Having been grossly abused by another, he complained of the treatment he had met with to Raleigh, and asked his advice. "What

shall I do," said he, "to repair the wrongs which I have received?" 66 Challenge him," replied Sir Walter, "at a match at shooting."

A

62.

PERSON of quality came to my chamber in

the Temple, and told me he had two devils in his head (I wondered what he meant), and just at that time one of them bid him kill me. With that I begun to be afraid, and thought he was mad. He said he knew I could cure him, and therefore entreated me to give him something, for he was resolved he would go to nobody else. I perceiving what an opinion he had of me, and that it was only melancholy that troubled him, took him in hand, warranted him, if he would follow my directions, to cure him in a short time. I desired him to let me be alone about an hour, and then to come again, which he was very willing to. In the meantime I got a card, and lapped it up handsome in a piece of taffeta, and put strings to the taffeta, and when he came gave it him to hang about his neck; withal charged him that he should not disorder