torious; defied by his enemies, cheered by his friends; never sinking into an ordinary man, though not a perfect one."Ibid.

Who does not remember the celebrated sketch of Lord Nugent (a remarkably large, heavy man, with a head even larger than was required to be in proportion to his body), who went out to join the Spanish patriots when their cause was pretty well lost--a sketch which furnished Mr. Canning's most effective defence of the neutral policy he had adopted towards Spain during the French expedition?

"It was about the middle of last July that the heavy Falmouth coach-(here Mr. Canning was interrupted with loud and continued laughter)—that the heavy Falmouth coach was observed travelling to its destination through the roads of Cornwall with more than its wonted gravity. (Very loud laughter.) The coach contained two inside passengers-the one a fair lady of no inconsiderable dimensions, the other a gentleman, who was conveying the succour of his person to the struggling patriots of Spain. I am further informed-and this interesting fact, sir, can also be authenticated-that the heavy Falmouth van (which honourable gentlemen, doubtless, are aware is constructed for the conveyance of cumbrous articles) was laden, upon the same memorable occasion, with a box of most portentous magnitude. Now, sir, whether this box, like the flying chest of the conjuror, possessed any supernatural properties of locomotion, is a point which I confess I am quite unable to determine; but, of this I am most credibly informed-and I should hesitate long before I stated it to the house, if the statement did not rest upon the most unquestionable authority-that this extraordinary box contained a full uniform of a Spanish general of cavalry, together with a helmet of the most curious workmanship; a helmet, allow me to add, scarcely inferior in size to the celebrated helmet in the Castle of Otranto. (Loud laughter.) Though the idea of going to the relief of a fortress, blockaded by sea, and besieged by land, in a full suit of light horseman's equipment, was, perhaps, not consonant to modern military operations, yet, when the gentleman and his box made their appearance, the Cortes, no doubt, were overwhelmed with joy, and rubbed their hands with delight at the approach of the long-promised aid. How the noble lord was received, or what effects he operated on the councils of the Cortes by his arrival, I (Mr. Canning) do not know. Things were, at that juncture, moving rapidly to their final issue; and how far the noble lord had conduced to the termination by throwing his weight into the sinking scale of the Cortes, is too nice a question for me just now to settle."-Annual Register, 1821.

Our next extract is part of a very playful article entitled, "A Licensed Warehouse for Wit:"

"I propose, if I meet with proper encouragement, making application to Parliament for permission to open a Licensed Warehouse for Wit, and for a patent entitling me to the sole vending and uttering wares of this kind for a certain term of years. For this purpose I have already laid in jokes, jests, witticisms, morceaux, and bon-mots of every kind, to a very considerable amount, well worthy the attention of the public. I have epigrams that want nothing but the sting; conundrums that need nothing but the explanation; rebuses and acrostics that will be complete with the addition of the name only. These being in great request, may be had at an hour's warning. Impromptus will be got ready at a week's notice. For common and vernacular use, I have a long list of the most palpable puns in the language, digested in alphabetical order; for these I expect good sale as both the universities. Jokes of all kinds ready cut and dry.

"N.B. Proper allowances made to gentlemen of the law going on circuit, and to all second-hand vendors of wit and retailers of repartees who take large quantities.

“N.B. Attic salt in any quantities. "N.B. Most money for old jokes."

One of the cleverest of Mr. Canning's Essays is No. 2 of the Microcosm. It is directed against the vice of swearing, and has for its motto,

"Jurare-et fallere Numen."
"To swear and forswear."

We have only room for a short extract :

"I remember to have heard of a person of great talents for inquiry, who, to inform himself whether the land or the water bore the greater proportion in the globe, contrived to cut out, with extreme nicety, from a map, the different portions of each, and by weighing them together, decided it, in favour of which it is not now material. Could this experiment be made with regard to the properties which oaths bear to the rest of our common conversation, I own I am not without my suspicions that the former scale would in some cases preponderate; nay, certain I am that these harmless expletives constitute considerably the weightiest part in the discourse of those who, either by their own ignorant vanity, or the contemptuous mock admiration of others, have been dignified with the title of bucks. And this, indeed, as well as in the smaller circle, which falls more immediately under my observation, as in the more enlarged society of men, among whom to a buck who has the honour to serve his majesty, a habit of swearing is an appendage as absolutely essential as a cockade or

a commission; and many a one there is among the order who will sit down with equal ardour and self-complacency to devise the cut of a coat, or the form of an execration."

The author then passes on to the accomplishments of women and boys in this happy contagion, on which topic he remembered to have heard an honest Hibernian divine, whose zeal for morality would sometimes hurry him a little beyond the limits of good grammar or good sense, in the height of declamation, declare that "the little children that could neither speak nor walk, run about the streets blaspheming."

Well-adapted ridicule no public man can withstand, and there seems to have been something peculiar to Mr. Addington that attracted it. Even Mr. Sheridan, his steady supporter to the last, in those memorable lines :—

"I do not love thee, Doctor Fell;

The reason why I cannot tell;

But this I know, and know full well,

I do not love thee, Doctor Fell,"

quoted in defence of the minister whom so many attacked without saying why they disapproved, furnished the political nickname that too well applied to him, and struck the last nail into the coffin that a mingled cohort of friends and enemies bore-a smile on their faces-to the tomb.

When the new ministry was formed, in which Lord Sidmouth (late Mr. Addington) was included, Mr. Canning said he "was like the small-pox, since everybody must have it once in their lives."

If our conduct towards the Danes, in our attack on Copenhagen, admits of defence, luckily for Mr. Canning the odium of that miserable expedition against Holland-in which

"Lord Chatham, with his sword undrawn,

Stood waiting for Sir Richard Strachan ;
Sir Richard, longing to be at 'em,

Stood waiting for the Earl of Chatham,”

an expedition equally disgraceful to ministers and commanders -fell chiefly on his colleagues, who had originated and presided over it, having himself been present at the embarkation.

Mr. Canning had an affection for Mr. Sheridan, who had always been kind to him, and to whom he was not ungrate

ful. He sought, then, when changing his political opinions, an interview with that good-natured and gifted person. Lord Holland, Mr. Canning's contemporary, was present at it, and told him that nothing could be more respectful and unreserved than the manner in which the ambitious young man gave his reasons for the change; nothing more warmhearted, unprejudiced, and frank than the veteran orator's reception of his retiring protégé's confession; nor, indeed, could Mr. Sheridan help feeling the application, when he was himself cited as an example of the haughtiness with which "the great Whig houses" looked down upon the lofty -aspirations of mere genius. The conversation then alluded to a little before Mr. Pitt's proposals were made, but probably when they were expected. Mr. Canning-his views fairly stated to the only person to whom he felt bound to give them, and his seat in Parliament secured-placed himself in front of his old friends, whom Colonel Fitz-Patrick avenged by the following couplet :—

"The turning of coats so common is grown,

That no one could think to attack it ;

But no case until now was so flagrantly known
Of a schoolboy turning his jacket."

COURT GOSSIP.

Sir Henry Lytton Bulwer relates the following anecdote of the times which is worth recording. "Lady Conyngham had been supposed in early life to have greatly admired (there was no scandal, I should say, attached to this admiration) Lord Ponsonby, then the finest gentleman of the day. Lord Ponsonby, who had long been absent from England, returned from the Ionian Islands, where he held a small office, not a little desirous to get a better place than the one he had quitted. He met Lady Conyngham at Lady Jersey's, and (so went the story of the day) Lady Conyngham fainted. So interesting a piece of gossip soon reached the ear of the monarch; the friendship of old men is very often as romantic as the love of young men. His Majesty took to his bed, declared himself ill, and would see no one. All business was stopped. After waiting some time Mr. Canning obtained an interview. George IV. received him lying on a couch in a darkened room, the light being barely sufficient to read a paper. "What's the matter? I am very ill, Mr. Canning.'

"I shall not occupy your Majesty for more than five

minutes. It is very desirable, as your Majesty knows, to send envoys without delay to the States of South America that are about to be recognised.'

"The king groaned and moved impatiently.

"I have been thinking, sire, it would be most desirable to select a man of rank for one of these posts—(another groan)— and I thought of proposing Lord Ponsonby to your Majesty for Buenos Ayres.'

"Ponsonby!' said the king, rising a little from his reclining position; 'a capital appointment! a clever fellow, though an idle one. Mr. Canning, may I ask you to undraw that curtain a little? A very good appointment; is there anything else, Canning, that you wish me to attend to?'

"From that moment,' said the person who told me the story, 'Mr. Canning's favour rose more and more rapidly."—Historical Characters.

CANNING AND GRATTAN.

It is remarkable that an author who in literature can only be considered as an amateur, should have possessed that rare accomplishment of style which is the first condition of durable reputation. The humour of Canning's more ephemeral lampoons, as they exist in oral tradition, seems to have been not less admirable.

Canning said of Grattan's eloquence that, for the last two years, his public exhibitions were a complete failure, and that you saw all the mechanism of his oratory without its life. It was like lifting the flap of a barrel-organ and seeing the wheels; you saw the skeleton of his sentences without the flesh on them; and were induced to think that what you had considered flashes were merely primings kept ready for the occasion.

Mr. Canning was once asked by an English clergyman how he liked the sermon he had preached before him. Why, it was a short sermon," quoth Mr. Canning. "Oh, yes, said the preacher, "you know I avoid being tedious." but," replied Canning, "you were tedious."

THE MARQUIS OF ANGLESEY'S LEG.

Ah,

Among the curiosities of Waterloo are the grave of the Marquis of Anglesey's leg, and the house in which it was cut off, and the boot belonging to it. The owner of the house,