instances which he has communicated, we shall record. We are well aware of the irritability of the genus, and that it is susceptible of acute pain on the attacks of curiosity, as it lives, like the garden-spider, in the centre of its own web, the vibration of a single cord of which induces the mealy cuticle which covers its angular physiognomy, to put on a fever redness, and the lividi occhi, as Tasso calls them, or, in plain English, the "livid eyes" engulphed therein, to flash, what the lake-poets sublimely denominate, an "emerald light;"-for be it known, that greenness of colour and morbidness have more than a common affinity, and bachelorship is, according to the best medical practitioners, a state of actual disease. Mr. Wigginbottom says he called twice upon Mr. Theophilus Weazel, a gentleman of this description, aged fifty-two or fiftythree years. The first time he could not be admitted, as Mr. Weazel had employed an artist of celebrity in surgery, in the important operation of cutting and mollifying his corns. On the second visit he was admitted into the presence. Well knowing the man, we can fancy our friend Ebenezer standing with his hat in one hand, and his list-book in the other; an ink-bottle, having a pen stuck in it, suspended from his button-hole ready for action; the points of his toes forming the centre of a St. Andrew's cross with the opposite angles of the room; while the official dignity of his countenance was tempered by an air of humility, arising from a recollection that Mr. Weazel bought goods at his shop. This expression is never witnessed in government officials, who have no copartnership with similar extraneous interests, but depend entirely upon the "powers that be." The latter description of officials are the pontifices majores, and the others but underlings; yet all bear in their countenances somewhat of " a valiant severity" when among equals or inferiors. Ebenezer says, he first broke silence, after a mutual recognition. The conversation we shall give exactly as it reached us.

E. I am come, Sir, to inquire the number of inhabitants in this house, their ages, employments, and means of living, in pursuance of an Act passed in the 2d Geo. IV. being an act for ascertaining the population of these kingdoms.

W. (reddening). What the devil, Wigginbottom, have I to do with population?

E. True, Sir; but I must do my duty you know, Sir.

W. Very well; but I stand alone in the world :—I have no children; population is nothing to me, I don't increase it, and Malthus says, it is the increase of population that is the ruin of nations. I have no wife. I have a housekeeper, it is true, somewhat aged-Diana Icely, just turned sixty. What has population to do with me or her either?

E. (profiting by the intelligence of the housekeeper's name and age, instantly put them in his list). You, perhaps, have other relatives living with you, Sir?

W. No, Wigginbottom-none, thank God; I am plagued with none, male or female; and this intelligence will content you, I hope. E. (Entering Theophilus Weazel, single man). Any servants, Sir? W. No, no, Di and self, are all who live in this house, unless would take the rats.

you

E. Your employment, Sir.

W. Am I not a gentleman-independent, and

E. Government orders us to return the employment, Sir.

W. Government be d-d; it won't let us live in the light of heaven by and by; it means to save the expense of keeping spies, I' suppose, by making every man a spy upon himself. Let them find it out.

E. There is a penalty, Sir, for making evasive returns. I could wish to oblige you, but you must not blame me for following my duty. You have known me a long while, Mr. Weazel.

W. A man's house was formerly his castle; his secrets were his own; he paid his taxes, and no more was required. They'll set up racks soon, to extort answers to their questions. I pay half my income in taxes, and cannot be left quiet. I'll emigrate-I'll sell out of the funds, and live abroad,

E. I will enter "lives by the funds; no employment." (writes it down, Mr. Weazel scarcely noticing him, from angry emotion). There is something more, Sir, I had nearly

W. Taxation, Wigginbottom, taxation is the cause of all.Ministers are insolent from success-sha'n't tax me much longerI'll get out of the way-I'll emigrate.

E. There is something more, Sir-I had nearly forgotten to ask your age.

W. My age! s'blood! my age too? (Here he appeared half choked with anger.)

A pause now ensued, says our Correspondent, and Mr. Weazel's countenance changed from red to white, and from white to yellow, and then to red again, with an expression of indignation and rage. It was an emotion forming a climax of passion; the magnitude of which precluded utterance, and proved it not to belong to the parvi dolores of Horace. It must have been a pause like Macduff's, after he exclaimed,

all my pretty ones?

Did you say all? Oh hell-kite!-all?

Honest Ebenezer almost wished he had not made his demand so abruptly. At length, in a subdued tone of voice, the overpowered Celibataire said, "Wigginbottom, I don't know my age; this business is more than human nature can bear-put me down what you think me to be." I mentioned fifty, and a gleam of satisfaction overspread his face, as he added, "you guess near the mark, Wigginbottom-only two years out; I shall not say which side fifty you should have taken."

Heartily tired, our friend put down forty-eight; at the same time guessing, from Mr. Weazel's apparent satisfaction, that it ought to have been four years more, and that the bachelor felt pleasure at having cozened him.

Mr. Wigginbottom made some general observations, while following his troublesome vocation, which may be worth notice: He uniformly found, he says, that those who took offence at his demands, even if ultra-royalists before, immediately changed side in politics, and even uttered threats dangerous to the state; hence the ground of our anxiety at the beginning of this article. Secondly, he observed, that persons who were indifferent about their actual ages being made known, did not relish the being supposed older than they really were; and, lastly, that boarding-school boys and girls were, alone, solicitous to steal a march upon time, and always represented themselves in advance of the exact truth. Finally, he hopes, that the duties of his office having been so troublesome in the fulfilment, Government will act liberally towards him, in the way of remuneration. From our long knowledge of the integrity of Mr. Wigginbottom, we cordially join in his wish, and would back him with our interest; but we are well aware it would not even obtain him midshipman's half-pay, to use a sailor's phrase; or, "three farthings a-year, paid quarterly."

.

NORTH GERMAN PEASANTRY.

(Concluded from page 276.)

There are two sources from whence the peasantry of any country could derive protection; either from their own warlike character and skill in the use of arms, or from the aid and countenance of the king. There are in those times no laws to shelter them; and if there were, laws are only the result of the mutual apprehensions of mankind, and never fail to be unequal where these apprehensions are unequal. No public protection is ever provided for a section of the community, which is unable to make good by force its title to such a protection. "To him that hath, more shall be given; from him that hath not, shall be taken away even that he hath"- this has been the regulating principle of law from the first formation of human society. Spirit and strength alone must thus constitute the security of the peasant, and in proportion as these qualities prevailed or declined, with more or less rapidity, in any country, would be the degree of respect manifested towards their rights and their happiness. To solve the question fully, therefore, it would be requisite to point out what circumstances have determined, in some nations, a longer preservation of that diffused and universal military spirit which all very early societies possess in common. But the data for this purpose are altogether wanting; and it is only possible to shew, that in proportion as military habits prevailed among the peasantry of the different European countries, has been the extent of liberty and privilege conceded to them by the law.

An excellent measure of this comparative diffusion of the military spirit may be attained by examining the constitution of the different armies in the middle ages. The bulk of the English armies always consisted of archers, taken of course from among the smaller proprietors, who were not able to command the more expensive apparatus of horse-service. Their uncommon skill in the use of this cheap weapon is a sufficient evidence that it must have been constantly in their hands. The armies of Henry V. usually included about the proportion of 23,000 archers to 6000 horse; and the irresistible superiority of the former seems to have been the principal occasion of the victory at Azincourt, as well as of those at Cressy, Poictiers, and Verneuil.

In France, from the time of the Capetian dynasty, the French armies were almost entirely composed of cavalry (Mezeray 2.384). Even the French archers served on horseback, though they seem not to have been native Frenchmen, but hired foreigners. Genoese bowmen served with Philip at the battle of Cressy. The number of French gentry killed, and taken at the fields of Cressy, Poictiers, and Azincourt, was very great indeed. From these circumstances, it appears clear, that the military spirit in France was almost exclusively confined to the gentry, and that the smaller peasantry rarely intermingled in the use of arms. Probably the excessive superiority of numbers which the French possessed in all these three battles, is t be ascribed to the long train of camp-followers, whom a wealthy

nobility would carry with them into the field. These followers would swell the nominal muster-roll, though they would contribute little towards the result, and thus the superiority of the English in bravery and conduct would be magnified beyond its just value. In the southern parts of Germany, Swabia, Franconia, and Bavaria, the military spirit seems to have been earlier, and more generally relaxed among the smaller proprietors, than in the Saxon countries. The expedition which the Emperor Henry IV. in the year 1074, led against the Saxons, displays in a striking light, as it is related by Lambert of Aschaffenburg, the different constitution of the two districts. The army which that prince led from the south is represented as consisting almost entirely of cavalry, who drew after them an infinity of unwarlike retainers, with baggage, for the purpose of administering to their luxuries. On the other hand, the Saxon troops were almost all foot, taken from the small farmers and proprietors of the country; they were derided by the gentry in the Imperial ranks, as vulgus ineptum, agriculturæ potius quam militiæ assuetum. This chronicler, himself a native of Southern Germany, and therefore accustomed to consider arms as the almost exclusive function of the gentry, treats the vulgus pedestre, plebs et multitudo Saxonica, as he terms them, with a contempt which their bravery seems by no means to deserve. They threatened their princes with confiscation and expulsion, if the latter should prove reluctant and dilatory in the war against the Emperor, and they even proceeded so far as to realise their menaces on the person of a principal nobleman who had secretly endeavoured to frustrate their views.

The disuse of warlike habits among the poorer class occasioned a corresponding change in the nature of the games or amusements which had previously been popular. Instead of continuing to be exhibitions of military strength and skill-qualities alike attainable by the poor and by the rich; instead of deriving their chief value from the school and the discipline which they held out to the rising warrior; they gradually degenerated into a pompous and shewy ceremonial, involving an expense which none but the gentry could pretend to sustain. Jousts and tournaments became the fashionable spectacle, throughout France particularly, and to a high degree in the rest of Southern Europe. The change was similar to that witnessed in the ancient world with respect to the Grecian and Roman games, in which the original boxing and wrestling conflicts had, from the extinction of the military spirit, dwindled away into gaudy spectacles of chariot and horse-races. In France, where the peasantry underwent the earliest and most complete abasement, tournaments seem to have obtained the greatest currency. Some excellent remarks on this subject may be found in a work of the German professor Meiners-" History of the Inequality of ranks in Modern Europe. Vol. I. p. 304.”

But though the mental excitability and the corporeal energy of the peasants must be viewed as the primary cause of their exemption from inroads upon their happiness, yet other concurrent circumstances might materially assist and encourage their capacity of resistance. The degree of power possessed by the king, himself the

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