This is certainly extremely dramatic, and reminds one strongly of the scene in the Padlock, where Mungo apostrophises Don Jerome aside:

Mungo.-Cus you heart, old Massa.

Don Jerome.-What's that you mutter, you black rascal?

Mungo. Me only say bless you heart Massa; you very good Massa.

Don Jerome does not indeed go away and report that he found his negro at prayers, blessing him, and commending his magisterial qualities; perhaps, however, this incident in the Padlock is nevertheless the prototype of Mr. G. W. Phillips's affecting tale.

31st.-I see in the paper of to-day, a report of a vestry meeting at Islington. The pastor of this parish, Mr. Daniel Wilson, has, it seems, bred a feud among his flock, from a vehement desire to preserve peace and orthodoxy. As people are permitted no choice in the appointments of their parsons and vicars, they are ordinarily glad to exercise their own discretion in that of an afternoon lecturer, who is, as it were, the man of their hearts, while the others are the men of their great and small tithes. The good folks of Islington, anticipating the vacancy of the evening lectureship, began to cast about for a preacher to their liking. This alarmed Mr. Daniel Wilson; he was filled with fears of heterodoxy, and absolutely appalled (I use his very word) at the prospect of the heats and animosities of a contested election in an immense population like that of Islington. He first, it seems, to ward off these terrible evils, appointed his own curate. The parishioners did not like the choice; they wanted a lecturer of their own election. In this case, said Mr. Daniel Wilson, I will give them that which must please them—I will give them a treat-I will give them some more of myself-I will be the afternoon lecturer. This was kind, but not satisfactory. I copy Mr. Wilson's address to his parishioners. One cannot but smile at the dire apprehensions, and proportionately big words called forth by this occasion. Islington seems on the brink of a frightful revolution, and one trembles at the hidden dangers which threaten this "vast," "most important," and "affectionate" parish.

"TO THE PARISHIONERS OF ST. MARY'S, ISLINGTON.

Barnsbury Park, February 4th, 1826. "My dear Parishioners:-A premature canvass having unhappily been commenced for the office of afternoon lecturer, in the event of a vacancy, (which I consider very improbable,) my attention has been anxiously directed to the preservation of peace, if it be possible, in this vast parish. I have really felt appalled, in common with many of the best friends to good order and religion in the parish, at the prospect of those heats and animosities which unavoidably attend contested elections in an immense population like our's, and which are peculiarly to be deprecated in a case where the ministry of the gospel of peace is concerned.

"At one time I had flattered myself that my honest efforts to this end might have been completely suceessful. But as it has been represented to me that they have failed of producing the desired result, and that all the accumulated evils of an election may be too surely

anticipated, I have thought it my duty to consider whether any measure could be adopted to appease the dissensions already arising between my affectionate parishioners, and to prevent in future the recurrence of such serious, and in many respects irremediable conflicts. "I have, therefore, upon the best deliberation I have been able to give the subject, determined that, whenever the vacancy may occur, (which, I repeat, is far from probable,) I will take upon myself to provide for the afternoon duty. In this way the calamities attendant upon occasions like the present will be avoided; whilst my making myself responsible for the whole charge of the service, which is now performed by the afternoon lecturer at the cost of the parishioners, will be some proof, as I hope, that I have no motive upon earth in this proceeding but to consult the tranquillity and welfare of the most important and affectionate parish which is entrusted to my care.

"I cannot venture to flatter myself that any measure adopted at such a moment as the present, can be in the first instance entirely satisfactory to all my parishioners; but I cast myself unreservedly, as to this, upon their good sense, their reflection, their piety, and their kind feelings towards myself, which have never as yet failed me, and which, I trust, I may rely upon without presumption now, in this my most sincere, anxious, and disinterested endeavour to serve them.

"I need scarcely add, that I most earnestly entreat the prayers of all my parishioners to Almighty God, the fountain of mercy, to grant that blessing to this and all my designs for their good, upon which the permanent peace and happiness of our sacred connexion entirely depend. I am, my dear parishioners,

"Your most affectionate friend and servant,

"DANIEL WILSON, Vicar."

April 1st.-The Chancellor has at last filled up the vacant masterships. It is said that he could not make up his mind as to the second appointment (Peel's brother-in-law was a dead thing) till he had ascertained against which candidate public opinion ran strongest, and then he decided according to the rule of contraries : without this stimulus, even the Duke of York, who backed the winner, might have failed. By the bye, Mr. Thomas Hamilton, speaking of masters, tells the Chancery Commissioners that "they ought to have a great deal more authority than they assume at present; that is, provided no persons are appointed masters but those who have had great practice and experience in the Court of Chancery." The sly rogue; but it wasn't fair to hit so hard when he knew that he was only examined in play. Captain Cross was not called as a witness.

Mr. Seymour, the serjeant-at-arms, a cousin of the Marquis of Hertford, has 38. per day wages, and 2s. 6d. per day board wages, How very cheap! considering the dignity of the office, for we are told "That a serjeant-at-arms may apprehend or attack any subject of the king's, or other, whatsoever he be, remaining in the four seas of England, or any part thereof, be it any house, castle, or fort, that will be broken to make his arrest, may raze and beat down to

the ground." Oh, Sir Francis Burdett! are you not very much obliged to Mr. Colman for getting in at your kitchen window instead of pulling your house about your ears? "For the serjeant's arrest is of more high nature than any other can be, and therefore, the serjeant-at-arms is commonly called the valorous force of a king's errand in the execution of justice;" only sometimes the valorous force of the Life Guards is found more effective. But what can we expect for 3s. a day wages and 2s. 6d. a day board wages; really the Marquis of Hertford should provide better for his relations-but perhaps there are perquisites.

8th. The watermen have put forth this modest suggestion in the newspapers:" An application is about to be made to Parliament in behalf of the Thames watermen, a body of people, whose condition has been rapidly deteriorating for many years past. Its object is to prevent the boat-builders from letting out boats, unless manned by watermen free of the river. The watermen have powerful claims on the protection of the country. During the last war 14,800 of them contributed to our naval force; and in the event of hostilities with any foreign power, 5000 are compelled to enter at once into the service

of the state."

There is a reasonableness, modesty, and moderation in this application, which cannot fail to recommend it to Parliament. The object of it is merely to give to the watermen the exclusive possession of the river. Many thousand persons, distinguished by the odious appellation of Cockneys, wretches who live in close, smoky districts, and breathe a foul atmosphere, are in the habit of snatching a little sweet air and wholesome exercise on the Thames, which they navigate, after a more or less clumsy sort, in boats, let out at a very moderate rate by the boat-builders. All that the watermen ask, is that Parliament will be so good as not to suffer these or any other persons to go on the river in hired boats unless they take watermen with them. The gentlemen of the House of Commons will of course see nothing unreasonable in this request. They will perceive no hardship whatever in legislating that poor devils of Cockneys shall be compelled to pay a waterman or watermen for taking care of them if they hire a boat for an hour's air on the river. Mr. Noodle will get up, and approve highly of the object and tendency of the bill. He will extol the Thames watermen, and not fail to call them a nursery of seamen; and he will remark how desirable it will be to improve their condition by the same measure that tends to secure the safety of the public. He will draw a dismal picture of the accidents which happen to unskilful persons who go on the river in hired boats without watermen, and he will infallibly remind the House how a gentleman was drowned, not many years ago, in Chelsea Reach, and how two lads were upset last Sunday, and how they would have been lost if they had not providentially been saved. Mr. Noodle will then return to the watermen, and lament that their condition has been "rapidly deteriorating for many years past," partly owing to the bridges, but more especially to the too great moderation and civility of the watermen. These good qualities having, strange to say, operated so hurtfully to these worthies, that a man who knows what they are, will at any time rather walk a mile round than come in contact with one of them.

Then Mr. Noodle will call them a nursery of sailors, and no naval officer will take the trouble to get up and explain that Thames watermen do not make better seamen than tinkers and tailors; that they are entered on the ships' books as landsmen, and ordinarily do duty in the waist, and are consequently entitled to no favour on the score of nautical skill. What skill, indeed, could they be expected to possess beyond feathering their oars trimly on smooth water, and sailing their wherries right before the wind?-fine accomplishments for able sailors! However, nobody will take the trouble to state these facts, and nobody will think it worth while to say a few words on the behalf of the Cockneys, who are about to be forbidden the amusement and healthy exercise of rowing-rowing, I mean, as Cockneys do row, clumsily enough, but satisfactorily to themselves. Thus the bill will pass without opposition, and thousands of smoke-dried citizens, and unwashed artisans, (as it is the decent fashion to call them when it is intended to wrong them,) will be excluded from a healthful and a harmless enjoyment, in order that a class may be put in the possession of a monopoly. The next application to Parliament will be on the behalf of the coachmen, a body of people whose condition is not so good as they would desire it to be. Its object will be to prevent the stable-keepers from letting out gigs, tilburys, stanhopes, &c., unless driven by coachmen. The coachmen have powerful claims on the protection of the country.

9th. An error of the press in the Morning Chronicle has given occasion for this smart commentary in the John Bull. Seeing the melancholy way into which this loyal journal is falling, humanity forbids that we should regret the mistake which has enlivened it:

"That Mathews is highly gifted we never doubted; but a paragraph which appears in the Chronicle of Friday has publicly, and, as it should seem, officially stamped him the possessor of a quality which our late worthy and excellent friend, Sir Boyle Roche, believed to be exclusively attributable to birds.

"The Chronicle says:

To show the good feeling that exists between Mathews and Yates, Mathews was at the Adelphi Theatre on the first night of the new entertainment, and appeared highly delighted with it.'

"Nothing can be more decidedly convincing than this statement: for as we most assuredly were highly delighted with Mr. Mathews's entertainment at the Lyceum on the same evening, no doubt can remain of the power of the talented son of Momus to be in two places at once."

For Mathews read Mrs. Mathews, and the riddle is explained. The fact is, that Mrs. Mathews took so lively an interest in the success of Mr. Yates that she went to the Adelphi on the first night of his performance in the amiable hope of witnessing his triumph, and so delighted was she with it, that her extreme satisfaction showed itself in that shape of joy which outwardly resembles grief-almost tears of pleasure.

13th. It has been stated in the Westminster Review that the king gave Sheridan 40007. for the purpose of bringing him into Parliament, and that Sheridan, after having broken off the treaty for a seat for Wootton-Basset, applied the money to his private uses, as he was

warranted to do by the permission of the donor. In the last number of the Quarterly this latter circumstance of the permission is affirmed to be entirely without foundation. There are many persons, however, (Lord Moira, I believe, among the number,) who give the Westminster version of the story. It is to be hoped, for the honour of both parties concerned, that the Quarterly's is the incorrect account of the matter; for if we are to believe the Quarterly, his majesty is deprived of all the merit which has been ascribed to him for his conduct in this transaction. If he gave the money to Sheridan for the one purpose only, of bringing him into Parliament, there was no generosity in the case, for the prince needed Sheridan's services in the House, and would by these means have had them-there was a quid pro quo. The other version gives us to believe that the prince presented the money to Sheridan with the design not exclusively of purchasing a Parliamentary support, but of promoting his friend's views, and on the understanding indeed that Sheridan would apply the means placed at his command to the object which he was supposed to have most at heart a seat in the House, but without any stipulation that the money should be applied to that object only.

While I am on this subject I think it right to note another instance, which has never been made public, of the king's kindness to the Sheridans. Tom Sheridan stood for Liskeard, and incurred debts to the amount of 13 or 14007., which neither he nor his father, who started him, was in a condition to discharge. The prince hearing that Tom Sheridan was pressed for the money, desired one of his confidential friends to write to Mr. Charles Carpenter, of Madetenham, in Cornwall, the principal creditor, stating that the prince felt much pain at the idea of the Sheridans being inconvenienced, and proposing, that as his Royal Highness could not at that moment pay down the money required, Mr. Charles Carpenter should arrange matters, and receive an annuity of one hundred pounds a-year for the amount. To this Mr. Carpenter readily consented, and he receives the annuity to this day. Doubtless some Quarterly Reviewer will, by an off-hand assertion, endeavour to deprive the king of the merit of this act of kindness, which was the more praiseworthy, as, at the time, money was by no means plentiful at Carlton house.

Went to the Royal Institution to see Doctor Granville's dissection of his old mammy, aged three thousand years, (errors excepted.) Saw a tray full of bones covered with a substance like black leather, and had no idea that the subject would turn out a beauty, but so the learned Doctor proved it. He has demonstrated, at different times and places, that this, his mummy, had had a large family that she was an Egyptian lady of quality, of agreeable manners, with a remarkably fine ear for music, and a good finger for the pianoforte-that she was the very pearl of beauty-and that, indeed, two peas were not more like each other than this mummy and the Venus de Medicis. She died, according to the Doctor, aged fifty exactly. He could tell us, if he liked, at what o'clock of the night or morning; many more particulars the learned Doctor could have given about her, but, fearful of fatiguing the audience, he reserved them, I am told, for the memoirs of his mummy, which he is about to publish, and in which, by the mere force of science, he will