494 NOTES FROM THE DIARY OF A SUB-EDITOR. 



PLYMOUTH ROYAL NAVAL CLUB. Since writing the note headed 

 " Politics in the Service," we find a long advertisement in most 

 of the London papers, from the Plymouth Naval Club, denying 

 that offence was intended by their mode of toasting " His Majesty's 

 Ministers." It appears that it has never been their custom to " cheer" 

 that toast. All we can add, is such a custom would be more " honoured 

 in the breach than in the observance." 



HER MAJESTY AT OXFORD. The papers of the last three days have 

 been recording the brilliant reception of the Queen at Oxford. The 

 " town" seems to have decidedly beaten the "gown" in demonstrations of 

 loyalty. Fireworks were let off, whose corruscations would have dazzled 

 the eyes of Radicals the most obdurate ; dinners given, enough to open 

 the hearts and mouths of a whole common- council of Harmers and 

 Scales's ; and illuminations " flared up," the brilliancy of which was 

 sufficient to " lighten the darkness" of every political cobbler in the 

 empire : while the amusements offered by the University were merely 

 one Latin speech, rehearsed by Field-marshal, Lord-Chancellor Arthur 

 Wellesley Duke of Wellington ; one ditto from the public orator, 

 Dr. Bliss ; and the usual complement of faceticK from the lungs of the 

 under-graduates ; a portion of which last we extract from the Courier : 



" On the under-gallery being filled, the young gentlemen commenced their 

 accustomed sport by calling for cheers for the ladies; this was received with 

 tremendous applause, as were the names of the Duke of Wellington, Sir Robert 

 Peel, Lord Eldon, Lord Lyndhurst, the Bishops, Church and King, and many 

 others. Then came a " Groan for Brougham." " His Majesty's Ministers." 

 (Groan.) "The Ladies again." (Cheers.) The Ladies' Maids." (Loud 

 laughter.) " Lord Radnor and his fox-hounds." (Cheers.) The King of the 

 Cannibal Islands." (Laughter.) 



THE Gentlemen OF THE PRESS. We want a new dictionary of defini- 

 tions sadly. Some words bear a variety of signification, which must be 

 extremely embarrassing" to foreigners ; the word " gentleman," for 

 example, has a number of meanings almost endless. There are 

 primitive gentlemen in silks and tights gentlemen's gentlemen in 

 second-hand coats gentlemen Jews with dirty hands and gold rings 

 and gentlemen swindlers of " gentlemanly exterior" all having in some 

 remote degree the shadow of a claim to the title. But, of this extensive 

 species, the genus denominated " Gentlemen of the Press" seems to be 

 fast losing the smallest share in the idea usually conveyed by that am- 

 biguous term, " gentleman." In a former note we awarded to the Times 

 pre-eminence in the department of " newspaper abuse ;" but have done 

 " The Standard" an injustice which we hasten to correct, by the follow- 

 ing extract from a provincial paper : 



By a recent No. of the Standard, O'Connell is styled a ' mendicant,' and a 

 sordid blood-stained incendiary/ the Glasgow meeting a ' mob/ a ' Helot spec- 

 tacle/ and * beastly festival / all who presumed to attend, 'contemptible in num- 

 bers, station, sense, and morals/ 'Ribbonmen/ 'wretches/ 'rabble,' 'animals,' 

 'beasts/ blockheads,' * animated dirt, quickened into fermentation by the beams 

 of Mr. O'ConnelPs brazen face!!' 



