450 NOTES OF THE MONTH. 



ment, are topics of daily-deepening interest ; they are daily becoming 

 better understood ; and are far, very far, from being the least important 

 of the thousand stirring arid pregnant subjects of consideration, which 

 now provoke discussion throughout the whole immense range of society. 

 In the abominations of the law itself, the malpractices, extortions, and 

 brutalities of those whose profession it is to carry its despotic provisions 

 into effect are, although, as glaring and notorious as the noon-day, too 

 frequently overlooked. They are ranked as matters of course among 

 the distresses and disasters to which every debtor is liable; and are 

 taken to be part and parcel of the 'law itself, and, therefore, things to be 

 borne with as the sufferer best may, so long as the present law may last. 

 Nor, it must be confessed, is there any remedy, except in actions like 

 this against LEVY, actions which involve a certain outlay to the com- 

 plainant, who it may be presumed is, generally, too poor to go to law a 

 great risk of failure, as in all other cases of application for legal redress 

 an exposure of private and painful circumstances, to which few like, 

 or can afford to give publicity to and when all this hazard, expence 

 and mortification have been encountered with success, the result is, as 

 we have seen, a fine of " twenty pounds to the King," and a vulgar and 

 cheaply purchased triumph to the rich baliff, who " writes a draft" for 

 the costs of one injury, and swaggers off to commit a hundred others 

 with impunity. 



THE DEMON DUKE AND HIS DOUBLE. The tea-table circles of the 

 United Kingdom have been thrown, for the last fortnight, into a state of 

 curiosity and consternation, by an event, quite unequalled by any thing 

 that has happened above-ground since the days of the Dragon of Want- 

 ley. We allude, of course, to the " affair" at Barnes, in which the 

 Duke of Cumberland has so distinguished himself, as to render his 

 equestrian exploits more famous, from this time forth, than Ducrow's. 



The story is as well known as that of the Duke's rival, the Dragon 

 alluded to above. Certain young ladies were walking quietly upon a 

 footpath, when a certain horseman, " with white mustachios," galloped 

 up, and (all but) rode over them. They were not hurt, it is true that 

 is, their feet were not trampled upon by the horse's hoofs, nor did the 

 rider exercise his whip upon any body but his fellow-brute beneath 

 him ; but they were sufficiently alarmed, and with sufficient reason ; for, 

 if not in actual peril of their lives, they could not fail to think them- 

 selves so. The horseman " with white mustachios" saw their alarm- 

 heard their exclamations of terror- and, as he galloped off, turned round 

 his head and laughed! 



Now, whosoever this horseman " with white mustachios" may be, it 

 is plein that he can have no further claim to be considered as a gentle- 

 man, even if some good-natured people should be charitable enough to 

 think him a step higher in the scale of nature than his horse. 



The immediate consequence of the insulting outrage, was a letter in 

 the daily papers, charging the Duke of Cumberland with being the 

 owner of the identical pair of white mustachios in question. Deep was 

 the disgust loud were the execrations but small, small indeed, was 

 the surprise ! The Duke offered something like an explanation, or half- 

 apology, for the insult, and the tea-table discussions were in imminent 

 danger of breaking up ; when up steps the celebrated Colonel Quentin, 

 with a personal visit to Hammersmith, and a letter to the Morning Post, 



