1827.] Notes/or the Month. 221 



Mutati* Mutandis, Would it not be possible ,for persons troubled 

 with fleas in hot weather in Europe, to get rid of their annoyance 

 by some sort of process analogous to this ? People who live in Eng- 

 land even those who live in Edinburgh, and in London have no idea 

 of the real horror of being bitten by fleas. We have been attacked 

 in a Spanish posada in such force as to have been absolutely compelled 

 and in foul weather tooto evacuate the dwelling. We had a servant once, 

 indeed, that took it upon his " corporal oath 3 ' that he felt himself bitten 

 through the upper leather of a strong jack boot. The black ants, which 

 swarm occasionally in the Spanish cottages and farm-houses, are despe- 

 rate enemies to deal with ; but these may be kept off by the precaution of 

 placing the feet of the table or bench on which you sleep in pans or 

 saucers of water ; by which, as by a wet moat, the besieging army is kept 

 off, or drowned. Kut this won't do with the fleas, who leap higher 

 than the " gymnasts" of the Examiner and without " poles" coming 

 literally, per saltum, to the attainment of their ravenous intent. In the 

 long rooms, that have five or six beds in a row, they jump thirty feet at a 

 time, from one victim to another. So that, if it were possible in any way 

 to do any thing suppose by getting a spaniel dog to the foot of one's 

 mattress for twenty minutes, and then suddenly turning him out ? We 

 think the South Sea suggestion may be turned to some account, with con- 

 sideration. 



An ill name, or any thing that approaches to an ill name when once 

 we have it sticks to a nation almost as inveterately as it does to an indi- 

 vidual. We can't go back to the time (it is so long since) past, nor see 

 a prospect of its re-appearance in the future, when England was, or shall 

 be, any thing but the country of bears, and France that of macaronies. 

 General Foy, in the year 1826, after coolly narrating, as matters of 

 course, ten thousand enormities daily committed by the French, charac- 

 terizes the English as " cruel in their diversions;" " devoted to the rude 

 exercises which distinguished their barbarous ancestors;" and "incapable 

 of making any distinction between the huzza ! with which they greet a 

 commander in the field, and that which they utter when a boxer strikes a 

 successful blow in the prize-ring. En revanche taking the vengeance, 

 however, a century beforehand in the year 174.5, a challenge, dated 

 from Broughton's Amphitheatre, and sent by that hero to a boxer of the 

 name of Smallwood, adds the following sneer at the bottom of the bill of 

 fare for the day. u N. B. As this contest is likely to be rendered terrible 

 with blood and bruises, all Frenchmen are desired to come fortified ivith 

 a proper quantity of hartshorn" 



Returning a Civility. The dispute which the titles in partibus raised 

 between some of the French marshals and the German nobility, a short 

 while back, seems to have been forgotten. But some writer, we recollect, at 

 the time (we are not quite sure that it was not ourselves) advised the set- 

 tling the difficulty by a series of counter creations, and that the continental 

 powers Austria, Prussia, and others should create some of their chief 

 generals " Duke of Paris" " Prince of Versailles" " Marquis of the 

 Loire," &c. &c. This course, indeed, it appears, or one analogous in 

 principle to it, was actually taken once by a Spanish prince (of more humour 

 than Spaniards are usually supposed to possess) by way of returning, (or quiz- 

 zing) an honour conferred upon him by the Pope, who was the first great dis- 

 penser of titles in the clouds. " The Infant Don Sancho, son of Alfonzo 



