1&32.] The Procrastwator. 99 



* - * ..*- . # - * .* * . 



Some said he entered into foreign service ; and this idea was confirmed 

 by a French officer's stating that there was a brave Irish gentleman in 

 his regiment, who was universally beloved, and would have been 

 respected but for a prevailing indulgence in a habit of indecision, which 

 induced him to " put off " every thing that could be delayed, and that 

 eventually blighted his prospects. He described him as being singularly 

 handsome, but of a melancholy aspect deficient in energy every where 

 but in the battle-field. He was never in time on parade ; and the officers 

 used to distinguish him as the " late Lieutenant Doyne." The termina- 

 tion of his career was at least characteristic.,. He was rallied by his 

 comrades, the night before an anticipated battle, on his well-known 

 failing. 



" I will be in time for once," he replied gravely, " for procrastination 

 has cost me already too much." He was in time, and he was the first 

 man who fell. " You see," he said to a companion in arms, " that I 

 have gained my death by being in time. I speak sincerely; death is 

 a gain to me for there is nothing I would live for." A miniature was 

 found on his bosom, evidently the counterpart of the portrait of a female 

 that had been sold among the decorations of Castle Mount Doyne. 



H. 



NOTES OF THE MONTH ON AFFAIRS IN GENERAL. 



COBBETT AND THE SCOTCH. Antipathies, like comparisons, are 

 " oderous," but they are wearing themselves out very fast ; and we may 

 yet live to see the day when prejudices of all kinds shall be unfashion- 

 able. Fifteen years of peace works wonders. A quarter of a century 

 ago the French were, in the eyes of every enlightened man in England, 

 a " beggarly race of frog-eaters ;" now they are our " lively arid illus- 

 trious neighbours." Having captured their metropolis, and fixed the 

 god of their idolatry upon a pedestal at St. Helena, we exalt the whole 

 nation to the skies ; just as the victor at a game of chess vows that his 

 antagonist, though beaten, is one of the best players in the world. We 

 affect liberality till we actually feel it. If we were to pretend to love 

 even the Dutch, no doubt we should succeed in becoming excessively 

 attached after a time. If it be advisable to begin, like Mrs. Malaprop, 

 " with a little aversion," surely a good deal must be infinitely better. 

 Meanwhile personal antipathies nourish here and there very persever- 

 ingly in spite of useful-knowledge societies and the march of reason. 

 We heard somebody the other night, discussing the conduct of one of 

 our popular writers, exclaim, with true English feeling ec But what 

 can you expect from a, foreigner ?" " Foreigner !" shouted fifty voices. 

 " Well, a Scotchman^ it's all the same." 



Cobbett, however, is decidedly the best " hater*' of his day. He is the 

 great high-priest of them all. His prejudices amount to prodigies j his 

 antipathies take place of all his other attractions. They are generally 

 harmless, and always amusing. To say that Cobbett has no honesty, is 

 nonsense ; no man living is so honest in his hatred, while it lasts. The 

 great Dr. Gulliver Johnson shrinks upon this ground into a Lilliputian 

 Boswell beside him. We wish somebody would make a collection of 

 his bitterest and most brilliant essays in this way. Think of that sim- 

 ple, straightforward, and truly descriptive epithet of his, applied to the 



H 2 



