22<5 Notes of the Month- on [Ft: B. 



him, for a few hours now and then, out of the House of Lords. That 

 may be something. 



BURNS AND HIS DINNKRLESS DEVOTEES. We had hoped that the 

 meeting at the Freemason's, in celebration of the birth-day of Burns, 

 and of the coming of the Ettrick Shepherd, would have been marked 

 by a sense,of hospitality as well as by an appreciation of literature. But 

 the result proves it to have been quite innocent of both. There was no 

 dinner, and no devotion. It was a Scotch, scrambling, seat-seeking, 

 speech-making, stupid, stewardless scene of starvation. Nobody gained 

 anything by it but an appetite price, one pound five. The health of 

 the Duke of Wellington was drunk as if the company were determined 

 to consider him a Scotchman ; and the " Warriors of England" were 

 proposed, as if Burns had been the Colonel of the Scotch Greys. Hogg, 

 Lockart, and Allan Cunningham were the only persons of literary note 

 present; and they may say with FalstafF " an we are not ashamed of 

 our company, we are soused gurnets." 



MAGISTERIAL MUMMERIES. The retirement of Mr. Const the other 

 day was an affair of infinite jest ; but we are little disposed to be merry 

 at the expense of such very grave persons as magistrates. Mr. Const is, 

 no doubt, a very amiable man ; but really he should have yielded to the 

 pressing solicitations of his brother magistrates, to remain a "little while 

 longer" one month, one " little month." This was all they asked, and 

 he was stoic enough to deny. The whole bench, according to the 

 papers, were " deeply affected, and immediately retired to dinner." 



The Irish magistrates are just as unwilling to serve as Mr. Const but 

 for very different reasons. " Most of the magistrates there," we are 

 told, " have ceased their functions rather than pay 8. for a new licence." 

 Surely 8. for the pleasures of tyranny for a whole twelvemonth, cannot 

 be considered an unreasonable charge. There are people in England 

 who would pay 800. for the privilege. 



MARVELS OF LITERATURE. We have the pleasure of announcing 

 to the literary an exclusive piece of information. It involves such con- 

 sequences to the whole human race, that we hardly know how to give 

 it a sufficiently distinguished situation in our pages. Perhaps some may 

 suppose that we are about to substantiate the current rumour, that the 

 Queen, assisted by the leading literary and political ladies of her court, is 

 about to write a fashionable novel ; or that Lord Brougham is actively 

 engaged in preparing for the press a revised edition of Dr. Watts's 

 Hymns and Spiritual Songs not at all; the fact is, that ' The Bard of 

 Heaven !" as some have been pleased to designate one Mister Robert 

 Montgomery, the same gentlem'an who, by a little effort our readers 

 may perhaps recal to mind, made some few juvenile attempts at 

 poetizing a short time ago, his imagination and intellect having made 

 rapid strides since that period, is about to bewilder and utterly confound 

 this infidel world, by bringing to light a poem to be called the 

 " Messiah !" In this great undertaking we hear he has been assisted 

 by the Rev. Mr. Irving and Mr. Spencer Perceval; the subject of the 

 unknown tongues to be treated of by the Rev. Gentleman, and of that 

 the fasting of forty days by Mr. Perceval. 



Fourteen editions are already bespoke by private friends, although 



