1832.] Affairs in General. 343 



peers just now, are very significant terras. It is pretty plain, from the 

 " audience" which the Director has had with the King, that the Lords 

 have been already making inquiries as to the length of their legislative 

 lives, and flocking in alarm to the Asylum Life Office. Will Mr. George 

 Farren enlighten us as to the amount of premium requisite to insure the 

 political existence of a marquis, and whether he would rate a duke as 

 double hazardous ? 



THE EX-SECRETARY AT WAR, AND THE WHIPPER-IN. We did 

 not expect to have been so soon obliged to style Sir Henry Parnell the 

 Ex-Secretary. Ministers, however, have acted judiciously, and with a 

 promptitude that is a little at variance with the rest of their conduct. 

 We wish they would make up their minds to be as brisk with measures 

 as with men. The appointment of Sir John Hobhouse to the office of 

 War-Secretary, is calculated to strengthen them in the opinions of a 

 large number of persons, and will be accepted as another pledge of their 

 sincerity. But then we do not want more pledges we want those that 

 are already given to be redeemed. In the meantime, the Court Journal 

 gives us an amusing specimen of nonchalance contained in a note to Sir 

 Henry Parnell, from 



The Whipper-in. "This useful (non-) official is said to have addressed a note 

 to the late Secretary at War (who, previously to being 'cashiered/ was on a 

 visit at Cobham, and desirous of a temporary absence from his parliamentary 

 duties), in which he laconically signified that he had found for him (Sir Henry) 

 a pair for ' Tuesday night' (when Lord Chandos' motion was expected to come 

 on) ; but, added Mr. H., ' if the report is true, that you are OUT, perhaps you 



will pair with us/ " 



i 



LEIGH HUNT. We have elsewhere expressed an opinion of Mr. 

 Hunt's last production, Sir Ralph Esher, a work which, we had hoped, 

 would have shed a brighter hue upon his fortunes than, we regret to 

 learn, they have lately enjoyed. The Taller, our constant and ever- 

 agreeable breakfast companion of the past twelvemonth, has proved, it 

 seems, more pleasant to us than profitable to him ; and he has at length 

 relinquished it, under circumstances which must render the appeal 

 contained in the subjoined paragraph, unaffectedly painful to all who 

 love literature, and can estimate the character of one of its most gifted 

 and generous-minded ornaments : 



" Several of the friends of literature having been made acquainted with the 

 pressing difficulties under which a man of genius is unhappily sinking, are 

 anxious to unite in one common purpose of justice and benevolence towards 

 him, that they may testify their respect for intellectual exertion, and rescue the 

 cause of letters from an unworthy reproach. They approve of the annexed 

 plan, proposed with a view to a general subscription. They invite every friend 

 of genius in the community to join with them in promoting its success ; so as 

 to secure, by their united exertions, a solid testimony to Mr. Leigh Hunt, of 

 their desire to see a man of letters, of his standing and reputation, not only 

 rescued from the immediate danger of necessity, but put in possession of such 

 a security of means, as would no longer leave him to the chance of repeated 

 illnesses, and all the anxieties they produce, in a man of sensibility and a 

 father." 



The plan is to publish, in a handsome volume, price one guinea, a 

 collection of Mr. Hunt's poems, revised by himself, with notes and 

 other additions including an unpublished poem, the first of any length 



