704 Notes of the Month on Affairs in General. [JUNE, 



for a fashionable assemblage. It elicited the following reply, the father 



being somewhat of our way of thinking in these matters : " Miss R 



presents her compliments to Miss B- , and regrets to say, that she is 



to be well whipped at 7 and in bed by 8 !" 







ROYAL RESPECT TO ANCIENT RIGHTS. At the recent levee an 

 address was presented from the conservatives of Richmond j and his 

 Majesty, having graciously received the address, was pleased to return an 

 answer in the following words : 



" GENTLEMEN, Having understood that an address was this morning 1 to he 

 presented from my loyal subjects of Richmond, I have put on this uniform to receive 

 it , a uniform which I have a right to wear as Duke of Lancaster and a descendant 

 of Henry the Seventh, from whose title as Earl of Richmond your town derives its 

 name." 



Thus we see how eager royalty is to assert even the least important 

 and the longest dormant of its rights, even down to the right of wearing 

 a particular uniform, as a descendant of Henry the Seventh. To keep up 

 a uniformity of right respecting uniforms, we should recommend those 

 who address his Majesty to insist upon putting on caps of liberty, which 

 they have doubtless a right to wear as descendants of the subjects of 

 Alfred the First; notwithstanding the change that has come o'er the spirit 

 of the dream, in which we saw a new Alfred shaking off the fetters of the 

 nobles, and throwing himself upon the generous affection of a too-con- 

 fidine: people. 



; qo!) 



ORNITHOLOGY AND OLIGARCHY. " The attacks," says a modern 

 naturalist, " made by swallows and all manner of small birds upon hawks, 

 shrikes, polecats, and indeed all animals of prey, must have met the 

 observation of almost every person ; all the weakest and most helpless 

 birds of a neighbourhood uniting in a body to drive the invaders away." 

 Buffon further remarks, " Were we only to study nature, and take hints 

 from her most wonderful operations, we should be surely both happier, 

 wiser, and better." Shall man be less wise than birds ? The " bishops'' 

 in society may be compared to the cormorant among the class aves. The 

 rector, tearing his tythe from the poor famished, half-ruined farmer, is he 

 not like the " great shrike/' or butcher-bird, impaling his victim upon a 

 thorn, and plucking it piece-meal ? And the owl, gorging upon 



" Rats and mice and such small deer, 1 ' 



is he not like the surly boroughmonger, entrenched in his rotten burgh of 

 ruined stone, falling upon his human prey, and feeding his young upon 

 the life, sinews, " marrow bones and all/' of his countrymen ? 



The political unionists and reformers of all classes seem to have taken 

 the hint at last ; but nature has been preaching this self-same doctrine 

 for six thousand years. They have found the secret of success ; they 

 have combined and clubbed their powers ; and the flocks of " swallows 

 and small birds" have at length prevailed over the rapacious and the strong. 



THE PATH OF DUTY. "The path of duty," says that coadjutor of 

 Bishops, the pious Mrs. Trimmer, in an exordium upon one of the thirty- 

 nine articles, " is the same for rich and poor, for serf and lord. Authority, 

 delegated by God Himself, creates the law, power upheld by God sustains 

 the same, and rank, which is some sort of a semblance to thrones and 

 dominions in heaven, dignifies it and it is as much the duty of the rich 



