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



But when in addition to this we have the abominable system of tythes, of 

 pluralities, and simony, and at the same time a bishop, a professed friend 

 of such iniquities, steps forward into the pulpit, and takes for his text 

 "Lovest thou me ?" is it at all wonderful that his hearers should mani- 

 fest a negative. Who could resist answering such an appeal ? The 

 very stones, save those of Gatton and Old Sarum, would have risen arid 

 mutinied. 



THE FUSIL EER AT FAULT. THE Fitzclarences are to be ranked among 

 the most striking features of the past month. The part which her Majesty 

 has been foolishly and mischievously persuaded to take in the political in- 

 trigues of theCourt, first called the public attention to the family of the King 

 a circle in which the Earl of Munster was observed to move as conspicu- 

 ously, as superior tact in dissembling, and a more than courtly degree of 

 duplicity, could render him. We are far fromagreeing with thosewho have 

 judged it necessary, first because she is a tory, and next (which is held to 

 be by far the foulest crime) that she is a German to heap insult on the 

 Queen's head. We conceive her Majesty to be only " labouring in her 

 vocation," and can readily forgive her both for her folly and her foreign 

 breeding. But we are not so ready to extend endurance and pardon to 

 those, who, having been bred in this country, and fostered indirectly, if 

 not directly, by its bounty, are now rapidly climbing into " bad emi- 

 nence," and forgetting in their miserable half- royalty the rights and feel- 

 ings of that people, from an humble class of which they have been 

 enabled by great good luck to rise. The Fitzclarences, we look upon with 

 no "favour," but can only wish for a "clear stage" of them. Of their 

 arrogance and presumption, private instances are not wanting to add to 

 the public examples which, so far as the Earl of Munster is concerned, 

 the past month has abundantly supplied. We shall relate a specimen of 

 the manner which these demi-royalists carry with them into society, and 

 of the spirit of reprimand which it sometimes engenders. 



One of the Fitzclarences, who holds a high rank in the Seventh Fusi- 

 leers, happened to be dining with the mess of that regiment, when the 

 adjutant a gentleman who had not acquired that dexterity and precision 

 in the art of carving, which, among other important accomplishments, 

 are possibly essential to complete success in certain of the higher walks of 

 life was called upon to perform some anatomical ceremony of the table. 

 The deficiency of the non-professor of carving caught the eye of the cul- 

 tivated and court-bred colonel, who judged it gentlemanly immediately to 

 display some little indications of contempt for a person so sadly wanting 

 in the grand art of dissection. Some particular instance of failure at last 

 prompted him to say, with a flippancy worthy of the folly of the senti- 

 ment, " My father says, that he considers excellence in carving to be the 

 criterion of the habits of a gentleman." The insult was not suffered to 

 pass without its reply ; for quietly pausing in his labour, and significantly 

 fixing his eye upon the colonel, the unpractised carver proceeded to shew 

 that he could speak " daggers," if he could not use knives, by coolly 

 inquiring, " And pray, Sir, what may be your Mother s opinion upon that 

 head?" 



