NOTES OF THE MONTH. 231 



stiver too much. Few gain more than 30/. per week, and the misery 

 entailed by such poverty is truly afflicting. The Insolvent Act seems 

 to be introduced especially for their benefit. More than four-fifths of 

 their unfortunate profession have been at, different times reduced 

 to the necessity of adopting this unpopular way of paying their 

 debts. To be sure a few of them fancy such a process disreputable, 

 and therefore avoid the necessity by singing at the chapel of some 

 foreign ambassador. Such delicate disinclination to take advantage 

 of the Insolvent Court cannot be too highly commended. 



CONDESCENSION OF THE COMET. We find by the daily papers 

 that the Comet is now to be seen a little above the horizon ; but as 

 such a direction is rather vague, and as our luminous friend will not 

 be tied by his tail to any particular spot, his card of address is given, 

 and the route of his wonderings clearly pointed out. He is at home 

 any odd evening about half-past eight " in the constellation Cancer, 

 forming a triangle with Pollux in Gemini, and Procyon in Canis 

 Minor ;" and he may be met with about ten, " midway between Pol- 

 lux and Regulus in Leo !" 



Nothing can be more clear than this. It must be evident to one of 

 the " meanest capacity." 



DUTCH DISCRETION. OldChasse, the terror of Frenchmen, and the 

 glory of " Mynheer Nick Frog," has proved that he possesses the 

 better part of valour discretion. He has chosen comfortable quar- 

 ters in France, safe from bombs and bullets. A short time since we 

 spoke somewhat in disparagement of his Dutch Majesty, conceiving 

 that he had acted the part of a cruel despot, to whom the lives of his 

 fellow-men were as nothing in comparison with a certain diabolical 

 feeling called revenge. Upon reflection, however, the conduct of the 

 king of the Dutch will admit of milder interpretation. From a false 

 feeling of honour, he might think it necessary to defend the fortress ; 

 but to render the affair less sanguinary, he [appoints] an old gentle- 

 man to the command, who notwithstanding an imposing warrior-like 

 blustering, is one of the kindest and most peaceful of men. He has 

 a just horror of the demoniac spirit of war, and moreover knows how 

 to take care of himself as well as any Dutchman, that ever ensconsed 

 himself behind a dyke. 



" The apartment in which General Chasse lately lived was at one 

 end of a casement fronting the south, and not exposed muck to the 

 fire of the French. It is situate at the end of the provision store, and 

 near a pump. There was nothing of value remaining, yet some per- 

 sons, in their eagerness, sought even a slight memorial of the spot in 

 which the old General heard so many thousand shells bursting around 

 him. The ground and the ramparts are ploughed up ; broken shells, 

 cannon balls, and wrecks of houses are scattered amidst walls de- 

 vastated by fire. Yet the provision store had received but one shell. 

 There were several hundred barrels of provisions t bread in abundance, 



