344 NOTES OF THE MONTH. 



killed than live. Sir Frederick, we are sure, if we might be per- 

 mitted to hazard an opinion, would beg to dissent the thing would 

 not suit his convenience he would rather decline the favour. But 

 this is not all ; " murder will out ;" and people who amuse themselves 

 by practising upon other people's lives generally get hung. The 

 suicide " does for" one gentleman ; the murderer for two himself 

 and his victim he kills two birds with one stone. 



LIBERTY OP CONSCIENCE. People may say what they will of the 

 duplicity of statesmen and legislators ; but any one who takes the 

 trouble to look over the debates in the House of Commons, must be 

 struck with the extreme ingenuousness, and naivete, by which the 

 speeches of some honorable gentlemen are characterized. Many of 

 these effusions might be supposed to amount to confessions of frailty, 

 which none but a strong-minded man, or in other words, an Irish- 

 minded man would have the requisite courage to acknowledge. An 

 honourable member, whose name the reporter was not able to learn, 

 observed in the course of his speech, that he had been once of the Ro- 

 man Catholic persuasion ; but, that being convinced of the error of 

 his ways, he had sought refuge in the bosom of the Protestant, the 

 only true Church. This, however, not being exactly to his taste, the 

 honorable member determined to " try Turner," and rushed at once 

 into the arms of Presbetery ! 



Now this is a species of heroism which deserves to be held up to 

 the emulation of a discerning public. When there is so much cant 

 abroad about religious consistency when gentlemen boast of having 

 relinquished their political rights for years, rather than abandon the 

 faith of their fathers, it is truly refreshing to see an honorable indi- 

 vidual despising such bigotted prepossessions. With " Evans's Deno- 

 minations of the Christian World," in his hand, he may perhaps be de- 

 termined on trying the whole 760 branches of faith, to prove the ex*. 

 treme folly of confining oneself to any abstract principle in religion, 

 without having practical proof of the inefficiency of all others. We 

 are happy in our ability to give the name of this public spirited indi- 

 vidual, which the reporter " was not able to learn." We entreat our 

 reader to refer to a short article in our last number, called, " Break- 

 ing Cover :" he will there, at once, recognise our honourable friend in 

 the person of one Mr. Doolittle, who is Catholic and Protestant, and 

 back again, with a facility quite astounding. It is true, according to 

 that statement, that Doolittle had reasons of the most cogent nature for 

 his conduct these, however, the honorable member did not think 

 necessary to explain. 



ANOTHER BROOD OP VIPERS. We find by one of the law pe- 

 riodicals, that another numerous horde of articled clerks will apply 

 next Easter Term for licenses to practise on the lives and properties of 

 his Majesty's subjects although on account of over population, the 

 wolves are already, for want of food, driven to the necessity of prey- 

 ing on each other ; the Cause Papers of the three Courts having 

 lately abounded with actions, in which either party is a " Gent, one, 

 &c." This is consoling. 



