NOTES OF THE MONTH. 101 



the fathers would supplant the " fourth estate ;" in reporting in the 

 upper house sundry disciples of Gurney, Mavor, Harding, and others, 

 illustrious in stenographic glory, had occasional misgivings as to the 

 stability of their engagements with the daily illuminators of the 

 public; for his Majesty's speech was given with a fidelity and accu- 

 racy (evinced by inter-evidence), that none but consummate masters 

 of the mystic art could hope to rival. Who was the ghostly reporter 

 on the occasion none could decidedly say. Some hinted at the Bishop 

 of London ; but then the speech never alluded in the remotest degree 

 to the Greek tragedies, and of course Dr. Bloomfield would not 

 waste his time on English. Others intimated that his lordship of 

 Exeter might have been the man ; but then the unexampled charity 

 and Christian toleration of Dr. Philpotts at once repudiated the 

 notion of that benignant prelate ever lending himself to the propaga- 

 tion of sentiments so sectarian as those contained in the royal 

 harangue. However, waving all further speculation, it now appears 

 that this goody effusion is a regular birth-day oration, spoken verbatim 

 cl literalim on all similar occasions for the last three years, and no 

 doubt will be repeated as often as needs be for the future. It had 

 become a household discourse at length, like the creed of Athanasius, 

 or any other tolerant and Christian orison, for the general good of all 

 God's creatures. It had become tedious as a (t thrice-told-tale/' and 

 if the king could not recite it off-hand, the bishops could, so there 

 ends the mystery. 



MEMS. FOR A NOVELIST. Ups and downs are the order of the day ; 

 irregularity is the only thing regular, and it is upon uncertainty alone 

 we can calculate with any degree of certainty. Quondam counts, ex- 

 peers, and the like, are now to be seen as though it were nothing to 

 have once been a gentleman ; and we notice with the greatest in- 

 difference men wheeling coal-trucks who once were wheeled in landaus 

 and four. On the 25th of last month, Joseph Garnett Hayne, Esq., 

 was liberated from the Bench ; and though his petition was filed in 

 January, being unable to meet his attorney's bill, he was detained in 

 durance vile until May. Who does not remember Hayne and his 

 glories in 1824-5 ? Hayne the gallant, the wild, the wealthy, the 

 prodigal -who rode more horses than Ducrow, gave better dinners 

 than Sefton, made more love-letters than D J Orsay, and, in short, did 

 every thing better than every body. Hayne, the occupant of a prison, 

 because he could not discharge the miserable demands of a miserable 

 attorney. Hayne, who presented Miss Foote with five thousand 

 pounds' worth of jewellery and shawls who was cast in damages 

 to the amount of three thousand at the suit of the aforesaid lady, and 

 paid one thousand for law expenses incidental to the aforesaid suit. 

 Hayne, reduced to the beggarly allowance of a banker's clerk. O 

 terque ! quaterque I Oh, three times and four times calamitous con- 

 glomeration of catastrophes ! In the name of the prophet, " Figs !" 

 appears a very rodomontading hyperbole in the mouth of a circum- 

 cised vender of fruits : but surely Mahomet and the figs are not less 

 distantly allied than poverty and Hayne. In 1823, he (not the vice- 

 gerant of Alia) attained his majority, and obtained one hundred and 



