220 NOTE* OF THE MONTH 



of learning may we not expect from the cognoscenti of Blackwall, 

 who talk of their " Raphaels, Correggios, and stuff;'' and how 

 many an academic syllabus will grow vociferous in large type 

 touching the erudition of Smiths and Jacksons, profound in the mys- 

 teries of Tuscan and Composite. All hail to the manes of the " best 

 wigged prince in Christendom !" Have we not reason to hope, like 

 the people of Swift, that our geese may be all swans ? 



SCRAPS FOR THE PHILOSOPHIC. A few days since a female child, 

 three years old, died of the bite of a mad dog, with all the agonies 

 and sufferings attendant on the worst cases of hydrophobia. On the 

 inquest it appeared that the parents of the little sufferer, in com- 

 pliance with the suggestions of some friends, had the dog destroyed 

 a short time after he had bitten the girl, and administered to her a 

 portion of the roasted entrails of the rabid animal. The jury, of 

 course, expressed their wonderment at the monstrous folly of such 

 an act. Every person who heard of it uttered an ejaculation of sur- 

 prise, and there ended the affair. Had this happened some half 

 dozen score leagues to the west of St. George's Channel, how all 

 England would have rung with indignant denunciations of the bar- 

 barous superstition of the barbarous Irish. How Scotland, from the 

 Cheviot Hills to Pentland Firth, would have exalted herself, the 

 generosity, superiority, and magnanimity of her people, over all the 

 world in general, and the unhappy Patlanders in particulars. Not a 

 sanctified donkey at Exeter Hall would bray on any other subject 

 for the next twelve-month's appeal to the pockets and the piety of 

 the Londoners. A universal rush would ensue to the rescue of the 

 benighted catholics ; but when it happens in England, in the very 

 metropolis, it is merely mentioned and forgotten. The rich won- 

 der why the poor are not as civilized as themselves, and ridicule the 

 influence of education. If people will eat the roasted livers and 

 lights of a mad dog as a cure for hydrophobia, where is the wonder 

 that barns and stack-yards are destroyed by fire as a preventive 

 against distress ? If the landed interest place food beyond the reach 

 of the poor, where is the wonder if the poor become more rabid than 

 mad dogs ? The corn tax is the hydrophobia of England, and the 

 landed interest will one day discover it. 



SECRETS WORTH KNOWING. When Lord Melbourne's was Lord 

 Grey's cabinet it enjoyed (as some people say of bad health) almost 

 universal odium on the score of the Coercion bill. Now it possesses 

 none whatever on the same score. This is a secret worth knowing in 

 the attainment of popularity. Let a ministry pass or attempt to pass 

 a measure of the first-rate repugnance to all classes, and he is at once 

 below zero with the country. Let the same minister when public 

 feeling is strongest against him revoke the offensive edict, and presto, 

 he is up again at temperate, at least. This has been the game with 

 the present premier. Now, if Lord Melbourne desire to stand well 

 with the country by doing a grc;it thing in a small way, we will tell 

 him how. Let him forthwith fall on all the corrupt constituencies 

 and disfranchise them instanter. If he wish to shew the Reform Bill 



