456 NOTES OF THE MONTH. 



before European adversaries ? They fled before the French even in 

 their own land, and yielded to the enemy the capital of their fore- 

 fathershad not a higher Power willed it otherwise, the French 

 might have been there still. But, when the enfeebled quarry was 

 hunted down by the pack, who so forward as the Russian to plunge 

 his spear into the dead boar ? It would be amusing, were not the 

 effects so fatal to the liberties of mankind, to see how this impostor 

 among nations has managed to magnify himself into a first-rate power 

 to the eyes of Europe. But it is truly absurd to witness the influence 

 possessed over their cabinet by a horde of impotent savages inhabit- 

 ing the most worthless and remotest wilds of Europe. Some day, 

 unless, happily, the march of mind stay the march of armies, the 

 gilt will be licked from this gingerbread giant, and its true materials 

 be made manifest to the duped and half-witted crowd. 



MAGAZINES AND M.P.'s. The fracas last month between our con- 

 temporary Frazer and the member for Finsbury has been food for 

 waggery. Mr. Duncombe's eager desire to gain a name in arms was 

 counteracted by Mr. Frazer's Scotch principle of discretion he of 

 the north being early instructed wherein consists the better .part of 

 valour. But if gentlemen concerned in such publications will inter- 

 fere with private character, the least they can do is to provide means 

 to give all the " satisfaction" that injured gentlemen are in the habit 

 of requiring. We would recommend that every publication touching 

 on so combustible a material as reputation, should engage a person, 

 at a moderate salarjr, to take all the consequences of excited wrath. 

 How many gentlemen are lately arrived from Portingal with scarcely 

 money enough to oil their whiskers, who would be delighted to " take 

 service" in so honourable a cause as that of the liberty of the press. 

 Some martial-looking individuals from the Junior United Service 

 might perhaps be willing to add an honourable trifle to their income 

 by " accommodating" the enemies of free discussion. The thing is 

 not without precedent. When the John Bull first started, many gen- 

 tlemen felt offended with the freedom of their remarks. Epithets 

 not carefully chosen are sometimes taken amiss, and process by law is 

 tedious and disagreeable. A gallant colonel, therefore a near rela- 

 tion of an illustrious house taking amiss some innocent freedom of 

 the editor, determined to curb his wit by a smart application of the 

 horsewhip. In those days it must be remarked that editors were only 

 deemed worthy the horsewhips of gentlemen : thanks to the Lord 

 Chancellor, we have stolen a march on the colonel since that afflicting 

 time like the niggers, we are emancipated from the lash Well, the 

 colonel, full of martial fury, walked himself off to the John Bull office 

 in Fleet-street, burning with revenge, grasping in his right hand the 

 riding-master's whip of the regiment. Intimating his wish to see 

 the editor, he was politely shewn into a room, and informed that the 

 editor would wait upon him instantly. Like a chafed lion, he walked 

 up and down the room during the interval, flourishing his weapon of 

 vengeance ; when the door opened, and in marched an individual of 

 the Brobdignag species, clad in a thick white fuzzy great coat, his 

 chin buried in a red cotton handkerchief, with a broad oil-skin hat 

 upon his head, and a most suspicious-looking oak stick under his arm. 



