450 Notes of the Month on [OCT. 



as well as vulgar negligence in the allowance of Napoleon's " image and 

 superscription on the coin/' by the late king and his brother. The law 

 of nature, as well as of custom is, " Render unto Caesar the things 

 which are Caesars," and if we take his coin, we owe him service, at least 

 by implication. 



But we have now matters nearer home to talk of. What is the expense 

 of the English mint ? How much does it cost the country in its officers? 

 How much has it cost in buildings and machinery ? And, above all, 

 why should it cost Jive thousand pounds a year to have a master of the 

 mint ? The gentleman employed at this handsome salary may know no 

 more about making a coin than he does about making a steam-engine. 

 We have had him at one time Lord Wallace, a worthy talker on trade ; 

 after him Lord Maryborough, an excellent master of the stag-hounds ; 

 and after him, for a week or two, Mr. Tierney, than whom no man 

 could make a more cutting joke ; and after him Mr. Herries, not pecu- 

 liarly renowned for any thing ; though we admit that if making a 

 singularly rapid fortune in a singularly unknown way, entitle this 

 luckiest of clerks to the superintendence of the general money-making 

 of the country, Mr. Herries is peculiarly entitled to the charge. But 

 still, we ask, why is the sum for his trouble, or his no-trouble, for his 

 little knowledge, or his total ignorance, to be Jive thousand pounds a 

 year? We wiU undertake to say that his whole expenditure of time and 

 intellect upon the matter, would be amply repaid by a fifth part of the 

 sum, and that there would be five hundred candidates for the place at 

 the fifth part to-morrow, and every one of the five hundred to the full as 

 well qualified for it as Mr. Herries. Or, is this but a sinecure, to pay a 

 cabinet minister ? Let John Bull look to this, and let him roar ! 



" And in the lowest depths a lower depth.'* The gradations of 

 etiquette are innumerable and delightful. Theatres have them, almost 

 as exquisitely absurd as a court birth-day, or a city-ball. We know the 

 contempt with which a heroine of tragedy looks down upon a heroine 

 of comedy, and the difficulty with which the comic heroine acknowledges 

 the existence of the soubrette ; but yet we had thought that the dignity 

 of a clown in a pantomime could not be easily hurt. We were, however, 

 mistaken. At " Bartlemy," the other day, as the following statement 

 of grievance will shew 



" One Connor issued a posting-bill, advertising a ball which was to 

 take place during the fair, and he announced F. Hartland, of Sadler's 

 Wells' Theatre, and formerly clown and harlequin of Drury-lane Theatre, 

 as the master of the ceremonies at the tag-rag and bobtail concern. 

 Poor Hartland is with sufficient reason highly incensed ; he says that 

 ' Bartlemy fair may be very well for a make shift, when the aspirant 

 for theatrical honours commences his career ; but it is rather hard for a 

 man, who has passed the ordeal of a London audience, to find his name 

 mixed up with any low mummer that may choose to use it for his own 

 benefit.' " 



This is excellent. The clown of Drury-lane despises the clown of 

 Bartlemy. The jumpers and tumblers of the Winter- theatre are of a 

 different species from those of the Summer-booth men. Drury-lane is 

 a different element from Smithfield. The caperings are of a more classic 

 kind, the chalk on the clown's face is scraped with superior elegance, 

 and the tufts on his cap are altogether a more accomplished exhibition. 



