622 NOTES OF THE MONTH. 



in a court of justice ? For the honour of England it is hoped not. We are very 

 glad that the insulted yeoman did not transgress those bounds of prudence, 

 which are necessary to be kept by those who would successfully indict such 

 privileged aggressors on the public peace. O. W. 



DOINGS AMONG THE GLASGOW STUDENTS. One of the last among the 

 academical misdoings worthy of being shown up was the barbarous treatment 

 of Dr. Hampden by the bigots of Oxford. That is past. We have now to 

 notice a plot got up in this abode of the " canny Glasgow-men" to produce 

 what is called a re-action in favour of conservatism. We are well assured by 

 a correspondent that knots of professors and students were seen in council 

 deep and solemn, and that many a head was scratched 'ere the moral Lord 

 Lyndhurst was proposed. The mere idea was enough, we should have thought, 

 to have set our moral men of the north quite aghast. It was no mistake : 

 the speculation was a weak invention of the Tories, and would not do. Still 

 they were not contented : and nothing less would serve them than to prove 

 the re-action so much boasted of. Sir Robert Peel was put up ; and after a 

 vast deal of puffing and blowing and some exertions that will shorten the lives 

 of more than one professor, the Jesuitical ex-minister was chosen by a very 

 small majority. We do not trouble ourselves with speculating how large a 

 majority Sir J. Campbell would have had, if all had been fair and above board. 

 At any rate he had one venerable and highly intelligent professor on his 

 side Prof. Milne, whose opinion is of itself more than equivalent to the 

 drunken dogmas of a parcel of boys. To what miserable shifts are these 

 Tories reduced, when they deem so paltry an affair fit matter for triumph ! 



MR. LECHMERE CHARLTON. This excellent young man began with being 

 a reformer; but either with a view to interest, or for lack of courage, he left 

 the ranks, and took an humble place in the " Dilly." To have thought him 

 clever in his best days would have been impossible. For what has he done ? 

 Any good opinion, however, that we might have formed of this worthy has been 

 entirely blown away, since we heard of his conduct the other day before the 

 Master Brougham. As good luck would have it, he managed to get a brief: 

 but his good cards wanted a good player to play them. The facts of his out- 

 rageous misconduct are before the public. The self-willed culprit might have 

 crept out of the loop-hole that the Chancellor's compassion left for him ; but 

 no, he has plunged himself more deeply into the mire. A few weeks' soli- 

 tude may, perhaps, restore this unhappy gentleman to his senses. But after 

 this, we think, he may whistle for briefs. 



ROBBERY IN THE BRITISH MUSEUM. A few days ago an act, that by 

 every man of letters must be deemed one of sacrilege, was committed by one 

 of those wretched beings who live on the crumbs that fall from the tables of 

 the more talented, more fortunate, or better principled members of the literary 

 profession. If an ignorant and uneducated apprentice visiting the Museum 

 had defaced the statues, his want of knowledge respecting Jtheir value would 

 have been some palliation of his offence ; but when a professionally literary 

 man, however low in the ranks, mutilates the volumes, no punishment short 

 of transportation or hanging can be too severe. How did the culprit escape ? 

 The officers of the Museum actually interceded for him with the magistrate, 

 and got him off simply on condition of paying the estimated damage. We cannot 

 account for such leniency, except on the principle that as they overlook their 

 own official blunders they are willing to extend the same indulgence to the 

 peccadilloes of others. If, instead of robbing the country of property that 

 perhaps might have been incapable of being reinstated, this individual had 

 written strictures on the management of the establishment, and had fought the 

 good fight in favour of national improvement, these gentlemen would not have 

 exhibited such lamb-like conduct. There may have been some secret cause 

 for the officers' lenity, of which the public know not. 



