NOTES OF THE MONTH. 203 



the 5th of last month we find the following epitome of his achieve- 

 ments : 



" Mr. Hudson arrived at Apsley House at half-past one o'clock this 

 morning. He left Rome on Wednesday, the 26th of November, at half- 

 past one, p.m. He arrived in Paris on the following 1 Wednesday, (3d De- 

 cember). The journey was performed in as short a time as it has ever 

 been done by a courier on horseback. He was detained five hours by his 

 carriage breaking down. He arrived at Cologne yesterday, at a quarter- 

 past twelve, the steam-packet had just sailed, arid he crossed to Dover 

 in an open boat in six hours, having been obliged to row the greater part 

 of the voyage." 



When the tricks of harlequin and pantaloon in the Christmas pan- 

 tomies shall have ceased to excite the astonishment of children, thea- 

 trical lessees might find it advantageous to exhibit the " identical" 

 wheel which broke down with Mr. Hudson in his chase for a pre- 

 mier, or the " very" boat that carried consolation to the Horse- 

 guards on the fourth of December. 



PROBLEMS FOR THE CONTEMPLATIVE. " A bee," says Pope, " is 

 not a busier animal than a blockhead ;" had he added that a knave is 

 not unusually as industrious as either, few would have accused him of 

 indulging in the fiction of his craft. Ministers are marvellously 

 anxious, it would appear, to be doing something Much for the same 

 reason, we presume, that the gentleman in the farce bites his finger to 

 convince himself he is not dreaming of a piece of good luck that un- 

 expectedly befalls him. The Treasury, say the court chronicles, have 

 ordered a chapel to be built adjoining the barracks, in the Regent' s- 

 park, for the use of the troops! Wherefore this unwonted fervour in 

 behalf of the military morality. Are the iniquities of the soldiery 

 about to be augmented that facilities for repentance must be increased ? 

 Is it intended as a compliment to the Irish clergy that tithe warriors 

 be stimulated to a renewal of their ghosts' warfare, by multiplying the 

 already over numerous indications of a bayonet-supported creed ? 

 The latter would seem the most proper solution of the enigma, as 

 accounts are daily arriving from the sister kingdom of the wholesale 

 slaughter of beings who practically indicate their scepticism of the 

 doctrine that inculcates payment without an equivalent. Probably 

 ministers are so enamoured of the wisdom of our ancestors as to 

 exemplify the veracity of the nursery doggrel : 



" The devil finds some mischief still 

 For idle hands to do." 



RIDING A HOBBY. Tories are so far conservative as to sneer at 

 those who are emancipated from all credence in omens. Now, since 

 the turn-out of the Whigs, both his Grace of Wellington and the 

 redoubtable Bishop of Exeter pugnacious in pamphlets have been 

 thrown from their horses ! May we be permitted to take up the dis- 

 carded mantle of the defunct Francis Moore, and say, in the true pro- 

 phetic vein, " About this time two illustrious individuals in the 

 church and state began to feel uneasy in their saddles !" The indul- 

 gence of a favourite hobby sometimes brings disagreeable conse- 

 quences. 



