JS'OTSS OF THK MONTH. 357 



gotten that Sir John Key was for two successive years a most efficient 

 and upright chief magistrate, and did more than any man of the time to 

 promote the wishes of the people,, by placing the present ministry in 

 power. He was neither niggard of time nor fortune in such endea- 

 vour, and the only thing he has ever asked was this paltry situation 

 for his son, who was well qualified to undertake it. It does not take 

 a man's life to know a good sheet of paper from a bad one. That 

 Sir John Key has been guilty of subterfuge in this business, is as 

 much the fault of a corrupted system of government, as of the man. 

 Ever since our blessed and glorious boroughmongering constitution 

 has flourished, patronage has always been a matter of peculation. 

 Did no one ever hear of noblemen's daughters holding commissions, 

 and drawing pay as captains of cavalry ! was such a thing unheard 

 of as boys at school receiving commissions in the army, and having 

 leave of absence till they could join as senior officers ! or of ladies 

 maids having fifty pounds per annum, as state trumpeters ! What 

 lying and swearing must have preceeded all these and hundreds 

 more; yet they are " all hanourable men." Whoever has witnessed 

 the installation, or whatever they te.m it, of a Bishop, has heard the 

 right reverend oath commencing " Nolo, &e." and yst these noble 

 ecclesiastics sit on their bench in the House of Lords as meek as 

 sucking doves, as though they nevor told a lie in their lives. 



We do say, that setting aside Sir John Key's previous services in 

 the cause of reform, or the sacrifices he made as magistrate, it is un- 

 justifiable to single him out of a host of noble and right honourable 

 delinquents, to gratify an envious and greedy crew, each man of 

 whom would sell the rags from the back of his own father, if he 

 could get fourpence a pound by them. 



THE CORMORANT CLERGY. The clergy have resumed business 

 with greater energy than ever. Imprisonment and distress is rife 

 from one end of the kingdom to the other. The hounds of the law are 

 let loose, and the parsons are halloing on the pack. They evince a 

 spirit worthy of the blessed times of Smithfield and faggots, and 

 if the present state of feeling will not permit them to indulge in the 

 pleasant pastimes of their ancestors, they will go as near as they 

 can, for conscience sake. One of the principal victims to clerical 

 mammon, has been Mr. William Tait, the proprietor of the Edinburgh 

 Magazine bearing his name, and a more liberal and just man does 

 not exist. He resisted the flagrant imposition of the annuity tax, and 

 was forthwith consigned to jail. If the clergy who were the means 

 of such an outrage being committed on the person of so respectable a 

 citizen had any other feeling than of rapacity and love of violence, 

 they would have respected the scruples of such a man as Mr. Tait, 

 and have tried the question with him in a less offensive form ; but 

 no ; the jail is the best argument to quiet the cries of such contuma- 

 cious subjects ; it is the least troublesome course* consequently, the 

 better to be adopted by the professors of Christian charity. In Eng- 

 land, the rapacity exhibited by our pastors, one would think emanated 

 from the suggestions of the arch-enemy himself. The shearing by 

 those shepherds has been so close, that nothing less than the skin 



