198 Notes of the Monlh on [FEB. 



a peerage the retirement of a judge, who was reported to have been 

 calling ont for retirement before ; or who, if he were not calling out, 

 ought to have been left to do his duty, until he had arrived at the period 

 when he would have retired of his own accord ? If the business was hur- 

 ried on to find a bench for some partizan, the ground is changed, but the 

 difficulty is not. However, there is one fact, that no reason exists for 

 making so many lawyers peers ; they are generally bad " parliament 

 men," from their previous habits, and seldom add anything to the wis- 

 dom or eloquence of the House. Lawyers, with but few exceptions, 

 make an unlucky figure in debate. And, unless in individual instances 

 of peculiar moral dignity, they generally exhibit themselves the slaves 

 of party, which means personal interest ; the whole proposition meaning, 

 that lawyers are in the best place, when they are attending to their own 

 profession, and that they are fitter for advocates than for legislators ; 

 that their integrity on the bench ought not to be exposed to the tempta- 

 tion of a minister with a peerage in his hand : and, in conclusion, that 

 Chief Baron O'Grady has established no more claim to a peerage, how- 

 ever barbarous its name, by receiving 6,000 a-year as a judge for twenty 

 years, than if he had sat on his bench for six minutes, and then vacated 

 it to give rest to the fluctuations of Lord Plunkett. 



Fortunate lord, the latter has been. His chancellorship has anchored 

 him at last secure in the harbour of partizanship. His compatriots 

 lately calculated his provision for himself and his family out of the pub- 

 lic purse, at J 6,000 a-year. His new office swells the united price of 

 his genius to 20,000 ! Who shall reproach the country with neglecting 

 great men, or great men with neglecting themselves ? 



As astronomers, we were delighted with the following intelligence : 

 " Eclipses in 1831. During the present year there will be four eclipses, 

 viz., two of the sun and two of the moon. Those of the former occur on Febru- 

 ary 12 and August 7, and will be invisible at Greenwich; and of the latter on 

 February 26 (partly visible) and on August 23, which will be invisible. 



Here, for our good, we are informed of the coming of three eclipses which 

 we are not to see at all ; a piece of knowledge, which thus seems of no great 

 productiveness. But the fourth eclipse is to be partly visible ; that is, 

 we are partly to see it, and partly to see it not ; a species of optics which 

 does not come within our science, but which we abandon to the Sir 

 Janies Souths and other new illuminators of our darkened age. 



" Amelia Opie is at Paris, and a constant visitor at the soirees of General 

 Lafayette, where this celebrated female always appears in the simple garb of a 

 rigid Quak' ress, forming a striking contrast to the gay attire of the Parisian 

 ladies." 



Poor Amelia, worshipping at the shrine of revolution ; past her grand 

 climacteric, and lowering the drab to the tri-colour, the dove-coloured 

 poke to the bonnet-rouge. But Genlis is dead, and the world solicits a 

 successor. 



" For a few days past an omnibus has been seen at Paris, on the Boule- 

 vards, between the Porte St. Martin and the Madelaine, suspended on a new 

 principle. It is much lighter arid more elegant than the former ones, and the 

 great advantage of it is that the carriage has no disagreeable motion, and the 

 passengers ride at perfect ease." 



All this may be so in Paris, though we entirely disbelieve it. But 



