322 Notes of the Month on [MARCH, 



dozen of foolish people are not plunged under the ice, in the Serpentine, 

 and the ponds in the St. James's and Green Parks. They are fools, and 

 the world would probably not be much the better for their remaining in 

 it. But the love of sliding, or skating, is a natural propensity of all 

 beings who have not attained the growth of their understanding, or 

 who are never destined to attain any growth of it ; and boys and boobies 

 will crowd the ice, in spite of all the bayonets of the guards, which have 

 actually been employed in some instances, and failed to drive off those 

 zealous amateurs of submersion. But, as it is the business of rangers of 

 . parks and ponds, to take care that they shall not be accessary to the 

 murder even of fools, why are those ponds left in a state which makes 

 a slip under the ice, death ? Why should they be ten or twenty feet 

 deep, when all their purposes may be equally answered, by making 

 them three ? Why should they not be kept at that level of water, which 

 answering perfectly for all the objects of decoration, would fail only in 

 the one object of drowning? As to Lord Rivers, a letter in the Age shews 

 the question in a new point of view : 



" SIR, The papers last week announced the untimely fate of that amiable, 

 belored, accomplished gentleman, Lord Rivers ; and as the Coroner's verdict 

 may lead to a false conclusion, I, as the intimate friend, feel it due to the 

 memory of his Lordship, and right as regards the public, to give a plain state- 

 ment of what did actually occur. On the Saturday evening preceding his 

 death, Lord Rivers went, not to a Hell, but to his Club, at the bottom of St. 

 James's-street ; and, most unfortunately, was induced, by a well-known 

 skilful veteran, to sit down at the destructive game of ecarte. The acute ones, 

 with breathless anxiety, pressed forward to back his opponent; and while 

 there was a gallery, very little was done : but, at a late hour, as it usually 

 happens in these cases, this unfortunate nobleman was left in the hands of a 

 select few, when moderate play became immoderate; and, as was inevitable, 

 at the close he became loser to the amount of many thousand pounds, no part 

 of which has been paid. From this simple recital, the public are left to form 

 their own judgment; and, if it be incorrect, the parties implicated have it in 

 their power to contradict it. " AMICUS." 



" 1 had forgotten to mention, that when the body was taken out of the 

 water, his hat was secured with a handkerchief tied under the chin, with the 

 evident intention of preventing its floating to the surface." 



If this statement be well founded, the question seems to admit of but lit- 

 tle doubt. But, as to the Duke of Sussex's appointment, a feeling of irri- 

 tation has arisen. The duke is a first-rate hater of all kinds of things that 

 ought to be hated, of reversions, pensions, sinecures, &c. &c. Yet the 

 public exclaim that his Rangership of Hyde Park is a sinecure ! and that 

 his royal highness is rather overpaid for doing nothing, by a salary of 

 1,200 a year! They exclaim, that in the matter of laying hold of the 

 public money they find no difference whatever between the various 

 classes of public principle ; and that a large sinecure is agreeable to a 

 royal duke, peculiarly when that royal duke already enjoys an allowance 

 of 27,000 a year. 



The " Great Agitator" has undoubtedly gone a little beyond that 

 strict line of prudence by which a sagacious man contrives to do mis- 

 chief, without making himself answerable for the consequences. This 

 has been hitherto the grand boast of Irish faction ; and there have been 

 few more pregnant instances on record of the. dexterity with which a 

 lawyer may contrive to keep <( on the windy side of the law/' But he 



