1831.] Affairs in General. 439 



are drowned in the Seine, are carried to be recognized by their families, 

 is a regular morning's lounge, and the morning seldom comes when it 

 does not contain three or four bodies. An instance, mentioned the other 

 day, in our own country, if correctly stated, illustrates the easy non- 

 chalance to which custom may bring people on those occasions : 



" Nobody s Business. A fellow hung himself at a tavern at Leeds last week. 

 About half-past seven in the morning, one of the servants went to call him, and 

 on opening the door, discovered that he was not in bed. She alarmed the 

 ostler, who found the man suspended from a staple in the wall. He then 

 called some other members of the family, and went about his usual business. 

 The landlord came into the room, and having (as he said) satisfied himself 

 that the man was quite dead, left the body suspended, and went out to get 

 shaved ! desiring some of his neighbours to go in and look at the deceased. A 

 butcher, living next door, accordingly went in and having satisfied his curi- 

 osity, came out again ! An hour was lost in this way between the discovery 

 of the body and its being cut down between nine and ten o'clock. A surgeon 

 was then sent for, but life was perfectly extinct." 



A month ago we professed our humble belief that the British Govern- 

 ment had made a compromise with O'Connell. Mr. Stanley made an 

 angry speech, declaring that such an act of absurdity, time-serving, and 

 timidity, was impossible. But his oratory did not shake our faith. We 

 asked fairly enough was it not rather a singular thing to see a con- 

 victed criminal walking about the world, laughing at his accusers, 

 arraigning his judges, and haranguing about the Repeal of the Union, 

 more daringly than ever? We asked whether any of those who had 

 been convicted in England of exciting public disturbance had ever been 

 suffered to flourish about the highways and byeways with such happy 

 ease, and throw the verdict in the teeth of Government, much less to 

 come over to parliament, make speeches there, and do all kinds of gay 

 and graceful things as free as birds on a bough ? 



Mr, O'Connell has now taken advantage of his lucky position, to make a 

 speech in favour of the ministerial measure par excellence. He has, in fact, 

 made, beyond all comparison, the best speech on the side, for the minis- 

 ters, and we may as well presume for himself too. But Mr. Stanley has 

 " pledged himself/' and all that, " to have the arch demagogue brought 

 up for judgment." We shall see ! 



It might be conceived that nothing was easier than to know whether 

 a little Princess of ten years old can or cannot walk, or to ascertain 

 whether she is well or ill. And yet many noble, and some illustrious 

 characters are at issue upon these points. One paper asserts, by autho- 

 rity, that there is not a more promising little heir-presumptive to any 

 throne in Christendom, and gives an extract of her mother's letter, 

 saying, that she is robust, healthy, and handsome, full of spirits, &c. 

 Another says the direct contrary, and gives an extract from a pamph- 

 let by the late Sir Richard Croft, to substantiate the probability of the 

 statement : 



" There is the young Princess Victoria, whom I am in the daily habit of 

 seeing; what with her trowsers, her ribbons, her boots, her feathers, and her 

 attendants, the child is as absolutely unable to stir, as was Sancho Panza, 

 when he lay armed and prostrate, in the breach !-It is grievous to see her, in 

 her confined apparel. She has not half the natural activity of a child at her 

 years. She may well be diminutive ; yet the Duke of Kent was a fine man, 

 and the Duchess is far from short." 



