550 Notes of the Month on [MAY, 



" Memorandum of some of the Pensions, Grants, &c. of the Cockburn 

 Family, taken from the Lists laid on the table of the House of Com- 

 mons. 

 ** Vice-Admiral Sir George Cockburn (this is not all by a great 



deal) 1,630 



Henry Cockburn, Esq., Solicitor-General in Scotland 2,000 



A. Cockburn, Esq., late Minister at Wirtemburg 1,700 



Dame Augusta Cockburn 600) 



Dame....Uo Do 358 ] * 



Augusta Cockburn (supposed not to be the Dame) 200 



Dame Mary Cockburn 680 



Mary Cockburn (supposed to be another) 100 



Fanny Cockburn 100 



Harriet Cockburn 200) 



Do Do 100 j ' 



Marianne Cockburn.. 115 



Per Annum 7,783 



Besides which, one of the family, who was sent to Mexico as envoy, expended 

 and received as salary, in about six months, 9,000." 



Here the immediate provision of a set of people, but one of whom has 

 ever acquired any kind of public distinction, and even that, trivial 

 enough for what after all have been the services of Sir George Cock- 

 burn, more than the common class of sea officers ? are paid for at the rate 

 of nearly 8,000 a-year. The Scotch solicitor-general may be a good 

 lawyer and entitled to his salary. But of what utility have been the ser- 

 vices of A. Cockburn, Esq. late ambassador at Wirtemberg, to entitle 

 him to 1,700 a-year, (observe) after having received so many four 

 thousands a-year ; for by the Scotch influence of those people, this person 

 has been kept in employ at one or other of the German courts for the last 

 twenty years. The retiring pensions of those extravagantly paid gen- 

 tlemen our diplomatists must be entirely lopped off. But then comes the 

 barefaced part of the business. Here are seven " lilies of the field," that 

 neither sow nor spin, who demand to be kept in houses and coaches, the 

 luxuries of life, and the pride of the " high blude o the feemily," as Sir 

 Pertinax says ; by the draining of John Bull's pocket, who must walk 

 without shoes to his feet, and live in eternal fear of the tax-gatherer, 

 that those well-born persons may not disgrace the " noble race of Shen- 

 kin," by working for their honest livelihood, like so many other people 

 just as worthy in the sight of mankind. 



Nobody but Tom Moore ever doubted Sheridan's wit : yet it must be 

 owned that at least one half of this extraordinary man's pleasantries arose 

 from his close observation of the life round him. What can be more in 

 the style of the best part of his best work, The Critic, than the game of 

 the newspapers on Miss Foote's advance to the coronet. First came the 

 announcement anticipatory in this form : 



" We have heard, but by no means pledge ourselves for the truth of the report, 

 that a certain beautiful actress has had some serious thoughts of late of 

 exchanging the admiration always paid to her public talents, for a position 

 where her personal graces will be not less duly appreciated." 



Then followed the regular denial : 



" The fashionable world has been much occupied by a report that a certain 

 uoble earl is about to be married to an actress. It is generally known that this 

 rumour is without foundation, as it is pretty well understood that his lord- 



