NOTES OF THE MONTH. 325 



riot got them under cover." Mr. Laing (sternly) " Why do you refuse 

 to be passed home?" Woman " I know no one in Ireland, and I cannot 

 let my children be sent there to starve." Mr. Laing " Then I'll send 

 you to prison!!!" Woman You may if you think proper, Sir. We shall 

 be better off there." Mr. Laing " THEN / shall not gratify you. The 

 parish offers to send you home, which is all the relief the law allows you." 

 (To Hall) " Turn her out of the office !!!" After looking pitifully around 

 her, she led her children, who appeared unconscious of their mother's an- 

 guish, out of the office. Mr. Laing then told the policeman that the 

 woman ought not to have been received into the station house! Policeman 

 " I went to the master of Clerkenwell workhouse, and told him the con- 

 dition of the family, but he would have nothing to do with them." Mr. 

 Laing " Then if she enters the station house again turn her out !!.'" 



What must the heart of such a man be made of, who could utter 

 sentiments like these ? one who could gratuitously insult misfor- 

 tune who could refuse the last shelter of a prison to one so utterly 

 destitute ! It justifies one in disclaiming the kindred of species with 

 such a barbarous specimen. We should not be surprised if the pro- 

 per end to such a man, were one day to be strangled on his seat by 

 the bony fingers of some famishing pauper. Goaded by insult and 

 misery, it would scarcely be a crime. 



ROYALTY AND THE SONS OF GENIUS. When his majesty of Den- 

 mark was upon his travels, some few years since, he was pleaed to be 

 particularly gracious towards men of letters. He issued a manifesto 

 to encourage their advances ; and those who had the good fortune to 

 present his majesty with a book, were sure to meet with some sub- 

 stantial token of regard. The consequence was, that such a rush was 

 made at the pockets of royalty, and such talent was evinced by lit- 

 terateurs in that particular branch of their art, that his majesty, who 

 had hitherto but occasionally been gratified with meeting a " son of 

 genius," was delighted at the prospect of being introduced to the 

 whole of the family. In each country that his majesty visited with 

 the equally praiseworthy intention of encouraging genius, he found 

 the various branches of that interesting " family" united in so vast 

 and sympathetic a bond, all " having one common end and aim," that 

 the chivalrous monarch was at last reluctantly obliged to seek safety 

 behind his fortifications of Copenhagen, penniless and confounded, 

 literally pelted out of Europe by duodecimos. His majesty, how- 

 ever, was not to be let off so easily ; his love of learning was not to 

 perish for lack of lore ; and, incontinently, the mail-bags of all 

 Europe, particularly the British, were filled to the brim with packets 

 addressed to his majesty of Denmark. The post-office employees all 

 teemed with literature the very couriers staggered beneath their load 

 of learning it was rapidly producing a moral revolution equal to 

 that of the Penny Magazine ; but, unfortunately, in the nick o time, 

 the Danish exchequer fell short a general war could not have 

 brought it into a more scurvy plight. The following ordonnance 

 was the consequence. 



" His Majesty the King of Denmark having numerous literary works ad- 

 dressed by authors directly to him, and transmitted through the post-office, 



