NOTES OF THE MONTH. 44<7 



Heaven preserve us from such a calamity! Lord Milton is, we be- 

 lieve, just of age, that is to say, he is a biggish sort of boy. We 

 have no objection to youth it is a process which all men must go 

 through to arrive at age : but we do most solemnly object to big 

 boys assuming the attitude and airs of men of years, wisdom, and 

 weight, and standing up in their place in Parliament, and talking 

 this and threatening that to Ministers, either popular or unpopular, 

 merely because they happen to be sprigs of nobility, and have found 

 upon that account, and that account only, a small constituency foolish 

 enough to send them among the commons of England. We once had 

 hopes that a Reformed Lower House would no longer be considered 

 as a sort of seminary for Lord Jacky's training for the Upper House ; 

 but that hope, with a many others of a like kind, is past. Any one 

 who ever entertained delusions upon that head has only to take a 

 bird's-eye view of the present 658 members, to see of what sort of 

 fractions that almost useless " tottle of the whole " is now compound- 

 ed the greater part of them mere whipsters, just out of their aca- 

 demic gowns, and in their fourth or fifth pair of manly panta- 

 loons youngsters who, if right was right, and reform really was 

 reform, should not have so much as a vote for members of that house, 

 much less be themselves members. And these Parliamentary " babes 

 and sucklings/' who are not old enough to trust themselves " to go 

 alone," usually catch hold of the leading strings on one side or the 

 other, to keep themselves from falling ; and whether they lay hold 

 of the right string or the wrong one, their weight pulls the state 

 balance to the one side or the other ; and we all know and feel the 

 expensiveness of keeping up this Parliamentary nursery. 



GENUINE NATIVENESS. The solemnity of a Court of Justice is 

 continually endangered by Irishmen. The following anecdote was 

 told us as having occurred at a County Assize. "An Irishman was 

 lately brought up for trial at a County Court, for having " kilt " his 

 bosom friend in a fray. Pat, as soon as he was placed at the bar, 

 protested, by all the saints in the calendar, that he would not be 

 tried by a jury of all Englishmen let him have half and half of each 

 country, and he would be hung with all the pleasure in life. The 

 learned judge, entering into his feelings, said, if he had any objec- 

 tion to any party or parties on the jury, he might challenge them. 

 Pat's love of pugnaciousness aparkled in his eyes at this information ; 

 and turning to the jury box, he looked defiance at them, and politely 

 remarked that it would not be " the illigant thing to pick and choose, 

 so that if they had no particular objection, he would challenge the 

 intire of 'em, and lick 'em in the bargain, provided his honor's wor- 

 ship would stand by and see fair play." 



MUSICAL AMATEURS, HIGH AND LOW. The rapidly increasing 

 predilection of the English people for foreign novelties is not the 

 least remarkable " signs of the times ;" and nowhere is this passion 

 carried to greater excess than in music and the theatres. Like all 

 other fashions in England, there is no limit to it. No English artist 



