NOTES OF THE MONTH. 451 



then " let the devil wear a black" gown and cassock, for he is the 

 most industrious archbishop in the world, and looks much closer after 

 his temporalities. 



RUHAL SIMPLICITY. The bumpkins have always been a fund for 

 our side- shakers ; to wit the following : A countryman was observed 

 the other day, puzzling his te puppy brains" over a written direction, 

 turning it this way, and that way, and every way, to no purpose, and 

 then muttering, " What a 'nation cramp hand 'Squire do write, surely ! 

 I can't make un out ! Wou'd you, zur, please ?" He thrust the 

 paper into the hand of a passer-by, and stepping back a yard, and 

 taking off his round-crowned hat, garnished with turnpike-tickets, 

 stood smoothing down his raven black hair, waiting in respectful at- 

 titude to hear the response of the oracle. " Not make it out !" ex- 

 claimed the reader; "why it's as plain as print!" " O! be it," 

 replied the raw, " that accounts for it / can't read print !" 



A SPRINKLING OF STARS. The illustrious King of the Dutchmen 

 has been enacting a farce at his palace of the Hague were the H 

 omitted, the name would be more appropriate. The money-loving 

 monarch cannot get over that rebellious attack upon his coffers the 

 secession of the Belgians. The Belgic provinces were very pretty 

 pickings for him while they lasted; but the people tired of being 

 plucked and then was an end of it. So it is with all the good 

 things of this life, they seldom last long, and the monarch may con- 

 sole himself that he is not singular in that respect. And it must be 

 confessed that his majesty was a little hard upon his faithful Beiges. 

 They had no King Log when they were favoured with him theirs 

 was the reverse of the frogs in the fable if he did not actually de- 

 vour them, he was much too active about the regions of their breeches 

 pockets to be at all agreeable. We read in the Morning Post the fol- 

 lowing morsel : 



" We find an additional proof of the kind consideration of the King of 

 Holland towards the brave defenders of the citadel of Antwerp. The official 

 journals contain another list of persons on whom the order of knighthood 

 has been conferred, in consequence of their having distinguished themselves 

 on that momentous and trying occasion." 



What is the English of all this ? simply, that his highness of the 

 Hague having had his dance has now to pay the pipers, and he finds 

 it much cheaper to pay his Dutch boobies in red ribbons than in 

 sterling pensions ; let his majesty alone when a cash measure is the 

 order of the day he is the best financier of any king in Christendom. 

 We do not know how the brave defenders may relish this mode of 

 payment it is quite as much as they deserve ; but people never esti- 

 mate their rewards in proportion to their merits. Standing behind 

 stone walls, and environed in case-mates of proof, requires no such 

 vast hardihood ; but we will not revive the old story. It is clear the 

 monarch has been drawing on his wit to serve his exchequer knights 

 will be as plentiful at the Hague as pickled herrings ; and the streets 

 of Amsterdam will be like the " milky- way" there will be no moving 

 without jostling a " star/' 



