74 Letter on Affairs in general. [JAX. 



stones than over the McAdam, except in very dry weather indeed ; and 

 that, for the matter of shaking his horses were shaken as much as they 

 could be before he ever had them !" Thus we see those who can 

 see the wisdom of Providence ! The misfortune that seems to over- 

 whelm us to-day, becomes a shield against that which might impend to- 

 morrow ! " Upon the ground," says Rowe, in some part of his play of 

 " Jane Shore," and the reflection that follows always seemed to me to 

 be admirable. " Thy miseries can never bring thee lower!" 



All the second-rate newspapers I see are full of puffery about a novel, 

 published by Saunders and Otley, called " Almack's." One assures us 

 that it is written by " Lady Foley;" another, that " Lady Westmoreland " 

 denies it, &c. &c. ; and all agree that it is the production of a " peeress." 

 I don't know who it is written by ; and for being written by a " peeress" 

 it is bad enough to have been written by six. More pitiful nonsense 

 I never recollect to have dipped into. 



Miss Porter's novel (" Honor O'Hara ") is out. It is not so good as 

 some that the lady has done before.- 



An evening paper says that Mr. Gillies' tale of the " Siege of Antwerp " 

 (German Tales, lately published in Edinburgh) is in preparation as a 

 melo-dramatic play at Covent Garden. Another (I think the Sun) says, 

 that they are not doing very well yet at Drury Lane, The houses are 

 so thin on some nights, that they seem to have adopted the motto of 

 the French (Subscription) Theatre : " On ne revolt pas d' argent a la 

 portc." 



The second volume of M. Ouvrard's Memoirs, is out ; and contains a 

 great deal of matter which present circumstances render very interest- 

 ing. While the recent events in Spain and Portugal, has made every 

 man (in England, at least) very anxious, to judge whether we were over- 

 reached or not two years ago, when we suffered the French to enter 

 Spain just at this moment, M. Ouvrard's book, written long before the 

 occurrence of these events could have been contemplated, conies out, 

 bearing the strongest testimony to the fair and pacific intentions of 

 France at the time of the " Occupation," and to the personal deep 

 anxiety of the Duke d'Angouleme that Ferdinand should give the 

 Spanish people a Constitution. The " second volume" of the Memoirs 

 pursues the history of the author's " contracts," but abounds in bold 

 and vigorous novelties of the general state of Spain, and of the various 

 parties which have held power there, since the beginning of the year 

 182-1. All the evidence is honourable, in a very high degree, to the 

 Duke d'Angouleme ; who appears to have conducted himself as tem- 

 perately as it was, possible for a man in his situation to do. 



The new conundrum of " Bread seals " as the ladies call the little 

 epigrammatic impressors that their work-boxes are always full of now 

 pleases me mightily. Nothing could be more stupid than the old style 

 of qffiche an initial carefully engraved in a hand always perfectly unin- 

 telligible ; or a crest necessarily out of its place, nine times in ten, in 

 female correspondence because nothing could be more un-" germane " 

 than a " bloody dagger," alarming every body it met, on the outside of 

 an order for minikin pins ! or a " fiery dragon," threatening a French 

 mantua-maker for some undue degree of tightness in the fitting of a 

 sleeve ! and then the same emblem, running through the whole letter- 

 writing of a life, became tedious. But now every lady has a selection of 

 axioms (in flour and water) always by her, suited to different occasions. 



