1827.] [ 179 ] 



LETTER UPON AFFAIRS IN GENERAL, FROM A GENTLEMAN. IN 

 LONDON TO A GENTLEMAN IN THE COUNTRY. 



" Now men in cloaks muffle their noses," 

 The garden grutinds afford no posies, 

 The alehouse reckoning mounteth hig-her, 

 With item ' so much more lor fin-/ 

 And many a mornings work is lost, 

 In drinking ale. with nut brown toast." 



Mysteriet of the Season. 



1 HE regretted death of His Royal Highness the Duke of York has 

 occupied the attention of persons in London more than any other topic 

 during the last month : but the public and private character of the noble 

 Duke, and the details of his " lying in state," and the ceremonial of his 

 snbsequent burial, have been so often repeated, over and over again, and in 

 so many different shapes, by the newspapers, that I shall, at a hazard, 

 assume a discretion, and avoid the subject altogether. A prodigious deal 

 has been written and narrated about the merits, and demerits, of His 

 Royal Highness that is very absurd. And all sorts of views of his 

 title to regret, and of the sensation produced in the public mind by his 

 decease, have been taken ; from the Radical affectation of the " Examiner" 

 newspaper, which was so superfluous as to use no " mourning lines," 

 on its first day of publication after the death, while every other paper 

 observed that decent mark of ceremony (a piece of Cockney conceit, about 

 as ridiculous as though we should read of a " Resolution" passed by all 

 the birds of the air the eagle, the vulture, the raven, and the crow 

 " Dissentient," the MAGPIE !) down to the profound adoration, on the 

 other hand, of that pink of good breeding, the " Post" which not only 

 kept up its crape and weepers for the whole fortnight between the death 

 and the funeral, but actually heads a discussion, whether the Duke of 

 Wellington or the Duke of Cambridge shall be the next Commander-in- 

 Chief, with a line stuck up, as for a motto " LAMENTED FREDERICK ! 

 WHO'LL THY SUCCESSOR BE?" Perhaps thereat state of the fact, with 

 respect to the Duke's private character, has never been more truly stated 

 than in the " Times " newspaper, on the morning after his death : to wit, 

 that he had an ample share of the follies, and some portion of the faults, 

 which are apt to attach themselves to individuals whose wealth, or high 

 station, render them something independent of public opinion; mixed, 

 however, with a great many gallant, and good, and generous qualities, which 

 persons in the same situation do not quite, so invariably exhibit. As 

 Commander-in-Chief, he was popular with the army ; and there was a 

 certain bonhommie about him, together with an absence of foppery or 

 affectation, which always kept him in favour with the people; and thero 

 was probably no member of the Royal Family who, in the event of the 

 death of our present King, would have ascended the throne with more 

 general satisfaction to the country. The demonstrations of mourning 

 upon the death of royal personages unless under peculiar and unlooked- 

 for circumstances may be more properly described as expressions of 

 respect on the part of the people, than of regret. These tokens for 

 whatever they are worth were universally exhibited in London for 

 " the Duke of York," and I believe they were little less general in any 

 part of the country. 



A " Letter on the subject of Life Assurance" appeared in our 

 Magazine, (I think, two Numbers back,) from a correspondent who 

 recommended the attention of a condition called the " Duelling Clause," 



2 A2 



