572 Notes of the Month [MAY, 



Wednesday, some of them relating to the Treasury. The Duke of Wel- 

 lington visited the King, at his Palace at Windsor, yesterday ; and after 

 having an audience, returned to town." 



Friday only confirmed the grateful tidings ; and the report to-day is 

 not less favourable. On Saturday the 24th, the improvement continued, 

 ministers received dispatches giving favourable accounts, and the fol- 

 lowing bulletin was sent to the Lord Mayor : 



" Windsor Castle, April 24. The King has passed two good nights, 

 and continues better. (Signed) " HENRY HALFORD." 



From that period, until the time of our going to press, the recovery 

 seemed to be gradually progressive. The question of his Majesty's dis- 

 order, however, appears not yet settled among the authorities. The 

 bulletin announcing the first decided illness is certainly no evidence of 

 the clearness of expression for which the classic Sir Henry Halford is so 

 fond of claiming distinction. The disease was defined to be " attacks of 

 embarrassment in his breathing ;" which we conceive to be a puzzling 

 kind of description. While the puzzle continued, people of course set 

 themselves about solving it in their own way ; and there were but few 

 maladies in the list of human sufferings which were not heaped on the 

 head of our monarch. The gout in his stomach, or a conversion of the 

 whole system into bile, were the prevalent discoveries. Water in the 

 chest was supposed to be unquestionable ; yet the doctors in attendance 

 are now understood to deny it outright, and to limit the whole calamity 

 to an c( asthmatic difficulty of breathing." It is remarkable that court 

 reasons never are the true reasons; that court facts are never to be re- 

 lied upon, and that court physicians seem to have been from time im- 

 memorial incapable of giving a decided opinion upon the nature of a 

 royal disease. 



This is a vigorous month of publication, and those who consult our 

 reviews at the end of the Magazine will see that we have been active in 

 watching its progress. But there are some volumes that we may an- 

 nounce here. Among the first of those is a republication of " The Last 

 Days of Bishop Heber, by Thomas Robinson, A.M. ;" being a collection 

 of memoranda, issued from the Madras press, soon after the bishop's 

 death, by his chaplain. Heber's best memorial is his own book ; beyond 

 all rivalry, the most various and animated account of India. His chap- 

 lain's journal adds some fillings-up of dates and dinners, excursions, and 

 routine duties of the episcopal office. But we dislike the perpetual 

 affectation of the style. That Heber was an active, ardent, and perfectly 

 well-meaning man, and that his prolonged life might have been of great 

 service to the cause of religion and civilization in India, no one can 

 doubt. But his chaplain talks of him in a strain so totally unwarranted 

 by Heber's, or almost any uninspired man's abilities, acquirements, or 

 services, that common taste turns away in disgust. 



To a chaplain, a bishop is, doubtless, at all times, a very important 

 personage, and we can make considerable allowance for this professional 

 habit of prostration. But Heber, if he had half the good sense for 

 which the public give him credit, would have told this chaplain, that it 

 was foolish to make an ( e apostle" of him ; to call him " his father ;" 

 talk of shedding tears at his coming in or going out; that, in short, he 

 was by no means inspired ; that he was neither St. Peter nor St. Paul ; 

 and that, to the best of his belief, such language savoured too much of 



