Notes of the Month ' [JUNE, 



was inveterate in his zeal for cotton, was an honest man, and rational on 

 other points : he gave away a good deal of money in subscriptions and 

 things of that kind, and, having finished his 81st year, died. 



There was some nonsense in the papers last year about his having 

 disinherited his meritorious son Mr. Robert Peel for his apostacy! But 

 this was beyond the calibre of the old weaver. He was doubtless dis- 

 pleased, particularly as he had a few years before given him a handsome 

 draft for a speech on the Protestant side, full promises, pledges, and deter- 

 minations to live and die " for the Protestant Constitution, scorn for the 

 blindness of any man who could not see in it the only safety of the state," 

 and horror for the ' ' principles of the miserable man who having once 

 pledged himself to that highest of human causes could waver, much 

 more change !" The old man subsequently found that this was so much 

 money thrown away, and was indignant to the amount of his loss : but 

 even a weaver may be tickled by ambition ; and as the worthy speaker 

 was not turned out of his place, he softened to him without delay, and they 

 say was in traffic for a peerage, which he would have got, except that his 

 son Robert, calculating man as he is, did not choose to be forced up into the 

 peers on his demise, where Wellington would not have suffered him to open 

 his lips ; that greatest of great orators carrying all the debate on his own 

 shoulders, and having the due opinion of Mr . Peel. But the old man is gone 

 at last ; the young man has his purse ; and we hope to live to see the day 

 when we shall be supplicated to reinforce it with a penny, in the hands 

 of a broken-down statesman, plying, broom in hand^ at the crossing of 

 Whitehall! 



There is now a fine opportunity for an architectural entrance to 

 London. The Bank of England has lent 100,000 to the Corporation 

 of the city, to complete the new bridge and its approaches, which is to 

 be repaid on or before July 5, 1 858. The bridge will now, of course, 

 go on swimmingly, as Alderman Waithman pleasantly pronounces ; and 

 the only consideration is, to make the most of its approaches. The en- 

 trance by Hyde Park has been totally spoiled as an architectural orna- 

 ment to the metropolis, by the substitution of two poor performances at 

 the sides for one great portico or arch across the centre of the road. 

 But if the purpose be to give an impression of the grandeur of London 

 to foreigners, London Bridge is the spot, for it is by that way that nine- 

 tenths of the foreigners come. There actually ought to be some attention 

 to this matter in this place, unless we are determined to keep up our old 

 luckless distinction of having the most repulsive entrances of any capital 

 of Europe, and in general of having every thing of the worst kind in 

 architecture, and paying the dearest for it. 



Though Napoleon is now as quiet as his forefathers, yet all that relates 

 to him belongs to the most stirring period of modern history, and his 

 crimes and qualities will form tlje topic and the lesson of many a genera- 

 tion to come. De Bourrienne's Memoirs of him are undoubtedly the 

 most curious book that has yet appeared relative to this wonder of the 

 nineteenth century. How much of it is exaggeration, or direct falsehood, 

 rests with the writer; though we can readily conceive thatDeBourrienne, 

 who himself was a partaker in the crimes and profits of the Napoleon 

 time, must have suppressed a great deal, and embellished a great deal 

 more. But where his story tells against the hero of his idolatry, we 



