1829. ] Affairs tn General. 295 
His latter years were engaged in pursuits equally promising: he was 
supposed to have occupied himself in making a portable steam-engine, 
by which a lady could have her family washing done under her dressing- 
table, without smoke, smell, or noise. He was the the inventor of the 
boiling machine, by which three inches of Cobbett’s paper, tightly 
rolled together, would boil water enough for the shaving of a company 
of the Coldstream in five minutes. A musical Tetotum, carved into the 
form of a Secretary of the Home Department, was the work of the last 
six months, and he had already added to “ Rule Britannia,” and the 
“ Duke of York’s March,” the new airs of “ Long live the Pope,” and 
« A Fig for the Country.” A humming-top, on a new construction, 
exhibited the curious phenomenon of a speech of his Grace the Duke 
of Wellington in transparent characters, changing colour at every twirl ; 
and a chief source of the Doctor’s chagrin was his not being able to add 
to it the speeches of all the Cabinet Ministers ; for though in every 
attempt it twirled enough, yet it seemed suddenly to have lost the power 
tohum. Nothing escaped the Doctor’s eye <A gentleman, at a dinner 
party, had described to him the common contrivance in the streets, by 
which a sheet of paper could be folded into twenty different shapes—a 
fan, a wheel, a hat, and so forth. The Doctor slept a night upon the 
idea ; and, at the next meeting of the Royal Scciety Club, at the Crown 
and Anchor, took from his pocket a sheet of paper, which he twisted 
with almost invisible rapidity of hand into a military hat, a mitre, a 
crown, and one of those coverings of the head which, from their peculiar 
place of employment, are called Old Bailey night-caps. After having 
delighted the president and fellows with this most ingenious exhibition, 
he proceeded to increase their surprise, by unfolding the paper, which, 
by simply pressing his hand upon it, displayed a late remarkable ministe- 
rial declaration. ‘This he passed round the company, requesting each to 
read it aloud; and, to the universal amusement, every second reader 
read it in a directly contrary sense to his neighbours. The perplexity 
rowing considerable, and the several readers contending with growing 
irritation for their readings, the Doctor took the paper into his hand, 
and simply breathing on it, returned it to the company. The characters 
had totally vanished, and the paper was voted to be the most ingenious 
exhibition of a talent for tricking that would have beat all the Breslaws 
out of the field. 
The Doctor had so strong a passion for purchasing every thing, among 
which were some of the most curious-as well as the most repulsive 
monstrosities of human nature, that we have no doubt his sale will be 
highly worth atttending. We shall make a point of watching the deve- 
lopment of his treasures, and hope to have an opportunity to describe 
em. 
A Dublin paper states that the plate of the Duke of Northumberland, 
forwarded to Holyhead, weighs three tons. 
Parsons, the clever Irish barrister, and intended residuary legatee to 
Lord Norbury’s fame, said, on reading this announcement, “ that he 
supposed O’Connel had gone over to New-market, to be ‘in training for 
the Northumberland plaie.” 
“In Great Britain there is one soldier for every 229 inhabitants, 
France 138, United States 1977, Russia 77, Prussia 80, Austria 118, 
