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1829.] Affairs in General. 409 
withdraw himself from the officious civilities of the individuals that pay 
particular attention to the leaders of fashion under those. circumstances, 
he has only to spread the report that he has been captured by one of the 
School of Science, and no one looks for him afterwards. He may ramble 
from Calais to Constantinople without a fear of pursuit ; and, as long as 
he can contrive to beg his way, so far he may go with the other polite 
beggars of the world. 
The French journalists further say, that the invention is so delightfully 
applicable to a variety of purposes, that, reluctant as they are to receive 
an expressly English manufacture, they are beginning to adopt it on a 
considerable scale. The Rue de la Paix, as being the chief resort of the 
English, has for some time exhibited those singular disappearances, 
which are rapidly losing their singularity. The neighbourhood of the 
Italian Boulevard is pretty much in the same condition; and the sud- 
denness of John Bull’s retreat is fully beginning to equal the oddity of 
his appearance. The Frenchmen, however, are not easily to be outdone 
in the talent of retreat, which, as the proverb says, shews the soldier, 
-and which certainly is practised by soldiers at present in the most 
exhaustless variety. A demi-solde is assure to break up without beat of 
drum, as if his object had been to capture an enemy’s patrol ; and his bill 
is much more likely to be left behind, than was once any fragment of the 
enemy’s spoil. It is the science of the affair that dignifies this old 
manceuvre. Formerly, it was a simple flight ; the wife was inconsolable 
for the disgrace, and in dread of the return; and the children starved 
with double appetite, through the loss of their family honour. Now, 
however, the honour is out of the question. If “ mon cher mari’ has 
fled the land, there is the comfortable hope that he has not fled, but 
fallen into the clutch of a tribe, to whom mankind, from the king to the 
beggar, must yield submission. She is at once tranquil; for the disci- 
ples of the School of Science suffer no continuance of life’s troubles in 
their subjects. He is serving the great curative purposes of mankind 
and benevolence ; he is making from sixteen to twenty pounds sterling 
for some brave son of surgery ; and his wife is freed from all distressing 
doubts as to his reappearance, is entitled to write herself down “ widow” 
at the moment, and marry her “ cher petit Auguste,” her husband’s aid- 
de-camp, before four-and-twenty hours are over. 
We give these clever lines from that very vigorous, eloquent, and 
constitutional paper, the Morning Journal :—- 
MY FATHER! MY FATHER! 
“ The chariot of Israel, and the horsemen thereof !”’ 
Awake, ere the sceptre is wrung from thy race, 
Son of the sainted and lord of the free— 
Awake, ere the serpent has coiled in thy place, 
And the hearts of the honest have perished with thee. 
Thy name is still shrined in our heart’s deepest core, 
Those hearts which thy raruEr long loved as his own; 
And those hands which ne’er quailed to a traitor before, 
Are outstretched for their worship, their God, and thy throne ! 
Arise, and dash from thee the spirit of lies, 
That would tempt thee thy purpose and pride to forego ; 
Trusting millions implore thee, their Lord, to arise, 
Ere the temple their ancestors reared is laid low. 
M.M. New Series.—Vou. VII. No. 40. 3G 
