1829.) Affairs in General. 639, 
sioners, whose services are to be found only in the Red Book, and whose 
living and dying escape the public recollection. But one of those idlers 
at the head of an empire ten thousand miles from the lash of Downing- 
street, might develope the tyrannous spirit that so often lurks in the 
slave, the furious extortion of the habitual mercenary, or the ambition of 
which official sycophancy has only constrained the appetite. The pub- 
lic have the strongest interest in detecting the frauds committed in those 
new outlets for our population. The time may come when Canada, the 
Cape, and New Holland, will be not merely resources for the superflu- 
ous multitudes of England, but places of refuge for her noblest minds ; 
when British freedom will look to them as its last strong holds ; and the 
once famous Island be known only as the tomb of learning, liberty, 
and religion. 
We wish that there were some established penalty for printing a joke 
above a certain number of times. The following has lately gone the 
round of the newspapers :— 
« A lady sitting in one of the lower boxes at the Opera House, being 
much annoyed by a knot of talkers in the pit, gave one of the sprigs of 
fashion with whom she was acquainted, a card, with these words written 
on it—‘ Ladies’ ears bored gratis,—a hint which the whole party had 
the good sense to take.” 
_. This joke is actually above a hundred years of age, and has been printed 
in the principal collections of “ incomparable things,” since the days 
when “ gentlemen of wit and humour” took their coffee, and exhibited 
their genius at Button’s and Wills’. For a ten times, or fifty times 
told jest we have great allowance. The teller may have lost his 
memory of the repetition, or he may think that we have lost ours; 
or he may be a bore, and thus any antiquated bon mot may be better 
than his conversation ; or the repetition may make us wiser in the way 
of avoiding such practices in our own person, or may lead us to moralize 
on the innate dulness of mankind, the failing honours of a wit, or the 
folly of wasting our time in listening to any body past the age of 
forty-five. 
The member for Clare has been thrown out, and the grant for May- 
nooth been passed by about the same majorities. It is with those 
* ludicra rerum’ that legislation now employs its hours. Nothing could 
be more pitiful and trifling than the idea of resisting O’Connell’s claims to 
walk in through the breach of the Constitution, that has been made for 
the general entrance of every popish vagrant in the empire ; and he will 
be returned for some place or other, as surely as the Rent can help him 
in his objects. The grant to Maynooth, being no more than a national 
bounty for teaching British subjects that idolatry and the worship of an 
Italian monk are the first principles of religion and government, of 
course passed with applause. 
0’CONNELL’S LAMENT. 
“ There was a profound silence in the House when Mr. O'Connell entered, supported 
by Lord Duncannon and Lord Ebrington.””—Morning Paper. : 
Not a sound was heard, nor a cough, nor a hum, 
And the porters looked dreadfully flurried ; 
Not a Tory but looked ghastly and glum, 
And wished that O’Connel]l was buried. 
