76 Notes of the Month on QJuly, 



play of her genius. Wherever she appeared in this master-piece of 

 Shakspeare, she alone filled the stage. All acting shrank beside her. 

 Even her brother's noble figure and admirable declamation seemed to 

 vanish in her presence. For her acting in this character there is but one 

 ■^ord — it was magical. Descriptions like this will seem exaggerated to 

 those who have not seen Siddons ; but the evidence of a great perform- 

 er's ability is in the effect produced on the public mind ; and no being 

 on the stage ever commanded admiration so universal, so lofty, and so 

 permanent^ as the extraordinary woman who has just been taken from 

 the world. 



Joseph Hume is member for something better than a leash of Scotch 

 burghs ; but he is still laughed at by the press. The Greek loan, that 

 exquisite piece of more than Scotch economy — the memorable fifty-two 

 pounds, two-pence three-farthings, whicli he so providently extracted 

 from the fire in the general combustion of patriot finance — still remains a 

 bar in his escutcheon ; and if he were member for every county in Eng- 

 land, and lord mayor besides, he will live in the pleasantries of the press, 

 be embalmed in paragraphs, and be punned over when he is no more. 

 Among the last shots fired at him, is the " Age's" bill for his nursery, 

 a mor^eau which implies at once a matchless knowledge of nature and 

 Joseph Hume, and is equally deep in the mysteries of pap and arith- 

 metic : — 



" Cocker at Work again. — The papers last week announced among the births, 

 ' The lady of Joseph Hume, Esq., M.P., of a son.' This auspicious event took 

 place on the 9th instant, and, at an early hour on the following morning, a 

 paper, containing the following memoranda, was picked up in Bryanstone- 

 square ; it had fallen out of the pocket of an elderly gentleman, as he walked 

 along in deep abstraction, making some calculation upon his fingers : — 



' Pan, Id. per day for 365 days £1 10 5 



Hall a bag of tops and bottoms, 4d. per day, as per contract 15 24 



Extra washing, 7d. per week 1 10 S 



4 lb. soap per week, at 3id 15 2i 



Half-rushlight per night — short nights coming on 7 7 



Old wicker chair, new bottomed per contract 1 2f 



Half a pint of intermediate per day for nurse, in lieu of gin, 



for three months 3 6 



Doctor's fee, per agreement 15 6| 



Making two frocks, and one cap, out of three pair of old 



duck trousers, borrowed from the Recruiting Office 1 11^ 



Sealing-wax (to serve for coral) borrowed from the Home 



Office ; 



Bonnet found in a hackney-coach 



£e 1 Of 



This extravagant outlay calls for retrenchment, and unsparing economy in the 

 victualling department, for the next five years." 



The adage that " poverty makes a man acquainted with strange bed- 

 fellows," was curiously realised in an examination lately at the Mansion 

 House. A number of vagrants were brought up for sleeping in the open 

 air in Billingsgate market. One of those people said, by way of defence, 

 " that he never intended to trouble tlie market with his presence again, 

 as he altogether conceived it to be the nxost ineligible sleeping-place in 



