1831.3 Affairs in General. 85 



he was the sufferer for the sins of every other joker of the profession. 

 From Radcliffe to Dr. Eady, every rough dialogue of the trade was 

 fixed upon Abernethy ; and as he probably found his account in it, for 

 even singularity sometimes tells with the multitude, he was content to 

 father the rudeness which, in turn, generated the fee. But he had too 

 much sense to make such experiments on his respectable applicants. To 

 these he was respectful, and however he might practise the grotesque 

 with some overgrown ale-wife, or play upon the feelings of some clown, 

 no practitioner in the college could be more cautious of exceeding the 

 bounds of proper speech than Abernethy. We say this from a desire to 

 see justice done to the memory of a man of talent, skiU, and knowledge. 



The cabinets may say what they will ; but there is something odd on 

 the royal cards, throughout Europe at the present time. Our forefathers 

 would be infinitely surprised at events which to us, their more enlight- 

 ened sons, are as common as the sun at noon-day, and excite as little 

 surprise. What would Walpole, or Chatham, or even Pitt, conversant 

 as he was in revolutions, have thought of having, not merely an Ex-king 

 of France in Holyrood, with all his heirs, assigns, and so forth ; but 

 having a Queen of Holland, a Prince of Orange, a pair of Dukes of 

 Brunswick, a Russian Archduchess, a pair of sons of a King of Holland, 

 a son of a King of Naples, and half a dozen more potentates and heirs 

 of potentates on the wing, packing up their goods and chattels for an 

 escape from their loving subjects, and fluttering over to England — the 

 sea-girt — the only spot on earth free from war ; the natural refuge of 

 the destitute in all directions : — without reckoning little Donna Maria da 

 Gloria, nor Don Pedro, who has already taken a view of us from sea, and 

 will inevitably honour us with a visit, if we let him ; and our pension 

 list too with the dignity of his name. 



Then we have kings to provide for Poland, and Belgium, and Greece, 

 and Colombia, and the Brazils, and Portugal, and half a dozen other 

 thrones, which are visibly tired of their present incumbents. 



A dashing correspondent of the Courier thus disposes of all the diffi- 

 culties respecting Poland and Belgium : — 



" 'I have thought of one mode of settling both the Polish and Belgian ques- 

 tions. Let the Prince of Orange be the king of Poland forthwith — the Prince 

 Leopold, king of Belgium till the decease ofthekingof Holland — Luxembourg 

 to remain with the latter during his reign. At his death, the Prince Leopold 

 to be king of Holland as well as of Belgium, with Luxembourg annexed.' Our 

 correspondent," adds the Courier, " disposes of crowns as rapidly as Buona- 

 parte or the congress of Vienna. May we be permitted to ask him why, if the 

 Poles are to have a king, it must be a Dutchman ? or why the Dutch are to be 



governed by a German .-' Besides, when the Prince of Orange shall have 

 oland, and the Prince of Cobourg, Holland, what is to become of Prince Fre- 

 derick .''" 



What is to become of Prince Frederick ? Does any human being 

 care. He can, we suppose, get a troop of dragoons in some Austrian 

 regiment ; and he will there have half-a-crown a day, which in Germany, 

 a cheap country, will give him his board and lodging, and perhaps his 

 cigars. On the whole, we look upon the prince as very pleasantly cir- 

 cumstanced among the ditches of his native soil, and wish him joy of 

 his being still allowed to remain among the Hollanders. 



