194 Koles of the Monllt on [^August, 



Alderman Tliompson has become a liistorical character. We should 

 have believed that no possible combination of circumstances could have 

 ever raised the simplicity of this most innocent of city members into 

 public notice. But such actually is the case, and Alderman Thompson 

 has been the subject of a debate in the city, and of a conversation in the 

 West End. The common council has resounded with his name, and he has 

 furnished the subject of a sneer of Lord John " in another place." Our 

 wonder is first, that the alderman, sleeping or waking, could have ven- 

 tured to excuse the monstrosity of his exhibition by the monstrosity of 

 his apology. In what we say, we of course allude only to the city lec- 

 ture, for we bow before the supremacy of the House, and take it for 

 granted that every thing said or done there is the perfection of human 

 wisdom. But how could his constituents stomach his contemptible ex- 

 cuse .^ He was asleep, for he knew nothing of the subject; he acted 

 inadvertently and so forth. Can any man with brains above a donkey, or 

 impudence below Ancient Pistol, comprehend this .'' J3id not the in- 

 nocent alderman at least know that he was voting against the men with 

 whom he had pledged himself to vote ? Or did he mistake Lord John's 

 little, eager Whig visage, for the smiling, shining, solemn physiognomy 

 of Sir Robert Blifil Peel ; what the sailors call the trim of the honour- 

 able Baronet's visage } impossible. The alderman might blunder about 

 the question, or any question : he might no more understand " the 

 Bill," than a problem in fluxions. But, not to know one side of the 

 House from the other, is below even our estimateof the Thompson capa- 

 city. On the conti'ary, we are perfectly satisfied that he knew perfectly 

 well what he was about, and if his constituents did not laugh at his ex- 

 cuses, they know very little what they were about. If we were among 

 them, Ave should have turned the worthy alderman out in the next quarter 

 of an hour. 



Our opinion of the Reform is not altered even by the blunders of the 

 worthy alderman ; we look upon it as a highly dangerous and hasty 

 measui'e. But, we say, let all our opposition to it be fair and above 

 board ; let us beat the Whigs by argument, and let us take no men as 

 partizans, whom as associates we should despise. 



It is with literature as with our lives. One half is spent reprobating 

 the errors of the other, probably, with little correction after all, in either 

 case. An ingenious work, lately published, makes a gathering of literary 

 anomalies curious enough in their way. 



" To commence with the Ancient Poets. — The ghosts in Homer are afraid of 

 swords ; yet Sibylla tel's yEneas, in Virgil, that the thin habit of spirits was 

 beyond the force of weapons. In painting alone we have a rich harvest. Bur- 

 goyne, in his Travels, notices a painting in Spain where Abraham is preparing 

 to shoot Isaac with a. pistol! There is a painting at Windsor of Antonio Verrio, 

 in which he has introduced himself. Sir Godfrey Kneller, and Bap. May, sur- 

 veyor of the works, in long periwigs, as spectators of Christ's healing the sick. 

 In the Luxenbourg is a picture of Reubens, in which are the queen-mother in 

 council, with two Cardinals and Mercury. There was also in the Haughton Hall 

 Collection, Velvet Brughel's Adoration of the Magi, in which were a multitude 

 of figures, all finished with the greatest Dutch exactness. The Ethiopian king 

 is dressed in a surplice irith boots and spurs, and brings for a present a gold model 

 of a modem ship. N. Poussin's celebrated painting of Rebecca at the Well, has 

 the whole back ground decoiated with Grecian architecture. The same artist, in 



