590 NOTES OF THE MONTH. 



he suddenly paused, and with a look and in a tone expressive of the 

 utmost determination, he protested that if " hon. gentlemen did not 

 allow him to proceed in his own way, and to conclude at his own 

 time, he would not conclude at all ! The threat had the desired 

 effect. The calamity of a never-ending speech from Mr. Borthwick 

 restored silence instanter, and not a whisper weis to be heard until 

 until the hon. gentleman thought proper to conclude at his own, 

 time. 



Liberty Hall. — Major Rankin, in his work on Sierra Leone, 

 says : — 



" The Englishman's house is no ' castle ' here. It offers free entrance to all 

 blacks or browns who have a whim to inspect it or to make a visit. Habits 

 are still so primitive that no dwelling in Free Town boasts bell or knocker. 

 Monsieur Tonson would have found it an asylum. The outer door is gene- 

 rally left open during the day ; and the consequence is an influx of wives and 

 daughters of the butcher, tailor, carpenter, and mason, at all times and with- 

 out ceremony. They stroll, in perfect ease, through the apartments, repose on 

 the couches of the verandas and inner rooms at pleasure, and would consider 

 hindrance or expulsion] a breach of privilege." 



This is liberty and economy with a vengeance. What more would 

 the veriest democrat have ? The levelling notions of the Yankees 

 are nothing to this. They are sufficiently familiar or " bold," to use 

 a favourite term of their own — though the word "impertinent" 

 would be a^nuch more suitable one — in their manner of treating 

 persons moving in the higher spheres of life. Still we have never 

 heard of men, wives, and daughters unceremoniously thrusting them- 

 selves into the houses of their betters, and making themselves so 

 much at home as to " stroll, in perfect ease, through the inner" — the 

 bfst, we presume — " apartments, and reposing on the sofas at plea- 

 sure." Only imagine a batch of butchers' and tailors' wives and 

 daughters strolling through the splendid apartments of an English 

 residence, with infinite self-importance, while another " lot" are re- 

 posing on the couches, and then estimate the comforts of the English- 

 man's home ! The climate may be bad enough, but surely the in- 

 fliction of these ebony beauties moving and rolling about your resi- 

 dence, like so many domestic animals, must be an evil of infinite 

 greater magnitude. It is no wonder that English ladies so decidedly 

 dislike the society — if such it may be called — of Sierra Leone. 



Heart-breaking Incident. — Under this head the Limerick 

 Chronicle has the following paragraph : — 



" James Ryan, who has been executioner for Limerick and the adjoining 

 counties for the last twenty-eight years, died last week at the advanced age of 

 eighty, having, up to the moment of his departure, retained all his faculties. 

 His death, rumour has it, was accelerated by the 'disappointment he felt at 

 no capital conviction having been ordered in his favour either at the Limerick 

 or Ennis assizes, upon which he had certainly calculated with very sanguine 

 hopes." 



This James Ryan must have been a singular sort of personage. 

 One would have thought that at his time of life, instead of speculat- 

 ing on the death of others, he would have been preparing for his 

 own. It is curious to see the effect which one's profession, whatever 

 Ihat profession may be, has on his mind. Habit reconciles a man to 



