18290 Affairs in General. 89 



ought to have been considered by a Protestant Governor, and a Protes- 

 tant Government at home, if it still desire to retain the name ; a 

 removal from the station would have been quite enough to mark the 

 displeasure of their superiors. We see, however, that there is a pro- 

 bability of reinstatement for these gentlemen ; and we hope, that the hint 

 dropt bj? Sir H. Hardinge, of " an opening being left for an application 

 in their behalf," will not be overlooked by their friends. We have only 

 further to remark, that the Mr. Dawson mentioned here, is not ]\Ir. 

 George Dawson. We have not heard that he has yet turned IMahome- 

 tan: but if Mr. Peel should talk kindly of the Koran, or the Grand Duke 

 of Downing-street begin to swear by his beard, we shall live to see Mr. 

 George Dawson studying Arabic like a Mufti. 



■ For some public reasons, and for many private, we should like to be 

 upon the earth for a couple of centuries more. What a curious medley 

 of opinions would have by that time passed within our cerebellum — what 

 a train of Inunan absurdities would have rambled away before our eyes 

 —■what brilliant expectations would have faded, like my Lord Petersham's 

 midnight bloom — what immense Aldermen would have gone down to 

 the general receptacle of Corporation souls and bodies — how many 

 Lords Privy Seals would have been laughed at as playing the politician 

 in their dotage — how many balmy Presidents of the Board of Controul 

 would have been declared to have never passed beyond infancy — to 

 what fatal assimilating process would the memory of great Field Mar- 

 shalls and great Bow Street Officers have been subjected — and the names 

 of Wellington and Townsend, each at the head of his profession, been 

 distilled in the grand alembics of posterity into the same spirit of caption ! 

 But we, too dehghted digressors, are wandering from our subject, which 

 was, to declare that posterity will stamp upon England the reputation 

 of being the most absurd, and money-making nation of the round 

 world ; or in other words, that our money always led to absurdity, 

 and that in our wildest absurdity we always thought of money. 



One example is as good as a million; and let the future judge us by the 

 frolic which has occupied the wonder of the whole squiralty of England ' 

 during the spring of 1829. A Scotchman, who speaks of himself as 

 being in the army, has been making a tour of experiment on the 

 liberality of the people. As we had not the happiness of seeing this 

 northern appellant to southern philanthropy, we must only tell the tale 

 as it has been told to us. But he makes a chai-acteristic adventure, 

 which, when some new Cervantes shall arise to turn the ftisliionable 

 novels into eternal burlesque, will make the substratum of an English Don 

 Quixote. This Scotchman is travelling thi'ough tlie country in the disguise 

 of a Scotch piper. Considerable bets are depending on the issue of his 

 extraordinary peregrination. He confesses himself heartily tired of his 

 freak, and of moving through tlie country in character. His language 

 and general demeanour are courteous and gentlemanly. In passing 

 from one town to another he travels respectably attired, but resumes his 

 minstrel ^arb of bodden gray, green spectacles, Scotch cap, and 

 bagpipe, immediately on his arrival in each town. When playing 

 through the streets, he endeavours to observe the strictest disguise, avoid- 

 ing the least association with military characters. He has to make up 54 

 days after the 12th of June, for time lost on Sundays, Christmas-day, 

 M.M. AVw .SVnVx— Vol. VHL No. 43. N 



