676 Notes of the Month on Affairs in General. QDecI 



to the use of the theatre in case of need ; and on the contrary, to be 

 paid to them at the end of the season. This veteran comedian, it is 

 said, insists upon the * pound ofjlesh, the ivhole penalty of his bond.'" 



The truth is, Fawcett intends to retire, and sees no reason why he 

 should not keep what he has got, no matter how, where, or when. 

 He is a clever actor, and we shall regret to lose the finest living repre- 

 sentative of a testy old fellow, with a very tight pocket. 



Are men to dream for ever of fairy land ? 



" We hear that in two or three of the Irish counties soon to be con- 

 tested, the electors intend to call on some person to represent them, 

 whom they believe wUl and can have no personal or private interests to 

 advance with the Government. All electors would do well to attempt 

 a similar course." 



Fudge ! Where are they to find them > 



Nothing can be more true than the natural conjunction of fanaticism 

 Avith profligacy. The grossness of foreign countries is proverbial, yet there 

 the priest is the magister morum ; and master of every thing else, except 

 in the capitals, where they have taken leave of the fanaticism only to fill 

 up the space with a double measure of the profligacy. The examples of 

 the fanaticism are sometimes ludicrous enough. 



" In a village, six leagues from Strasburg, a priest interdicted his 

 parishioners from dancing, and said that whoever would have the assur- 

 ance after his warning to indulge in this amusement, mould he struck dead 

 with thunder. In spite, however, says the Figaro, of the thunder, or 

 rather the priest, the dancing went on as usual." 



In England we have a vast quantity of foolery, and sometimes not a 

 little extortion, perpetrated under the name of this transcendental piety. 

 The breaking down of the pious firm in the Poultry, did something for 

 the exposure of this system of charity-and-joint- stock-dealing. The 

 little societies scattered through the counti-y, and superintended by bitter 

 old devotees, for extracting their farthings from the peasantry, who have 

 none to spare, deserve a similar exposure, not for their religion, but for 

 the direct contrary. Those things are no part of religion, they bring 

 disrepute on it ; and the man who values it as it deserves, will be the 

 first to discountenance the perpetual fussing, bustling, officious, med- 

 dling, and impudent money-raising, that distinguishes the rambling 

 piety of our petticoat collectors of Peter's pence, and the worldly artifice 

 of individuals whose duty it shoidd be to restrain the giddiness of female 

 fanaticism. The peasant's reply, which we give, ought to be framed 

 and glazed, for a general answer to those holy tax-gatherers. 



The wife of a sanctified person, in one of our country parishes, in 

 the course of her tour called on a labourer in the parish of C, for his 

 hebdomadal penny ; but the man's eyes had been opened, and he declined 

 giving any thing for the future. " R. B.," said this hitherto winning 

 dame, " do you know your neighboiu- O, ?" — " Oh, yes," quoth Robert. — 

 " Do you know he lost a cow last week ?" — " Verily," responded Bob, 

 " I do, worse his luck !" — " Fellow," added the disappointed lady, "he 

 withheld his subscription penny the week previous, and God's visitation 

 for such has fallen justly upon him ! Take great care lest a similar 

 calamity fall not on you ! !" — " It can't. Madam, for I keeps never a 

 cow !" 



