THE RAT. 



211 



on the coast of England a ship from Germany, 

 freighted with a cargo of no ordinary importance. 

 In it was a sovereign remedy for all manner of na- 

 tional grievances. Royal expenditure was to be 

 mere moonshine, taxation as light as Camilla's foot- 

 steps, and the soul of man was to fly up to heaven 

 its own way. But the poet says, 



" dicique beatus 



Ante obitum nemo, supremaque funera debet ; " 



that is, we must not expect supreme happiness on our 

 side of the grave. As a counterpoise to the promised 

 felicity to be derived from this superexcellent Ger- 

 man cargo, there was introduced, either by accident 

 or by design, an article destined, at no far distant 

 period, to put the sons of Mr. Bull in mind of the 

 verses which I have just quoted. 



This was no other than a little grey- coloured 

 short-legged animal, too insignificant, at the time 

 that the cargo was landed, to attract the slightest 

 notice. It is known to naturalists, sometimes by the 

 name of the Norwegian, sometimes by that of the 

 Hanoverian, rat. Though I am not aware that there 

 are any minutes, in the zoological archives of this 

 country, which point out to us the precise time at 

 which this insatiate and mischievous little brute 

 first appeared among us ; still, there is a tradition 

 current in this part of the country, that it actually 

 came over in the same ship which conveyed the 

 new dynasty to these shores. My father, who was 

 of the first order of field naturalists, was always 

 positive on this point ; and he maintained firmly, 

 p 2 



